Jonathan Silverman as Josh Galloway, rape-joke comedian rapist(?), on Law & Order: SVU

If we all say “NO,” then NBC certainly wouldn’t dare broadcast tonight’s episode of Law & Order: SVU against our wishes, right? Right?

Jonathan Silverman plays Josh Galloway, a stand-up comedian who makes a name for himself with rape jokes and a crime for himself in alleged rapes in tonight’s episode, “Comic Perversions.” Because if you’re going to rip a plotline from the headlines, why not go completely out of context and misinterpret a blog comment thread even worse than the people blogging about this sort of thing? This scene at Comic Strip Live feels like an amateurish school play about comedy. Worse than an afterschool TV special from the late 1970s. Less believable than Weekend at Bernie’s, even.

Roll it.

That clip was labeled “Not So Funny.”

Get it?

Silverman’s character is not only accused of making so many rape jokes that he’s encouraged actual rapes, but also that he’s been one of the big bad rapists himself.

Watch the episode at your own risk. You can meet me here in the comments to talk about how we press charges for this and against whom for this crime against comedy.

UPDATE: SVU showrunner Warren Leight mocked my mockery of tonight’s episode via Twitter. The 141st character is when the real character comes out…

So here is Leight speaking with Eclipse Magazine about the episode:

I’d say, you know, this – we were aware last year there were – there’s a spate of comics getting a lot of attention for rape-jokes. And obviously there was the Tosh incident, was I think one of the more public and egregious incidents in which he decided wouldn’t it be funny if he – someone was heckling him and he got into it with her. And said wouldn’t it be funny if you were – if these guys gang raped you right here?

And, you know, at SVU we don’t think that’s funny. And then there was Dane Cook had certain jokes.

And then we’d start to – we also saw a lot of network sitcoms. It’s almost like rape-jokes became the sort of the go to. And I was a comedy writer years ago. And we used to call joke like material. If you didn’t have a joke you would reach for joke like material. And you would just try and end the sentence with the word (Kay) or something like that, you know or else – so it felt like all of a sudden a lot of sitcoms were also thinking it was really funny to make a rape-joke if they didn’t have something funny to say.

And, you know, we’ve – doing this show we deal with the real life part of rape, not the funny part.

And so we wanted to do an episode about rape culture and what we call rape comics. And is – there’s of course – there’s a giant defense to these guys. A lot of comics stood up and said you got to let people say what they want and they’re shedding light on the dark areas.

And are they or are they just going for shock or are they just being pure out. To me shock comedy or, you know, the point of good standup comedy is to take on the people in power, not to take on people who’ve been disempowered by something as horrible as rape.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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6 thoughts on “Jonathan Silverman as Josh Galloway, rape-joke comedian rapist(?), on Law & Order: SVU

  1. Such an overrated and washed up show. Oh wow, they’re making fun of Tosh because they can’t think of an original story to save their lives. I’m definitely screaming no at this episode. I’ll be watching CBS.

  2. I could take this episode more seriously if the SVU crew of Warren Leight, Julie Martin, and Kevin
    Fox hadn’t been making rape jokes since January. Some example they’re setting, but now they’re trying to crucify for the same thing. You can count me out.

  3. so much easier to be dramatic than to be funny. these guys (writers/producders, NOT actors who are just soldiers) are so successful, and respect to them for that, but getting into what is and isn’t funny? fuck off, you’re out of your depth. whatever.

  4. Here’s what I wrote over at Previously.TV, where my friend Sarah D. Bunting offered her take on the episode. You can read her thoughts: https://previously.tv/law-and-order-svu/rimshot/

    Mine?

    Also file under: I Can’t With This.

    Telling millions of your TV viewers that a comedian who tells rape jokes is probably a serial rapist is as outlandish as suggesting on a website that the writers/producers of a TV show focusing solely on re-enacting rape and pedophilia crimes are inciting those crimes whilst making their own fanfic confessions, too. Or, almost as outlandish as suggesting that a rapper who performs a song called “Cop Killer” is guilty of same. Ugh. Not only did they not give Fin a chance to weigh in on the merits of the case and its broader implications, they did let “comic” Josh Galloway hurl racist barbs at him without comment or consequence. #RacismIsNoJokeToo

    And that’s not even getting into the problem of writing a stand-up comedian character without writing any actual jokes for him.

    Considering the L&O franchise has employed countless comedians in supporting onscreen roles over the past two-decades-plus, this is an unconscionable crime against comedy, comedians, race relations, and rape culture.

  5. nobody should be getting this worked up about an SVU episode this is part of their MO. They had a crazy Rihanna/Chris Brown episode, a teenage pregnancy pact (debi mazar, whoop), they even put stop and frisk, Travyon Martin, and Paul Deen in one episode, and tons more. I saw a lot of comics getting worked up over this but nobody is watching this episode and associating it with real comics or how things work. It’s an out of this world exaggerated to an unbelievable extreme type of an episode, no harm no foul, just silly television. i think there is no reason to be offended by it from a comic’s stand point.

    If you want to see some amazingly fun comics and comedic actors as sexual criminals on SVU that is an option for you: Jim Gaffigan, Julie Bowen, Bob Saget, John Ritter, and a lot more. Good episodes!

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