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AP:Rape joke on Fox cartoons draws attention


Zguy28

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Rape jokes are not funny.

As a stand-up, I agree with you on a personal level but I rarely try to police my community on them. I just try not to work with those comedians once I find out that's a big part of their style.

For what I look for in comedy, jokes that go after the perpetrators and the system that still allows them a great deal of cover in our society are great and necessary. Jokes that are directed towards victims and make light of the act are not.

I feel this is somewhere in between, as Dan T mentioned the humor is supposed to derive from the comparison of Bart's juvenile but innocent take on pranking vs Stewie and the whole Family Guy universe's dark and malicious humor shining through when attempting to emulate the older boy.

I get the idea behind the gag, not enough to make me chuckle but not enough to make me get a pitchfork over it. Family Guy has done much worse when it comes to sexual assault.

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Context.

I'm not too politically correct to realize that.

 

Get outta here with that...nothing to do with political correctness for most people offended by rape jokes.

 

Having two immediate family members who have been sexually assaulted in the past, I just can't find any joke about rape to be in good taste at all. I imagine this is likely the reason others don't as well.

 

I know Family Guy doesn't have intended malice with that joke, and I don't really blow up over stuff like this/boycott shows, I just never understood the humor.

 

edit: EvilMonkeyBoy nailed it too... I get the idea behind the gag, but find that rape is a pretty big trigger.

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My man! i had to take the cartoons down though. The old tech just wasn't compatible with modern internet anymore, and I was having problems with hackers jumping my site.

Just podcasts for now.

(and of course, my amazingly accurate and hilarious weekly Bang Predictions on twitter.@BangRadioHour..   latest celeb follower.. Mariners outfielder José Bautista joined us this week.)

 

 

~Bang

 

You GOTTA keep Hoedown available to the masses.   It's a social imperative that Americans have access to the truth.

Oh, and the big flaw with this joke is that it wasn't funny enough or clever enough to get past the edginess of the subject matter.   If you are going to be edgy, you better hit it out of the park.

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I get the idea behind the gag, not enough to make me chuckle but not enough to make me get a pitchfork over it. Family Guy has done much worse when it comes to sexual assault.

 

It's a sort of interesting meta-commentary on the two show's approach to humor. Except - like so many Family Guy gags - it's sole purpose is to shock rather than amuse. It's just not that funny a gag.

 

(I don't think that any kind of joke should be off limits. But certain comedians and writers should just avoid certain topics all together).

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Also as a disclaimer I used this nickname for everything starting in 2000(Registered in 2003) and it was never once due to the Evil Monkey on Family Guy. Monkey Boy was a nickname given to me during my awkward puberty phase where I had the lankiness of an Orangutan.

In other news, I really need to get around to asking for a nickname change. It's really embarrassing to still have this name on accounts as an adult.

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I just thing rape jokes are not something funny. My personal take on it.

And that's absolutely fine. What someone finds funny varies person to person. Your post just seemed to be speaking more from an absolute notion as opposed to a personal feeling one.

George Carlin disagrees with you...

God I love George Carlin

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Also as a disclaimer I used this nickname for everything starting in 2000(Registered in 2003) and it was never once due to the Evil Monkey on Family Guy. Monkey Boy was a nickname given to me during my awkward puberty phase where I had the lankiness of an Orangutan.

In other news, I really need to get around to asking for a nickname change. It's really embarrassing to still have this name on accounts as an adult.

 

EvilMonkeyMan would work.

 

You could even have a costume.

 

~Bang

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Also as a disclaimer I used this nickname for everything starting in 2000(Registered in 2003) and it was never once due to the Evil Monkey on Family Guy. Monkey Boy was a nickname given to me during my awkward puberty phase where I had the lankiness of an Orangutan

Thank goodness. I honestly thought you had some weird affinity with stuffed animals...

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I don't see the value in the joke. It's not a laugher, and no person who has been subjected to or had a family member subjected to sexual assault will be anything but mortified over it. Like it or not, that "joke" will recall a real-life association into a significant number of minds. If you were watching with a family member who had been raped, would YOU be ok with it? Think where their mind is going to go. I promise, it won't be to "laughter".

Why is Stewie telling Moe that his sister is being raped funny? From a writing standpoint, it's the dichotomy between Bart and Stewie -- it's not the "rape" punch line. Surely those brilliant minds in that room could find another way without making a life-destroying event part of a gag.

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Drt, I think you are giving the writers of those shows entirely WAY too much credit. They are no more intelligent than any poster in this thread.

Aside. I think we are becoming a society that takes itself way too seriously. I'm sure the Internet doesn't help, as it exposes us to many deranged and distasteful things we wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise. There was once a time when laughter was the best medicine, where it was considered therapy to make fun of things that hurt us. Anything could be joked about as long as the context fit. We are losing that.

Although it's not comedy, I will submit our team name as a testament to that. Given context, the name Redskins is perfectly reasonable and even viewed in a positive light. Without context, people view Redskins as a derogatory comment about the color of Native American's skin used to disparage them.

This society loves to be offended. More than that, they love to be contrarian.

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Drt, I think you are giving the writers of those shows entirely WAY too much credit. They are no more intelligent than any poster in this thread.

I don't know much about the dynamics of the writers' rooms on MacFarlane programs, but The Simpsons and Futurama, much like SNL have traditionally been a Harvard boys club. Not that an Ivy League education = Intelligence but there are some pretty smart people in those rooms. Hell, a Futurama script was written to successfully prove a scientific theory.

However as mentioned, The Simpsons writing staff stayed away from this one almost entirely. This joke is proof they probably shouldn't have.

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I don't know much about the dynamics of rhe writer's rooms on MacFarlane programs, but The Simpsons and Futurama, much like SNL have traditionally been a Harvard boys club. Not that an Ivy League education = Intelligence but there are some pretty smart people in those rooms. Hell, a Futurama script was written to successfully prove a scientific theory.

However as mentioned, The Simpsons writing staff stayed away from this one almost entirely. This joke is proof they probably shouldn't have.

There you go, not giving the posters on the board enough credit.

Take one look into the Random Thought Thread and marvel at the genius that has graced our message board over the years.

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