Wrong Turns with Jameela Jamil: Lake Bell and Mary Elizabeth Ellis

Episode Date: November 20, 2025
Guests: Lake Bell, Mary Elizabeth Ellis
Host: Jameela Jamil

Overview

In this riotously candid episode of Wrong Turns, host Jameela Jamil welcomes the hilarious and unfiltered actresses Lake Bell and Mary Elizabeth Ellis to swap their most mortifying stories. The mood is irreverent—think joyous cringe without the Hallmark platitudes. From mishaps with pubic hair “top knots” to celebrity run-ins and public urination disasters, the episode doubles down on bodily function, the indignities of fame, and the emotional rollercoaster of motherhood. The show’s tone is warm, raucous, and delightfully shameless, inviting listeners to embrace humiliation as a universal human experience.

Key Discussion Points & Highlights

1. Introductions, Self-Deprecation, and Sexual Awakenings

• Jameela introduces her guests with tongue-in-cheek accolades, fumbling Mary Elizabeth’s name and joking about Lake Bell being “everyone's sexual awakening.”
  • “How crazy that I was so desperate to say you were everyone’s sexual awakening... I just crammed it in the middle of your credits.” (Jameela, 02:31)
• The group riffs about awkward adolescence, body changes, and Lake’s summer in France leading to unexpected “boob growth.”
  • Lake: “I used to think of myself as gonzo. I had large features and was hairy... not a sexual awakening.” (03:28)

2. Micro-Humiliations & Medical Mishaps

Colonoscopy & Recognizability:

• Lake Bell shares her experience with a colonoscopy: being recognized by her anesthesiologist while feeling most vulnerable.
  • Lake: “It’s the one time you gotta be on camera, but you don’t have to remember your lines.” (05:57)
  • Lake: “He looked at me, ‘Are you Lake Bell?’ And I was like, ‘No, that’s not okay. I don’t want to talk about that right now.’” (07:02)
• Mary Elizabeth follows with a story about a friend being recognized during a colonic:
  • Mary: “Right when the guy was about to put the thing up, he was like, ‘And just so you know, we’re all huge fans.’” (07:55)

The Waxer’s Family Resemblance:

• Mary tells of a Russian waxer named Deborah who comments that her and her sister’s vaginas look alike.
  • Mary: “‘You and your sister have very similar...’ I recognize this family look.” (08:49)

Owning Shame:

• Jameela sets the stage: “As we know, this podcast is all about just owning our shame.” (09:15)

3. Micro-Humiliations in Public Spaces

Rage Reactions:

• Mary Elizabeth admits her humiliation often turns to public rage—especially in traffic.

  • “If I feel the hot, white-hot shame, it quickly turns to rage. I’m not here to be embarrassed.” (09:33)

• Debate over how each handles a trip or a fall in public:

  • Lake: “I’ve pushed two babies out at home. I’m just like, leave me alone. Fuck that shit.” (12:25)

4. Major Wrong Turns: Disasters at Work and Motherhood

Mary’s “Pubic Top Knot” Story (13:10)

• After giving birth, Mary shoots a yoga scene. Crew whispers about something in her crotch. Costume staff discreetly asks:
  • Costume: “Did you tie your pubic hair in a top knot?” (14:12)
  • Mary: “It was Victoria’s Secret underwear with a bow on it. But their first thought was, ‘Is it her pubic hair?’” (14:40)
• The group riffs on the pitfalls of womanhood and expectations of quirky behavior.

Lake’s Brad Pitt Encounter Meltdown (18:29)

• Lake describes feeling like an imposter at a Hollywood party, hyping herself up internally to meet Brad Pitt.
  • Lake: “In my head, I was saying, ‘That is Brad Pitt. I’m supposed to be here.’” (20:05)
• When introduced, she blurts:
  • Lake: “I know.” [deadpan] (22:31)
• The awkwardness is palpable—nobody rescues her, and she’s mortified at her rudeness.
  • Lake: “It was like the air got sucked out of the conversation pocket.” (23:04)

Mary’s Hospital “Wrong Turn” — Joke-Bombing During a C-Section (28:52)

