Diary of a Mad Diva by Joan Rivers Outrageous? Yes, but fun, at least at times- 7 out of 10

 Diary of a Mad Diva by Joan Rivers

Outrageous? Yes, but fun, at least at times- 7 out of 10

 

Joan Rivers died last year and she has caused something of a furor by not being mentioned on the list of the great who had died in the previous year, at the Academy Awards.

Some malevolent people might say that this is for good reason considering the attacks on almost everybody that she had launched in public.

Many of the stories told in this book are told that they really happened, but since I am not familiar with the Hollywood gossip I cannot say if they are for real.

Boundaries are passed and good taste may be lacking in parts, or is it everywhere, but then that may be the trend.

I have written some notes here about the humor of Louis CK, which is hard for me to understand- in the sense of

-          How is this even possible, and to be aired on TV…

In one of the last episodes of Louie, the hero has not just sex with a very pregnant woman, but she is giving birth as a consequence or just while coitus…I am not sure.

Joan Rivers talks in the same careless and offensive manner about Ms. DeGeneres, Richard Gere, Ben Stiller, Anne Hathaway and many more.

To be fair, she sometimes talks in the same depreciative manner about…herself.

At one point she talks about a show which involved some Arab princes and their multiple young wives.

The worst show ever, she says- since nobody laughed at Any of her jokes, but they sent a check for “Jew p**”  

She then makes a series of – is it racial, ethnic- in any case very crude and hard to take – jokes about the Arabs

-          “how many or how do they screw a light bulb- I cannot recall the exact joke”

-          But the answers are scandalous-

-          None, for they have no opposing thumbs

-          None, for they have no electricity

-          None, because they burn the oldest wife and then they have light with that…”

This may give you an idea about how shocking this book can be.

Richard Gere is mentioned and the rumors that he is gay and the slander on his animal loving attitude.

Joan Rivers talks about gerbils or other animals finding shelter…up his ass.

Anne Hathaway and her supposed gratitude speech- I do not if this, or indeed, any other tale from this book is for real- where she talks about eating a tomato and a cabbage in…celebration or some other crazy thing like that

 

Sex is ever present with sodomy, oral and all kinds of freakish attitudes. And the boundaries are moving rapidly:

She makes jokes on Mother Theresa, for whom she says that she changed the Wikipedia page, to something like:

-          A sex pervert who loves to touch people’s feet

Another joke refers to the silence of the Holocaust, and in others there is plenty of vagina, penis and immigrants. Perhaps with shame I should admit that I did like some of this book, depending on the ethical, conservative or liberal moods I was in.