Kathy Griffin is famous for almost being famous, which is why her once popular show was called Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. The show, which began airing in 2005 on Bravo, “chronicled actress-comic Griffin’s attempts to stay in the spotlight despite her relatively low ‘celebrity status’.”
The funny thing about the show, besides Griffin playing the role of celebrity scourge, was the conceit itself — she admitted her desire to be famous, how poorly she often did at it, and how humbling it all was.
That was back when “authenticity” started to be an online thing, and Griffin was seen as truly authentic, transparent to her own detriment, in fact.
So it’s funny to see this D-Lister getting under the skin of the world’s richest man 17 years later. Griffin’s Twitter account was suspended Sunday, after she borrowed Elon Musk’s identity, changed her page’s title to “Elon Musk” and mocked the social media company’s new owner. (Actress Valerie Bertinelli did the same thing, without the level of mockery, but has not yet suffered the same banishment.)
Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be permanently suspended
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2022
Musk doesn’t like to be mocked any more than the rest of us, but he’s got the power to stop it — at least on Twitter. Saturday Night Live and TikTok remain Mock Musk All You Want Zones. Still as one commenter wrote, apparently to Musk, about Griffin’s impersonation: “C’mon, man, it’s flattery.”
Of course, it’s long been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, even if the imitated rarely like it. Besides, Musk does Musk parody just fine all by himself.
Musk’s directive to charge Twitter users a monthly fee to substantiate their online authenticity (with a previous free blue checkmark) started the whole kerfuffle.
Musk, who recently assured advertisers he doesn’t intend for Twitter to turn into a “free-for-all hellscape” apparently meant that Twitter will be a NOT-Free-For -ALL Hellscape. It will be a $7 a month hellscape.
