Smart Girls Ask Amy
January 18, 2013 7:25 AM   Subscribe

Amy Poehler's YouTube channel Smart Girls has a segment called Ask Amy, where she provides helpful, honest advice to viewers. Unsurprisingly, it is awesome. posted by quin (32 comments total) 68 users marked this as a favorite
 
I love that its apparently shot with an in laptop camera. That just makes it even more perfect.
posted by The Whelk at 7:32 AM on January 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


Wow, I really like Amy Poehler! This is really great, just another awesome thing she does. Huzzah!
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 7:40 AM on January 18, 2013 [2 favorites]


I like the idea, but had assumed the channel was dead, based on a visit a few months ago where it looked like there was no activity. Glad to see that I was wrong. Maybe I visited a different channel?
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:42 AM on January 18, 2013


Yay! I love Amy and watched the first few of these when they went up but lost track of them over the last few months. I think it's a great thing to do and she comes across as a totally compassionate, understanding and down to earth role model, far from the perfection even sometimes awkward comedians like Poehler come across as in the media. I do remember worrying at times that the perspective she provides, the It Gets Better-ness of it all, can be hard for emotional teenagers to understand and latch on to, when the world is ending and she's asking you to consider your father's feelings in the makeup one for example. Still, that's minor, and this is an amazing thing for Amy to do with her time!
posted by yellowbinder at 7:42 AM on January 18, 2013


Also I remember thinking the theme song sounded waaaay too much like "Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba Scabies!!"
posted by yellowbinder at 7:44 AM on January 18, 2013 [8 favorites]


Her one on Math was pretty awesome, agreed.
posted by Samizdata at 7:46 AM on January 18, 2013


When I was young we got our youtube advice from ninjas.
posted by brain_drain at 7:53 AM on January 18, 2013 [7 favorites]


Her "Mighty B!" cartoon is well worth a watch on Netflix. Like with Invader Zim and Mr. Meaty, Nickelodeon lost its nerve and cancelled it before its time.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:58 AM on January 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


When I was young we got our youtube advice from ninjas.

Indeed.
posted by Celsius1414 at 8:03 AM on January 18, 2013


I really like this speech Amy Poehler made at an awards gala reminding folks of the domestic workers that take care of her and others' children.
posted by threeants at 8:05 AM on January 18, 2013 [10 favorites]


Are the "viewed by" numbers accurate? It seems sort of amazing to me that less than 15,000 people have seen some of those videos.
posted by jamesonandwater at 8:08 AM on January 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


I was expecting her to go someplace really different with the math one but I really liked her answer for the most part.

1) Indicate that we all like to do stuff we are good at and dislike doing stuff that is hard for us builds.

2) Indicate that learning can be cooperative, just because something isn't our strong suit doesn't mean we shouldn't be afraid to get help- presumably we could also help someone else out who is weak in an area we are strong in.

3) Work on positive rather than negative thinking. By reframing how we think about something that we aren't strong in we can make avoid getting depressed about it and can take pleasure when we make progress in mastering a new skill.

Considering I was halfway expecting a really bogus answer this was really kinda fun. I'm looking forward to watching some of the other ones.
posted by vuron at 8:10 AM on January 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


I was really expecting something else here and I liked that she made it through the math one without something like "I really hate math too, but here's how you can muddle through". Instead it was all about being positive and finding a way in. Of course you want in! The problem is just how to do it.
posted by DU at 8:16 AM on January 18, 2013


And while the rest of you were finding a way in to math, I was learning what an Irish Goodbye is. Most helpful!
posted by HotToddy at 8:22 AM on January 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


When I was young we got our youtube advice from ninjas.

We got our advice from caricatures of soldiers with odd, poorly couched homoerotic names.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 8:23 AM on January 18, 2013 [3 favorites]


I can so imagine that's what Leslie Knope does after hours! I'm off to watch the rest of them.
posted by ersatz at 8:35 AM on January 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


Silence, Amy Poeler!

/skull island
posted by Artw at 8:41 AM on January 18, 2013


Thanks! These are fantastic.

This reminded me of the Rookie Mag's Ask A Grown Man, also great. John Hamm is my favorite.
posted by yaymukund at 8:46 AM on January 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


I can't watch video at work, but I'm excited to show these to my 11-year-old daughter.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:59 AM on January 18, 2013


Oh, why did I have to be older than Amy Poehler so that I couldn't have learned from her at a younger age. Wait, I still can.
I've also noticed a couple things in her performing career that I'm trying to adapt (however belatedly) into my life:
1) How supportive she is of colleagues, and non-jealous of others' successes,
2) The way she manages to be the most memorable part of any awards show, even when she doesn't win. (Ala the canoodling with George Clooney at the Golden Globes.)

(Oh, and the John Hamm/Ask a Grown Man stuff is also great.)
posted by NorthernLite at 9:18 AM on January 18, 2013 [3 favorites]


This reminded me of the Rookie Mag's Ask A Grown Man

Ms. Poehler's site has its own Boyzone as well!
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 9:33 AM on January 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


I have no advice for you as to how to get guys to notice you. I've never known how to get guys to notice me.

Upright Citizens Brigade worked pretty damn well on me.
posted by cmoj at 9:35 AM on January 18, 2013 [2 favorites]


These are cool. She's honest and forthright, not lecture(y) are talking down.
posted by shoesietart at 10:16 AM on January 18, 2013


She, Tina Fey, and Julia Louis Dreyfus are amazingly funny. I love them all! I adore Amy!
posted by discopolo at 10:23 AM on January 18, 2013


Upright Citizens Brigade worked pretty damn well on me.

I think she means the guys she actually wants to have notice her.

Guys like post-Marky Mark Mark Wahlberg and an unattached Jon Hamm. Not just whoever has a penis in the general vicinity. Never that.
posted by discopolo at 10:26 AM on January 18, 2013


Amy Poehler is rapidly becoming my hero. Thanks for posting these!
posted by rednikki at 5:16 PM on January 18, 2013


Her "Mighty B!" cartoon is well worth a watch on Netflix. Like with Invader Zim and Mr. Meaty, Nickelodeon lost its nerve and cancelled it before its time.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:58 AM on January 18 [1 favorite +] [!]


She did the Mighty B? I knew there had to be a reason that cartoon was so perfect.
posted by FirstMateKate at 6:01 PM on January 18, 2013


I kept waiting for the punchline. And waiting. And waiting. I got to the end of the first video and said, "Huh, she was serious. And sooooo right!" And then I did a little fist pump and loved her a little bit more.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:18 PM on January 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'm so happy about Amy. We waited for a long time for the moment that someone like her could...be.
posted by Miko at 9:33 PM on January 18, 2013 [3 favorites]


I sat next to her Dad on a plane once. He may as well have been wearing a T-shirt that said "MY DAUGHTER IS FAMOUS". I'm settling in, getting out my Skymall catalog, and he says all off-hand like, "You know, the movie they played on the flight out here ["Blades Of Glory"] had my daughter in it....". So I schmoozed him up about how much I like her, which seemed to please him greatly.
posted by thelonius at 5:02 PM on January 21, 2013


That's one guy with a famous daughter who I would schmooze with impugnity. He actually has a pretty awesome daughter. Good job on the gene providing and parenting, Amy Poehler's dad!
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 5:35 PM on January 21, 2013


If my daughter ends up being as awesome and famous as Amy Poehler, I'd talk about her all the time, too.

My daughter is pretty awesome already, and I do talk about her a lot.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:35 PM on January 21, 2013


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