Joan Rivers
[j OH n] [riv-erz]
Noun
1. The epitome of comedy, plastic surgery gone wrong, and proud b*tch.
The entire world is in mourning over the sudden death of Joan Rivers. Whether you appreciated her edginess when it came to fashion, her comedic honesty, or just couldn’t stop questioning how her face was still functioning, we all had our own form of respect towards this fabulous woman. After 81 years of bringing joy to millions, it’s time for us to present an ode to the most original woman in the world, Ms. Joan Rivers.
Our love affair with Joan begins on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1965, when she first started paving the way for female comedians.
(Appreciate her natural face, because it’s during 1965 that Rivers receives her first eyelid lift.)
Carson may have launched Joan’s career, but soon after the world caught on to the Joan-epidemic, she created a rival program, The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, hence severing all ties with her “mentor”. By joining with Fox News Network to create said show, Joan would become the first woman to have a talk show on a major television network… it was also the same year she debut her famously thinner nose.
While ladies everywhere felt empowered and excited with Rivers’ ability to pave way for women in the entertainment industry, Joan was experiencing devastation with the suicide of her husband. Once again, we watched Joan look in the face of sadness and desolation and make something of it: The Joan Rivers Show which ran for five years and won her a Daytime Emmy for outstanding talk show host.
By the age of 77, Joan had been nominated for 8 awards, including multiple Emmy’s, a Grammy, and a Tony. And, of course, she has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
I guess the point we’re trying to make is, beyond the “700 plus times [she’s] gone under the knife,” Joan has shown society what being a proud, determined, outgoing, comedic, crazy woman can do. Joan Rivers will forever hold a place in our hearts not for her outrageous (and usually correct) opinions on The Fashion Police, or her ability to rule late night comedy, but for becoming one of the first ladies to truly pave way for women in the entertainment industry, and for that, we will forever be grateful for.
*Special thank you to Monical Mulhall, freshman at New York University, for providing some of her favorite Joan memories!