The un-bylined author of the Cookies for Breakfast tumblog publishes the story of two female friends attending a standup performance by Daniel Tosh, host of the notably unfunny Comedy Central show Tosh.0, in which the comedian made some stupid rape jokes. Not that there are any other kind of rape jokes.
"Actually, rape jokes are never funny!," the woman in the published account says she replied from the audience.
Snip from her version of what followed:
I did it because, even though being "disruptive" is against my nature, I felt that sitting there and saying nothing, or leaving quietly, would have been against my values as a person and as a woman. I don't sit there while someone tells me how I should feel about something as profound and damaging as rape.
After I called out to him, Tosh paused for a moment. Then, he says, "Wouldn't it be funny if that girl got raped by like, 5 guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her…" and I, completely stunned and finding it hard to process what was happening but knowing i needed to get out of there, immediately nudged my friend, who was also completely stunned, and we high-tailed it out of there. It was humiliating, of course, especially as the audience guffawed in response to Tosh, their eyes following us as we made our way out of there. I didn't hear the rest of what he said about me.
Now, proposing that an audience member sitting right in front of you in a crowd of mostly men "get raped by, like, 5 guys right now" is in my opinion a whole lot heavier than letting a few random rape jokes drop in your lame standup act. Not that rape jokes are lulzy. But, Christ, what an asshole.
By way of this non-apology, Tosh appears to confirm the woman's story:
all the out of context misquotes aside, i'd like to sincerely apologize j.mp/PJ8bNs
— daniel tosh (@danieltosh) July 10, 2012
the point i was making before i was heckled is there are awful things in the world but you can still make jokes about them. #deadbabies
— daniel tosh (@danieltosh) July 10, 2012
More coverage around the web: The Atlantic, Jezebel, Videogum, ThinkProgress, Feminists for Choice.
The video above, and many others like it, and the dude's entire body of work show that this kind of stuff is hardly out of character for Mr. Tosh.
Jamie Frevele says:
I would like to know why the internet has only suddenly discovered that Daniel Tosh is a fucking pig.
— Jamie Frevele (@jamielikesthis) July 10, 2012
Never liked the guy.
The real reason I can't stand Tosh.0 is that it and Daniel Tosh have degraded Peter Tosh's google rank.
— Xeni Jardin (@xeni) July 5, 2012
Guys. Real shocker in@danieltosh rape joke brouhaha? Was at a @DaneCook show. Tosh is so lame, he managed to make Dane Cook look classy.
— Xeni Jardin (@xeni) July 10, 2012
