Complete Q&A with Sarah Silverman
Holly AkerCaroline Wallace
In a recent interview with the Hilltop Views, Silverman discusses the return of her Comedy Central show. Read the complete Q&A below.   Reporter: I’m not sure if your sister has ever convinced you that you were born a man, but do any of your story ideas come from real life?SS: Yeah sometimes. Ohmigosh. I...
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Hilltop Views
In a recent interview with the Hilltop Views, Silverman discusses the return of her Comedy Central show. Read the complete Q&A below.

Reporter: I’m not sure if your sister has ever convinced you that you were born a man, but do any of your story ideas come from real life?SS: Yeah sometimes. Ohmigosh. I feel like a sneeze is coming on. Wait a minute. Wait for it. It went away. Ok false alarm. On Thursday there’s a part of the episode where you see a glimmer of it where I get obsessed with my neck, and that’s definitely some truth. This is my take on the neck: Why isn’t there bone there? There’s so much important stuff in your throat. Why isn’t it protected by some extended rib cage or bone? It freaks me out. It’s so easy to get to. Reporter: All right. Thank you very much.SS: Just saying the neck is [expletive] vulnerable.Reporter: I was just wondering after watching a few episodes, would you say that your show has any risky humor?SS: Risky humor? Reporter: Would some people be a little offended by your humor? How do you feel about that?SS: Well sure. That’s not really for me to say. I think that we’re not looking to offend anybody, but we’re definitely looking to make ourselves laugh, and sometimes that’s just the way it is. Once we put something out there, and it’s in the air, that’s for the people in the audience to decide what it means, to infer within the context of their own life and their own experiences. It doesn’t make sense in comedy to try to not offend anybody because you never know what’s going to offend people because that all depends on where they’re coming from. Once we put it out there, it’s for you to say if it’s offensive or not offensive. We don’t really censor ourselves, and Comedy Central’s pretty cool about not censoring us. There’s a thing called Standard Practices, and they’re basically the lawyers that say, “You can say this,” or “You can’t say this.” Even when they tell us we have to cut something or that we can’t say something, we fight it, and usually we win. All they really want is if we can provide them a way to defend whatever it is that we’re putting out there, so they can defend it if somebody complains. We can usually come up with some kind of defense we pull out of our [expletive]. Reporter: If you were a drag queen, hypothetically, what would you choose as your stage name?SS: Personally that’s not the biggest drift. When I dress up and have to wear a dress and makeup, I feel like a drag queen. I like to play it down not because I’m not modest and casual, but when I dress up, I look like a [expletive] tranny, I think. My name would be…I don’t know. Do you have any ideas? It would probably sadly be like Sarah McSilverman or something. Actually there probably aren’t drag queens of me because what would they wear? A hoodie and jeans?Reporter: Roxy Fishsticks, maybe?SS: I’ll take it. I love it. Roxy Fishsticks? That’s good. Reporter: Is there anything you consider off limits that you will not talk about? That is too edgy; you won’t go there? Sarah: No, I think if something’s too mean, in my opinion, and it can only be from my own personal opinion, so it’s super random and there’s no definite line, but if something strikes me meaner than it is funny, then I don’t want to do it. I never have the intention to make someone feel bad. That doesn’t turn me on at all. The one thing I do tend to say is I don’t like fat jokes about women, unless it’s so crazy funny, but it usually just bums me out when people make fat jokes about women. I know it sounds so specific. Oh, I know why I don’t like jokes about fat women and I don’t have a problem with jokes about fat men because we live in a country where fat men still deserve love, and fat women, at least in white America, it’s like they don’t deserve love or something. That’s scary to me and upsetting. Actually, there’s a line in “Family Guy” that’s so totally, brilliantly encapsulates how I feel, which is the son, Chris, says to his dad, “Dad, aren’t we fat?” And then the dad goes, “No, fat guys aren’t fat. Only fat women are fat.” I just thought it was so brilliant, exactly how I think things are here sadly. Reporter: What is the craziest thing you’ve had to do for the new season? And I’m not sure if you can tell us, but…SS: Oh wow. Without giving away too much, a lot of things actually. Somersaults. And going back, and