Free Speech? Eh?

Well, I've been keeping up with the whole Opie & Anthony story for a bit now. If you don't know what I'm talking about, allow me to explain.

Opie & Anthony are the DJs of an XM radio show. The show is very vulgar; think of something like Howard Stern. Anyway, they made a joke about raping Condaleeza Rice, and this has offended many people, and as a result, their show may come off of the air.

Now let me set this straight: rape is BAD. In no way do I condone it at all, and those who commit it should be punished.

That said, I absolutely believe that O & A should get in no trouble at all; I believe they did nothing at all. While it may not have been the best thing to say, they were completely allowed to say it. Something important to keep in mind is that they said it as a JOKE, not something they were actually planning on doing; that is, they were trying to be funny. Some people may have laughed, others may have not; it doesn't really matter who does what.

Here's a quote I found when I was scouring the internet for more information on the matter:

"Rape is funny, it's all in the context. Picture Porky Pig raping Elmer Fud." - George Carlin

Continuing onwards...

For some reason, the people who were offended by this seem to think it's their responsibility to save the population from these dastardly fiends, and get them off the air; I just don't think this is right at all. Not only did they have complete freedom to say what they said, but nobody should be able to take a situation like this, and turn it however they see fit. If I was watching television, and saw a story on the news about some guy getting stabbed in the head with a fork, I wouldn't call them up and say "Your story about the fork stabber offended me SO MUCH, that I'm going to destroy your news station, and make sure other stories about utensil-bearing murderers never make it on the air again." That's just silly.

Let's think about this in a more literal perspective; is some psychopath really going to go hunt down the nation's Secretary of State, and perform unspeakables upon them? Seriously now. What kind of bum is going to have the ability to do something like that. The guys who mentioned the rape joke never meant it, so why get upset to the point that you want to completely kill the show?

I understand that people may be offended, and that's just fine with me; they're free to think absolutely whatever they want. But if they're really that offended of something they hear on the radio, they're free to just change the station.