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Since 2014,Amber Ruffinhas been bringing her extremely specific energy toLate Night With Seth Meyers.
Nobody mixes goofy with angry in quite the same way.
The day after the election my colleagues were devastated, she wrote inInStyle.
But I told them, The world has always been this way for black people.
Ruffin is currently developingVillage Gazette, a pilot presentation for NBC.
This man tacitly condoned the intimidation and/or murder of black children, and his name is a fart joke.
The two ideas are both true, but couldnt be farther apart tonally.
You need someone like Ruffin to bring them together.
What is the preparation for telling a story onDrunk Historylike?
First they will ask you if you have any stories you would like to tell.
So I always ask to be given a story.
They send you links to stories, videos if there are some.
you could do research on your own.
Especially for a story like the Little Rock Nine, its a story that you already know about.
you might use your memoirs from seventh-grade history and stuff you learned on the internet!
Usually its pretty great the way it is.
Their apologies werent enough.No.
I mean, they were quite terrible.
One of the grossest parts of fucking human history was them, foaming at the mouth and screaming.
So, you know, fuck them forever.
But the fact that they would come ask these people to forgive them, instead of dying quietly?
You cant torment someone and be like, Hey, were on national TV, I want your forgiveness.
No, fuck you.
What you should want is to apologize, and then shut up.
I just thought that took all the balls in the world, I swear.
Lets talk aboutVillage Gazette.Yay!
The process is crazy.
And then me being like, What if it was a newspaper?
Thats how I remember it going, but I could be wrong.
So the germ of the idea was Someone is disgraced, and they have to work with me.
And I have to, for some reason, pretend that everything is fine.
Thats a huge part of it.
But people expect other folks to act exactly the way theyd act.
You know what I mean?
My dad, Im sure, experiences anger.
But Ive never seen it.
I dont think hes walking around with bottled-up anger.
But I think the character that Im playing definitely has a tough time expressing her anger.
So whats the next step?
So there will be six full 22-minute pilots that they will shoot, and then theyll show ours seventh.
Well turn it in just under the wire …
But itll be ten minutes long.
Its a very regular thing that happens.
But it just truly makes me laugh.
Because they chose six shows, and with each show they chose, we thoughtWell, its not us.
Too bad, so sad.
Lets start thinking about next year.
Then we got a call that we were getting picked up to pilot, but a pilot presentation.
So it makes this very cool underdog vibe that we all kind of feel.
Honestly, I think its pretty neat.
I just feel like Im a very spoiled person.
I certainly dont feel like Ive had it rough, or that Ive had a harder time.
Even though thats probably true, depending on how you look at it.
So I dont know what could happen to me to make me feel like Im being slighted.
Because things are so good, I cannot feel slighted.
I dont have it.
Everything I get to do is so ridiculous.
I cant believe I get to do this shit.
Isnt that the best part of being a writer?
It istrulythe best part.
Hes not realistic enough.
