Ever notice how explaining why a joke is funny never fails to make the joke not funny? Sorry, guys. But hey, what’s bad for America’s leading fake news humorist is good for getting to the bottom of this whole “rape joke” thing. In The Onion’s Best and Worst Rape Jokes, I argued that the difference between funny-rape-joke and not-funny-rape-joke often comes down to the motive behind the joke: A gratuitous rape reference or a laugh at the expense of rape victims isn’t funny; a laugh at the expense of people who downplay or discount rape can be. But as these commenters suggest, the real target of a rape joke can be extremely difficult to parse:

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I’ve written a lot recently on who can successfully tell a rape joke and what targets are fair game for the butts of those jokes. One perennial source of rape humor, the Onion, gets the rape joke dynamic right a lot of the time. The format has a lot to do it: as America’s leading source of fake news, the Onion is always skewering the media along with its make-believe subjects, and media treatment of sexual violence is often ripe for satire. Sometimes, its best and worst shots, after the jump.

Read More “The Onion’s Best and Worst Rape Jokes” »