Daniel Tosh rushing to find some jokes that aren't about rape for his new cartoon series

By Sean O'Neal | July 13, 2012 | 4:49pm

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Only days after Daniel Tosh forced the nation to have repeated, unwanted discourse about the acceptability of rape jokes—as well as the acceptability of "Hey, wouldn't it be funny if this girl got raped?" as a "joke"—he's unwittingly been coerced into reliving that trauma by a comedy show, a situation that could be deemed amusingly ironic except for the fact that it concerns rape, and therefore no one is allowed to find anything funny about any of this. According to Rumorfix, Tosh was all set for the Comic-Con debut of his new animated series Brickleberry, when he suddenly realized that—as with everything associated with Tosh right now—it's inextricably linked to rape. In fact, in the words of one source, "Most of the pilot is about rape," as one would certainly expect from a cartoon about park rangers, or a guy who muses on the comedic possibilities of rape as much as Tosh apparently does.

Understandably, Tosh is now balking at the idea of going to ye olde "rape joke" well so soon—especially in a medium that does not allow for the sort of instantaneous, one-on-one dialectic that is a stand-up comedy show—so he and producers are reportedly "scrambling" to take out all the rape before tonight's premiere. Indeed, it's probably just like that scene in Broadcast News where Joan Cusack runs through the halls trying to get a piece on the air, only it's Daniel Tosh scurrying to throw away rape jokes. "Quick, name something funny about park rangers that doesn't have anything to do with rape!" Tosh is no doubt screaming at his hushed and wide-eyed writers' room right now. "Um… Wouldn't it be funny if a guy got raped by, like, five bears?" one of them offers meekly, only to have Tosh angrily reply that no, they should table that for a later episode. Anyway, hopefully they can find something funny besides rape in time for the show.