Female Daily Show Staffers Prove Their Existence in Rebuttal to Jezebel
Where is Eve Ensler when you need her? Back on June 23rd, Jezebel writer Irin Carmon wrote a somewhat scathing critique of The Daily Show -- spurred on by the tryout and potential hiring of geek pin-up Olivia Munn -- succinctly summed up by its title, "The Daily Show's Woman Problem." What followed was a series of mostly off-the-record quotes and comments from former female staffers that painted the offices of the Comedy Central cultural kingpin with the same brush that might be used for a frat house or at least the Harvard Lampoon. Now, the female staffers of The Daily Show have responded with snark worthy of Stewart himself.
In an open letter to the Internet -- which begins with the salutation, "Dear People Who Don't Work Here" -- the female staffers dissect the Jezebel complaints piece by piece. Like, that the show discounts what women think:
If you think the only women who help create this show are a couple of female writers and correspondents, you're dismissing the vast majority of us. Actually, we make up 40% of the staff, and we're not all shoved into the party-planning department (although we do run that, and we throw some kick-ass parties). We are co-executive producers, supervising producers, senior producers, segment producers, coordinating field producers, associate producers, editors, writers, correspondents, talent coordinators, production coordinators, researchers, makeup artists, the entire accounting and audience departments, production assistants, crew members, and much more. We were each hired because of our creative ability, our intelligence, and above all, our ability to work our asses off to make a great show.
Or that Jon Stewart is the sexist ringleader:
[F]or a sexist prick, he can be quite charming. He's also generous, humble, genuine, compassionate, fair, supportive, exacting, stubborn, goofy, hands-on, driven, occasionally infuriating, ethical, down-to-earth and--a lot of people don't know this--surprisingly funny (for a guy brimming with "joyless rage"). How else to describe him? What's the word that means the opposite of sexist? That one.
And that the show is a dreaded "boy's club:"
The truth is, when it comes down to it, The Daily Show isn't a boy's club or a girl's club, it's a family - a highly functioning if sometimes dysfunctional family. And we're not thinking about how to maximize our gender roles in the workplace on a daily basis. We're thinking about how to punch up a joke about Glenn Beck's latest diatribe, where to find a Michael Steele puppet on an hour's notice, which chocolate looks most like an oil spill, and how to get a gospel choir to sing the immortal words, "Go f@#k yourself!"
In a retort to the retort on Jezebel, Carmon wrote that she wished The Daily Show "had agreed to answer questions or make anyone available to talk when I approached them for comment before the piece was published." Hmm, good point. As they say, developing...
· Women of 'The Daily Show' Speak [The Daily Show]
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Comments
As an African-American woman, I love the show, and I watch it religiously every night. I do not sit there and count how many woman or lack of African-American women are on the show. I only asked to be entertained and make me laugh, and race or gender should never factor into that equation. Articles like Eve Ensler's are getting tiresome. I believe the same thing has been charged against the Letterman show. (Yes, I am big fan of that show as well!)
Sorry, I meant to say Irin Carmon.
While I'm not surprised rest of the internet ignored the job titles of the women who signed this letter, I expect more of L.A.-based entertainment blogs like Movieline. C'mon, Chris. 5 Assistants? Makeup and Wardrobe? Line and Field Producers? How many of these people are even union members? Isn't Schaal a freelancer?
And it looks like the way many of these people are being represented is misleading, to say the least. We know the Daily Show did not have any women writers until last year, yet one of these women is listed as a writer with several years of experience working on the show. While that may be technically true, she spent most of her time there as a receptionist.
Then there's the larger, moral problem: a group of guild writers who participated in the strike seem to have no qualms in hearing and using pitches and jokes from non-union writers. We all know it happens, but here's written proof, on the official show website.
These are all better angles than comedy program strikes back at chick blog.
the only missing name in that list of women workers is the immigrant lady who takes out the trash in the writers room! Jezebel was only referring to writers and on screen talent, they never say anything about producers or people behind the cameras, not saying that the work was not important, just that they miss the point.
I've always found Jezebel to be somewhat humourless and sanctimonious.
I don't think what they do there matters as much as you do -- the tone of the Jezebel post was that The Daily Show was a bad environment for women. And, frankly, that's about as groundbreaking a statement as saying the sun rises. Most of these late night comedy shows are boys' clubs and do treat women as second class citizens.
So the group of Daily Show women banding together and saying that it isn't like that means something. Unless you're cynical, in which case you don't think it means anything. My problem is: What took so long? They had Stewart making jokes about the post within a few days -- couldn't everyone have put this out sooner to quell the situation? Or, as Irin pointed out, actually spoken to her for the article. It wouldn't have changed the tone -- and people still would have surmised that the women questioned only felt good about The Daily Show because they were current employees -- but it would have been a lot more effective than this.
Your assumption is they had a choice in the matter. Here's a letter saying this is a good place to work. Sign it or you're fired.
So...yes, I'm more cynical than you are.
You'll catch up eventually.
And for anyone else still reading this, Sady Doyle had an interesting response to the show's official statement:
http://tigerbeatdown.com/2010/07/06/and-now-a-word-from-the-daily-show/
Oh really? I'll "catch up." Gee, thanks! If only I can be as on the ball about this as you are!
Oh, Jesus - I meant catch up, as in you'll quickly become more cynical the longer you cover this beat. You're not being attacked.
Just somewhat? How about wholeheartedly?