Tosh.No

   Recently stand up comedian Daniel Tosh, host of the Comedy Central television show Tosh.0, has come under fire for his recent comments to a female heckler during one of his sets. Tosh has been a staple of the media because he made a rape joke aimed towards his female heckler allegedly saying "Wouldn't it be funny if five guys came in here and raped you right now?" Because of Tosh's comment, questions in the media have surfaced on what is appropriate and not appropriate when talking about rape.

Here is an example of discussion on Tosh's joke:

   This recent incident showcases some aspects of the Ferguson et al. study that looked at influences on sexual harassment. The study used Jerry Springer as the media influence on  sexual harassment in relation to the "promiscuous female." One of the main findings of the study was the fact that verbal comments warded lower perceptions of traumatized victims and placed more responsibility on the victim amongst their participants. When it comes to Tosh and the verbal comment that he made towards the lady in the audience, it seems that the outcome of the situation has placed her in a position similar to the findings of the study. In the clip above it shows more people agreeing at the fact that it was just a joke and should not be blown that much out of proportion. However, each person in the clip agrees that rape is a serious topic but still gave leeway to the "harmless" joke that Daniel made.

   The Ferguson study looked at more serious scenarios when getting results from their participants, which makes this situation a bit of a grey area in the realm of sexual harassment . Though rape is serious crime and sensitive topic, it has not been exempted from the comedy realm as Daniel Tosh and other comedians have demonstrated. Comedy is intended for jokes to have real life implications and unfortunately rape happens to be an ugly aspect of reality. This lead me to think what if the Ferguson et al. study used shows like sitcoms that have more comedic elements to their characters story line. But given the fact that comedy has no perimeters when it comes to topics, it would be harder to determine what aspects of "promiscuous females" should be taken more seriously. I believe that this brief incident between a comedian and a heckler has opened the door to explore more possibilities when dealing with different areas of sexual harassment and its influences.

   Another real world application of this joke gone bad would be to explore if this would make people more susceptible to forms of sexual harassment. On one hand it could show people that it is alright to publicly joke about rape and other serious sexual topics. On the other had it could display how deep-rooted issues dealing with rape can be and yield people in their making fun of the topic. I believe that the most unique part of this bad joke is that it was not intended to ruffle any feathers. The joke was said in the confines of a comedy club where consumers are aware that they did not pay money for each and every comedian to be politically correct. However, word got out that this comedian made such a statement and has been in media circulation for the past two weeks. Using Tosh as an example can help researchers explore new dimensions of media that may have an influence on how people feel about sexual harassment.