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Paula Pell Nearly Failed to Graduate College Due to All-Night Gay Bar Dancing

Good Hang with Amy Poehler · Paula Pell · May 24, 2026
Paula Pell Nearly Failed to Graduate College Due to All-Night Gay Bar Dancing
Good Hang with Amy Poehler
Good Hang with Amy Poehler
Paula Pell
"We were gay, and we used to go to the gay bars and dance all night. And then we would do plays constantly that rehearsed all night. And then we would have, like, a 7 o'clock biology class in the morning... it was an F. And I called the teacher crying, and it was pouring rain in a phone booth."
Pell revealed she nearly didn't graduate from University of Tennessee in the mid-1980s after failing a biology class. She spent nights at gay bars and theater rehearsals with fellow SNL writer James Anderson, then had to plead with her professor the night before graduation, ultimately writing a plagiarized paper called 'Galileo: The Courage to Wonder' to pass.
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Good Hang with Amy Poehler
Good Hang with Amy Poehler

Paula Pell

August 3, 2026 · 4 Egleze moments
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