Gilbert Gottfried, Joan Rivers

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...

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.

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.

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.