The rape joke is that I could never have seen it coming.
The rape joke is that I was 7 years old.
The rape joke is that there wasn’t a wine cooler in sight. I was a boy alone with a strange man in an elevator which made a soft whoosh as it passed each floor.
The rape joke is it was New York City and I normally walked home from school alone.
But maybe this isn’t a rape joke because it was years ago and life was safer then.
The rape joke is the only thing I could think was: “Oh please don’t bite it off.”
The rape joke is there were no women, only a boy and a man who preferred dick to pussy, apparently.
“Dick to pussy” almost sounds like a dirty joke.
Doesn’t it?
How much does it matter if you don’t get the rape joke? Even if you were “there?”
Wait, it gets funnier.
Don’t worry, Miss Geography! It gets funnier!
Why is celebrating being a victim good?
OK, the rape joke understands that.
But why is celebrating not being a victim bad?
Let them enjoy rape jokes.
Let them admit as they laugh it’s great not to be raped.
Give them that much, will you?
Can you?
The rape joke is my mother opened the apartment door after he ran down the stairs and I was never happier to see her, before or since. Four years before, she had lost a child. She asked me questions and then it was forgotten. Was it pre-internet stoicism? Today a word makes the news. The rape joke is my innocence (soul) remained untouched.
The rape joke is in the elevator he began to fondle me and not knowing it was wrong I continued to speak as politely as I could to the grownup whose wishes were superior to mine.
The rape joke is I didn’t know it was wrong and I felt nothing afterwards.
Is this wrong?
The rape joke is how matter-of-fact it all was.
The rape joke is that sexual attraction is always the beginning of love.
The rape joke is that sexual attraction is not the beginning of friendship.
The rape joke is the Rape Joke is linguistic only.
I know the story.
The Rape Joke author went to a comedy club and thought:
Jokes about rape? Really?
The deeper story is that Edgar Poe in his “Philosophy of Composition” said length is crucial for popularity and “Rape Joke” is the same length as “The Raven.” Lockwood doesn’t have a college degree. Poe didn’t have a college degree. (Wait there’s more. More more more) The “Rape Joke” went viral after appearing on Facebook. “The Raven” went viral after appearing in a daily newspaper.
The rape joke is the raven enters and tells a joke that is not funny over and over again. How can painting compete with nature? Poetry is not found in nature, but painting reproduces nature, so how can painting possibly compete with the world? How can painting compete with nature? Because of interiority. Because we need pictures inside.
Remember the bouncer part of the Rape Joke?
Are jokes poems? Are jokes deep?
The Rape Joke is funny/no it isn’t.
Have your cake and eat it.
Funny—but not funny.
Slimy and clean.
Have empathy for the victim but the victim’s poem is smoking hot.
Let’s see how the rapist feels—not!
“Smoking hot” is actually quite complex.
Patricia Lockwood knows this: the worst thing is when your enemy has better jokes.
Does she know: the Joke insults the Poem, the Poem insults the Joke?
Does she know how it feels when someone says please stop joking. Please. I love you.
I know she knows that nothing disturbs us more than a joke we don’t get.
And she knows this: whether a joke hurts or heals, they laugh.
This rape joke is bullshit!
The rape joke is I don’t want to blame or pass judgment.
The rape joke is I would have pleasurable flying dreams, flying down the stair landings of the thirteen story building, the stairs where my rapist ran down, after trying to give me a blow job.
The rape joke is it feels stupid to say “my rapist” since I was only 7 years old.
The rape joke is that language doesn’t seem like the right choice for an event such as this.
The rape joke is I am guilty of exploiting my rape.
The rape joke is that when I look in my heart I am only writing this to get attention.
The rape joke is that even as I say sorry I get a thrill because I will seem sensitive as I confess my selfishness to the rape joke.
Where will it end?
The rape joke is that years later I was trapped alone in an elevator and it was far more terrifying. I think.
The rape joke is loneliness seems unlimited and sympathy has limits.
The rape joke is you’ll never look away.
Admit it.
