R.I.P. Joan Rivers

American comedienne Joan Rivers has passed away today, aged 81.

Rivers was hospitalised last week after suffering a heart attack that occurred during routine surgical procedure. She had been on a life support system since last Saturday.

This morning (Australian time) the decision was made by her daughter this, Melissa Rivers, to take Joan off life support, with Melissa saying in a statement that her mother passed away “peacefully” at 1.17pm New York time.

While opinion was divided amongst industry associates and the public about the way in which Joan Rivers attacked ‘anything and everything’ in her comedic delivery, countless tributes have been pouring in through social media.

But while Joan did critique just about every type of person, career, political subject and so on throughout her career, perhaps the subject she was most keen to take a poke at was herself. Indeed, she even prepared a statement once of how she wanted her funeral to go:

Melissa Rivers said her mother’s greatest joy in life was “to make people laugh”. Indeed, she did so a hundred-fold. Rest in peace, Funny Lady.  Antonino Tati