Why is domestic violence against men funny?

As a kid, I grew up hearing the following song-spoof:

Rudolph the Bow-Legged Cowboy
Had a very shiny gun
And if you ever saw it
You would turn around and run

All of the other cowboys
Used to laugh and call him names
They wouldn't let poor Rudolph
Join in any Cowboy games

Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say
Rudolph with your gun so bright
Won't you shoot my wife tonight?

And this was considered funny. Kids in Ohio used to jump rope to it at Christmastime, if the ice wasn't too heavy.

I cannot hear the holiday song "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer"--without thinking of it.

Danny has rightly pointed out that the current jokey-joke over Tiger Woods getting clobbered by the missus, is not cool. (In fairness: I owe the guys over at Feminist Critics one, for pointing this out to me.)

We now jokey-joke over men getting beaten up by women, the way we used to joke about women getting beaten up by men. It is understood, on some level, that he "deserves" it. If a man is cheating, he is considered by many to be fair game.

However, we can assume that many women-victims of domestic violence have been cheating also... and this would not be acceptable as an excuse for a beating, even if she was.

In addition: The prejudicial concept that "men are stronger" is rendered meaningless, when we are talking about women using weapons like golf clubs that serve to "equalize" us in physical disputes. The recent Saturday Night Live skit managed to be simultaneously misogynist and jokey-joke about domestic violence against men. However, it is also notable that it might be the first time I've seen any acknowledgment from the mass media that a man might actually be physically afraid of his wife.

I realized my own perspective had radically changed when I saw this again (caution, may trigger, etc):

Barbara Bain on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1963)



I hadn't seen this sitcom episode since childhood, and remembered it as patently hilarious slapstick (at which Dick Van Dyke always excelled admirably).

Now? No.

In fact, I was alarmed at how Barbara Bain's total viciousness is played for laughs. (In many ways, this is also misogynist, of course, portraying her as vengeful harpy.)

Your thoughts on domestic violence against men? Will we ever find it UNfunny?