There’s a couple of things come to my mind when I see responses by The Guardian, other comedians etc.
one is that a few (probably not so few now) years ago there was a comedian (who I forget the name of, but I’m sure someone will remember) causing a stir by making rape jokes. And male comics were falling over themselves to say yes, they’re awful jokes but comedy should have no boundaries, everything should be fair game. We’re not defending him, but we don’t want to start telling people what they can make jokes about because that’s censorship.
Those same comics and media outlets are saying very different things now.
the other is Matt Stone and Trey Parker who have consistently stuck to the line “nothing is off limits” and when it was (erroneously) reported that Isaac Hayes left over their attitude to Scientology Stone was quoted as saying
“that Hayes practiced a double standard regarding the treatment of religion on South Park. "[We] never heard a peep out of Isaac in any way until we [lampooned] Scientology. He wants a different standard for religions other than his own, and to me, that is where intolerance and bigotry begin."
now personally I do have my lines, the things I can’t laugh at and I’m fine with where I draw my lines, but if you defend someone’s right to make rape jokes you fu king need to justify why that’s ok and jokes about trans people are off limits.