Daniel Tosh - Offensively unfunny misogynist

[General Zod]

http://gawker.com/5924948/comedy-centra ... were-raped

Are you aware of Daniel Tosh, who hosts a sort of viral-video version of The Soup on Comedy Central called Tosh.0 and is much-beloved on certain corners of the internet? His schtick is, basically, "being a huge asshole," both in a general way and in a racist or classist or sexist way. Some people think he is hilarious (they are wrong) and some people think he is really grating and unfunny and difficult to watch (they are right). You can watch his classic joke about the hypothetical rape of his sister in this video.

Anyway, the reason I bring it up is that there's a line out there, when it comes to what you can get away with as a comedian — just ask Michael Richards! — and it sounds like Tosh crossed it on Friday night. Here's a post from a Tumblr called Cookies for Breakfast about how to make Dane Cook look like a sensitive and politically-correct comic genius:

This is something that happened to a friend of mine in her own words.

"So, on Friday night my friend and I were at her house and wanted to get out and do something for the evening. We brainstormed ideas and she brought up the idea of seeing a show at the Laugh Factory. I'd never been, I thought it sounded fun, so we went. We saw that Dane Cook, along some other names we didn't recognize we're playing, and while we both agree that Cook's style is not really our taste we were opened-minded about what the others had to offer. And we figured even good ol' Dane can be funny sometimes, even if it's not really our thing. Anyhoo, his act was actually fine, but then when his was done, some other guy I didn't recognize took the stage. Of course, I would find out later this was Daniel Tosh, but at the time I thought he was just some yahoo who somehow got a gig going on after Cook. I honestly thought he was an amateur because he didn't seem that comfortable on stage and seemed to have a really awkward presence.

So Tosh then starts making some very generalizing, declarative statements about rape jokes always being funny, how can a rape joke not be funny, rape is hilarious, etc. I don't know why he was so repetitive about it but I felt provoked because I, for one, DON'T find them funny and never have. So I didnt appreciate Daniel Tosh (or anyone!) telling me I should find them funny. So I yelled out, "Actually, rape jokes are never funny!"

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 in the lobby, I spoke with the girl at the will-call desk, and demanded to see the manager. The manager on duty quickly came out to speak with me, and she was profusely apologetic, and seemed genuinely sorry about what had happened, but of course we received no refund for our tickets, but instead a comped pair of tickets, although she admitted she understood if we never wanted to come back. I can imagine the Laugh Factory doesn't really have a policy in place for what happens when a woman has to leave in a hurry because the person onstage is hurling violent words about sexual violence at her. Although maybe I'm not the first girl to have that happen to her.

I should probably add that having to basically flee while Tosh was enthusing about how hilarious it would be if I was gang-raped in that small, claustrophic room was pretty viscerally terrifying and threatening all the same, even if the actual scenario was unlikely to take place. The suggestion of it is violent enough and was meant to put me in my place."

Tosh acknowledged the post, which went viral on Tumblr today, and and "sincerely apologize[d]" on Twitter. He was apparently making some kind of philosophical point about The Nature of Humor, or whatever?

Yes, you can make jokes about anything; those jokes still have to be funny, and not creepy and threatening. You can even deal with hecklers without threatening gang-rape!

How the hell did this fuckwit actually get hired at Comedy Central? Even Adam Sandler isn't this big of an unfunny shitcock.

[Gandalf]

How the hell did this fuckwit actually get hired at Comedy Central?

People are into "shock" humour. Look at Family Guy and South Park as key examples. Comedy Central presumably wants to chase that dollar.

[Flagg]

Tosh.0 is pretty funny if you have no moral boundaries where humor is concerned.

[General Zod]

How the hell did this fuckwit actually get hired at Comedy Central?

People are into "shock" humour. Look at Family Guy and South Park as key examples. Comedy Central presumably wants to chase that dollar.

I like to think there's a fine line between "shock" humor and stopping short of saying a person in the crowd should be savagely assaulted. I bet if he tried this in Florida he could have gotten his ass shot on stage and the shooter would've been able to plead stand your ground.

[Flagg]

How the hell did this fuckwit actually get hired at Comedy Central?

People are into "shock" humour. Look at Family Guy and South Park as key examples. Comedy Central presumably wants to chase that dollar.

