The Daily Show Visits Texas to Cover Campus Carry Dildo Protest
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In a segment that aired Wednesday night, Daily Show Correspondent Roy Wood Jr. visited the University of Texas at Austin to cover last month's sex toy-themed protest of the state's new campus carry law.
The Daily Show — Comedy Central's satirical news program — aired the 5-minute segment of students strapping on dildos to protest the contentious policy, which allows people to carry handguns into public university buildings statewide.
Jessica Jin, founder of anti-campus carry group Cocks Not Glocks, said students protested campus carry with sex toys to demonstrate how inanimate objects — like dildos and guns — can make people uncomfortable.
"Jin's rebellious protest caught fire and spread like an STD on a college campus," Wood said in the program. "Students proudly showed off their dildos."
Last session, Texas lawmakers passed a law requiring universities to allow guns in most of their buildings. Private universities were allowed to opt out of the policy, and many of them did.
The law went into effect Aug. 1 without incident while school was still out for summer. But when students returned to classes several weeks later, members of Cocks Not Glocks handed out more than 4,500 dildos to students in Austin.
"We're fighting absurdity with absurdity," Jin told The Daily Show. Since organizing the protest, Jin said she has received death threats.
"Wherever I plant my feet, as a free man, I should be able to carry my firearm," Grisham said.
"So everywhere but space?" Wood asked.
"Yeah, pretty much," Grisham said.
Grisham criticized the protest, saying it was "very vulgar and very obscene." When handed a dildo himself, Grisham chuckled.
"I'm actually a little uncomfortable holding it," Grisham said. "I just don't like holding one of these."
Watch the full clip from Comedy Central here.
Read more of the Tribune's campus carry coverage:
- A federal judge has denied three University of Texas at Austin professors’ initial attempt to keep guns out of their classrooms under the state’s campus carry law.
- Starting Aug. 1, licensed college students, faculty and visitors across Texas were allowed to carry their concealed guns into campus buildings thanks to a new state law. But that right will be mostly limited to public schools.
Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.
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