Amy Schumer takes on rape culture in this Friday Night Lights parody
By Samantha Grossman / TIME
Earlier this week, Amy Schumer told an audience that joking about rape “is always a risk” after showing the above sketch from the Inside Amy Schumer premiere. It’s a pitch-perfect parody of Friday Night Lights — and it’s also a pitch-perfect example of how to effectively tackle the topic of rape culture.
“You might look at this scene and think we’re making light of something serious, but we really are trying to educate,” Schumer said at the Tribeca Film Festival. “We know what message we want to send, and then we also think the premise is funny, and then we go to town.”
Josh Charles stars as a new football coach who implements a strict “no raping” policy. The players’ questions — “What if my mom is the DA and won’t prosecute?” and “What if she’s drunk and has a slight reputation?” — shrewdly satirize our culture’s attitude towards rape. Schumer’s jokes come at the expense of our society — not victims.
The whole sketch manages to be funny, too, with Schumer pulling off a great running gag involving huge wine glasses.
