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"Before we debate the issue of jokes about rape and whether or not they can ever be funny, there\u2019s one thing on which we should all be able to agree: Rainn Wilson is a shit. This we base not just on his own rape jokes \u2014 this week, it was \u201CIf I were ever date-raped I would want it to be to \u2018Whole Lotta Love\u2019 by Led Zeppelin\u201D \u2014 but the \u201Capology\u201D he later let ooze out onto his Twitter feed: \u201Capparently my poorly conceived date-rape tweet upset a lot of folks. not a good topic to joke about. sorry and won't do that again.\u201D You couldn\u2019t construct a more classic, cowardly non-apology, from the distancing, disbelieving reference to the \u201Cfolks\u201D \u201Capparently\u201D offended by his joke to the limp little \u201Csorry\u201D tacked on at the end. He should\u2019ve gotten a surly teenager to mutter it for him.This was our first reaction to Tricia Romano\u2019s Daily Beast article on the \u201Crape joke,\u201D which seems more prevalent than ever.&amp;nbsp;The main problem, as we recently quoted Vulture writer Margaret Lyons as saying, is that the jokes \u201Care by and large just shorthand for outrageousness, a go-to vocabulary to create a patina of audacity without actually saying anything important, or even funny.\u201D (Romano references the same Vulture piece.) Jokes like these \u2014 like Rainn Wilson\u2019s \u2014 actually exploit victims of rape. What\u2019s clear is that no rape joke, written or said by a man or a woman, should go unremarked. (And by the way, if you\u2019re uncomfortable hearing \u2014 or making \u2014 such a joke in conversation, you should probably hold your sitcoms to a similar standard.)&amp;nbsp;But,&amp;nbsp;Romano\u2019s&amp;nbsp;piece suggests, not every one of them requires an apology. In fact, they might not only be funny, but also reflect a certain empowerment of women:[New Yorker critic Emily Nussbaum] says that the prevalence of rape jokes is in part linked to the rise of women\u2019s presence behind the scenes in comedy. The more women there are writing the jokes, the more we\u2019ll see \u201Csubjects that are super-central to women and cause anxiety,\u201D she says \u2026For [Jill Soloway, a television writer], writing a rape joke is about seizing power from a situation that makes women feel powerless. \u201CI think not allowing women to joke about rape is like not allowing people to process and let off steam about one of the main fears of our lives. From the moment we find out what rape is, we're scared it's going to happen to us,\u201D she writes.Romano also asked the opinion of activist and rape survivor Marnie Goodfriend, who vehemently disagrees:\u201CPeople seem to feel comfortable making fun of rape and date-rape and acquaintance-rape situations. And those are the rapes that are largely underreported. And one of the reasons why [they are underreported] is because of pop culture, our society, and myths about rape that if you report a crime, no one is going to believe you \u2014 victim blaming. And if you are watching a TV show, or you see a tweet about rape, it just morphs into some type of slang \u2026I think it's an easy way to mask a much larger issue. The reality is that one in six women will be raped in their lifetime. Some people use humor in the worst situations. That's the only way I can rationalize why woman writers would use rape as a punchline. Because they have the power to change the cycle.\u201DBut what exactly constitutes a rape joke? Romano references a Louis C.K. bit (which you can, and should, watch below) that is hilarious \u2014 but that we\u2019re not sure even meets the definition. It\u2019s about the comic\u2019s shock at having a woman tell him she wished he\u2019d been more aggressive with her, to simulate, in his interpretation, rape. That joke is about sex, gender, and communication. Insofar as it is about rape, it is about the line that separates it from sex. And that is clear enough: Rape is, without question, a form of violence. Rape jokes, though, can express all kinds of intent \u2014 and even if the intent is good, that doesn\u2019t guarantee that the joke is funny.[content:shareblock]"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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