A Comedy Central show gained the Twitter spotlight three weeks ago for calling out college campuses on the problem of sexual assault. The University of Oregon became embroiled in the conversation after the show aired, due to speculation on social media that a parody mascot created by the show for the segment resembled the duck mascot.
A fake mascot called “Shooshy The Rape Ignoring Ostrich,” an ostrich wearing a green sweater with a yellow circle on it, appeared on “Not Safe with Nikki Glaser” on July 12. Both The Register-Guard and The Oregonian implied that Shooshy is a parody of Puddles, the UO mascot, despite UO not being mentioned in the segment.
“Not Safe” is a weekly show that exclusively talks about sex, with segments such as “#NameABonerPill” and the science of the female orgasm. The online comedy show and podcast series, however, talked about a more serious issue on July 12: Rape on campus, criticizing how some universities are handling sexual assault and prioritizing sports over students.
Glaser pointed out in 2014 that 91 percent of colleges reported zero incidents of rape.
“I know that sounds like a good thing, but it’s not,” Glaser said in the segment. “It’s scary how far these schools will go to protect their sports programs.”
Glaser also included an extensive interview with Brenda Tracy, who came out with her story in 2014 – 16 years after she was raped by four men, two of which were football players at Oregon State University at the time.
Tracy gave her account of her experience trying to report to the police and university administration, just to get shut down because the school needed money for a new football stadium in 1998.
The mention of OSU and the Shooshy’s resemblance to UO’s mascot prompted several Twitter users to question whether the show did its homework before coming up with the mascot.
@notsafeshow I’m confused, in the interview you mentioned OSU, but had U of O colors and jersey?? #beaversnotducks pic.twitter.com/o8vrfyjEgk
— Brad Guinther (@skatinsuprhero) July 13, 2016
@notsafeshow like seriously how much time do you spend preparing an episode? Then fail to get the team right? There are only 2 teams in OR!!
— Andrew Driver (@adriver35) July 13, 2016
Not Safe Show writer Ben Castrone clarified via tweet that Shooshy was an original mascot with a zero on its sweater, as in zero incidents reported.
@tranngngn @notsafeshow @Univ_Of_Oregon Shooshy is an original. That’s a zero on his jersey, not an “O”!
— Bob Castrone (@BobCastrone) July 27, 2016
Many praised the show on Twitter for calling out the current system. The video of the segment gained more than 32,000 views within a week on Youtube.
Throughout the 10 minutes segment, neither Glaser nor Nolan mentioned UO or its latest alleged rape incident involving three former basketball players. The incident got the university in at least four lawsuits, two of which UO has settled for $800,000 and $425,000.
