Rape jokes, sexual violence, and Empire in Revelation and This Is The End

The Book of Revelation is one of the most borrowed-from texts of the New Testament when it comes to popular culture. Although there are dozens of other ancient apocalyptic writings, it is John’s apocalyptic visions that directly inform contemporary ideas of apocalypse. The apocalyptic comedy This Is The End (Dir. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, 2013) not only invokes imagery from Revelation but also adapts portions of the text in its portrayal of the end times. However, it also reproduces and expands upon the use of sexual violence as a means of punishment found in Revelation. This paper will examine the mechanisms of sexual violence in Revelation as they are interpreted in This Is The End. I will argue that in the same way that Revelation imagines itself as challenging the status quo that is the Roman Empire and yet reinforces violence against women as normative, the rape jokes in This Is The End (even ones that purport to invert narratives) prop up a system in which sexual violence is understood as deserved punishment.