Samantha Bee pinpoints the sexism plaguing Clinton
The show: Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Oct. 31 The moment: The Obama interview
“Thank you for joining us for our Halloween interview,” host Samantha Bee says to U.S. President Barack Obama. “This year I’m going as a witch.”
“That’s not a witch costume,” Obama says about Bee’s red dress.
“I’m a woman on television and I’m over 40, so I’m already in costume,” she says. He shrugs and nods.
“If and when Hillary is president, what do you think will be the female equivalent of, ‘You weren’t born in this country?’ ” she asks.
“The equivalent will be, ‘She’s moody’; ‘She’s being emotional,’ ” he replies.
“There’s just something about her?” Bee asks.
“When men are ambitious, well, of course they should be,” Obama says. “When women are ambitious, why? That’s contributed to this notion that she’s somehow hiding something.”
Tuesday, at last, the psychotic U.S. presidential election will end. Bee has excelled at explicating the inherent sexism that plagued Clinton’s campaign. She’s done that with her interviews (in this same episode, she speaks to female European leaders who are baffled by the U.S.) and by relating her own parallel experiences.
Back in her second episode, Bee showed a Photoshopped image of Clinton making a speech. Notes on her arms read, “Don’t be c---y” and “shrill = bad.”
“What a coincidence,” Bee said. “TBS just gave me that same note.”
Bee accurately dubbed Clinton “a barely contained cluster of frustration.” Bee is too, about the intractability of misogyny. Her mission is to hammer away at that, week after week. Shrill = good. Full Frontal with Samantha Bee airs on the Comedy Network. Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on pop-culture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.