Although the number of Americans who think that Donald Trump is a swell president is shrinking every day (not that it matters; he thinks a 48 percent approval rating is good), disapproving of someone’s job performance doesn’t necessarily extend into wishing for their violent death. Comedian Kathy Griffin learned this earlier today, when an image of her getting all Game Of Thrones with a bloody decapitated head resembling that of our Tweeter-in-Chief began spreading across the internet. TMZ was instrumental in spreading the image, because it knows which side of the 7-11 its Red Bull comes from. Here it is, big old watermark and all:
The image was shot by inline skater-turned-photographer Tyler Shields, who’s previously gotten himself into trouble by taking pictures of Lindsay Lohan holding a gun to her mouth and Glee’s Heather Morris posing for a domestic violence-themed photo shoot. So Shields and Griffin knew exactly what they were doing in making the image —”we have to move to Mexico today, because we’re going to federal prison…we’re not surviving this”, Griffin says in a behind-the-scenes video from the shoot—and indeed, their attempts to court controversy have succeeded.
The photo shoot was in no way supported by the Democratic Party or any other political group; after all, unlike their right-wing brethren, liberals have more than four celebrity spokespeople to choose from. But a search of “Kathy Griffin” on Twitter not only turns up calls for her to get fired from her CNN New Year’s Eve hosting gig, but attempts to connect the image to conservatives’ pet topics of political correctness, free speech on college campuses, and how unfair it is that people called them racists just because they held ceremonial lynchings of effigies of America’s first black president.
One would-be Secret Service agent even proposes a citizen’s arrest, which would be funnier if the actual Secret Service hadn’t been active on social media this afternoon, posting statements that don’t explicitly name Griffin and Shields, but are totally about Griffin and Shields:
So, in the future, when a stranger with a Pepe avatar screams, “KATHY GRIFFIN?!?!?!?! SO MUCH FOR THE TOLERANT LEFT” at you on Twitter in response to a comment about how violence is bad, remember that Kathy Griffin got a lot of attention today, and it all evens out in the end—if you’re Kathy Griffin.
1/ I caption this “there was blood coming out of his eyes, blood coming out of his…wherever” Also @tylershields great Photog/film maker. pic.twitter.com/eKqr44NOl6
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 30, 2017
2/ OBVIOUSLY, I do not condone ANY violence by my fans or others to anyone, ever! I’m merely mocking the Mocker in Chief.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 30, 2017