The Daily Show‘s Jessica Williams Addresses the Backlash to Beyoncé’s Super Bowl Performance

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Jessica Williams, The Daily Show‘s long-running Senior Beyoncé Correspondent, stepped up to the desk last night to address the complaints made about Bey’s Super Bowl performance. And in spite of what people might tell you about Williams “seething” as she “slams” haters in this segment, her monologue here is actually quite understated and light-hearted.

Williams takes the tack of dismissing Beyoncé’s haters with jokes, rather than insulting or “slamming” anyone — and some of the jokes are very gentle mockery of Beyoncé herself! This segment seems designed to help bring people together, while still occasionally sprinkling in a hard truth or two.

That’s a tough line to walk — and it’s one that The Daily Show has to try to navigate all the time, with varying degrees of success. For example, using Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl performance as a counter-example here doesn’t seem fair, especially since Justin Timberlake seemed to get off scot-free from that publicity nightmare. The video does include a more helpful counter-example, though — Coldplay also had a political message at the Super Bowl about Global Citizen, a charity, featured in logo form on Chris Martin’s shirt. But no one seems to be complaining about his outfit!

(via TVLine)

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Maddy Myers
Maddy Myers, journalist and arts critic, has written for the Boston Phoenix, Paste Magazine, MIT Technology Review, and tons more. She is a host on a videogame podcast called Isometric (relay.fm/isometric), and she plays the keytar in a band called the Robot Knights (robotknights.com).