During a stand up-routine at a McAfee Security and Intel partnership launch party in Las Vegas last week, comedian Kathy Griffin reenacted Hollywood director Michael Bay's dramatic flee from the 2014 International CES stage the day before. She also lampooned jokes at the controversial founder of the anti-virus software company, John McAfee, who has been under investigation for the shooting death of his neighbor in Central America.
Whether it's catering to the tech crowd or her devoted fan base, the "My Life on the D-List star" is quick on her feet with references to whatever's trending, particularly in the celebrity world. She attributes combing through social media sites as her latest method for material inspiration.
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"I get enjoyment out of seeing pictures of Justin Bieber with a monkey and with his shirt off again," Griffin told Mashable. "Kim Kardashian says she wants her privacy, but she Instagrammed a picture of her $40,000 Hermes bag, which Kanye got painted for her. That's ridiculous. All of this is just perfect for my act. Celebrities, don't let me stop you."
Despite playing down her celebrity-dom, Griffin was recently named the fourth most "dangerous" Hollywood celebrity to search for online, according to McAfee's annual security list. Links related to her are more likely to include malware and other viruses than others with the exception of the following: Actress Lily Collins (daughter of singer Phil Collins) at No. 1, Avril Lavigne (2), Sandra Bullock (3) and Zoe Saldana (5).
"When you've been around the business this long, it's always interesting what will get picked up and won't. I'll be nominated for a Grammy, win an Emmy and make the Guinness Book of World Records, but when I made the McAfee 'Most Dangerous' list, it was everywhere. People were calling me and asking if I was okay and curious why I was higher than Miley Cyrus. It was the highest of honors. Next year, I want to beat that Lily Collins."


Besides her main @KathyGriffin handle, which boasts more than 1.8 million followers, she manages a secret account to interact with friends like Anderson Cooper and monitor popular hashtags.
"I do everything 100% myself," she said. "You can tell because I'm a living version of that "Damn You Autocorrect" website."
She added: "I try to have people check my tweets before I hit send — I learned that's important from @Cher. She, along with @KirstieAlley, clearly don't have anyone checking their tweets, which makes them wonderful. Same goes for @KayneWest."
Although she keeps up with celebrity tweets, she doesn't actually follow anyone on Twitter.
"People get so offended that I'm not following them," she said. "But you can actually learn from all the haters out there. If I do a show, I read their reaction tweets. A lot of them are silly, but many have genuine notes with information I can use. We love our First Amendment to say whatever we want, but if you also tweet something interesting or knowledgable, that's where it gets good."
Not surprisingly, she says she feels a sense of responsibility to entertain her followers on the site, but also keep fans on top of two subjects she's most passionate about: LGBT and women's rights.
"The LGBT community has been very good with using social media to mobilize. As a woman — and as the 'a' in LGBTA (ally) — I really admire that about the gay community and wish females would come together in a similar way. Often, we work against each other and have a difference in opinion, but when push comes to shove, the LGBT bands together. They also send a message on Facebook every day to those who might be thinking about taking their lives something to get them through the day."
Despite being active on Facebook too, its 93-year-old mother Maggie — who affectionately refers to the platform on "D-List" as "FacePlace" — is the true fan.
"Mark Zuckerberg's sister reached out to [her] and thinks it's so cute she calls it FacePlace," Griffin said. "They invited her to tour the headquarters in San Francisco, but they didn't invite me. She didn't want to fly there. She missed her window."
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