Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me_ (And Other Concerns) - Mindy Kaling [49]
10. Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids
Sometimes you watch something so funny you realize after the moment is over that you’ve stopped breathing. You’re actually breathless. That’s how I felt the first time I saw Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids, in the scene where she first meets Kristen Wiig’s character and tells her she hasn’t been doing so well because she “fell off a cruise ship,” and then “hit every rail down,” and finally “has several metal pins in her leg” from the experience. You don’t often hear the words captivating and gross used to describe the same character in a movie, but Melissa McCarthy managed to evoke both in the very best ways. I could not keep my eyes off of her.
11. Michael Scott Hitting Meredith with His Car on The Office
In the history of the The Office, I believe the single funniest moment is when Michael Scott hits Meredith Palmer with his car, just as he’s talking about how much he loves his employees. Our show may have a great writing staff and has written some fantastic jokes, and I have seen some amazingly funny acting on the show, but when Michael screams as Meredith’s lifeless body hits his windshield, I just don’t think anything else we’ve done is as purely funny as that. I think tribesmen in a remote jungle in the Congo would find this moment funny.
Some others:
Borat on the treadmill in Da Ali G Show: a star is born.
Michael Palin’s massive stutter attack in A Fish Called Wanda: a tour de force. Everyone doing exactly what they do best at the same time.
Dwight Schrute capturing a bat in a trash bag around Meredith’s head on The Office: a moment of tiny, hilarious violence.
Kristen Wiig’s Bjork impression on Saturday Night Live: so recognizable and instantly funny while being completely over the top. Makes me wish Bjork were in the news more, just so I could see more of this impression.
How I Write
I LIVE IN a Spanish-style house in an area of Los Angeles near The Grove. The Grove is an outdoor shopping extravaganza with a fountain that shoots jets of water synchronized to Kool & the Gang songs. People love to hate on The Grove, but it’s insanely popular. It’s the mall equivalent of the Kardashian family. So, that’s my neighborhood, and I have a cute little house in it. I really love it.
I bought my house during the famous writers’ strike of 2007. You of course remember the strike because it was over the hot-button and nationally polarizing issue of percentage of Internet residuals accrued from online media in perpetuity. Doesn’t thinking about it now just make your blood boil?! Obviously, no one outside of a small group of professional writers really gets what was going on there, but the point is I had a lot of time to do nothing but not work and hemorrhage my savings. When I wasn’t Norma Rae-ing it up on the picket line, I spent the rest of my time decorating my house to look like something out of Architectural Digest—a kind of Santa Barbara meets artsy old lady vibe. I think I did only an adequate job, but I did manage to avoid some typical L.A.-house pitfalls: I’m proud to say I don’t have a single vintage poster of some old-timey French product, or a statue of Buddha.
But what I’m most proud of is my beautiful office:
I built it and decorated it, and then I promptly never used it. It’s important to me to have a museum-quality office, so when people or potential biographers come over they think that’s where I write.
No, where I really write is here:
As you can see, when I write, I like to look like I’m recovering from tuberculosis. I sit in bed, my laptop resting on a blanket or a Notre Dame sweatshirt on my lap. I got the sweatshirt when I was there doing stand-up in 2006. (Where I bombed, by the way. Those kids hated me and my long, matronly rants against low-rise jeans. I did a three-college comedy tour with my Office costar Craig Robinson, who is hilarious, and a pro at performing at colleges. He plays the piano in his act, incorporating medleys of hit pop songs and then does a rendition of an original song he wrote called “Take Your Panties Off.” I don