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Sexual Assault of Men as Comedy (Pop Culture Detective Video Essay)

EdibleKnife

EdibleKnife

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Oct 29, 2017
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Pop Culture Detective is one of my favorite currently running media analysis channels for its insightful and progressive topics and essays.
The video they've dropped today revolves around the Sexual Assault of Men as Comedy (~29 minutes). Seemingly this is part one of a series. This first video discussing rape jokes directed toward men (i.e. don't drop the soap) as a form of comedic writing or threat:


I truly appreciate the light it sheds on the actual statistics around rape/sexual assault in prison and how its prevelance is a feature rather than a bug in a system of punishment and control.

EDIT: Thanks to sph3re for this heart wrenching complementary video to this very topic:
sph3re said:
Bumping this because of Brawly Likes to Brawl's other thread on it

Just putting aside how overlooked rape against men is, it's unreal to see how many different examples they used in this that poke fun at rape against men. It's disgusting, quite frankly.

Andrew Bailey made a very powerful video on this very subject. Since I'm here, figured I might as well post it.

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Deleted member 5334

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Yeah, it's one of the frustrating things to see that media tends to treat sexual harassment, assault, and rape towards men, as a joke. I'll need to give the video a proper watch in a bit, but given some of my personal experiences, none of this shocks me.
 
Mona

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i was watching dumb and dumber for the first time in like a decade and that bathroom scene came on and it made me really uncomfortable
 
Sou Da

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Oh god is it that fucking scene from Wedding Crashers where the sister and the brother tie up the dude?
 
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EdibleKnife

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Mona said:
i was watching dumb and dumber for the first time in like a decade and that bathroom scene came on and it made me really uncomfortable
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I barely remembered that scene until it came up in the video. It's really astounding how ingrained it is in our culture once you actually sit down and look for it.

Sou Da said:
Oh god is it that fucking scene from Wedding Crashers where the sister and the brother tie up the dude?
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Exactly that. I think he's saving a women as the perpetrators played as comedy for a follow up vid.
 
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EdibleKnife

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Sou Da said:
That and every other joke from "This is the End" put me off of 'raunchy comedies' for a long time.
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Yeah a lot of raunchy comedy thrives on jokes like that. I stayed away from Sausage Party because that kind of comedy falls flat for me and lo and behold I find out in this video that it really was just the type of film to have an anal rape "joke."
 

Deleted member 1258

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My mind instantly defaults to Charlie Day's character in Horrible Bosses who literally got raped by his boss and every time he tries to vent about it to his friends one of them always berates him by saying shit like "stop acting like your life is so miserable" and "why don't you just fuck her already?" and the fucked up thing is that the movie seems to think that the audience shares the view of the friend.
 
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amanset

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Whenever anyone does a "don't drop the soap" style joke I just simply say "It is funny because it is rape". Then the other person has a bit of a think.

I'm amazed how many people think it is acceptable.
 
Gandie

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Great video as always from my favourite youtube film essayist. The most striking part was Hart and Ferrel defending their comedy with the most asinine line of defence.
 

Randomly Generated

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Kalmakoffee said:
My mind instantly defaults to Charlie Day's character in Horrible Bosses who literally got raped by his boss and every time he tries to vent about it to his friends one of them always berates him by saying shit like "stop acting like your life is so miserable" and "why don't you just tucker her already?" and the fucked up thing is that the movie seems to think that the audience shares the view of the friend.
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I literally just watched that movie and boy is that plot gross.
 
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EdibleKnife

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Gandie said:
Great video as always from my favourite youtube film essayist. The most striking part was Hart and Ferrel defending their comedy with the most asinine line of defence.
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Sadly "I'm here to offend sensibilities" is the go to for too many comedians and a lot of fans buy into it to try and rebuff criticism. It's like Espisito mentioned in her set in the vid; "LOL RAPE" is so base and dumb but it sadly gets laughs and reinforces the idea in the brains of comics like Hart and Ferrel that they're doing something right and they must be pretty clever.
 
Exile20

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Seeing these types of jokes back to back like that really hits home how prevalent it is.
 
