Who the Hell is Kathy Griffin?

Discussion in 'Art & Culture' started by Bowser, Jun 3, 2017.

  1. parmalee peripatetic artisan Valued Senior Member

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    The original joke--a bleeding, beheaded Trump with the caption, "He's got blood coming out of his eyes and his... wherevers"--isn't great, but it's not a terrible joke either. Other than that, Griffin seems annoying.

    But the faux outrage, especially from the guy who intends to take away everyone's healthcare, torture you, and inflict nuclear armageddon upon you, well... Isn't it kinda one's moral obligation to wish such a "person" dead, via beheading, or--at the very least--wholly incapacitated? Not that it would be a prudent or strategic decision, as apparently you would have to take out every single fucking Republican...

    But then, apparently there are people who believe that it is never OK to punch a Nazi (or nazi), and they're really not just lying or--what's that trollphrase?--"virtue signaling"? Right.
     
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  3. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    I don't know about that. I do actually think it is upsetting at a personal level to see an image of one's own severed head, or that of one's father, on TV.

    But I don't know exactly how much has been made of this in the USA, certainly. She's lost a few gigs, I gather, which seems fair enough to me. I suspect richly deserved obscurity - and a change of career - beckon.
     
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  5. parmalee peripatetic artisan Valued Senior Member

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    Within the context of the "joke"--the reference to Trump's remarks about Megan Kelly and, possibly, something to do with his stance on torture and his own propensity for inciting/condoning violence--a severed head seems relatively tame. I mean, I can certainly think of imagery that could be perceived as far more offensive. It's like getting worked up over the "Bring out your dead!" scene in Holy Grail--or the dismembered and blood spurting knight. Sure, they were anonymous persons, but aren't we allowed more latitude with respect to mockery of public figures?
     
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  7. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    We had a sacrosanct standard about the president; that one went to the rubbish tip a few years ago, though, because it got in conservatives' way.
     
  8. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Nobody is being prosecuted, are they? There is no infringement of free speech, is there?

    In which the argument comes down to one of whether there still exists a concept of "bad taste" in public performance or discourse. Personally, I think it still exists.

    I'd be the first to agree that Trump infringes this all the time, but if one subscribes to the idea of bad taste, then one needs to avoid it even when commenting on somebody else's bad taste. Indulging in bad taste yourself just makes everything worse, by destroying the standard by which you condemn Trump.
     
  9. parmalee peripatetic artisan Valued Senior Member

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    What is "bad taste" with respect to comedy? Personally, I think such would be defined by a consideration of one's audience; for instance, if your target audience is children, I would absolutely agree that excessively violent imagery is in poor taste or inappropriate. But if the audience is not especially defined, but presumably adult/mature enough to be perusing the internet without discretion, then... ?

    Beheadings figure into circus acts, comic strips, stand up routines, etc. Louis CK recently did a bit about how lame it would be for ISIS to have to behead a bald guy, i.e. the humiliation of having to "present" the head with both hands, rather than fiercely holding it by strands if hair. That could be perceived as being in poor taste, but it was pretty damn funny in the moment. Less so in the retelling, of course, but that's often the case.


    Edit:

    Slightly different take on "poor taste," but not unrelated. Years back I did this performance on a massive old Wurlitzer pipe organ. It was supposed to be avant garde shite, however, the audience was comprised of like 50-odd usual suspects and--unexpectedly--300 or so retirees. Apparently, retirees often attended performances at this theater which were free--who knew? So I had to totally change up what I was going to do, and instead performed what I would loosely describe as a modally constrained (mostly) heterophonic improvised piece, to the delight of many old people. Most of the other performers did not do this, and consequently annoyed most of the audience. To me, that was in poor taste.

    G.G. Allen used to smear himself with shit onstage, but the audience were down with it, so... ?

    I thought Griffin's subsequent "performances" were in poor taste--and ridiculous--but the original "joke" seemed alright. Just not especially funny.
     
    Last edited: Jun 5, 2017

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