A Bit Too Far

Joko and Klaas play this game on their show where they dare each other to do humiliating shit. The loser has to follow through, no excuses. It’s been a staple for years—people like watching them pressure each other into doing things they clearly don’t want to do.

At the Berlin tech fair, Klaas dares Joko to grab a trade show hostess. Joko refuses. Klaas won’t drop it. So Joko goes over and does it—touches her—and immediately apologizes. They both laugh and move on. Klaas turns back and makes some comment to Joko about how violated she looked, how she’s probably crying in the shower for hours when she gets home. Orchestral music plays under it. The whole thing feels grotesque.

The clip goes online and people react. Some call it sexual assault. Some focus on the basic wrongness of it—she couldn’t refuse, she was working, she was outnumbered. Klaas apologizes a few days later. Says they confused comedy with cruelty. Says it won’t happen again.

What got to me wasn’t even the physical part. It was that she had no way to refuse. That’s not a dare. That’s just bullying someone who can’t push back and calling it entertainment.

I’m not usually the guy defending every feminist argument, but this one felt genuinely fucked up. I don’t want to be grabbed by strangers, and I don’t think anyone else should have to be either. The whole setup only works as comedy because of the power imbalance at play.

What I wonder about is what would’ve happened if the genders were flipped. If a woman had dared Joko to let her grab him on live TV. I don’t think the reaction would’ve been the same. I don’t think anyone would’ve felt that same sense of violation. And that’s what makes it rotten—it only registers as comedy because of who’s doing what to whom.