Prinz Eugn

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I was just thinking about this. Pretty sad situation that makes it harder for men to empathize with sexual assault as a wider issue, since male rape is kept in this abstract jokey realm, rather than as a terrible thing that could actually happen to you.
 
shadowsdarknes

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To be honest, it actually catches me off guard in media when a man gets upset by an unwanted situation.
I'm so used to it being a prop for a joke or just expect the man to shrug it off.

In the newest season of Kimmy Schmidt, a male co worker gets upset and files a harassment complaint against Kimmy for making a bunch of unintended advances.
Or just watching Russian Doll this morning. Nadia walks into the bathroom with some guy peeing and he's clearly uncomfortable.
It catches me off guard.
 
Budi

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Thanks for sharing the video. I've actually watched some other vids from them before, they're good.
Mona said:
i was watching dumb and dumber for the first time in like a decade and that bathroom scene came on and it made me really uncomfortable
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I was also talking about the movie with a coworker few weeks ago, brought it up because of Cam Neely the hockey player played the part of Sea Bass (the rapist). He didn't remember Neely from the movie, so I started to describe this scene to him. And that made me take bit of a pause and realize how fucked up the scene truly is. When I used to watch the movie, I just took it as a joke without thinking what exactly happened. And I do still think the movie is really fucking funny otherwise, but it could do without that scene.
 
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OwOtacon

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Not going to lie - this trope is part of the reason why I always check on unconsentingmedia.com before watching a raunchy comedy.
 

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Good video. Was a little surprised Deliverance didn't get brought up though, even though the scene and the movie in general isn't played up for comedy by any means it's still one of the most notable male rape scenes in movie history, if not the most notable. He did show the clip of South Park parodying it though.
 
ThereAreFourNaan

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Trading Places ends with someone locked in a cage in a gorilla suit while an actual gorilla starts preparing to have its way with him, which is obviously completely hilarious.

The 80's can be rough to go back to.
 
SigmasonicX

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This was a fantastic and really uncomfortable video. Seeing all of these scenes laid out one after another is really gross.
 
Squirrel Killer

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Dishwalla said:
Good video. Was a little surprised Deliverance didn't get brought up though, even though the scene and the movie in general isn't played up for comedy by any means it's still one of the most notable male rape scenes in movie history, if not the most notable. He did show the clip of South Park parodying it though.
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It's been a while since I've seen it, but my recollection of Deliverance was that it "played" the sexual assault for the horror that it is. It's nearly everything else that references it that plays it for laughs.
 

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Squirrel Killer said:
It's been a while since I've seen it, but my recollection of Deliverance was that it "played" the sexual assault for the horror that it is. It's nearly everything else that references it that plays it for laughs.
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yeah that's what I meant, the scene and the movie as a whole is played as a thriller/borderline horror movie, especially for 1972. But just about every reference to the movie, from Ben Affleck's character using "squeal like a pig!" in Dazed and Confused to the South Park recreation of the scene using Indiana Jones, has been portrayed as comedic.
 
Officer Big Mac

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Someone posted a tweet in one of the Trump threads which was a prison rape joke. I hadn't seen that in awhile here.
 

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Well thats a new perspective that I agree with for the most part with a few reservations.

Like the inclusion of the Malcolm in the Middle clip, Reese was part of a scared straight program that not at one point did he take seriously. Didn't really fit the trope they were describing.



Kalmakoffee said:
My mind instantly defaults to Charlie Day's character in Horrible Bosses who literally got raped by his boss and every time he tries to vent about it to his friends one of them always berates him by saying shit like "stop acting like your life is so miserable" and "why don't you just fuck her already?" and the fucked up thing is that the movie seems to think that the audience shares the view of the friend.
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Theyll definitely say different now, but the audience that year DEFINITELY had that view point.
 
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EdibleKnife

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I forgot to mention that I also really like how the vid points out how often (especially in prison) writers like to put black men as the perpetrators of the violation. Such a sick and gross way media loves to frame blackness

ThereAreFourNaan said:
Trading Places ends with someone locked in a cage in a gorilla suit while an actual gorilla starts preparing to have its way with him, which is obviously completely hilarious.

The 80's can be rough to go back to.
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I think that scene was included among the many here.
 
