Comedians have come to Gilbert Gottfried's defense. Joan Rivers, of course. And Whoopie Goldberg.
Joan Rivers was on Fresh Air in December and regaled Terry Gross with a story of how she berated an audience for not laughing at her joke about...was it deafness, or suicide? I don't remember.
Here it is:
Joan Rivers: I HATE CHILDREN. EWWW. THE ONLY CHILD THAT I THINK I WOULD HAVE LIKED, EVER, WAS HELEN KELLER BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T TALK. AND IT'S JUST...Well, no, even if you don't have a deaf child the joke wasn't very funny. Even if you think there's something inherently funny about deaf children, it wasn't very funny.Man in the audience: It's not very funny.
Joan Rivers: YES IT IS, AND YOU DON'T - THEN LEAVE!
Man in the audience: It isn't funny if you have a deaf son.
Joan Rivers: I HAPPEN TO HAVE A DEAF MOTHER. OH, YOU STUPID ASS, LET ME TELL WHAT COMEDY IS ABOUT.
Man in the audience: Go ahead and tell me about it.
Joan Rivers: OH, PLEASE, YOU ARE SO STUPID. COMEDY IS TO MAKE EVERYBODY LAUGH AT EVERYTHING AND DEAL WITH THINGS, YOU IDIOT.
Even if I thought the joke was wildly funny and that the guy in the audience was a jerk, I would still be repulsed by that abrasive loudmouth old woman rasping that "COMEDY IS TO MAKE EVERYBODY LAUGH AT EVERYTHING."
By the way, when Rivers said she had a deaf mother, she meant that her elderly mother had been hard of hearing. She figured this was no different from having a deaf son.
There's really nothing interesting about Joan Rivers. That quote above was from a documentary about her, by the way. So this is cinema-related.
Gottfried on Entertainment Tonight
But Gilbert Gottfried, poor devil, was on Entertainment Tonight or some such show. He was sorry.
But----you remember when Michael Jackson spoke after his acquittal? It came as a bit of a surprise because he spoke in his natural voice---not his high pitched Peter Pan voice. He sounded like a normal person.
Gilbert Gottfried spoke in the same grating comedy voice while he was saying how sorry he was. He didn't squint as much, but he still did the voice.
