Samantha Bee has made no secret of her disdain for this vicious election cycle. Still, even she was a little flabbergasted at James Comey publicizing the FBI’s renewed investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server within two weeks of Election Day, the ensuing “weeklong orgy of media speculation,” and the final verdict that no, there was nothing new or illegal in the emails after all.
Watch: Samantha Bee and Sarah Paulson recite Hillary Clinton’s “tech-averse, workaholic” leaked emails
Pls print.
Caroline Framke wrote about culture, which usually means television. Also seen @ The A.V. Club, The Atlantic, Complex, Flavorwire, NPR, the fridge to get more seltzer.
After playing a clip of CNN revealing the anti-climactic news with the caveat that “the cloud of suspicion … is still there,” Bee couldn’t contain her exasperation.
“You created the cloud!” Bee responded, deeply annoyed. “Don’t let one off in our nation’s elevator and stand there saying, ‘Who did that? Was it Hillary?’”
Bee went on to detail the contents of Clinton’s emails, from her frequent requests to have internet articles printed to asking if there’s “any way we can help” a divorced 10-year-old Yemeni girl she met. In other words, Bee said, the ongoing WikiLeaks data dumps have mostly revealed — or maybe confirmed? — that Clinton’s a “somewhat tech-averse workaholic.”
To drive that point home, Full Frontal brought out none other than recent Emmy winner Sarah Paulson, who wore a “Nasty Woman” T-shirt and her most serious pair of black-rimmed glasses to read Clinton’s emails in a somber voice. Highlights include Clinton asking Huma Abedin “you up?”; asking for a status report on the acquisition of some gefilte fish (“where are we on this?”); and of course the classic, “pls print.”
Bee will air a special post-election episode on Wednesday night, and there will no doubt be plenty to discuss. But if in the coming weeks the Full Frontal team is somehow hurting for material, “fantastic actress reads mundane emails” would be a pretty great recurring feature. (Personally, I’m holding out for Cate Blanchett in character as Carol.)
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee will air a post-election special Wednesday November 9 at 10:30 pm on TBS.
