Kathy Griffin Discusses Trump Fallout And Fight With Ellen DeGeneres
According to Variety, comedian Kathy Griffin performed a sold out show at the Dolby Theatre on Thursday, where she told jokes and discussed the fallout she faced over her headless Trump photos, and a fight she once had with Ellen DeGeneres.
Griffin, who was fired by CNN and Squatty Potty last year for posting a picture of herself holding a fake, but bloody head resembling that of President Trump, told her Los Angeles audience, “It’s not all jokes tonight. I’m also spilling piping hot tea.”
During her three-hour set, Griffin detailed a fight she had with comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres after the death of Joan Rivers. According to Griffin, Ellen had always shunned Rivers for her vulgarity and Rivers was upset about that, discussing it with Griffin shortly before she died. Griffin claims that she contacted Ellen after Rivers’ death, saying, “Look, woman to woman, comic to comic, I think you need to let go of your hatred for Joan Rivers. She’s passed away, just do a f—ing tribute, be cool.” Ellen, however, allegedly told Griffin that “there’s a difference between mean and funny and Rivers was mean,” which deeply angered Griffin.
“That f—ing set me off,” she said. “So we had a fight in which I used inflammatory words like, ‘Look you f—ing untalented hack.’ … You know when you’re fighting with someone and you can kind of laugh at a point? Yeah, not that day.”
Griffin also went on to discuss the backlash she faced after posting her now notorious Trump photos. After the photo shoot went viral, causing an uproar across the political spectrum, she said she received a call from longtime Trump enemy Rose O’Donnell, who advised her to apologize for the photos she had taken with a fake severed Trump head. At first, Griffin was reluctant, but O’Donnell explained to her that some people had started to say and actually believe that Griffin was a member of ISIS.
Despite her apology, Griffin was placed under federal investigation and was put on the no-fly list. During her set, Griffin mused, “I just like the logistics of how these Trump people think I actually took a picture with the Donald’s severed head.”
“Let’s walk that through,” she continued. “I’m a very accomplished surgeon … Somehow I snuck into the White House, chopped off Donald Trump’s head, took it back to Bel Air, where I live, took a picture of it in my stairway, which is where I took the picture, flew back to DC, and then sewed it back on like an episode of ‘Skin Tight.'”
Kathy Griffin’s Laugh Your Head Off tour will continue through October.
