Janeane Garofolo, a book
fan but someone who claims she doesn’t “care
about sports at all,” just finished reading
Franklin Foer’s How Soccer Explains the
World: an Unlikely Theory of Globalization.
And she loved it.
“It’s about how the metaphor of soccer and
soccerhooliganism can explain politics and
culture as part of humanity’s need to be part
of a tribe. Right or wrong, people just need
to root for a team. It’s just so
interesting. I recommend it very highly,” she
said about the book.
“It’s not an insight a lot of us don’t already
have, but it’s just nice to read it. You can
read it, probably, in a weekend. Book pick of
the week!”
Garofolo played the chain-smoking woman with
sour high school memories in Romy and
Michelle’s High School Reunion and
costarred with Uma Thurman in The Truth
About Cats & Dogs. She is one of the
funniest women in comedy, with an incredible
sarcastic humor, whose career includes doing
standup since the 1980’s and working for
Comedy Central. And to conservatives, she
represents everything they hate.
She has added something new to her resume:
talk show host. Her show, The Majority
Report, can be heard nightly from 8 to 11
p.m. on Air America, the new liberal radio
network. This is a big change for the
conservative media, which until now, was
controlled by people like Sean Hannity and
Rush Limbaugh.
It isn’t known if moderates will begin to pay
more attention to the left, now that liberal
opinions are out there. What has happened
though is that Garofolo’s name, which was once
mentioned only when speaking about her
entertainment work, is now being used in
conversations and on hundreds of websites
about her strong anti-Bush beliefs.
Q: As host of The Majority Report, you
are competing against conservative talk
shows. Every host has his or her own way of
producing a show. How do you come up with
guests and topics and know what the show will
be like every night?
A: Actually, we have a
booker named Logan. She is the person who
reaches out to and tries to book people that
Sam [Seder, her Majority Report
co-host] and I or the producers, Isaac and
Michael, think are important.
I tend to focus on authors a lot. I’m a big
fan of trying to get as many authors as we
can, especially since you also get free books,
which is a wonderful perk of the job. Today,
I was thinking that I wanted to try and book
Professor Timothy M. Smeeding, who has just
written a book called, Poor Kids in a Rich
Country: America in Comparative Prospective,
talking about the rise in child poverty over
the last 30 years. Why that’s interesting to
me is because it’s reflective of the rise in
right-wing politics over the last 30 years as
well.
I like to have guests like that on to talk
about politics and culture. Sam likes to
emphasize more political people, speakers, and
people in the public eye. We just try to get
all different kinds of people from politics
and culture, and pop culture. We have between
three and four guests every night in the
three-hour period: some in studio, some on the
phone. We also just go through current events
and news and comment on that as well. That’s
basically what the show is.
We have recurring bloggers who come on three
times a week: Atrios, Bill Scher of
LiberalOasis, Kos from The Dailykos, Geraldine
from Talk Left. We have a regular feature
where my father, Carmine, comes on, because
he’s a staunch Bush supporter, and I’m trying
to show him the error of his ways. He’s on
every Friday. We have people like Katrina
Vanden Heuvel come on as regularly as we can
get her, Joe Conason, people like that.
It’s basically structured like that, but also,
we try and stay fairly loose as well. If
there’s things that happen on a certain day
that we feel we want to tackle, we may bump a
guest and move them to a later date to have
someone who’s more immediate on that night, if
we can get them.
Q: You and the network
have received criticism from the press,
especially from people like Bill O’Reilly, but
what do average Americans have to say about
you and your show?
A: Gosh, I don’t know.
We get tons of fan mail. I know we’re the
largest provider of streamed radio in the
country. Of course, we would get criticism
from people like Bill O’Reilly, because
they’re used to dominating the game. They
have managed to be the predominant bloviators
over the last few years, and they don’t like
when people come on and try to poke holes in
their fantasy life. The right-wingers have
created an alternate reality. They do control
everything.
