In case you”ve been living under a rock, Jon Stewart has announced he”ll be leaving “The Daily Show”. This has sent everyone into a tailspin of speculation on who could possible take Stewart”s place.
A significant portion of social media has set their All-Seeing Gaze™ on “Daily Show” correspondent Jessica Williams. She”s young, she”s sassy, she”s a woman of color in the completely white-male dominated land of late night talk show hosts.
But, to borrow a phrase from Neil Gaiman, she”s also not your bitch.
On February 15, Williams tried to put speculation to rest with the following tweet:
Fact 1: I'm not hosting. Thank you but I am extremely under-qualified for the job!
– Jessica R. Williams (@msjwilly) February 16, 2015
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Of course, that wasn't enough for The Billfold. Instead, they responded to the news with an article entitled “On the Daily Show”s Jessica Williams, the Latest High-Profile Victim of Impostor Syndrome.”
Jessica Williams was not amused.
There is a difference between rooting for someone to succeed and telling someone they're making the wrong choices for their life because they aren”t the same ones you would make. Claiming Willams is a doesn”t believe in herself because she doesn”t feel qualified to take over the “Daily Show” with only two years of correspondent experience under her belt, or doesn”t want to be locked into a hosting position at the age of 25, or any other myriad of reasons that can and do affect career choices seems pretty pretentious.
Good on Williams for calling it out.
No offense, but Lean the Fuck away from me for the next couple of days. I need a minute.
– Jessica R. Williams (@msjwilly) February 17, 2015