Louis C.K. blamed unfortunate timing to explain why he appeared to defend Daniel Tosh's rape humor and subsequently got branded a rape apologist. The comedian has been known to defend comedians' unpopular gaffes (think Tracy Morgan) but he told Jon Stewart on Monday night that that was not what happened with Tosh. He explained he was on vacation in Vermont and out of the news cycle when he tweeted "@danieltosh your show makes me laugh every time I watch it. And you have pretty eyes." He says he was unaware of the whole rape joke controversy and was just catching up on his Tosh.0. The tweet no longer appears in C.K.'s twitter stream.

Naturally, C.K. had a lot of funny stuff to say about the confusion: "I’ve been called a rape apologist because I said hi to a guy." But the thing he said that resonated was on a more serious note, about what he'd learned from the whole thing:

I've read some blogs during this whole thing that have enlightened me to things I didn't know. This woman said how rape is something that polices women's lives, that they have a narrow corridor. They can't go out late, they can't go to certain neighborhoods, they can't dress a certain way... Now that's part of me that wasn't there before, and I can still enjoy a good rape joke.

The whole segment is worth a watch, especially if you have DirecTV and have been without your Daily Show of late:

At the end of all this there is one unpleasant truth we all now have to come to terms with: Louis C.K. is a fan of Tosh.0.

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Adam Martin