Full Frontal with Samantha Bee correspondents talk making the news 'funny'
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It can be difficult to find the humor in today’s headlines, but that’s the job of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee correspondents Allana Harkin, Michael Rubens, Ashley Nicole Black, and Amy Hoggart.
The correspondents sat down with Entertainment Weekly: The Show to explain the process of putting their show together. Rubens says one of the challenges is booking guests. “Can we get these people to talk us when it’s foolish for them to talk to us?” he asks. What’s more, nowadays, the news cycle moves so quickly, they frequently have to throw out stories that become old news.
Black says it can be difficult to tackle material they have already thoroughly covered when it comes up again in the news. “The fourth piece about mass shootings is really hard to write,” she says.
While Hoggart notes that it’s a matter of moving past the drama of the situation to find the humor. “There’s a brief moment and I know that I have that in my head, I think, ‘That’s just awful’ and then I have to try and find something funny.”
Though Harkin adds, most of them already use comedy as a coping technique. “Everyone who works in our office has their entire life used comedy as a survival technique,” she says. “We’re just naturally people who find the joke in it to survive the situation.”
She also adds that their driving force is host Samantha Bee and her genuine desire to make a difference. “She honestly does have a heart of gold,” says Harkin.
