Women of the Daily Show Respond to Sexism Allegations

A few weeks ago, the New York Times ran a piece on new Daily Show correspondent Oliva Munn which suggested that Munn’s new gig and entire career can all be attributed to the fact that she’s hot. A few days before, Jezebel writer Irin Carmon did an article with several former staffers that  exposed the show’s work environment as extremely sexist, with host Jon Stewart at the top of the pyramid, running “The Daily Show with joyless rage,” and firing several female staffers for disliking them. Well today, the “Women of the Daily Show” have posted a response on the show’s website, addressed to “People Who Don’t Work Here,” disputing most of the Jezebel article, for which Comedy Central didn’t allow them to be interviewed. The article is accompanied with a picture and signatures of all the women that work for the Daily Show, as well as a list of things Jon Stewart has supported them through, which includes, “9/11,” “Divorce,” and “Inadequately researched blog posts that cling to a predetermined narrative about sexism at The Daily Show.” This is all pretty interesting, especially with the debates over women in late-night comedy that crop up every year during the Emmys. It’s hard to say women don’t get as much respect in comedy in general when there are so many great female comedians and actresses dominating network television these days (especially on NBC), and I’m guessing if the problem at The Daily Show was as bad as Jezebel makes it out to be, the female staffers wouldn’t have spoken out against it. In several respects, late night comedy is behind when it comes to female talent, however, which is part of what makes  this debate so interesting (SNL is the perpetual exception to this rule, especially given the number of stellar female comedians that have come through it). But in either case, both articles definitely make for an interesting read.