Evolution of Rape Jokes

Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology Issn No : 1006-7930 Evolution of Rape Jokes Shyam Hajare M.A. English with Communication Studies (2nd Year) Christ (Deemed to be) University [email protected] Abstract Rape jokes have been one of the perennial topics in the comedy industry, but what the term means has changed a lot in the past two decades. Various comics have come to the realization that this is a sensitive topic and thus have slowly tried to change their approach towards it. Along with rising concern about the issue of sexual harassment, the #MeToo movement has kind of given rise to the feminist movement in the comedy industry. This paper through the phenomenological study of the changes tries to understand how these jokes have evolved and what does that say about how the women are seen in the society as well as about the consciousness about sexual violence. The comics like Sarah Silverman, Hannah Gadsby, and others are using different ways to fight against the rape culture. The recent stand-up special by Cameron Esposito, titled Rape Jokes is the type of approach to the topic which uses the perspective of the survivor to talk about the topic. The changes show that it is all up to the comedian to tell jokes that are funny but still makes a point and if done properly can be a platform for survivors of harassment to share their stories and stand like a wall against the rape culture. Keywords: Rape jokes, Comedy, Cameron Esposito, Hannah Gadsby, Sarah Silverman. Comedy for centuries has been a source of entertainment for people all around the world, making people laugh, but that is not the only function it has played. Comedy in many ways has worked as a social commentary and is considered one of the most effective ways to understand society. This is especially true of the satirical comedy, as it by ridiculing the society or government tries to bring attention to the issues existing in the society. In the more extremes forms of satire, which are called Black or dark Comedy, the topics which are considered a taboo, insensitive, serious or mortifying are made fun of. For many people topics like death, suicide, domestic violence, rape, disability etc. may seem a little insensitive and maybe even morally incorrect, but jokes on these topics may have a big function based on the context and the person who delivers it. Psychoanalysis talks about how the human subconscious refuses to be disturbed by reality, it tries not to be affected by the traumas of the external world. On the contrary, it tries to look at such traumas as occasions to gain pleasure. But this gaining of pleasure depends on whether the joke is told by the person who is threatened or the Volume XII, Issue II, 2020 Page No: 448 Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology Issn No : 1006-7930 one threatening. This paper looks at one such topic in the black comedy, the theme of rape and sexual harassment. Rape jokes have been a big part of the field of comedy for many years. Many comedians have made jokes on rape and sexual harassment and continue to do so, but these jokes have seen a lot more changes in the way these are presented as compared to any other theme. These jokes for a long time did nothing in helping the threatened victims or reduce their stress or help them move on, these were more like the threats themselves. The famous case being that of the joke made by Daniel Tosh in 2012 when an audience member told him that rape jokes are not funny, he asked her if it would be funny if that woman got gang raped there (qtd. in Solnit). These type of jokes are clearly insensitive towards the survivors and their families. This approach towards the topic of rape has seen some change since the Daniel Tosh incident. More and more comics are changing the way they talk about rape in their sets. Through the phenomenological study of the comedy industry, this paper is trying to understand what is this change and the other social factors which have led to this change. The change in its most advanced form can be seen in the stand-up special of Cameron Esposito titled ‘Rape Jokes’ which tries to bring the perspective of the survivor in the comedy. Esposito may have been the first to move ahead and come up with a one-hour special named Rape jokes and talking majorly about sexual harassment and rape, but there are others who have showed the gradual move towards this kind of comedy. Various other comics including George Carlin, Hannah Gadsby, Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman, etc. have for many years included, in bits and pieces, jokes which try to the break free from the derogatory rape jokes. The special by Esposito though, is the most important one, in understanding the change because what other comics used as a filler topic in their sets focussing on a completely different topic, Esposito gave it the importance of being the central theme and dedicated a whole special to it. In the 1905 book Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious as well as in his article ‘der Humor’, Sigmund Freud talks about how jokes are a way to maintain psychic balance by working as a way to fight against adversity (Newirth). This way of thinking about the dark comedy can be seen working with regards to black comedy in general but when one looks at the rape jokes this does not seems to be the case. Most of the rape jokes being used by the comics are the kind used by Daniel Tosh mentioned earlier. This does not provide a way to fight against the adversity but works as a threat. But Freud’s idea is essential to understanding the current change in rape jokes, as a great number of female comics like Esposito are coming out and sharing their experiences about sexual harassment through comedy, and trying to fight against the rape culture. One example of this can be seen in Rape Jokes as Esposito addresses the Daniel Tosh incident. She says that comedians use these kinds of jokes because these are a taboo and will get a response but when an audience member calls them out about it, they cry “censorship”, further adding, “That’s the wrong word. Feedback. You have gotten feedback.” Volume XII, Issue II, 2020 Page No: 449 Journal of Xi'an University of Architecture & Technology Issn No : 1006-7930 Comedy is one of the stress-reducing forms of entertainment for many people, due to which stand-up comedy has been trending for the last two decades, all around the world, with the rise in the number of platforms available to stand-up comedians, like Youtube and Netflix. Many Stand –up comedians are especially well-known for their sets which use taboo themes. Rape jokes, however, took a lot more time to make it to the online platforms. It is already harder for the taboo themes to make it to the online platforms. On top of that in the past few years, there was a rise in feminist ideologies which had finally started raising voice against such portrayal of rape on various platforms. Rape jokes in such a social condition limited to live shows or exclusive dark comedy jokes as these jokes were of a certain derogatory kind. These were the jokes mainly punching down on the victims by using rape as a punch line. Comedians use these only because they know the word ‘rape’ will induce laughter. These jokes are insensitive towards people who have been victims of such incidents and their family and friends. Why are then comedians making such jokes? This was a question raised by some comics. These comics then through their comedy have tried to change the approach towards rape jokes in the past few years. This change which was slow to start got a push with the start of #MeToo movement. Comedians started to slowly move away from such jokes towards a more feminist approach. This change can be compared to an ecosystem. If rape jokes are considered as an ecosystem then the evolution of rape jokes can be taken as an indicator of the change in consciousness in regards to women and about sexual violence (Solnit). With the #MeToo movement people had started talking more about women being harassed and the rape survivors and this showed also in the various rape jokes. Before the movement becoming so huge there was some kind of unmentioned fight going on between comedians and feminists. As in 2012 and even now jokes about sex with unconscious victims were very common. Jokes like the one here by Sam Morril, "My ex-girlfriend never made me wear a condom. That's huge. She was on the pill." Pause. "Ambien.” (qtd. in Solnit). Such jokes were quite frequent and were used by many celebrity comics, one such comic being Bill Cosby who was using it for decades. Different stand-up comics try to oppose these types of jokes and comics using rape culture to get some laughs in different ways. One way through which this is done is by changing the way comedy is induced from punching down to punching up. In comedy terms punching down refers to a situation when a comedian criticizes or makes a joke at the expense of an individual or group at a position of less power. This is what the jokes like the one by Sam Morril previously mentioned do, they can think of making such jokes as they are not part of the group they are making fun of.

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