"I think 'Saturday Night Live', starting in the 1970s, really gave women an outlet to be funny. A lot of those women went on to have film careers, from Kristen Wiig now to Tina Fey and Gilda Radner"
About this Quote
Her timeline hop - “from Kristen Wiig now to Tina Fey and Gilda Radner” - compresses decades into a neat lineage, turning individual careers into proof of a system that (mostly) works. That’s also the subtext: SNL functions like a credential. For women, especially, it’s not just a stage; it’s a stamp that lets the film industry take them seriously. In one sentence she’s arguing that comedy is culture, but also commerce: sketch-to-screen is an escalator, and women were kept off it until relatively recently.
There’s a careful optimism here, too. Stone points to success stories rather than the attrition: the talented women who didn’t get room time, didn’t get their characters written, didn’t get the post-SNL vehicle. Naming Radner carries a reverent weight, a reminder of how hard-won that visibility was, while Wiig and Fey signal a present tense where female comic authority can be both mainstream and bankable. The intent isn’t to litigate SNL’s failures; it’s to cement it as a cultural engine that made female funny legible to America.
Quote Details
| Topic | Funny |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Stone, Emma. (2026, January 16). I think 'Saturday Night Live', starting in the 1970s, really gave women an outlet to be funny. A lot of those women went on to have film careers, from Kristen Wiig now to Tina Fey and Gilda Radner. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-think-saturday-night-live-starting-in-the-1970s-87578/
Chicago Style
Stone, Emma. "I think 'Saturday Night Live', starting in the 1970s, really gave women an outlet to be funny. A lot of those women went on to have film careers, from Kristen Wiig now to Tina Fey and Gilda Radner." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-think-saturday-night-live-starting-in-the-1970s-87578/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I think 'Saturday Night Live', starting in the 1970s, really gave women an outlet to be funny. A lot of those women went on to have film careers, from Kristen Wiig now to Tina Fey and Gilda Radner." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-think-saturday-night-live-starting-in-the-1970s-87578/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.




