Amy Schumer lampoons football's rape culture in Friday Night Lights parody

"Clear eyes, full hearts, no rape" - Schumer says rape is "good fodder" for comedy

Amy Schumer and Josh Charles in Football Town Lights sketch

Brits may never understand quite why American footballers need shoulder pads to play a game that is essentially rugby. And Americans would be forgiven for misunderstanding the appeal of a stadium pie and mash.

While there may be a conflict of culture between the beautiful game and its US equivalent one thing both sports have in common is an unhealthy number of players who have been accused of, and convicted for, rape.

So it is refreshing to see a female comedian at the helm of a new US comedy show whose first offering brilliantly skewers rape culture associated with sports in a way that is both powerful and very, very funny.

Parodying Friday Night Lights, a drama about a football coach and his wife, Schumer has devised a sketch which highlights the game’s association with sex attacks for the season premiere of her Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer.

Called “Football Town Lights”, the skit features Josh Charles as a football coach who, like Kyle Chandler’s Coach Taylor in the NCB drama, is new in town and faces challenges in imposing his ideas.

Scene from Amy Schumer's Football Town Lights parody

“My team, my rules!” he cries while writing on a white board in marker pen “NO RAPING!!!!”

The players appear gutted at the embargo on what appears to have been their favoured post-game means of recreation.

The enraged footballers, unable to imagine playing without rape, respond: "What if it's Halloween?" or "What if she thinks it's rape, but I don't?" asks another. And “What if my mum’s the DA and won’t prosecute?” “What if she thinks it’s rape but I don’t?”

Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton in Friday Night Lights

The coach ends up shouting exasperatedly at his team: "How do I get through to you that football isn't about rape? It's about violently dominating anyone who stands between you and what you want."

Schumer, who is known for her edgy comedy, plays the Coach’s vino-swilling wife – a beautiful send up of Connie Britton’s hair-swishing Friday Night Lights character.

The comedian revealed in a recent interview that “rape is good fodder for comedy because it’s the worst thing in the whole world.”

“You can maybe look at that scene and think we’re making light of something serious, but we really are trying to educate, but that’s not always clear," she said at the Tribeca Film Festival last Sunday, the Huffington Post reports.

"Our hope is that people will laugh at it. They’ll think it’s funny and that maybe they’ll think, ‘Oh no, I can’t – I shouldn’t film it.’ Maybe something will get in there and actually help the culture.”