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Comedy writer and late-night host Amber Ruffin was so sure Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election that she was sound asleep when it was called for Donald Trump. Now, the former host of The Amber Ruffin Show on Peacock and a longtime writer for Late Night With Seth Meyers, Ruffin is calling the 2024 election for Vice President Kamala Harris and crediting comedians with performing radical acts of truthtelling.
“I was born extremely optimistic and I'll never stop fucking [being that way],” Ruffin tells The Advocate several weeks ahead of the 2024 election. “I found out Hillary Clinton lost that morning. … Everybody's calling me and stuff. I wouldn't wake up. I was like, ‘Everyone's overreacting. I need to get my beauty sleep.' Woke up to a gross president and that still didn’t shake [me]. I’m still unfazed.”
“There’s no way — put me on the record — there’s no fricking way [Kamala Harris] is going to lose. I do not see how that’s humanly possible,” Ruffin declares.
Currently starring on CNN’s comedy news quiz show Have I Got News for You, Ruffin, host Roy Wood Jr., costar Michael Ian Black, and guests like Sam Jay and Larry Wilmore are using comedy to get to the truth of Donald Trump’s surreal and craven antics on the campaign trail. In a recent segment called “What’s the Story,” panelists view a clip montage depicting a news event and take humorous stabs at what the news story is. In a recent episode, the clip featured a wall of TVs, a clown, and a garbage fire. When Wood revealed that “the story is that traditional media outlets are being criticized for glossing over Trump’s erratic behavior,” Ruffin laid down the truth about impossible standards for Harris.
“They have to do their best to find flaws in what Kamala is saying and doing, but this man [Trump} gets to be a toddler with his pants pulled down doing whatever he wants, but she has to be perfect,” Ruffin said. “And it is a lot like being a Black lady. It is bananas!”
“[Harris] Did a better job than anyone in any debate I have ever seen. And motherfuckers have the gall to go, well, what's her policy?” Ruffin tells The Advocate. “Meanwhile, remember when Elizabeth Warren was like, ‘This is my plan, this is my plan, this is my plan.’ And the same people … teased her for it?”
Have I Got News for You's Amber Ruffin Warner Media
Since she began writing for Late Night With Seth Meyers and fronting segments like “Amber Says What,” Ruffin has become a comedic voice of reason in an increasingly unreal news cycle. Her comedy chops landed her a titular late-night talk show in 2019, which ran for three seasons. With humor and facts, she broke down social issues from systemic racism to antivaxxers and the intersections of both in segments like “How Did We Get Here?”
“I feel like comedians, all they do is tell the truth. And especially in this political climate, telling the truth is sometimes such a radical act. We're just like, you have to be the adult in the room. And it has never fallen to me to be the adult in any room, except when we're talking about the news,” Ruffin says.
Referring to the Harris/-Trump debate in September when the Republican nominee made racist, xenophobic claims about the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, Ruffin says, “It's like someone has to say, ‘No one is eating dogs and cats,’ and somewhere along the line that can end up falling to me.”
“And that’s ridiculous that I have to be the one to go, ‘Yeah, that’s a bonkers thing to say. It has no basis in reality and we should be scared of the person who said it,'” she adds. “Just saying that out loud … people need to hear it, because when you say lies out loud, lying is a numbers game. And if you can put enough lies out there, some of them will hit.”
“So while we’re on this side laughing, some people are activated by those magnificent lies and they’ve got such a skewed version of what America is, then they think it falls to them to fix all of the things that are according to Trump. Wrong with America. It's messy, but it's so genius. Think they’re crusaders, some of these folks.”
Through the years, Ruffin has become a trusted comedic foil for Secretary Hillary Clinton. She appeared on Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s Apple TV+ show Gutsy and joined them on Carpool Karaoke. When the duo joined Ruffin on her show in 2022, she introduced Hillary Clinton in part as “the winner of the motherfucking popular vote,” a fact that had the former first lady guffawing.
“Here’s something about Hillary Clinton that no one's ready for. She’s silly, like a silly person. And every time she says something silly, I'm so shocked. But she's very fun, and you wouldn't have guessed it,” Ruffin shares. “It was also very cute to see Chelsea get embarrassed by fucking Secretary Clinton. And it’s like, you can't be embarrassed by her. I voted for her. She can't embarrass you. That's not possible. But I guess the mother-daughter thing is always in place no matter what.”
Have I Got News For You's Michael Ian Black, Roy Wood Jr., and Amber Ruffin Warner Media
Ruffin’s sunny outlook has served her well in other parts of her career. She wrote the books for the musicals Some Like it Hot (2022) and this year’s revival of The Wiz on Broadway. Though she had never written a book for a musical before, Ruffin credits “boldness” and the fact that her feelings are not easily hurt with the ability to do so. Labeling herself as just a “regular musical theater type of guy” who loves it but is not as immersed as some Broadway folks, she says she leaned into boldness in her musical theater endeavors.
“Once I got a little whiff of [boldness being the barrier] I was like, 'Oh, my God.' If people are willing to say my ideas are valid, that idea is brand-new. … Once people started being like, ‘She’s a voice and the landscape,' I was like, 'Oh, it's over.' I'm just going to do whatever I want,” Ruffin says. “That's been working out pretty well because it is the only difference between everyone on planet Earth and the people who are famous for their dreams is boldness.”
On the final day of Pride Month this year, Ruffin posted a photo in a tank with the word “queer” in block letters. The caption read, "In what will come as a shock to exactly zero people, I'm using the last day of PRIDE to come out! Be proud of who you are, little babies! I know I am! And I can't wait to be discriminated against for a new reason!"
Though Ruffin was living her life fully and had found her community as a “loud and mean ally,” it’s part of that truthtelling element that drove her to make a public statement about her queerness.
“Well, I feel like coming out for me has just reinforced one of my core beliefs, which is don't nobody care. Nobody gives a shit. But I felt like the reason I came out was one, because it might help someone come out and that's valid,” she explains. “But I came out because it felt like I was passing in that gross 1920s way, and I didn't want to do that. And the notion of that felt so gross, you know what I mean?”
The community showed up for Ruffin’s coming-out even if she’s filing that outpouring away for a rainy day.
“I didn't really, personally didn't feel like much, but I did love how everybody fucking texted my ass. Everybody was like, ‘Oh, we are so proud of you. Did such a good job and blah, blah,’” she says.
“I thought, That is so nice that they are giving me this encouragement just in case I need it. You know what I mean? They know that everything’s cool today, but one day people might try to go crazy on me or whatever, and then I can look back to this encouragement and draw strength from it. I thought, Oh, that's so sweet. Everybody's so thoughtful.”
If Ruffin weren’t busy enough conquering Broadway and holding Trump and his ilk accountable via comedy on Have I Got News for You, she also cohosts a podcast with her sister Lacey Lamar. Akin to Have I Got News for You, The Amber & Lacey, Lacey & Amber Showis also part quiz show. The podcast is twofold Amber says. Not only does she get to spend time talking with her sister, with whom she cowrote You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism (2021), Lamar's dating stories reaffirm something for her.
"[We talk about ] all of the things, well, all the things we talk about," she says, adding that she and Lamar would be on the phone anyway if they weren't recording a podcast. "But one of the things we talk about a lot is how men approach her on the apps. And it is making sure that I stay gay."
Watch Ruffin on Have I Got News For You on CNN.
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