Joan Rivers
The death of Joan Rivers leaves something of a void in the world of comedy and humor. Joan was certainly not everyone's cup of tea, especially anyone with the least bit of insecurity or humorlessness, as she played rough, including with her jokes about herself, but also often with jokes about other people sharing the "celebrity" status. The name of her book from a couple of years ago, "I Hate Everyone ... Starting With Me," sort of sums up her sarcastic, hard hitting view of humor, a type of humor which drew criticism from some who failed to garner an apology from Joan, or achieve a bow to "political correctness" from her. Her request for a "showbiz" funeral was just something you would have expected from her, and I'm so glad that is what she got ... a big send off, complete with an irreverent eulogy by Howard Stern and a prolonged standing ovation for her. The details of Stern's eulogy are still sketchy, but some reports say he said something to the effect, "I hope she's now chasing Johnnie Carson around with a baseball bat," in reference to the feud between the two stars, dating to the mid 1980s.
So I stand and applaud you Joan Rivers. You pushed the envelope for comedy with sarcasm and personal references, but never meant with hate ... ah, you didn't mean any of those things in hate, right?
WORD HISTORY:
Chutzpah-This Yiddish word, borrowed into American English in the late 1800s, goes back to Aramaic, an Afro-Asiatic language, from the Semitic branch, along with Arabic, Amharic, and Hebrew, for example. Aramaic "huspa," meant "to be disrespectfully unashamed, insolent." This gave Hebrew "khutspa," and the word was later taken up by Yiddish.^ While usually meant in a negative way, depending upon context, the American version can also be complimentary, meaning "daring, self confident."
^ Yiddish developed about 1000 A.D. among German Jews living in the Rhineland area from some High German dialects back then. It also used Hebrew, and, over time, spread throughout Europe's Jewish communities, incorporating some vocabulary from several Slavic languages/dialects in eastern Europe. It is written in the Hebrew alphabet, but it is classified as one of the Germanic languages, thus making it a close relative of English.
So I stand and applaud you Joan Rivers. You pushed the envelope for comedy with sarcasm and personal references, but never meant with hate ... ah, you didn't mean any of those things in hate, right?
WORD HISTORY:
Chutzpah-This Yiddish word, borrowed into American English in the late 1800s, goes back to Aramaic, an Afro-Asiatic language, from the Semitic branch, along with Arabic, Amharic, and Hebrew, for example. Aramaic "huspa," meant "to be disrespectfully unashamed, insolent." This gave Hebrew "khutspa," and the word was later taken up by Yiddish.^ While usually meant in a negative way, depending upon context, the American version can also be complimentary, meaning "daring, self confident."
^ Yiddish developed about 1000 A.D. among German Jews living in the Rhineland area from some High German dialects back then. It also used Hebrew, and, over time, spread throughout Europe's Jewish communities, incorporating some vocabulary from several Slavic languages/dialects in eastern Europe. It is written in the Hebrew alphabet, but it is classified as one of the Germanic languages, thus making it a close relative of English.
Labels: comedy, English, etymology, Howard Stern, humor, humorless people, Joan Rivers, political correctness, Semitic languages, Yiddish
posted by Randy at 3:12 PM
3 Comments:
a great comedy lady RIP Joan
I'm sure Joan Rivers would like your 'Word History' on your tribute to her too. She was something!
She was really one of the greats, but she did rub some people the wrong way.
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