Rape Than Others By Roxane Gay: Article Analysis

Rape Jokes and Are Not Always Funny When…

Shingo Takatera

California State University, Northridge When rape jokes can be funny? In Bad Feminist “Some Jokes Are Funnier Than Others”, the author Roxane Gay criticizes the American comedian Daniel Tosh for his rape jokes in his television show Comedy Central. During the show, a young female audience mentioned that “Actually, rape jokes are never funny” (2014). Then, Tosh replied that “Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by like five guys right now?” (2014). His rape joke as an answer to the female audience is disgusting. In her book, Gay declares that “Rape humor is designed to remind women that they are still not quite equal” (2014). While reading her article, I realize that Gay only

made a rape joke about Adolph Hitler. He said that “I wouldn’t have killed Hitler. I would have raped him” (2007). Why Louis mentioned the name of Hitler? What is the necessity to mention the name of Hitler, not a random person’s name? Because Adolph Hitler is one of the most famous worst person; Hitler was the leader of Nazi and responsible for killing many innocent people. It is almost common sense that Hitler is the worst person in the history, so people can comfortably make a rape joke about Hitler; an audience immediately interprets a rape as a punishment and avenge on Hitler, although it is still a rape and a crime, not a punishment exactly. Since the name of Hitler creates a sense of punishment and justifies the rape joke, an audience can laugh with the justification. If Louis mentioned random person’s name like Tosh did, fewer people would laugh because more people feel it is “right” to laugh at. As I explained in the example of Pulp Fiction, the victim of rape matters in the storytelling morality; a bad person deserves a punishment at the end in a story. Without the contextual background to interpret a rape as a punishment or avenge, a view cannot feel comfortable to laugh at a rape joke. Moreover, Louis addresses the justification of rape jokes by using bad guy’s name such as Hitler. Louis continued that “No, I’m gonna take a shower. I don’t feel good…I’m not condoning rape, obviously. You should never, er, rape anyone” (2007). Louis declared that rape joke is not funny and acceptable at all, even people use bad people’s name like Hitler to make a rape joke. However, Louis creates a contradiction; “Er, unless you have a reason, like you wanna fuck someone and they won’t let you, in which case, er, what other option do you have?” (2007). He denies his former statement with the contracted rape joke. Why Louis’s rape joke