# Thank you Joan Rivers for not apologizing for a joke. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 1, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732 "2013-03-01T15:45:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/21 "2013-03-01T20:17:02Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > well, until Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Daniel Radcliffe came on . . . their boobs? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/22 "2013-03-02T01:04:51Z")
> [@gregorio](#): > > . . . their boobs? And THAT… is why you don’t end a sentence with a conjugation of “to come” and a preposition. ---
**Author:** ![Enuma\_Elish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5e9695/32.png) [@Enuma\_Elish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enuma_Elish)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2013, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/23 "2013-03-02T01:23:03Z")
I very rarely miss having cable TV, but this is one of the times. I loved “Fashion Police” and find Joan Rivers to be incredibly nasty/funny. What confuses me about this whole deal is that that Joan Rivers has made 500 more jokes that were nastier than this one. Anyone who is offended by this hasn’t actually seen Joan Rivers. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/24 "2013-03-03T02:23:15Z")
These days, I quite often have come to find this incessant need to apologize for everything to be much more offensive than whatever is being apologized for, jokes, thoughtless remarks, etc. +1 respect for Joan Rivers. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/25 "2013-03-03T02:43:23Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Jewish as fuckin’ Tevye (although I think the real standard is Mel Brooks). Mel Brooks is JEWISH?! I didn’t find the joke offensive, but my reaction was to pause, wondering if Klum was actually German. I thought she was Austrian or Swiss or something. [checks wiki]… yep, German. Technically West German, if you want to get all German about it. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/26 "2013-03-03T03:04:39Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Mel Brooks is JEWISH?! > > I didn’t find the joke offensive, but my reaction was to pause, wondering if Klum was actually German. I thought she was Austrian or Swiss or something. > > [checks wiki]… yep, German. Technically West German, if you want to get all German about it. So, practically French. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/27 "2013-03-03T05:09:11Z")
> [@Enuma\_Elish](#): > > I very rarely miss having cable TV, but this is one of the times. I loved “Fashion Police” and find Joan Rivers to be incredibly nasty/funny. What confuses me about this whole deal is that that Joan Rivers has made 500 more jokes that were nastier than this one. Anyone who is offended by this hasn’t actually seen Joan Rivers. Yeah – in the same show as the Heidi Klum joke she referred to Kristen Stewart’s dress as reminding her of George Michael, “because its bottom is all torn up”. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/28 "2013-03-03T05:15:13Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > …I didn’t find the joke offensive, but my reaction was to pause, wondering if Klum was actually German. I thought she was Austrian… Austrian like _Hitler_? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2013, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/29 "2013-03-03T06:18:49Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Jewish as fuckin’ Tevye (although I think the real standard is Mel Brooks). I got the impression from the recent interviews I heard of Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner (on WTF with Marc Maron) that Mel Brooks Jewishness was a bit of a schtick. Not to say he’s not Jewish or that his accent and mannerisms are put-ons, but he definitely plays things up for effect. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/30 "2013-03-04T02:06:34Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > Yeah – in the same show as the Heidi Klum joke she referred to Kristen Stewart’s dress as reminding her of George Michael, “because its bottom is all torn up”. O.K., that’s actually hilarious. There are significant elements of Joan Rivers’ schtick that have been major turn-offs for me for a long time (though, as I said in the OP, I _respect_ her- she’s just not my cup of tea), but after this no-apology event I started to follow her on Twitter. I’m starting to see that, in avoiding her because of the aspect of her schtick that don’t appeal to me, I may have been closing myself off from some real gems. On the day of the Oscars she tweeted: [QUOTE=@Joan\_Rivers] Great to hear that John Travolta will be presenting tonight at the Oscars. Exactly what and to whom is any masseur’s guess. [/QUOTE] That is a _great_ joke. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/31 "2013-03-04T04:26:54Z")
She’s been getting a lot of mileage out of the Travolta thing. My only issue with her is her delivery when she goes “it’s just…” after her jokes. It seemed like when Fashion Police was a half hour, she refrained from that because time was tight, but now that it’s longer, she is looser and has gone back to that annoying “it’s just…”. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/32 "2013-03-04T05:06:01Z")
One of my favorite Joan Rivers wisecracks occurred a year or two ago when she was commenting on Jennifer Lopez’ red carpet outfit the night before: _“Doesn’t she look great? Isn’t she beautiful? That’s one thing about Jennifer Lopez - she always looks like a movie star, except when she’s in movies.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/33 "2013-03-04T05:26:14Z")
> [@sjc](#): > > I got the impression from the recent interviews I heard of Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner (on WTF with Marc Maron) that Mel Brooks Jewishness was a bit of a schtick. Not to say he’s not Jewish or that his accent and mannerisms are put-ons, but he definitely plays things up for effect. Of course he does: he’s a comedian. That said, I think his movies have a very central place in Jewish-American culture. And he’s a Brooklyn-born Jew who did comedy in the Borscht Belt - that’s quite Jewy. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/34 "2013-03-04T14:07:23Z")
Check out their episode of Comedians in Car Getting Coffee – apparently Mel picks up food and heads to Carl’s house for a movie every day. They’re adorable sitting at their TV trays in the living room. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/35 "2013-03-04T14:25:01Z")
Ain’t nothing wrong with apologizing if you do it right (like the Onion could have done, e.g. “We’re sorry we offended. It was uncalled for to release a joke like that: so unfunny and poorly crafted.”) But I can’t see any reason for Joan to apologize for that joke other than kowtowing to the offenderatti.That’s something no insult comedian should ever do. ---
**Author:** ![sachertorte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sachertorte/32/3727_2.png) [@sachertorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sachertorte)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/36 "2013-03-04T14:45:36Z")
> [@bup](#): > > It seems to me that the joke would be offensive to Germans more than Jews - weird that the backlash is from Jewish anti-hate groups. If she did apologize, wouldn’t she apologize for lumping all Germans in with Nazis? I agree entirely. I was expecting it to be Germans who were angry at this joke. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/37 "2013-03-04T15:41:41Z")
To me it is an utterly unfunny reference. First because it is untrue - heidi Klum, the first “hot” German girl in 70 years? Sure. Then to top it by bringing to mind a visualization of the horrors of the Holocaust. Maybe you are folks that can hear about ‘pushing jews into ovens’ without seeing those emaciated semi-survivors iof the camps, the women and children assembled naked to wait their turn., piles of gold teeth, then the naked heaps of bodies. If not to anybody else, she should apologize to me for putting those images in my mind. Halle Berry? No wonder we raped slaves. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/38 "2013-03-04T16:02:25Z")
> [@sachertorte](#): > > I agree entirely. I was expecting it to be Germans who were angry at this joke. That would almost make more sense. The Producers came out in 1968, so it’s way too late for a complaint like this to catch on. ---
**Author:** ![spanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@spanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spanna)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/39 "2013-03-04T17:08:13Z")
Adam Hills had a great rant about Joan Rivers on Friday [http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a463089/adam-hills-rants-at-joan-rivers-over-adele-weight-slurs-watch-video.html](http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a463089/adam-hills-rants-at-joan-rivers-over-adele-weight-slurs-watch-video.html) ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732/40 "2013-03-04T17:23:34Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > Halle Berry? No wonder we raped slaves. We?! What’s this we shit Kemo Sabe, I didn’t rape anybody. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thank-you-joan-rivers-for-not-apologizing-for-a-joke/651732.md?page=3)