Posted on 06/21/2006 7:23:29 PM PDT by World_Events
Kathy Griffin tours Iraq, Kuwait By Kevin McDonough
Monday, June 19, 2006
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One doesn’t expect touching moments from “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List” (8 p.m., Bravo), but the foul-mouthed, celebrity-obsessed comic delivers them in spades on a very special episode documenting her tour of military bases in Kuwait and Iraq.
Griffin is upfront about her politics. She quips that she’s so far to the left she wants gun control during gay marriage. But she also says she supports the troops 110 percent, and on tonight’s episode she goes about proving just that.
She’s accompanied by Michael McDonald (“Mad TV) and Karri Turner (“Jag”). Along the way, none of them loses the ironic edge or eye for comedic details. Griffin riffs on the smells of Kuwait, and McDonald struggles with airsickness while flying a military transport into Tikrit. They maintain a grim sense of humor while driving on Baghdad’s notoriously dangerous Airport Road, and Griffin is in her glory while checking into a room located in one of Saddam Hussein’s opulent marble palaces.
Griffin never forgets her minor-celebrity status and worries that her routine may fall flat on even a captive audience. But the three performers, who have a history together in Los Angeles’ Groundlings Comedy Troupe, provide some hilariously profane improvisations to the wild delight of the soldiers. They clearly don’t care about the D-list talent. Some of them declare that it was the first time they had laughed in weeks.
Griffin soon learns that not even the garish marble of Hussein’s very Donald Trump-like edifice can shield her from danger. While preparing for her final performance, the hotel comes under rocket attack, and the group wonders whether the show can go on.
Filled with glib asides like “D All You Can Be,” Griffin’s show presents a different twist on the traditional USO tour. But the results are the same as any Bob Hope special: easy laughs, more than few tears and a deep appreciation for young people doing the best job they can under dangerous circumstances.
But Griffin also has a point to make about the war and those who can discuss it only in terms of belligerent jingoism. At the beginning of the show, she challenges talk-show conservatives with the taunt: “I’m going to Tikrit next week. How about you?” She walks through a field hospital filled with wounded kids and chats with a bruised soldier who saw his fiancee blown up as they walked to a mess hall. And all he wants to do is return to duty. She gets serious about the reality of the situation. “This is not a Toby Keith song,” she comments. This is real.
Some clips:
http://www.tv.com/kathy-griffin/person/8811/summary.html
Also her own website:
http://www.kathygriffin.net/pics.php
Saw This last night,very touching,She almost gets it.....
Her standup is pretty funny, but her politics are crap.
Get a hold of transcripts of her appearances on Real Time with Bill Maher.
Murtha has also visited Iraq.
I agree. I love Kathy Griffin. She can get away with things I would find disgusting with most comics.
But like most of Hollywood, her politics stink.
Hopefully her eyes were opened a little wider to the fact that we are the good guys over there. She deserves some credit for actually going when most of her lefty Hollyweird friends who like to shoot their mouths off won't.
Posted by Brent Baker on January 24, 2006 - 07:06.
In a December 23 USA Today front page story, “USO cheers troops, but Iraq gigs tough to book; Safety concerns, disagreement with war keeping many celebrities from volunteering,” reporters Martin Kasindorf and Steven Komarow related how actor/comedian Robin Williams, “who like [Al] Franken has been an outspoken critic of Bush's management of the war -- and [Wayne] Newton, a Republican who backs Bush, say some stars have turned down the USO because they thought such performances would amount to endorsing the war.” But in a Friday evening Nightline story, Terry Moran, through his use of soundbites from two left-wingers, portrayed cowardly conservatives, including Rush Limbaugh who isn't a stage performer, as the problem facing the USO in trying to get stars to go to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Moran asserted: “While the USO has been able to attract some big names for tours in recent years -- Jessica Simpson, Robin Williams, the rapper 50 Cent -- some of the top stars are AWOL. Like, say-" Comedian Kathy Griffin charged: "Mel Gibson, big conservative. Go on over, Mel, anytime. They'd be glad to see you. They all love Braveheart." Moran elaborated on how Griffin, a “opponent of the war” who has done several USO tours, “loves performing for the troops and she wonders why some vocal war supporters have stayed home." Moran then featured this blast from Griffin: “I think Rush Limbaugh should, you know, pop a few of those Oxycontin that he probably still has laying around and go over. I mean, I'm not saying go straight, he's got to take the edge off, but, you know, put your money where your mouth is, O'Reilly, go do a book tour or something over there." (In fact, Limbaugh hasn't gone on a USO tour, but in late February 2005 he did go on a U.S. Agency for International Development trip to visit troops in Afghanistan.)
Moran let Al Franken tell an anecdote about how Sylvester Stallone was too afraid to go to Iraq before excusing liberals from any responsibility: "USO President Ned Powell insists the divisive politics of the Iraq war and the liberal tilt of Hollywood have had no impact on the organization's ability to recruit stars.”
I was brought to one of her shows at a comedy club by a friend once.
I never had heard of her before. She didn't go against conservatives at all, her stick is all about dirt on celebrities.
She went over two hours when I saw her and cracked me up.
She seems to be one that is not in your face at least in attacks against conservatives.
I also don't follow her every move so maybe there are things I don't know.
She's a disgrace.
I find nothing funny about pretend to care liberals.
Kathy Griffin
Actress/comedian Kathy Griffin delivered not comedy but her vitriolic personal opinion as she shouted, to loud audience applause while she gesticulated with her arms:
“The President is a moron! I'm saying it. I don't care. He's an idiot. Cheney is evil. I'm sick of, impeach them, get them out! I hate them! I hate them. Get them out. They got to go!"
She later pleaded: “What is it going to take for you people? Get Bush out! Impeach! Out! Out! Out!”
09/10/05 ~ Comedy Central's Weekends at the DL
http://www.liberallunacy.net/quotes.htm
As others have said, I like her act but she should shut the hell up when it comes to politics. I will give her credit for going over to Iraq to entertain the troops.
I doubt she said that to the troops.
I don't doubt she went over the top in anything she said, that is all she does.
Who's Kathy Griffin?
RED FLAG
Dittos to that.
I was flipping channels and Griffin's hooters caught my eye, so I stopped and watched a while.
In a short time, she met with two homo writer friends of hers and had a homo designer over to her house.
I should have know better than to watch anything on Bravo, home of "Queer Eye". In scanning the media guide, it looks like Griffin, Queer Eye, and Celebrity Poker are their main shows. Oh, throw West Wing into that stellar mix.
Say "Buh-Bye" Bravo.
So besides being a liberal, Griffin's a total fag hag. USO should screen their performers a little better. I thought I had heard that her husband left her, but I think that might have been someone else, or wishful thinking on my part.
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