Jenny Slate Faked Appendicitis as a Child

Photo by Terence Patrick/CBS ©2017 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Like any middle child, comedian Jenny Slate often felt she wasn’t getting enough attention. But as the Mass. native explained last night on the Late Late Show with James Corden, her methods of getting the spotlight didn’t always work out quite how she hoped. After reading Roald Dahl’s autobiography, Boy, she hatched a plan that had some unfortunate side effects. The young Slate was at the doctors office, feeling the middle child blues, and decided to fake appendicitis.

“I just thought everybody would be like, ‘oh my god we have to get Nintendo, oh my god you need the Barbie van, poor you, you’ve got to get a landline in your room’ or whatever,” says Slate.

Turns out, her doctor took her fake pain pretty seriously and rushed her to the hospital. Slate loved the attention she was getting until they couldn’t find anything wrong with her at the hospital. After a few days of getting poked and prodded by every doctor there, Slate learned her lesson. To this day, her parents still believe she was actually sick.