Sarah Silverman on Trying to Unite The Country With Hulu’s ‘I Love You, America’
Michael Schneider
TCA: Silverman on her new weekly talk show: "Anything smart will be served in a bready sandwich of super dumb."
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IndieWire
Sarah Silverman is on a mission.

“I want to get to the root of humanity in this country,” the comedian told reporters Thursday at the Television Critics Association press tour.

Silverman, showrunner Gavin Purcell and executive producers Adam McKay and Amy Zvi are still ironing out what her new Hulu talk show, “I Love You, America,” will look like.

But here’s what they do know: “I Love You, America” will be shot weekly in Hollywood and feature an opening monologue, in addition to taped pieces shot around the country. In one early remote, Silverman will sit down with a family in Georgia that has never met anyone Jewish.

“We’re not looking to make them look like assholes,” she said. “We’re exposing the fact that we’re actually the same. We may be listening to two different sets of lies right now.”

In the studio, “I Love You, America” will feature a regular 12-person “focus group” from all walks of life.

Silverman said she was a fan of topical talk shows like “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” and “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” but that her show won’t be as ripped-from-the-headlines topical. Instead, she hopes to target more viewers that don’t necessarily follow her political views.

“I’m hoping with this show to connect with un-like-minded people. We sat down and we said, ‘Oh fuck, that’s hard!’”

But ultimately “what is really important is that it’s funny, it’s silly, it’s aggressively dumb,” she said. “Everything is political right now just by virtue of being made in this moment in time… anything smart will be served in a bready sandwich of super dumb. That’s how I like my comedy, I don’t like to be told what I think.”

McKay said he’d love to move the conversation away from “left vs. right,” but instead on “corruption vs. honesty, the good of the whole vs. the good of the few… they’re creating a fake fight so everyone turns their neck and rubbernecks so they can steal your wallet.”

The panel opened with a clip of nasty comments on Twitter against Silverman, who admitted those weren’t even the worst ones. “There are tweets that shake my foundation — these are not them.”

She also revealed that she has befriended a country singer on Twitter who had made a nasty comment about her. Silverman listened to his album and reached out, admitting that she enjoyed his songs. “We couldn’t be more different ideologically,” she said, but now they talk frequently.

“What we have in common is we want to be loved, we want to be seen. We all have horribly embarrassing stories that involve shitting.”