On Wednesday, Comedy Central’s Daily Show had a brilliant piece on the cupcake-ban kerfuffle in New York. Correspondent Rob Riggle delved deep into one state assemblyman’s efforts to revoke a Long Island school district’s prohibition on serving the tasty treats to kindergartners. And — of all people — who did Riggle find to play the anti-cupcake critic? None other than perpetually shrill, habitually hyperbolic, sweet-swiping publicist-turned-obesity-activist Meme Roth.
Roth is the unvarnished id of the food cop movement. That is, she says the things CSPI et al. actually believe, but are savvy enough to not admit in public. So when we saw she’d be appearing on The Daily Show, we had high hopes for yet another round of absurd yet endlessly amusing pronouncements about the evils of food.
And Roth didn’t disappoint. Take this exchange prompted by an obviously sarcastic suggestion:
Rob Riggle: Eating a cupcake is the same as putting a gun in your mouth?
MeMe Roth: Um…yes.
And that’s just the start. Some more gems from Roth:
"Anti-freeze and cupcakes have a lot in common … They both taste great. They’re both great colors."
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"If you keep feeding them cupcakes then you are killing your kids."
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"There’s tons of things you could do to celebrate a birthday without cupcakes. You can bring in books, your child’s favorite book. You could donate a book to the school library."
If carrot cake didn’t already exist, MeMe Roth would have to invent it. “For the children,” of course.