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Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Paula Pell

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Jesse Thorn

Society & Culture

4.52.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Paula Pell spent 18 years behind the scenes as a writer on Saturday Night Live. These days, you can see her on Girls5Eva–a sitcom about a 90s girl group that reunites today. She plays Gloria, the queer elder of the group making the most of their second wind. When she joined the show back in 2019, Pell starred in Wine Country alongside a few SNL legends. She also gave us an insider's view on some of her more controversial work on the late-night comedy staple.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

In this country, some truths aren't self-evident. In NPR's Black Stories, Black Truths,

0:07.2

a collection of stories as wide-ranging and real as the people who tell them,

0:12.0

we celebrate the Black experience for all its soul and

0:16.1

richness. Search NPR, Black Stories, Black Truths, wherever you get podcasts. Bullseye with Jesse Thorne is a production of maximum fun

0:28.0

and is distributed by NPR. It's bullseye. I'm Jesse Thorne. Quick warning about this interview that you are about to hear. There is a little bit of sex talk in it. Nothing graphic or specifically descriptive, but we wanted to give you a heads up.

0:55.2

Now, if you had to name one writer on Saturday Night Live, the show's MVP, or I guess

1:01.7

MVW most valuable writer.

1:04.6

It would probably be Paula Pell.

1:06.4

I mean, there's some other options,

1:08.2

Jack Handy, maybe.

1:09.7

But so many of the sketches that Paul Appell wrote are stone cold classics now.

1:16.0

There's the Culp's, Anna Gastier and Will Farrell's bizarre pop music duo. The Spartan cheerleaders. It goes on,

1:39.0

Amletville, Tony Bennett, Homassil.

1:42.2

Paula Pell left Saturday Night Live in 2013.

1:44.9

She'd been on the show for 18 years.

1:48.4

Since then, she's written for 30 Rock,

1:50.3

the Oscars, the Golden Globes.

1:52.2

She's had roles on Parks and Recreation, Big Mouth, and AP Bio.

1:56.5

On that last show she played Helen, the goofy high school administrator who eats tomato sauce

2:01.4

and hair.

2:05.0

These days you can see her on Girls 5 Eva, a TV comedy about a reunited 90s girl group.

2:10.0

Pell plays Gloria, one of the members of the band.

...

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