The Male-y Show

The only reason I purchased a digibox was so that I could watch The Daily Show all the way across the pond here in London. I had come to miss its sharp touches of sanity and hilarity. But now that I've been watching it again for a few months, I find myself asking this question:Where the hell is everyone?The last time I visited the U.S.A. I'm pretty sure I saw women, black people, Asian people, middle eastern people, Hispanic people. Unless I was on drugs the whole time, I'm almost certain there was a rainbow of ethnicities and at least two genders in attendance on the North American continent. But if your only window onto America were The Daily Show you might suspect that a weird viral epidemic had wiped out everyone but the white dudes. Lord only knows where Samantha Bee went.Now I'm going to go out on a limb here and state that I doubt very much that John Stewart and the creative team behind The Daily Show sit around smoking cigars and laughing evil belly laughs while hatching new and devious means of keep women and people of color off the air. Most likely they act like most men in show business: they hire their friends. And like so many men in show business, most of their friends are also men.But I'm here to say, fellas, it ain't good enough. You're on the air. You've got a great big podium. A lot of people listen to what you say every day. You have to do better. You have to cast a wider net. You have to--hold onto your hats now--go out and meet some black people, some Asian people, some women. In short, you're going to have recruit beyond your fraternity, beyond your weekly poker game, beyond your usual cluster of menfolk at the local bar. It's not so bad. Women and people of color do it all the time. We have no choice. If we want to get anywhere in life we have to open our doors to you. Now we're knocking on your door. Are you going to open it?