As Leslie Jones knows all too well, laughter is the best revenge.
The “Saturday Night Live” star addressed the hack of her personal website last year during what sounded like an uproarious stand-up set at Caroline’s comedy club in New York City on Thursday night.
Following her casting in the “Ghostbusters” reboot, Jones has been the target of vicious online attacks, partly engineered by former Breitbart senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos, which drove her off social media for a time. Attention reached a fever pitch when anonymous hackers released Jones’ nude photos and private information, including her passport and a driver’s license, over the internet.
But the comedian didn’t seem too fazed about the breach of privacy during her stand-up set, recalling the specific experience of readying friends and family to see your nude selfies.
“Now I got to explain this to my aunties,” Jones said. “They old, and they from civil rights. They just now getting computers.”
“She was like, ‘Was it the Klu’s Klux Klan?’” Jones continued, imitating the voice of her relative. “I didn’t raise you like that.”
Taking the glass half-full approach, Jones joked that the hackers actually did her a favor by spreading these explicit images far and wide, revealing that she laughed when the photos were first posted.
“They don’t understand how many people I’ve actually tried to show that to,” she said. “You really just helped a sister out. Thank you for the distribution.”
Jones also joked about Yiannopoulos ― who recently saw his book deal with Simon & Schuster cancelled over a controversial recording in which he seemingly defended pedophilia ― and encouraged her followers not to give him any more attention than necessary.
Sticking to her word, the actress didn’t mention Yiannopoulos by name on Thursday, but she did extend some wise words to the women in the audience who might encounter a Milo-type in the future.
“Own your craziness,” she said. “All women are like me now. We make our own money.”
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