Daniel Tosh Apologizes for Rape ‘Joke’
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Michael Schwartz/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — After denigrating a female audience member who spoke out against rape jokes in his routine, comedian Daniel Tosh issued a mea culpa on his Twitter account Tuesday to clear the air.
“All the out of context misquotes aside, I’d like to sincerely apologize,” Tosh said. Next to his apology, he posted a link to a blog entry written by the victimized woman’s friend recounting her altercation with Tosh at his comedy show at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood, Calif., July 6.
Tosh has a Comedy Central series called Tosh.0. The cable channel hasn’t commented on the remarks.
During his act, Tosh made statements about rape jokes always being funny, which prompted the woman to yell out, “Actually, rape jokes are never funny!” according to the Tumblr “Cookies for Breakfast.”
Her reaction triggered Tosh to comment about the audience member herself.
“Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by like, five guys right now?” he said, according to the blog post. “Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her…”
The blog post written by the audience member’s friend, entitled “So a Girl Walks into a Comedy Club…” gives the firsthand account from Tosh’s female target “in her own words.” According to the post, the woman said to her friend that she felt “provoked” when Tosh began to make light of rape.
The woman and her friend were stunned at Tosh’s reaction to her call-out and left immediately after he made her the butt of his joke.
They were not refunded for the cost of their tickets, but instead provided with a pair of free tickets to come back and see another show at the famous Los Angeles comedy club, the blog post said.
Tosh followed up on his apology on Twitter, saying “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.”
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