The night of November 2, 2017 at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan, New York, comedian Chris Rock made a sexual harassment joke and the crowd was not pleased. Chris made a joke about how he wouldn’t hire women anymore because he would need witnesses around him 24/7, so they wouldn’t accuse him of rape. He went on to say, “They cry rape because they want money.” (Johnson) The crowd responded with several boos and women calling him a “sexist pig,” along with two people getting kicked out. Women are considered easy targets in comedy because they are labeled as “vulnerable” or “weak” compared to a man. Women jokes are normally based on their appearance, how they dress, or their attitude. These topics are fair game to joke about because it doesn’t negatively affect their personal life. Topics like rape, gender roles, or women being portrayed as objects are topics that shouldn’t be made into a joke. These topics are too controversial and have a real-life negative impact on women. Comedians, like Chris Rock, believe it is ok since it is “just a joke”, but what happens if the joke turns into a real-life situation? What happens if the joke is about a woman close to you? Is it funny then? Why does changing the context make it funny? Comedians changing the context of a sexist ideal intensifies real-life situations of sexism, and can change the perspective of men to want to harm women which causes a greater risk for them.

The context changes the perception that people have on sexist jokes. In a recent study, college women were presented with a sexist joke and a sexist statement and their responses were recorded. The women had to respond to an unknown person via text. The person on the other line was a man given a script of what to say and told when to type the sexist joke or statement. The women had no prior knowledge that they will would receive sexist comments. The sexist joke and the sexist comment was chosen randomly for each woman. Some women got the sexist statement, and some got the sexist joke. The joke was, “A man and woman were stranded in an elevator and they knew they were going to die. The woman turns to the man and says, ‘Make me feel like a woman before I die.’ So, the man takes of his clothes and says, ‘Fold them!’” The sexist statement was, “I think it’s a women’s role to do household chores like laundry for a man.” (Mallett 275) The women then had to rank their partner on a 1-7 scale (Strongly Disagreed-Strongly Agreed) to see if they thought their partner was sexist. The results showed that the women who ranked their partner low had the sexist joke and the opposite for women who received the sexist statement. Putting the sexist comment into a joke changed the perception of how they felt about the perpetrator and this is the same when it comes to comedy. Comedy should be taken with a grain of salt. The comedian’s goal is to make everyone happy and laugh, not to hurt anybody’s feelings. Sexism is a serious topic, which is why comedians interpret it within their stand-up. Comedy is used as a curtain to hide the negative aspects and showcase it in a positive way. It is deemed brave and is praised if you can take a serious or controversial topic and make people laugh about it. Comedy is an art and it takes a large amount of creativity to make a topic like sexism funny. The goal is to laugh at the things that hurt people.  

“Men higher in hostile sexism expressed greater willingness to rape a woman upon exposure to sexist versus nonsexist humor.” (Ford) This came from a psychological study to see how men reacted to sexist humor. The context of a joke reduces the seriousness of the issue. Comedians are considered public figures; therefore, they have an impact on how society views certain topics or ideals. Beyoncé is an example of a praised public figure. If Beyoncé came out with a statement saying she is going vegan, then her supporters will either go vegan or view vegans differently. The concept is the same for comedians. In a Law and Order episode, a sexist comedian continuously told rape jokes and was interrupted by a lady speaking up for her rights. Her and a group of her friends were protesting that rape is not funny and should not be used as a joke. He brought her on stage and pretended like he agreed with her, then he changes the joke to gang rape and starts making jokes about how gang rape is funnier because there are more guys involved. As he continues to perform his stand-up the lady proceeds to leave. The comedian then says, “wouldn’t it be funny if she got gang raped.” After the show a group of fans from the show attacked the lady and tried to gang rape her. Their reasoning was because they thought it would be funny since the comedian said it would be. (Alexander) The crowd can perceive sexist jokes two ways. The crowd could find the jokes amusing, or acknowledge that sexism in comedy is not acceptable. In a study conducted by the University of Surrey in 2016, they found that “sexist jokes lead to male participants believing sexist behavior is okay.” (Mercado) The comedian changed their perception and used sexism as a joke and normalized the actions of sexism. Using sexist jokes about rape, perceiving women as objects, or gender inequality is not a laughing matter and is a real issue. Women suffer from these issues every day and instead of using their platform to end this fight, they use it to intensify the issues. The comedian is not the only perpetrator; the audience is as well. The comedian feeds off the crowd, so if the crowd is laughing and accepting the sexist humor then they will continue to tell it. Just because something is made into a joke, does not mean it is not a real issue. Sexism is something that should not be taken lightly and that needs to stop being a punchline, and needs to start being a headline.  

Boundaries needs to be made within comedy to prevent sexist topics and racist slurs from being used in stand-up. These topics only cause controversy and shine a negative light on the comedian. Rape and sexual harassment are a real-life concern and research has proven sexist humor increases the probability of these instances to occur. A student from Washington and Jefferson college conducted a study to prove that sexist humor increases the risk of rape and sexual harassment to occur. Nalyn Sriwattanakomen found that “Exposure to sexist humor can actually increase rape proclivity, which is a person’s self-reported likelihood of committing rape.” (qtd. In Sriwattanakomen 88) The consequences of rape are shielded by the ignorance of comedy. Nalyn later discovered in the results that, “sexist humor increased rape myth acceptance among high-hostile sexist men- “(Sriwattanakomen 95) Men were more accepting of rape and not only wanted to rape women, but wanted to stop supporting women. Sexist jokes have underlining affects that can harm women. Knowing the discomforting truth behind the effect of sexist jokes, sexist comedians need to get new material other than belittling women. Fans of these comedians must stop supporting their negative work for a change to happen. These comedians only strive off the reactions of their fans, so if fans don’t react or react negatively, then the comedian may realize a change needs to happen. There are other ways to make jokes about women. If the joke won’t affect anyone’s personal life, then no controversial problem will occur. No joke is worth a woman’s life. 

Sexism is a controversial issue and is a real problem within society. Comedians are a public figure, meaning, they have an impact on the actions of others. They have a chance within their platform to help end sexism. There needs to be a line drawn for comedians when it comes to sexist jokes, and there needs to be more instances like the one from Chris Rock’s performance where people stand up. Comedians are there to make you laugh, but if you show them it isn’t funny, and tell them it is nothing to joke about they will move on. Sexism is not a joke and it is an issue that women deal with every day. They do not need people making jokes about their misery or people laughing at their pain. Sexist jokes change the perception of men to believe that is not as big of an issue, therefore, it is something they can do. Studies have shown continuously that when men are presented with rape jokes that they will more than likely rape women. Rape is not a joking matter at all, and is another huge problem in society. If the tables were turned and a rape crime happened to a loved one, then people will see the bigger picture. It starts off as a joke, until it turns into something real. It can be a catastrophic mess because of what someone said. You can’t take back what you said, even though what you said caused it to happen. You can only stop it from happening again. Words are powerful and have the strength to change your perspective. Changing the context of sexist ideals does not make it funny, but causes more harm than good so it needs to be stopped and not supported. The safety of women in society is more important than a laugh at a stand-up show. 