COMEDIAN KATHY GRIFFIN accepted an award at the Creative Arts Emmys and then said, "Suck it, Jesus. This award is my god now."Apparently, some people are outraged. The awards show, which will be broadcast on E! this Saturday, will delete that part of her speech (Griffin's show My Life on the D-List won the best reality show category).
Is that censorship? Who gets to decide what language is offensive? Does she have the right to make religious jokes in public like this?
If E! actually played the whole clip, should they be fined like CBS was after the Janet Jackson boob-gate Super Bowl scandal? Should CNN get in trouble for having the clip on the Internet?
Doesn't all this attention only make you want to watch the awards show now?
32 comments:
I'm not saying what she said was right, but Kathy is first and foremost a comedian so you can't really take what she says seriously.
WOW. I consider myself a fairly religious person, and I don't find that offensive at ALL. Jesus Christ isn't everybody's God. She's a comedian, she can't be taken seriously. Even if she was serious? Its censorship and ridiculous. It should be shown.
emily hooper
I've never watched her show in full, but the clips I have seen were extremely vulgar. I think that if that is her personality, and that is what she said, then it should be shown. She should have controlled herself because I don't believe this was the right time, right place for this comment, but that's just who she is. I wouldn't be surprised if she has said something along the lines of "Suck it, Jesus. This award is my God now," on her show and I don't beleive they would have censored it then, so why now?
absolutely not, Kathy Griffin should not be fined for her comment. and she absolutely has the right to make religious jokes in public. it shows society who she really is as a person. plus the fact that she can say what she did is her constitutionally protected right. its unamerican of anyone to tell her what she can and cannot say. my political science class was debating this topic today. majority of the class (well the part that participated) agreed that political correctness is only hurting our society rather than helping it. one point made was that if you take away words that people can say they'll just make up more words that are more harsh and more politically incorrect.
the only reason why i think E! should be fined is solely beacuse CBS was fined to avoid the idea of favortism of one station over another.
kathy griffin is always making jokes to push people's buttons...it's part of her persona and it's part of her job. as far as i'm concerned, she should be able to make whatever jokes she wants in public, and no one can stop her. but i don't think that E should have to include her joke in its broadcast either. it's not censorship, it's editing. she can say what she wants, but they can broadcast what they want too.
Kathy's the only one to blame in my opinion. She's the one who said it, the station is just being "a good set of journalists" by depicting a person exactly how they are. The only problem I had with what she said is...I don't even get it? Kathy needs to work on some new material, for sure.
Its deffinately censorship to delete the comment she made. People may not always like what others have to say but you have to draw the line at what is and is not too vulgar. I understand religeous people being upset with the comment but you can not take something out just because you personally find it offensive..the majority of people probably are not effected one way or another by that comment.
Wow, I think that's ridiculous. Kathy makes more obscene jokes than that regularly on her series on Bravo, which is obviously funny enough to win an Emmy... The people who are offended must be religious extremists or not know Ms. Griffin's humor whatsoever. Of course this is censorship! It's an entertainer not having her voice heard; it's not as if the television stations are trying to depict her in a bad light, since she makes jokes in the same vein at ALL of these events. I mean, she hosted the gay porn awards last year (it was featured on an episode of her show this season)! You can't expect good clean fun from Kathy. Just play the clip, don't fine anyone, and let people get offended. Do you infringe on someone's right to free speech or offend a vast minority of people who actually take what a comedian says to heart? I'd take my chances with the latter.
What do you expect, she's Kathy Griffin her career is built on publicity stunts. Now for her to say that specific comment on a soon to be aired award show may have not been he right choice for that couple minutes of fame. For E to chose not to air it is a smart move, it is a bad reflection on the channel and just will cause a uproar from the loyal viewers. You can't blame them for geting lucky and not airing the show live like the superbowl, unlike the janet fiasco they have the luxury of editing and in this case they should damn well use it. For business as well as respect toward the viewers.
as everybody has said, this is simply who kathy griffin is... a comedian. she made a joke when accepting an award from an award show that i am sure many consider a joke next to the grammys, emmys, and whatever else is out there. she knows this award show is nowhere near as popular as others, and made a sarcastic comment about how happy she was about recieving the award. because it was a religious comment it will get this kind of negative attention, but it seems that not even religious people are offended by it. i think most of us understand the context her comment was made in, and for her to recieve any sort of fine for it would be rediculous
This is Kathy Griffin. This is what she does. I have two points to make.
