Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: My guest tonight is the creator and star of the
Speaker 1: hit Netflix comedy series Working Moms. Please welcome my good
Speaker 1: friend Katherine Wrightman.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I.
Speaker 1: Look at this. So Catherine and I met how many
Speaker 1: years ago?
Speaker 2: Just a few two.
Speaker 1: We're so young and lee fresh and young. We met
Speaker 1: doing a hidden camera prank show. That's right that I
Speaker 1: believe NBC called their worst primetime ratings in history something
Speaker 1: like that. I think they might have said that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know what.
Speaker 2: We say that about all the shows. We were very special.
Speaker 1: We really were.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we really were. And this was my
Speaker 2: first big break, the real wedding crashers, and I think
Speaker 2: it was yours too. We cut our teeth together.
Speaker 1: We did for ten weeks in Vegas, and we somehow
Speaker 1: made it out alive. I don't know how.
Speaker 2: I mean, by the skin of her teeth. I slapped
Speaker 2: a bitch slapped me, true Tristorian, true tried bride who
Speaker 2: was in on it, just five fingered me right across
Speaker 2: the front.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that was a rough day. We didn't we
Speaker 1: couldn't even afford a medic The budget was so low.
Speaker 1: You just had to like granted and held a coke
Speaker 1: can to my cheek. And now has that ever happened
Speaker 1: on Working Moms?
Speaker 2: God slapped?
Speaker 1: Yeah right.
Speaker 2: Danny Kind, who plays and on the show, loves to
Speaker 2: slap a bit. She'll get in there. She's very physical.
Speaker 2: I love her for it. I love it.
Speaker 1: Oh my god? So you, I mean, you're you're one
Speaker 1: of those actors who has always been the total standout
Speaker 1: and everything that you've been in, you're so damn funny.
Speaker 1: You're constantly working steal every scene. But now suddenly there's
Speaker 1: this baby of your seven seasons.
Speaker 2: Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 1: Of Working Moms?
Speaker 2: Oh my?
Speaker 1: Eighty three episodes.
Speaker 2: Yep dropping on Netflix this Wednesday, April.
Speaker 1: You created it, you star in it, you direct it,
Speaker 1: you executive produce it. What is it like seeing your
Speaker 1: baby all grown.
Speaker 2: Up like that? It's wild? You know. I mean, I
Speaker 2: entered the show thinking it'll probably get one season and
Speaker 2: I'll just try to be as authentic as I can
Speaker 2: tell all my stories, cram it into one season, and
Speaker 2: each season that we got picked up for another one,
Speaker 2: I was in disbelief. I still am.
Speaker 1: It's so good, it's so funny and genuinely I know you.
Speaker 1: You're a friend like it feels like you. You can
Speaker 1: tell that you put so much of yourself into it.
Speaker 1: You cover just in this. I may have snuck a
Speaker 1: few episodes of this last season because I got a friend,
Speaker 1: got a hook I got a hook up.
Speaker 2: Don't be asking me.
Speaker 1: And just in just in this season, you explore so
Speaker 1: many themes and issues that are so important. You have
Speaker 1: an entire storyline on the male birth control pill.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you explore uh, destigmatizing in female sexuality, marriage ruts,
Speaker 1: the complexities of female friendships. How do you get ideas
Speaker 1: for these stories?
Speaker 2: I guess I just live, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah, just a day in the life of a woman.
Speaker 2: I mean, and I'm sure your audience can speak to this.
Speaker 2: It's like having a kid, And I mean just watching
Speaker 2: this incredible show tonight and seeing all the horrifying statistics
Speaker 2: of what it means to go back to work, knowing
Speaker 2: that you're going to be looked at differently for being
Speaker 2: a mother was so paralyzingly terrifying to me. I didn't
Speaker 2: even know I had postpartum depression when I started the show,
Speaker 2: and getting through it out a three month old when
Speaker 2: we started shooting, and when we wrapped the show and
Speaker 2: I all of a sudden realized, like I feel like
Speaker 2: I white knuckled through it, Like I don't think I
Speaker 2: took a breath until they said cut the last time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that was part of the inspiration for the show,
Speaker 1: right you having gone through that and thinking like there
Speaker 1: aren't shows out there that really dive into these topics.
