Over on Jezebel, Irin has put together a very diplomatic overview on
what she calls the
Daily Show
‘s “woman problem
.” As she intricately details, it’s a problem that’s plagued the late-night show in stops and starts over the last decade or so, peaking in 1997 when then-host Craig Kilborn
made this banger
at the expense of
Daily Show
co-creator and writer, Lizz Winstead (which is about as unfunny as it is offensive): “To be honest, Lizz does find me very attractive. If I wanted her to blow me, she would.” Kilborn left the show shortly after only to land a network gig with CBS, and Winstead went on to work on a handful of other comedy shows. Her co-creator, Madeleine Smithberg, stayed on through the
Daily Show
‘s host transition, when the equal-parts-adorable-and-sharp Jewish boy of our dreams,
Jon Stewart
, took over. But evidently Stewart and Smithberg had a difference of vision, which reportedly
manifested itself when Stewart threw a newspaper at Smithberg out of frustration
and disallowed her (again, the co-creator of the whole shebang) to come on stage during their Emmy win. She quit in 2003.
There hasn’t been a new
female correspondent on the
Daily Show
in
seven years
. (Of course, Samantha Bee, thank gawd, is holding steady.) Probably upon realizing this lack is not such an ideal position for everyone’s favorite can-do-no-wrong liberal comedy show to be in, the
Daily Show
went on the hunt for new female talent last year. A comedy insider told me there were casting calls in New York, Chicago, Canada, even. Comedic geniuses of the female kind from Upright Citizens’ Brigade, Second City, and other famed institutions auditioned for the show. And somehow, amidst all the absurd female talent out there,
Olivia Munn
got the call. Munn, a
FHM
model and former video-game talk-show host with little experience doing comedy, is
known for stunts like this
. She eagerly gloated that she landed the
Daily Show
gig with a Holocaust joke. As she told
the Daily Beast
, ” In the first 10 minutes of my meeting with Jon, I made some kind of Holocaust joke-and by the way? It’s always too soon-and he died laughing. He was like, ‘Wow, you open up with the Holocaust?’ I said, ‘No, no, it’s cool. I dated a Jewish guy!’ ”
I’m sorry in advance for being a snob here, but Holocaust jokes are so passe they basically pack the same comedic punch as a chicken-crossed-the-road joke. Meaning: You don’t get hired on the freakin’
Daily Show
f
or one. And the follow-up line: “No, no, it’s cool. I dated a Jewish guy!” is 1) not funny and 2) the kind of hokey humor you expect to see in something like the manufactured gallery of
Esquire
‘s “Funny Joke From A Beautiful Woman.” The sole joy of which is based in the longstanding (but wrong) assumption that beautiful woman can’t be funny, so if you can get a scantily-clad actress or bikini model to tell, say, a knock-knock joke with a dirty word in it, well then, the very novelty of such an occurrence-it’s hilarious, I guess! But in reality, hilarious isn’t the right word. It’s more
titillating
. See for yourself: Is this
Daily Show
-caliber funny
?
The
Daily Show
has commented on Munn’s hire, saying that they’re happy to cater to “nerds,” whom they assume Munn will draw to the show’s viewership. (I’m guessing they’re using “nerds” to mean “nerdy DUDES” since none of the other correspondents have been commended for their ability to bring in the nerds before, which they all obviously do.) Glad to know that someone there thinks that the
Daily Show
essentials, you know-news, politics, humor-are kinda dude-y things. I’m sure that sits real well with the two female creators.
And this has been your Moment of Zen.
Photograph of Olivia Munn by Mark Ralston/Getty Images.
