Janeane’s scene

Photo: HalfAdams Photography; Photo Illustration: Jamie Divecchio Ramsay

Janeane Garofalo decries the Tax Day “tea party” protesters; Rush Limbaugh slams Garofalo following her recent Village Voice interview. These are just the two latest flare-ups in the ongoing love-to-hate relationship between the acerbic comedian-actor-pundit and the right wing. When not making political waves, Garofalo appears on the Fox series 24. On Friday 1, she brings her stand-up act to Chicago.

Time Out Chicago: So…you’ve pissed off Rush.
Janeane Garofalo: Oh, really?

TOC: You didn’t know about this?
Janeane Garofalo: A, I didn’t know about it. B, I’m not surprised. And C, I must’ve done something right. Why, because I called the racists out on their tea bagging?

TOC: Actually, it was the Village Voice interview you did two weeks ago. You said you’d refused to meet Rush or Lynne Cheney on the set of 24.
Janeane Garofalo: Ohhh, because [24 creator] Joel Surnow was always bragging that he was best friends with Rush Limbaugh, and he was like, “Do you want to meet him?”

TOC: Last week, Rush said he hasn’t even been on the 24 set since you’ve been on the show.
Janeane Garofalo: Well, if you can correct that, just say that Lynne Cheney was on the set while I was there, and Joel Surnow would brag of being best friends with Rush Limbaugh. I actually was under the impression—apparently, he hadn’t—that he had visited during my season. Having said that, the overarching theme of this is, Why would anybody want to meet Rush Limbaugh?

TOC: You were on Keith Olbermann’s show recently, gleefully bashing Rush. Has the age of Obama made people like Rush and lambasting people like him kind of irrelevant?
Janeane Garofalo: No, the age of Obama has crystallized and empowered the right-wing thinking. Rush has an even more ready ear from right-wingers and racists. You saw them with the tea bags. That has nothing to do with taxes. They’re all getting tax breaks. The tea baggers are a bunch of crackers, bunch of racists. Their problem is not with taxation. Their problem is there’s a black man in the White House.

TOC: So, your comedy—how does this all become funny on stage?
Janeane Garofalo: Well, this doesn’t define me as a comic. It may never come up; it totally depends on the evening.

TOC: Does being on 24 ever feel problematic given your politics and the show’s? Even the dean of West Point has criticized 24 for depicting torture as leading to a greater good.
Janeane Garofalo: Yeah, that’s disgusting. The torture stuff disgusts me. I did have a problem with it.

TOC: Just not enough to not be on the show.
Janeane Garofalo: Well, yeah, not enough. I did pass on it initially, and then Joel called me and said, “Don’t let my politics stand in the way of your working here.” The biggest problem I’ve ever had has been this Rush Limbaugh thing that’s happening now. [Laughs] So if I misspoke, Rush—you can print this right now—I do apologize, but I still would never meet you, as I’m sure you would never meet me.

TOC: Some FBI agents have said 24 supports unethical, illegal behavior and has a negative impact on real American soldiers.
Janeane Garofalo: Yeah, I agree. You know, I’m not playing me. But I am disgusted by the torture.

TOC: There’s a larger question: Does someone who’s so vocal about her politics have a responsibility not to go on a show that betrays it?
Janeane Garofalo: If there is, I didn’t live up to it.

TOC: Do you think there is?
Janeane Garofalo: Well, if I did think that in the case of the show, I did not live up to it, so I have disappointed that standard.

TOC: You were in Melbourne for its comedy fest recently. Has it happened? Has Obama completely repaired the U.S.’s image abroad?
Janeane Garofalo: Well, he didn’t completely repair it; that’s gonna take a lot of work. But, yeah, people were thrilled. There were complete strangers who, when they would hear my accent, would give me the thumbs-up or a pat on the back. People love him. They don’t love us yet. I don’t know if they ever will completely love Americans.

TOC: What does Obama signify there?
Janeane Garofalo: An end to what they perceive as the madness. They think it’s absurd that George Bush would be in office, and it was absurd. He is an international joke, and Obama is not an international joke.

TOC: What else is going on with you?
Janeane Garofalo: Mostly I’m just touring, doing stand-up.

TOC: And riling up the right.
Janeane Garofalo: And hearing stories about—you know, the weirdest thing is: Why they give a shit about me, I dunno. That’s the weirdest part of it all.

Garofalo plays the Lakeshore Theater Friday 1 at 7:30 and 10pm.