I've often wondered what the color of the sky is in Janeane Garofalo's world, and after hearing her interview on BBC Radio Saturday, I'm convinced this woman lives on another planet.
After all, in her view: "[T]he media in the States is much more to the right. I mean there is almost no liberal outlet for news commentary or editorializing."
This coming from a woman who used to host a program on the far-left-leaning Air America Radio, and is a frequent guest on Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" as well as Bill Maher's "Real Time."
Such idiocy made it all the more fitting that after she finished her chat with the BBC's Clive Anderson, Garofalo ended up cutting her comedy routine at the Latitude festival short due to the audience's seeming disinterest in her views.
But before we get there, here's a partial transcript of her fact-challenged, Bush-bashing interview (audio available here, relevant section at 3:00, h/t NBer DB):
JANEANE GAROFALO: Over the last, well since the Bush administration, much more so, I was...
CLIVE ANDERSON, BBC: He used to be president.
GAROFALO: George Bush, yes, used to be President of the United States.
ANDERSON: I remember that.
GAROFALO: And I got involved in certain anti-war groups and stuff like that, and I would be invited on to these so-called news programs, but not because they thought I was any kind of a thinker. It was mostly just to mock and marginalize the anti-war movement and things of that nature.
Imagine that. On Garofalo's planet, the anti-war movement is mocked and marginalized by America's media.
ANDERSON: There seems to be a slightly odd way in America, or maybe I've just got a false impression, that there seem to be a lot of programs where like-minded people get together and chat, and then, as your case might be a liberal group chatting, and then another group, might be sort of a radio jockey's got a TV program, then plays in clips of you, and then argues with you in your absence. You ought to put those two together some times you know.
GAROFALO: The, mostly the media in the States is much more to the right. I mean there is almost no liberal outlet for news commentary or editorializing. And also, they have an unfortunate need to make it combative where they have people that wind up devolving into a shouting match of sorts.
ANDERSON: Well, I don't put up with that. I wouldn't dream of being in combat with anybody.
GAROFALO: No, you're very polite. You're British.
Fascinating, wouldn't you agree? But the best is yet to come, for watch how she gets dressed down by Anderson:
ANDERSON: So, but you started your own program, what your own radio...
GAROFALO: I worked at Air America Radio for 2 1/2 years, and, which was a radio station formed as an answer to all the rightwing radio that dominates.
ANDERSON: How did it do, is it still going?
GAROFALO: It's still going, I mean, it's had a lot of financial difficulties, and a lot of problems over the years. But that's just because of a poor business model. Yeah, it's still going.
ANDERSON: But who'd have thought, a poor business model from a left-wing group? You should try a license fee, that seems to work well.
Hehehehehe. Gotta love it.
Later:
ANDERSON: Last week we had on the program Jamie Kilstein who's a comedian I think you know, and he made the point that there's a slightly different flavor now that American comedians bring to the country because for many years you've been able to come on and say, "Oh no, we've got this interesting man Bush as President." Now you've a different President and we, should we have a different attitude toward America now do you think?
GAROFALO: Well, I think people like us better now that Obama's there. It's a much better representative of the States I think, because George Bush certainly makes it seem like we're the biggest jerks in the world. And it's nice to have Obama. But there's certainly no shortage of still political things to discuss and media things to discuss.
ANDERSON: And do you think there'll become a time when you'll be criticizing him, for he's having quite a long honeymoon.
GAROFALO: No, there is many things to criticize him for at this point. He's a great guy, but he acquiesces too much to the right-wing in our country.
ANDERSON: So you're never going to be satisfied are you?
GAROFALO: Well, why should I be?
Why indeed? But most deliciously, it was folks that attended her comedy show hours later that weren't satisfied according to Britain's Uncut:
Janeane Garofalo cut short her Saturday afternoon set in Latitude's comedy tent because of the poor reception she was given by the audience. The American comedienne's rare UK live appearance was expected to be one of the highlights in a strong comic line-up, but she failed to win over the festival crowd.
Best known to TV viewers as talent booker Paula in The Larry Sanders Show and political campaigner Louise in the final series of The West Wing, Garofalo was due perform for half an hour, but left the stage after less than ten minutes when her routine about post-9/11 security checks at airports met with stony silence.
"It's not you, I blame myself for this," she said before leaving the stage.
Some attendees tweeted their displeasure:
Ouch. Jeaneane Garofalo was on the Comedy Stage at Latitude. She lasted five minutes. My interview with her was longer.Sarah Silvermanesque
And:
Oh dear, janeane garofalo has just died on stage seriously badly!
It seems quite fitting that she would flop after speaking such nonsense about our nation while on foreign soil, don't you agree?
*****Update: Here are some more tweets about Garofalo's meltdown at Latitude (h/t NBer DB1) --
At latitude I stormed janeane garofalo's dressing room to cheer her up. It worked http://twitpic.com/ariqj (via @jonronson)
@EmmaK67 great to hear you cheered her up but she was a bit crap, sadly
@EmmaK67 so, that was *afterwards*. What went wrong with the set?
@PlaceFarm she had a nightmare. I couldn't bear it. I was told she was crying in her dressing room. So I did something about it...
@EmmaK67 Oh no, that's terrible - but of all the people who could cheer her up I can think of no-one better than you xx
@SteveDoherty1 she had a meltdown and gave up
@SteveDoherty1 well she was in tears. But we did cheer her up. And then she loved us.She was LOVELY
@louis_louis_66 she had a disastrous gig and I found her crying in her dressing room
