"The term 'celebrity' makes my skin crawl." -- Janeane Garofalo
Janeane Garofalo (; born September 28, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist, writer, and former co-host on the now defunct Air America Radio's The Majority Report. Garofalo continues to circulate regularly within New York City's local comedy and performance art scene.
"I absolutely realize that a celebrity spokesperson is not ideal.""I actually was class clown, but I don't know how that happened because I've never been considered an outwardly funny person-as the people in this room will attest.""I can do most anything and not have a problem with it. The only time I have negative attention is when I run naked through the streets brandishing a handgun.""I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is always half empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth.""I say at this point, for different reasons, Bush and Hussein are both very threatening to world peace and to deny that is to be incredibly naive.""I would have to say loneliness is next to uncleanliness.""Iraq is a manufactured conflict for the sake of geopolitical dominance in the area.""Is being an idiot like being high all the time?""Let's be very honest about what this is about. It's not about bashing Democrats, it's not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston tea party was about, they don't know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.""To me, there is no greater act of courage than being the one who kisses first.""When Communist U.S.S.R. was a superpower, the world was better off. The right-wing media is trying to marginalize the peace movement.""When I see the American flag, I go, 'Oh my God, you're insulting me.'"
Garofalo was born in Newton, New Jersey, the daughter of Joan, a secretary in the petrochemical industry who died of cancer when Janeane was 24, and Carmine Garofalo, a former executive at Exxon. Garofalo is of Italian and Irish descent. She grew up in various places, including Ontario, California; Madison, New Jersey; and Katy, Texas (near Houston) where she graduated from James E. Taylor High School. Garofalo is quoted as having disliked life in Houston due to the humidity, heat, and emphasis on prettiness and sports in high school.
While studying history at Providence College, Garofalo entered a comedy talent search sponsored by the Showtime cable network, winning the title of "Funniest Person in Rhode Island." Her original gimmick was to read off her hand, which was not successful in subsequent performances. Dreaming of earning a slot on the writing staff of the TV show Late Night With David Letterman, she became a professional standup upon graduating from college with degrees in history and American studies. She struggled for a number of years, working briefly as a bike messenger in Boston.
Garofalo has described herself thus: "I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is always half empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth."
Garofalo officially began her career in stand-up comedy in the late 1980s during the pre-grunge era. Her appearance was often in line with late 1980s style: disheveled with thick black glasses and unkempt hair. Her comedy is often self-deprecating; she has made fun of popular culture and the pressures on women to conform to body image ideals promoted by the media.
Garofalo's comedy shows involve her and her notebook, which is filled with years' worth of article clippings and random observations she references for direct quotes during her act. Garofalo has said that she does not tell jokes as much as make observations designed to get laughs. She was part of the alternative comedy scene in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, appearing at Un-Cabaret and other venues and co-created the Eating It comedy series which ran at Luna Lounge on the Lower East Side of New York City between 1995 and 2005. She did a one-hour stand-up special, "If You Will," at Seattle's Moore Theatre, that aired on Epix in June 2010 and will be released to DVD in September 2010.
Television
Her television series debut was on the short-lived Ben Stiller Show on Fox in 1992, on which she was a cast member alongside longtime friends Ben Stiller, Bob Odenkirk, Andy Dick, and David Cross (who was a writer on the show). A chance meeting on the set of that show led her to be offered the role of Paula on The Larry Sanders Show on HBO, earning her two Emmy Award nominations in 1996 and 1997.
After The Ben Stiller Show was cancelled, Garofalo joined the cast of Saturday Night Live (SNL) for its 1994-95 season. She left SNL in March 1995 (mid-season) after only six months, saying that the experience left her "anxious and depressed" and that a sexist attitude pervaded the show. According to New York Magazine, Garofalo was "largely stuck in dull, secondary wife and girlfriend roles" and her friends said that she considered the stint "the most miserable experience of [her] life."
Post-SNL
Following SNL, Garofalo appeared in a plethora of guest star roles: the grown-up daughter of the Buchmans on the final episode of Mad About You; Jerry Seinfeld's female counterpart (and, briefly, fiancée) Jeannie Steinman on Seinfeld; a correspondent on Michael Moore's TV Nation and a former girlfriend of Dave Foley's character on Newsradio. Two television pilots starring Garofalo, the 2003 ABC show Slice O'Life about a reporter consigned to sappy human interest stories appearing at the end of news broadcasts, and the 2005 NBC program All In, based on the life of poker star Annie Duke, were not picked up by their respective networks.
Throughout the 2005-2006 television season, Garofalo appeared on The West Wing as Louise Thornton, a controversial campaign adviser to the fictional Democratic presidential nominee. Garofalo participated in the series' first live episode, most of which was a debate televised live on the East Coast and then reshot live for the West. Garofalo's character can be seen walking backstage advising before the start of each debate. In 2006, she provided the voice for the animated character "Bearded Clam" on Comedy Central's Freak Show alongside her friend David Cross. In 2007, she wrote a dedication for the mini-book included in the six-DVD box-set of the 1994 cult series My So-Called Life.
In 2009, Garofalo joined the cast of 24, where she starred as Janis Gold. She will appear on an upcoming untitled CBS medical drama about doctors who travel the country helping people in life-or-death situations.
She is currently in talks to join the cast of a Criminal Minds spin-off entitled Suspect Behavior.
