Maddow explained that she found it surprising that the story wasn’t as monumental as the ordeal was insulting in her eyes, but that one possible explanation was that “it’s uncomfortable to talk about.” After all, it involved everyone in the news repeated using euphemisms and censoring themselves, seemingly embarrassed to have to even cover the story. Luckily, Silverman is not one to be easily embarrassed, and was more than happy to take the mantle.

RELATED: Don Lemon To CNN Panel: How Bad Is ‘N*ggerhead’ Story For Perry Campaign?

“When racism appears– when it’s not just a gas in the air– it’s important to take the opportunity and point at it,” Silverman noted, which is why she had decided to use the controversy to headline a fundraiser. As for the story going away so quickly, Silverman blamed the media for letting it slip by, calling it one of the major let-downs of a more diverse news community: “I miss the Jew-run banks and the media; I don’t think it would’ve been let go so easily.”

RELATED: WaPo Report Ties Rick Perry To ‘N*ggerhead’ Hunting Camp That Candidate Has Denounced

Given that her entire fundraiser was based on calling out racism in the Republican Party, Maddow took the opportunity to bring up the most obvious racial issue in the party this year: the rise of Herman Cain. Did that at all impact Silverman’s perspective? Not at all. “I’ll tell you why he’s ahead,” she explained. “It’s like when terrible, horribly made commercials are on the air… they say, ‘Hey, you’re talking about it.’”

The segment via MSNBC below:

Daulerio extended Silverman an “olive branch” (or an invitation to send a traffic-juicing kissoff) by inviting her to participate in this year’s Comedy Week, with predictable results. Silverman’s (extremely NSFW) response:

I was super happy to do that thing last year and had so much fun doing it I went long (having no idea it wasn’t going through) and to wake up to that cunty blog was such a shitty fuck you. People say brutal stuff about me all the time, of course, but not people that I thought were peers and friends.
So, ya, I pretty much have no interest in illuminating anything that happened or happens on your site or bringing a single new pair of eyes to it.
Eat a dick,

Sarah Silverman
Grantland.com

Silverman is probably making the right choice. We hear this year’s climactic live chat will be conducted via semaphore flags.

Author’s Note: Unrelated, but interesting, is the fact that “Sarah Silverman Feet” is the number one Google image search suggestion for Sarah Silverman. The more you know…

When the President asked the comedian what she’s working on, she blurted out, “I’m going to be naked in a movie!” to which the President reportedly responded “You’ll have to send me that.” Ugh, men! They always behave so inappropriately when you tell them about your upcoming nude scenes. She did say, to his credit, that Obama wasn’t trying to be a Sketchy McPervalot, but was instead merely trying to diffuse an awkward situation. (We think the movie she’s referring to, by the way, is Bambi 2: The Return of Thumper.)

Silverman said she originally meant to discuss things “like Darfur,” but mostly ended up talking about how much she hates Pixar films. (Fun Fact: The President has a firm pro-Pixar stance.)

Check out video of the expletive-laden segment, via CNN:

h/t Hollyscoop

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews sees Silverman as a Palin-beater, should the two go head to head in the Sunshine State. (Wait. Does anybody else see Reality Show Gold here?)

In reviewing some early (and, many would argue, meaningless) polls–especially automated polls–done in Florida, Matthews finds Mitt Romney strong, and Palin weak. How weak? Weak enough to get crushed by Jimmy Kimmel‘s on-and-off-again girlfriend, that’s how:

Florida, Florida, Florida. My late colleague, Tim Russert, used to say that it’s still the biggest swing state in presidential politics, a state President Obama carried back in 2008. So how does he look heading into 2012 down there? Well, pretty good. A new PPP automated poll finds President Obama leading the potential Republican field in Florida.Among the Republicans, Mitt Romney does best. He trails the president by just 2 points in Florida, 46-44. That’s darn close. Mike Huckabee lags behind 49-44. That’s 5 points. Then there’s Newt, 47-42. And President Obama does his best against, who else, Sarah Palin. I think Palin`s not too good down there — 52-38. Anyway, Sarah Silverman can beat her down there.

Will Sarah (Silverman) run? Well, her Comedy Central show, The Sarah Silverman Program was cancelled earlier this year after three seasons, so she might be looking for new things to do, and she’d certainly be entertaining as all get-out in a debate. Also, she’d be great for us here at Mediaite. One area of concern: two Sarahs on the same ballot in Florida, a state that’s easily confused and tends to crash elections.

