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John McCain thinks rape jokes are funny

Jill

Trigger warning applies.

We know that McCain supports dudes who joke about rape being like the weather (“you might as well lay back and enjoy it”). We know he mocked 17-year-old Chelsea Clinton for being ugly, and said that Janet Reno was her father (ha. ha). So we know he’s a jerk with no sense of humor. But he’s also apparently fond of the occasional rape joke:

Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, ‘Where is that marvelous ape?’

…yeah. That’s our potential future president.

55 thoughts on John McCain thinks rape jokes are funny

  3. Just brings into mind the original cover for “It’s A Jungle Out There!”, doesn’t it?

  4. Seriously? Are you trying to start shit and make my life more annoying right now than it has to be?

    Cutting off this line of discussion before it starts. Any further comments going in that direction (i.e., off-topic) will be deleted.

  5. Ugh, wow… why doesn’t he just make up a new slogan:

    “John McCain: A Man’s President” and he’d be all dressed up like a construction worker, whistling at women while shredded laws in one hand that protect their rights…

    I mean, come on, rape jokes? Are you kidding me? This is the guy they’ve put forward as the Repugnican candidate?

  7. That is some fucked up shit. This dude is just the same-old same-old right-wing sick-fuck wackaloon asshole like all the rest. “Maverick” my ass. And the way that he says “my friends” makes me want to take a shower in fucking acetone.

  8. This guy reminds me of that extremely creepy old boss everyone seems to get for their first job…the guy who traps you in your cubicle and tells inane, unfunny, offensive jokes until you want to fling a stapler at his head.

  9. This is fucking disgusting.
    When someone says, “Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die?” and they actually think it’s funny, you know they need serious help.

  11. I work in a male dominated office and I still have NEVER heard some of the shit that falls out of McCain’s mouth on a frighteningly regular basis. Who in their right mind would think that’s “ok”?!!?

  12. He is a danger to every person his pea sized brain decides is vulnerable. That includes bizarrely enough counties who can forget him singing that timeless favorite (bomb, bomb, bomb Iran).

  13. I work in a male dominated office and I still have NEVER heard some of the shit that falls out of McCain’s mouth on a frighteningly regular basis. Who in their right mind would think that’s “ok”?!!?

    Me too. I never hear that kind of joke in a professional environment. I’m sure it happens, but I’ve never heard that kind of joke at work. Granted, maybe the liberal coastal hippy california environment I live in is at play. But, we’ve still got rubes and rednecks here. But somehow, most people in a professional environment seem to know what lines not to cross.

    What is it about Republicans and wingnuts that they think this is either funny or okay?

  14. Wait…I just remembered, this is the guy that called his wife a trollop and a c*nt to her face. Never mind. I’m not surprised at all by this.

  15. Seriously I don’t know why anyone is shocked the man has made it more than clear over the years that he is no friend to women. He does not like women, and he does not respect women. I am actually surprised that worse did not fall out of his mouth.

  16. “Wait…I just remembered, this is the guy that called his wife a trollop and a c*nt to her face. Never mind. I’m not surprised at all by this.”

    “Seriously I don’t know why anyone is shocked the man has made it more than clear over the years that he is no friend to women. He does not like women, and he does not respect women. I am actually surprised that worse did not fall out of his mouth.”

    Any bets that the real reason why he “couldn’t” answer the health-insurance-coverage-for-contraception-question, was because he had to restrain himself from calling women on contraception ‘whores’ and ‘sluts’?…Because, you know, that’s probably his answer to this issue. Just speculating of course. Damn, I would call him a “misogynist shit-stain,” but I feel that would be an understatement.

  18. McCain here is acting like the walking stereotype of an obnoxious frat dude intent on pissing off other classmates, neighbors, and anyone else they meet with the most disgustingly tasteless jokes for cheap laughs at their expense.

    The ones I’ve had the displeasure of encountering during my time in the Greater Boston area could at least weakly attempt to excuse it as an idiocy of youth….

  19. “The ones I’ve had the displeasure of encountering during my time in the Greater Boston area could at least weakly attempt to excuse it as an idiocy of youth….”

    Here in the Midwest people pull out the “oh, he was raised on a farm,” or “he was raised in a small town,” -excuses. Because I suppose that makes racism, misogyny, homophobia, fanatical religiosity, and all around assholery a-okay and just super!…and presidential material to some people.

  21. I’ve been debating for some months about whether to move to New York, Buenos Aires or Rio. If John McCain wins, the decision will be made for me – I’ll get the hell out of this country once and for all.

  22. in the link it says that quote was from 1986. I would like to think that most people would change some over a period of 20 years. with pr people making statements and the general fakeness of politics its impossible to know if he still thinks that joke is funny. anyway.

    Im a rape victim and I am able to laugh at a rape joke if it is funny (the one quoted wasnt good at all though imo). I certainly couldnt have for a long time after the assault but I think you cant control what you find funny and what you dont. Its not like people decide things are funny to them or not, they just are. I laugh at all kinds of jokes with horrible subject matter, its a way to cope with crap you cant control. People in the medical field make jokes about horrible stuff all the time because it makes it easier to deal with the subject matter, it doesnt make anyone heartless or bad to have laughed at a joke about something bad that happened.

    However passing around off color jokes in any proffessional situation is REALLY stupid because its going to offend someone. So it certainly shows he wasnt very smart or in control at the time of the quote.

  23. well what do you expect from a geriatirc prick who calls his wife a c*** in public? how anyone could call this person a “man of the peopl” is beyond me.

