AHHHHGGGGGRRRRRhhhrrrah….

—Comedienne Joan Rivers, 81, in her reported final words before expiring yesterday.

Just kidding.

Too soon?

Joan Rivers would rate Ethics Hero status if I did not have a philosophical objection to calling someone a hero because everyone else is a weenie. Yes, Rivers spouted off whatever outrageous, impolitic, offensive thing that materialized in her nimble brain regardless of who it might offend, as long as she felt someone, or a critical mass of someones, would find it funny. That is the proper mindset for any professional comic, but it has become both a rare and dangerous one, as we regularly see comedians grovelling in remorse as soon as sufficient numbers of well-placed critics designate a joke as “insensitive.”

Rivers, whom I can never recall making me laugh for a second, served an important cultural purpose while she was alive, as do Jackie Mason, Mel Brooks and Don Rickles, perhaps the last remaining in-your-face comedians from the days when funny was all that mattered, and careers weren’t ended  by stepping just a little too far over the line, or even a lot too far. Her successors, like Sarah Silverman and Lewis Black, don’t count: they are vicious toward whatever group or groups their audience deems deserving of abuse, and only them. In the end, it is likely that the only clowns with the license that Rivers enjoyed will be animated cartoons, like Peter Griffin(“The Family Guy”) and Homer Simpson.

That will be a tragedy for both comedy and the spirit of the First Amendment, but hailed as a victory by the indignantly politically correct. Eventually, they’ll get Homer and Peter too, just as the old Warner Brothers cartoons, which taught a generation the basics of slapstick comedy and comic timing, have been largely banished from TV for being “too violent.” It won’t be long before the last recorded primer on doing pratfalls will be “Seinfeld” episodes, because Michael Richards (“Kramer”) was one of the all-time greats.

And we all know what happened to him.

Without Rivers or someone of similar visibility and prominence to keep fighting for free expression, the media will dictate what we can and can’t say. It is more than a bit strange to see cable news give Joan a near-Robin Williams send-off when she was regularly reviled by the same pundits praising her now, indeed, excessively praising her. She was not the trailblazer for female comedians she is being called today: Fannie Brice was that trailblazer, with Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett close behind. The trailblazer in stand-up was Phyllis Diller, whom Rivers both imitated and stole material from: this morning’s Washington Post remembrance of Rivers credits Rivers with a joke that Diller made on the Ed Sullivan show about a decade before anyone heard of Joan Rivers ( “On our wedding night, my husband said, ‘Can I help you with the buttons?’ I was naked at the time.”) Diller also managed to be hilarious without ever being mean to anyone. Naturally, the media virtually ignore her death just a few years ago.

Today’s talking heads and most comedians are all in favor of political correctness with a partisan slant, hence the clear and present bias over at Comedy Central. They are telling us for the moment how funny and courageous Joan Rivers was to ignore their warnings, but Rivers’ aspiring successors, if she has any, will be run out of the business…by Joan’s post mortem admirers.

The answer, henceforth, to Rivers’ trademark line, “Can we talk?” will be “No.”