Amy Poehler recalls Jon Hamm’s perfect reaction after she got devastating news at ‘SNL’: ‘Made me laugh so hard’

Laughter truly is the best medicine, and no one knows that like Amy Poehler and Jon Hamm.

During the newest episode of her podcast, Good Hang with Amy Poehler, Poehler told guest Paul Rudd about the time Hamm made her laugh hysterically when she got the devastating news just days before she was due to give birth that her OB-GYN had died.

It was the week of Hamm’s Saturday Night Live hosting debut on Oct. 25, 2008, and Poehler was planning to do the show on that Saturday, and give birth to her son, Archie, the next day, “like a true psycho,” she said.

“We rehearsed all day on Friday — I was in nine sketches or something that week, and six days before I had done the Palin rap,” Poehler recalled. “I was still feeling pretty good… We were shooting like a Mad Men pre-tape. I get a call that my OB-GYN has passed away.”

She continued, “A wonderful doctor who was in his 80s, who was this incredible doctor, he passed away, and I burst out crying on the phone. And when you see a very, very pregnant person has started crying, it’s very scary, and the whole crew gets really quiet.”

Poehler said she had gone behind a partition to have the conversation and when she came out afterwards, everyone on set rushed to her to make sure she was okay. After telling them the news that her OB-GYN had died of a heart attack, the set got “really quiet” again. She said, “Hamm leans in, says to me, ‘This is a really big deal, and I need you to get your s— together. This is the first time I’m hosting and I need you to f—ing… it’s a big week for me, you gotta pull it together.”

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

The SNL alum said she went from “crying to laughing so hard that like squirt tears came out” and she started laughing and clapping at how funny the moment was. “Again, a great example of like life is what you say it is, right? Life is what you make and what you say it is,” Poehler concluded. “And he made me laugh so hard, and I went into labor that night. And I think a lot of it was that.”

Hamm told his side of the story on Late Night with Seth Meyers in February.

“And, I said, ‘God, Amy, that’s really terrible, but you really need to pull it together because this is my first time hosting and you better bring it!’ Which, was a big swing!” he recalled to Meyers of his attempt to lighten the mood at the time. “She immediately started laughing.”

Watch Poehler and Rudd discuss the SNL memory in the video above.