The Ugly: That Joke
Somehow, Tosh’s Comedy Central career survived for several years after an ugly 2012 incident at a comedy club where Tosh was making jokes about rape. A female audience member took Tosh to task, shouting out that “actually, rape jokes are never funny.”
Tosh fired back. According to a since-deleted blog post by an audience member, his response went something like: “Wouldn't it be funny if that girl got raped by like, five guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her…”
After the blog post went viral, Tosh apologized but undercut his own sincerity by maintaining that all subjects, including rape, can be the topic of humor. In a since-deleted tweet, he doubled down: “The point I was making before I was heckled is there are awful things in the world but you can still make jokes about them.”
Being that this was 2012, not 2022, other comedians jumped in to defend Tosh. Comic Alex Edelman acknowledged rape was a sensitive topic, but told The Guardian that “a comedian should be allowed to say almost whatever he wants and that the audience should be able to manifest their dislike in the form of not laughing at something if they find it offensive."
Comedian Morgan Murphy took to Twitter, noting that while she wasn’t endorsing any material in particular, comics in clubs should be allowed to “make mistakes.”
Comic provocateurs like Anthony Jeselnik (a future The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly candidate!) weighed in with potentially offensive jokes of their own: “This Daniel Tosh rape joke controversy really has me second guessing some of my rapes.”