"Comic Perversion" is the fifteenth episode of the fifteenth season of the American police procedural-legal drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The episode aired on February 26, 2014 on NBC. In the episode, a comedian, who makes jokes about gang rape to his audiences, is put on trial after it emerges that he has raped a young woman. Towards the end of the episode, Chicago P.D. character Erin Lindsay visits the Manhattan Special Victims Unit to obtain information regarding rapes that are occurring in Chicago. This episode continued in the Chicago P.D. episode "Conventions".
| "Comic Perversion" | |
|---|---|
| Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 15 Episode 15 |
| Directed by | Alex Chapple |
| Teleplay by | Brianna Yellen[1] |
| Original air date | February 26, 2014 |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
Synopsis
editThe episode begins with university students watching a comedian (Jonathan Silverman) doing his gig in a comedy club. The comedian starts joking about rape. When the comedian humiliates a girl (Skyler Day) who is protesting against him two boys sexually assault her. The girl reports the crime to Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) who then investigates. The comedian, Josh Galloway, ends up inviting the SVU detectives to his next gig and he verbally abuses them during the gig. When the comedian starts talking about the sex he had with a student, she then reports him to Olivia. Amanda Rollins and Nick Amaro (Kelli Giddish and Danny Pino) learn that there was a previous victim who isn't willing to come forward. When Rafael Barba (Raul Esparza) puts Galloway on trial, Galloway uses the trial as material. Galloway is eventually set up by the girl he humiliated where she manages to record him sexually assaulting her and he takes a plea deal of ten years on the sex offenders registry. As Olivia is finishing her work, Chicago detective Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush) walks in looking for a file on a rapist, Erin is surprised when Olivia passes on the kind words Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) said about her.
Production
edit
It was announced that Chicago P.D. star Sophia Bush was going to appear as her character Erin Lindsay. It was said, "Sophia Bush, who plays Det. Erin Lindsay on the new NBC drama, is traveling to New York this coming week to shoot a scene for Law & Order: SVU with star Mariska Hargitay."[2] The Comic's Comic wrote about Silverman's casting, "Jonathan Silverman plays Josh Galloway, a stand-up comedian who makes a name for himself with rape jokes and a crime for himself in alleged rapes in tonight’s episode, “Comic Perversions.”"[3] It was posted on Skyler Day's website "Skyler is bringing her character “Renee Clark” back to Law & Order: SVU on February 26 at 9/8c on NBC."[4] Executive Producer, Warren Leight said in an interview with Eclipse Magazine that the episode was based on comedian Dane Cook. Leight said "I’d say, you know, this – we were aware last year there were – there’s a spate of comics getting a lot of attention for rape-jokes. And obviously there was the Tosh incident, was I think one of the more public and egregious incidents in which he decided wouldn’t it be funny if he – someone was heckling him and he got into it with her. And said wouldn’t it be funny if you were – if these guys gang raped you right here? And, you know, at SVU we don’t think that’s funny. And then there was Dane Cook had certain jokes."[1]
Reception
editThe episode received 7.78 million viewers.[5] The Pop Break wrote "Oh, SVU why did you have to do this? After weeks of steady improvement (particularly from the show’s terrible mid-season premiere) the series took a massive, massive step backwards with “Comic Perversion.”"[6] Erin Whitney of Screen Crush rated this episode 352 out of 399 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes. She wrote about the episode "The best part is an Ice-T line. When Rollins says, “He’s bating you, Liv,” Fin replies, “Masturbating!”[7] A reviewer for Geektastic Podcast wrote "In summation, this Law & Order: SVU was a lot like rape, in that I hope nobody ever has to experience it ever again."[8]
References
edit- ^ a b D'Emidio, Tiffany (26 February 2014). ""Comic Perversion" – Law & Order SVU's Executive Producer Warren Leight & Guest Star Jonathan Silverman". Eclipse Magazine. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
- ^ Stanhope, Kate (19 January 2014). "Chicago P.D. Sends Sophia Bush to NYC for Law & Order: SVU Crossover". TV Guide. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
- ^ McCarthy, Sean L. (26 February 2014). "Jonathan Silverman as Josh Galloway, rape-joke comedian rapist(?), on Law & Order: SVU". The Comic's Comic. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
- ^ "Coming back to Law & Order: SVU!". Skyler Day's website. 13 February 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2017.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Bibel, Sara (17 March 2014). "Live+7 DVR Ratings: 'The Big Bang Theory' Has Biggest 18-49 Ratings Gain, 'Parenthood' Tops Percentage Gain & 'The Blacklist' Adds Most Total Viewers in Week 23". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on 18 March 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
- ^ "TV Recap: Law & Order: SVU, 'Comic Perversion'". The Pop Break. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
- ^ Whitney, Erin (7 February 2017). "Ranking Every Episode of 'Law and Order: SVU' (Part 1)". Screen Crush. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
- ^ "More like Law & DISorder: An SVU Recap". Geektastic Podcast. Retrieved 15 April 2017.