Fife comedian Daniel Sloss has issued a second statement following backlash over his failure to challenge a fellow comic over a rape "joke," saying "jokes about rape can be funny" while others "can be awful."
Sloss, who grew up in Fife, released an online statement last week after receiving criticism for not speaking up when Irish comic Vittorio Angelone made the remark about Rebecca Goodwin, a content creator who had recently spoken publicly about being the victim of a sexual assault, during a 2025 episode of the Have A Word podcast.
Angelone's Apology and Goodwin's Reaction
Angelone apologised to Rebecca, an OnlyFans model who had previously reported a rape to police, after she shared a video explaining how deeply the joke had affected her. The influencer said it would "forever live with me that it was allowed for my name to be used as the punchline of a malicious 'joke' about such a serious issue."
During the podcast's live roast episode, Angelone asked fellow comedian Freddy Quinne, "if you're here, who's raping Rebecca Goodwin?"
Sloss's Apologies and Context
Last Thursday, Sloss released an apology saying he had "failed." The comic, whose speech about men challenging their friends for predatory-like behaviour regularly goes viral, privately apologised to Rebecca and said: "I'm sorry I didn't do better."
On Monday, in a second seven-page statement, Sloss, who has since apologised to Goodwin again, said he was "drunk and stoned" during the roast but wanted to "address his mistake further, with some context."
The statement read in part: "I met Rebecca Goodwin once, at the second Have A Word roast. My first and only impression of her is that she is a very strong, very funny woman. At that roast (the one from the year before the clip you've seen), she consented to jokes being made about her history, and she had written many herself.
"A roast is about pushing the limits. It's done in good faith with consent from the participants. She was unable to finish the show and left the stage, so I cut my remaining jokes about her and I still did my offensive jokes about all the other panel members.
However, we now know that it was wrongly assumed by Vittorio that Rebecca's consent carried forward. The one you've all seen is the next roast, a year later, and in his clip, I am laughing at his joke."
Rebecca acknowledged Sloss's apology but said she was not quite ready to accept it.
Sloss Defends His Comedy Special
Sloss says that in his 10th solo stand-up comedy special 'X', filmed in Sydney in 2019, he "talks about toxic masculinity, sexual assault and how men must call out male behaviour and predatory conduct" which he "stands by."
He says the failings he references in the special are that he didn't call out one of his ex-friends' behaviour and "not that he didn't call out his offensive jokes or jokes about rape" - adding that there are jokes about rape in his special.
He goes on: "But there is also a two-minute clip from X about my friend's assault... which means a lot to so many survivors but which omits the context of my acknowledgement of my own failings and shortcomings as a man. It gets reposted and spreads whenever a sexual assault or a woman's murder hits the press. The clip has also been used to imply that I believe jokes about sexual assault are as bad as sexual assault. Which is an insult to survivors...
"I have never released or monetised this clip. Other people online have monetised this pirated clip, but not me."
Sloss goes on: "Jokes about rape can be funny... Jokes about rape can be awful... As comedians with a platform, I believe that we have a moral, if not societal, obligation to call out the ones that trivialise or normalise this horrific and persistent problem in every part of society [but] also check your facts and tell the truth.
I was stoned and drunk during the roast... I will have heard dozens of horrific jokes that night about every subject, and made many myself... And until the clip came out, a year later, I didn't remember much of the night at all. I'd like to think if I had been clear-headed I would have reacted differently. But I didn't at the time, and that's on me.
"I was one of 12 comedians on that stage. All of who laughed at the joke. As well as hundreds of audience members in the room. But I understand that I have taken a larger, more public stance than the others."
Sloss Calls Out Fellow Comedians
Sloss called out fellow comedians who "piled on to the online avalanche of disinformation and misinformation about" him after his role in the incident became apparent. He claimed many did this "not to hold [him] accountable" but "purely to raise [their] own profiles."
Sloss, who said he was "not the victim... Rebecca is", admitted he doesn't regret apologising for the roast or to Goodwin and said that he will keep making dark jokes.
He added: "I'll f*** up again, I'll keep owning my mistakes, and I'll keep calling out bad behaviour when it matters."
Following the "gleeful pile-on", the comic said he "owed it to my wife and my children to at least add all the context that these people actively and consciously kept out of the narrative."
