Sometimes, you feel like, 'Am I going to be upset about this as a black person or as a woman first? Or am I gonna be both?' Because some things inherently affect black women; some things affect you as a woman and not a black person; and some things just affect you as a black person.
I'm always thinking about what a black lady would think about what I'm doing, just because I feel like they have such great taste, mostly because as black women, we've spent a lot of time downloading what a white male narrative is, so in my head, I'm like, 'If a black woman likes it, if she responds to it, then it's probably pretty damn great.'
I think there's something to the millennial sentiment of being, like, 'I'm great.' But I think there's also something really amazing and powerful about being, like, 'Oh, hey, I'm awesome.' It's a fine line. But I think it's possible to be both, to not be the most annoying person in the world, to still be very intriguing and fun to watch.
Some days I'll be like, 'I didn't do anything great today,' and I'll be bummed. And some days I'll wake up, and I'm like, 'I am the dopest woman to exist on Earth'.
I think we can topple the patriarchy by using our voices to speak out against things that aren't right and that we don't agree with. I think for people who are not people of color or members of the LGBT community, it is being an ally and being an advocate in spaces that people of color or members of the LGBT community can't really get into.
Some days, I do feel that pressure of, 'What do I mean as a black woman? What am I representing?' It honestly just gives me anxiety.
People have their guard down when they're laughing, so they're open to tougher conversations they wouldn't necessarily have. If somebody is guarded while laughing, they're a weirdo.
I thought I was going to be hired as a contributor, but 'The Daily Show' was like, 'Nah, it's an election year, we want you to come over here and work full-time.'
As far as diversity's concerned, there's me, there's Al Madrigal, there's Aasif Mandvi. But I'm not walking around feeling black all the time. That would stress me out.
Post-'Daily Show' has been so busy, which I've been surprised about. We're basically independent contractors in a way. So you have one gig, and you're worried about never getting another gig again, or at least I do.
The stories I want to tell are when we're our own heroes and our own enemies, and I don't think that's a rude thing to ask for. I don't think that's something I should apologize for.
There's milk-and-cookies Grandma, and there's Colt 45 and Atlantic City Grandma. She was the latter.
Thankfully, I already have a mogul I can pattern myself after: Oprah. We're a lot alike. I'm black, I love to relate things people talk about to myself, and people think my best friend and I are lesbians! My strength is that I'm more relatable.
I can be pretty harsh and judgmental. I'm a very harsh and judgmental person. I like morals, right and wrong. I like to see things in black-and-white when I can, so I will hold a lot of guys to an impossible standard.