Joan Rivers Essentials

Joan Rivers' audiences knew they were in for something savage whenever she asked her favorite question: “Can we talk?” Over a five-decade career that began when just being a woman with a microphone was a radical gesture, Rivers directed her merciless wit at innumerable targets. While the lashes sometimes risk cruelty—who else would dare talk trash about the visually impaired, Florence Nightingale, or Anne Frank?—Rivers' sheer bravura and willingness to be the butt of the joke kept listeners wanting to hear whatever outrageous line followed that catchphrase.