this is such a minor thing that isn’t probably going to excite anybody, but how a couple of things this season came from my fear of necks and how necks are so vulnerable, and because we wrote that in, it’s actually in this coming episode this Thursday, I have to get a Frisbee in my neck. I have a weird thing about necks, and because of it, we have to shoot this thing where I’m looking up thinking to myself and a Frisbee hits me in the neck. So not only do I have to get a Frisbee to my neck, which creeps the [expletive] out of me so much, but the director kept saying, “It looks like you’re anticipating it. You can’t be anticipating it.” It was very difficult, but probably there are a lot more exciting things than that but of me that was the biggest bummer of the thing, but there’s a lot of stuff to be said. I get shot out of a cannon. I fly. Reporter: What influenced you to start your work? SS: What do you mean? Reporter: What got you to be what you are today?SS: Oh, so many different elements. I’ve had it really good because I feel I’ve been around a long time, and I’ve just inch by inch climbed up this ladder that I hope I never get to the end of. I’ve just had such a fun adult life. I actually wanted to be in “Les Miserables” when I was growing up. I loved musical theater, but I always wanted to be a stand up, and I moved to New York when I graduated high school and started working passing out flyers for a comedy club, and in exchange for that I would get to go on on their open mike night, and just being around comedy and getting to go up with my [expletive] five minutes whenever I could produce it, and slowly building on that and being influenced by my peers and the people around me and the things around me and just writing about whatever I was into at the time. When I was 18, 19, 20, I just wrote about sex and drugs because that was the stuff influencing me, at the time, or ya know the things I’m curious about. And then I passed at my first club, meaning I could lead my availability for the eek and get spots for ten dollars. The struggle and all that stuff, you start with this kind of class of comics that you are kind of like, it’s your freshman year, and then you all move into sophomore year and junior year. And ya know, those are my friends for life, and they’ve all moved on and done real well. It’s exciting to have this kind of, almost like high school class that you root for each other with. And it starts sitting in the back of clubs hoping somebody doesn’t show up so you can get a chance to go on, and those are the most fun times, ya know? Those days when we all would try to get on stage and then end the night at somebody’s apartment and hangout and laugh. Ya know? Like little by little, like I got one of those stand-up shows, like maybe at the Improv or whatever, and then I got a job writing for “Saturday Night Live” for a year, and I moved to L.A., and I got cast in a couple of things that I immediately got fired from. And that was like, scary. And little by little, I started keeping the jobs I got hired on, ya know, like not getting fired. (laughs) I got bit parts here and there. I did like a “Star Trek Voyager” or whatever, and then in L.A., I got into this group of comics that did Mr. Show, and then getting to be a part of that, and then getting to be a part of “The Larry Sanders Show” and just kind of inching along. And every step was like a big climb up. So, by the time I got my own show on Comedy Central, I was really kind of ready and experienced and knew who I wanted to work with. It’s like, you want it to be a real, long, gradual question because it’s more fun that way. Reporter: I recently saw an interview you did with Katie Couric a long time ago, and she actually called your comedy and humor kind of demented. What was your reaction to that? Do you think that was a little harsh?SS: No, not at all. I love Katie Couric, and I had a lot of fun. Do you mean that she called my comedy demented?Reporter: Yeah.SS: No, I take that as a compliment. I think comedy is the one area where demented is a compliment. If I were like a lawyer, or I had Katie Couric’s job and I was called demented it would probably be a problem, but no I don’t think she meant it in a bad way.Reporter: Do you ever feel pressured to constantly be funny, like even just when you’re out?SS: I guess sometimes if I’m performing or if I’m with people that I don’t know, I kind of like will just go into hose mode, where I just want to like make sure everyone is having a good time and is entertained, and it’s probably an instinct in me that has been the reason why I became a comic, that kind of need to make sure everyone is laughing and having a good time. But with my friends, most of my friends are comic and writers, and we do sit around just