Jenny Slate Opens Up About Her Disastrous, F-Bomb Dropping First Appearance On ‘SNL’

If you ever find that you’ve run through all the Nerdist podcasts that you care about (or if you’re not a fan of Chris Hardwick), a very good substitute is Bullseye with Jesse Thorn. He doesn’t get the same caliber of guests that Hardwick is usually capable of, but that just means missing out on the profoundly boring Tom Cruise podcast. Likewise, Thorn spends very little time compared to Hardwick talking about himself.

Thorn, however, is a great interviewer, and a couple of weeks ago, he got Jenny Slate to open up about her single season on Saturday Night Live during the 2009-10 year. Specifically, he wanted to know about how the star of Obvious Child, the voice behind Marcel the Shell, and the sister of Jean Ralphio on Parks and Recreation dealt with the blowback after her first appearance as a cast member when she accidentally said “f**king” during her debut sketch “Biker Chick Chat.”

On how it happened:

I was so used to being a stand-up comedian, and I had written that sketch. I never thought of it as something I could make a mistake at. I knew all the rules and everything. It just it never crossed my mind that I would make a mistake.

On Lorne’s reaction:

After the show, Seth Meyers and Andy Samberg hugged her, and encouraged her to apologize to Lorne Michaels. Michaels blew it off initially, telling her just to enjoy U2 (who was playing that night).

Lorne was really nice about it. He called me in on writers night … and everyone was like, there was like this instafreeze of shock and fear … I didn’t know if I was going to get fired. I was just [trying to tell myself] like, eh, ‘I’m the young woman. Whatever happens to me, as long as I stay alive, it’s cool.’ But in reality, I was scared. … I went in there, and Lorne was just like, ‘I’m going to have to pull you back for awhile. I don’t want to make a big deal out of this. I just don’t want this to be the first thing that people ask about or write about you.

On the double-standard:

I wonder if I was a boy, if it would matter? I don’t think it would matter as much if I was a boy. I think because I was the new girl, then it mattered … literally, I don’t care. I don’t care that it happened. People should see a woman saying a swear word by mistake rather than seeing a sketch where two people get raped by a gorilla. I don’t understand why that’s more acceptable. Or all the sexist and racist stuff that’s, like, on Two and a Half Men. I don’t care at all. I don’t feel bad. And I’m not sorry, but I am sorry to myself for how I treated myself that year.

Here is the f-bomb, by the way:

Source: Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

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