1. This isn't the first time Kathy has had an out burst at the Shmemmy's (as she refers to the Creative Arts Emmy's on her show). At last year's award show, which wasn't televised, she flipped off the winners and stormed out. She talks all about it here.
2.As she says in the clip above, the Shmemmy's are 4 hours long with no commercial breaks and I highly doubt they have that nice music that comes on to let an winner know they've been talking for too long. I'm sure her Jesus bit won't be the only portion of the show omitted from the televised show on E!.
So in the end, yes, E! is censoring Kathy Griffin (who says what she wants when she wants and doesn't care what anyone else thinks). But really, they're covering their own behinds. Let people be outraged at Kathy Griffin, not E!.
P.S.
Surprisingly, in the YouTube video, BRAVO didn't blur out her middle fingers.
i don't give a flying crap what kathy griffin said in her award speech. my concern lies with the fact that kathy griffin won an award. ew.
I love Kathy Griffin, so I'm biased and I don't think what she said was offensive, I think it was funny. E! is cable television, so I don't see the need in censoring what she said. E! also isn't a station I think a lot of children tune into.. so who will be offended? Other adults? So?
Some were offended, but maybe an Atheist is offended every
time someone thanks God for an award. Kathy can do and say
whatever she wants. She claims to be a Catholic. I think she's
not a very good one, but that's all. At most, she could either
ruin or boost her own career. If people don't like her, then
they can choose not to watch her.
From a publicist's standpoint, I think, "Oh, no she did not just say that..." But there's no reason that she should be fined for saying something that offended some people. It certainly is censorship to remove that part of her speech, however, but if the network wants to do that it's probably just to protect their reputation. Kathy Griffin is a comedian, and I've heard more offensive "jokes" come out of her mouth. I'm a public relations major, so what I've learned from this incident - never represent comedians. They make it big by saying dumb things.
In response to Doanh, Kathy has claimed many times on her show and in her stand-up that she is what people call "a fallen Catholic."
View: Kathy on Catholics.
WARNING: if you were offended by her Jesus bit.. you probably shouldn't be watching this.
First of all, Kathy Griffin is absolutely hilarious and her show should have been awarded long before this.
With that being said, looking at it objectively, I must say that it seems just as vulgar as Sarah Silverman calling Britney Spears' babies "cute mistakes". It's a slippery slope once we begin trying to decide which comedians are acceptable and which should be censored.
She is a citizen with an opinion and she has the right to say what she wants. It's called freedom of speech. At the same time, television channels (supposedly) have certain standards that they strive to keep their shows to, and as long as Kathy is willingly participating in a function of their company, she has to abide by their rules. They completely have a right to censor her if they please.
Regardless of what's right and what's wrong though, what's funniest is that Kathy Griffin probably loves this attention. She's take this situation and make it into a hilarious bit on her show. So really, I'd have to say that she's the winner in this. She gets an award and now she's getting sweet press time! She's D list and she loves it!
I think separation of church and state laws are a pretty smart idea. No one has to hold the name Jesus sacred.
Freedom is a nice thing.
But isn't the phrase "suck it" a little un-FCCish? It's definitely a sexual reference, and not in the "warm and fuzzy, mature love" way. In fact it's pretty forceful and um, derogatory. I doubt she meant it literally (think about it.) Still, she said what she said. I don't have kids, but if I do I don't think I'll want them thinking "suck it" is a funny thing to yell at people.
Question: does anyone think their reaction would be different if Kathy Griffin had yelled "suck it Allah"? My mom said she saw an interview with a with the Catholic church authority-figure, and in his opinion people would be more outraged if Kathy Griffin referenced a minority religion.
- Caitlyn Conefry
I think the reason Kathy Griffin has such a big following in her show is because she doesn't care about the things she says and 99% of the time, it is hilarious. You can't take a comedian such as herself seriously. For every one person that was offended by her statement, there were probably a hundred laughing hysterically.
