You need to watch Samantha Bee’s epic takedown on rape kits

We honestly can’t get enough of Samantha Bee. Aside from cementing her place as the only woman currently hosting a late-night talk show in the United States – TBS’ Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, which began airing on Monday nights early last month – she is completely unapologetic about her opinions on a ton of important issues, particularly those relating to women’s rights and how women are expected to behave in society, while also being hilarious.

Yeah, she’s kind of our hero.

And in this past Monday’s episode, Bee got real about what’s going on with rape kits, presenting a call to action to police departments all over the country to start doing something with them instead of just letting them sit around.

For those who aren’t familiar, rape kits are a collection of items related to evidence of a case in which a victim claims to have been raped. Kits can include samples of blood, saliva, hair, semen, and other bodily fluids, which are then stored in a series of slides, plastic bags, and boxes for (intended) DNA testing in the case of these rape accusations.

But apparently (though somehow not surprisingly), an extremely high number of police departments in various states all over our country are leaving tens of thousands of these kits on shelves to collect dust, according to clips of newscasts Bee presented on Monday’s episode of Full Frontal. And even worse, many of the kits that aren’t just sitting around have been destroyed, because their statutes of limitations have expired.

“Testing these kits is actually making your job easier!” Bee says in response to the pretty clear fact that testing rape kits is how you catch rapists and close their associated cases. “What more do we need to do, put a toy surprise in there like a cracker-jack box?”

Specifically, Bee spotlights Georgia State Senator Renee Unterman – a woman she outright addresses by asking, “Have you lost your f*#&ing mind!?” in response to the fact that Unterman is blocking a proposed bill that would require more rape-kit testing in Georgia, stating, “There’s no reason to write a law because it makes you feel good.” Understandably, Bee goes off on how testing rape evidence has no bearing on someone’s excitement.

Bee also goes after Craig Rowland, an Idaho sheriff, who says most of the rape-accusation calls he gets “are actually consensual sex” before going on to mansplain by starting with, “It’s [usually] a 17-year-old girl…” We can almost hear Bee saying, “Let me stop you right there” before she states, “When you’re the sheriff, you have to listen to rape victims! Otherwise, when the women in your county rise up and strangle you with your own stupid monogrammed shirt, it’s gonna be consensual assisted suicide, because you’re definitely asking for it.”

Check out the entire clip below and be prepared to applaud throughout. We’re so grateful to Bee for raising awareness about this issue, and giving us some huge laughs while doing so.