Is date rape ever funny?

Apparently some movie critics and filmmakers think so.

In the recently released comedy “Observe and Report,” Seth Rogen’s character Ronnie, a bipolar mall cop, has sex with Brandi, a makeup counter saleswoman played by Anna Faris, after she gets wasted on tequila and antidepressants and passes out.

Most of us would get pretty pissed if we found out some dude humped our BFF after she collapsed from having too much to drink because most of us would consider this date rape.

But some say it’s just a joke. In fact, Time magazine film critic Richard Corliss calls that scene “the finest thing” in the movie. Meanwhile, several feminist bloggers are outraged.

“I think about all the women I know who have been raped, sitting in the theater, thinking they are getting a funny little respite from their serious lives, only to see an experience they’ve had depicted as a big joke,” Courtney E. Martin, who writes for Feministing.com, told ABCNews.com.
Even Faris told New York magazine that the scene left her feeling uneasy because “it’s like date rape” and that she was certain Warner Bros. would take the scene out of the movie. Guess she was wrong.

Rogen argues, however, that there is one moment in the scene that “makes it all OK.” At one point Ronnie pauses to take note of the fact that Brandi is unconscious state and she murmurs, without opening her eyes, “Did I tell you to stop mother f—–.”

So what do you think? Are people getting all worked up over a harmless joke or does this scene make light of date rape?

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3 Comments

  1. When the actress who plays the character thinks it’s date rape, it’s date rape.

    Rogen just slipped in that line to ward off criticism.

    Honestly, anyone who finds ANYTHING in that stupid movie funny has problems.

  2. My answer is no. That’s exactly why I don’t like any of those stupid, crass movies.

  3. This is gross. I feel like women can have a hard enough time naming it rape when they’ve been assaulted by someone they know that they don’t need Hollywood normalizing sexual assaults. Women have such a difficult time proving that they have been raped when the perp is an acquaintance. This is just gross.–ljm

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