From D-List to A-List

Kathy and Wozniak -- Picture courtesy of Bravo

by blogSpotter

Who is Kathy Griffin?

Kathy Griffin is the horribly inappropriate, take-no-prisoners, hilarious comedienne from Bravo’s Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. Last night, I caught a rerun from December 2007 where Kathy was preparing for a Times Square New Years show with Anderson Cooper. She has a small staff of writers, PR people, and a makeup artist that probably should be paid double for what they must endure. She tries out all her new material on them and scolds them for various infractions (not laughing hard enough at her jokes or behaving “unprofessionally” at a prior event). Her elderly Mother is a frequent visitor – Kathy shocks her with suggested jokes about Jesus.

Shock and Awe is Griffin’s weapon system of choice. She was raised Catholic, but scandalized the church at the Emmys by saying that “Jesus can suck it – he had nothing to do with this award”. Viewers the world over were waiting for lightening bolts to strike.

In a subsequent episode, she was dating the plumpish nerd Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple. Steve was a good sport about many things and accompanied Griffin to a Producers Award ceremony where she was nominated; she was up against 60 Minutes and Planet Earth. Upon losing to Planet Earth, Kathy booed publicly. On the limo ride back, she made disparaging remarks about Planet Earth, its inspiration planet Earth, and Oprah her nemesis who recommended Planet Earth. I’ve seldom laughed so hard.

On the ride over Wozniak programmed her iPhone to use 3rd party apps, and Kathy looked simultaneously amused and annoyed …like “What kind of nerd IS this guy. I don’t care how much money he has, nobody can be that dweeby!”. At least she didn’t say it outright which is out of the ordinary for her.

Kathy will say and do almost anything for a laugh. I think underneath the salty language and horrifically accurate verbal assaults, there lurks a nice person. She entertained the troops in person in Iraq, and that is no small contribution. Her charm is that she’s very unmoored and says what many of us are thinking. As she picks up momentum, Ms. Griffin is frequently in A-List company – her level of wit and energy demands nothing less.

On another topic -- Deleted Blogs

Way back in 2005 I wrote Blog Writer Edit Thyself. In it, I talked about occasions where I've taken the blue pencil to my own writing. If a blog is off topic, too intimate or shows poor writing quality I'll give it the axe (sometimes after it's already been published a couple of days). I failed to elaborate on a couple of things in Edit Thyself. Here are two more things I have to watch for as a writer...

Deadly factual -- I tell other people not to give me an article which is a simple recitation of facts. If the reader wants bare facts, they can look at Wikipedia or an almanac. The blog article should be shaded with opinion which reveals some the author's own personality. That personality may be quirky in some way but must come out. The article should either entertain or challenge the reader to think about something. It should never just be factual regurgitation. In spite of my saying that, I've delivered blogs that were DOA -- dead on arrival (and dull). In the extreme situations, they were axed. This isn't really a news outlet either; there are op-ed pieces on recent news events, but there should be a strong opinion component mixed in with the news item. The blog article should give us some of the blogger.

Preachy and sanctimonious -- Granted that I have an opinion and would love to sway you my direction, I don't want to finger wag. Neither do I want to come across as judgmental. I'm not your mother and if I should ever find myself on a soap box, somebody needs to push me off. If someone wants moralizing lectures, he can go to Sunday School or spend a week with his parents. I just wrote and deleted Consider the Lilies of the Field, concerning work-life balance. It's a valid topic but one that is better served in a Human Resources brochure, not here. I presumed to criticize the priorities of someone I don't know, thereby compounding preachy with judgmental. So Lilies got the axe too.

It doesn't seem like such a tall order, but grammar and spelling are the least of the blogger's gotchas. I'm my own editor, so I'll periodically have to wield the axe when I get out of line. :-)

© 2008 blogSpotter