Amy Poehler Finally Explains Creepy Yo La Tengo Cover Art
A quarter of a century ago, an Amy Poehler character on Upright Citizens Brigade ate and puked up the miracle known as “The Glorious Vomit Jesus” (né “Spaghetti Jesus”) — all while wearing a blue Yo La Tengo shirt. In 2000, the band used a shot of her glaring into the camera, Ragú dripping off her chin, and the legend of her shirt bearing the band’s name on full display for the cover art of its “You Can Have It All” CD single. On Thursday, Poehler finally explained how it all came together on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“That is a relic,” she said when Kimmel held it up. “That is the first and only time I’ve been on a cover of a record.” Then Kimmel asked, “Is this blood?”
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“That is a sketch I did with UCB called ‘Spaghetti Jesus,'” she said. “The premise of the sketch was there was a woman [and] the face of Jesus was found in a bowl of spaghetti, and then someone ate it, and you panned around to see who it was, and it was me.” She laughed and added, “So I guess the fine people of Yo La Tengo thought it would be a good album cover. … You know, it was a different time.”
The single, which is a cover of a George McCrae song, featured on Yo La Tengo’s 2000 album, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out. It’s noteworthy that that album came out in February of that year and the UCB sketch aired only a few months earlier, in August, showing how quickly Spaghetti Jesus could work miracles when it came to turnaround time.
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