Guess who's laughing all the way to the bank? Girls writer and director Lena Dunham didn't let Howard Stern's provoking criticism of her hit HBO show get to her earlier this week -- in fact, she found it funny.

"I did find out that Howard Stern really hates [Girls], which I'm a Howard Stern fan, and I believe he's earned the right to free speech and he should go for it," she told David Letterman** diplomatically on the Tonight Show Thursday.

On Monday, the 59-year-old shock jock blasted Dunham and the show, about 20-somethings living in Brooklyn, on his radio show, calling her a "little fat chick" and likening the show's racy sex scenes to "rape."

"It's a little fat girl who kinda looks like Jonah Hill and she keeps taking her clothes off and it kind of feels like rape. She seems -- it's like -- I don't want to see that," Stern chuckled on-air, explaining how he'd recently been clued into the show by wife Beth Ostronsky**. "I learned that this little fat chick writes the show and directs the show and that makes sense to me because she's such a camera hog that the other characters barely are on."

PHOTO: Lena Dunham and other stars at the 2012 Emmys**

"My opinion, if I was a producer on that, I'd say, 'Honey, you're a little too close to the project. You need to allow the other characters to breath a little and let us get invested in them,'" he continued, adding the backhanded compliment: "Good for her. It's hard for little fat chicks to get anything going."

Instead of reacting with anger, however, the 26-year-old actress found humor in Stern's observations.

"I wanna get it on my gravestone where he said, 'Congrats to her (Dunham). It's so hard for little fat chicks to get anything going these days," she told Letterman as the audience erupted in laughter.

The good-natured talk show host piggy-backed on Dunham's joke, quipping, "I think that's the essence of life's struggle, isn't it? Before you go to bed tonight, before your head hits the pillow, please consider little fat chicks and how hard it is to get things going."

The second season of Girls returns to HBO on Sunday, Jan. 13.

This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Howard Stern Calls Lena Dunham "Little Fat Girl," Likens Girls Sex Scenes to "Rape"