The Late Joan Rivers: 'Does this urn make my ash look fat?' — Page 23

And then of course, there is my Pakistani Muslim friend Fameed, from London:

RIP Joan you're genius and always will be.

Here's her first appearance on UK TV in 1983 - I remember watching this with my traditional Muslim family who sat there stoney faced whilst I was dying laughing. Pure genius!

He posted it along with this video, but it's the image of the stoney-faced Muslim family and the very flamoyaanyt young (gay) son. I just know Joan would have loved it.

http://youtu.be/ME-c05yNOYY

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It comes from a lot of people. Like Gilbert Gottfried.

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I just know the line from the comedy central roasts where he does it in his bits.

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Updated On: 9/5/14 at 02:07 AM

Thanks for posting that Rolling Stone link Namo. I'm in the camp that has not been a fan of Joan, especially in her later years. Reading that article didn't change my mind but it made me understand how people can be fans of hers.
Many people on my Facebook feed have shared encounters with Joan and they all paint her as a very warm, caring, genuine person.
I just wish she would have let some of that warmth show in her act. Especially as she got older.

LOL.
Of course she owed me nothing. Just like I owed her nothing.
Thanks for another useless contribution to the board!

An artist's work must be able to stand on its own and be evaluated on its own terms.

The thing about this entire thread is that I think it shows a lot of respect towards Joan's work (and really...this is about her work, not who she was personally, though I am enjoying all the stories of how warm she was to those who got to interact with her). The amount of time spent in this thread discussing her work (both pro and con) shows just how important she was to the world of comedy, female comedians in particular, and to the cultural conversation in this country over the last however many decades. Not only do I think she'd be fine with the pointed jokes and the criticisms, I hope that she'd be moved that he work caused many people to think quite a bit about comedy and the dichotomy between the public and private faces of an artist. Pun was indeed intended, if we can call that a pun.

I've found Joan very, very funny, and I've found her off-putting. But I recognize what she accomplished in this world and I really am thrilled to know she treated her fans with kindness. I've seen too many 'celebs' treat people like sh*t to not take a moment and appreciate that about her.

Here's what Letterman had to say last night. Like a lot of people, he liked Joan's refusal to back down from things she said. He says, "There are no victimless jokes" and I really wonder if that's true?


Dave on Joan action

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I'm looking at both. That's been my downfall.

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So we've already established beyond quibble that Joan was a 1983 pioneer in the fight against HIV/AIDS, years (or a full decade) before many in the gay community itself were roused to action.

I will leave it to Roseanne Barr to speak to Joan's unimpeachable feminist credentials.

Read carefully what Roseanne has to say about Joan's "layered feminist social critique," which I would think is obvious but which seems to be going over the heads of most of the Joan detractors. (Unless they are being deliberately obtuse in order to provoke discussion.)


ROSEANNE BARR: Hail, Hail, A Vagenius Has Left This Realm: Joan Rivers, Rest In Peace

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As I said a few pages back, I think seeing her as a comic who, in later years, lost her way and ended up doing work we might not have liked (or approved of) is completely understandable. But that shouldn't negate all that came before. And as her life was ending, it was also understandable that many people wanted to focus on the good bits, the joy she gave, and the ground she gained.

But I don't think it was open, because I don't think that was what Aisha was saying and I think Joan's response was essentially a racist one. And yes, the racism of a grandmother who doesn't realize saying, "This black person is so well-spoken and educated" is in fact racist.

And I think people deferred to Joan. Was it a tribute to her longevity? I mean, when Carol Channing kept referring to Justin Vivian Bond as "he," Justin tweeted, "Who cares? She's ----" however old Carol Channing is.

I would LOVE for somebody somewhere to have had an open conversation with Joan about any number of things. But when Joan said to Tyler, "That's ridiculous, it just means you're educated" and essentially shut down the discussion. I never saw an example of anyone ever trying to have a give and take with Joan where she didn't change difficult conversations just where they could have grown interesting. And naturally I am talking about the public conversations of which there were so many with Joan.

Also, Roseanne ranking on writers wanting to get paid is kind of a bummer.

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I know when I got bogged down by another famous woman with seemingly at-odds messages to the world, a smarter guy than me told me, "Namo, people are COMPLICATED!" and I get that but somewhere I don't "get" that.

I will never stop cringing at things that make me cringe and I will never just laugh because things are terrible. Personally, I thought Roseanne's national anthem was hilarious, but that's because I know that cracker who wrote that song made those notes so damn high, etc...

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