Kathy Griffin rejects the idea that she was "canceled"

If anyone was going to push back on comedy’s big fear of “cancellation,” how appropriate that it be Kathy Griffin, the rare comic who actually faced major consequences (legal and otherwise) for making a joke. In a new profile for The Hollywood Reporter, Griffin admits she feels like she’s “still canceled” in Hollywood because she can’t get a deal for a special—then quickly takes it back. “People tell me that the same thing happened to me and Gina Carano,” she “scoffs.” “Please don’t liken Kathy Griffin taking a protest photo to a Holocaust denier. I did not whip out my penis like Louis [C.K.]. I wasn’t canceled. I was investigated by the Department of Justice for something I don’t regret.”

Griffin is still trying to secure a special deal for the material she’s been doing on her tour, Kathy Griffin: My Life On The PTSD List. That goal has been made more difficult by the continued repercussions from her photoshoot with a fake beheaded Donald Trump and from her ongoing enmity with Andy Cohen. (“There are so many platforms out there, and Peacock can’t be off the table just because of Andy, right?”) Though she stands by the photo, the situation obviously affected her to the tune of more than a million dollars in legal fees and lots of time treating her PTSD. The rejection from Hollywood seems to hurt too; she recalls speaking with the legendary Chaka Khan, “and she tells me, ‘I’ve been watching you for a long time, and your whole thing is, like, you don’t give a fuck. But until you really don’t give a fuck, you won’t be free.’ And Chaka’s right. Shit still bothers me.”

But it doesn’t bother her enough to take any of the Trump material out of her current special. (For what it’s worth, THR reports the ex-president is not a major feature in her two-plus-hour routine). In fact, asked if she’d tweak any of her jokes in the wake of the assassination attempt, Griffin’s answer is definitive: “No, and I can’t believe that fucking dude missed. I mentioned it at two shows. I just said, ‘We were this close!’ People cheered and laughed, and I moved on.”