Joan Rivers storms off CNN interview, entire internet picks up story
How do you know that this is a slow news weekend? Basically, every media outlet in the country has decided that they are going to pick up a story about Joan Rivers deciding that she had enough inane questions fired her way during an interview with CNN.
Here is the basic rundown of what happened. During a chat with Fredricka Whitfield, Rivers was repeatedly questioned about her “mean” style of comedy on “Fashion Police.” Her response? That many of these people are making tens of millions of dollars, so why in the world should they care of they are being made fun of. From here, Whitfield asked her if animal rights activists should be upset about her wearing fur on the cover of her new book Diary of a Mad Diva. Eventually, she decided that the interview was becoming “defensive,” and she promptly stormed off.
Did Joan have a right to be as upset as she was? Sure, given that there was probably more going on in her head than it was shown during the interview. What we mean by this is that she’s smart enough to realize that if nothing is going to come out of this interview that is productive, she is far better off just deciding to storm out of the chat and getting headlines for that. Her goal was to promote a book, and she succeeded in that. It is also true that comedians are comedians, and if Joan thought that her jokes were out of line, why do them? We are saying this as someone who cannot even stand “Fashion Police” as a show.
The truth here is that this is an age where comedy is under a very tight microscope, and everyone is so sensitive that the slightest joke can somehow be taken as offensive or mean-spirited. It feels like it would take so much less energy to not be offended by something intended to be funny, and while there are examples of jokes that do truly cross the line, there are many others that simply are met with anger for anger’s sake.
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Photo: CNN