Comedian Jenny Slate may not be as beloved as The Big Bang Theory‘s Kaley Cuoco, but can spin a pretty good outer space yarn with a buzz on. Slate got famous for f-bombing Lorne Michaels’ innocent SNL audience and promptly losing the gig. (Well, famous may not be the right word, but known for it anyway. Now she’s a movie star.) But for the Comedy Central series Drunk History, Slate narrates a lubricated version of the discovery of the Big Bang theory — the real one, not the sitcom — that even Cuoco’s friend Sheldon would reluctantly approve.
After a quick tour of her dog’s anatomy (just to show she knows something about the physical world?), Slate begins her story about how, sitting in New Jersey, scientists Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson listened to the universe, devised the Big Bang Theory and won a Nobel Prize. Slate has the proper awe for what she’s relating, which is just the quality that makes a drinker most endearing, awe and the will to share it. Slate says she’s there to talk about the two men and “their beautiful cosmic discovery.” A discovery even more impressive than the invention of the margarita. Justin Long (Penzias) and Jason Ritter (Wilson) crush the dramatization. And the talking sun is cool too.