Speaker 2: There sure are more now. Seven years ago it was
Speaker 2: a wasteland. I mean I couldn't find any a storyline,
Speaker 2: meaning the main plot point of the show about a
Speaker 2: woman who happened to be a mother and work. I mean,
Speaker 2: look on Work and Moms. The actual amount of time
Speaker 2: where you see the female characters with their kids is
Speaker 2: like five percent. This is about women being something outside
Speaker 2: of the nursery. It's a woman in the workplace show.
Speaker 2: And yeah, they've got to juggle it all and try
Speaker 2: to have it all, whether that's possible or not.
Speaker 1: Do you think it's possible?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Right, at all?
Speaker 1: You can have it all, but not all At the
Speaker 1: same time, I said, what's wise said, it's a different.
Speaker 2: For each person, right, we all have our ways of
Speaker 2: sort of working it out of making sacrifices. The guilt
Speaker 2: is real.
Speaker 1: Guilt is real. Guilt is really said something about mom
Speaker 1: guilt that really stuck with me.
Speaker 2: You you sounds like, yeah, very profound.
Speaker 1: You said something in regards to the way that you
Speaker 1: talk to your children about going to work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't say I have to go to work.
Speaker 2: I get to go to work. And I just flip
Speaker 2: that tone. I go, like, before I flew to New
Speaker 2: York to do this lovely thing with you, I told
Speaker 2: my kids, I'm so excited you guys. I've never gotten
Speaker 2: to do this sort of thing. I'm so happy with it.
Speaker 2: And they feel the joy rating off of me. And
Speaker 2: then tonight they were like, we're so excited for you.
Speaker 2: And that shift's great.
Speaker 1: That's so beautiful because you are following your passion and
Speaker 1: you're clearly meant to do this, and you bring so
Speaker 1: much joy to so many people, and you're teaching them
Speaker 1: that they can one day do that too, and that's
Speaker 1: really important. That's really powerful.
Speaker 2: Or marry a woman that takes care of them.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yeah, also wonderful, so very powerful. You work
Speaker 1: with your husband I do show. He plays your actual husband.
Speaker 1: He also is an executive producer. And directs on the show.
Speaker 1: How how does this work? Because there was a very
Speaker 1: brief time during the pandemic when we were filming from
Speaker 1: home and I one time asked my husband to hold
Speaker 1: the camera and we almost got divorced.
Speaker 2: How do you navigate that it's triggy? I mean, we've
Speaker 2: definitely had some serious fights. There's a but then you
Speaker 2: also find ways. I mean, look for those of us
Speaker 2: who work in separate places on our husbands or wives.
Speaker 2: You get to come home and try to share what happened,
Speaker 2: and there's sort of like a lack of connection because
Speaker 2: you can't talk about what you've done. When I get home,
Speaker 2: Phil knows exactly what I've done, right, He witnessed all
Speaker 2: my wins, but he also witnesses when I fail, so
Speaker 2: that makes it really complicated. Lucky for me, I got
Speaker 2: a guy who's a serious cheerleader, you know, he's yeah,
Speaker 2: he's had my back. It was his idea to push
Speaker 2: me into writing this thing in the first place.
Speaker 1: So thanks Phil, You're lucky to have each other. You're
Speaker 1: lucky to have each other. I am. I am so
Speaker 1: grateful for you making this show because I finally feel
Speaker 1: like there's a show where Working Moms are seen, and
Speaker 1: it means a great deal to me. And it's such
Speaker 1: a joy to see you do your thing and shine
Speaker 1: your light because you are just You're a total inspiration.
Speaker 1: So I'm really happy for you and I'm proud of
Speaker 1: that I get to be your friend.
Speaker 2: Can I return the favor real quick? That? Oh? How
Speaker 2: amazing is it that we broke our teeth on the
Speaker 2: first Real Wed and Crasher show, which was a hit.
