Anderson Cooper has positioned CNN at the forefront of reporting on the untimely (yes, untimely) death of Joan Rivers, offering up two exclusive interviews with power gay Andy Cohen and honorary power gay Kathy Griffin to talk about what made the 81-year-old comedienne legendary.
Speaking with Cooper on Thursday, Cohen said “she was such a life force, and though she was in her 80’s, it’s [her death] is still shocking.” She was “someone you’d thought would be around forever,” he added, and above all else, “she was an uncensored diva.”
Cooper added: “It’s often hard to understand why some people have appeal in the gay community, and I think…beyond her acceptance of people, there was something about the fact that she had overcome all these obstacles…and persevered.”
Cooper also snagged an interview with his bestie Kathy Griffin, who will no doubt be the woman who carries Joan’s legacy forward. In her first interview with the media since Joan’s death, Kathy said “respect must be paid to this woman.”
“She blazed a trail for me and all the girls, and in the face of so much adversity.” Check out her thoughts below:
Beyond that, CNN also produced two wonderful clips over at their YouTube page, chronicling Joan’s Tonight Show legacy and her most memorable moments. Check them out below:
Hear how other celebs reacted to Joan’s death over here.
Photo: Twitter
Masc Pride
81 years is a good run, but I was really hoping she’d pull through and get back on stage raunchier than ever. =(
MarionPaige
Imagine Joan Rivers having a heart attack while driving a van filled with Barbara Walters, Cindy Adams, Nancy Reagan and Regis Philbin.
Kieran
Joan always LOVED Kathy Griffin. Ofcourse! Kathy made Joan look even more of a comedy legend compared to her annoying comedy act. Joan’s last act before she died must have been laughing, “Ha Ha, look at the talentless women comics who’ll come after me”.
Milk
@Masc Pride: I think we will hear more from the lawsuit against the clinic that perform the throat surgery on her. She was very healthy and still performing the night before. To me she looks like someone who was perfectly healthy enough to live through her nineties. She has at least good ten more years on her.
MarionPaige
There was an old radio show called The Bickersons that was about a married couple basically lobbing insults at one another. The whole “effect” of the “court jester” in medieval times was to provide a way for A LICENSED FOOL to “say” something to the king that no one could otherwise get away with saying.
There wasn’t anything original about insult comedy. Certainly, there was nothing innovative about Joan Fucking Rivers. In almost every industry in America, you can probably say that most of people “in place” were White Males, why would standup comedy be any different?
Before daring to say that any TV Entertainer was innovative or unique or trailblazing, you should at least get some idea of what came before them. And, in re entertainment, there was a whole lot of shit that was on radio and the stage circuit that came before television.
Tony
Sorry Marion but race baiting isn’t gonna cut it with Joan’s death. None of those you plastered here all together come no where Joan’s greatness.
DarkZephyr
@Tony: A-fucking-MEN. And Whoopi Goldberg would NOT tolerate Marion’s r@cist shit. Marion is the kind of person Whoopi would smack the shit out of.
@MarionPaige: F*ck off you R*CIST piece of *USELESS* *GARBAGE*.
Cee
@Tony: What was so great about Joan Rivers?
Saint Law
The faux-outrage at those who will not pay Rivers ‘respect’ seems ludicrous given the woman’s own record. 911 widows, anyone?
Masc Pride
@Milk: Exactly. That’s part of why I was hopeful. A friend of my mom’s still had tickets to see her. It’s truly a loss for comedy fans.
@Cee: Lots of people appreciated her brazen delivery and the way she never apologized for her material, no matter how controversial. She never backed down, which is especially impressive for a woman in a male-dominated profession.
MarionPaige
Television has this need to fill space with something. Fabricating some kind of respect for Joan Rivers’ life is just the media’s way of filling space. And then, there are the people who “buy” whatever shit the media throws up to fill space. The fucking New York Times is still pimping Nora Ephron so, the “Joan Rivers was a trailblazer BS” is likely to go on for a while longer. Seriously,
99.9% of America right now is searching Twitter for jokes about Joan Rivers’ death. the best so far (my own)
“Why did God apologize for Joan Rivers’ death? Because, he thought that ugly old bitch having the throat procedure was Barbara Walters”.
