"If comedy has no Lady problem..."

[UnacceptableWidge]

I came across This article this evening and thought it may be of interest.

More and more I find I am disturbed by what is acceptable as 'funny' and/or 'only a joke' and thought Lindy West put the case across very well as to how making light of something can influence poor judgement.

[Childrenofthestones]

Those comments are vile.

Mind you it can cut both ways.

Could you imagine, in your worst nightmares, where a group of male guests on an all male chat show, cackled and hehaw'd about a case in the news, where a man had sexual mutilated his wife because she asked for a divorce.
Where he had cut off her breasts and thrown them down the waste disposal for good measure, so that they couldn't be reattached? Then a man on the panel said he thought it was great, and all the while the audience, full of men, wet themselves about it?

You are correct, Lindy West is right. Making light of something can influence poor judgement.

[scaevola]

Hate, hate, hate calling this a "lady problem"

But the misogyny bothers me very much. If you are going to tell jokes in some areas, they need to be very, very funny and thought provoking too.

But it's just not funny or clever enough.

And it's creeping into mainstream: Miles Jupp's DV "joke" on Mock the Week being an example.

I think we need another 'phone call to National Treasure making inane obscenities about his daughter' moment. I simply don't think people realise how vile it has got.

[WilsonFrickett]

I've been following this on twitter and so have been thinking about it a lot. It's crossed into a censorship debate as well, Roseanne Barr being particularly vehement that no-one has the right to censor what she says.

I agree with sceaveola - there are some areas where the jokes have to be very clever and very thought-provoking. 99% of rape 'jokes' are neither. And imo that's because this form of 'comedy' is always, always based on victim-blaming or rape myths. No-one makes jokes about rapists. I actually think this is very important - to joke about certain types of people deflates them, takes their power away. Makes them lesser. Turns them from the all powerful abuser into a limp-dicked idiot.

So I think there's a place for difficult comedy, but atm we're not hearing it.

Would be interested to hear others' views on this.