In a thought-provoking Daily Beast essay about Daniel Tosh’s “rape joke” at the Laugh Factory, Rumpus Funny Women editor Elissa Bassist clarifies the distinction between using humor “to cope or to point out the absurdity of a situation” and making a joke to humiliate, threaten, or assert power over another person.
Over at Salon, Rumpus essays editor Roxane Gay also addresses the incident and the comedian’s “humor” in general, asking us to consider the ramifications when “humor about sexual violence suggests permissiveness.”
And at Jezebel, Lindy West has a nuanced, in-depth take on the whole thing.
(If you’re in need of a little levity after all that, head over to McSweeney’s and check out Elissa Bassist’s piece about a song that cannot be named on this site.)
