The Big D-List Thing

Kathy Griffin is being celebrated at the the Wiltern this next weekend. I've caught her on HBO and some other places. If you haven't heard her, you are missing lengthy scathing descriptions of celebrities who annoy her, situations that bore her to death or are howlingly surreal, and ways to make her laugh (generally by being as appallingly brass-balled as she is herself).

Wondering about her, I went investigating her and opinions of her.

It's interesting to me that people evaluate Kathy by her looks (like they did Margaret Cho in the early days),
give her great opportunity (like they did Margaret in her early days),
then take it away with a WHAT THE F*(%^ WERE WE THINKING! (like they did with Margaret),
and then claim she's not really a comedienne, but more of a raconteur (etc etc etc MARGARET).

Kathy has only gotten a bit further because she looks like the white girl next door and doesn't embrace the gay community as openly. But she gets the same treatment. She's called ugly, transvestite-like, obnoxious, hillarious, brazen, and merely annoying.

The formula works, and she IS hilarious, but I know where it comes from, and nearly 13 years past Margaret Cho's formula, American TV government is proving once again that they are still preferring an ass-kissing (in more than one sense) white male instead of an empowered female (even a white one) who spits out the stinging truth and isn't a trite trophy-hooker-icon. I know she won't be lasting long, but it will be a fun few stories until she dampens her dry wit for the syndicated versions of herself, or falls into the ranks of the great disappeared. Why hold this dim view? Because Kathy, you are playing with a loaded gun. AND I think it's a good idea, of course. But it doesn't mean you'll be all good afterward. The only reprieve may be that since it wasn't soley your own endeavor to make that journey, the martyrdom for you will be brief. Others will be shot on the wall after you've dug up to the edge.

It's good you give us an alternative. Thank god for that. In retort to what people say, what I really don't get is how they can accept Sarah Jessica Parker's weird horseface as a golden sex symbol, Bobby Lee's Blind Kung Fu Master act as funny, and Dr. Phil's guests as the great raconteurs of the day.

They just keep trashing the women who dare to be outside the box -- let's think of just a few in recent times: Phyllis Diller, Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr, Rosie O'Donnell, Jeanene Garafolo, Margaret Cho, Ellen Degeneres, and there are probably plenty new ones on the way....

And now Really. Kathy. The D-List is not funny. You'll find that out soon enough. Just you make a lot of money this weekend, now, eh?. The homeland security of Middle America will not be at stake if the public should ever support you, but that may end up being on microchip in 2025.