PSA to all would-be "comedians" out there: sexual harassment isn't funny.
Last week, a French comedian named Remi Gaillard released a video called "Free Sex" (watch at your own peril), which is one of the more despicable things we've seen this year.
Somehow, Gaillard thought it would be hilarious to mime having sex with complete strangers in public places -- without their knowledge. Sure, that definitely doesn't count as sexual harassment or propagate rape culture!
Because women going about daily tasks in public is inherently sexual, right? You bent over to tie your shoe? Joke's on you, let some rando pretend to penetrate you. Oh, you're bending over to get something from your grocery basket? You're just asking for a French comedian to make humping motions behind you. Though some commenters have posited that the women in the video are actresses and not unsuspecting bystanders, the video is only "funny" when you believe that they are strangers.
Obviously, decent human beings are offended by this disgusting "prank." As Jessica Roy at TIME pointed out, the video is is "the kind of schtick that middle school boys would laugh about until they grew up and got a real girlfriend, someone who could actually imbue in them a genuine sense of just how disgusting and degrading and upsetting experiences like this can be for women."
But some YouTube commenters supporting Gaillard are offended that people are offended. "All those bra burners up in arms over this," one upstanding citizen wrote. "He's not doing anything inappropriate," a man clearly familiar with experiencing street harassment and well-versed in respecting women commented.
This whole thing is sad and depressing, especially when you take into account that this "comedian" has a huge audience of over three million YouTube subscribers. Our suggestion? Comedy is much, much funnier when it doesn't rely on sexually harassing unaware women. Unfortunately, we doubt Remi Gaillard will see the error of his ways.
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