Louis C.K. Clears Name in Daniel Tosh Rape Joke Controversy

Louie star sheds like on his poorly timed tweet to the Tosh.0 comedian

By John Boone Jul 17, 2012 10:00 PMTags
Daniel Tosh, Louis C.K.Phil McCarten/PictureGroup; Craig Blankenhorn / FX

It was the "joke" heard 'round the world...well, by everyone except Louis C.K.

Nearly two weeks ago, comedian Daniel Tosh came under fire after making a female audience member the subject of a rape joke while performing at the Laugh Factory. And C.K.—star of the FX show Louie—accidently got himself roped into the fallout.

But he's ready to clear the air—and his good name:

"I was on vacation in Vermont, watching TV in a hotel room and Daniel Tosh's show, Tosh.0, comes on and it's making me laugh, it's a funny show. I wasn't reading the internet at the time because that's how I go on vacation—I really hate the internet—so I just stopped reading it." Louis explained to Jon Stewart while appearing on The Daily Show.

Sidenote: both Stewart and fellow Comedy Central politico Stephen Colbert are back on the air following Viacom's temporary ban of DirecTV.

"But I'm watching TV and Tosh is making me laugh, so I wrote a tweet," the comedian went on to say.

The tweet in question (which has since been deleted) said, ""@danieltosh your show makes me laugh every time I watch it. And you have pretty eyes."

C.K. continued about the ill-timed tweet, "Two days later, I come home and read these bloggers and Hollywood reporters [saying] 'Louis C.K. Defends Daniel Tosh Amid Rape Joke Controversy.' I had no idea. He got in trouble for making some jokes about rape and I didn't know about it. So I'm a defender of rape, that's what everybody says now…I've been called a rape apologist cause I said hi to a guy."

Tosh himself has since apologized and tried to explain himself, tweeting "the point i was making before i was heckled is there are awful things in the world but you can still make jokes about them. #deadbabies"

Well it's safe to say the joke was lost in translation. But as another Tosh tweet says, "to new beginnings" and, we're sure Tosh is hoping, second chances.