I like to think there's a fine line between "shock" humor and stopping short of saying a person in the crowd should be savagely assaulted. I bet if he tried this in Florida he could have gotten his ass shot on stage and the shooter would've been able to plead stand your ground.

Dude if he tried that in Florida she probably would have been raped.

[Spekio]

Kind of hard to side with her, being a heckler and all. She could have just left.

[Magis]

First of all, misogynist? I didn't know rape was something only suffered by women. I have a feeling that Tosh would be just as happy making generic rape jokes or jokes about the raping of men. Misogynist could be quite a stretch here.

I felt provoked because I, for one, DON'T find them funny and never have.

And some people don't find jokes about god/religion to be funny, and some people don't find jokes about cancer to be funny, etc. For every joke you can probably find someone that doesn't think it's funny, that doesn't entitle the person to disrupt the show by shouting out or heckling the performer. If she didn't like it, she was free to walk out in silence and then write a blog about it or whatever.

So I didnt appreciate Daniel Tosh (or anyone!) telling me I should find them funny.

Boo fucking hoo.

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…"

Tosh jokes are generally in bad taste (then again, so are most Louis CK jokes), but once the performer identifies an audience member as a heckler, they tear into them. That's commonplace in the comedy world especially. Youtube is not short on comedian vs. heckler clips, and generally the comedians are ruthless. Joking about the heckler being raped is pretty harsh, but so is joking that they should have been aborted, and I've heard a comedian make that joke against a heckler, too.

How the hell did this fuckwit actually get hired at Comedy Central?

Because a lot of people think he's funny, which is why they watch his show and why he gets nominated for comedy awards. His comedy isn't my style, either, but to each their own.

[Gandalf]

I like to think there's a fine line between "shock" humor and stopping short of saying a person in the crowd should be savagely assaulted.

Of course there's a difference. But people have to perpetually skirt the ever changing edge to be edgy comedians. Those best able to keep marketably near the edge get jobs and accolades.

A great comedian (like George Carlin) knows how to walk that line. A hack like Tosh doesn't.

[General Zod]

Kind of hard to side with her, being a heckler and all. She could have just left.

Whatever happened to the good old days when you could pelt unfunny hacks with rotten tomatoes? I guess people are just giant pussies these days?

[Scrib]

Pretty torn on this. On the one hand, I don't believe in heckling, if a comedian has jokes about stuff you don't like, then bear it , or leave. Don't jump on your high horse in the middle of a person's show and potentially fuck with other people's experience. Complain wherever you need to after the fact. Everyone has their own particular soft spot, you are not special.

As for Tosh, he got called out on a sensitive issue, couldn't back down on the joke and just overshot it, but I've seen a ton of comics go off on hecklers. George Carlin's explosion was crazy, though I doubt he ever claimed that the rape of someone would be funny. Tosh was just particularly tactless.

Of lesser importance, it was a bad joke. Making a point using humor or satire on rape like say, South Park I can get, but this joke was just dull,flat and I can see why this would open the door to heckling when another joke on rape might not have.

[Blayne]

George Carlin's explosion was crazy, though I doubt he ever claimed that the rape of someone would be funny. Tosh was just particularly tactless.

:stare:

"You can't joke about rape, rape is not funny, I say fuck you I think it is hilarious! And I can prove it! Imagine Porky Pig raping Elmer Fud... I know what your gonna say, Elmer was asking for it."

On the other hand he also goes and explains this only works because of how you construct the joke, presumably he knows how to construct a joke to fit the audience, and to coolly recover if a joke isn't working.

[Stark]

I don't think 'wouldn't it be funny if that person was raped right now' even counts as a joke. Does it have a punchline?

[Executor32]

My brother loves the shit out of Tosh.0, but I can't see why. All he does is show Youtube videos and then make terrible jokes about them.

[Meest]

The article or blog whatever doesn't help her position. Goes in knowing the only comic on the card is barely acceptable to her tastes. Do I walk around and enter a church I see just to yell out, how they are all wrong and they have no right to tell me what to believe? She should have left regardless of what is being told, the people there might be in the right mindset to find it funny. Her protest would be not to pay and avoid his comedy, should be more pissed about not getting a refund. I think he's real hit and miss but then I don't yell out at the screen when I find a joke not funny and feel like I speak for all men.

