Posts tagged Philosophy of Comedy
Posts tagged Philosophy of Comedy
I don’t get why everyone loves Louie C.K so much
He did that routine about raping Hitler where he like, just teased and made fun of the way rape survivors act after being raped
Like the whole joke was him mocking the way rape survivors act
Fuck that guy man
In this bit, Louis CK makes a joke where he would rape hitler if he had a time machine instead of killing him, because he thinks it would be good enough if hitler was just withdrawn and messed up from having been raped.
Let’s get something straight, though, about the form of this joke. Louis isn’t saying, “hey, wouldn’t it be hilarious if someone got raped!” He’s saying, “hey, if I had a time machine, and raped hitler— me being a middle-aged, out of shape, balding, redhead from the future— hitler would probably be pretty bummed out and not able to function at the level of BEING FUCKING HITLER.”
He’s playing on the absurdity of the situation. It’s not supposed to be funny that some general form of “someone” now has self-esteem issues because they got raped. Nobody is laughing at that (and if they are, well, yeah, they’re twisted). What the joke is about is the ridiculousness of the fucking historical figure HITLER becoming withdrawn because he was sexually assaulted BY A COMEDIAN FROM THE FUTURE.
You might not buy that, but the fact is, Louis CK didn’t make the joke, “hey, you know that operation Valkyrie where they tried to kill Hitler? Wouldn’t it be HILARIOUS if they tried to rape him instead because then he’d act like a rape victim?” Instead, he gave us this absolutely ridiculous scenario.
And yes, in this instance, an instant of rape is funny. Is that wrong? Like, is a thing being funny— can that be something that is ubiquitously and without exception wrong? I just don’t see how.
I mean, in an episode of South Park, Kurt Russell gets raped by evil Christmas critters that live in Imaginationland because Cartman wrote a story about them years ago all so he could make Kyle the host for the anti-christ at which point a bunch of baby mountain lions aborted the anti-christ out of Kyle’s asshole.
Now you might not think that’s funny, but don’t conflate your distaste for something as being one in the same with the objective wrongness of it. But, my lord, would the discussion about how indistinguishable distaste is from the average person’s perception of wrongness really leave a lot of people sore.
