It’s good to have friends. It’s even better to have some of the funniest people on the planet for friends, especially, according to Maya Rudolph, when one of the deadliest creatures on the planet decides to take a big, whomping bite out of you. That’s the lesson the Saturday Night Live legend and current robot fighter imparted to Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday, anyway, as she shared details from the eventful weekend that went on to inspire the Amy Poehler-directed movie Wine Country.
There to chit-chat about her role in the animated, widely praised family-versus-the-robot-apocalypse movie The Mitchells Vs. The Machines, Rudolph spent most of her airtime keeping Kimmel on the edge of his seat with the unexpectedly perilous details of the SNL pals’ supposedly relaxing trip to—you guessed it—wine country. In Wine Country’s pleasantly funny paean to the real-life friendship among some of SNL’s all-star female talents, if you recall, Rudolph’s character is bitten by a poisonous snake, because all fictional bonding adventures need a little comically heightened peril. Except, as Rudolph told Kimmel, it wasn’t, in fact, a snake but a very venomous black widow spider that sank its fangs into Rudolph at the Palm Springs spa the group had chosen to celebrate Ana Gasteyer’s birthday. Oh, and Rudolph was naked at the time, since she’d been given the ancient massage room where, apparently, at least one member of the genus Latrodectus was pretty peeved about being disturbed.
Again, it’s good to have friends, and Rudolph shared which of the kick-ass comedy women in attendance snapped into action to help. Amy Poehler? She’s the one who takes charge and firmly tells the panicky staff that, no, they’re not going to the emergency room, thanks. (The unlucky—and presumably tasty—Maya explained that her blood was already coursing with antibiotics from a bee sting the day before.) Tina Fey went into the other room to freak out to husband Jeff, before returning to deliver some calming mom-voice reassurance. Paula Pell went into full mothering mode, stroking Rudolph’s hair and telling her everything’s going to be all right. (Which sounds genuinely comforting, honestly.) SNL and Wine Country writer and costar Emily Spivey hit the bar—hard. And, as for Rachel Dratch? Well, as Rudolph stated, Dratch exiting and hitting the showers (literally) was probably helpful, somehow.
Moving on from an talk of creature rebellions and robot apocalypses, Rudolph and Kimmel then reminisced about the enduring prescience of Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, where Maya, of course, played time-frozen prostitute-turned-First-Lady Rita in a land ruled by the vapid and ridiculous. Kimmel noted the similarities between Idiocracy America’s blustering and over-his-head former pro wrestler President Camacho (Terry Crews), and the fact that America eventually and actually elected a member of the WWE Hall Of Fame to lead it, something Rudolph could only acknowledge in solemn appreciation of Judge’s prognostications. (Plus, Crocs. Dumb plastic shoes that “make[s] your foot look like Barney Rubble”? Sure. But Rudolph admits she has many, many pairs at home.) As Rudolph put it, a movie about “dumb-dumbs in the future” played to her kids in the 2016-2020 present like a documentary. At least the giant spiders haven’t arrived yet.
31 Comments
she was bitten by a black widow the day after being stung by a bee and needing antibiotics? is she related to Meredith from the Office?
Each time only makes Maya Rudolf stronger!
as long as she doesn’t become some kind of malevolent bee-spider hybrid…but Maya Rudolph is delightful, she’d never let that happen.
Was it a particularly unclean bee? Antibiotics work against bacteria. I don’t see how they would be relevant to either bee stings or spider bites.
I suppose (hand-waving argument coming) if the stinger broke the skin, and everyone has bacteria on their skin (usually staph), that staph could get into the body via the break in the skin and maybe cause a slight infection? Maybe she has a weakened immune system? Or (equally possible and annoying) her doctor (or she) is one of those people who just gives antibiotics out like candy without thought for creating antibiotic resistant bacteria.
I suppose it’s possible she got some other kind of medication and as a non-professional she just referred to it by the wrong name?(I’m not a professional either, so I have no idea what treatment might be effective for both a bee sting and a spider bite, if any.)
This seems likely. She probably was on antihistamines.
I was bitten by a spider a while back, and they gave me two different antibiotics for it. A general antibiotic, and a separate one that they said was specifically used for spider bites. They told me to take them consecutively, because if I took them in parallel their combined power would cause chaos in my intestines.
How aboutVs. The Machines
Mittens?
‘My mother doesn’t like you!’
HEY BUZZ OFF KID!!
I say you’re a LOUSY butler!
Aw maaaan, a door! I didn’t plan on this.
Well, we’re down the Mitchell rabbit hole now:
“Because I’m-a Italian you know!”
Hearts poundin’Veins cloggin’MITCHELL!
Word on the street is you’re a jerk!
Heh, heh, you can’t grow steaks.
Big buttery moon up there…
…sidewalk kinda looks like ice cream if you squint.
Makes Driving Miss Daisy look like Bullitt!
You don’t drink, do you?Just pour, Dad.
about half the current cast could get bitten and it wouldn’t hurt the level of comedy
“if you recall, Rudolph’s character is bitten by a poisonous snake”Venomous, not poisonous.
https://youtu.be/UrFcWcRmjec
I’d be the one demanding that the spa be burned to the fucking ground so nobody ever has to set foot in such an accursed place again. I’m not sure I’ll sleep again after reading this.
What’s so terrible about a nude Maya Rudolph?
There are a lot of black widows around Southern California in the summer. But joke’s on you: We already do our best to burn everything each summer as is.
I knew a guy who got bit by a black widow at a park in Boston of all places. He sat down on an old bench and later found a painful swelling in the back of his knee. At first he thought maybe it a bee sting or a tick, but then his entire knee turned black. He wound up in hospital with breathing problems, and they put him in the isolation ward for two days. He was supposed to fly to Michigan to stand up in a wedding. He was placed on a heavy dose of antibiotics and monitored and finally released about an hour before the flight. He just made it. But it was an outdoor wedding and he a.) could barely stand, and b.) couldn’t be in the sun and c.) couldn’t drink at the reception.
I suspect that they gave her an antihistamine, not an antibiotic.
Did she live?/s