Carnby

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Kalmakoffee said:
My mind instantly defaults to Charlie Day's character in Horrible Bosses who literally got raped by his boss and every time he tries to vent about it to his friends one of them always berates him by saying shit like "stop acting like your life is so miserable" and "why don't you just fuck her already?" and the fucked up thing is that the movie seems to think that the audience shares the view of the friend.
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Yeah... And the ending of part two is awful.
 
SneakyBadger

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Bobo Dakes said:
Well thats a new perspective that I agree with for the most part with a few reservations.

Like the inclusion of the Malcolm in the Middle clip, Reese was part of a scared straight program that not at one point did he take seriously. Didn't really fit the trope they were describing.
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Seems to me like it fit. A guy's fear of prison rape is being played for laughs
 

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I think one of the worst instance of it is the Simpsons, the bloody Simpsons!!!! - Marge straight raped Homer to the point of him having a limp.

This was in a family cartoon on prime time, and it was played as a gag.

Plus the Panda scene to, but I find the Marge one a lot worse.
 
take_marsh

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This is pretty enlightening how many times I just didn't pay attention to how stupid, harmful, and sometimes downright racist these jokes are.
 
Laserdisk

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Kalmakoffee said:
My mind instantly defaults to Charlie Day's character in Horrible Bosses who literally got raped by his boss and every time he tries to vent about it to his friends one of them always berates him by saying shit like "stop acting like your life is so miserable" and "why don't you just fuck her already?" and the fucked up thing is that the movie seems to think that the audience shares the view of the friend.
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That and the sex offender bit fell flat for me
 
broncobuster

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The follow up to this video should be interesting given what he said about the subject matter. Do people still do the "nice" replies in certain threads?
 
OwOtacon

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This video reminded me of why I found Deadpool 2 to be such a hateful, meanspirited movie. That film has so many rape jokes, often involving minors.
 
CloudWolf

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Kalmakoffee said:
My mind instantly defaults to Charlie Day's character in Horrible Bosses who literally got raped by his boss and every time he tries to vent about it to his friends one of them always berates him by saying shit like "stop acting like your life is so miserable" and "why don't you just fuck her already?" and the fucked up thing is that the movie seems to think that the audience shares the view of the friend.
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You'd be surprised how many people do share that viewpoint.
 
supernormal

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Kalmakoffee said:
My mind instantly defaults to Charlie Day's character in Horrible Bosses who literally got raped by his boss and every time he tries to vent about it to his friends one of them always berates him by saying shit like "stop acting like your life is so miserable" and "why don't you just fuck her already?" and the fucked up thing is that the movie seems to think that the audience shares the view of the friend.
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That's because most of the audience probably does. There's a reason this is a trope/cliche. It's basically embedded in the culture. We're making progress now, but for the most part, men getting raped, even by other men, was seen as a joke.
 
T002 Tyrant

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There's a scene in Peep Show where Mark is raped and it feels really wrong that they wrote that scene.
 
Joeytj

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OwOtacon said:
This video reminded me of why I found Deadpool 2 to be such a hateful, meanspirited movie. That film has so many rape jokes, often involving minors.
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I think those jokes are problematic because they normalize jokes like that somehow and maybe too many kids will think there's nothing wrong with them, but I don't think it's the same thing the video talks about. In Deadpool 2, the movie knows child rape isn't funny, but the main character is telling them because we know he is very fucked up and those jokes are in bad taste.

But this video is talking about how rape is played for laughs because they think men getting abused is funny. It would be like actually seeing a kid getting raped in Deadpool and the movie thinking it was hilarious.

At least, that's a distinction I personally see, but you're right that it's a very tricky and fine line that I wouldn't blame anybody for thinking it's been crossed.
 
Tokyo_Funk

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I remember Bill Burr bringing this up a few times (yeah I know, he's hit and miss) saying that a man got his genitals chopped off and it was hilarious to everyone, but if it was a lady who got her breast cut off it would no longer be a joke and there would be a moment of silence and stories all through the newspaper for the victim. He was dead right. Awful, but dead right.

It seems to be a thing as a victim of sexual assault myself that in real life it is brushed off just as much as it is joked about.
 
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