Posted on 09/05/2014 7:34:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I pushed off the idea of writing this article when I first heard that Joan Rivers, one of my comic icons, was rushed to the hospital after a botched outpatient procedure last week. I didn’t want to think about having to say goodbye to Joan, to bid farewell to yet another icon of an age gone by, a powerhouse who managed to be a cultural force until her last breath. The only solace we can muster is in knowing that, for these ten reasons at least, Joan’s memory will be a blessing.
At 81, she was as attuned to pop culture, politics, and current events as a 20 year old. A self-made fashionista, the comedian never retired, sat in a chair, or gave in to technology. Joan will forever be a role model to women who refuse to trade style for a shapeless moo-moo and an office chair for a rocking chair. In her later years she paired up with Melissa, illustrating that mothers and daughters really can work together and get along. She was a modern Bubbe, surrounded by her children and grandchildren as she took the world by storm.
As the story goes, Joan was supposed to take over for Johnny Carson, the comedian who gave her her start. Yada, yada, yada, the network decided it needed a white guy to do the job. Whatever. With her quick wit and powerful sexuality, Joan owned the white guys and wiped the floor with them. Why? Well, as Maude Lebowski once put it, and as Joan so aptly illustrates in this routine, some men are rather uncomfortable with the word “vagina.”
As feminist Queen Camille Paglia so wisely put it:
What Joan represents is power of voice, which she developed for years before Betty Friedan co-founded the National Organization for Women. Jewish-American women (including Friedan) already had a startling candor and audacity, producing the shrill ethnic stereotype of the “Jewish seagull.” Joan turned the seagull into a lioness. Although her self-deprecating acceptance of the iron law of female beauty initially put her at odds with the women’s movement, Joan must be recognized as an iconic feminist role model. Everything she says or does, even when following her killer instinct for marketing and publicity, is about personal empowerment and ferocious independence. Her work ethic alone is a constant inspiration.
Joan was the happy middle between demure housewife and bra-burner. Smart enough to pull off sassy, she wasn’t afraid to let her intellect shine:
In the 1950s, the only woman daring to do stand-up was Phyllis Diller, who dressed like a clown in a fright wig to erase any hint of sex appeal but whose body language was as coolly contained as her mentor Bob Hope’s. Joan Rivers, in contrast, took Lenny Bruce’s slouching, surly menace and converted it into a hyperkinetic prowling of the stage, from which she launched abrasive provocations. She lambasted the audience for its sentimentality or hypocrisy and insisted on comedy’s mission as a vehicle of harsh truths: “Please. Can we talk?”
Joan, grand purveyor of humility, was the first to mock her own vanity and the industry that rewarded it:
Joan’s relationship with the entertainment industry remains uneasy: In an era of soft celebrity journalism, she treats stars with an impish mockery that borders on cruelty, as when she dogged Elizabeth Taylor and Kirstie Alley about their weight. Her feuds (as with her former benefactor, Johnny Carson) are infamous. But ever since Greco-Roman times, true satire stings and bites. Joan is just as mean about herself, admitting her sexual inferiority complex and countless plastic surgeries (“I’ve undergone more reconstruction than Baghdad”).
Want good public relations advice? Learn from the career of Joan Rivers. One minute she’s in, the next she’s out, but Joan Rivers always managed to rise again to claim newer, better real estate in the public sphere. She didn’t do it by kowtowing to public opinion, either.
Paglia noted that Rivers was no poser:
Unlike virtually all American comedians these days, she never preaches to the liberal choir for easy laughs. On the contrary, she goes against the grain and overtly offends and repels. She has endeared herself to free-thinking gay men by her pitiless attacks on political correctness. She cracks jokes about Nazis, mass murderers, the handicapped, the homeless, the elderly, starving children, racial minorities, stroke victims and even suicides (despite the suicide of her second husband, Edgar Rosenberg).
Criticized for her brazen humor, Rivers would respond with tenacious wisdom. No stranger to suffering, she recognized the inherent power in a good sense of humor in the face of adversity. The Bible says that God laughs at His enemies. Joan Rivers explained why.
