A Note on Comedy

So last night I went to see Joan Rivers perform at Hard Rock Live in City Walk of Universal Studios. I wasn't fully aware of this, but Joan Rivers is one of those comediennes that doesn't particularly give a shit about political correctness, to say the least. Pardon the language, but it's what Joan would want.

Either way, Joan Rivers is 76 years old now and has been a comedienne for most of her life, and as far as I know she's never been one for censorship. But what I find so great about her IS her refusal to do so. She opened the show with a Polish joke which turned a few heads in the audience, and she responded in saying she'll be covering every age, race, and sex group tonight, so everyone's going to be crying before the night is done.

Although some people would think these kinds of jokes are simply not funny and should never be manipulated as such, I disagree. Maybe I'm evil for laughing at jokes about Helen Keller, but what I find so great about Joan is that she believes in finding humor in anything. Of course there were a few jokes that I didn't find funny, and then there were others that I laughed at nervously as I felt the karma cloud rearing it's thunderclap above my head. But if not for the few jokes that I felt she went to far, the evening may not have been as entertaining.

The ideal in Joan Rivers comedy is that anything can be laughed at. Rivers demonstrated this aspect herself as she casually joked about her husband's suicide, something which devastated her twenty years ago. But Joan understands that comedy can be a healing process, and that although some things may take longer than others before they're acceptable to discuss as anything other than tragic, in time laughter can be the best medicine for any wound in the human soul.

Ultimately, if you're easily offended, please do yourself a favor and never listen to Joan Rivers' stand up. Despite being a sweet, charitable entertainer, last night's act alone insulted the Polish, Jewish, Homosexual, Elderly, Young, Overweight, and many others alongside individuals such as Barbara Streisand, Helen Keller, Anne Frank, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, and Michael Jackson. But if you're open minded, and understand that every human being is insult-able, Joan Rivers makes for a comic act like none other. Also, I believe it's easy enough to understand than most if not all of her comedy doesn't represent her beliefs on people anyway. Considering she said she hates twitter, yet I'm following her daily tweets, and she hates charity, despite being a tremendous supporter of God's Love We Deliver, and acquiring over $500,000 for said charity.

Rivers said it best at the end of the night though. During a conversation with Cher and Kathy Griffith, Cher was asked when she plans to retire. And Cher responded, sharing the same belief as Rivers, that she is and always will be a performer. She is here to perform, and that's just what she does, is doing, and always will do.