There is no liberal media bias. There is a
corporate for profit conservative bias in the
mainstream media. They like that. It’s been
growing and growing for the last 30 years,
helped along by the eradication of the
Fairness Doctrine under Reagan and then
further media consolidation under Clinton in
’96. ’86 was when we lost the Fairness
Doctrine. There has been a tremendous amount
of disinformation being pumped into the
American society in the lost 30 years, which
is obvious in the degradation of discourse and
then the degradation of the type of social
services the government provides, the level of
caring that comes from the community for the
neediest among us.
If there was a liberal media bias, that would
be a good thing, and our culture would reflect
it. But clearly, we don’t have a liberal
bias, because the right has also managed to
hijack the dictionary and change words. They
managed to turn liberal into a dirty word, and
without liberals, there’d be no progress.
Thanks to liberal progression, forward motion,
we have desegregation, environmental laws,
child protection, unions, reproductive rights,
seat belts, and things of that nature.
That’s why the right has decided to turn
liberal into a dirty word: because they don’t
like that type of levelist playing field.
They don’t like that type of progress. The
right has been trying to dismantle FDR’s New
Deal and LBJ’s Great Society for years.
They’ve been very successful at it, but they
can only do it by tricking people.
Q: The most unexpected
big summer movie was Fahrenheit 9/11. What
did you think of the film?
A: I haven’t seen it!
Can you believe that? The screenings that
they had before it was released all took place
at night, while we were doing our show. Then,
luckily, it’s been sold out other times during
the day when I’ve tried to see it, which I’m
very pleased about. Here in New York, it’s
sold out all the time, which makes you very
happy. The only reason I wanted to go,
besides the fact that I love Michael Moore, is
to add to the box office returns, but it’s not
like I’m not aware of a lot of the footage in
there. I certainly am not the type of person
that needs to be convinced any further that we
have a failed leadership structure in this
country.
Q: You used to work with Michael Moore on
Comedy Central’s TV Nation. Is he the
same person in real life, always trying to
figure out if what happened really is the
truth, or is he a much different person than
he appears to be from his films?
A: I think he was great.
I have no idea what people are talking about.
There’s people who will always criticize
people like Michael Moore because,
emotionally, it’s very difficult to absorb the
things he’s telling you, and they would prefer
to shoot the messenger.
There’s all these rumors going around that
Michael Moore’s an asshole, he treats his
workers like shit, and he’s a hypocrite – I
have never found that to be true. I have
found him and his wife to be very bright, very
caring, very concerned, and very respectful of
me when I worked for them and over the years
that I’ve seen them. I’ve done a couple of
panels with him over the years, like at the
Aspen Comedy Festival, when they’ve done
panels on censorship and media consolidation.
I think there is a reflective action that
people sometimes take when the message is
emotionally difficult.
Q: Your dad is Republican. What does he think
of you working for Air America?
A: He’s delighted,
because I have a job. He thinks that the
things Sam and I say on the show are
ridiculous. My dad is delighted by what we’re
doing, only because I’m his child. He thinks
that we’ve been brainwashed by this liberal
conspiracy, and we’re completely off our
rockers.
Q: When he goes on your
show, do you disagree very harshly or is it
more like, “I disagree with you, but I respect
you?”
A: We’re much gentler
than we are in real life. In real life, my
father and I go at it like cats and dogs.
We’re very harsh. Luckily, my dad and I are
very close. We respect each other
enormously. But when we talk politics, which
is very often, it is not pleasant. When we’re
on the air, it is very pleasant. It would be
very unbearable for the audience if we argued
the way we argue.
Q: You were supposed to have a sitcom,
Slice O’ Life, on ABC, and the network
dropped it. You say that they did so because
of your anti-Bush views.
A: I don’t say that.
Other people say I say that. They did not
drop it. 80 percent of development deals that
comedians have with networks never fly. I had
one of the vast majorities of pilots that
never fly. When we did our final read through
of the pilot, it wasn’t funny. What they do
is they buy an idea that was once funny, and
then they stick their hands in it and get it
to where they want it. Then, it’s completely
ruined. I have never said they dropped it for
that reason. Whoever has said that spread the
rumor that I said that, and that I’m a big
complainer. There was a letter writing
campaign started by John Alvarez to convince
ABC to boycott me because I provided aid and
comfort to Saddam Hussein. It was also helped
along by this nut woman named Lori Bardsley,
who has a group called Citizens Against
Celebrity Pundits, who is a born again
Christian, Bush fanatic, who believes it is
her divine calling to support President Bush
and also make sure that actors who disagree
with President Bush don’t get on television.
