I should probably skip this one but if I do, followers of this site will infer all sorts of reasons I don't write about the passing of Joan Rivers. If she'd had a different style of humor, I probably wouldn't write anything about her because it will come off negative…but Ms. Rivers never spared anyone's feelings.
Groping for nice things to say about her, I'll say that, first of all, no one ever worked harder. She started in stand-up at a time when a woman had to hustle and fight to get on stage and to overcome all manner of presumptions that a female just shouldn't be doing that. So good for her for getting past all that crap to become a successful, in-demand performer. She also had to get past the belief that if a woman did for some reason insist on doing comedy, there was really only one appropriate topic for her. Like Phyllis Diller and Totie Fields, she had to get on stage and insult her own appearance and sexuality. And get past that, she did.
I will also say that many people loved her and respected her and are saddened by her passing. In fact, many people I respect a lot are saddened and I don't discount that. The fact that I stopped finding her funny about half-past her time in Johnny Carson's guest chair doesn't mean she didn't succeed admirably in her occupation.
As she got older and angrier, it made me more and more uncomfortable to see her on television. I just wrote three more paragraphs explaining why and thought, "No, this is not the time for that." So I deleted it all, including the part where I called her the Westboro Baptist Church of comedy. I'll just close by saying that I followed her career as long as I could and I admire how long it lasted and what she went through to get there. She was a very important and accomplished performer and she was really, really good at being Joan Rivers and I hope that when I go, no one writes an obit about me with as many mixed feelings as this one.