That’s it. Sold. Run, Sarah, Run!

In her new book, The Bedwetter, she sets her sights on Fox News and “coded” racism in light of her own brush with being called out for stereotyping.

Newsbusters catches the short passage in her book (and audiobook, below). While discussing her interaction with Media Action Network for Asian Americans President Guy Aoki (who spoke out against Silverman for using “chink” in a joke), she essentially blamed Fox News and tea partiers.

Right-wing Americans who appear in mainstream media are not out there calling black people ‘niggers,’ or saying, ‘The Klan has good ideas.’ Instead, they’re questioning the legitimacy of Obama presidency by accusing him of being born in Africa or of being a Muslim.

And then the specifics about Fox News: “The entire Fox News Channel is a twenty-four-hour-a-day racism engine, but it’s all coded, all implied. Lou Dobbs used to scream on CNN about ‘immigration,’ not ‘filthy Mexicans.’”

Is this blanket and ridiculous statement surprising or shocking? Not really – Silverman is known for this. What’s more interesting is the lack of focus on these types of moments in her book during her PR push. I’ve watched and listened to extensive interviews with Silverman on Adam Carolla‘s podcast and Bill Maher‘s HBO show, settings it would be conceivable for this subject matter to come up, but it hasn’t. Instead the bed-wetting aspects, the title of the book, but not the majority of its content, has been a focus.

Maybe she knew the reaction that would come and wanted to avoid it. Until now. Sounds like she may have a “pinhead” designation in her future….

UPDATE: A Fox News spokesperson has responded to Silverman’s claims to Huffington Post: “Sarah’s anger is understandable having recently lost her television show. We sympathize with her need for attention considering her book is languishing near 300 on Amazon.com.”

Here’s the audio:

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Besides talking about her new book, The Bedwetter, King closed the interview with a question about Sarah Palin. This wasn’t going to end well.

As Newsbusters points out, King tossed Silverman the softball and, naturally, she hit it predictably right down the middle. “Sarah Palin, what do you think, Sarah Palin, I’ve got to say her name because we have to say it every night,” said King.

“About what? Her posing in Playboy?” asked Silverman. “I think she should go for it.”

Now, if it ended there – fine. It’s expected from a comedian as blue as Silverman to throw something like that into the middle of the discussion. But then, King quickly responded, “Agreed. Thank you Sarah.”

So now the host of the prime time cable news show – on the network that continues to do all the journalism the other networks supposedly won’t – is agreeing that Sarah Palin should pose in Playboy. Was he joking? Sure. But does that make it ok?

Earlier in the interview, King asked Silverman if there was “anything you won’t joke about?” “Probably not,” she said, but pointed to one area: “Fat jokes about women. That always bums me out. I feel like we live in a country where fat women, at least in white America, don’t deserve love.”

Also, Silverman made her pitch for Larry King’s anchor chair, which he called the “best job in television.” “Get in line,” he joked. “I just feel I’m a better fit,” she said. Well if her guests would be Silverman-esque, maybe she’s right. Tomorrow night on Larry King Live: actor and reality TV rehab regular Tom Sizemore.

Meanwhile the chyron writers had a field day with the various Silverman segments. Here were some of the favorites:

“SILVERMAN ON WHY SHE TOOK 16 XANAX A DAY: ‘It was a time you didn’t question doctors’”

“SARAH: DAD TAUGHT ME TO SWEAR WHEN I WAS 3″

“SARAH SILVERMAN: ‘I HAVE NO RELIGION’”

Oh great. Here’s the Palin comment (at the end of the first video) and one of CNN’s embeddables with the “fat jokes about women” part is below:

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This new entrant into the canon spoofs Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” pointing out all sorts of people who are members of the tribe, both familiar ones like Howard Stern, Natalie Portman, Jon Stewart, Howie Mandel, Debra Messing and Jeremy Piven, and double-takes like Daniel Radcliffe (Jewish mom), Courtney Love (Jewish mom) and Gwyneth Paltrow (Jewish dad, which you’d know if you’ve ever seen Blythe Danner). Though I don’t know what Madonna and Britney are doing in there, is wearing a Kabbalah bracelet enough these days? Also, the usual jokes about bagels, lox, guilt, circumcision, and eons of persecution (“All the folks who try to kill us end up in defeat/The moral of the story is ‘We fought, we won, let’s eat’”). Thank God I did this last week. Watch below:

