Tina Fey wasn’t saying The Daily Show isn’t funny (not that she’d be all that wrong if she was)
-
- March
- 23
I’d say a tad too much was made of Tina Fey’s recent comments in an interview with Reader’s Digest (No, seriously! Reader’s Digest!) with regard to The Daily Show.
It’s been called a swipe, an overreach and a slam, but the fact is that it wasn’t any of the above. At worst it was a tongue-in-cheek boast meant more as a playful jab than a spiteful rip.
First, the facts, from the April 2008 issue Q&A…
RD: What pleases you more, applause or laughter?
Fey: Laughter. You can prompt applause with a sign. My friend, SNL writer Seth Meyers, coined the term clapter, which is when you do a political joke and people go, “Woo-hoo.” It means they sort of approve but didn’t really like it that much. You hear a lot of that on [whispers] The Daily Show.
TDS’s Jon Stewart was just 13 when Chevy Chase anchored the first Weekend Update segment on SNL, putting to rest any claims that TDS invented the fake news. Beyond that, though, there’s plenty of fair comparisons to be made between the two.
Both offer left-leaning takes on current events. Neither is a great primary source for what’s going on in the world. And while both can be funny, both can also be painfully unfunny at times. In my opinion, Weekend Update hits the mark far more often, but TDS has to put on five shows a week.
Fey doesn’t mention TDS until the end of her comment, which suggests to me she wasn’t talking about the show at all until she decided, off the cuff, to throw it in as a punchline. I read it the first time and each time since as a statement on the hazards of news satire that SNL confronts.
And true to form, she thought it would be funny to poke a little good-natured fun at TDS in the process. I think TDS fans need to have a better sense of humor about things.
In other Tina-related happenings, Ricky Gervais’s upcoming movie, “This Side of the Truth” keeps looking better and better.
I wouldn’t need to know much about it, beyond its being a Gervais project, to line up early for tickets. But the casting news that The Office creator keeps doling out at his blog for the movie keeps getting better and better.
The movie is about an alternate earth were lying doesn’t exist. Naturally Gervais plays a liar. (Read a review of the draft script here.)
Gervais announced the other day that Fey was confirmed as joining the project, along with (brace yourself for this list) John Hodgman, Christopher Guest and Jeffrey Tambor. Louis CK, Rob Lowe, Jonah Hill and Jennifer Garner were already aboard.
Checking in today I see that Jason Bateman, like Tambor of Arrested Development fame, is in too.
Seriously, they don’t even need a script. Just put these people on a soundstage together and let the cameras roll.
Photos: Fey hosting SNL on Feb. 23, Gervais appearing on Late Night with Conan O’Brien in December. Courtesy NBC Universal.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, March 23rd, 2008 at 1:00 am by Brian Howard.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print
| 
Email
What’s funny is that people that have been watching Tina Fey since the beginning on snl know that she loves the daily show and watched it growing up, so when this got out of control I just wanted to scream IDIOTS! at everyone for making such a big deal at a simple joke. Same thing with the Hilarly Clinton thing on SNL during update it’s called Satire! Doesn’t mean she supports her it was all just satire!
There are also a lot of people – smart people in the media – who give WAY too much importance to SNL and the Daily Show. They’re still comedy shows, right? Are there really any adults who would decide their vote because of what Tina Fey or Jon Stewart have to say? I doubt it. Fey also said once that she would tell everyone that she was voting for Obama but secretly vote for McCain! So apparently, she’s involved in her own private conspiracy.
Fey made that McCain comment as Liz Lemon in an episode of 30 Rock. I can’t remember the episode but I think she said it to Jason Sudeikis’s Floyd character, which would put it mid- to late-Season One. I thought it was hilarious at the time because I bet a lot of people think the same way, but I wondered if it reflected at all how Fey thinks. My guess is somewhere between definitely and definitely not.