In the best ways possible, Aubrey Plaza and Drew Barrymore are two very strange gals, and another collaboration between the two on Barrymore’s The Drew Barrymore Show was long overdue. Plaza finally blessed us with another appearance on Monday, and predictably enough, her visit was basically the Super Bowl for people who self-identify as quirky.
Plaza has plenty to promote right now, between Season 2 of The White Lotus, which ended last week, and her thriller Emily the Criminal, which is now streaming on Netflix. But more than any of her professional projects, the actor really only seemed interested in promoting herself to be Barrymore’s third child. Initially, Plaza and Barrymore were discussing the tricky territory of writing jokes for children…only for Plaza to segue into telling Barrymore, “You’re my dream mom.”
“I wish you were my mom,” Plaza continued, before pivoting to speak in a baby voice: “Be my mommy...feed me...nurture me...nourish me...put me to bed.”
“What I wouldn’t do to put you to bed,” Barrymore says, flirting right back.
“I’m a hungry baby,” Plaza replies, fully escalating the banter, to which Barrymore assures her, “I have everything you need.”
That is but my humble attempt to summarize the interaction, which is absurd and delightful and which I really do recommend watching for yourself:
As you might’ve guessed, Twitter is living for the charmingly homoerotic exchange. One user reports “actually [taking] breaks throughout the video to process what I was hearing.” Another made a topical reference to Taylor Swift (who, side note, I’d love to see interviewed by Barrymore and Plaza together): “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby?”
Of course, Barrymore and Plaza talked about other seemingly extremely random topics, including whether people get “boners” from being engaged to be married (a thing Barrymore appears to have made up and of which Plaza said, “I don’t buy it”); whether the internet is good or bad (they’re not sure!); and the viral, feel-good story of a young girl who wrote to Los Angeles’ animal control department seeking a permit for a pet unicorn.
Despite all that, nothing really sticks with you quite like Plaza imitating a baby and telling Barrymore to “feed me” and “put me to bed.” It is both flirty and deranged, and I truly love it for everyone involved.
And while it is, after all, called The Drew Barrymore Show, is it selfish of me to wish it were The Drew Barrymore and Aubrey Plaza Show?? With the sheer force of their combined peculiarity, these women could take on anyone and anything.
Plaza, whose production company is called Evil Hag Productions, is known to prank and gaslight her co-stars into oblivion, all with the deadest of eyes. But Barrymore more than holds her own: In a recent interview on Ziwe, Barrymore’s answers—from seeking “more death and frying pans” to a desire to be confused for Zendaya—seemed to throw off even the famously in-control Ziwe herself.
Maybe Drew—nine years her senior—really is Aubrey’s mom?? One way or another, they are both the internet’s collective mothers.