[General Zod]

The article or blog whatever doesn't help her position. Goes in knowing the only comic on the card is barely acceptable to her tastes. Do I walk around and enter a church I see just to yell out, how they are all wrong and they have no right to tell me what to believe? She should have left regardless of what is being told, the people there might be in the right mindset to find it funny. Her protest would be not to pay and avoid his comedy, should be more pissed about not getting a refund. I think he's real hit and miss but then I don't yell out at the screen when I find a joke not funny and feel like I speak for all men.

So how is "wouldn't it be funny if she got raped" a joke?

[Meest]

So how is "wouldn't it be funny if she got raped" a joke?

She's at a comedy club listening to a comedian think that makes what he's saying at her a joke, bad or not. Does he have to add a "I kid, I kid" Bill Maher style after each joke to make it more acceptable. Goes back to the point of the people there might be in the mindset to not take any of that seriously, that's another reason for her to leave and get a refund over escalating the issue.

[General Zod]

So how is "wouldn't it be funny if she got raped" a joke?

She's at a comedy club listening to a comedian think that makes what he's saying at her a joke, bad or not. Does he have to add a "I kid, I kid" Bill Maher style after each joke to make it more acceptable. Goes back to the point of the people there might be in the mindset to not take any of that seriously, that's another reason for her to leave and get a refund over escalating the issue.

Are you saying that being on the stage in a comedy club automatically means everything he says is a joke? Because if so that's a pretty fucking stupid definition of a joke.

[Alyrium Denryle]

So how is "wouldn't it be funny if she got raped" a joke?

She's at a comedy club listening to a comedian think that makes what he's saying at her a joke, bad or not. Does he have to add a "I kid, I kid" Bill Maher style after each joke to make it more acceptable. Goes back to the point of the people there might be in the mindset to not take any of that seriously, that's another reason for her to leave and get a refund over escalating the issue.

Are you saying that being on the stage in a comedy club automatically means everything he says is a joke? Because if so that's a pretty fucking stupid definition of a joke.

No, but the assumption should be "this person on stage is not to be taken seriously, ever"

Me? I have Zero boundaries when it comes to humor, so I tend to like Tosh.0

I also dont think it is appropriate to condemn someone for over-shooting their humor and having the joke flop. Everyone who jokes about touchy subjects does it, and sometimes, someone will botch a response to a heckler. I have done it in casual conversation because I dont have much of a cognitive filter.

There is an assumption of risk whenever you go into a comedy show, especially with comics you dont know. If you are not prepared to be offended by a joke and let it flow under the bridge, dont fucking go. Same thing with Family Guy. If you get really offended by the insinuation that Stewie (the baby) crossdresses, takes the identity "Desere" and has sex with adult men, change the god damn channel, dont bitch about how the producers are somehow pedophile sympathizers.

[madd0ct0r]

i just tried watching one of his sketches. I take he's the same brand of comedy as sarah silverman?

Ie you can tell it's trying to be funny, it isn't, and once you turn it off you feel happier.

I mean - this is fucking funnier.

[Scrib]

My brother loves the shit out of Tosh.0, but I can't see why. All he does is show Youtube videos and then make terrible jokes about them.

This is comedy for a lot of people. People standing in front of a green screen talking about YT videos with a lot of jumpcuts and fast talking. Tosh is marginally better.

i just tried watching one of his sketches. I take he's the same brand of comedy as sarah silverman?

Ie you can tell it's trying to be funny, it isn't, and once you turn it off you feel happier.

I mean - this is fucking funnier.

Wow, that summation hit everything I thought about Tosh and Sarah Silverman even though I never connected them in my head. They have that weird rebellious, "Look at me, a white person talking about supposedly taboo subjects! Laugh!" -especially Silverman- schtick. It's not funny. I'm not a squeamish person, yet it always strikes me as awkward and forced and I'm out.

[Simon_Jester]

First of all, misogynist? I didn't know rape was something only suffered by women. I have a feeling that Tosh would be just as happy making generic rape jokes or jokes about the raping of men. Misogynist could be quite a stretch here.

