Who at The Young and the Restless do we need to talk to about sexual assault? Because we’re no experts by any means, but even we know that it’s not a laughing matter. The show, on the other hand, apparently needs to be told this.
Could the Tone Be Any Deafer?
Recently, Young & Restless’ Instagram page posted the scene in which Diane, Billy and Kyle find Jack after he’s been raped by Patty. And let’s be super clear about this: The former marrieds didn’t have consensual sex or an ill-advised romp. Jack had been kidnapped, he was drugged, and Patty took advantage of him when he was too out of it to consent. That is rape. Full stop.
But the clip was given a laugh track by Young & Restless. And the caption read, “Now this is a sitcom we’re SAT for!” What the actual hell? Who over there is coming up with rape jokes? And who is approving their use on social media?
Is It Too Late For Some Sensitivity Training?
It’s been bad enough that Diane has treated Jack’s ordeal like a betrayal — he was sexually assaulted, ma’am, he didn’t break any of his marriage vows to you! But this… this takes an out-of-touch plot point and makes it 100 times worse.
“The person that thought it would be a good idea to add a laugh track to a scene depicting rape should not be handling social media anymore,” wrote 63words on the post. “This is tone-deaf and incredibly foul.” And how!
