Sarah Silverman defends resurfaced tweet on child molestation

'A joke from a time not that long ago when jokes by comedians were acknowledged for what they were - jokes'

Sarah Silverman (Getty)

Sarah Silverman has defended a joke initially tweeted almost a decade ago.

The 47-year-old comedian had been criticised by other social media users over a shocking post that made light of pedophilia.

She wrote on 7 July, 2009: “Hey, is it considered molestation if the child makes the first move? I’m gonna need a quick answer on this.”

Responding to the new backlash, Silverman wrote on Twitter: “Some very odd people are saying I’m a pedo, re: a joke from a time not that long ago when hard absurd jokes by comedians were acknowledged for what they were — jokes — not a disingenuous national threat to people fake-clutching their pearls (whilst ranting the country’s too PC).”

The actor, who recently appeared in the highly-acclaimed Billie Jean King biopic Battle of the Sexes, had previously defended the joke on Twitter.

“Comedy is subjective,” she wrote February 2018. “I thought it was a funny/dumb tweet eight years ago when I posted it.”

Multiple comedians and Hollywood persons have been criticised recently over jokes made years previously.

Most notably, James Gunn was fired by Disney from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 after multiple jokes concerning pedophilia and rape were unearthed. The cast of the previous Guardians movies have since come to the director’s defence.