Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Kathy Griffin, Awesome as Ever

Comedian Kathy Griffin recently won an Emmy for her reality-ish show "My Life on the D-List." It's pretty witty and often very humorous, so good for her. The interesting thing, though, is how she closed her acceptance speech:

A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. Suck it, Jesus, this award is my god now!
Alas, although as an ardent (albeit alliterative) atheist I really want to praise her for this, I'm not sure I can. Of course I fully support what she said--Jesus can suck it, and people who attribute their own successes to some supernatural being are fools--but I don't know if the awards ceremony was really the proper venue. In the interest of parity, I feel like I'm not justified in saying that (on one hand) it is not appropriate to proselytize from an award ceremony podium while on the other hand broadcasting one's distaste for Christianity is just fine--in other words, no god during speeches, and no anti-god during speeches.

However, I can see the other side too: why shouldn't award recipients be allowed to say whatever they want? If it is acceptable for other recipients to say "Thank you Jesus for this award," why isn't it acceptable for Griffin to say "Jesus had nothing to do with this award." I suppose the answer to that is the particular vitriol with which she made her point, and perhaps that I can understand. Still, she is a comedian, remember, and people shouldn't be taking her words as seriously as some are.

In the end, I suppose Griffin should be commended for her act of consciousness-raising, even if it was done in a rather ham-handed fashion. It takes courage to be an atheist (even in Hollywood, I imagine), and broadcasting your lack of faith to the world is not an easy thing to do. We need more people with the courage to "come out."

What do you think? Should Griffin praised for her words? Blamed?

1 comment:

That 0ne Guy said...

I would have to agree with you that in no way should "God" be correlated with an award of any kind, and I do agree with "Jesus can suck it."

Being that I didn't watch the award being awarded, or any of the speeches, I think if someone can "praise the lord" for an award, as people so often do, that Griffin should be able to say what she did. Joke or not.

I also believe that people get what they deserve, and "God" has no real interaction in what people do. If I do remember correctly, the bible states god gave man free will. So what we get is based on what we do right?

I say good for Griffin for taking credit for the award, and not giving the credit to the supernatural being that was more then likely made up by Man.