Other includees: Rahm Emanuel, Leonard Nimoy, Hebrew Hammer Adam Goldberg, Asher Roth, David Copperfield, Albert Einstein, Adam Sandler as The Zohan, David Lee Roth, Steven Spielberg, Golda Meir, Larry King, Andrew Dice Clay, Shia LeBoueuf, Sarah Silverman and, wait, Justin Timberlake, whaaa? (According to the Internet, no he’s actually not Jewish, but his middle name is Randall.) Anyway: Don’t challenge Harvey Levin based on this video but still, it’s quite fun, and the “Shema-ma-ma” is quite catchy (not unlike, ahem, Ra-ra-ra-shema). Also, “Kosher Face” just sounds funny. So, well done.

p.s. Hat tip to Rob Tannenbaum of Good For The Jews, who can also claim a first for their song “They Tried To Kill Us, We Survived, Let’s Eat.” Wow, writing Jew jokes is getting competitive.

p.p.s. My spellcheck in our blogging software has the chutzpah to tell me that “Hanukkah” is correct but “Chanukah” isn’t. Oh really Mr. Smart Guy? Congratulations on finding the definitive answer to a question that has eluded generations of Jewish scholars.

Last night on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher she debuted what appears to be her new viral campaign. Get ready to hear a lot about “Sell the Vatican, Feed the World.”

The concept begins with Silverman explaining why she wants “grossy, sick, emaciated people” off her TV and “out of her apartment.” But it quickly turns semi-serious, as she reveals her hypothesis:

Who is more primed to be our hero than the Pope? He’s literally a caped crusader. What is the Vatican worth, like 500 billion dollars? This is great, sell the Vatican, take a big chunk of that money, build a gorgeous condominium for you and all your friends to live in, all the amenities, swimming pool, tennis court, waterslide, and with the money left over, feed the whole f–king world.

So far there doesn’t appear to be a website set up, or even a clean YouTube version of the clip, which is a little surprising. But here’s a first look:

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MySpace apparently didn’t pay for the spot (which TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington thinks is a good idea; I’m not sure, I’d look to danah boyd on that score). There was definitely some quid pro quo, though, between Anderson’s cameo and marketing the movie (see the movie page here and this walk-on contest for a lucky MySpacer here) . But though this was the most egregious placement, it was far from the only product I noticed in the movie.

I’m not sure if Judd Apatow struck any deals with Red Bull or for that frosty can of Diet Coke placed prominently in the big dinner scene, or for the Wilson tennis racket or the Nike shirt or the Mac computer(s), though by now that’s de rigeur (getting people to use PCs prominently in movies, now that would be a product placement coup!). But it was hard to miss the other product placements  — call it “These Are A Few of Judd Apatow’s Favorite Things.”

1. UCB Theater – For a movie like this, ironic t-shirts make up about 80% of wardrobe. Still, the ones you notice are no accident. Early on in the show Seth Rogen’s Ira Wright (né Weiner, pronounced “Wine-er”) is seen wearing the classic UCB logo t-shirt, staple of many who pass through its classes in NY and LA. Homegrown UCB alumni in the cast include Aziz Ansari and Aubrey Plaza; Apatow held a comedy night at UCB’s LA theater for his players to rehearse their stand-up chops. In the Venn Diagram of comedy these days, everyone’s got overlap with UCB.

2. Jews - Apatow’s one, Rogen’s one, Sandler’s one, Schwartzmann’s one, Hill’s one, etc. etc. We already knew Apatow liked Jews, but here he prods, just a little bit, into how Jewish identity can be complicated in show business. See above re: Ira Wright — says Sandler upon hearing Ira’s last name, in that lunchlady voice: “You’re hiding some Judaism!” Note, in the meantime, that Rogen’s character has already worn a SuperJew t-shirt; also note that Sandler’s character is named George Simmons. Hiding some Judaism? That’s never explored. Yet later, we get to see the perfect shiksa wife that got away. Watching the family scenes later, I couldln’t help but notice that Apatow had replaced his Jewy self at the head of the family with the less, er, ethnic-looking Eric Bana. That must have been weird. Those issues are all very much subtext in the film (perhaps there only to be overthought by Jews in the audience). But still. Noted.

