Standing Up against the Rape Joke: Irony and Its Vicissitudes

This article explores the presence of the rape joke in contemporary American stand-up comedy. It propounds that irony is a key ingredient in comics’ legitimation of their jokes in a world where feminism has made rape a serious issue. While comics might insist that their ironic endeavors have a role to play in sociopolitical critique, irony provides the author with a critical tool to explore the fuller implications of the rape joke. Dividing analysis into male-comic- and female-comic-authored rape jokes, the article links irony to both the promotion of conservative ideologies of rape and possible destabilizations of rape culture.