The Passion of The Tosh

The clip below shows the late Patrice O'Neal putting a person from the "normal world" in a different mindset when it comes to understanding funny. He did not resort to name-calling or slandering, and despite her closed-minded approach to the debate (or as much of a debate as you can get in six minutes on a cable news show), I think Patrice's point got to her. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjIuPSuYSOY That segment happened in 2007 when Opie and Anthony were suspended from their XM radio broadcast for 30 days after an in-studio guest began to joke about raping then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Patrice could have switched around a few words and have easily been discussing what transpired a couple days ago at The Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, where the blog of a woman whose friend was the subject of a Daniel Tosh joke exploded on the internet. The blog's original entry claims that when Tosh went into a bit about rape jokes always being funny, the woman in question shouted out her opinion to the contrary, inciting Tosh to point out the potential humor in her being raped right in the club. The woman's blog goes on to say she and her friend immediately got up from their table and spoke to management. This blog entry went viral on July 10. One day later, another blog was posted by an author who claims the owner of the Laugh Factory has a different view of things. The owner and/or manager (the terms seem to interchange freely) stated that when Tosh hit the stage, he asked the enthusiastic audience what they wanted to talk about, to which "rape" was volunteered. The same woman was said to have yelled out "No, rape is painful, don't talk about it!" This elicited Tosh's "Well, sounds like she's been raped by five guys." The woman stayed for the whole show, then registered her complaint. It doesn't really matter whose view is correct. What struck me is how sheltered some people still are. It's extremely difficult for me to put myself in this woman's head, because I cannot envision a life where standup has not had such an impact on my life. I spent years dreaming of doing it, and a few more actually taking the stage. I am not going to name-drop but I have had the pleasure of working with several veteran professionals who have been seen on every major cable channel as well as HBO and Showtime. Being a producer of a roast and participating in two others, I can tell you with no hesitation that I have no "line." There is no joke I find unacceptable, in poor taste, offensive and the like. At the same time, I understand there are people like (it sounds this way) this woman who have not had their perceptions of reality shattered by outside influences. I have experience with this too; thirteen years of Catholic school and a severe lack of a social life nearly had me convinced there was no hope and I was nothing more than a worthless sinner, in the eyes of God or anyone else. It took a long time for me to break out of my shell, one which I still socially retreat to now and again. Of course, I didn't have the instant access to information that anybody has now. The early 2000s did not have tools like Youtube and Twitter. With that in mind, you'll understand why I find it so difficult to believe that a woman who lives in close enough proximity to the greater Los Angeles area has "never heard of" Daniel Tosh, or apparently, Comedy Central in general. Had this blog of hers originated from Norman, Oklahoma, I could buy into it. Driving distance to Sunset Blvd.? Something is up there, and the fact that it took her until Monday to post this passionate diatribe about an incident from Friday night makes me cock my head just a little bit more. While I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, I think this woman should be just as willing to understand why Tosh, an artist of the spoken word, would react to her outburst the way he did. If a comic is not drunk, high, nodding off or in some combination of those states of mind, he or she is honing their craft and craving the one drug that beats out everything else put together: the stage. There is something wrong with every single person who grabs a microphone and asks people to share their view in humor, be they George Carlin or Richard Pryor all the way down to the guy in the cubicle next to you who dragged you to the open mic that the pub has on a Tuesday night. Comics all have a level of self-loathing, and the depths to which it sinks vary greatly, but for the worst of them, the only way around that is to seek therapy through comedy. Whether the jokes get laughs or not is not always entirely dependent on the comic, and this is where the subjectivity comes into play. One person cannot say "that isn't funny" to another. The correct statement would be "I didn't laugh." Take any topic - rape, cancer, miscarriages, September 11, AIDS, the Holocaust - and not only will you find someone who has made a joke about one (or some, or all) of those, you will find someone who laughs at them. If you happen to get them in a same room, it is a perfect storm. I have to believe this is what took place that Friday night in L.A. Daniel Tosh certainly isn't going to open a show, and Los Angeles is not known for its edgy humor - you need to go to New York to truly cringe while laughing. On this night, though, it sounds like the majority of the crowd wanted something more than topical references. The woman just picked a bad night for her introduction to this world with which she was obviously not at all familiar. The conclusion here is that while this woman has the choice (not the right) to be offended, Daniel Tosh did not owe her or anyone a public apology. He did his job, end of story. His way of answering her plea to not joke about rape may have been handled differently if she were at, say, a Jeff Dunham show. That isn't a knock on Dunham - bless him and his ass that he wipes with hundred dollar bills - it's just me stating that artists have different approaches to a problem. Part of attending a standup comedy show is signing an unwritten agreement that the comic is free to say what he or she wants, and if you get caught in the crossfire, that is your problem. I hope this was a learning experience for the blogger's friend and that she figures out what sort of humor she enjoys so she can go back to a club some time in the future. As for the act of her heckling, I suggest she watch how the greatest comic alive handles things: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNRNCk3YwqE