Saint Law
Joan Rivers was Lenny Bruce if he had been female, and a Republican, and unfunny.
And what is the point of that?
DarkZephyr
@Saint Law: My outrage at MarionPage’s constant r*cist remarks about white people EVERY chance she can possibly get is quite legit, I assure you. Its only exacerbated by the fact that she bashes marriage equality every chance she gets as well, in fact she ties her contempt for marriage equality up with her hatred of white people. This shit about Joan Rivers is just ONE more opportunity to display her unchecked racism. She doesn’t a real fuck one way or the other.
blackberry finn
@MarionPaige: News flash: Marion Paige angered over Joan Rivers racism. Film at 11. Next hour, ISIS insurgents complain over dull razor blades.
blackberry finn
@MarionPaige: The sheer quality of your ideas…just amazing.
Oli1023
@Kieran: Your comment is just an excuse to hate on Kathy Griffin. Perhaps you should examine yourself before making those comments.
MarionPaige
BTW, New York State prevented tha crematorium from cremating Joan Rivers. Something about toxic fumes from all the plastic.
ingyaom
It’s not that kind of “plastic”.
One thing I’ve been wondering is: what about Phyllis Diller? She was a lot older than Joan Rivers, so who was the real “pioneer”?
Tackle
@MarionPaige: First off, your jokes are hilarious. I do agree with you about the medias need to fill space with something. And it’s so much false fabricating about Joan being a “pioneer” or “trailblazer” ( like it all started with her) when both Moms Mabely and Phyllis Diller are/were older than Joan and paved the way for her.
Personally I found Joan to be a big@t, who hid behind her comedy. And since in life she made so many tasteless jokes about dead people, Henry Fonda, Whitney Houston, turnabout is fair play. And funny how she made that comment about the 2000 Palestinian’s ” deserved death”, and a month later she’s dead. Karma is a super bitch…
lykeitiz
Sad that some people……@MarionPaige: ………@Tackle: …….are too personally wounded to “get” Joan’s brand of humor. Where would the world be if some people didn’t “go there”, whether it’s through international comedy or private conversations?
@MarionPaige: It’s obvious what the majority of people think about Joan Rivers. What do they think of you?
David
@MarionPaige At first you irritated me, and then I felt kind of sorry for you not getting to enjoy Joan Rivers as much as many, many of us did. But then, after your two jokes, which were very much like the jokes Joan Rivers would have told about herself, I realize you might just be a somewhat jealous, aspiring comic.
@Tackle You really understand that if there is a god, she’s judging Joan Rivers right now so you can just chill out, relax, and let someone else do all of that exhausting work. Karma is what Pat Robertson deals in when he decides why tornadoes happen, you fucking moron.
David
I guess what surprises me the most, especially after Robin Williams suicide death as well, is how insensitive and coarse the anonymity of the internet allows people to be.
I mean if a person or a group of people are mourning someone’s death, and someone doesn’t share the affection or admiration, why can’t they just roll their eyes, at home alone, and read the next article. Instead of saying your grief and sadness is wrong and mistaken, they just weren’t “all that.” It really isn’t necessary at all, especially after someone is no longer alive.
What did reading the admiration for Joan Rivers make you feel that was difficult to process?
MarionPaige
Joan Rivers walked into a bar last night and ordered a vodka tonic. Leona Helmsley looked up and said: “Who let that ugly old bitch in here?” Cause, it was a bar in hell. Is this mic on?
MarionPaige
JOan Rivers was going over her Schedule Wednesday. She said, I have a gig in New York tonight, a throat procedure Thursday morning, a book signing Friday and a gig in New Jersey on Sunday. Death said: “You can do the gig tonight in New York but, that’s it”.
