Let's Talk About the Jason Alexander Situation

I had no idea who Courtney Stodden was before this week when her accusations against former Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander made headlines. She reintroduced the world to a comedy sketch nobody had thought about in 14 years, and I bet most people didn’t even see it then. In her post, she accused Alexander of repeatedly touching her inappropriately during a 2012 Funny or Die bit, back when she was 17.

The sketch, The Donny Clay Show, was a Funny or Die parody of daytime motivational hosts like Dr. Phil. Stodden posted a screengrab from it showing Alexander holding his phone to her chest. “I was 17 years old in this photo,” she wrote. “The older I get, the more impossible this is to understand.” She said Alexander repeatedly “rubbed his phone across my breasts” during the bit while joking there was “no signal” in her head but “plenty of signal” in her chest, and that later in the sketch he cracked that once she turned 18, he’d like to take her “behind the couch” and “have his way” with her. “I was a minor,” she wrote. “I didn’t have the legal power to decide whether I wanted to participate. The contracts were signed by adults. The paycheck went to Doug. The production moved forward. I was the only child in the room. I felt so alone.”