3. Elizabeth Banks -She’s not in the credits, but she is in the movie — twice, as herself: She’s the “co-star” on not one but two movie posters starring Sandler’s alter-ego Simmons, Mer-Man and some other one you see early on as Simmons looks lugubriously through all his clippings. Apatow worked with Banks in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Rogen worked with her on Zack & Miri Make A Porno; they’re all buds, yada yada. Sort of an interesting choice to pair with George Simmons, on the verisimilitude front — if he’s really such a big star, then I’d have taken Eric Bana’s advice and gone with someone like Cameron Diaz. Banks is still getting there. But hey, I noticed — a little product placement can go a long way. For a friend.

4. Wilco - Duh. Judd Apatow is a Wilco fan. There’s also a Wilco t-shirt and a Wilco pun. (Here is a secret about puns: people say they  hate them but they usually always laugh, and they did in this movie.)

5. Jon Brion – Maybe I should just have called this post “indie bait.” Jon Brion is not a household name but he is to those who know about him. That includes Sandler (Brion scored Punch Drunk Love), and Apatow (Brion scored the Apatow-produced Step Brothers, which sounds like a punchline but isn’t), plus any L.A. scenester who frequents music club Largo (see above re: that Venn diagram). Brion produced two tracks on the Funny People soundtrack; that’s him rocking out with Sandler as a studio-musician-for-hire in yet another lugubrious scene about how Adam Sandler’s character has no real friends. Except for…

6. Comedians – Good God there were a lot of cameos in this movie. It felt at times like watching a Comedy Central Roast. Since excess running time has been an issue in reviews for the film, I’m just going to go ahead and say that Andy Dick could have been cut. (I know the movie relied heavily on dick jokes, but that one’s hardly inspired.) And I love me some Sarah Silverman, but vagina mouth we’ve seen, so why repeat the gag? I understand that we’re supposed to really believe that George is a big-time comic, but the big house convinced me; seeing Paul Reiser looking so old a decade after flying high on his own bumbling Jewish guy schtick was just depressing. (Though maybe that was Apatow’s point.) Either way, the price tag for Big-Name Comedian product placement didn’t help with the budget — according to Nikki Finke, Funny People cost between $70 – 100 million to make, which her commenters point out is far beyond what an ensemble drama like that should have cost (estimates were reportedly low $20 – mid $30 million). As Eric Buckman of Reel Loop says, “That’s what happens when you have Paul Reiser stop by for a cameo. The payroll goes through the roof.” Eminem can stay though.

7. His Family – Yes, I know I am not the first person to point this out. And I actually quite like Leslie Mann. And the kids are definitely cute. But I do agree that they could have been on the screen half as much and it would have been fine (the fight scene at the end could have been cut, playful dress-up moments could have been cut, dog licking peanut butter off their faces without any punchline could have been cut. If a dog’s gonna be licking peanut butter off someone’s something in an Apatow comedy, I expect better). Also, as an inveterate musical theater hack myself, I submit that the “Memory” clip could have been cut in half, too. And also not used as a completely transparent, and out of character hook. Adam Sandler didn’t give a shit about his cellphone once during the movie, why now? And while it was a nice rendition, what straight man has ever been moved by Grizabella?

8. His Friends – See above re: the movie’s price tag, but when you’re Judd Apatow and your friends all happen to be hilarious comedians, and your friends’ friends all happen to be hilarious comedians and everyone knows everyone because they were all on a UCB Harold team together or in a Funny or Die video together or at an SNL afterparty together — well, why not work with them? As many of them as possible? Apatow said as much himself on his MTV guest blog:

I must write more movies so I can spend time with friends.
Do people hang out who don’t work together?

Some do. But they’re not as funny. Or, I guess, rich. See you all on MySpace!

Related:
The most perceptive thing I read about Funny People: Is the Judd Apatow moment over? [Salon]
Great background: Judd Apatow’s Family Values [NYT]
Pretty Genius Viral Marketing: Cute Cuddly Kittens & Yo, Teach [YouTube]

Product Placement:
Funny People Theatrical Trailer [MySpace]
Funny People Restricted Trailer [FunnyPeopleMovie.com]