DANIEL TOSH, the American comedian best known for hosting his own show 'Tosh' since 2009, has apologized for making a joke about rape during stand-up show in Los Angeles on Friday (July 6, 2012).
One female audience member made a Tumblr post about Tosh's remarks at the Laugh Factory show, saying, "Tosh [started] making some very generalizing, declarative statements about rape jokes always being funny, how can a rape joke not be funny, rape is hilarious". Feeling "provoked", the woman stood up and yelled "Actually, rape jokes are never funny". She accused Tosh of heckling back at her, "Wouldn't it be funny if that girl got raped by like, 5 guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her". The woman said she immediately sought the club's manager, who refused to refund her money, but offered her free tickets for another show. She said, "I should probably add that having to basically flee while Tosh was enthusing about how hilarious it would be if I was gang-raped in that small, claustrophobic room was pretty viscerally terrifying and threatening all the same, even if the actual scenario was unlikely to take place".
Tosh has since taken to his Twitter page, to say, "All the out-of-context misquotes aside, I'd like to sincerely apologize.The point I was making before I was heckled is there are awful things in the world but you can still make jokes about them". The website Buzzfeed claim Tosh has been making similar jokes for years, providing YouTube videos in support.