Joy Behar is a mainstay on The View as a co-host and fills in as moderator when Whoopi Goldberg takes her usual three-day weekend.
Joy has even taken on the moderator role for The View’s new weekend edition, The Weekend View, while Whoopi is not involved in the new venture.
As Monsters and Critics reported, The Weekend View is a new streaming show from The View creators intended to showcase more hot topics and news items not adequately covered during the week.
The streaming format and weekend timing may make it easier for people to catch up with their favorite co-hosts and any news stories missed during the busy week.
On a recent podcast with executive producer Brian Teta, Joy shared some profoundly personal memories about her childhood.
Before Joy began her long career on The View, she worked as a comedian doing stand-up routines in New York City before ending up on HBO comedy specials. Still, her love of comedy had a macabre beginning.
Joy shares where she started her comedy career
In a recent The View: Behind the Table podcast, Joy shared that her comedy career started early as a child and expanded on a story she shared on Finding Your Roots.
Joy appeared on PBS’s Finding Your Roots with Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. as Sunny Hostin did in early 2024.
The popular genealogy series delves into the family histories of notable figures, uncovering fascinating and often unexpected stories, and Joy’s story was no different.
Brian mentioned Joy sharing that she started performing funny material during family wakes after a relative passed away. She would perform comedy sets at the funerals and meals afterward.
She did not understand that when someone would say a deceased loved one looked good, she would deadpan something funny like, “I don’t think he looks that good.”
Joy grew up in Brooklyn and admits she is a “product of a very tight community of Italian Americans.” She bemoans that her hometown is now gentrified and wholly different.
Joy reveals the oddest interaction with a critic at a Costco
Joy still goes shopping with her husband, Steve Janowitz, and often has fans or critics recognize her publicly.
On a recent trip to Costco, Joy shared that she was trying to check out when a man recognized her and stuck out his tongue at her.
Joy shared that a “middle-aged man stuck his tongue out” at her. As she shrugged him off, he said, “I thought you were Joy Behar.”
She never let on to that critic that she was indeed the Joy Behar he disliked enough to stick his tongue out.
Joy could have let that guy have it, but like the “Queen” she is, she let it go without causing a scene.
The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.