Joan Rivers Turns 80: 15 Off-Color Tributes From Bill Maher, Kathy Griffin, Sarah Silverman and More

This story first appeared in the June 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Friends, family and former and current colleagues tell in their own words what they love about the iconic comic.

KATHY GRIFFIN 
COMIC AND ACTRESS

Me in 2007: “Joan, it’s Kathy. I’m in New York on tour for a few days, and I have to ask you something really sensitive and embarrassing. I’m just going to come out with it. I started sleeping with this new guy. We’ve been going at it pretty hard. Anyway, the bottom line is, um, I know I’m 46 and I shouldn’t be a slut anymore and everything, but I’m really hurting, and this is your town, and I know you know every doctor in it, so, um, I need to know if you can send me to a doctor within two hours regarding a very painful urinary tract infection. I just want to tell you again, I’m very embarrassed about this, I apologize, and I can’t even imagine what you must think of me at 46 years old having a UTI from banging some guy four times in one night.” Joan to me: “Are you kidding? I think it’s fabulous.” Happy Birthday, Joan. You are a true friend!

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More on Joan Rivers’ Life and Career

Joan and I became good friends just in the past few years. As she recently said, “Better late than never.” Yes, I always knew of her legendary sharp wit, but I also learned early that despite a staggering work drive, she carves out time for life. She had arrived for dinner with producer Arnold Stiefel and explained that I shouldn’t take it personally but she’d have to exit by 11 p.m. because she was leaving early in the morning for a four-day holiday with two of her girlfriends. I was curious. Where did Joan Rivers go on holiday? I got a shock when she said she was going to study the colonial village of Williamsburg, Va. Williamsburg! And who were her girlfriends? Cindy Adams and Judge Judy, of course. That’s Joanie for you!

BILL MAHER
HOST AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, HBO’S REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER

I really wanted to get on the phone because I caught her [Showtime] special the other night. And I was just blown away because I mean she’s 80, and she’s as good as ever, she’s all over the stage, she’s on the floor, she’s bent over the stool, she’s doing physical stuff. I’m telling you, I watched this thing mouth agape. She was never politically correct, but I love that at her age she totally doesn’t give a f–. There is a liberation about “Look, I’m an icon, I’m 80, what are you going to do? You don’t like it, turn it off.” I was just so impressed. I’ve always been a fan going way, way back to Johnny Carson, but this was something special. I do remember as a kid watching her on Carson and Ed Sullivan. This is the era before there were a million comics. So you’d get like one new comic a year, and Joan Rivers, I remember she was the new funny lady. And she was.

Her best quality as a comedian? Fearlessness.

PAUL REUBENS
COMEDIAN KNOWN FOR FICTIONAL CHARACTER PEE-WEE HERMAN

The best thing Joan told me — when I was telling her, early in my career, how odd it was to be recognized: “What’s really strange is if it stops.” I had a few little periods when it did stop … and she was right! It was noticeable. The other thing Joan told me was when she asked me to fill in for her after I was the first guest on her first show The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers: “My secret as a host of this show is that I really listen to these people. It’s their time, they’re the guests, you’re the host. You’re not going for the joke all the time — give them time to speak.” I carried it with me for so many years since then, it was so helpful in every facet in and outside my career. Joan gets so much grief for being abrasive, but she’s a wonderful, great, loyal friend. That’s why I never roast her. I can’t be funny or mean to her, I never feel it.

DON RICKLES
COMEDIAN

Joan is not only a very intelligent lady but extremely masterful at comedy timing. Sharing the stage with her has always been a joy for me.

STORY: Joan Rivers Interview: Her 13 Best One-Liners

MELISSA RIVERS 
DAUGHTER AND REALITY CO-STAR OF WE TV’S JOAN AND MELISSA: JOAN KNOWS BEST?

Just like any parent, my mom, once I got to a certain age, loved to embarrass me. I was 17 and applying to colleges, and we were seeing a bunch of schools on the East Coast. We flew in and didn’t realize the limo that picked us up was a big, white stretch one. It was myself, my father, godfather and my mom, and everyone was all dressed up in our college interview clothes. We drove to go see Williams College. As we pull in to the main drag, it was seriously a page out of the Preppy Handbook: women in espadrilles, men with whales on their pants, and here we come in this giant white limo. We get out of the car in front of the school, and every head is turning, and I’m at that age and dying of embarrassment. We’re walking up to the administration building, and I hear this noise and turn back to see my mother leading my father and godfather, all linking arms, singing as loud as they can “We Are What We Are” from La Cage Aux Folles. (Laughs.) My mom yells out, “Honey, don’t forget to ask if they have a fur vault!” At which point I realized I was not getting into Williams. I went to the interview and looked at the guy like, “I don’t even know why I’m bothering, there is no point to apply, why am I even here?” I ended up going to the University of Pennsylvania, and now we always request black limos.

LARRY THOMPSON
PRODUCER AND MANAGER

“Men are stupid and they like big boobs,” said Joan to me one day while we were discussing her views on plastic surgery. “No one ever reached up under a woman’s dress to look for her library card.” I said, “Joan, there’s a book here!” So, after a few pitches and a year later, Simon & Schuster published Joan’s definitive, everything-you-need-to-know-about-plastic-surgery book, Men Are Stupid… And They Like Big Boobs.

KIM MARTIN
PRESIDENT AND GM, WE TV

We all know that Joan is funny, but I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing another side of her. She sends thank-you notes for everything; she even sent me flowers for Mother’s Day with a sweet card. Long before WE tv worked with Joan, colleagues and I met her at the airport in Cannes. She was gracious and funny and kept everyone in line laughing. We knew then that if we ever had the chance to work with her, we would jump at it.

STORY: ‘Fashion Police’ Protest: Writers Chant ‘Joan Rivers, Can We Talk?’

LARRY KING
FORMER CNN ANCHOR, HOST OF ORA.TV’S LARRY KING NOW

I was extremely sad over [her falling out] with Johnny Carson, that Carson held such a grudge against her. He never spoke to her again [after she got her own late-night show on Fox in 1986]. I was with Johnny once, we were both presenters at a TV Academy awards show, and they gave us the same dressing room. And I asked Johnny about it. And he said, “I just don’t want to talk about it.” So I think he took it as a terrible slight against him, and she took it as, why wasn’t she free to get a job on her own? Sort of like the Palestinians and the Jews; they’re both right. She’s very bitter over it.

BARBARA WALTERS
CORRESPONDENT, ABC NEWS; CO-HOST, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, THE VIEW

I wouldn’t dare to try to be funny about Joan Rivers because she is the smartest, best-informed and funniest woman I know. How could I possibly compete? And besides, Joan is so many years older than I.