Maya Rudolph Brings Back ‘SNL’s’ Pamela Bell & Beyonce For Commencement Speech

Maya Rudolph thrilled “Saturday Night Live” fans when she brought back one of her best characters during a commencement speech at Tulane University.

After speaking to the graduating class on Saturday, the hilarious actress asked the crowd to “please rise for the National Anthem,” before launching into her Pamela Bell rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” from “SNL.”

(Watch the original sketch HERE)

At the end of the song, Maya threw in a bit of her beloved Beyonce impression, serving up some “Single Ladies” and “Drunk in Love.”

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2009, Maya revealed that the inspiration for Pamela Bell’s wild/horrific National Anthem was provided by “American Idol.”

“I was making fun of this new style of singing that people seem to do, where not only do they lay it on thick, they have, like, 20 different voices in the same song, which I find so incredibly strange,” she said at the time, adding that she got the idea for the lyric-mangling singer while watching an “Idol” montage. “Everyone was singing ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game.’ And there was this girl who was supposed to sing ‘Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks,’ and she said, ‘Buy me some ee-nuts and Apple Jacks.'”

Erin O’Sullivan

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