Griffin’s shameful, duplicitous – and public is eating it up

A memorable line from the ’60s comes to mind as the Shubert Theatre prepares to host Kathy Griffin tonight.

Perhaps you remember it: “Suppose they gave a war and nobody came?”

As a subtle protest it was brilliant. No violence. No confrontation. No denigration. It simply conjured up a triumph of righteous indignation.

That’s a quaint term these days, isn’t it?

If it had any remaining teeth the loathsome Griffin would be met by a sea of empty seats, but there’s not a ticket to be had, which says a lot more about us than it does about her.

You remember her, don’t you? She’s the vulgarian who thought it would be funny to display a bloody likeness of Donald Trump’s severed head.

As an expression of hatred it doesn’t get more savage than that. To the horror of Americans everywhere, that’s what Pakistani rebels did to Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, evoking national revulsion.

Beheadings caused Americans of all stripes to rally in collective rage.

Griffin had crossed a line so egregious that CNN booted her from her New Year’s Eve gig with Anderson Cooper, who also tweeted his “disgust” with her.

Sobbing and looking petrified over what she appeared to have done to her career she posted a 30-second video on social media, pleading, “I beg for your forgiveness. I went too far.”

OK, we tend to be forgiving people.

But now she’s back on the road with what she’s calling “The Laugh Your Head Off Tour,” which tells you all you need to know about her sincerity.

More brazen than ever and obnoxiously unrepentant, she was quick to offer advice and support to the equally detestable Samantha Bee, another faux comedienne who thought it would be witty to slander Ivanka Trump as “a feckless (expletive).”

While Bee was busy trying to escape an avalanche of condemnation, confessing, “It was inappropriate, inexcusable; I deeply regret it,” the duplicitous Griffin beseeched her on Twitter: “Please do not apologize.” Right. You go, girl!

It was shameless, which made it a perfect fit for Griffin’s repertoire.

Indeed, the bankruptcy of this fraud’s own apology a year ago could not have been more brazenly exposed, and while she’s bright enough to realize that, she’s also contemptuous enough not to care.

Now she’s with us tonight, fully expecting Boston to embrace her as the compelling star she imagines herself to be.

And since the market for aberrance has never been hotter, she’ll probably leave here satisfied she played us all for suckers.

Unfortunately, she’ll probably be right.