The rise of the rape joke
What makes comedians think rape is something to laugh about? Brian Logan
"You can't do jokes about black people or Asian people," the Australian comic Jim Jeffries told me last year, "but you can do a rape joke onstage now and there's not a problem." Interviewing several comedians for an article about offensiveness in comedy, I heard the same story time and again. American standup Scott Capurro told me that "talk about raping women [is] like the new black on the comedy circuit". Edinburgh comedy award-winner Brendon Burns talked about comedy's favourite neologism "rapey", meaning sleazy. "Only Britain," said Burns (another Aussie), "could make rape sound twee."
Examples of rape comedy are easy to find. Reginald D Hunter has a routine that begins, "civilisation couldn't have arisen without rape . . ."Jimmy Carr, of course, has several one-liners on the subject ("What do nine out of 10 people enjoy? / Gang rape."). In a characteristic play on his words, Carr has called his current show Rapier Wit.
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