Kathy Griffin tries to save Globes pre-show

Plenty has already been written about whether or not NBC and the Golden Globes are setting a very dangerous precedent by packaging a piece of annual puffery under the heading of the network's news division. At least Kathy Griffin tried to break through the treacle.

In the midst of Sunday (Jan. 13) night's series of blandly produced and uniformly sycophantic interviews from the Dateline crew -- credit Matt Lauer for not looking like he'd rather be gouging his eyes out -- Griffin popped up to wave around her Emmy and basically do whatever that thing is that she does.

As she put it, just because they didn't hold a party for her to mock didn't mean that there weren't buttons to push.

"These events and these people are just fun to make fun of, so I'm gonna do it anyway," she said.

It goes without saying that Griffin is at her best when she can attack specific targets and Sunday's filmed bit was lacking in those well-directed zingers.

She went through familiar bits about the perils of arriving on the Red Carpet early -- you're stuck being interviewed by outlets like Good Morning Chatsworth and Shalom Israel -- and how Tyra Banks has made Red Carpet posing into a contortionist's nightmare ("As long as you look good falling, you're in").

I wouldn't argue with the contention that "If you bring your Mom, I think either you're gay or in a very troubled relationship," nor that Lance Armstrong has had a successful career as Random Red Carpet Date, but a joke about Ellen DeGeneres seemed rather pointless.

And of all the celebrities in the world, why did Nicole Kidman ("Nicole Kidman hasn't been a human since Far & Away"), Eva Longoria ("She makes the Olsen Twins look like fat-a**es") and Johnny Depp ("He doesn't even wear a suit anymore. It's a costume that he sketched, obviously, when he was a child and now we all have to pay.") make the cut for specific needling?

On a show characterized by an oppressive level of A-list butt-kissing, I've gotta give Griffin credit for referencing last year's Isaiah Washington-related Golden Globes embarrassment given how quickly NBC's ever-quotable entertainment boss Ben Silverman was to re-employ Washington earlier this year.

Griffin ended her bit in bed with a tub of popcorn saying, "I think I'll keep my comments to myself, for now."

We doubt that pledge will last for long.

What'd you think of Griffin in specific and the pre-show in general?