rant · moment 13 of 20

Ranking the MeToo Men and the Asia Argento/Jimmy Bennett Case

from Carney Code · #123

Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.

4 min

They try to name the last big MeToo figure to fall, discuss a federal election holiday tangent, then debate the Asia Argento payoff scandal involving Jimmy Bennett and whether gender/sexuality of the accused changes public reaction.

In this bit10 moments
  • 47:38Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose were big, but MeToo momentum seems to have run out of high-profile targets.
  • 48:14Tim pivots to federal election holidays, arguing the main issue is that increased voter turnout requires spending more money.
  • 48:50Gerard Depardieu was the last major MeToo accusation, though Tim defends him as a gentleman.
  • 49:06Asia Argento appears on the MeToo list despite being the one who paid off Jimmy Bennett, a young actor she was involved with.
  • 49:32Tim acknowledges teacher-student relationships are never good but notes the ambiguity of certain cases.
  • 50:00Argento paid Bennett $300,000—if she were innocent, Tim argues, she wouldn't have paid.
  • 50:27Tim recalls another case involving a gay man and an NYU professor that was more clear-cut.
  • 50:48Making a gay man sleep with you is funny to Tim, part of a whole comedy genre that's now disappeared.
  • 51:09Gay comedians used to build sets around making straight guys uncomfortable, wanting to see them squirm—that was the genre.
  • 51:25That comedy can't exist anymore because priorities have shifted and people stopped laughing at it.
Mentioned here

Gerard DepardieuAsia ArgentoMatt LauerCharlie Rose

All 20 moments in this episode →