Wicca: ‘Terrifying’ but ‘Unobtrusive’

Toward the end of her interview today on National Public Radio’s Fresh Air, Samantha Bee of The Daily Show describes being raised by a Wiccan mother whose ceremonies were “terrifying,” even though the presence of the religion was “unobtrusive.”

Well, no one expects comediennes to be logical.

What is funny is hearing interviewer Terry Gross fumble around with the W-word.

You are not going to get a discussion of children and the Craft on that show because Gross is so uncomfortable with the topic–in fact, she would see it as “off-topic.” (It’s her program, after all.)

If you listen, it’s toward the end of the segment, after Bee describes her pubescent crush on Jesus, courtesy of her Catholic school.

6 thoughts on “Wicca: ‘Terrifying’ but ‘Unobtrusive’

  1. I haven’t had a chance to listen to the audio yet, but looking through the transcript it’s hard (for me) to tell how serious Samantha Bee (who as far as I am concerned is the bee’s knees and consistently at least 43x funnier than John Stewart) is beeing. It does make me curious to know what she says in her new book about her supposedly Wiccan mom and her supposedly atheist dad. I read somewhere that she attended Catholic school.

  2. Pingback: The Wild Hunt » Samantha Bee’s Wiccan Mom

  3. Greenman

    I heard the interview and loved it. I recognized myself in Samantha Bee’s crush on Jesus…(gay youth have crushes too). Terry Gross always fumbles but her attitude was one of humor but certainly not ridicule.

  4. Chas, though you seemed to find Terry Gross’s manner of discussing Wicca “terrifying,” I actually found it fairly “unobtrusive.” Don’t be grumpy 🙂

    1. Michael, I did not find Gross’s manner at all terrifying. Mostly it was amusing–watching someone who doubtlessly describes herself as “progressive” struggle with the notion that Bee’s mother was a Witch–and that Bee was OK with that.

  5. I see. Once again, nuance is lost on the ‘net. Well, if you refuse to be grumpy, I shall redouble my efforts in this regard, so that the great cause of grumpiness will not fail.

Comments are closed.