Seth MacFarlane’s Extremely Unfunny Joke Leads to Cyberbullying

For the past two days, one young Pennsylvanian man has found himself facing hours of celebrity-endorsed cyberbullying on Twitter after telling Family Guy creator and Twitter favorite Seth MacFarlane his rape joke wasn’t funny.

MacFarlane had tweeted “The lyrics to “Call Me Maybe” sound like the prelude to a horrific date rape,” a joke that saw more than 5,000 retweets. Christian Steinbacher quickly noticed the joke, and responded with “That’s not funny.” This is not the first time MacFarlane has been criticized for his rape jokes, but what transpired on Twitter following the joke is indicative of the darker side of celebrity.

Steinbacher’s response to MacFarlane was subsequently retweeted by the comedy writer. Within minutes, Steinbacher found himself facing and defending himself against MacFarlane’s personal digital army of 2 million-plus followers.

Users questioned if Steinbacher did not chuckle at the witticism because he was a victim of rape himself, while others wondered how Steinbacher became the funny judge or as one called it, “the feel good police.” Steinbacher was taking things too “seriously,” “sucks at life“, is “ugly,” acting like a “douche” and needs to “develop a sense of humor.”

Others took it further and called for Steinbacher to be raped himself, the most common being with a chainsaw, as Steinbacher holds one in his Twitter picture.