Monica Lewinsky is 53 years old, is a producer, author, anti-bullying activist, and TED speaker who has spent nearly 30 years reshaping the public narrative about what happened to her in 1995 when she was a 22-year-old White House intern, and she would like critics to please develop some new material, which she said on the “All the Cool Girls” podcast, per Fox News’s confirmed reporting, which is the platform where this request arrives in 2026.
Lewinsky told the podcast that she has “evolved” since the White House scandal, crediting time and patience as her saving graces, and that she hopes critics one day can too. The critics in question are the people who are still making 1998 jokes in 2026, which is the specific category of person who was processing the Clinton-Lewinsky story at 30 and is now processing it at 58 with the same comedic framework they assembled three decades ago. Lewinsky’s request for new material is the request of someone who has written a memoir, executive produced the television series “Impeachment: American Crime Story” about her own life, given a TED Talk called “The Price of Shame” that has been viewed 20 million times, cofounded the anti-cyberbullying organization 97percent, and campaigned publicly against online harassment since 2014. She has not been standing still. The jokes have.
The scandal itself, for the record of anyone who requires it: Bill Clinton, then 49 and president, had a sexual relationship with Lewinsky, then 22 and a White House intern. Clinton lied about it under oath. He was impeached. He was acquitted by the Senate. He finished his term. He remained popular. Lewinsky was not impeached. She was not acquitted of anything. She was the subject of a decade of talk show monologues delivered by men who were not held responsible for anything either.
She is now 53. She has evolved, per her own account. She would like the material to evolve with her. The material is 30 years old. The jokes were never about what happened to her, exactly. They were about what she could be made to represent in a culture that needed someone to hold still while everyone else moved.
She is 53. The critics have had 30 years.
When the 22-year-old at the center of a presidential scandal is 53 and asking for new jokes, and the jokes haven’t changed, what exactly are the critics processing?
Sources
Fox News: Monica Lewinsky calls out critics for making same White House scandal jokes