Films
Garofalo's breakthrough into film came in 1994's Reality Bites as Winona Ryder's Gap-managing best friend Vickie. The role helped solidify Garofalo's status as a Generation X icon. In 1996, Garofalo earned a starring role in the critically acclaimed The Truth About Cats & Dogs, a variation on Cyrano de Bergerac which featured Uma Thurman in the lead role as a beautiful but dim-witted model, while Garofalo played a highly intelligent radio host. Initially an independent film, it became a studio movie when Thurman was signed. The film was a modest hit, but Garofalo disparages it to this day, saying:
Based on the success of this film, director Cameron Crowe then offered her the leading lady role in Jerry Maguire with Tom Cruise if she could lose weight; after trimming down, however, she learned that Renée Zellweger had won the part instead. Garofalo turned down the role of Gale Weathers in Wes Craven's Scream because she thought the film would be too violent: "I said I didn't want to be in a movie where a teen girl was disemboweled. I didn't know it turned out so good, and it was a funny movie." Garofalo had also been David Fincher's first choice for the role of Marla Singer in the film Fight Club, but she turned it down, uncomfortable with the film's sexual content.
Before The Truth About Cats & Dogs, she was visible from television work and supporting roles in films such as Reality Bites, Bye Bye Love and Now and Then, and a leading role in I Shot a Man in Vegas. Garofalo has had a variety of leading, supporting and cameo roles in Cop Land, Wet Hot American Summer, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Dogma, The Cable Guy, Half-Baked, Mystery Men, The Wild, and Clay Pigeons.
Garofalo played the leading role in the The MatchMaker, a 1997 film about the misadventures of a cynical American woman who reluctantly visits Ireland. In 2002, she played Catherine Connolly in The Laramie Project. A puppet version of Garofalo appeared (and was graphically killed off) in the movie World Police; while Garofalo was irritated by the parody, she was more upset by the filmmaker's lack of correspondence. "I ran into them in the street, Trey and the other guy, and I said to them, 'The least you could do is send me a puppet.' And they said OK, took my address down ... and never sent me a puppet! So while Team America bothered me, the fact they didn't send me my puppet, that bothered me even more."
Garofalo had a segment in several episodes of the 2007 season of The Henry Rollins Show. These took place in her apartment, much in the same way Rollins' take place at his house. In 2007, she provided the voice of Colette, a chef in the Pixar/Disney feature film Ratatouille. Garofalo affected a pronounced French accent in the role, highlighted by her character's soliloquy about being the only female chef in the all-male kitchen.
She made cameo appearances in The Guitar in 2008 and Labor Pains in 2009.
Views on Politics, the Iraq War and the Tea Party Movementmoreless
Garofalo has been open and outspoken regarding her liberal political views. In an interview for Geek Monthly magazine, she stated that she grew up conservative in a conservative family.
She has appeared with political figures such as Ralph Nader (whom she supported in the 2000 election, but opposed in 2004 ) and Jello Biafra at various events. Garofalo, who was raised in a conservative Catholic family, now describes herself as an atheist, and has participated in a radio interview by Freethought Radio, a show by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
She became more prominent as an activist when she voiced opposition to what became the 2003 Iraq War, appearing on CNN and Fox News to discuss it. She said that she was approached by groups such as MoveOn.org and Win Without War to go on TV, because these organizations say that the networks were not allowing antiwar voices to be heard. Garofalo and the other celebrities who appeared at the time said they thought their fame could lend attention to that side of the debate. Her appearances on cable news prior to the war garnered her praise from the left and spots on the cover of Ms. and Venus Zine. Garofalo has had frequent on-air political disputes with Bill O'Reilly, Brian Kilmeade, and Jonah Goldberg.
Prior to the 2003 Iraq War, she took a position on the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. For example, in an interview with Tony Snow on a February 23, 2003 episode of Fox News Sunday, Garofalo said of the Iraqi dictator:
In March 2003, she took part in the Code Pink anti-war march in Washington, D.C. That fall, she served as emcee at several stops on the Tell Us the Truth tour, a political-themed concert series featuring Steve Earle, Billy Bragg, Tom Morello, and others. Throughout the year, Garofalo also actively campaigned for Howard Dean.
While on Fox News' program The Pulse, O'Reilly asked Garofalo what she would do if her predictions that the Iraq war would be a disaster were to turn out wrong. Garofalo stated:
In April 2009, Garofalo drew criticism when she denounced the Tea Party protests, saying: In response to the controversy Garofalo has continued to criticize Tea Party protesters, and has been reported to open her shows with "If there's any tea baggers here, welcome, and as always, white power."
Air America Radio
In late March 2004, Garofalo became a co-host for Air America Radio's new show The Majority Report alongside Sam Seder. The early days of Air America Radio are chronicled in the documentary Left of the Dial, which includes a debate between Garofalo and her conservative father Carmine, who was initially a regular guest on The Majority Report.
Garofalo was criticized by Rick Ross and some of her listeners for comments she made on her April 28, 2006 show, supporting the Scientology-linked New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project, a controversial treatment for workers suffering ailments from 9/11 clean-up efforts in New York City. Garofalo cited her reason for leaving the show as precipitated by such "unrecoverable" on-air arguments with Seder. She also said that she regards Seder as a better radio broadcaster than she, and therefore a better choice to continue The Majority Report.
Her last broadcast as co-host of The Majority Report aired on July 21, 2006. Since then, she has made a few appearances on The Sam Seder Show. She called on October 4, 2006, to discuss the Mark Foley scandal and on October 31, 2006, she was in studio, where she portrayed Katherine Harris in a Halloween skit. Garofalo has continued to portray Harris on the show in numerous appearances following the 2006 elections.
Garofalo made a series of appearances in New York and Los Angeles with Henry Rollins and Air America personality Marc Maron in April 2007.
