The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Kathy Griffin: ‘Orchestrated Campaign’ by ‘Older White Men’ Against Her Career

Posted on | October 25, 2019 | 1 Comment

 

Eric Scheiner of the Media Research Center has video of Kathy Griffin’s appearance on Los Angeles KTLA-TV news in which the comedienne, who infamously had the idea that the decapitation of President Trump would be a funny “joke,” complains: “I still do not have one single day of paid work ahead of me for the rest of my life.”

The reason for this, Griffin explains, is that she is “a 58-year-old female in comedy,” which is “a male-dominated field,” and “older white guys” are part of “a whole orchestrated campaign” against her.

Jim Treacher weighs in:

This might be the only time she’s ever made me laugh. Unfortunately for her, she’s being serious.
So there’s a conspiracy of old white men keeping Kathy Griffin from working. That’s one theory. Another theory — and I know this might sound crazy — is that Kathy Griffin isn’t funny anymore, if she ever was. Maybe she was barely tolerable even before that whole mess, and ever since, she’s just become a bitter old crank. Perhaps she’s a deeply unpleasant narcissist who finally wore out her welcome, and most people have moved on.
Just a theory!

Here’s another theory: Roughly 25 or 30 years ago, Kathy Griffin got lots of breaks in the comedy business because she is a woman, and stupidly failed to capitalize on the opportunities she had.

It is no secret that show business is full of ups and downs, and therefore anyone who enjoys early success in the business would be well advised to build their career in such a way that they can continue to earn a living after their days in the spotlight are over. Bank your fees and royalties, make shrewd investments in real estate, perhaps create a production company so you can work on the other side of the camera.

Kathy Griffin got her start in comedy by joining The Groundlings, an L.A. comedy troupe whose most famous member was Phil Hartman. She eventually appeared in several films — including a part in 1994’s Pulp Fiction — and got her biggest break in 1996 when she appeared in an episode of Seinfeld as Sally, the former college roommate of George Costanza’s doomed fiancée Susan. At that time, Seinfeld was the top-rated show on television, and to be cast for a guest appearance was a huge break. Guess how Griffin reacted?

Guest star Kathy Griffin later performed a stand-up comedy routine alleging that Jerry Seinfeld was rude to her during filming. Seinfeld was so amused by this he had it written into a later episode, The Cartoon, where Griffin would return as Sally Weaver.

Can you imagine that? Jerry Seinfeld, the star of the No. 1 show on TV, does you the favor of casting you on his hit program and your reaction is to publicly accusing him of being rude to you? And yet he then brought Griffin back on the show to do a take-off on this bit:

Kramer gets Jerry into trouble when he reveals Jerry’s dislike of Sally Weaver (Kathy Griffin) directly to her when they meet on the street. . . .
After Sally claims that Jerry has ruined her life and she’s quitting show business, Jerry confronts Kramer about his big mouth always causing problems. Kramer therefore decides to stop talking and communicate non-verbally from that point on. . . .
A bitter Sally opens her new one-woman show called “Jerry Seinfeld, the Devil” where she complains about him. Unsurprisingly, Newman becomes a big fan. But each time Jerry confronts her about it, she adds his angry remarks to her show. Jerry eventually threatens her with a cease and desist order and cuts off all communication. . . .
Sally runs into Kramer at Monk’s and is unhappy about her lack of material due to Jerry ending all communication. She prompts Kramer out of his vow of silence and he provides her with a whole new series of secrets about Jerry for her show.

So she got not one, but two guest appearances on the No. 1 television show at the time. She also was featured on Saturday Night Live, and landed a regular role on Suddenly Susan, starring Brooke Shields, that ran for four seasons. Afterwards, Griffin’s work included, among other things, four seasons on Hollywood Squares and My Life on the D-List, a reality-TV show that ran for six seasons on the Bravo cable network. For about 15 years, in other words, Griffin was working steadily on TV, to say nothing of her live stand-up shows, and while she derogated herself as a “D-List” celebrity by Hollywood standards, she was making good money.

Why is she now on TV poor-mouthing about being the victim of “a whole orchestrated campaign” by “older white guys” in “a male-dominated field,” when in fact she enjoyed two decades of remarkable (and lucrative) success in that field? Whose choice was it to make a “joke” about the decapitation of the President of the United States? Isn’t it obvious to Griffin that people who make decisions in show business understand that any program they booked her on would be automatically boycotted by the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump? “I still do not have one single day of paid work ahead of me for the rest of my life,” she says.

Yeah — #GetWokeGoBroke. Look it up, sweetheart.

(Hat-tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)


 

Category: Celebrities

Comments

One Response to “Kathy Griffin: ‘Orchestrated Campaign’ by ‘Older White Men’ Against Her Career”

  1. Sunday Linkage « Bacon Time !!!!!!
    October 27th, 2019 @ 8:29 am

    […] The Other McCain:    Kathy Griffin: ‘Orchestrated Campaign’ by ‘Older White Men’ Against Her Career […]