It may meet the technical criteria for a joke, on paper. But many people didn't find it funny. WHY didn't we find it funny? Many reasons...several of which I outlined in this article.

If Joy had been recorded as making this same joke in an underground comedy club populated by mainly LGBT spectators, that would also be an entirely different context. Would I still personally have found her words distasteful, misandrist, and homophobic in that venue? Yes -- the same way I would have viewed it if it had been delivered by a gay male comedian or a drag queen attempting to be funny off-the-cuff. But, at least in that scenario, she would have understood the venue and the concept of time/manner/place.

But Joy didn't say it in a private venue. She said it on a national syndicated daytime talk show, IN THE CONTEXT OF a serious conversation about an openly-gay athlete providing representation to a repressed group of people (LGBT youth who are hesitant/skittish about the idea of being out in sports, or even about whether they should pursue athletics altogether when they have to balance the conundrum of whether to hide their identities). If the women on "The View" had been discussing sex in general (or, specifically, sexual activity being blended with athletics per se), THEN at least I could see a case for making the comedic attempt relevant to the subject matter (regardless of how offensive I, or anybody else, might have found the actual joke itself).

But Joy Behar knows nothing about Carl Nassib's sex life. In fact, she's demonstrating that she most likely knows very little about the sex lives of gay & bisexual men, based on her past statements. Would she have so easily made a similar joke about lesbian women while engaging in serious discussion about a topic pertaining to LGBT women? Would she have made a joke about inappropriate touching if discussing a topic as widely-encompassing and pivotal as, say, women's health? And then, when the joke falls flat, Joy has the audacity to ask for a free pass because of who she is and who she supports (or bashes) politically.

Also, comparing Joy's dig at Mike Pence is a false equivalency. They were talking about the Vice-President of the United States at the time, as well as his past record of PUBLIC POLICY. Furthermore, when Joy said that about Pence, it was clear from her tone and body language that she wasn't trying to "set up" a joke in a premeditated way. She was illustrating Pence's abuse of power to exploit other people based on his religious whims.

Nope, sorry, Penguin. I love you, but you're wrong here.