Kathy Griffin: Pants Off and Tired Hooker

If Kathy Griffin were about 50 pounds heavier, she likely wouldn't have such a bad reputation with heterosexual men. See, for someone like Lisa Lampanelli, it's okay to be forthright, outspoken and abrasive (like a man), because she doesn't simultaneously exude flirtatious, feminine characteristics. For men, acceptable women comics are either fuckable and flirtatious, limited to jokes about men and "female stuff," or they fall into the Rosie O'Donnell category, where they're basically a man without a penis and are therefore less threatening. Of course, what makes Griffin so terrifying to the rigidity of gender performance in the straight community is exactly what makes her so appealing to folks like Anderson Cooper and Ryan Reynolds. She even throws a bit into her Pants Off stand-up special about Cooper, discussing how she spent a weekend at his house sending photos of herself dressed up in his underwear and eating his food to him while he was at work doing his usual CNN routine. This story, just like the many others during this stand-up special about Kim Kardashian's wedding, Marcus Bachmann's de-gaying techniques and Gloria Steinem, is uniformly hilarious and up to Ms. Griffin's usual standards of reductionist, candid mockery. But what's most amusing from the Pants Off stand-up special was actually cut from the final edit and lumped into the "unaired" quotient of the DVD, where she implies that the reality program about Gypsy marriages makes her think more so of folks like the Kardashians than the Irish gypsies depicted on the program. More amusing is her Tired Hooker special, which is more consistently laugh-out-loud funny, featuring an abundance of jokes about Hugh Jackman's song and dance special, the gay sex cellphone application, Grindr, and the hilarity of late night infomercials on Pajama Jeans and the Forever Lazy, which you can wear to tailgating parties. And, fortunately, Kathy has been spending a great deal of time with Cher lately and has some amusing stories about going to the Zookeeper premiere and ordering pizza while watching Chaz Bono on Dancing with the Stars in Cher's bedroom. While not for everyone, those already amused by Kathy Griffin's particular comedy style will find much entertainment in these two specials, even if her incisive mockery of Hollywood has substantially been toned down with her increased success.