No laughing matter?

[The Curmudgeon]

This is actually about a TV show, but I thought it actually fitted here better, and goes along nicely from Trashy's earlier post about the viral video about the woman walking down the street getting "abused" by people saying hello.

Anyway, in the UK over the last two or three days, two words have been on everyone's lips. Dapper. Laughs.

Now, most of you will have no idea what that means, but it's this guy.



You hate him already, don't you?

So, "Dapper Laughs", AKA Daniel O'Reilly, was an online personality who created a series of vines of him pretty much being a sex pest for cheap laughs. (Example; shouting "MOIST!" at girls walking past. That sort of, ah, "comedy.") He was given his own TV show called "On the Pull" a reality show where he gave guys who couldn't talk to girls advice on how to "pull" them. Sounds shit but pretty harmless, right?

So why all the fuss? Well, for starters His show has been accused of being sexist and misogynistic (which, admittedly, it kinda was). It revelled in the kind of awful "cheeky lad" culture that was about in the 1990's, and while I'm the last person to ever be offended by anything, it was grossly unfunny and everyone involved was loathsome.

This wasn't some Borat character created to be shocking, but actually reveal hidden truths and inner bigotries in certain people in a (VERY) funny way. This was broad, humourless "banter" for Big Brother fans.

Anyway, he recorded an album where he complained that homeless people smelled like shit, and tried to then give the proceeds to a homeless charity who refused. And it only gets better. His show was really starting to get negative attention, something he tried to play off in his "cheeky chappy" way. He was then recorded on one of his live tours saying an attractive woman at the front was "gagging for a rape." Whooooops.

What followed that? Oh, more than 60,000 signatures on a petition to get his show taken off the air. It worked. Dapper Laughs, now public enemy No: 1, then cancelled every date of his December tour and promptly retired the Dapper Laughs character for good. He even went on Newsnight to apologise and urge his fans not to behave like his TV show character.

Part of me has a small laugh at the fact his terrible show was cancelled, but another is worried where this is all going. Online RAGE led to a TV show being cancelled, simple as that. So what happens the next time an actual comedian who DOES push boundaries (Gervais, Cohen) and offends the militant masses? Being tarred with the sexist brush is now on par with being tarred with the child molester brush. It just seems weird that the online "harassment" video and then this show being axed happened in the same space of time.

The message? Don't piss off women or they will crush you.

What do you think of all this?

[trashcanman]

I don't find his premise humorous at all. It reminds me of a popular Youtuber who released a stupid "prank" video where he apparently used a fake had to slap girls on the ass and film their "hilarious" reaction. When all hell broke loose over his "sexual assaults" he revealed that it was all staged and the girls were in on it, which is hardly going to increase your credibility.

I'm pleased to see people like this fade into nothing, but I don't necessarily like the manner in which it's being done. If you don't like something, you fucking ignore it. If enough people agree with you, it won't be around long. If enough people don't, it's fine to agree to disagree. This is what people refer to as "tolerance". It's why we laugh at morons who dedicate their lives to an unhealthy obsession with homosexuals but we don't burn their stupid church down, even when they start shouting at heterosexual strangers' funerals.

But I do have to say publicly threatening a woman with rape (even jokingly) in this day and age is the equivalent of said woman going to the Alpha Gamma Rape fraternity's bi-quarterly Forced Entry kegger alone, stripping down to her panties and going up to a room with the lacrosse team where she then drinks whatever they give her. Sometimes, if you're that fucking stupid, there's no way for society to protect you. There are certain consequences that beget certain behaviors and right or wrong doesn't factor into it. It's going to happen eventually if you carry on that way. I'm all for free speech, but I don't know whether calling a woman rape bait or whatever in public is acceptable in any context. I hope it doesn't go any further than these assholes, but it probably will.