Joan was, at heart, a Bubbe. A good Jewish mother, a Zionist, a lover of humanity. No one can be that humorously rough around the edges without having a big heart underneath. She never hid her Judaism or belied it, she simply lived it. In an era when religious and ethnic identity became a costume that could be as easily worn as it was thrown away, Joan allowed her Judaism to permeate through thought and action without blinking an eye.
This is why I will most miss Joan and those of her generation: They were honest. Unfettered by political correctness, social disapproval, or cultural consternation, Joan illustrated what it means to be a fully self-actualized human being. Rife with opinions, emotions, and the ability to reason, she never asked that you agree with her, only that you respect her right to her own mind. And how refreshing was that?
Does the writer really believe Rivers had it in for white guys, or is she afraid to criticize non white guys?
I loved her comedy. I went to see her once and she was hilarious. I know she wasn’t for everyone, but I liked it.
I only wish she could have pulled through because her story about it would have rivaled Pryor’s “ setting himself on fire” stories.
Rest in Peace Joan. Thanks for the laughs.
Elizabeth Taylor, a Rose Bowl float with a SAG card.
lol..
I remember during her show...it's a small club..crowded..we're all jammed in..and one middle aged guy gets up..he obviously has to go to the bathroom..and he's trying to do so as quietly as possible..all of a sudden she yells out..STOP!..TURN THE LIGHTS ON!..The poor guy is standing there..deer in the headlights look..embarrassed..and she starts riffing on him.."Where ya going?..you got your hands in your pants..walking funny.. 3:1 you don't make it in time.."..
Crowd went wild..I thought the poor guy would have a coronary...
She was quite the female ‘firecracker’. I prefer not to equate her with a Gloria Steinham or Betty Friedan both dour feminist hacks. JR bought a little fun and joy albeit she was a little crude at times. Too bad she died this way as she was not sickly but still very spry. Goodbye Joan Rivers..
where was all this glowing praise two weeks ago when she made those remarks about obama? (remember: Michelle’s a tranny?)
Actually, Johnny Carson felt betrayed by Joan when she signed to do a late-night series in competition with The Tonight Show without telling him about it. He wrote her entirely out of his life; she became a "non-person" to him. When Carson retired, she would have been the last one he would "bless" to take over.
“I’ve had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware.”
-Joan Rivers
I just think the author is simply referring back to the previous line about the Tonight Show producers only wanting "white guys" for the spot.
“Don’t talk to me about Valentine’s Day. At my age, an affair of the heart is a bypass.” - Joan Rivers
“When Elizabeth Taylor had her ears pierced, gravy came out.”— Joan Rivers
“When I was dating a transvestite, my mother said, “Marry him, you’ll double your wardrobe.” - Joan Rivers
Joan was asked when she thought America would see a gay president in the White House, according to the New York Daily News.
She quickly shot back: ‘We already have it with Obama, so let’s just calm down.’
She then offered, without prompting, the following statement: ‘You know Michelle is a tranny.’
Following the remarks, a representative for Rivers gave a statement to MailOnline, explaining her comments about Mrs Obama: ‘I think it’s a compliment. She’s so attractive, tall, with a beautiful body, great face, does great makeup.
‘Take a look and go back to La Cage Au Follies (sic). The most gorgeous women are transgender.’
“You know what Elizabeth Taylor likes on her hamburger? A hotdog!”
I like the way she tore up celebutards of all stripes. However, E! is a homo-loving cable channel, and her show seemed to promote the pervs.
“My Grandchildren can be very annoying – how many times can you go ‘And the cow goes moo and the pig goes oink’? It’s like talking to a supermodel.” - Joan Rivers
I love the Joan Rivers line “If I have any more face lifts, I will have a goatee.”
““I HATE gay weddings. I’m thrilled about the equal rights thing … but gay weddings are like the War on Terror — they go on forever…. Gay weddings are a lifetime commitment — for the guests. They start at seven and end in October. Why? Because stereotypes be damned, gays love parades.” - Joan Rivers
“I wish I had a twin, so I could know what I’d look like without plastic surgery.” - Joan Rivers
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