Joan Rivers has made it known that she hated being called a "pioneer". She paved her way through comedy and entertainment and became the first successful comedienne, but thought that calling herself a pioneer meant that she was no longer relevant. Throughout this past week, everyone has been reminded how impactful Joan Rivers continued to be up until her passing.

Can you imagine Hollywood without Ellen DeGeneres, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and so many more female comedians? We surely would not be quoting Mean Girls (Glen Coco, who?) because that movie would have never come to fruition.

For her, it was never about breaking ground for females in comedy. It was simply because she wanted to make people laugh. She told NPR just four years ago that, "(I am) always trying to push for myself, push the boundaries [and] make them listen. Make them listen to the truth and laugh about it." And that's what she did. She was the first for many topics in comedy that had not been laughed about. Abortion and homosexuality are just a couple worth mentioning considering these topics would never have been brought up in 1965.
You can listen here: http://www.allmusic.com/album/joan-rivers-presents... )

Not only was she revolutionary in her comedic topics, but even in the topics already joked about. Instead of hitting the same points and stopping where most other comedians would have stopped, Joan Rivers would spit it out without any reservations. For example, the time she called Gwyneth Paltrow the "Most Beautiful Woman voted by Helen Keller and Stevie Wonder." (More about that here: http://radaronline.com/videos/gwyneth-paltrow-joan... )
On her show, Fashion Police, the words that would come out of her mouth were not only crude and hilarious, but would shock everyone around her that she had just said that. You can see Giuliana Rancic's reaction of disbelief in almost every show after Joan said the next biting joke. 

She was never irrelevant as a comedian and continued to be present in the 2014 hollywood era. Every generation connects with her, from teens to adults. Mothers and daughters alike could bond over her hilarious Miley Cyrus jokes on Fashion Police after the infamous VMA performance with Robin Thicke. 

Current Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon speaks about Rivers with a perfect description. Fallon remembers, "She would come out and just say what you were thinking, but you wouldn’t say it. You would stop, but she wouldn’t stop; she would just say it. And a lot of people thought her humor was mean, but she just did it because she wanted to make people laugh. That’s the goal. And she could take a joke just as easily as she could dish it out. One of the classiest acts. Love her so much. Class act all the way."

Joan Rivers, thank you for the laughs. Rest in peace.