Jan 22, 2016
Record Date: January 13, 2016, 11:21 AM
After more than a three-year hiatus, Couch Surfing returns. Jimmy Brown joins in for some social commentary, after John experiences verbal abuse from a Twitter mob because he dared to criticize a subjectively offensive joke (yes, really).
00:04:11 - John teases his primary opinion of the joke, before
reading the initial tweets that came about from his speaking
up.
00:11:17 - John attempts to put things into much-needed
perspective, so that listeners may better understand his original
intentions.
00:21:49 - Jimmy makes a point about the option to speak one's
mind, versus the option to stay quiet. This leads to a discussion
about double standards that exist within debates between
genders.
00:27:06 - John focuses on a number of people applying a straw man
fallacy.
00:33:31 - Jimmy gets to the root of the problem.
00:38:58 - Feminism is discussed more, with John establishing his
credibility within the movement.
00:44:56 - They take time to unpack the joke, wherein John talks
about the bad habit of reinforcing gender norms, or gender
binary.
00:49:37 - Jimmy shares differences between sexism in a joke and
sexism in video games. This leads John to discuss the real-life
story of #Shirtgate.
00:58:04 - John gets controversial and argues in favor of the word
misandry, its meaning and intent. Opposing definitions of sexism in
general also come up.
01:04:00 - The conversation gets especially heavy, as depression
and suicide are discussed. The term "Check your privilege" is also
examined.
01:10:05 - Days after the incident in question, John's accidental
misuse of Twitter results in further dogpiling.
01:14:18 - More perspective is in order, as John points
out how minor this all is compared to far more severe and extensive
cases of online abuse. A silly analogy involving American
Healthcare comes into play, for reasons.
01:20:03 - Jimmy and John experiment with the joke itself,
attempting to make it more inclusive and arguably, better. The
theory of accountability in comedians gets discussed as
well.
01:24:29 - The show closes with a fun contradiction about engaging
with someone you claim to not care about.
The following artists can be heard in this episode:
Cuba Gooding Jr. & Matthew Lillard, Mackintosh Braun, Art Versus Industry, Tegan & Sara, Lana Del Rey, Uh Huh Her, Kimbra, MNDR, Birdy & Knowkai, Phantogram, MS MR, Florence + The Machine & Seven Lions, Rabbits Running, Gregory Alan Isakov, Woodkid, Ulrich Schnauss & Sasha, Timber Timbre, The Royal Concept, Tame Impala, Jim James and Max.