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Last Night, The WWE Was Reminded That Making A Kobe Bryant Rape Joke Is Not A Good Idea

There’s been a pretty heated debate over rape jokes in the comedy/internet sphere lately, thanks to the actions of one Daniel Tosh. One school of thought in this debate was that there’s a right and wrong way to do rape jokes, with Tosh falling firmly on the “wrong way” end of the spectrum. The point: before you make a joke on a really sensitive subject, think about it, or risk pissing tons of people off and facing the consequences that come with that. And it’s a point WWE’s A.W. will probably tell you he should have thought through on last night’s Raw.

Why? Well, A.W. was there last night doing what he was there to do: react to what was going on in the ring and get a rise out of the crowd. All well and good. And then… it got not well and good, real fast:

Naturally, that remark came as a shock to a lot of people (our intrepid intern Evan reported that it took a second before it hit him that someone had actually said that). And remember: Kobe was never actually convicted, so this joke was a doubly bad idea. The WWE realized it:

And A.W. realized it:

I would like to apologize to all the #WWEUniverse for my inappropriate and insensitive remark. I went too far with that joke. #NotFunny!!

— A W (@AWPromotions) July 31, 2012

So, credit where it’s due: at least it seems like everyone involved here realized pretty quickly that that line was a really, really not-good idea, and that going back and saying, “Hey, yeah, probably shouldn’t have said that one” was a way better move than screaming that THE PC POLICE ARE OUT TO REPRESS US. Offensive jokes can be fantastic – if they’re done right. This one, though, fell way short.