It is ironic and sad to me that for some reason Christians are singled out in our society as the butt of bad humor and angry pot shots. It is the judeao-Christian ethic that provides a large part of the fabric of our society plus a high % of citizens are in fact Christian. For that reason, it is intentionally disrespectful of this 'wanna be' comedienne to target Christians. For liberals-- especially Hollywooders desperately trying to justify their hedonism and lack of morality, Chrisians are the 'enemy'. Self-centered special interests (specifically 'pro choice' and 'gay rights') people have Christians in their sights yet desperately crave legitimacy.
Proof of this argument is that you will never see her lampooning Muslims or Islam or (fill in the blank____).
It is a sad sign of the times when political discourse becomes so personal-- and overrides respect or concern for the Common Good.
Whoa, surprise something crude and shocking came out of this lady's mouth. She is a comedian, she does stuff for publicity, it is something that everyone should be used to by now. As far as the whole censoring of her speech, whatever, if the television station believes it will lose viewers due to it, it is their decision to pull it off the air. I don't believe she said it to offend anyone, just to raise some eyebrows and to show that she is still around...
That part of her speech should be censored.Its a religious joke that should not be exposed. Just like how you can't say jokes about gays or lesbians then you shouldn't say religious jokes. Not just that but they should treat this the same way, they treated the Janet Jackson incident. Which they won't, it just goes to show that racism still exist even in hollywood
Well one thing is for certain... it does make the awards show a whole lot more interesting. Kathy Griffin is one of my favorite commedians. And in response to Shannon Phillips who posted: "Just like how you can't say jokes about gays or lesbians then you shouldn't say religious jokes," Kathy Griffin DOES say gay and lesbian jokes. I definately think this should not be censored. It was a JOKE. Lighten up people. If I won an Emmy, it would be my god too.
Kathy Griffin is a comedian, therefore she is going to say things that she finds funny. It's her own sense of personal humor. Obliviously comedians say outrageous things but that is why so many people love to watch them. It's freedom of speech, if you don't like what she is saying that is fine... turn it off. It doesn't need to be blown into a huge fiasco. Comedians are always making jokes on race and religion so why is this being questioned now? To some people that comment was probably hilarious, to others is was offensive. You can't please everyone, so does that mean we have to walk on eggshells with every little thing that we say? God, I hope not.
Michelle Kraus
although her comment was offensive, i dont know that it was as serious as the superbowl incident. she was extremely excited because she's on the d-list and she actually won an award for that. no one actually takes her seriously, i think it was just her version of a joke.
What country do we live in?
Oh, that's right, the United States of America. We have two important freedoms in this country: freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Kathy is allowed to say whatever she wants, and actions can't be taken to give preferential treatment to one religion over another.
She's a COMEDIAN. She makes jokes for a living, and for the record she makes jokes about everyone in every different type of lifestyle.
P.S. The Judeo-Christian ethic that anonymous claims create the fabric of our society probably offends more people on a daily basis than Kathy Griffin.
Sahnise Redmon
I think what she said was offense to some people but thats what makes you want to watch tv
I dont think there's a problem with anyone saying that on TV and the fact that shes a comedian i think makes it more acceptable. People have freedom of speech and the only thing we should sensor is vuglar language.
-sarah schu
Censorship is made when a large group of people are being offended. I guess the situation at hand can easily fall under the catergory of offense and I think that it should be taken out but then again my opinion is biased. The boob-gate scandal is where i fall short of understanding. Maybe it offended people, but i'm quite sure most people didn't care. Its just one woman's breast and a whole fine over the fact that it "accidentally" was shown to me is lucicrous. ---> Shalain Lewis
I think they should have let Kathy Griffin's speech play without editing it. As we learned yesterday it is not censorship because the station didn't tell her that there were things she couldn't say they just chose not to include it in their presentation of the show. I'm Christian and I'm not offended because she's a comedian. I understand why other people would be, but it's up to the audience themselves to decide what they feel is offended.
-Keisha Frazier
Post a Comment