Tina Fey wasn’t using “clapter” to slam “The Daily Show”.

Tina Fey’s comments in her recent interview with “The Reader’s Digest” upset fans of “The Daily Show”. Here is the April 2008 issue Q&A: 

RD: What pleases you more, applause or laughter?
Fey: Laughter. You can prompt applause with a sign. My friend, SNL writer Seth Meyers, coined the term clapter, which is when you do a political joke and people go, “Woo-hoo.” It means they sort of approve but didn’t really like it that much. You hear a lot of that on [whispers] The Daily Show. 

A blogger named TV tattle criticizes her comment on “TDS.” He points out the fact that Tina whispered before naming the show means she even knew she was making controversy. A blogger Oliver Willis also says Tina overreaches. According to him, Tina tried to cmpare “SNL” with “TDS” while the later is “consistently funny.”

While she is getting bad criticisms from “TDS” fans, another blogger Remote Access takes her side, saying “TDS fans need to have a better sense of humor about things.” According to him, Tina doesn’t mention “TDS” until end of her comments, which shows that she wasn’t talking about the show.  

So was Tina saying “TDS” has bad jokes or was she just trying to explain her friend’s term clapter? Personally, I agree with Remote Access that Tina only used the name of the show for the punch line. Even though she really meant the show was not as funny, so what? I understand “TDS” fans being upset after hearing bad comments of their show. But Tina is former “SNL” writer who has a good skill with making satire. The following Q&A after the Clapter question asks if she is a mean girl. She answers she’s not but she has a capacity for it. As Tina admits, I think people need to understand her somewhat mean and biting comments because that’s why she is loved by so many people.  

Later In the interview with “Buzzsugar web magazine“, Tina Fey explains her mention of “The Daily Show”, saying that “clapter really wasn’t supposed to slam The Daily Show.” So I guess she wasn’t mean to the “TDS” afterall.