Joan Rivers (1933 - 2014) was the best

Joan Rivers has died from complications resulting from throat surgery. She was 81. For many, she was the best. The funniest, sharpest, most mischievous comic we will ever know. And though she’d hate us for saying it, she was also a true feminist pioneer. Well before it had been settled whether women should be doing stand-up at all, she was not only doing it but shaping it – and subtly shaping society too. Her early routines, like the following 1967 set from the Ed Sullivan show about how crappy the female experience could be, were laying the ground for political feminism:

But her radicalism was restless. And when the political tides turned, so did she. Women, gays, 9/11, the Holocaust, Oprah’s weight – nothing was off limits. Where there was a sacred cow, there was Joan with a gun. Her plain-speaking got her into trouble, such as in this spectacular bust-up with Darcus Howe on Radio 4’s Mid Week: