Revisionist history and hypocrisy were once again the theme of ABC’s The View, on Tuesday. So-called “comedian” Kathy Griffin was one of the special guests, there to pitch her new “comedy” tour, and she defended her infamous picture of her holding up an effigy of then-President Trump’s bloody severed head. She got raucous support from the Cackling Coven for how she was not “afraid to take on powerful men” in that way.
“This is your first tour in six years,” moderator Whoopi Goldberg falsely declared. “Six years I was out of work because of that [audio cuts out and mouth blurred]! There, I said what it was!” Griffin cursed and lied.
In reality, the supposed harm to her career was either all in her broken head or part of the false narrative she was using to get sympathy and lefties to turn out to her shows. As NewsBusters reported by in August 2019, People magazine did a puff piece on Griffin, boasting about how she was “still standing” after the blowup. They noted Griffin had booked shows in 15 countries “from Iceland to Australia” including shows in Carnegie Hall and Radio City.
Her IMDB page also shows she was credited with works throughout Trump’s presidency and Biden’s. There’s the obvious dropoff during the pandemic when production of many shows was put on hold and live shows really weren’t happening.
She went on to defend her so-called ‘joke’ about killing Trump: “All about a picture! A picture I took making fun of the president, which you're supposed to do as a comic!” “They made you pay,” co-host Joy Behar lamented.
Griffin has never adequately explained what the punchline of the picture was and she didn’t seem to like it when she was at the butt of that joke. She vented to Behar about the “hate” she received from Trump supporters who protested one of her shows with an effigy of her head:
BEHAR: But you still have to deal and contend with these Trump supporters.
GRIFFIN: They're crazed over me! So, there was an actual parade Sunday night at my show in Huntington, New York, and they had all these Trumpers organize an anti-Kathy griffin parade. It was kind of funny because they did have a bobbing redhead of me, an effigy and they had -- they were shouting I'm a traitor and all this other stuff. But the audience came inside so it was like hate on the outside and inclusive love and laughs on the inside and it was sold out!
“Now, you have never been afraid to take on powerful men and billionaire Elon Musk is just no exception. Thank you very much!” staunchly racist and anti-Semitic co-host, Sunny Hostin (the descendant of slave owners) commended Griffin.
Enabling Griffin's psychosis, Hostin begged her to recount how her insanity led her to impersonate Elon Musk on X and abuse her "dead mother's account" to troll him (Click “expand”):
GRIFFIN: I love starting beefs with very powerful men. That's why I'm out of work but I can't help it. I can't help confronting them. I change my name right before the midterm elections from Kathy Griffin to Elon Musk –
SARA HAINES: Oh, I remember this.
GRIFFIN: -- and I started tweeting, “It's me, Elon. I've talked to the mothers of all my children and now I'm firmly pro-choice.”
[Laughter]
And he got so mad and I kept tweeting as him going #BidenHarris, #VoteBlueNoMatterWho. So, he took away my account and then I started -- this is so twisted! I started trolling him from my dead mother's account.
HAINES: [Laughter]
GRIFFIN: And I said, this is the ghost of Maggie Griffin. Vote blue. Be a Democrat. Be proud. And he was livid so his fanboys came after me and they all said, you're old and irrelevant and you're a man and you're ugly, the usual.
HOSTIN: [Laughter]
GRIFFIN: So, then I got a call from Jimmy Kimmel and he said I love that you're giving it to him. So, they run a sketch where I could play Elon and went on the Kimmel show the next night and played Elon, stuck it to him again!
She suggested that Musk took personal offense and that’s why she was banned, but impersonating people without a "parody" notation somewhere on the account was against X’s terms of service. Other Musk parody accounts were allowed to stay on the platform because they followed the rules.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
March 26, 2024
11:32:44 a.m. Eastern(…)
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: This is your first tour in six years.
KATHY GRIFFIN: Six years I was out of work because of that [audio cuts out and mouth blurred]! There, I said what it was! All about a picture! A picture I took making fun of the president, which you're supposed to do as a comic!
[Applause]
JOY BEHAR: They made you pay.
[Applause]
GOLDBERG: So you’re feeling pretty good about being back.
GRIFFIN: Oh, I love it!
(…)
11:36:00 a.m. Eastern
BEHAR: But you still have to deal and contend with these Trump supporters.
GRIFFIN: They're crazed over me! So, there was an actual parade Sunday night at my show in Huntington, New York, and they had all these Trumpers organize an anti-Kathy griffin parade. It was kind of funny because they did have a bobbing redhead of me, an effigy and they had -- they were shouting I'm a traitor and all this other stuff. But the audience came inside so it was like hate on the outside and inclusive love and laughs on the inside and it was sold out!
[Applause]
(…)
11:37:47 a.m. Eastern
SUNNY HOSTIN: Now, you have never been afraid to take on powerful men and billionaire Elon Musk is just no exception. Thank you very much!
GRIFFIN: Yeah.
HOSTIN: Can you tell us about a Twitter war? I guess it's an X war that -- apparently you started with him.
GRIFFIN: Oh, yeah, I can't stand that [audio cuts out and mouth blurred].
[Laughter]
But, come on.
BEHAR: Every time you curse an angel does not get its wings and Brian has a nervous breakdown.
GRIFFIN: Hi, Brian. Sorry. It’s me again!
BEHAR: Try to keep it down.
GRIFFIN: 25 years I've been coming here swearing. Sorry, friend!
I love starting beefs with very powerful men. That's why I'm out of work but I can't help it. I can't help confronting them. I change my name right before the midterm elections from Kathy Griffin to Elon Musk –
SARA HAINES: Oh, I remember this.
GRIFFIN: -- and I started tweeting, “It's me, Elon. I've talked to the mothers of all my children and now I'm firmly pro-choice.”
[Laughter]
And he got so mad and I kept tweeting as him going #BidenHarris, #VoteBlueNoMatterWho. So, he took away my account and then I started -- this is so twisted! I started trolling him from my dead mother's account.
HAINES: [Laughter]
GRIFFIN: And I said, this is the ghost of Maggie Griffin. Vote blue. Be a Democrat. Be proud. And he was livid so his fanboys came after me and they all said, you're old and irrelevant and you're a man and you're ugly, the usual.
HOSTIN: [Laughter]
GRIFFIN: So, then I got a call from Jimmy Kimmel and he said I love that you're giving it to him. So, they run a sketch where I could play Elon and went on the Kimmel show the next night and played Elon, stuck it to him again!
(…)