Joan's approach to the ugliness of the world--as Howard Stern explained more eloquently than I can in his eulogy for her Sunday--was to push and push and push and push, beyond the limits of what was considered tasteful or acceptable. So she would get to the shocking punch line--like the one above--and then go for ANOTHER punch line and ANOTHER punch line and ANOTHER punch line.
What Howard pointed out was that those subsequent punch lines were the ones that got her into trouble, and the one that he admired the most. Because she wasn't afraid. It's only by confronting the horrible-ness and laughing in its face, laughing DESPITE ourselves, that we truly defeat it.
So Joan didn't stop at "Those girls lived rent-free for 10 years." She went on:
"One of them has a book deal!"
"Neither are in a psych ward. I bet you within three years one of them will be on Dancing with the Stars."
That's not glorifying Ariel Castro--you're stupid if you think it is--it's skewering our society and media that turn tragedies into tragedy porn on 24-hour cable news.
Updated On: 9/10/14 at 11:51 AM