Kathy Griffin has received no shortage of scorn since the photograph released earlier this week (on Tuesday—what a week) of her holding a decapitated, bloody Donald Trump head. Although Griffin soon released a public and contrite apology, saying, “I beg for your forgiveness,” she also lost her New Year’s Eve hosting gig at CNN, while receiving criticism from everyone from Chelsea Clinton to Trump himself, who called the image “sick.”
In these uncharted political times, Griffin’s controversial photo still has has its defenders—even from an unlikely source like Larry King, who believes that since Griffin apologized, everyone should just move on (as long as he’s been in the media, he should know that that’s not happening anytime soon).
Now Entertainment Weekly reports that fellow comedian and bearded woodsman Jim Carrey, while promoting the new show he’s producing for Showtime, I’m Dying Up Here, came out in support of Griffin during an Entertainment Tonight interview:
I think it is the job of a comedian to cross the line at all times—because that line is not real. If you step out into that spotlight and you’re doing the crazy things that [Trump] is doing, we’re the last line of defense. And really, the comedians are the last voice of truth in this whole thing.
We have to credit Carrey for defending Griffin while slyly working in a plug for his new show, which explores the L.A. stand-up comedy scene in the 1970s. That could have been a nice wrap-up to this story, but of course, that’s not the case. EW also notes that Griffin “is expected to appear at a press conference on Friday, where she and her attorney, Lisa Bloom, ‘will explain the true meaning behind the image,’ Bloom tweeted,” even though the “true meaning” of that image isn’t exactly subtle.