Talented,relevant,insightful,under exposed and funny. All words NOT used to describe Kathy Griffen. Now before I go sounding like some bitter comic blasting someone famous for reasons mainly driven by jealousy, I'll lie and say NOT ME.
Now, her being a stand up comic I will always give slack because I love and respect comics for what we do, but she is what I feel is part of the vanilla-faced meltdown of stand up comedy in America today. Besides the over exposure of comics who fit the "mold" of reality tv ( last comic standing) etc or just the mundane stand up specials that feature comics who apparently are being pushed to be sitcom or movie stars because of a "certain look" or stereotype they are looking to vomit onto network television.
Back to ol' construction face,I don't know what type of comedy KG does (this lazy ass country is obsessed with shortening and abbreviating every fucking thing we can get our lazy paws on, so I'll join the "poison the kool aid" party and abbreviate her stupid name also). It's so horrendous mainly because it's that lame "I'll make fun of hollywood and drop names like a homeless person dropping bars of soap and job applications" type of comedy. People who want to hear about J-Lo and Brooke Shields ar e not people who enjoy true stand up, touching on current events as a comic is one thing, but the constant barrage of stories and "amusing anecdotes" about them is sickening.
What about the Show on Bravo, The "D" list or whatever its called, am I being melodramatic or is that show on 24 hours a day? If Richard Pryor was on that much people would be like "get that talented funny mutha fukka off the air!!
Who is watching and supporting this show you may ask? I don't know anyone who enjoys her boring red carpet stories and her fake self deprecating "I'm not a real actress" bullshit. Let's see, I gather a lot of gay fellas watch her show(s) ( I don't know how many she has anymore). She always seems to be in the vicinity of a few dick grabbers so I assume gays enjoy her stuff. Maybe they like her because of the "Cher" connection. Lets face it, Kathy is looking more like Rocky Dennis from the movie "Mask" everyday and we all know who played his drunken, slutty, biker wanna be mom, CHER! I always thought of gay men as guys with good taste and cleanliness, and I still believe that, even though gay men in america have single handedly kept Madonna relevant and in business for the last 15 years and made Barbara Streisand concert tickets an obscene $1000 a ticket.
Who else may enjoy it, women? I don't know for sure, but if it wasn't for women and gay men there would be no boy bands besides "The Monkeys" in the history of music. So what is her appeal? Is it the fact that so many comics today try to be "shocking" and dirty ( which i have no problem with) and since most of middle Americans are hypocrites who around the water cooler or at lunchtime will spew off horrible insensitive jokes and laugh, but when a comic does it he is performing in "bad taste " or for shock value and are appalled? Who knows, I think the combination of the pussification of our country and the boatload of new comics trying to out-shock each other (being influenced by amazing comics who are clever and filthy) can be a reason. Whatever the reason, people like KG have given the art of stand up a boring bland name dropping kinda name. Let's hope KG and garbage bag talent like Tila Teqila end up doing Geico commercials for cocaine and shaking an empty can of Dole's Pineapple Chunks feverishly for spare change in Central Park while singing old Foghat tunes.
KG will be popular until Americans get sick of this tabloid obsessed media driven horseshit like TMZ. (that's for another blog) So let's take a stand against boring celebrity driven humorless stand up comedy and get back to the likes of LATE GREAT LEGEND GEORGE CARLIN. 1937-2008 let's never forget icons like him, Christ do we need guys like him now more than ever.
with much love
Joe Conte