• Mary, in a 26-hour labor-turned-emergency C-section, cracks jokes to make others comfortable:
  • Mary (to the surgeon shaving her): “Just make it into a heart or a star.” (31:22)
• The doctor’s unamused; later, during surgery, she jokes about a burning smell:
  • Mary: “‘It smells like burning popcorn.’ Charlie: ‘Oh honey, no. That’s your flesh.’” (32:37)
• Mary: “Bombing during my delivery. My delivery—[the] delivery was off.” (33:24)

Lake’s Pissing-in-a-Diaper Escapade (34:06)

• Lake recounts the pride after a successful cross-country flight with her young kids—only to nearly wet herself in a car ride to her mom’s.
• Too wary to leave her children in a stranger’s car, she improvises:
  • Lake: “I do see an overnight diaper...the capacity is really high.” (38:23)
• She ends up peeing in the diaper in the way-backseat, but it overflows everywhere.
  • Lake: “Once it starts, it’s not going to stop...I peed all over my legs.” (41:14)
• She tries to blame it on the kids: “How can I blame this on the kids? Could I be like, my kid is peeing in the back?” (42:03)
• Everyone reflects on how desperate situations defeat even the most well-laid plans.

Jameela’s Cardboard Tissue Box Pee Fiasco (43:09)

• Inspired by Lake’s story, Jameela tells her own: DJing late-night in the UK, desperate to pee, she tries to use a cardboard tissue box by the roadside, fully visible in a polar bear onesie:
  • “I try to pee into his tissue box, which is also made of cardboard, which is, it turns out, not waterproof. Now I’m just peeing through.” (44:56)

5. Reflections on People-Pleasing, Public Perception, and Embarrassment

• Both guests muse on how much effort women expend to avoid inconveniencing others, even at their own expense.
  • Jameela: “The trouble to which you both go through to not make anyone uncomfortable...God bless you both, you funny, delightful, crazy women.” (46:03)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Lake (on colonoscopy prep): “It’s butt stuff without the fun.” (06:29)
• Mary (when asked about micro humiliations): “If I feel white hot shame...it turns very quickly to rage.” (09:33)
• Costume designer to Mary: “Did you tie your pubic hair in a top knot?” (14:12)
• Lake (meeting Brad Pitt): “I know.” (22:31)
• Lake (peeing in a diaper): “It was more of a faucet sound.” (41:14)
• Jameela (peeing in a box): “I was pretending to fix the tire while I was urinating.” (44:56)

Key Timestamps

• 02:31 — Jameela introduces Lake Bell as everyone’s “sexual awakening”
• 05:57–07:02 — Lake recounts colonoscopy anesthesia + recognizability
• 08:49 — Mary’s waxer comments on “family resemblance” of vaginas
• 09:33 — Mary on rage as a response to embarrassment
• 13:10–15:11 — Mary’s post-pregnancy “pubic top knot” underwear story
• 18:29–24:46 — Lake’s awkward Brad Pitt party meltdown
• 28:52–33:19 — Mary’s failed C-section comedy routine (“bombing” her delivery)
• 34:06–42:39 — Lake’s diaper-pee disaster during a car trip
• 43:09–45:19 — Jameela’s own tissue box peeing roadside story
• 49:43–51:41 — Listener “Misery Loves Company” segment (kids mooning, car flips, rescued by the moonee)

Listener Story: “Misery Loves Company” (49:43–51:41)

• Patrick writes in about “stupid breaks” on childhood road trips with his brother—one mooning incident ends with a car accident, and the person they mooned ends up rescuing them from the crashed car.
  • Jameela: “We thanked him, then pulled up our trousers, no silver lining. And we resumed the stupidity the very next trip.” (51:05)

Plugs and Farewells

• Mary Elizabeth Ellis:
  • Instagram: @maryelizabethellis
  • Short film: “Last to Leave” (on Vimeo)
  • Upcoming: Season 2 of show with Mike Schur and Ted Danson (“A Man on the Inside”)
• Lake Bell:
  • HBO Max comedy: “The Chair Company” (with Tim Robinson & Zach Cannon)

Tone & Takeaway

The episode is a gleeful celebration of public humiliation, bodily mishaps, and the absurdity of social expectations—especially for women, mothers, and those in the public eye. There’s comfort in the commiseration: these are deeply human moments, told with genuine warmth, dark humor, and not a trace of self-seriousness.

No takeaways, no silver linings—just camaraderie, chaos, and laughter where dignity goes to die.