Joan Rivers Drops the “H”-Bomb

I think it’s been well-established on this site that I have a sad, almost perverse love of trashy reality television. This year, I’ve been weirdly hooked on Celebrity Apprentice, in which a dozen or so people with varying levels of fame and name recognition compete for the "privilege" of "working" for Donald Trump. This year’s crop of aspiring apprentices (apprenti?) includes Monster Garage host Jesse James, country star Clint Black, Playboy centerfold Brande Roderick, the mother/daughter pair of Joan and Melissa Rivers, and professional poker player Annie Duke. It’s pretty normal for the contestants to snipe at each other and insult each other in the "Boardoom" at the end of the show – the boardroom is what determines which person gets fired at the end of the show, and Trump encourages people to go after each other in order to make for more dramatic TV.

However, I feel like this episode went too far. Joan Rivers and Annie Duke, who are on opposite teams and cannot stand each other, each criticized the other in the boardoom. Annie (correctly) had a problem with the fact that, even though Joan and Melissa are on different teams, they defend and support each other at the risk of hurting others on their own teams. Joan’s response? Calling Annie Hitler. Seriously? One Jewish woman calling another Jewish woman Hitler? Is throwing around the name of a person who systematically attempted to destroy our people a good way to win an argument on a reality show? Really? That was very not cool, Joan Rivers. It’s not like I expect a lot from a woman who has had as much plastic surgery as Michael Jackson and gets paid to make fun of peoples’ clothes on television, but can we keep the "H-word" used for things that are actually on par with the Shoah, not for when we make an enemy on a TV program?

Here’s the clip in question (for fellow grammar geeks, note the misuse of "Worst" instead of "Worse" in the caption):