David
@MarionPaige: Bada boom
Cee
@Masc Pride: I see. I might have to check her out.
MarionPaige
They arrived at Robin Williams’ mansion early Sunday Morning armed with guns, knives and rope. The four henchmen from the Vega Mob (Saul, Vinnie, Joe and Lou) corned Williams in his upstairs bedroom and they gave him two choices: Service Joan Rivers or die!
jd2222248
She is the Queen! 🙂
MarionPaige
Joan Rivers and Michael Musto were collaborating on a Broadway play when she died. The working title for the play was: “The Last Time I Saw Dick”.
Tackle
@David: And you are a fucking hypocritical idiot! When did your auntie Joan ever display any sensitivity to the many celebrities who died. Jokes about the two women held captive for 7 yrs who were raped and tortured. Calling innocent babies ugly, and happy that a group of 2000 were killed?
Was all that necessary on Joan’s part? I guess she gets a pass , because it was comedy? A Well ask the relatives of those whose tragic situation, that she turned into a joke if that was funny.
And by the way, you can kiss my moronic ass.
Tackle
@lykeitiz: ” Personally wounded?” I think not. I just don’t like evil. So thank god that I don’t get that brand of humor. So many other things to joke and laugh about then someone’s tragedy .
And you ask ” where would the world be if people didn’t go there?”
Answer: a much better place. ..
Tookietookie123
Her comments on the Palestine-Israel conflict disturbs me to this day, the fact that a celebrity like her would say that “Palestinians deserve to die” is beyond me. I hate when people say that everyone deserves respect upon their death, as if we would give Hitler respect, we’re still dragging him in 2014. Joan never understood what comedy can do, sure it can help some people get over a horrible situation, but that isn’t the case for everyone. She yelled at a man who called her out for her offensive comments about prefering a deaf child and said it was okay because she had a deaf mother, and the man said he had a deaf son, she didn’t understand how offensive her words were and even yelled at him as he left the audience. Joan had a dead mother, but she doesn’t know what it’s like to raise a deaf child. She thinks comedy solves all issues, but it doesn’t, and she died not knowing the difference. Joan made an empire on the kind of comedy I would never use, the kind that makes people laugh at the expense of others. I don’t really consider her a “trailblazer” for anything other than being a total ignorant jerk with a hell of a ton of plastic surgery.
Tookietookie123
@Tookietookie123: deaf mother* autocorrect needs to chill.
MarionPaige
“Joan Rivers came in to have her vocal cords checked and, we confirmed that she did indeed have vocal cords” – Yorkville Endoscopy
Tackle
@Tookietookie123: Excellent comment. ..
Masc Pride
@lykeitiz: Agreed. “Personally wounded” was a perfect description for both. It’s not just over Rivers either. It’s the same guys with the same complaints consistently posting comments flooded with the same inferiority issues.
@Cee: …well that and she had a mouth like a sailor. Her CC Roast was one of my favorites. Probably bits of it on YouTube.
Saint Law
Oh look – Joan’s fan-boys getting themselves in to a right indignant squawk at the perfectly reasonable criticisms of their idol.
Like the bitch herself, they can dish it out but they sure can’t take it.
o.codone
kathy griffin is a total douche bag bit*ch.
dazzer
I spoke to Joan Rivers for a couple of hours once. A more civilised, intelligent, kinder or wittier woman you couldn’t hope to meet.
I don’t give a stuff about her public persona – the woman was an intensely class act as a human being.
Am I an unashamed fan-boy of Joan Rivers – you bet your sweet as I am. Did I agre with everything she said – no way in hell.
All of that said, the world is a worse-off place for her passing – and anyone who disagrees with me can go screw themself on the most splintered wooden dildo they can find.
MarionPaige
Joan Rivers is dead. It would be nice if people could look back years from now and say “she was the last of a kind”
DarkZephyr
@Saint Law: Do you feel that MarionPaige’s r*cism is perfectly reasonable?