Samantha Bee Hearts Spanx (And Manx)

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Samantha Bee, full-time Daily Show correspondent and part-time Spanx enthusiast, joined DoubleX editors Jessica Grose and Hanna Rosin as well as nymag.com writer Noreen Malone, on the Slate podcast GabFest this week. This edition's topics were the film Game Change, the newly minted Forbes billionaire and Spanx inventor, Sara Blakely, and finding comedy in the "war on women," in that order. Sam was slated to join the round table in the last segment, but she jumps in early, utterly incapable of keeping her Spanx love to herself. Read on to see how exactly she feels about her control-top-everywhere-wear, the merits of a Manx stocking stuffer for your man friend, and the questionable way in which women of Hollywood keep the weight off.

On his and her spanx/manx: "I'm an absolutely unabashed Spanx lover... Also—and Jason [Jones, husband and fellow comedian on The Daily Show] is going to kill me—I call it a Manx and I bought it for him as a joke last Christmas. I put it in his stocking and was like ‘Enjoy your Manx.’ And he totally wears it."

2. On Hollywood wearing Spanx: "And by the way, I'd like to say for the record that almost everyone I've met through my travels in Hollywood, they wear multiple layers of Spanx. Like we're not talking one Spanx, we're talking triple layers of Spanx. When you see women at award shows and you wonder how they got those smooth lines— I could tell you some tales."

On super skinny people in Hollywood: I did this thing in Los Angeles two weeks ago and I learned the Hollywood secret for loosing weight in a very dangerous and scary way. They will stop at nothing. Would you like me tell you? Ok, I've been dying to reveal this secret because it's so genius. I mean it's absolutely horrible and destructive, but as soon as she told me I was like, 'Oh my god, but of course! This is how you do it!" It's...awful. The women of Hollywood chew Nicorette instead of regular gum. So it kind of freshen your breath and it's not like having a cigarette habit but it has the appetite suppressant impact... I'm telling you, when she told me that, I was like I'm going to make one million dollars writing a book about it."
Hanna: Also, what would be on page two?
SB: There's no page two. It's really just a pamphlet. It's really just a very unhealthy pamphlet.

On the overall effect of spanx: I think they just make you look a little less lumpy in your clothes. They don't really actually do that much. They're not going to change your body shape. They just give you the feeling that you're more [she makes a sound that probably means she's sucking in]. And the feeling that maybe you're a little more upright.

· DoubleX Gabfest: Live From New York With Samantha Bee Edition [Slate]
· All Spanx Coverage [Racked]