The Internet blew up Tuesday after a photo of her holding an artist’s creation of a bloody, severed head made to resemble President Trump went viral.
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Comedienne Kathy Griffin, whose shtick revolves around being a “D-list” Hollywood personality, might have finally hit the rotting core of America’s complicity in defining deviancy down.
The Internet blew up Tuesday after a photo of her holding an artist’s creation of a bloody, severed head made to resemble President Trump went viral.
She apologized amid a hurricane of criticism. But she can never take it back.
CNN on Wednesday fired her from her role on its annual New Year’s Eve special with Anderson Cooper, which she has co-hosted for years.
The image is disturbing and gory – like the real-life images of Islamic State beheading torture that you can find (but why?) with a few clicks. Thankfully, the digital community responded appropriately to Griffin’s stunt, but it is useful to reflect on how we got to this point. How is it that we have gone from revering the offices of our political leaders to reviling them?
Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s seminal 1993 essay, “Defining Deviancy Down, ” was making a point about crime among other issues, essentially saying that the more society was exposed to progressively worse crimes, the more we would come to accept our crime-saturated existence as a normal circumstance.
The same can be said about political discourse in the United States.
How is it OK to hold a realistic mock-up of the severed head of the president, or anyone else for that matter? And, how did we get to an environment in which anyone – comic or not – would feel comfortable with this peculiar offering into the public discourse?
Last one out of the gutter please turn out the lights.
Granted, those who make people laugh for a living have always reset the edge, and their line has always been fuzzy. George Carlin’s “seven words you can never say on television” is now passé. Richard Pryor’s once-raunchy comedy ushered in Eddie Murphy who spawned a generation of others.
To be sure, Griffin has been a vocal critic of Trump and his administration, and her edgy commentary has earned her two Emmys, a Grammy and legions of fans.
What Griffin did wasn’ t comedy, however. It was macabre.
“Terrorism is very real and many people have been decapitated. This is no laughing matter, ” said Mark Murphy, a West Chester resident who has long been active in Butler County Republican politics. “I would be equally disgusted if an entertainer did this to President Obama or anyone for that matter.”
Ozie Davis, of Avondale, a candidate for Cincinnati City Council, concurred. “Any depiction of violence on the President of the United States, whether you like him or not, goes too far. Yet, she is a comedienne and is not supposed to be taken seriously, but I think what she did is even more damaging because so many seem to dislike President Trump.”
Many may blame Trump for setting a divisive tone in the United States during and after the presidential campaign. However, we all have to figure out how to disagree again without being disagreeable – or worse.
“It’s all awful, but we don’t have to keep going down this path, ” said Cincinnati businessman and City Council Greg Landsman. “We can all be part of a counter movement, to the divisiveness, from wherever it might emerge — one that focuses entirely on people, what matters most to them, and how we can work together to improve their lives.”
I’m digging deeply to find the good in Griffin’s worst day ever. Perhaps it is that she has reset the conversation about when the discourse is just too vile.
