Being Punched... by Lucy Gervais

One of my best jokes is about sexual assault. I don't use it very often, but it's in my back pocket for when I can tell an audience is ready for it.

The basic premise is that "a lot of people ask rape victims what they were wearing... as if the clothes are responsible for the rape. If that's the case, if clothing is truly responsible for sexual assault, shouldn't you be able to get your money back?"

I like that joke a lot because it approaches victimhood from an even more absurd standpoint than where we were originally; blaming rape on the person it happened to.

I've been sexually assaulted many times in my life. I have never been, by classical definition, raped, but I've endured many of it’s variations. I don’t feel the need to wear my trauma on my sleeve to have it understood, but I will say I have testified in court against someone who attempted to sexually assault me. No one could know this from first meeting me, so I've had many a person retraumatize me by prodding some weird invasive questions about what I think of whoever the sexual predator of the minute is. 

Hey what's your hot take of Louis CK? Brock Turner? That big name in your local comedy scene who everyone’s been too scared to name by name for years now so they keep getting away with ‘it’?

My hot take? I am revolted by them and want nothing to do with them. THAT'S my hot take, across the board.

Before you ask someone what they think of the most sensationalized rapist of the moment, maybe ask yourself "is this an appropriate question to ask someone? Or do I not know this person enough to potentially be describing to them a traumatic situation they’ve similarly been privy to?” 

It really does feel like taking a punch.

What do you do when the art-form you love so much routinely makes excuses for sexual violence? When the people who are the most in charge in your industry reward those who perpetrate sexual assault and then silence the careers of those affected? Is this not censorship? Is taping over the mouths of traumatized people and silencing their ability to work as artists not an egregious violation of freedom of speech?

If feels like a fist across the face when you know why some people’s careers end early or never take off at all. 

You would think that the last bastion of free speech would extend to sexually assaulted and harassed people, but more often than not that’s who is expected to be on their best behaviour. When you extend your support to Louis CK, Aziz Ansari, and countless other pieces of shit who soak up your support because it makes them money, I do truly think you are losing your humanity. You are trading your integrity for the fading memory of an artist, a lie. What put Louis and Aziz on the map were their progressive, pseudo feminist viewpoints, virtues now exposed to be flimsy lies told to make their hotel-room invitations seem more welcoming. 

The industry loves predators and despises when you try to say anything that isn’t a joke for a moment. Comedy fans hate when you stop trying to be funny for a second and try to say something literally. That’s why George Carlin tricked you into laughing at jokes before he stopped rolling out punchlines he started confronting the truth about the catholic church’s pedophilic disposition. I will always appreciate Hannah Gatsby’s Nannette for barely pretending to a comedy special and being a 69 minute rip against protecting the reputations of the world’s most influential piles of garbage. 

I regularly question whether or not I feel I have a place within the comedy industry, however I will never question whether or not I belong on a stage. I love to laugh, I love to write jokes. I love to encourage other people to write jokes, and I love meeting creative joke writers. What I cannot stand anymore are people who are full of shit.

It’s time people in comedy acted with some integrity. It’s time people in comedy were their own role-models instead of acting like monkeys in a shit-covered zoo. It is not a sign of weakness to have compassion for people who have been assaulted, harassed, abused, and mobbed for having spoken up. In fact, comedy should be a haven for those people because we deserve to laugh the most. 

I don’t know the exact number of people who have quit comedy because of sexual assault, but I know that it's common across all communities. Comedy should not be a safe space for predators to be provided with an ever-revolving door of people to torture. What can you do to help people in your communities? Listen, keep an eye out, and speak up. It’s not easy, because of the constant wall of people who are advising you to keep your mouth shut for the sake of your own career. The most important thing is to not give up. 

Remember how quickly Canadian comedians banded together when their album royalties were at risk due to reduced air time? Wouldn’t it be great if comedians could band together against sexual assault in our own industry? Except many who are lucky enough to not have been subjected to the abuse skirt the issue. 

Well, that’s too bad for them, because the issue cannot be avoided if it is going to keep happening. If you want to stop hearing about it, then do something about it to stop it. You can’t do nothing and then expect results. The most important thing is not to give up. 

It really does feel like a fist across the face. It really does feel like getting kneed in the guts.

Especially it feels like everyone watched, and no one did anything. 

Lucy Gervais - @TheLucyGervais