Speaker 2: Maybe not, but it was really real critical darling, Yeah, totally,
Speaker 2: we were doing some really cool stuff. They're actually but yeah,
Speaker 2: I get to now witness your first night hosting the
Speaker 2: Daily Show.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you for being. I love you to be,
Speaker 1: I really do. Thank you. You can watch the seven
Speaker 1: season and the final season of Working Moms on April
Speaker 1: twenty six on Netflix. If you're wondering why I'm in
Speaker 1: bed having cold eggs, burnt bacon, and a pancake filled
Speaker 1: with jelly beans, then you've never celebrated Mother's Day. It's
Speaker 1: that special day each year when your husband gives you
Speaker 1: flowers he bought in a panic at the gas station,
Speaker 1: and a CARDI wrote with his feet so it looks
Speaker 1: like your dumbest kid did it, But societies have been
Speaker 1: honoring mothers since ancient times, including all the way back
Speaker 1: in ancient Egypt, where an annual festival honored the mother
Speaker 1: of all pharaohs. Isis, No, not the one that you're thinking.
Speaker 1: Isis was an Egyptian goddess and style and spo for
Speaker 1: every white girl at Coachella. The Greeks and Romans also
Speaker 1: had spring festivals celebrating the Great Mother. The Greeks called
Speaker 1: her Rehea, who's usually depicted with a mural crown seated
Speaker 1: in a chariot pulled by two lions, which is badass
Speaker 1: and carbon neutral. We should bring that back. But what
Speaker 1: we know to me Mother's Day really traces back to
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty two and a woman named Anne Reeves Jarvis.
Speaker 1: She started something called Mother's Day Work Clubs, where women
Speaker 1: in the community would help needy families buy medicine, get
Speaker 1: clean water, and practice safe sewage disposal, which is pretty
Speaker 1: intense as far as mom groups go. The one I'm
Speaker 1: in mostly just swaps hand me down Elmo Onesie's for weed.
Speaker 1: After Anne Reeves Jarvis died, her daughter Anna Jarvis, decided
Speaker 1: to honor her. In nineteen oh eight, she organized the
Speaker 1: first official Mother's Day celebration in Philadelphia, with the help
Speaker 1: of department store owner John Wannamaker handing out hundreds of
Speaker 1: white carnations because her mother loved them, even though, let's
Speaker 1: be honest, they're kind of the basic bitch of flowers.
Speaker 1: And because the day was so successful, Jarvis lobby to
Speaker 1: have the holiday honoring mothers added to the national calendar.
Speaker 1: She led a letter writing campaign to newspapers, politicians, and
Speaker 1: the governors of every state. Now this was before two,
Speaker 1: so she couldn't do that thing where you just tag
Speaker 1: a bunch of important people and retweet yourself. It didn't work,
Speaker 1: by the way. After years of pushing and fighting and writing,
Speaker 1: Jarvis's dream was realized when President Woodrow Wilson finally made
Speaker 1: Mother's Day a national holiday in nineteen fourteen. It was
Speaker 1: the best thing to happen to mothers until the invention
Speaker 1: of white zinfidel. But guess what. Once Mother's Day became
Speaker 1: an official holiday, Anna Jarvis hated it. She thought her
Speaker 1: sincere holiday had become a commercialized racket and called the
Speaker 1: florist and greeting card manufacturers Charlatan's bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers
Speaker 1: and termites that would undermine with their greed one of
Speaker 1: the finest, noblest, and truest movements and celebrations, which basically
Speaker 1: sounds like how William Shakespeare would give a one star
Speaker 1: Yelp review. Jarvis hated the holidays so much that it
Speaker 1: soon became her life's work. To undo her life's work,
Speaker 1: she went door to door collecting petitions to take Mother's
Speaker 1: Day off the calendar. She threatened people who use the
Speaker 1: phrase Mother's Day with copyright infringement. She got in a
Speaker 1: fight with Eleanor Roosevelt for using Mother's Day to raise
Speaker 1: money for charity, and one time, when a waitress told
Speaker 1: her to enjoy her Mother's Day salad, Jarvis threw the
Speaker 1: salad on the ground. It's true. You can google it,
Speaker 1: although don't search for mother Tass's salad. Those are not
Speaker 1: the results you want. I'm trying to get it off
Speaker 1: the dark web. Oh you saw it, Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: But basically, Anna Jarvis brought Mother's Day into this world
Speaker 1: and ever since it was an endless source of disappointment
Speaker 1: and frustration in her life, which ironically is a pretty
Speaker 1: perfect metaphor for motherhood anyway. That is why we celebrate
Speaker 1: Mother's Day. Now, if you don't mind, I'm gonna try
Speaker 1: to enjoy this abomination of a breakfast hm, HM Licorice, Jellybean.
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