While reflecting on her time coming up in the comedy crucibles of “Saturday Night Live” and “The Daily Show,” Jessica Williams shared that Jon Stewart taught her that bosses don’t have to be mean.
“I don’t like pretension in comedy,” Williams said during her appearance on Conan O’Brien’s podcast series “Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend.” At the time, she was opening up about how she experienced rude instructors during her come-up in comedy.
“In retrospect, there were these guys that were just dicks about comedy teaching me,” the “Shrinking” star explained. “I think about all these classes that I took where it was just someone who really understands improv and sketch teaching class but being so mean.”
She went on say that their unpleasant behavior was never just, but by the time she’d reached her days at “The Daily Show,” where she became the very first Black woman to be hired on as a correspondent, she said realized that bosses being mean is a choice.
“When I got ‘The Daily Show’ and I got to work with Jon, it was like a revelation of ‘Oh, you don’t have to be a mean boss,’” Williams said.
O’Brien, who’s served as a writer on several hit shows including “Saturday Night Live,” mentioned that oftentimes, depending on the program, comedy writers are vying for an opportunity to have their name and work showcased.
“I saw bad behavior at ‘Saturday Night Live’ because there’s 20 shows a year, which when you think about it, if you take away the music, it’s not a lot of real estate, a lot of people fighting to get their sketch on,” O’Brien explained. “If you’ve been working all week and you come in to see the board on Wednesday night to see if you got in or not, and your sketch is in the ‘Dead Man’s,’ the little index card has been moved to the bottom of the board, it’s devastating. So people, there can be some sharp elbows because there’s less space.”
Williams agreed: “Yeah, and the turnover there is really crazy.” She explained why “The Daily Show” was a better match.
“I found that when I was at Upright Citizens Brigade, when I got ‘The Daily Show,’ and it was sort of that thing where the next move was either ‘Saturday Night Live’ or ‘The Daily Show,’ and both are great,” Williams said. “I have friends who have done ‘Saturday Night Live’ and been really happy with it. But for me, ‘The Daily Show’ was a great fit because I’m really gentle and like very sensitive and I needed like someone to be really nice to me. That’s the only, I do way better with that … I do a lot better when people are nicer to me. I don’t thrive when someone’s like withholding.”
Williams joined “The Daily Show” in 2012 at age 22, where she was also the youngest correspondent at the time.
