I also think if you’re an actor and you can improvise, when you go on an audition and you can improvise you’re just a genius. If you can, you know, take a Tide commercial and you can just say one funny line that’s not in the commercial they think you’re a genius.

Poehler is wryly describing how the entertainment industry often over-rewards a specific, practical skill: improvisation under pressure. In auditions—especially for commercials or tightly scripted material—adding a single well-timed, original joke can make an actor seem unusually gifted, even if the feat is modest compared with the broader craft of acting. The quote also hints at the power dynamics of casting rooms: decision-makers may equate spontaneity with talent because it is immediately legible and entertaining in the moment. More broadly, it’s a defense of improv training as a competitive advantage and a critique of how “genius” can be a situational label rather than a stable measure of artistic depth.