For those who don’t receive Lena Dunham‘s Lenny e-newsletter, the Friday edition featured the “Girls” creator’s interview with comedic force Amy Schumer, who once again addressed the uproar over one of her “Inside Amy Schumer” writers, Kurt Metzger, who mocked rape accusers on social media.
“Why are these women treating him like he raped someone?” she said. “He’s not Bill Cosby; Kurt has never raped. What he was saying was horrific, and he was being a troll. He can be an Internet troll.”
The interview covered a wide range of topics, from tattoos to the tragedy of mass shootings, but Schumer spoke at length about the comic being, as Dunham put it, “a real dick about rape and women who have been assaulted.”
Metzger was subject to online backlash after writing about Aaron Glaser, a comedian associated with the improv-comedy mainstay Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) in New York City. Glaser was accused of raping multiple women, and was banned from performing at UCB after an internal investigation.
“Guys I have just heard some disturbing news, this guy Jiff Dilfyberg is a rapist! I know because women said it and that’s all I need,” Metzger wrote online at the time. “Never you mind who they are. They are women! ALL women are as reliable as my bible! A book that, much like a women, is incapable of lying!”
Schumer’s unvarnished response:
“First I was like, f— Kurt. It’s been years that he’s been doing this. He’s one of those guys, like a lot of the guys that I’m friends with, who are degenerates. Kurt was saying this awful stuff, and in previous years, I would be like, ‘You’ve got to shut up.’ He’d be like, ‘All right.’ Then it would kind of go away. This time, it was just so bad. But also, why are these women treating him like he raped someone? He’s not Bill Cosby; Kurt has never raped. What he was saying was horrific, and he was being a troll. He can be an Internet troll. The fact that I had to answer for it … I was like, ‘Ugh, why this week?’ [Jokingly:] I was like, if there’s scandals, can’t they be about me?
I do understand that [Kurt’s actions] would come back to me. I can see myself thinking that if I heard somebody on someone’s staff was doing that. I’d be like, “I wonder how they are going to handle that.” I get it. I get it, and I wasn’t even resentful of the connection. I was resentful of the lack of trust. Like, ‘Have I earned any good will with you guys? Do you believe that I feel that rape victims should be shamed on the Internet?’ Have I built up any sort of good will?”
Dunham opined on the topic as well:
“I don’t think anyone should be a troll on the Internet, but I also get crazy about the idea of trigger warnings because a book isn’t what I have a problem with. What I have a problem with is actions in the world. I understand that art and public figures teach people how to behave, but I want to be outraged about what’s truly happening, because it’s always happening.”
When Schumer responded with a rhetorical question about why the focus wasn’t on the rapist, Dunham came back with, “I want to see a movie where you’re Inspector Clouseau and you’re like, ‘Guys, there’s a rapist!’ And everyone ignores you.”
With Schumer’s box-office clout, the two could probably make that movie happen.