Nah, it's basically right there in the see-Spot-run words coming out of the guy's mouth. There's probably a more misogynist thing than "wouldn't a woman getting gang-raped right now in front of us be funny," but I can't come up with one off the top of my head. Especially if it's pointed at a specific woman in the audience.

The article or blog whatever doesn't help her position. Goes in knowing the only comic on the card is barely acceptable to her tastes. Do I walk around and enter a church I see just to yell out, how they are all wrong and they have no right to tell me what to believe? She should have left regardless of what is being told, the people there might be in the right mindset to find it funny. Her protest would be not to pay and avoid his comedy, should be more pissed about not getting a refund. I think he's real hit and miss but then I don't yell out at the screen when I find a joke not funny and feel like I speak for all men.

I don't think you do...

Plus, seriously, is this line not creepy as hell because "she shouldn't have been there?"

There is an assumption of risk whenever you go into a comedy show, especially with comics you dont know. If you are not prepared to be offended by a joke and let it flow under the bridge, dont fucking go. Same thing with Family Guy. If you get really offended by the insinuation that Stewie (the baby) crossdresses, takes the identity "Desere" and has sex with adult men, change the god damn channel, dont bitch about how the producers are somehow pedophile sympathizers.

On Family Guy, the writers know how to take something like that and make a real joke out of it. It has to do with Stewie's character (forty year old brain in one year old body), and probably with a bunch of context (I never saw that episode). It's not just "hey, aren't pedos hilarious?"

Here, I'm not even getting the vibe that it was really a joke, any more than just having a guy randomly go "eat shit and die" is a joke. It becomes a joke if it's part of a Duke Nukem soundboard troll or something, but that's not random.

[Broomstick]

Kind of hard to side with her, being a heckler and all. She could have just left.

Encouraging a felony assault/rape in response to heckling is all out of proportion to the offense, shithead.

[Lagmonster]

I don't know precisely what he was going for - Tosh is a lousy orator - but it sounds as though he'd have made his point about comedy better if he'd just told The Aristocrats.

For comparison, Carlin's "would somebody put a dick in that guy's mouth" rant (let alone Manson's infamous "somebody take that guy outside and beat him") was to my mind far more of an incitement to violence than Tosh's limp "wouldn't it be funny if" comment. Carlin came across as actually angry and if something had actually happened, he may well have been in serious trouble; Tosh just came across like an petulant idiot. I think he was trying to mash together the time-honoured tradition of telling off hecklers while still clinging desperately to his original plan of making a point about comedy. Which suggests that Tosh is simply clumsy and witless.

However, I agree that it wasn't a smart idea to confront him, and I'll explain why. Engaging a stage performer, particularly a comedian, in a debate mid-show about the subject matter of his act is not a good idea; they're the ones with fans, a microphone, a history of dealing with hecklers via savage insults, and (post-Carlin) probably a well-schooled professional understanding of the limits of free speech. You the audience member are always at a disadvantage, possibly even unsafe if it's a club where drinking is allowed, and it very well may turn into a case of you versus a crowd of strangers who are angry with you for disrupting their experience. Especially if the comedian doesn't have a snappy comeback prepared, like Tosh, and simply says something crass and boorish, like Tosh. Leave, demand a refund or apology from management, blog about it, and go public with your complaint outside of the immediate venue. Turn the public eye to his mistake, but remove yourself safely from the situation first.

[Ralin]

Encouraging a felony assault/rape in response to heckling is all out of proportion to the offense, shithead.

He didn't encourage it. He just said it would be really funny if it happened.

It's as offensive as hell, but it's not a call to action.

[Metahive]

Encouraging a felony assault/rape in response to heckling is all out of proportion to the offense, shithead.

He didn't encourage it. He just said it would be really funny if it happened.

It's as offensive as hell, but it's not a call to action.

Under what rock do you live where calling a person getting raped right then and there being funny is not a fucking encouragement? The only reason it wasn't a more direct call to action is because that would have been a possible felony and even a dumbass like Tosh knows better than to set himself up for a lawsuit like that.

As for the woman heckling poor widdle Tosh I say tough shit. If your career is build upon mocking people then you better damn well show that you can take as well as dish out. Nothing worse than a "shock-value" comedian with a brittle sense of self-worth. "Shock" comedians who derive their humor primarily from kicking down on the totem pole can all go fuck themselves anyway.