Comedy Central sued over penis massage clips

Comedy Central is being sued for £1.2million for mocking bare-knuckle fighters who have their penises massaged when they are knocked out.

The broadcaster is facing legal action from the Venda community of  Limpopo in South Africa for degrading and humiliating its traditions.

Comedian Daniel Tosh ridiculed the musangwe ritual after showing a clip on his Tosh.0 show last year. The footage showed one fighter who was knocked unconscious  being revived by local healer massaging his penis.

Local TV producer David Phume shot the footage, and said Comedy Central were not authorised to use it. He said the mocking of they sport was ‘causing instability among the fighters… Some didn’t want to get involved with us because they felt they were being made fun of. We were not allowed to shoot any more.’

He and Chief Lavhelesani Ronald Makuya have filed their lawsuit in Pretoria against Comedy Central’s African arm, seeing 20million rand in damages for the humiliation and alleged copyright breach.

On the show, Tosh said musangwe was used to pass the time in Africa ‘since there is no food’ – and when a fighter’s growing was attended to, he joked: ‘They must be checking him for blood diamonds.’

He added: ‘Anyone notice that the guy touching his head wears gloves but the guy touching his weenie doesn’t? No wonder the Aids is doing so well over there. I would love to be a fly on a kid’s face when they tell him what happened.’

According to one doctor involved in the sport, the manoeuvre is ‘to see if the testicles are still in the sack. If not, I have to press their kidneys for the testicles to descend so that I bring them into consciousness.’

Comedy Central Africa said they  were ‘in the process of reviewing the court papers’ but added: ‘We are working towards finding an amicable resolution.’

Musangwe dates from the 19th century, and the ground on where the fights take place is considered sacred.

Published: 15 Mar 2018