Kathy Griffin Blasted Ellen Degeneres for How She Responded To the Death of Joan Rivers – ‘You Need To Let Go of Your Hatred’
Ellen DeGeneres has been on blast a lot lately. Story after unflattering story came out about DeGeneres after comedian Kevin T. Porter said he’d donate money to the Los Angeles Food Bank for every tweet detailing “the most insane stories you’ve heard about Ellen being mean.” And Twitter delivered. Since then, how DeGeneres treats her staff has been scrutinized, along with allegations of a toxic work environment taking place at The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
A couple of years ago, comedian Kathy Griffin spoke about an argument she got into with DeGeneres after Joan Rivers died. Apparently, DeGeneres thought Rivers was too mean to be funny.
Ellen DeGeneres thought Joan Rivers was ‘vulgar and not funny,’ according to Kathy Griffin
In 2018, Kathy Griffin did a stand-up show called Laugh Your Head Off. But the evening included more than just jokes, according to the comedian – “I’m also spilling piping hot tea.”
During the night, Griffin spoke about her experiences with several different celebrities, one of them being DeGeneres. She said that something that always bothered her late friend Rivers was how DeGeneres viewed her (too mean to be funny).
“One of the things that really hurt Joan, and we talked about it at our last meal together, was that Ellen always shunned her and Ellen thought she was vulgar and not funny,” said Griffin, adding that DeGeneres also thinks she’s too vulgar.
Kathy Griffin and Ellen DeGeneres got into a huge argument when Joan Rivers died
When Rivers died, Griffin reached out to DeGeneres to urge her to bury the hatchet and do a tribute.
“I just called her and I just said, ‘Look, woman to woman, comic to comic, I think you need to let go of your hatred for Joan Rivers. She’s passed away, just do a f*cking tribute, be cool,’” she said.
But, according to Griffin, DeGeneres held strong to her opinion about Rivers: “There’s a difference between mean and funny.”
An argument ensued.
“That f*cking set me off,” said Griffin. “So we had a fight in which I used inflammatory words like, ‘Look you f—ing untalented hack.’ … You know when you’re fighting with someone and you can kind of laugh at a point? Yeah, not that day.”
Ellen DeGeneres’ tweet about Joan Rivers when she died
In the end, DeGeneres did post a tweet about the late Rivers.
“Joan Rivers will always be a pioneer. She paved the way for a lot of comedians. I’m very sad she’s gone,” she wrote.
A few days later, Griffin attempted to text DeGeneres to make amends.
“It was so ‘Dynasty’ that I demand to be Alexis as long as you’re Krystle. I think we should do a scene in the pool, I think there should be big hats,” the text read.
But DeGeneres didn’t text back.
“That b*tch didn’t even respond! But that was a good idea!” said Griffin.
