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Belfast comedian criticised for rape 'joke' about assault victim (www.bbc.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago by to c/fauxmoi@sh.itjust.works
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A Belfast comedian has been criticised for making a rape "joke" about a woman who had recently spoken publicly about being the victim of a sexual assault.

Vittorio Angelone, who has since apologised on social media, referred to content creator Rebecca Goodwin in a remark about rape which he made in a podcast episode in 2025.

Goodwin, who had previously reported a rape to police, said it will "forever live with me that it was allowed for my name to be used as the punchline of a malicious 'joke' about such a serious issue".

Angelone said he has reached out to Goodwin and apologised directly.

Goodwin had claimed that Angelone posted videos of the "joke" on his social media accounts in recent days.

Rape Crisis Northern Ireland and Dublin Rape Crisis Centre have both criticised the remarks.

The makers of the podcast have been contacted for comment.

During a 2025 episode of the 'Have a Word' podcast, Angelone asked of fellow comedian Freddy Quinne "if you're here, who's raping Rebecca Goodwin?".

"That's a joke. Of course it's her dad"

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[–] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

You know, I'm a hardline freedom of speech in comedy sort. Comedy, of any art form, serves as a vital and necessary social escape valve and bellwether.

So when I say that this guy needs to just step away from comedy, permanently, it's not said lightly. See, joking about rape is perfectly acceptable. But it take incredible craft to make work. I've never even thought of one that was worthy of escaping my lips. George Carlin is the only big name comic I've seen that did it perfectly. That's a one in a billion level of craftsmanship that just isn't going to be matched often, and anyone that is fool enough to let such a trash tier, nasty, inhumane concept even be workshopped with other comics needs to step the fuck back and take a break.

But this asshat decided to try and get famous with it. Think about that for a second. This isn't someone with a rich history of crafting good commentary making an error in judgement. It's just some douche that wanted to get clout on a specific person's misery. That's not comedy. It's not acceptable at all.

So yeah, dude needs to just quit. And, again this is coming from someone that's deeply behind the freedom of comedy, anyone that actually goes to any show of his is almost as big an asshole as he is.

Fuck that guy

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