I don’t know if Joan Rivers was an original, but she exhibited stalwart qualities. she toiled, rose, fell down, adapted and got back up again, from Hank Stuever, Washington Post [1]:
In her long and relentless comedy career, Joan Rivers, who died Thursday at 81, worked plenty hard enough to become famous many times over, from one era to the next, riding out waves of occasional public disapproval and the sometimes fickle regard of her peers. She started her career telling hilariously honest miserable-housewife jokes on black-and-white TV. In the end, she was making fun of her own sagging form and Kim Kardashian’s infant daughter.
[…]
Her sense of humor and her belief only in being funny, made her part of a dying tribe, the last remaining people who honestly believe that if you can’t take a joke, you are welcome to go (bleep) yourself. Her descendants include not only the Kathy Griffins and Sarah Silvermans of the comedy world, but also the only person you really want to talk to at a party, the one with the unhinged mouth.
Heck read the whole thing. I don’t plan of linking to the WaPo all that often.