Joan Rivers Funeral Details Revealed

On Sept. 4, just a few weeks after the world had to say goodbye to comedic legend Robin Williams, we lost another comedy great. Joan Rivers died at age 81 and was buried last Sunday in a star-studded funeral that was nothing short of what she deserved. Sure, it might not have fit the exact vision that Rivers had for her own funeral plans, but we like to think she still would have been pleased by what few details managed to leak about the ceremony. On Monday, Margaret Cho wrote a detailed account of Rivers' funeral published on xoJane , and it will bring a tear to your eye all over again.

"Joan Rivers put the ‘fun’ in funeral," Cho began in the post, opening with a smile. "... The temple was huge and packed and silent and all her fancy friends were there, as well as many of us girl comics, because we had lost our dear leader (I do see her as my own personal Kim Jong Ill as she was tiny yet commanded an empire) and so it was our saddest day."

Cho went on to describe how fellow guests Rosie O’Donnell, Kathy Griffin, Judy Gold, and Rachael Ray were there, including a touching aside about Gold weeping: "My ebullient and sunny and tall friend who I have known for over a quarter of a century and have never, ever seen cry was overwhelmed by grief."

In fact, according to Cho, everyone wept "like professional mourners" and the air was heavy with Rivers' signature gardenia perfume mixed in with the flower arrangements that lined the temple. Perhaps the sweetest thing about Cho's blog post is not the painstaking detail with which she recounts the ceremony in all its meticulously planned and grief-inducing splendor, but the fact that her post itself was just as hilarious as it was sad. Cho is a female comedian herself and for her to be able to find humor in the situation just goes to show that even after she has passed, Rivers is still being honored.

This is the woman who joked about the exact details of her own funeral while she was alive, after all. You know she would crack up when she got to the part of Cho's blog post where she writes, "In the morose silence Howard Stern said, 'Joan Rivers had a dry pussy.'" The fact of the matter is, there are many different ways to mourn Rivers, whether you knew her personally or not, whether you liked her or not, but you can't deny that Rivers built a career on inappropriate and offensive jokes. The fact that her funeral was a combination of tears and laughter is truly beautiful. It's what she would have wanted.

Image: Getty Images