A Salute to the Brilliant Women of The Daily Show

Despite its position as liberal watchdog and Jon Stewart’s persona as mensch-y everyman, his legacy at The Daily Show has been tainted by its perceived woman problem. Critics have pointed out that its female correspondents have been few and far-between, and the writing staff (as with every late night show) has remained predominantly male for the duration of Stewart’s tenure as host. Additionally, a recent analysis found that of the top 20 most frequently recurring guests, only two were women.

Still, even with minuscule odds, The Daily Show proved to be a platform for some of the most brilliant, effective female comedians to do some of the most biting satirical work being done on television. Samantha Bee, Kristen Schaal and Jessica Williams are gifts, rare or not.

Without The Daily Show, it’s possible we wouldn’t have learned how much medicare will pay for a penis pump:

Without The Daily Show, we likely never would have been given the gift of Jessica’s Feminized Atmosphere:

Without The Daily Show, we probably wouldn’t have known the difference between rape and rape-rape:

Without The Daily Show, we would have had to learn about safe drinking habits from a health class VHS or something:

Without The Daily Show, we wouldn’t have been quite as aware of all the ludicrous pink shit on the market:

Without The Daily Show, we wouldn’t have any idea how many Halloween costumes we could choose from:

Because of their work on the show, Schaal is now one of the busiest comedians working today (she’s on about 1 million TV shows), Bee is about to release her own TBS show and Williams is a beloved figure in her own right. They may have succeeded despite the odds, but honestly how else have women ever succeeded?