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Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard are rubbing people the wrong way. Again.
After celebrating their anniversary with a bizarre joke about her husband killing her, Bell got an earful from the internet.
You know that whole the internet is forever thing? Well, an old interview has come back to bite them both.
This isn’t their first very public domestic violence joke.

Maybe Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard should keep some jokes private?
Just days ago, Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary.
Unfortunately, the social media side of this milestone took a dark turn.
On Instagram, Bell wrote: “Happy 12th wedding anniversary to the man who once said to me: ‘I would never kill you. A lot of men have killed their wives at a certain point. Even though I’m heavily incentivized to kill you, I never would.’”
To be clear, that’s not a cry for help from a woman fearing for her life.
Yes, in slightly different context, it could be a red flag for uxoricide. But Bell was merely repeating a joke.

But that this was a joke between husband and wife was the problem.
Husbands murder their wives and ex-wives. Fiances murder their fiancees and ex-fiancees. Boyfriends murder their girlfriends and ex-girlfriends.
Avoiding relationships won’t help, either. Simply turning down a guy’s promposal can see a girl — and her friends and classmates — murdered.
Part of the problem is male entitlement. Part of the problem is generational violence. And part of the problem is the convenience and availability of deadly weapons that serve no purpose beyond creating death.
It’s probably fine that Shepard and Bell privately shared that joke in whatever context. What’s so weird and off-putting is that Bell is then sharing this on social media.
A resurfaced video has come back to haunt them
Way back in 2012, Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard took part in an interview to promote Hit and Run, their film.
At the time, she was sharing an anecdote about riding in a car that Shepard had apparently worked on himself.
“The first thing I said, five minutes into the ride, I said, ‘This sounds like it’s gonna break,’” Bell recalled.
In a deadpan tone, Shepard chimed in that he felt “very offended” at the time. Then he joked: “And then I hit her several times.’
Bell echoed the joke, saying: “And then I got beat up, and guess what — I never opened my mouth again.”
Again, this is not an admission. This is not, to the best of anyone’s knowledge, a cry for help.
Sometimes, people who are experiencing (or even perpetrating) evils like domestic violence will make jokes about the topic during or after the fact. But other people might make them, too.
The telling of these jokes within the public sphere can unfortunately help to normalize horrific topics. We all know that there are celebrity couples who have had very real domestic violence.
About 15 years ago, it was not necessarily unusual to see intentionally ironic “Nazi jokes.” People used Hitler in memes to react to music videos. But that internet culture gave cover to actual Nazis, and, well, look at our political landscape today.
The issue isn’t necessarily that Bell and Shepard have a mildly edgy sense of humor. It’s the context in which they share these jokes. (Also, October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, so the anniversary post is extra awkward)

These jokes were normal in 2012! Maybe the world would be a little better if they hadn’t been!
Incidentally, Kristen Bell was initially slotted to appear on the Today show on Wednesday, October 22.
Following that awkward post, however, she ended up not appearing on the show. Many are very curious about how that went down behind the scenes.
She did, however, step out onto the red carpet to promote the second season of Nobody Wants This.
Look, we want to be clear: jokes do not have to define who we are. Also, couples who know each other very well might have saucy or downright troubling jokes that harm no one when they remain private.
And making edgy, off-color jokes was extremely normal in our society in 2012. It’s a shame that Bell and Shepard didn’t notice how widespread non-joking evils are in our society and keep this particular brand of humor private.
Kristen Bell & Dax Shepard Had ANOTHER Domestic Violence Joke in Resurfaced Video: … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
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