Q: If this is the way that people perceived
it – the right-wing saying, “She’s just
complaining” – would they make the same deal
out of it now that President Bush’s approval
ratings aren’t as high?
A: The right-wing? The
thing is, with them, it’s never stopped. They
never stop living in this alternate reality,
and as the facts reveal themselves to prove
them wrong, they just fight harder.
It’s constant. Because
they can’t really look to the President’s
record of achievement, all they can do is keep
on trying to criticize alternative voices. As
President Bush’s approval rating slips, they
yell louder, and their wheels become
squeakier. They continue to hammer away at
Democrats, the left, and anyone who is
critical of the Bush administration.
Q: You’ve been in all kinds of films, from
low-budget movies to comedies like Romy and
Michelle’s High School Reunion. Which one
was your favorite to work on?
A: My favorite movie to
work on was probably Wet Hot American
Summer, which is an independent film
written and directed by two members of the
state. Do you remember that comedy troupe
from MTV? Michael Showalter and David Wain.
It’s a movie with myself, Paul Rudd, Amy
Poehler, Molly Shannon, and David Hyde
Pierce. It was a film we filmed at summer
camp. That was the most fun I’ve ever had
doing a movie.
I also really
enjoyed working on The Minus Man with
Owen Wilson. I enjoyed working on Clay
Pigeons with Vince Vaughn, because the
projects were fun. I really enjoyed making
the Abby Hoffman movie [Steal This Movie]
with Vince D’Onofrio – that was fun. Then,
some of them were just like a job. You just
get up early, and it’s a grind.
Q: You were on Saturday Night Live for
a short time. What was that like? Why did
you leave the show?
A: Oh, it just wasn’t
right for me. At the time, it was incredibly
unfunny. It’s gotten better.
It just wasn’t my cup of tea,
humor-wise. There was no reason for me to be
there. The cast was so large that they didn’t
need me. I wasn’t contributing anything, and
it wasn’t the type of humor that I liked, so I
just left.
Q: Your radio show
reaches a large audience, and people already
know you from your work in acting and comedy.
Last night, a Kerry fundraiser showed what
celebrities can do for a campaign. Have you
ever worked with Sen. Kerry at all, and do you
plan to?
A: Yeah. I’ve actually
done a lot with Howard Dean, during the Dean
campaign. I think people in the entertainment
industry can do a lot for fundraising, but
they can also be used against any campaign,
because as you know, a lot of people love to
mock actors. They just love it. They just
love to view them with stupidity and the
characteristics of greed, shallowness, and a
sense of, “Let them eat cake,” as in before
the French revolution. So actors and people
in the entertainment industry can help draw
attention on a campaign, but also, the media
loves to focus negative attention on it as
well.
Q: Would you have ever guessed, when you
were starting out in standup, that it would
eventually lead you to where you are now?
A: No, not at all,
although I did, over the years, as I got
older, get more interested in the medium of
radio. I really liked the idea of a talk
radio show. That was something I had thought
about, but I never imagined I’d be part of Air
America as my full time job.
Q: Are you happy with what you’re doing, or
would you like to get involved in even more
projects?
A: I’m very happy with
it. It’s perfect. First of all, I don’t have
to get up early. Secondly, I love the idea of
just being able to do a show with Sam Seder,
who’s one of my closest friends, and we get to
talk politics and culture. It’s just
something that we’d be doing at a bar anyway.
Unfortunately, it’s not as fun at a bar, since
I quit drinking a few years ago. I can’t go
to bars now – it’s boring! So I just
go to a radio station.
It’s just
great to be able to have an outlet to express
yourself in a way that is not allowed on
mainstream television.
Politics
Today 
Politics
Today:
Janeane Garofolo