I was asked by AOL.com to give my thoughts on Kathy Griffin at the VH1 "Divas Salute The Troops" event in which she mocked Bristol Palin's weight, claiming she's the only "DWTS" contestant to actually ever gain weight, and also referred to her as "The White Precious."
Are these remarks hurtful to not only Bristol, also the plentiful amount of young ladies who tuned into this program? The audience was booing anything Kathy had to say about the Palin family. They hadn’t even heard the joke when they started booing. I watched and listened to the tape several times. Those were really loud aggressive hateful boos. And startling, as I have seen military audiences absolutely love on Kathy and laugh buoyantly. She was working hard to get through that moment. I have never seen her that unloved on stage. Her voice was already blown going into that joke and I can tell you that can happen to you as a comic or speaker when you have to yell over the audience. That tells me that the audience was already going wild.
I think this was actually a pretty tame joke. The hard news media feels a politician's kid is off limits for criticism until the parent or the child chooses to put the child or themselves in the limelight. She chose to be on a show that loves to celebrate the underdog and the winner, but also a show that EVERYONE makes fun of the contestants. Maria Osmond calls the show "dancing with the starved" because of how the media made fun of her weight on the show.
I can tell you the only time I have received death threats from an audience is when I was on a National News show and was asked to say three pieces of praise for Palin’s media interviewing skills and to make three suggestions for ways Sarah Palin could improve her interviewing skills. ( This was at the beginning of her Vice Presidential debate.)
Is Kathy sending the wrong message? I think she was making a fat joke against a young woman who chose to be in the lime light. Kathy didn’t deliver it with the acidic dig and face that she uses when she really dislikes someone. Are her words damaging? I think it might be damaging for her, but she thrives on it. She was bringing it on.
I also think Palin knew that digs like this might happen if she went on the show and she still wanted to do it. Even my 90 year old mother commented weeks ago that Palin was gaining weight, but she was impressed that she drove herself from Alaska to do the show. My mother wanted to see Sara Palin’s TV show on Alaska because she was impressed with her daughter. The Palin family draws attention.
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at http://PattiWood.net. Also check out the body language quiz on her YouTube Channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.
