Janeane Garofalo
Overview
Janeane Garofalo is an American stand-up comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

, actress, political activist and writer. She is the former co-host on the now defunct Air America Radio
Air America Radio
Air America was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk programming...

's The Majority Report
The Majority Report
The Majority Report is a talk radio program originally on the Air America Radio network hosted by film actress/comedienne Janeane Garofalo, and actor/comedian Sam Seder, until Garofalo left in July 2006. Garofalo was reportedly originally asked by Air America to host the program and suggested Seder...

. Garofalo continues to circulate regularly within New York City's local comedy and performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...

 scene.
Garofalo was born in Newton, New Jersey
Newton, New Jersey
Newton is a town in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the town population was 8,244. It is the county seat of Sussex County....

, the daughter of Joan and Carmine Garofalo. Her mother was a secretary, in the petrochemical
Petrochemical
Petrochemicals are chemical products derived from petroleum. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sources such as corn or sugar cane....

 industry, who died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

 when Janeane was 24.
Quotations

"Iraq is a manufactured conflict for the sake of geopolitical dominance in the area."

CNN|CNN's Crossfire (TV series|Crossfire, 2003

"I think that by staying out of shape at the age of 33 I'm doing myself a huge favor for my future. There will never be anyone commenting on how I've 'let myself go.' I've gone. It's gone. It's not going, it's GONE."

Feel This Book, co-authored with Ben Stiller (this quote comes from one of Janeane's essays)

"I can't wait for the next fad though, and I predict it's going to be Pennsylvania dutch culture, very Amish. It's going to be bonnets and butter churns."

self-titled TV comedy special, 1997

"The camera adds ten pounds. Why? What, we don't have the technology to remedy that one little thing? We can have fucking Forrest Gump cohorting with John F. Kennedy, and we can't just fix that one little thing, the ten pound variant on a lens...You can actually levitate now when you watch a movie about flying, but they just don't have the technology for that ten pound margin of error."

standup performance

"I actually was class clown, but I don't know how that happened because I've never been considered an outwardly funny person — as the people in this room will attest."

standup performance, date unkown

"The notebook. Yes, as you know Garofalo's a little forgetful. Has to bring her notebook. Between the Aspartame|Nutrasweet and the Fen-phen|Fen-phen, I don't know whether to shit or wind my watch at this point. I gotta have a thing happening here because I don't wanna forget what I wanna discuss with you. I owe you that much."

self-titled TV comedy special, 1997

"But let me ask you this though, first and foremost: who's your favorite Spice Girl? Mine is Sporty Spice and I'll tell you why. You know what? She might not be as aesthetically pleasant as the rest but she'll do a backflip and steal your heart."

self-titled TV comedy special, 1997

"No no no! Don't clap! No no no, you make me seem like I'm like a prophet or something and I'm so not!"

self-titled TV comedy special, 1997

 
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