Jim Carrey Defends Kathy Griffin as Comic Complains of Death Threats, Bias, Disloyalty

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It’s only been a few days since Kathy Griffin posted photos of herself holding up Donald Trump’s severed head, and in that time Griffin has had various gigs cancelled on her (including hosting CNN’s New Year’s Eve Show with Anderson Cooper), has become the subject of conservative Super PAC ads, and, as it was revealed on Friday, has received countless death threats from Trump supporters. Griffin’s story got somewhat knocked off the front page after Bill Maher used the N-word on live television, taking Kathy’s place in the barrel, so it’s a good time to stop and take a look at all that’s happened in just a few short days.

As the dust began to settle a bit, Griffin has insisted that there were other forces at play with the gigantic tidal wave of anger that washed over her after the beheading photo went viral. During a Friday press conference with her attorney Lisa Bloom, Griffin revealed that she has received a tidal wave of death threats. “The death threats that I’m getting are constant and they are detailed. Today, it’s me. Tomorrow, it could be you,” she said while stifling tears. During the press conference, Griffin made the claim that none of this would be happening if she were a “white man,” and continued on to say that “There’s a bunch of old, white guys trying to silence me and I’m just here to say that’s wrong.” She added, “You don’t have to like me, but you shouldn’t silence a comic.”

Fellow comedian Jim Carrey backed up Griffin on that matter, saying during an interview with Entertainment Tonight that Griffin was just doing her duty as a comic by toeing the line with the photo shoot. “I think it is the job of a comedian to cross the line at all times — because that line is not real,” he said. Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx agreed, stating that “as a comedian, sometimes you do go beyond, past the line,” and said that Griffin did cross that line, but added that we shouldn’t “kill the comedian” for doing what comedians do.

Al Franken was supportive of a post-apology Griffin, but he also canceled a gig with her, so you can draw your own conclusions about whether that’s supportive or not.  Alec Baldwin also said something backing Kathy, but having been blocked from his Twitter account (we can only imagine for our criticism of Baldwin’s behavior on Jimmy Kimmel Live shitting on Anthony Atamanuik over competing Trump impressions), we won’t reproduce his comments here.  But you can find them on Twitter.com/alecbaldwin.

Mike Lawrence took a different approach in his Facebook post soon after the controversy broke, neither supporting nor decrying the photo, but urging Griffin to stand behind her actions and get bolder. “Crawl out of a foam Ivanka vagina,” he suggested.

While Griffin has received some support from her fellow comics, there’s one person whose support she’s been upset not to receive: that of Anderson Cooper. Griffin and Cooper have hosted the CNN New Year’s Eve Show for a decade together, and the comic was apparently hopeful that Cooper would stand by her when it looked like her job at CNN was at risk (she was later fired by the network). When asked at the press conference if she had received any support from Cooper leading up to or after her firing, Griffin simply shook her head silently. Cooper made it clear on Twitter that he didn’t find the photo funny, and did not support Griffin in posting it:

Some other comedians weighed in with jokes, anger, criticism or support on Twitter.

Griffin promised that the recent drama won’t stop her from taking swipes at the President, saying “It’s scary to be a citizen, but it’s a great time to be a comedian.”

 

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Interrobang Staff
Interrobang Staff