Jerry Seinfeld is wondering: What’s the deal with the uproar over Kathy Griffin’s Donald Trump beheading photo?
Seinfeld brushed aside the anger over the photo while speaking to People at the National Night of Laughter an Song on Monday night, saying that he doesn’t “understand the big deal.”
“Yes, it was another bad joke. Every comedian tells bad jokes,” the former “Seinfeld” star told People. “We all do it. That’s how we find the good jokes. So someone told a bad joke — so what, I don’t understand the big deal.”
Plenty of other people saw the photo as a big deal when it was made public last week. The image, shot by photographer Tyler Shields, depicted Griffin holding what appeared to be the bloody, severed head of President Trump.
Griffin later issued an apology, saying that she went “way too far,” but the backlash persisted, with CNN dropping Griffin as co-host of its annual New Year’s Eve broadcast and upcoming shows from Griffin’s tour canceled as a result.
On Friday, Griffin held a press conference saying that she was being investigated by the Secret Service and had received death threats over the photo.
Nonetheless, she added, she planned to continue mocking Trump.
“This president, of all people, is going to come after me? He picked the wrong redhead,” Griffin said. “I’m gonna make fun of the president, and you know what? I’m going to make fun of him more now.”
Despite the deep blowback over the photo, Griffin has had her supporters. Former CNN personality Larry King spoke up to say that the news network shouldn’t have fired her, and actor Jim Carrey came to Griffin’s defense, saying that comedians are the “last line of defense.”