  24. It’s a stupid joke. I despise the man and his entire political party, but I find it hard to believe he would ever have said such a stupid thing. Maybe at the time of the quote, he was feeling so unbeatable that he didn’t have to be careful. Bush has certainly been guilty of that, being on top of the world free to do or say whatever he wants. McCain is definitely not presidential material IMO.

  25. Nails,

    Not to trigger anyone here, but what, exactly, is a funny rape joke?

  26. Did you hear the one about the fighter pilot who was shot down, captured, tortured, and made to confess participation in war crimes? He liked it so much he wanted to open branches all over the world.

    Whaddaya mean it’s not funny? Don’t you POWs have any sense of humor? C’mon, what’s a little humor about torture and atrocities between friends?

  27. I don’t even get what’s supposed to be the funny part.

    Well, that’s obviously because you’re a humorless, ape-hating feminist.

  33. So your blog post is about a 22-year old story concerning a joke which was alleged to have been told by McCain, but which offers literally no supporting evidence, as in “someone who agreed they had heard the joke” at this huge and prestigious conference. And which turns out to have been sourced by McCain’s political opponent at the time. And which he denied at the time.

    He must really hate womenz! His enemies today AND his enemies from twenty years ago say so. Yeah, that’s compelling.

  35. Add me to the list of people who don’t understand what’s supposed to be funny here. If there’s a punchline in the so-called joke, I don’t get it.

    Also, although this “joke” took place back in 1986, how many people back then really thought rape was something to joke about? I was born in ’86 and I seriously doubt my parents would have laughed at something like that while they were holding their newborn baby daughter. McCain was certainly old enough to know better (and running for office!) and there is no excusing this twisted kind of misogynistic humor.

  36. in the link it says that quote was from 1986. I would like to think that most people would change some over a period of 20 years.

    Twenty years ago, he was a 51-year old man. More than old enough to know better. (Not that I would excuse a 20-year old frat boy for telling the same joke, but I would be less shocked hearing it from someone really young and stupid.)

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  39. Nails/Existing While Female–

    On “funny” rape jokes.

    This is so hard to explain. I am a victim of rape and sexual assault, and of course jokes and insensitive comments about rape and sexual assault are not funny to me. But within my group of my close, trusted friends, we do joke around about painful things, because in that context it’s a form of coping. We are a mixed bunch, and among ourselves, make prods at all of the forms of oppression we’ve experienced: racism, sexism, homophobia, classim, etc.

    I hope that helps to explain it? I don’t know if I can go into more detail, because, again, context is everything.


  40. I don’t even get what’s supposed to be the funny part.

    Ditto. What makes the ape marvelous? Is this like Clive Barker’s short story where it wears a top hat and speaks with an English accent?

  41. So your blog post is about a 22-year old story concerning a joke which was alleged to have been told by McCain, but which offers literally no supporting evidence…

    Yeah, it seems totally unlike McCain to riff off a horrible and tasteless joke. (rolls eyes)

    This is the man that came up with such classics of comedy as “bomb, bomb Iran”; 13-year old Chelsea Clinton is ugly and was fathered by Janet Reno; let’s kill Iranian civilians with cigarettes; and Cindy McCain piles on the makeup like a trollop and a c*nt.

  42. Kelsey Jarboe:

    I imagine it’s like how I would never make suicide jokes in general, but I feel free to make them when around close friends (who have indicated their fineness with such things).  I’ve just gone through some pretty horrid mental stuff, and some days, the only thing that got a laugh out of me was joking about it.

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  44. What Kelsey Jarboe says makes sense. In the right company, black humor about terrible things is a sort of catharsis. No politician should be feckless enough to use such humor in front of a national audience though.

    As to where the funny is in the joke? I’m sorry to inform you SarahMC that the joke is intended as a kind of dogwhistle humor. Its a wink and a nod to the notion that uppity women just need to be taken roughly. Its what they want anyhow, etc.

    Is this quote actually McCain’s though? He’s said some dumb things but that is just beyond the pale.

  45. I knew this shit was true.

    McCain’s spokesman not only refused to deny that McCain told the joke, he went on to say that it was just McCain “being McCain”.

    In other words, give poor John a little slack. He might be a sexist asshole, but he’s “authentic”.

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  47. What the fuck!? HUH?! WAIT!? IS THAT A JOKE?! WHERE’S THE FUCKING PUNCHLINE!? It’s like saying:

    “A Jew was picked up by the Nazis, tortured, and had his family burned in a bunch of ovens. When asked what he thought he said, ‘Where’s that marvelous Hitler?'”

    I HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA HOW THIS COULD BE EVEN CLASSIFIED AS A JOKE! GOD DAMN! To me, the only thing this is saying is that women enjoy being raped and killed…No…wait…Is that the punchline??????

  48. The “joke,” for those still wondering, is that rape is sex, and women like sex, particularly that which is had against their will. It has close ties to the “lay back and enjoy it” “joke.” The ape is marvelous because the woman enjoyed the rape oh-so-much, and she wants some more of that hot rape action. *pukes*

    For the record, I have no issue with survivors making jokes as a coping mechanism in an environment where the person/people present understand the circumstances and are very unlikely to be triggered themselves. I’d be lying if I said that I’ve never made a bitter offhand joke about my abusive rapist ex. Bitter humor in controlled circumstances is how I cope with many things. McCain doesn’t fit that bill — and I don’t think that jokes about how wonderful rape is are ever acceptable.

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