A conservative American commentator has hit back after a joke about Star Wars fans led to weeks of death threats and rape threats against her.

Katherine Timpf's joke, which aired at 3am almost a month ago as part of a panel discussion, took aim at fan culture.

Katherine Timpf has been recieving threats online

"I have never had any interest in watching space nerds poke each other with their little space nerd sticks, and I'm not going to start now. You people are crazy."

Timpf then retold a joke she had made on Twitter. "Yesterday I tweeted something, and all I said was that I wasn't familiar with Star Wars because I've been too busy liking cool things and being attractive -- people threatened my life," she said.