Yahoo Lifestyle Samantha Bee: Stop Focusing on the #MeToo Men’s Comebacks
Samantha Bee wants you to vote in the midterms so badly, she'll literally pay you to learn more about the candidates. Or, okay, it's not money from her personal bank account-it's from TBS, the network where she broadcasts her late-night show, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee. But it is real money that you can actually win just for knowing things about U.S. politics.
Inspired to do something about the dismal voter turnout in this country, Bee announced a new trivia game app she's launching after her show airs on Wednesday, Sept. 12. Called "This Is Not a Game: The Game," the app is similar to the extremely popular HQ trivia app-users log on to play at a set time each night, answer a set of questions, and win money if they get them all right.
But Bee's app focuses only on trivia relating to the midterms, the candidates running, and American politics in general. Questions range from what best incentivizes voters to register (same-day registration) to what Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's sign is (pisces).
Bee says she was pushed to do something to increase voter registration after learning only 52 percent of her show's viewers are themselves registered. And while she may frequently attribute the current, dismal political situation she so often criticizes on Full Frontal to a lack of voter turnout in the 2010 midterms, Bee says she hopes her app encourages everyone–even Republicans-to show up and vote in the upcoming midterm elections.
At a launch event for "This Is Not a Game: The Game," Bee told Cosmopolitan.com about who she's watching in the midterms, what she thinks about the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, and why she doesn't care to talk about men accused during #MeToo making comebacks just yet.
On creating an app that isn't just for Democrats:
It's important for people in general to vote. It's not like we're going to be the saviors of democracy, but for it to be restored to the glory that we all imagine it can be, people have to actually take voting seriously across all party lines. It's going to take a full-team, all-America effort to get people to the polls.
Obviously we always want people to watch the show. But independent of that, we wanted to create something that you could play whether you're a viewer of the show or not, and I think that we have done that. Unless I personally drive you so crazy that you can't play the game.
On whether she has any hope Brett Kavanaugh won't be confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice:
Not a huge amount of hope. I don't know what what would result in him not getting confirmed at this point. I'm just not sure. I think the protests are really interesting-I like all the Handmaids. I think people are taking it really seriously, and that is a good thing at least. It's engagement. But I'm very sad. And I'm scared.
On Louis CK's recent Comedy Cellar set, and comebacks for men accused during #MeToo:
[The comebacks] probably shouldn't look like that set last week at Comedy Cellar. I really don't know why we all care so much what people's comebacks look like. Are you astonished by how many pieces are written about when people are coming back from their disgrace? I'm amazed by it.
So many people gave up on their careers because of the things that were done to them, and we constantly frame it in terms of the male lens, and when they're getting back to comedy, or getting back to the news. I don't really much care.
What does [a comeback] look like? I don't really know. I don't think we're ready for it yet. It feels very wrong. It feels very lopsided that we always talk about their experience of it, and not the experience of the people who had their careers taken away from them, or gave up on their careers because of what they faced. It sucks so much.
On women candidates she's watching in the midterms:
There's too many. Did you see the video of Ayanna Pressley? It was beautiful. There are so many women just like that. It is warming the cockles of my heart.
Follow Hannah on Twitter.
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