Jenny Slate's engagement story is exactly as goofy and adorable as you'd expect

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Jenny Slate's engagement story is exactly as goofy and adorable as you'd expect
Photo: Andrew Lipovsky

Jenny Slate might have gotten fired from Saturday Night Live back in the day (although not, as the story goes, for dropping an accidental on-air f-bomb), but she and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon still have the SNL veterans’ bond, as evidenced by them yukking it up at Slate’s typically hilarious and silly-sweet appearance on Tuesdays show. As anyone who’s seen her touchingly revelatory and riotously funny recent Netflix stand-up special (or, really, anything she’s been in, ever) knows, Slate’s brand is “exuberant, eccentric, and secretly soulful,” qualities that she brought to her long anecdote about recently receiving a proposal of marriage from her now-fiancé, Ben.

A country drive to a picturesque abandoned French castle, a hamper of romantic picnic foods, a lovely party dress and kitten heels—all pretty standard romantic fairy tale stuff, turned into the sort of loopy but lovely adventure an evening with Jenny Slate seems to invariably turn into. (And that she chronicles in her new book of autobiographical sketches, Little Weirds, which she was there to promote, sort of.) Telling Fallon about the roadblocks to a picture-perfect French proposal story (spooky-creaky gates, a quartet of old, French, possibly ghost-picnickers, and a picnic basket just overflowing with processed meats, since sausage fan Slate got to do all the shopping), Slate had Fallon rapt with giggly attention. By the time the surprise proposal came, as Slate related how she’d unknowingly started jamming nervous handfuls of sausage into her mouth, her dreams of a demure, Audrey Hepburn-style acceptance went by the wayside in favor of a more Jenny-esque raptor’s roar of carnivorous joy. (“Now you said it, you have to do it!,” Slate bellowed, relating how her inner Jenny’s meat-flecked response really sounded.)

20 Comments

  • henchman4hire-av says:

    It’s a couple years too late now, but I still think she should have been the surprise villain of Venom. She would have brought a lot more craziness and personality as an evil symbiote. 

    • andysynn-av says:

      She’d make a great Shriek, now that you mention it.I bet she’d be able to pull off a nice switch to menacing if given the chance.

      • notthesquirrellyourelookingfor-av says:

        I really assumed that’s who she was going to be when I read that she cast in the movie. It was a missed opportunity for greatness. She was right there.

      • henchman4hire-av says:

        I would have liked to have seen her as Scream! They even have a scene where the bad guys feed her to one of the remaining symbiotes. The man villain was already a bore at that point of the film. I think it would have been a neat twist had Jenny Slate instead bonded with the symbiote sent to kill her and she suddenly emerged as a wildcard villain, rather than just removing such an entertaining actor from the film. Then, instead of Eddie Brock fighting obvious bad guy he’s got to fight a woman who was on his side but is now too far gone. 

    • brontosaurian-av says:

      And how would you pronounce “symbiote”?

  • liebkartoffel-av says:

    “A country drive to a picturesque abandoned French castle, a hamper of romantic picnic foods, a lovely party dress and kitten heels—all pretty standard romantic fairy tale stuff, turned into the sort of loopy but lovely adventure an evening with Jenny Slate seems to invariably turn into.”🎶Perkins has a crush on Jeeeennnnnyyyyy!🎶

  • curiousorange-av says:

    She’s great, but calling the standup special “riotously funny” is a real stretch. 

  • notthesquirrellyourelookingfor-av says:

    She is one of those people who I will never understand why she isn’t a bigger star.

  • maltbrew01-av says:

    This is completely off topic but is anyone else having problems (quelle surprise) with Kinja on Firefox? It used to be that the comments didn’t show but a quick refresh solved that. Now I can’t even log in, let alone see comments!It works on other Kinja sites though. I tried calling my local mayor but he seemed vague and irritable.

  • thefabuloushumanstain-av says:

    Her recent thing addressing the SNL controversy was surprisingly touching, that people are so focused on her being a girl who said a swear…it’s a “but her emails” level of obsession with this one event from her life (especially given that she served out the year). In any case, just like Jessica Williams with the Incredible Jessica James, Obvious Child was such a perfect encapsulation of her performing persona that I’d just want somebody who can work with her to get that again.

    • peterjj4-av says:

      She’s become a symbol, even to people who don’t intend to treat her that way. I saw someone last week or the week before saying oh Jenny Slate was fired for saying “fuck” but Che is still on SNL. So yet again she ends up being defined by something that probably didn’t even happen. I can see why she decided to speak up.

  • nogelego-av says:

    In the picture above Jimmy Fallon is laughing like he just told a joke.

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