doing bits and laughing like idiots. But ya, know, we can be serious too, of course. Reporter: If your show were offered a collaborative effort with the Jersey Shore for just an episode, would you do it? SS: Umm… well by the time we’d ever be on the air again, they’d probably be so last year’s news that it probably wouldn’t be worth it. I think they’re a little bit of a sensation, in that I don’t know how long the love of Jersey Shore the TV show is going to last. But, but…I love it. So, maybe in some way or another, but probably not. Though I do enjoy watching the show here and there. I feel that the Jersey Shore joke is going to be no more by the time we would be on the air again. Reporter: Do you have any special guest stars that you’re excited about on the show this season? SS: Yeah, Andy Samberg plays my childhood imaginary friend who comes back all grown up and becomes a nightmare. And that was awesome, super fun. Bill Maher is in an episode. You guys are too young, but an awesome actor named Ed Asner plays a Nazi war criminal. Bradley Whitford, and Josh Malina from “The West Wing” are in an episode. Maria Bamford, Patton Oswalt, Billy Crudup, tons of awesome guest actors. People you’ll recognize, that maybe you won’t know them by name. It’s a super fun season. We got to have a lot fun. Reporter: What’s your target audience, is it adult-oriented?SS: Ya know it’s crazy how many like ten and eleven-year-olds like the show. I think it’s like a lot of shows, not to compare our show, but anything from like Southpark or Family Guy, it’s like there are little kids that love it, and they understand it on one level. And then there’s like the college kids who kind of get it all around, and then there are older people who get it on a different level. I’m always surprised by the age range. Like 10-year-old kids and like old people who are like ‘I love your show.” But that said, nobody’s watching it. So, tune in or we’ll be canceled. We’re dying. Reporter: A lot of male friends that I have, especially those in relationships would consider you to be their celebrity exception. So, I was wondering, do you have any pedestrian exceptions?SS: I don’t have any exceptions, but I feel compelled to say this joke that this comic David Feldman tells. He talks about how he and his wife have the one-person exception thing, and he’s like, “She picked Brad Pitt, and I picked our baby sitter.” That’s funny, but I don’t really have a celebrity or non-celebrity exception. I’m a one-person person. I like, have tunnel vision when I’m with somebody. Boring answer! Um…a UPS man, there, what can brown do for you? I have a couple of ideas. Reporter: Do you use your past bad experience on SNL’s writing staff as a way to handle the writing on your show so you don’t repeat the behavior? SS: Well, it wasn’t a bad experience. It was an amazing experience that has probably helped me for the rest of my life. “Saturday Night Live” is like a boot camp. It’s like New York City, in that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. Not that I made it there, I didn’t. (laughs) It was actually a great experience. But yeah, the writing staff on my show is really different. There’s just a about five or six of us writing, and we usually start out the first couple weeks in my apartment because we never have office space by the time we’re picked up. And, the writers are animals, well; it’s that way I guess at SNL. One time, I’m friends with Kevin Nealon, and he came and visited us while we were writing one day just to hang out. It’s very like, free, and I think we have this like safe, free environment where anything goes, so we can write the way we write. Before he left the visit he said, “this is such a Harvard room” which is a reference to like, a lot of times, Harvard Lampoon writers will be mined for writing staffs, especially at SNL and stuff. So, he goes “this is just like a Harvard room” and I said “really?” and he goes, “no.” It was funny; he was making fun of us. But yeah, we’re a bunch of animals, but it just works for us. And I think a lot of comedy rooms end up being like that. Reporter: Is the character you play on TV the real-life you?SS: I hope not because she’s just an [expletive]. Ya know, we talk alike and we look the same, but I think my character is a little dumber. I always think of her as an arrogant, ignorant person, which is an awful combination, but fun to watch I think. The thing I like about the character is like, kind of a Bugs Bunnyness about her. My friend Liam pointed that out, and it always kind of made us go, “Oh yeah.” The thing about the Sarah Silverman I play on the show is that she’s kind of always looking for an identity to put on, and I think the real way to go about it in life is to kind of just discover who you are