Photos from Amy Poehler’s Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year Celebration
Photo by Olga Khvan
Hasty Pudding’s Woman of the Year Amy Poehler was put to the test at annual festivities on Thursday at Harvard, where Hasty Pudding Theatricals members challenged the guest of honor to prove her skills before presenting her with the coveted Pudding Pot.
During the celebratory roast, which followed a brief parade where she was accompanied by Harvard undergrads dressed in drag, Poehler freestyle-rapped for campers from Wet Hot American Summer, brushed up on improv skills with Kim Jong-Un, and performed her own version of the “Jingle Bell Rock” routine with the Plastics from Mean Girls.
“Wow, Amy. You can rap, act, and dance—you’re a regular Mark Wahlberg,” said roast host Jason Hellerstein, president of Hasty Pudding Theatricals.
Growing up in Burlington, Harvard used to be a group of buildings we threw rocks at on our way to our real jobs. As I drove by throwing the middle finger at this place, who would’ve known they’d be giving me so much shit one day?
Along with co-host and cast vice president Sam Clark, Hellerstein poked fun at all aspects of Poehler’s career, from her NBC show Parks and Recreation (the current season is set two years into the future, while the show’s quality declined two seasons ago, they quipped) to her accolades (“Our Woman of the Year believes that if she collects enough Emmy nominations, she might actually win one”) to her recently released memoir Yes Please (“Critics said, ‘No, thank you'”).
But Poehler threw out a few of her own verbal punches as well.
“There are times in your career when you know you’ve made it. To watch these two little nervous babyfaces…it’s adorable,” she quipped back at the hosts, both of whom are seniors at Harvard. “Quiet now, Mommy’s going to talk.”
At one point during the roast, the Massachusetts native donned a Boston College hat, brought along by her father, to rep her alma mater.
“Growing up in Burlington, Harvard used to be a group of buildings we threw rocks at on our way to our real jobs. As I drove by throwing the middle finger at this place, who would’ve known they’d be giving me so much shit one day?” she joked. “I want to thank Hasty Pudding for reminding us how hard it is to write funny jokes.”
Next Friday, Hasty Pudding will honor its Man of the Year—Poehler’s Parks and Rec co-star Chris Pratt, who, regrettably, according to Poehler, is a Seattle Seahawks fan.
Check out photos from Amy Poehler’s Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year festivities below.
Amy Poehler, Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year 2015
