Paula Pell: SNL, ‘Girls5eva’ and ‘Die Hart 2: Die Harter’
The Last Laugh
The Daily Beast
4.6 • 661 Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2023
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Paula Pell spent 18 seasons toiling behind-the-scenes as one of ‘Saturday Night Live’s’ most legendary—and often unsung—comedy writers. Now, on the eve of her 60th birthday, she’s never been a bigger star. In this episode, Pell shares her unlikely SNL origin story, breaks down why she stayed for so long, and reveals what it’s been like to finally become the comedic performer she’s always wanted to be on shows like ‘A.P. Bio,’ ‘Die Hart 2: Die Harter,’ and ‘Girls5eva,’ which was recently picked up by Netflix for its upcoming third season. Pell also opens up about how SNL changed—for better and worse—during her nearly two decades there and how she knew it was time to move on.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | My guest on this week's show served as a writer on Saturday Night Live for nearly 20 years before showing the world what she could do as a performer on shows like AP Bio, Girls 5 Eva, and my personal favorite, documentary now. |
| 0:14.8 | I gotta go. Take 15. I gotta go. Take 20. |
| 0:21.7 | I've got to go. |
| 0:23.4 | Ah! |
| 0:24.8 | I got a hail of pumpkin coach. |
| 0:28.4 | Sake. |
| 0:29.6 | Take 22. |
| 0:31.3 | I want to go. |
| 0:33.7 | I want to go to the eye doctor now, as previously stated, you pompous beta males. |
| 0:40.6 | I gotta go, take 27. |
| 0:43.9 | You know what, I'm just gonna go. |
| 0:45.8 | I hope you all have terrible lives. |
| 0:47.9 | Thank you. |
| 0:48.4 | Wonderful job orchestra. |
| 0:56.4 | This is the Last Laugh. |
| 1:03.0 | I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast, and that was Paula Pell, channeling Elaine Stritch in documentary now. |
| 1:10.6 | As I told Paula during this conversation, I have been wanting to have her on this podcast basically since we launched it about four years ago. |
| 1:16.5 | She is not only an S&L writing legend, helping to create characters like the Spartan cheerleaders and Debbie Downer, but in recent years she has become a standout comedic performer in her own |
| 1:22.1 | right. That includes her most recent appearance in the upcoming second season of Kevin Hart's action comedy series, Die Heart 2, Die Harder, in which she plays the mother of one of my other favorite guests on this show, Ben Schwartz. |
| 1:36.5 | This episode is a real treat for the comedy nerds listening because we went deep on her nearly two decades as a writer on SNL, from the unusual way she joined |
| 1:46.2 | this writing staff in 1995 to why she ultimately made the decision to leave in 2013. |
| 1:52.6 | So let's get into it now. Here's me with Paula Pell. I'm so excited that we're doing this because |
... |
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