Good one, Scrappy.

As a child, I spent too much time at the beach staring out over the flat flat flat flat ocean, to be scared of big skies.

That's completely different! The ocean is always awesome. Flat land is always weird.

I am going to go against the majority and say that rape can be used for humor, inasmuch as I think ANYTHING can be used for humor.

I keep seeing this kind of comment, but what nobody seems to be able to explain is how "hey, wouldn't it be funny if five guys raped you right now" even remotely counts as a joke.

I concur, Scrappy.

That said, the proper reaction to someone complaining about your rape jokes is not to threaten her with gang rape. There's something wrong with the defensiveness about this, the same way there's something wrong with the way 4chan has gone after Anita Sarkeesian. It's the same damn thing.

In other news, Hollywood Reporter has a longass piece on the impact Katie Holmes' divorce from Tom Cruise will have on the Church of Scientology: [link]

Oh, that's not a joke, Jess and I wouldn't claim it is. That's a comic attacking a heckler. Comics are VICIOUS to hecklers--you can find zillions of clips on youtube of comedians just eviscerating hecklers. They are very rarely funny.

I am going to go against the majority and say that rape can be used for humor

I assume that's the majority...elsewhere? I have been avoiding this discussion, as noted. I think what this guy did to this woman was pretty deliberately cruel, and I think the general discussion of "is there such a thing as a rape joke?" is almost useless, because there wasn't such a thing as modern funny blackface, until there was.

I just think that all jokes aren't always worth telling, to everyone. And this is so not a free speech issue, as I've seen claimed in my limited exposure. I hate when people say I shouldn't have a negative opinion on what they said, because free speech. Yer Constitution is in my pants, bucko.

I read the Tom Cruise piece. I can't stand him, so this is the kind of shit I will read.

I thought the "Free Katie" t-shirt suggestions 5 years ago were amusing. Not so amusing in retrospect.

I feel really badly for Nicole Kidman.

The ocean is always awesome.

Once I went swimming in Lake Michigan, and there were these swells so when I got far enough from the shore and was at the bottom of a swell, I couldn't see land at all.

I thought that was so cool--the feeling of being totally cut off from land and completely alone... until the lifeguard yelled at me that I was too far from shore. So I started swimming back. Then I got tired and started to wonder if I could make it. So I told myself the alternative was to die, which motivated me enough to make it back and not die.

So the moral of the story is, "Large bodies of water are awesome! Also, don't drown."

So the moral of the story is, "Large bodies of water are awesome! Also, don't drown."

I concur!

Ugh, you guys -- I am so excited to go home and watch tv! It is sad. But I haven't seen any of my shows this week! I still have the new Inspector Lewis waiting for me! Never mind So You Think You Can Dance.

So the moral of the story is, "Large bodies of water are awesome! Also, don't drown."

Agreed!

I love ocean and big lakes and forest. Less mountains and deserts not at all. Ironically that I live in a desert and I've moved to the mountains therein.