Since E! apparently has decided that woman-led, amiably boozy hangout vibes aren’t welcome in the late-night firmament, fans of Busy Tonight have to soak up all the rosé-flavored fun they can get before Busy Philipps’ talk show ends on May 16. And if you were ever asking yourself which group of funny women would make the perfect Busy Tonight guests, then Monday’s show pretty much answered that, as former Saturday Night Live all-stars, Wine Country co-stars, and real life BFFs Amy Poehler, Paula Pell, Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer, and Tina Fey all donned comfy nightgowns (or “sister-wife dresses” according to Pell) alongside their free-pouring host for a predictably delightful group chat.
Talking about the inspiration for Poehler’s directorial debut being the actual best friend trips the women are fond of taking (an which you wish, deep down, you’d be invited to join), Pell explained that, yes, the scene in which her Wine Country character puts on a fake beard and gifts all her friends with personalized dildo/vibrators is ripped from real life. (She’s pissed she went with “Dilda Claus” rather than “Jolly Saint Dick,” which is why Pell’s a comedy legend, along with her line about “paying it upward.”)
Throughout the increasingly tipsy roundtable, the sextet (Wine Country co-stars Emily Spivey and Rachel Dratch couldn’t make the party), reminisced about their favorite unaired SNL sketches (trench coats and Bernie Mac?), how being famous now is a lot different than being SNL-famous when they were younger (11 p.m. parties? Fey claims she’s been asleep for two hours by then), and Rudolph’s thoroughly and profanely over-it response to male journalists who assume it’s “an exciting time to be a woman in comedy.”
