rape is no big deal, right?

A reasonable argument, but:

1. I would agree that context matters. If you hear it in the context you mention (Ferrell and Kattan on SNL), it's in the vein of a really different kind of humor, in this case utter silliness, so meaningless that it reduces "rape" to nothing but a word. It's not just that you know Ferrell isn't actually going to rape Kattan; his character is so ridiculous and divorced from reality that you know the word isn't part of a concept that could have a rough equivalent in real life. I would make a very strong qualitative distinction between that kind of humor and the kind where a comedian actually outlines a rape scenario for humor, then begs off by saying he wasn't talking about actually raping somebody. In the latter case, you've got somebody using the actual concept, not just the word.

But I'd also agree these things happen on a continuum, without a bright line in the middle. One comedian does a routine where it's clear he's playing a kind of character or persona; the point of the routine is how clueless he is; and the humor comes from the cluelessness, so that it's a satire on male attitudes. Another talks about date rape like it's actually funny or trivial. Those are really, really different.

In sum, if the argument is that you pretty much have to look at it case by case, I agree. (And nobody's talking about censorhip, by the way. You haven't said or implied that, I just want it to be understood.)

2. As for the use of the N-word, I'd have to say that's not a good comparison (although I understand your point), simply because the offense in the word is strictly a language offense. The word does not refer directly to a vicious, awful, life-altering crime. Yes, I understand that it's associated with discrimination, slavery, etc. But that association is both indirect and partial -- partial because it's used in casual conversation, lyrics, etc. all the time within that community. You wouldn't, for instance, find survivors of rape walking around saying "Hey, rape victim!" or "Where my rapees at?" You will find the disabled doing that sort of thing, of course (referring to each other as "cripple," "crip," "limpalong," etc.) -- the common denominator being that in such cases (the N-word and the disabled), you're talking about a condition that is just a simple fact of existence rather than a sex crime that existed because some perpetrator decided to do it.

Evidence that this really is "just a word," in a way that the word-and-concept "rape" is not, is found in the very contrast you mention. If it were not only a word, it couldn't be reassigned meaning so easily, so that it has one kind of meaning when spoken by a person of one ethnicity and a completely different kind of meaning in almost 100% of cases when spoken by a member of a different ethnic group.

Still, having said all that...I do get your point. Especially in humor, the meaning is always something more and other than the words. But it's also true that in most (some people would say all) forms of humor, trivialization and belittling of some element in the scenario is inherent. So what are people laughing at when a comedian does a routine about rape? I just think there are some concepts that are so truly tragic and awful (rape, child molestation, murder [especially of specific people], probably a couple more on this short list) that it's wrong to do the kind of humor that trivializes them for the sake of a laugh. It's outrageous, actually. It smells almost elitist in a twisted way, almost an exchange between performer and audience that says "We're not the kind of people who have to worry about stuff like this, so we'll have a joke at those people's expense, how about it?". I'm thinking about the "jokes about 9-11 victims" thing that went around for a while after 9-11, or jokes about the Simpson murder victims (not about Simpson himself, the botched investigation, etc., but the actual fact of the murders and the victims), and I'm thinking, these are real people who actually went through something terrible. I think it's significant that that kind of humor gets more widely accepted the more an audience believes itself to be separated from the real-life victims by culture, distance, time, or other markers that set off the victims as "other" and reduce them to nothing but devices in a joke-scenario plot.

Okay, but...see answers to two posters directly below.

So really, you're saying that the thought of rape can be funny, mostly to those who haven't gone through it.

I think we're into a pretty metaphysical discussion about the difference between humor based on "ideas of things" (that is, the "idea" of rape) rather than actual things (actual rape). To somebody who's never experienced it, sexual assault can be a joke, I guess. You hear idiot teenagers joking about it all the time. If the question is something like, "Do any people at any time ever consider jokes about rape to be funny?", of course the answer to that is "yes," as would be jokes about murder, child-killing, child sexual abuse, whatever. But so what? That doesn't even begin to address any moral or ethical question having to do with this subject. If you see a bunch of giggling teenagers joking about rape, does the fact that they consider it funny end the question of whether anybody should consider it funny? Is this a "whatever is, is right" kind of thing?

But that's a more complex concept than just "rape"; it involves the ridiculousness of cartoon characters doing things that would be considered really horrible if actual humans did them. There is no attempt at verisimilitude, etc. It really has nothing to do with the original question of this thread, which had to do with whether -- in a movie that is not a cartoon, but a live-action movie making some attempt to create characters who are more or less believable (that is, it's not a fantasy film, pure slapstick, etc.) -- this would be anything like such a person's reaction to being kidnapped and raped. The answer to that question is "probably not," and both the question and the answer are valid in a discussion about the events in a film. We're not really talking about whether the subject can "ever" be treated as humorous, although even then, I'm not sure an actual rape victim would find a cartoon about Porky Pig raping Elmer Fudd all that screamingly hilarious, frankly. I'm a big fan of George Carlin in general, but just because he says something doesn't make it true.