Samantha Bee talks comedy under Trump, rejects the premise she's America's 'smug liberal' problem

Samantha Bee talks comedy, smug liberals
(Image credit: CNN/YouTube)

On Sunday's State of the Union, CNN's Jake Tapper asked Full Frontal's Samantha Bee about comedy in the age of President Trump. She called doing her show a form of "catharsis," of trying to make sense of Trump's America. But "we always lean in the direction of funny," she said. "When you're doing topical comedy like this, you really are walking a razor's edge, and you don't want to drop over into the activism side of things too often — you don't really want to do that at all. So we always err on the side of comedy and hope that everything works out."

"You have been cited as part — not part of the reason why Hillary lost, but part of the problem, part of liberal America's problem," Tapper said, citing specifically a Ross Douthat column in The New York Times, "Hillary Clinton's Samantha Bee Problem." Bee joked that she's flattered by the attention, but she doesn't see any evidence. "It's one person's opinion, one wonderful chap who I'd love to have on the show," she said.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.