The Golden Globes aired on Sunday night, and it wasn’t the awards themselves that are sparking frenzied discussion, but hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s jokes – one in particular.
In the final minute of their opening monologue, the hosts made jokes about Bill Cosby, whose career has been marked by consistent allegations of rape and sexual abuse, though it took until last year for many victims to speak openly. As of December 2014, at least 27 women have accused Cosby of assault and/or rape, many stating that he drugged their drinks in order to so.
Under the guise of discussing the fairytale musical Into The Woods, Fey and Poehler launched their surprise attack, explaining that “Cinderella runs from her prince, Rapunzel is thrown from her tower for her prince and Sleeping Beauty just thought that she was getting coffee with Bill Cosby.” Both hosts then took turns trying out impersonations of the disgraced comedian. “I put the pills in the people that the people did not want put into them,” Fey did in her best Cosby voice, before Poehler gave it a shot.

The media coverage of the jokes has been almost unanimously positive; an unusually united response given the subject matter. However, on social media, the reaction was far more troubled, with many women, rape survivors and rape crisis advocates expressing disgust and disappointment that rape jokes were being lauded as “brave” and even “feminist.” The disparity in the media reaction and general public reaction was interesting, and raised many questions.
Was the joke being given a pass not on its merits but because it was uttered by feminist media darlings Fey and Poehler? If a less beloved woman had uttered it, or (Lord forbid) a male host, would the reaction have been as unanimously favourable? Or was it possibly being given a pass because of the week in which it was uttered – with a red carpet where stars were proudly displaying “Je Suis Charlie” flags, banners and badges, was any and all humour going remain critically unexamined because this week, if we can’t take a joke, the terrorists win?
So that my own positions are clear; I’m both a sexual assault survivor and a person who believes that all subjects are free game for comedy, including rape. However, if you’re going to make a rape joke – as with any satire or jokes about sensitive topics – I believe you had better be punching up, and you better punch hard enough for the joke to be worth it. It can be done – Louis CK is merely one example of a comedian who analyses rape culture in his comedy, providing biting insight and ensuring that rape culture and the men who take advantage of it are the punchline – never the victims.
Such clever, thoughtful comedy can be incredibly important, easing audiences into serious topics, and letting vital ideas linger long after the laughter fades. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler know this innately, often using their comedy and huge platform to examine issues of sexism, racism and oppression; and indeed, they yet again did this beautifully at the Golden Globes. Commenting on the critically acclaimed drama Selma, the comedians remarked that “Selma is about the American Civil Rights Movement that totally worked and now everything’s fine” – a sarcastic barb addressing the devastating levels of institutionalised racism that still exists in the United States, and reminding us that rewarding one racism-themed film a year does not prevent Ferguson, or the unpunished murders of Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Antonio Martin, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin and countless others. Patriarchal standards of beauty came under fire when Tina Fey addressed Steve Carrell’s much-lauded physical transformation in Foxcatcher, saying “Steve Carell’s Foxcatcher look took two hours to put on, including his hair styling and makeup. Just for comparison, it took me three hours today to prepare for my role as a human woman.”
And the comedians landed a home run with their brilliant jab at George Clooney’s Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award, smiling sweetly as they remarked that “George Clooney married Amal Alamuddin this year. Amal is a human rights lawyer who worked on the Enron case, was an adviser to Kofi Annan regarding Syria, and was selected for a three-person U.N. commission investigating rules of war violations in the Gaza Strip. So tonight, her husband is getting a lifetime achievement award.” The absurd worship of celebrity over political and humanitarian work; the heralding of men’s achievements over women’s; the all-too-often dismissal of women as “so-and-so’s husband” – it’s all there, layered into a perfectly formed piece of comedic gold.
However, when it came to addressing the dozens of allegations of rape and sexual assault made against Bill Cosby, such nuance was nowhere to be found. There was no reference to the protection and privilege that fame and Hollywood afforded him; no mention of Cosby’s hypocrisy in fashioning himself a role model of respectability politics; no addressing the fact that he is still performing, still attracting audiences, still getting standing ovations. Instead, there was a generic “the Sleeping Beauty fairytale is essentially date-rape” joke, followed by a prolonged impression that added nothing new to the dialogue, merely putting on a silly voice to echo what we’ve already heard: that Bill Cosby allegedly drugged and raped women.
Even among the Golden Globes’ guests, the joke proved divisive, and many faces merely registered shock. Shock can be good, and necessary – some subjects should be uncomfortable, should rudely illuminate dark realities, should jolt us into learning something new or at least looking at a subject in a different way. But Fey and Poehler’s joke didn’t offer anything new. In fact, their joke trod such well-known facts – a very powerful man stands accused of raping dozens of women and has not been punished – that Bill Cosby himself felt comfortable making almost the exact same joke at one of his own shows last week. During a show in Canada, a woman who walked past the stage was asked by Cosby where she was going. When she answered that she was going to the lobby to grab a drink, Cosby responded “You have to be careful about drinking around me.” The remark was met with loud applause.
The reason Cosby felt comfortable joking about his reputation and the reason Fey and Poehler’s joke needed to punch much, much harder is because Cosby has still not been punished, despite mountains of evidence and testimony against him. In spite of dozens of women coming forward, this man has not only avoided punishment, but is still able to perform, be rewarded, and feel so comfortable in his position and privilege that he can crack a joke about it. For a survivor of sexual assault – by Cosby or anyone else – this lack of justice and the demonstrably justifiable confidence of famous/powerful abusers that they will not be brought to justice is all too familiar, and incredibly painful to see and hear, again and again and again. 
This is why Fey and Poehler missed the mark with their joke. Their joke didn’t bring the allegations against Cosby to new audiences, nor hurt Cosby more than he has been – but countless survivors have said that hearing the joke and the laughter hurt them. Fey and Poehler had the right target in sight, but they didn’t hit hard enough to justify shooting, and hurting survivors with the backfire.