Jena Friedman on Borat, ‘Daily Show’ and ‘Indefensible’

The Last Laugh

The Daily Beast

Comedy Interviews, Comedy, Interviews, Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Tv, Movies, Film

4.6 • 661 Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2022

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jena Friedman is a former ‘Daily Show’ field producer, an uncompromising stand-up comedian and, as of this past year, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter for ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.’ Now, she is headlining her own hour-long stand-up special ‘Ladykiller’ on Peacock and taking on the true crime industrial complex as the host of ‘Indefensible,’ which premieres its second season on SundanceTV and AMC+ next month. In her second appearance on the podcast, Friedman talks about exposing “crisis pregnancy centers” in ‘Borat,’ weighs in on “Missing White Woman Syndrome,” and shares her thoughts on the death of John McAfee, with whom she conducted the definitive interview for her previous show ‘Soft Focus.’

This episode was originally published on October 12, 2021

Read Matt Wilstein’s review of Jena Friedman’s new special ‘Ladykiller’

Follow Jena Friedman on Twitter @JenaFriedman and Instagram @jenafriedman

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Last Laugh. I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast, and today we are
0:10.1	revisiting the conversation I had last fall with one of my favorite people in the comedy world,
0:16.2	Jenna Friedman. That's because today, Jenna's excellent new hour of stand-up, Lady Killer, is premiering on
0:23.4	Peacock. I just reviewed the special for The Daily Beast, and we'll include a link to that in the
0:28.2	description for this episode as well. This episode is actually Jenna's second appearance on the podcast
0:33.9	after being one of our very first guests back when we launched this show in the
0:38.1	spring of 2019.
0:40.0	Our talk focused both on her Oscar-nominated writing for Borat's subsequent movie film and the
0:46.2	first season of her darkly funny reality series, True Crime Story, Indefensible, which returns for a second
0:52.8	season next month on Sundance TV and AMC
0:56.0	Plus. But if you watch her new special and then listen to this episode, or vice versa,
1:02.0	you may notice that she was trying out some of her new material on The Last Laugh listeners.
1:07.0	And I don't blame her. They are some really solid jokes. So let's get to that conversation now.
1:13.3	Here's me with the great Jenna Friedman. I think we kind of have to start here, which is you told me
1:19.9	something very funny about your very first day in the writer's room of a borat subsequent movie film,
1:25.9	which had something to do with this podcast and our interview.
1:29.2	Do you remember what I'm talking about?
1:30.7	I do.
1:32.3	Well, okay, no, because I don't think I talked about the writer's room because we've had,
1:37.6	we have ironclad and D.A.
1:39.2	Okay.
1:39.8	Well, maybe when something then.
	...

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