Kathy Griffin is a walking reminder that being loud, obnoxious and deliberately offensive doesn’t automatically make you funny. A talentless attention-seeker with the comedic instincts of a malfunctioning smoke alarm, Griffin has spent decades desperately trying to convince people that insulting celebrities, mocking religion and manufacturing outrage constitute a successful comedy career. She’s the sort of person who mistakes being disliked for being provocative and assumes that anyone who doesn’t laugh must be offended by her genius. Her greatest talent appears to be making people wish someone else had been given the microphone.
Griffin has made a career out of celebrity gossip, cheap insults and increasingly desperate attempts to remain relevant. From mocking a ten-year-old actress to posing with a fake severed head of Donald Trump, she’s repeatedly demonstrated an extraordinary willingness to embarrass herself for publicity. She likes to portray herself as a fearless comic who refuses to be silenced, but much of her career looks less like challenging authority and more like a desperate attempt to get people talking about her. Even her controversies have become repetitive. The same outrage, the same apologies, the same subsequent retractions and the same tired insistence that nobody understands her humour.
Is a prick because…
- She made a ten-year-old girl the target of a drug joke: At the 2005 Golden Globes, Griffin joked that child actress Dakota Fanning had checked into drug rehabilitation. E! subsequently fired her from its red-carpet coverage.
- She told Jesus to fuck off: Accepting an Emmy in 2007, Griffin mocked celebrities who thanked Jesus for their awards, declaring that he had contributed nothing to her success before telling him to “suck it”. The speech was censored from the broadcast. I bet she wouldn’t dare mock the prophet Mohammad.
- She dragged a politician’s teenage daughters into her act: Griffin attracted criticism in 2010 after making sexually degrading jokes about Senator Scott Brown’s daughters on her reality show.
- She posed with Donald Trump’s severed head: In May 2017, Griffin released photographs showing herself holding a bloody replica of Trump’s severed head. CNN terminated her New Year’s Eve contract, endorsements disappeared and performances were cancelled. The Secret Service investigated her, although no charges were brought.
- Her apology lasted about five minutes: Griffin initially released an emotional apology, admitting she’d gone too far and asking for forgiveness. She subsequently reversed course, declaring she was no longer sorry and describing the backlash as bullshit.
- She turned the Trump controversy into her entire personality: Rather than move on, Griffin repeatedly revisited the incident through interviews, documentaries and comedy tours. Her 2023 show, My Life on the PTSD-List, centred heavily on the fallout.
- She has a habit of humiliating people for cheap laughs: Her comedy has repeatedly targeted celebrities’ appearances, relationships and personal lives. Sarah Palin, Bristol Palin, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Ryan Seacrest have all featured in her insults and public feuds.
- She now claims she’s effectively banned from Jimmy Fallon’s show: In July 2026, Griffin claimed she had been excluded from The Tonight Show since Fallon became host in 2014, describing herself as too controversial and inappropriate for the programme. She also criticised Fallon’s decision to interview Donald Trump and Conor McGregor.
Is not a prick because…
- She’s actually won some awards: Griffin has two Primetime Emmy Awards for My Life on the D-List and a Grammy for her comedy album Calm Down Gurrl. She’s also maintained a stand-up career spanning several decades.
- She’s been a vocal supporter of LGBTQ+ rights: Griffin has consistently supported LGBTQ+ communities and spoken against discrimination, maintaining a particularly strong following among LGBTQ+ audiences.
- She’s survived some genuinely difficult circumstances: Griffin battled lung cancer, underwent surgery that affected her vocal cords and experienced serious personal difficulties following the Trump controversy. She returned to performing despite years of professional setbacks.
Kathy Griffin has spent decades trying to convince the world that she’s a comedy rebel when, more often than not, she’s simply an irritating woman shouting celebrity gossip into a microphone. Her Trump photograph was certainly provocative, but the endless cycle of outrage, apologies, retractions and self-pity that followed has become considerably more tedious than the original stunt. She’s desperate to be regarded as fearless, groundbreaking and dangerous, when her greatest achievement seems to be remaining professionally irritating for longer than most people could tolerate. The only thing more exhausting than her comedy is listening to her explain why everyone else is wrong for not finding it funny.