from the inside out. And she kind of like discovers who she wants to be from the outside in. I think that exists in people, just kind of looking for an identity without just kind of looking inside yourself. Reporter: You’re a very pretty lady, and I was wondering if the prettiness came later in life?SS: Pretty? Reporter: Ya know, you hear jokes about how girls who are not pretty earlier in life develop personalities and stuff?SS: Well, (stammers) I don’t even know how to respond to that. I love that I would be considered that. I think of myself as this like swordfish looking monkey. But I feel pretty inside, and sometimes I feel really pretty, and I’ll go to the bathroom and look at myself in the mirror and go, “Oh wow, I felt so much prettier than this.” But, I think that’s the better way to go. I think it’s important for everybody to develop a personality, ya know, even the pretty girls. I think the reason why I was kind of forced to learn how to be funny comes from stuff like being, though not raised religious at all, being Jewish in a town that has no Jews, in New Hampshire, and realizing that people saw me as different and trying to put people at ease about me. Being like hairy, hairy arms and hairy legs because I was too young to be allowed to shave my legs, and just being very different looking from the people I was surrounded by. I mean, believe me, when I was 18 and moved to New York, I couldn’t believe there were other people like me. (Laughs) But where I grew up it wasn’t that way. It was very blonde, very Christian, very LL Bean. I mean, I loved the people I grew up with, but I was just very different, and I had this kind of instinct to kind of put people at ease about me by being affable, and I think that’s maybe why I needed to be funny. Reporter: How would you describe your experience working with Andy Samberg, a Jewish comedian like yourself?SS: Working with Andy Samberg? It was awesome. I just love him so much. He’s just cute as a button. He’s super funny, he was really fun to work with. It was his birthday one of the days we were shooting, and he just was like such a great sport. He’s like a little brother. He’s such a wide-eyed angel, a little Jewish angel. So, it was awesome. It was so fun to have him there. He’s old friends with the guys that I do my show with. So, Rob Schrab who I write the shows with, and who directs most of the shows is old friends with Andy. They worked on this project that continues on, called Channel 101, which you should look up online; it’s super awesome. And that’s where Andy started with Akiva [Schaffer] and Jorma [Taccone]. They were the Lonely Island guys from Channel 101, and they got kind of swooped up by SNL from there, so they get a lot of people from Channel 101, which Rob Schrab and Dan Harmon created a few years ago. You guys should look into getting involved in that kind of thing if you come out here and want to be in comedy or be in some sort of film or television. It’s a great place where anybody can submit stuff to show. Reporter: What’s your favorite scene you’ve ever done on the show? SS: Um, I don’t know. It sounds corny to say I love them all, but it’s the kind of thing where whatever episode we’re shooting becomes like my favorite episode. We just make it super fun. The cast is made up of some of my best friends. Like doing scenes with my sister, doing scenes with Brian Posehn and Steve Agee, who are you know, my closest, oldest friends. And Jay Johnson who’s just so [expletive] funny. I know this isn’t a very definitive answer, but we have crazy fun every day, so it’s hard to distinguish individual scenes. Reporter: What are you trying to accomplish in this season that is different than the previous two? Sarah: That’s an interesting question. I think, even though our goal so often is to be just aggressively stupid, you’ll see a definite amount of growth this season with these ten new episodes. The characters are so much more defined and I just think it’s the funniest and best season yet in terms of quality and character and story. I think that we’ve definitely passed ourselves. So, we’re hoping people tune in. But yeah, we’re excited about this season, and I feel like this answer is waning in quality, but, sorry, I definitely lost energy. But this season, what do we hope to accomplish? I guess, we’re pushing buttons and [expletive] like that, but it’s not something that we set out to do. It’s like, alone, we’re definitely just doing what makes us laugh, what makes us giggle, what makes us think a little bit, but by way of extra, extra dumb, which for some reason has just been what has made us laugh. In the writers’ room, like the best compliment has just been like dying laughing at somebody’s pitch and just saying, “that is so [expletive] dumb,” ya know?