It started with a piece on the female-oriented site Jezebel remarking that The Daily Show tends to be a "boys' club." Jezebel's Irin Carmon reported on accounts of women feeling "marginalized" on the show, and pointed out "the dearth of women on staff, onscreen and off." Noting that the show's audience "does lean male--about 60 percent," Carmon suggested that the prospect of Olivia Munn becoming the first new Daily Show female correspondent in seven years had something to do with being "better known for suggestively putting things in her mouth on a video game show ... than for her comedic chops."

Whatever this reveals about The Daily Show's view of women, someone on staff apparently does read Jezebel. In the middle of a comic rant about the difficulties of the show, this week Jon Stewart interjected the line "and Jezebel thinks I'm a sexist prick!"

Responds Carmon: "the intent of our reported piece on the experience of women ... on the show wasn't to tear down Stewart personally. (Jon, my mom loves you. I love you! ...)." She maintains there are some issues with the way the show works, though. "By the way, thanks to Helen Mirren last night, the show has now had 66 men as guests this year, compared to 14 women. (I think, anyhow. Math is hard!)."

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Heather Horn