Jamie Foxx sounds off on the importance of comedians in society and defends Kathy Griffin amid photo shoot controversy.
As previously reported, Griffin came under fire this week after photos surfaced featuring the comedian holding a replica of President Donald Trump’s bloody severed head. Not only was the comedian released from CNN, where she routinely hosted the New Year’s Eve special alongside Anderson Cooper, but in the days since, each venue hosting her “Celebrity Run-in Tour” has pulled the plug on the performer.
Despite taking to Twitter on Tuesday, where she issued a lengthy apology writing, “I sincerely apologize. I’m just now seeing the reaction to these images. I’m a comic. I crossed the line. I moved the line, then I crossed it. I went way too far. The “Fashion Police” alum has been unable to save face.
Still, there is a handful of fellow comedians in her corner. Talking to ET’s Denny Directo at a launch party for Prive Revaux luxury sunglasses at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles this week, Foxx reminded critics of the importance of comedians. “Listen, as comedians, sometimes you do go beyond, past the line,” said Foxx. “I still love Kathy Griffin. She went past the line, she’ll pay for it in the way she pays for it, and we’ll go out and we’ll laugh with her again.”
“Don’t kill the comedian,” urged Foxx. “There’s a lot of people out here doing really bad things and every time a comedian says anything, says something about peanuts, [people say], ‘You’re peanut-shaming!’ [A comedian] says something about dolphins [people say], ‘Oh my god, you’re a dolphin-shamer.’ We’re the comics, we’re entertainers, we don’t mean any harm.”
“It’s not the comedian’s fault for everything that’s going wrong, man. Trust me. The world is filled with people that mean you harm and we sit and we give them a pass,” Foxx continued. “So I know she made her mistake or whatever, and we’re all going to make mistakes, but you need us, man, because we’re there to make you laugh.”
In case you missed it, Jim Carey also sided with Griffin, referring to comedians as the “last line of defense” when it comes to politics today. “I think it is the job of a comedian to cross the line at all times — because that line is not real,” he recently told the entertainment site.
Meanwhile, a teary-eyed Griffin later revealed that she feels bullied by the Trump administration and has every intention to explain the true motivation behind the photo shoot — sooner than later.
What do you think of Foxx’s thoughts surrounding the importance of comedy in society? Sound off in the comment section below.
