Is Munn on the Money?

This summer, Olivia Munn, known for G4’s “Attack of the Show!” and almost-but-not-quite baring her lady parts in magazine spreads, wrestled said lady parts into business casual and became a correspondent for “The Daily Show.” The casting of Munn led to accusations of sexism against Jon Stewart et al. by the blog Jezebel (among others), all of which were sharply rebutted by “The Daily Show.” But now, two months after Munn’s first appearance on “TDS,” the formerly vocal opposition seems to have lost traction. Why? She’s funnier than we wanted her to be.

The only other female correspondent on “The Daily Show” at present is Samantha Bee, its second most senior contributor after Lewis Black. Bee, along with former “TDS” correspondents Beth Littleford and Nancy Walls, is a beautiful woman, but Olivia Munn is—Salon.com put it best—an “unapologetic sex bomb.”

Munn’s transition to “The Daily Show,” in the grand scheme of TV comedy, is a little like walking onto the New York Yankees after a season with the company softball team. “Attack of the Show!” is tailor-made for the young male geek demographic, alternately reporting on tech, video games, comic books, YouTube, cars—see what I mean? Although Munn’s banter is consistently funny, her function on the show is troubling—little more than an appealing gadget herself. Take a now defunct segment about Munn’s favorite magazine articles: “Olivia’s Rack.”

Some critics have celebrated Munn for crafting such a highly marketable, vulgar persona, suggesting that her understanding and appreciation of her hormonal audience is its own achievement. I think that’s true, but only to a certain extent—no layer of meta-ironic self-consciousness is thick enough to conceal fundamental truth that you are wearing a sexy French maid costume and jumping into a giant pie to titillate sixteen-year-olds.

So, could Olivia Munn really have landed the comic’s dream gig based solely on her looks? It certainly seemed like it. With this in mind, we of the feminist television watching community were ready at the studio doors with torches and pitchforks. But the fact of the matter is this: she’s not bad. Her first appearance was mediocre, yes, but the second was okay, and third (an exposé on local Russian spies) was actually good.

Don’t get me wrong—she’s not winning an Emmy any time soon, but this might not be a fluke. Munn has been cast as a lead in NBC’s “Perfect Couples,” a new sitcom to debut midseason next year, which chronicles the humorous relationship struggles of three young couples. She was recommended for this role by—wait for it—Tina Fey.  Despite an unmemorable cameo in “Date Night” and an unsuccessful audition for Elizabeth Banks’s part on “30 Rock,” Munn has won the approval of one of television’s most influential women.

Considering its eight consecutive Emmy wins for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series, “The Daily Show” knows what it’s doing. Jon Stewart threw no darts at headshots, nor did he choose from a list of candidates arranged in descending order of bra size. Is the show’s staff sexist? To me, that claim is absurd, and a distraction from the real, apolitical question: is Olivia Munn funny?

Frankly, it remains to be seen. What’s clear is that it’s only too easy to demonize her, to shoehorn her into a pre-conceived narrative of the hot girl who gets by on her hotness alone. Olivia Munn isn’t a hypothetical construct from your gender studies class; she’s a living, breathing comedian. If a woman’s appearance should have no bearing on our judgment of her comedic ability—the idea at the crux of the Munn dissent—then isn’t the corollary that we shouldn’t hold her pulchritude against her? The least we can do is give Olivia Munn a chance, and let the jokes fall where they may.

—Columnist Molly O. Fitzpatrick can be reached at fitzpat@fas.harvard.edu.