Can We Talk?

Of course we can. This is the United States of America where, after the right to carry loaded automatic weapons into fast food restaurants, we treasure our right to free speech. Which is why Joan Rivers was such a uniquely American Icon. When Joan died last week, I felt bad, but mostly for her because like Robin Williams, there were still so many jokes to tell. About herself.
When she first started out, she was a housewife telling stories about her husband "Fang," and describing the life of a woman trying to find a place for herself outside the bounds of "homemaker." To wit: "I hate housework! You make the beds, you do the dishes and six months later you have to start all over again." This is the kind of line that made her a fixture on talk shows, especially Johnny Carson, where she eventually became a favorite and eventually the go-to guest host back in the eighties. By this time, Joan's act had become more about show business than about the drudgery of being a wife and mother. It was 1986 that she chose to go to Fox for her own show, rather than continue to stay safe in the warm shadow of The Tonight Show guest host spot.
That show lasted a year. Unfortunately, "Fang" only lasted that long as well. Her husband and manager, Edgar, committed suicide in 1987. That didn't stop Joan. It may have slowed her down, but it didn't stop her. She kept talking. And talking. "I succeeded by saying what everyone else is thinking," she once said, describing her way of cutting through the facade of show business. She was not above poking fun at her own facade, as her innumerable trips to the plastic surgeon became a staple of her act: "I've had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware."
Well, that would have been funny, but it's not what will really happen. Joan will be buried just a few months after she returned to the Tonight Show for the last time. It is entirely fitting that this was her swansong, since late night talk was really what she was all about. She may not have stomped on the Terra, per se, but she did tear up the couch. Aloha, Joan.