About

Sarah Silverman is an American actress and comedian best known for her irreverent and satirical stand-up comedy.

Acting Career

Silverman began her television career^[1] as a Saturday Night Live member in the early 90s, performing with the show for one season from 1993-1994. After that, she continued to make various guest appearances on TV shows such as Seinfeld, Brotherly Love and JAG throughout the decade. In 1997, Silverman made her silver screen debut through the 1997 comedy film Who’s the Caboose? and appeared in other feature films throughout the 2000s, including School of Rock (2003), Rent (2005) and School for Scoundrels (2006). In 2007, she began hosting her own comedy show The Sarah Silverman Program, which ran for three seasons, concluding in 2010. From 2011 to 2014, she had a recurring voice acting roll on the animated comedy series Bob’s Burgers.

Online History

On February 1st, 2008, Funny or Die^[2] uploaded a video titled "I'm Fucking Matt Damon" which featured Silverman singing a song explaining she was having sex with the actor to her then boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel. As of October 2014, the video has gained over 1.6 million views.The video was uploaded by Jimmy Kimmel Live's YouTube channel on January 16th, 2009, As of October 2014, the video has gained over 7.4 million views.

On September 25th, 2008, Silverman uploaded a video titled "The Great Schlep" to a YouTube channel^[9] of the same name. The video suggested young Jewish Americans should visit their elderly grandparents living in Florida to convince them to vote for Barack Obama in the then upcoming presidential election. The video and campaign was covered by several major websites including The New York Times^[10] and AdWeek.^[11] As of October 2014, the video has gained over 2.2 million views.

Transgender Controversy

On October 8th, 2014, Sarah Silverman uploaded a video titled "Sarah Silverman Closes The Gap" to her YouTube channel.^[12] The video features Silverman pretending to get a sex change operation to shed light on the wage gap between men and women in the United States on behalf of the National Women’s Law Center. Within a week the video gained over 1 million views.

The same day trans activist Janet Mock^[14] criticized the video on Twitter.

On October 9th, Think Progress^[13] publish a post on anger over the video from the transgender community titled "What Transgender People Really Think About Sarah Silverman’s Fake Sex Change." On October 13th, The Huffington Post^[15] published a post titled "Sarah Silverman's Equal Pay Video Faces Backlash." Silverman offered an apology on her WhoSay^[16] page, saying:

"If I literally got a sex change I would indeed find the work force far less friendly. The video wasn't transphobic it was transignorant – never crossed my mind. But to my unintentional credit- people are talking about it & so begins awareness. Please don't punish this cause because of my video. I certainly don't only fight for causes that concern or benefit me and I expect the same of the vital trans community."

Fandom

As of October 2014, Silverman's Twitter account^[3] has gained over 5.6 million followers and her Facebook page^[4] has gained over 680,000. Her Instagram account^[5] has gained over 160,000 followers. Fan run Tumblr blogs dedicated to Silverman include lovesarahsilverman^[6] and fuckyeahsarahsilverman.^[7]

Search Interest

External References