During her first night on the air after the resolution of the SAG-AFTRA strike, “Daily Show” guest host Sarah Silverman wasted no time celebrating the historic Hollywood moment.
“It is a big night. The SAG strike is over, which means Hollywood can finally get back to what they do best: turning your children gay,” Silverman said at the top of her final episode hosting the Comedy Central show.
Most of Silverman’s opening monologue was devoted to dissecting Wednesday night’s GOP debate. But the comedian did sneak a couple of strike-related jabs into her time on the show.
While talking about the first public appearance of Tim Scott’s girlfriend, Mindy Noce, Silverman gushed that it was nice Scott “finally” found love “with a respectable-looking woman just two months before the Iowa caucus.”
“It’s just bad for Tim that he had to get this non-union actor to play his girlfriend,” Silverman said. “If he had just waited one more day for the strike to end he could have gotten a professional actor fake girlfriend.”
The comedian also joked about the strike with her guest, comedy super producer Judd Apatow. Early in the interview, Apatow clarified that he was “only” there “because of the strike. You get the lame guest.” When Silverman asked the “Girls,” “Knocked Up” and “King of Staten Island” producer what he was doing “the last 191” days that the WGA and SAG-AFTRA were on strike, Apatow revealed that he had been binge-watching TV.
“You’re home all the time, so you binge. And then I thought to myself, ‘These are all terrible. We don’t deserve a raise,’” Apatow jokes.
“Listen, you directors took the first thing that was thrown at you,” Silverman countered. Unlike the writers and actors guilds, the directors guild reached an agreement with the AMPTP before having to go on strike.
On Thursday, the SAG-AFTRA strike against the AMPTP officially came to an end. At 118 days, it was the longest strike in the guild’s history and marked the first time the actors initiated a labor dispute since the 1980 strike. The WGA strike started earlier than the SAG-AFTRA strike and lasted 148 days before ending on September 27.
