‘Rapefruit’ Headline Becomes Print Laughing Stock

A headline extolling “rapefruit,” or what appears to be that non-existent word, has amused readers of the March 5 edition of a print newspaper — a newspaper at which editors are probably blushing due to the now obvious error.

The “rapefruit” headline appeared in today’s edition of the MankatoFree Press in Minnesota, and the paper’s large print (using a sliver of grapefruit as the “g” in the copy) caused a flurry of humorous jokes from commenters as the clipping rapidly cemented itself in bad headline history.

Gawker was on the scene of the rapefruit headline humor right away, preserving some of the comments readers made — comments that are somewhat in line with the internet habit of writing funny Amazon reviews.

While rape is a grave matter, the rapefruit headline was just too much for some readers to not titter at, and the blog reports some of the reaction registered by rapefruit-related commenters.

One quipped:

“I’ve never heard of rapefruit but it sounds like an intense way to start my day.”

Another mused:

“I didn’t know that rapefruit was good for every meal. I tend to avoid rape-anything, but that might just be me.”

Both of those readers were female, but a male reader joked:

“Don’t even get me started on rapenuts.”

Gawker commenters themselves got in on the rapefruit headline mockery, and the inevitable Todd Akin reference was made — twice:

“It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors. If it’s a legitimate rapefruit, your bowels have ways to try to shoot the whole thing down.”

“Let’s be honest here fellas, is it really a legitimate rapefruit if it made it all the way to C section?”

Chicagoist was kind enough to at least give the “rapefruit” headline some wiggle room, noting that at the very best, it doesn’t necessarily read as rapefruit, and “crapefruit” would be another reasonable interpretation.

What do you see when you look at the rapefruit headline?