Joan Rivers, the queen of comedy and the queen of shade, died on September 4, 2014, the Inquisitr reported. Rivers had spent several days in the hospital in a medically-induced coma. When it was announced that she was out of the coma and resting comfortably, everyone hoped that somehow Joan would be okay.
Now that we’ve lost one of the funniest ladies in comedy, Joan Rivers’ fans are expressing their heartfelt appreciation for all the wonderful years of laughter she bestowed upon us.
Say what you want about Joan Rivers. No one could throw shade the way she could, and she’s been doing it for years. It’s one of the things we loved — and some hated — about the legend, as suggested in the Los Angeles Times .
Who can forget some of Joan’s best jokes or cruelest insults — however you want to word it. Back in the late 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s, Elizabeth Taylor received the brunt of just about every fat joke Joan could muster. The insults were brutal, even merciless — but incredibly funny for those who remember. Taylor later appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show , where she discussed how much the fat jokes had hurt her. Winfrey was also the butt of Joan Rivers’ many fat jokes in the early days.
Regarding Elizabeth Taylor’s weight, here are a couple of Joan Rivers insults.
“When Liz went to Sea World, she saw Shamu and said, does he come with vegetables?”
“Every time Liz Taylor goes into McDonald’s, the numbers on the sign outside start changing. When she looks up and see five billion, she thinks it’s her weight.”
When Elizabeth Taylor finally lost the weight, Joan Rivers directed her insults at Bo Derek and Victoria Principal’s intelligence — or lack there of.
Aside from all Joan River’s funny quotes, there were some tense moments, too. Joan reportedly felt insulted that Cher would not appear on her talk show in the 1990s, and confronted her about it at a lavish New York City party. According to sources, Joan Rivers asked Cher why she refused to come on her show since she had appeared on both the Oprah Winfrey Show and the Phil Donahue Show .
Cher reportedly told the comedienne that she didn’t want to come on her show because it was so trashy, to which Joan quickly responded that her show wasn’t half as trashy as the way she dresses. Classic!
Joan insulted a lot of people. But one thing is for sure: she loved her daughter and her grandson dearly. She was also a good friend to many people, and everyone who was close to Joan is simply devastated by her death.
Joan Rivers suffered a lot of loss in her life, but she always tried to find the humor in everything.
“I’ve learned to have absolutely no regrets about any jokes I’ve ever done… You can tune me out, you can click me off, it’s OK. I am not going to bow to political correctness. But you do have to learn, if you want to be a satirist, you can’t be part of the party.”
Even regarding her death, Joan joked about what her daughter, Melissa, should do in People Magazine .
“Melissa, when I die, write a book. Call it ‘Comedienne Dearest’ and say I was the worst mother in the world.’ Yeah, we’ll both know the truth. But she’ll get $10 million and a big diamond ring out of it.”