Last night a new season of Amy Schumer’s Comedy Central show debuted. This sketch spoofing Friday Night Lights is easily one of the most powerful from the show. It’s a piece of social commentary about entitled, numbskulled football players that just can’t understand that no means no when it comes to sexual consent. The subject matter about rape is as serious as it gets, but Schumer’s delivery is hilarious and spot-on.
There’s a big taboo about rape jokes in the comedy world, but that’s because few are intelligent enough to make social commentary and demonstrate sensitivity and self-awareness around the issue. At a Tribeca Film Festival panel on Sunday, Schumer explained the sketch. Via Huffington Post Entertainment:
“You can maybe look at that scene and think we’re making light of something serious, but we really are trying to educate, but that’s not always clear,” Schumer said at the panel. The actress added that the end of the sketch initially included statistics about campus rape convictions, but the writers cut it so it wasn’t “too heavy-handed.”
“Our hope is that people will laugh at that,” Schumer said of the sketch. “They’ll think it’s funny and that maybe they’ll think, ‘Oh no, I can’t — I shouldn’t film it.’ Maybe something will get in there and actually help the culture. […] First of all, rape is good fodder for comedy because it’s the worst thing in the whole world. So it’s this untouchable.”
“Clear eyes, full hearts, don’t rape.” It’s really that simple, Bros.