Even though it’s been more than ten years since Joan Rivers‘ untimely death, her legacy still looms large in the world of comedy. During the New York Comedy Festival last November, Joan Rivers: A Dead Funny All-Star Tribute was recorded at the Apollo Theater, and the special features an impressive roster of comedians and actors paying tribute to the comedy pioneer and legend.
The Gist: After Tiffany Haddish opens things up with a musical tribute, a hip hop take on “Hava Nagila,” Patton Oswalt gets on stage to talk about the filing cabinet that Rivers showed in the 2010 documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work. That cabinet had just about every joke Rivers ever wrote, neatly typed out onto colorful index cards and categorized. “There are 4 jokes about Hitler, 34 jokes about Richard Nixon and… 866 jokes about Elizabeth Taylor,” Oswalt tells the audience.
Oswalt and all of the subsequent guests — including ones that weren’t at the Apollo but appear via prerecorded segments — read from reproductions of those cards, as a way to illustrate how funny Rivers was about so many topics, and how precise and sharp her jokes could be. Of course, many of her jokes were about her own looks and about aging, which Nikki Glaser goes into during her set. “She let other 6s like me know that if you’re funny enough, people will treat you like an 8,” she jokes.
Also appearing on stage during the one-hour NBC version of the special are Rachel Brosnahan, Rita Wilson, Aubrey Plaza, Joel McHale, and Chelsea Handler. An extended and uncut version will stream on Peacock, and will also feature Michelle Buteau, Jeff Ross, Randy Rainbow, Matteo Lane and Sandra Bernhard. Melissa Rivers, one of the special’s executive producers, also appears on stage to salute her mother.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The aforementioned documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work is the most comprehensive story of Joan’s remarkable life and career; it’s worth seeking out. It’s also worth mentioning that Amy Sherman-Palladino’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, while not a direct reimagining of the Rivers mythos, owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to her (hence the inclusion of Brosnahan in the evening’s festivities).
Performance Worth Watching: We enjoyed Aubrey Plaza reading some of Rivers’ “Eee, we probably shouldn’t say that anymore” jokes, given in “In Memoriam” format. Tiffany Haddish’s set about what she learned from Joan about being Jewish was also funny.
Memorable Dialogue: The side interviews with Jean Smart, Tracy Morgan, Margaret Cho, Sarah Silverman offer insights into how Joan influenced their careers. Bill Maher and Howie Mandel read some of Joan’s jokes from their respective studios. When Howie reads the joke “I show up to orgies with Handi-Wipes,” the famous germophobe adds, “I know that’s supposed to be funny, but when I read it, it’s just like a good idea.”
Sex and Skin: There’s a segment where Brosnahan tells as many of Joan’s vagina jokes as possible in 60 seconds, so… yeah.
Our Take: The idea to pay tribute to Joan Rivers via her own jokes was a pretty good one Alon paper. After all, she wrote over 70,000 of them, and they’re all one-liners. Why not get some of the best comedians on the planet to celebrate Joan using her own words? It was shocking to us then, that by the time the hour was over, we had chuckled a lot but didn’t let out a lot of belly laughs.
It could be that Joan’s jokes work best coming from Joan herself; her voice and delivery style match her staccato joke-writing style perfectly, as all the clips of Joan doing standup over the years indicate. It could also be that the format was just a bit too scattered to get any comedic momentum going. Finally, the bowdlerized network version of the special likely left Joan’s best — and dirtiest — lines on the cutting-room floor. What we’re hoping is that the extended Peacock version has more of the risqué lines that were among Joan’s best jokes.
All that being said, the special is still worth watching because Joan Rivers had such a long and varied career, and broke so many barriers that the tributes from everyone on the special were heartfelt and sincere. And, given that the network vision only has a 42-minute runtime (without commercials), it still manages to cover aspects of her career via her time on E! (via McHale’s set), her QVC clothing and jewelry line (via Wilson’s set) and becoming the first female late-night talk show host (via Handler’s set).
Our Call: STREAM IT. Anyone who is a fan of Joan Rivers (like we are) will appreciate the tributes to her in Joan Rivers: A Dead Funny All-Star Tribute. But if you have access to the extended Peacock version, we recommend watching that one instead of the kneecapped version on NBC.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.