Tina Fey: Jon Stewart Doesn't Make People Laugh

Tina Fey wrote the movie "Mean Girls," but in the latest issue of Reader's Digest she's playing the part in real life. In an interview with the magazine's Jancee Dunn, Fey disses "The Daily Show" and Jon Stewart, who she says makes audiences clap more than laugh:

RD: Do you see your humor as a gift? Fey: I always think of everything from a mother's point of view now. Every kid has something they're good at, that you hope they find and gravitate toward. This is my thing. I don't think I was supposed to be a gymnast and accidentally landed on this.

RD: Do you still get that hit when you get a good laugh?
Fey: Absolutely. My favorite day at 30 Rock is Thursday, when the show airs. At lunch we screen the episodes. For everyone to watch together, to see the stuff we all worked on, to hear the crew laugh — it's great fun.

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.

Read the entire interview here.

Comments

[Marlyn]

Why does anyone care about what she "thinks"?

[OSUMercutio]

I think she's just pissed that she didn't get to host the Academy Awards.

[liveandlearn]

the daily show isn't so much funny as delicious. saturday night live, not so much. whatever tina fey does, i guess they pay her to do it. maybe she could improve her chances by getting the colbert report to follow her show.

[Nostraboris]

I clapt my ass off 4 days week and stopped watching snl long ago

[personalpolitical]

Jon Stewart is one of the few people that make me laugh. He is a hell of a lot more funny than Tina Fey, and I mean that, I'm not just saying that to be mean.

[Nostraboris]

I rarely find myself watching SNL and I religiously watch the Daily Show...I'm sure I'm not the only one. she sounds sour.
f her, Jon Stewart rules

[zenandcookies]

Here's how it goes down...

Critics say to SNL writers, "Why can't you make Weekend Update funny? The Daily Show does current event humor everyday!" Lazy SNL writers diss Daily Show audience's "clapter" but don't understand that when you're making jokes about the sad states of society sometimes laughter out load isn't the appropriate response. A clap, "woo-hoo", or chuckle shows we appreciate the insight/poignancy of the joke while the issue is having a negative affects on peoples lives.

This just further proves that the SNL writers don't understand comedy. Nor have the mastery of political current event humor. Seth Meyers needs that stupid smirk smacked off his face every time delivers a line.

I used to like you Tina -- nowww not so much...

[greenpaz]

SNL hasn't been funny in years, thanks in large part to Ms. Fey. (Give me Samantha Bee any day.) I guess Fey thought her SNL monologue supporting Hillary Clinton was hilarious. I thought it was just a lame attempt to inject political bias into a show that shouldn't have allowed itself to be used as a forum to air a political grievance.

[transendentilist]

Tina Fey seems more yuppie-like than Samantha Bee. I love Samantha Bee. She is one of the funniest people on TV. I always look forward to her segments. Same for Louis Black.

[ObamaEdwards]

I know what she means. It's that "oh--yeah" laugh, like the response when someone calls a candidate a bitch, and people laugh a little "oh--yeah" because it is true, even though it isn't really funny. It's just fun to hear someone say it, even if she says it for the wrong reason.

[Ricktay]

Odd how delusional some people who get paid a lot of money for something think that because they got paid a lot of money for that something (in Fey's case her humor writing and performing), it validates their talents as opposed to others or critics. Years ago I heard Rush Limbaugh bragging that the millions of listeners to his radio show validated his stature as a noble opinon maker, and I once heard an interview with the Olsen Twins where they whined that they "earned" their billion plus dollar fortune as opposed to being an heiress like Paris Hilton.

Like the Olsen twins' delusion that they have billion dollar talents, Fey apparently thinks she is an uber-talented all-around funny person, what with the SNL gig and sitcom. Her dismissive aside about a truly talented humor monger like Stewart shows how completely ignorant she is that the fickle-finger of fate pointed at her for this moment.

Apparently no one has made it clear to her that she is painfully unfunny most of the time and no where near as clever as she thinks she is. Advice: Circulate, Tina, circulate. There is a real world just outside your delusional sphere of influence.

[rms555]

She is sooooo right about Stewart. He mugs, he repeats what politicans say in an affected way to EMPHASIZE their silliness, but he isn't remotely funny. That's one of the main reasons the Oscars bomb in the ratings when he hosts.

[transendentilist]

Oscars don't go by ratings. You are either a right-winger, or you were born without a sense of humor.

[ashamedtobeadem]

These comments are the reason people should have to be licensed before being allowed to reproduce. Tina Fey should go to hell? She lost you as a fan? Why? Because she has an opinion about a tv show that differs from yours? Really, tv is that emotional for you? I especially love the competition between SNL & the Daily Show; I just can't find the part in her interview where she claims her show or SNL are funnier or more important than the Daily Show. What she does say, though, is that Jon Stewart gets more claps than laughter. And she's right. I never miss the Daily Show, it's important for many reasons, but the number of times I've laughed aloud is somewhere around once. Here's an idea: either go back to laughing at the Daily Show and accept that she has a different opinion than you do, or accpet that you're a childish, angry person who needs to dislike anyone who disagrees with you. Those are your choices, adult children.

[vschicago]

tina insults jon because he didn't hire her to be a writer on his show

[nomorecomics4me]

He doesn't hire women to write for him. As he himself pointed out at an Emmy award show, all his writers look like him. He has very few women, especially funny ones, on as guests too. He is very supportive of his male friends but, Samantha Bee, who is married to another of his writers, is the only woman on his show allowed to be funny.

[transendentilist]

And you know this...how??

[millions]

Imagine being so delusional as to suggest The Daily Show isn't very funny when one was a head writer for Saturday Night Live during some of its dullest, most unwatchable seasons ever. I guess we know how she was capable of deluding herself that the media was being unfair to Senator Clinton.

[yeswecancan]

You got it there ... but then she did remind us that "bitch is the new black" and I guess is just trying to prove her point. Pathetic ... I've never seen her 30Rock ...no need to now.

[anywho]

Just piling on , but Jon Stewart is a LOT more humerous than Tiny Ti-naaaa. SNL is garbage and has been for years....TF took into the dumpster along with her blatant suppor tfor Hillery. Why do so many gays support Hillary BTW?

[liveandlearn]

because hillary is pro gay (and that includes lesbian).

[LeftLeanWing]

because she is easy to imitate in a drag show. maybe ?