The best part of any comedy album isn’t hearing the comedian recite the same jokes they’ve done night after night. It’s hearing them deal with the inevitable heckler.
The way in which a comedian dismisses a heckler can be the difference between a good album and a great album. For a perfect example of heckler-bashing, listen to Patton Oswalt’s 2007 album, “Werewolves and Lollipops,” where Oswalt caps off his string of insults against an audience member by telling him he’s going to, “miss everything cool and die angry.”
Conversely, for an example of how not to deal with a heckler, consult Daniel Tosh’s example from his show this week at The Laugh Factory in Los Angeles.
As Tosh was in the middle of telling the audience that rape jokes can always be funny, an unnamed female audience member yelled out, “Actually, rape jokes are never funny!”
Tosh responded not with a witty comment or funny banter, but only by saying, “Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by like, five guys right now? Like right now, what if a bunch of guys just raped her?”
The anonymous woman took to her Tumblr to rail against Tosh, saying she was stunned by his response, after which she and her friend shortly left.
I’m surprised this woman was willing to attend Tosh’s show. She had to know what she was getting herself into, and this is Daniel Tosh we’re talking about. There’s a reason he’s only popular with people younger than 30 – he’s essentially the Internet incarnate, in all its wonderful and disgusting glory.
The great thing about standup comedy is that nothing is off-limits. Comedians are entitled - and often obligated – to push the boundaries of what’s acceptable. In today’s world, where the Internet exposes us to everything, George Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words” just doesn’t get laughs anymore.
But here’s the difference between Tosh and someone like Oswalt or Carlin – his response to the heckler just wasn’t funny. It’s not even a question of whether or not it was acceptable, it just didn’t deserve a laugh.
If you’re going to be distasteful, you’d better be funny. Funny rape jokes can be funny. Unfunny rape jokes aren’t funny. It’s that simple.
As it always happens after a comedian says something controversial, Louis C.K. stepped up to say he supported Tosh, as did Doug Stanhope and The Laugh Factory’s owner, who called the woman’s account of events into question and went a little too far by saying Tosh was “one of the funniest comics alive.”
Tosh apologized in the most Tosh way he could, tweeting, “… I’d like to sincerely apologize. 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. #deadbabies.”
As much as it pains me to say it, Daniel Tosh is right. He may be a mindless, unfunny, joke-stealing, walking YouTube comment section, but he’s right. Sometimes, the worst things in the world are the ones that deserve to be laughed at.
I am in no way supporting or endorsing rape. It’s one of the most detestable crimes out there and deserves to be punished harshly. Just don’t blame Daniel Tosh for trying to mine some laughs out of it.
 
____ Contact Joey Groner at [email protected]