NEWSNOISE
Daniel Tosh. Sigh. I was done with this subject, especially since I really, really hate the man’s comedy. (Although the fervent self-righteousness of the anti-Tosh crowd is making me like the guy).
Last week I wrote a blog entitled “The Only Thing Unfunnier Than A Rape Joke Is Someone With No Sense Of Humour” where I presented the argument that Daniel Tosh did not owe anybody an apology for the now infamous “rape joke”, and that the incident in question was open to interpretation. (Read it here: http://dylanrhymersstateoftheweek.tumblr.com/tosh)
I went to work. I came home. I had 100 comments on my facebook page, many of them passionately calling me a rape apologist. With the amount of hate messages I got, I can only imagine what Tosh himself must be dealing with.
I guess when I clearly wrote, “I agree with Cookies For Breakfast (the offended party’s blog name) that rape jokes are never funny” and “I don’t like rape jokes”, people somehow interpreted that as meaning Dylan Rhymer loves rape jokes and always finds them funny.I was asked to appear on CKNW News Radio to discuss the issue. That may be how you found State of the Week.
I wanted to make certain that I was absolutely clear about my standpoint on this (tired, over-hyped, non) issue.
-Daniel Tosh did nothing illegal or even immoral.
-280 other people in the club (who gave Tosh a standing ovation) were not offended and so far none have come forth to back up Cookies For Breakfast’s claim.
-Other comedians have addressed the same topic and were not subject to an online/media witch-hunt.
-The exact details of what was said by Tosh are unclear and based on hearsay. Anybody outside of that club will never know the context of what was said.
I don’t doubt that Cookies’ friend was insulted and hurt and she is well within her rights to blog about her experience. And while I cannot abide hecklers, I even have a certain amount of admiration for calling Tosh out onstage and expressing her opinion that rape jokes are never funny.
Where I have a problem is the online and media hysteria that immediately followed her posting of the infamous blog. The illogical witch-hunt that ensued was like The Crucible meets You’ve Got Mail.
On Cookies For Breakfast’s blog, she thanked all of her supporters and stressed that she “doesn’t wish to press any further charges against Daniel Tosh”. Gee, how generous, except that THERE ARE NO CHARGES YOU COULD PRESS EVEN IF YOU WANTED TO. You know why? Because telling tasteless rape jokes is not a crime. Slander and Libel are. Tosh has been slandered and in my opinion he is also a wronged party.
Cookies For Breakfast’s Tumblr account erupted in a glut of feminist fury finally resulting in the creation of an online petition to cancel Tosh.0, Daniel Tosh’s television series on Comedy Central. Alisse Desrosiers, an apparent petition addict given the volume of online petitions she has either signed or created, isn’t happy with just ruining a man’s good name based on circumstantial evidence, she would like to destroy his livelihood as well. And she seems to have forgotten that her television also has an “off” switch. (It’s right there next to the one that says “on”.)
The only photo of Ms Desrosiers I could find, taken is self-righteo-vision
As of writing this, 36,000 people have signed a petition to cancel his television program based on Cookies’ questionable 2nd hand account of the Laugh Factory incident and a handful of clips from Tosh.0 that Ms Desrosiers finds objectionable. The purpose of her petition is far, far more harmful than a joke whose context is still up for debate.
Cookies For Breakfast’s friend is entitled to her feelings and has every right to blog about her experiences, but when people start talking about derailing a man’s career based on fragile speculation (with no actual evidence and not a single witness to back up your account), one must wonder how credible the story is in the first place.
Is that so unreasonable?
P.S. Oh, and this has absolutely nothing in common with the Michael Richards racist rant, except that they both took place onstage in the same comedy club so stop bringing it up. Please. It’s a very weak argument.
See Dylan Rhymer’s live stand-up comedy special http://ow.ly/c0kUB
