Terry Crews and Samantha Bee’s PSA explains why male sexual abuse is not a punchline

Samantha Bee often advocates for women’s rights on her show Full Frontal, and while she’s a supporter of the #MeToo movement, the host admitted she has a blind spot when it comes to #MenToo. To address the often overlooked, or worse—joked about—issue of male sexual abuse, Bee enlisted Terry Crews for a tongue-in-cheek PSA on why jokes about male sexual abuse are never funny.

Bee points out that one in 33 men will be the victim of sexual abuse in their lives, and yet that doesn’t stop people from making prison rape jokes or high-fiving when they learn that a teenage boy was molested by his female teacher. Bee played clips showing Bill Maher, Fox News pundits, Martin Short, and even Spongebob making jokes where male sexual abuse is the punchline.

Then, Crews shows up and point-blank says, “You’re a hack and everybody knows it”—if you think prison rape jokes are edgy or funny. He rattles off a list of jokes that are funnier than rape (because rape isn’t funny), which is a perfect solution for hack comedians who think “PC culture” is ruining comedy. Newsflash, there are a zillion other jokes you can make that don’t attack or offend vulnerable communities or survivors of abuse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHGvxXEupLc?start=266&feature=oembed

Crews is the perfect co-host for this sort of video. The actor bravely testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in June 2018 and shared the story of his own assault in 2016, in which he was groped by WME agent Adam Venit.

"This is how toxic masculinity permeates culture. As I shared my story, I was told over and over that this was not abuse. This was just a joke. This was just horseplay," Crews shared with the committee. "But I can say one man’s horseplay is another man’s humiliation."

We are listening.