jessica williams for president

Jessica Williams Wants to Be the Next Oprah

Photo: Peter Hapak/WIRED

Jessica Williams is on the cover of Wired’s January issue, and she’s got big plans. According to the essay she contributed — “The World Needs a Smart Gossip Site, and I’m Just the Person to Run It” — the comedian and Daily Show correspondent has visions of becoming an Oprah-like mogul:

Thankfully I already have a mogul I can pattern myself after: Oprah. We’re a lot alike. I’m black, I love to relate things people talk about to myself, and people think my best friend and I are lesbians! My strength is that I’m more relatable. Maybe I’m missing a shirt button, maybe I have a food stain on my pants. People would grow to find that endearing. (Take that, Mom! I don’t need to “clean myself up” to keep a job!)

Another thing that I can learn from Oprah: She always puts herself on the cover of her magazine. Oprah picking vegetables, Oprah reading at the beach. I’m going to do that, but in every post. It’ll be right up at the top. Let’s not forget who’s running this piece, who brought you here.

If all goes according to plan, today, a Wired cover. Tomorrow, Williams inviting Oprah to share the cover of JMZ.

Jessica Williams Wants to Be the Next Oprah