Rape is Hilarious, Part 53 in an Ongoing Series
Posted by Guest Blogger at Thursday, August 12, 2010
by Shaker Milli A
[Trigger warning for rape used in a "humorous" capacity.]
This is why, as a feminist, I barely have a sense of humor.
Yesterday's Penny Arcade,a webcomic centered around video gaming and its culture, featured a joke a lot of World of Warcraft players make, in a sense. In WoW, you'll often get quests like "Kill 10 of these terrible people" or "Save five prisoners". Because the game has millions of players all existing in the world who will do that quest, even if you kill all the bad guys and free everyone, they'll reappear against quickly, so the next person can do their good deeds. It's a silly conundrum if you let your suspension of disbelief lapse.
Penny Arcade took it to another level. In a strip titled, "The Sixth Slave," the comic features a (white, male) slave begging for rescue from another character. "Hero!" he pleads. "Please take me with you! Release me from this hell unending! Every morning, we are roused by savage blows. Every night, we are raped to sleep by the dickwolves." The hero tells him, "I only needed to save five slaves. Alright? Quest complete." The prisoner protests, "But…" The hero interrupts him, "Hey, pal. Don't make this weird."
Rape isn't a part of the game, so for the slave to explicitly state he is being raped is a "humorous" exaggeration. When he hero tells the slave his quest is complete and instructs him not to make it "weird," we're meant to laugh: "Haha, what a strange underreaction!" (Or not.)
When I have a sense of humor, it is a little offbeat. I have liked, for example, Penny Arcade's comics about the numerous times they've killed each other. I have a dark sense of humor, and I'll admit it.
But unlike Gabe killing Tycho so he doesn't have to share a video game, a slave being raped is a real thing that happens in the world every day. I don't find this "joke" funny because, unlike characters cartoonishly killing each other repeatedly and coming back to life, just as in video games, rape isn't a central feature of (most) games—at least in the actual gameplay, totally aside from the language used by players.
The problem is, I just don't find rape funny. Because rape survivors exist among us, and after being victimized by rapists, they are revictimized by a society that treats even real rape like a joke, forced to live in a culture that actually has a lot of rape jokes, including those about rape victims being actively denied justice for no other reason than because people don't take rape seriously. I don't find rape funny because rape victims are often doubted, mocked, and insulted openly.
This is why I avoid comedy. I don't go to comedy movies, I rarely watch comedians, I avoid sitcoms like the plague. I've started to develop a Pavlovian response, cringing preemptively, to things I do find funny, because if somebody makes a dark joke, I've learned it won't be long until the rape jokes show up.
This is why I'm a humorless feminist. Because rape jokes killed my sense of humor.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
Man, someone doesn't read this comic much I take it.
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I dont recall this dick monster rape comic, is it real?
I rape the Internets.
kpop appreciation station i also like to tweet some
They are talking about the dickwolve from Wednesday. Looks like they got shit from it.
Also gabe's hair is sorta out of control.
He is apologizing for raping you.
so much edit potential
wat
they are catching shit for a text reference to a fictional creature from generic mmo 5?
I'm so fucking serious about this serious goddamn business
Rape culture.
I hope the people complaning about it get face raped by a dickwolf who's every dick is another, smaller dickwolf who is bristling with dicks.
And I know that all of these men would rape anything if given half a chance.
heh
kpop appreciation station i also like to tweet some
Dickwolf raped your baby?
what part of my giving the business to serious business did you not take seriously
anything but belruel
I aint touching that one
I tried to think about raping him once, and my dick went flacid for 3 years.
yeah
he is disgusting
Do you know how they reproduce?
the queen is a whore. a dirty, filthy, slutty, sexy, wonderful whore.
He's got too much arm pit hair and manly body odor. Normally that's a turn on, but this is like some primordial rain forest shit.
Too much gross man.
Yeah but she can only sleep with one dude at a time.
A little quicker then usual, but other then that it's par for the course.
But..dont mens dicks fall off after they have sex? Isnt that why they invented marriage?
Thats what Gamma Jeane told me as a child
Marriage is just the fairer sex's way of getting back at you men folk for all those oppressive centuries.