Breaking Down Mike O'Brien's SNL Digital Shorts

The Lonely Island Seth Mars Podcast.

Hey, everybody, welcome to the Lonely Island and Seth Marias Podcast.

We're doing another special episode.

It is very much due to all the turmoil in Los Angeles and just try to figure out the logistics of doing this, but we have a very exciting guest today.

First of all, I'm here with Yorma.

What's up, Jorm?

Woo!

I'm pumped.

I feel like a terrible choice of vibe and energy right after I talked about the fire.

And I'm also somber.

Yes.

Awesome.

We're also joined by Mike O'Brien.

Hello, Mike.

Woo!

What's up, guys?

I'm somber too.

Yeah, I feel like Jorn laid out a real what not to do.

Sorry.

All right.

So, Mike, this is very exciting.

You did a series of short films at SNL, most of which I realized when I went back to watch were after I left.

But I was there when you got hired.

What year did you start at the show?

2009 was when I got the Seth Meyers call.

But jumping back real quick, I was flown out from Chicago in 2004, waiting to go in and do an in-studio audition next to a young Yorma.

And we were chit-chatting and talking about calling our parents or something.

Do you have any recollection of it?

It'd be a bit.

Oh my God.

Like the minute you actually said it, it did.

But I was so nervous.

I was like probably between vomiting when I talked to you.

But like

as soon as you said it, I I was like, that's right.

Yeah.

I have no idea where that was because it was not in 8H.

No, we're, it's such a bummer to like have the experience of auditioning for the show and then not get to at least have been on the stage in 8H.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We were in some side room, some shitty side room.

Some big empty room with the auditor sitting even further away than when I came back in 2009.

How did you do?

How was your audition?

Awful.

Same.

I was going to show them what an artiste from Chicago is all about.

You did it years later.

At one point, I did improv.

Oh, no.

I got out of Guinness Book of World Records and I flipped and I said, tell me when to stop and I'll try to break that record.

And they weren't saying stop.

I kept going all the way through.

And finally, Tina was like, she probably said stop, like, please stop.

She was like, stop.

You built in a fail state, which is you did a thing so terrible that you knew you'd get him to say stop at some point.

Yes, exactly.

Exactly.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

Good, good times.

That is very bold, but it's interesting you said that because I'm going to jump ahead.

I was not sort of in the decision-making team in 04.

So I don't have the same recollection as you coming through then.

But I remember going to IO with Lauren in the lower room at the old I.O.

when we were doing a showcase or we were seeing a showcase and you came out.

And I think the nice part of this is you did not learn your lesson, but Lauren sort of came around to appreciating what you were doing.

Do you remember that bit you used to do about how you were going to come out and play the spoons?

Yeah, it was a guy, I was teaching spoons.

And all I remember about it was that it was based on my freshman college roommate who would play guitar with headphones on and the amp plugged in.

So it was not disturbing us, but what he didn't know is when he started playing speed metal, he'd go like,

and so I was a spoons guy who couldn't help but make those noises, I guess, or whatever.

But you dragged a chair to the front of the stage.

Lauren and I were pretty close to the front of the stage.

And you're doing this spoons bit.

And it was very esoteric because I also feel like most other people that night, which probably would have been the advice I would have given you, did a way more classic SNL audition.

Yeah.

You did the spoons thing.

You know, the moral of the story is one, your instincts were right.

And two, it's a real credit to Lauren because I had known you.

I was rooting for you to do well.

You were doing the spoons thing, which I thought was very funny.

But seeing it through Lauren's eyes, I definitely thought, well, not going to happen for old Mike.

And then we left.

And I remember Lauren saying, you know, I think there was something to the spoons guy.

And he really did sort of see.

And then, I mean, it bore exactly the kind of fruit you would think from the person who did the spoons bit.

Like, you did do esoteric stuff that Lauren really celebrated in your time on the show.

Yeah.

I mean, he didn't celebrate it to me.

He's not a celebratory guy.

He said one time after season one, we'd done Tina Fey is a nine-inch tall hooker.

And he's like, the only thing it was missing was a single joke.

Still a writer.

Yeah.

He always surprises you by revealing that he's a writer.

Yeah, he always surprises you.

Solid burns.

I always joke forward.

Can I ask him?

This is unfair because I always try to remember how to explain this bit I saw you do.

I saw you do a one-person show in Chicago when I went back to visit.

You did a wordless sketch, which was a guy eating cookies out of maybe like a Chips Ahoy package.

Do you know the bit I'm talking about?

Yeah, you did a bit in that show, didn't you?

Isn't that?

I do remember sort of being backstage at one point.

But yeah, that guy, it's that, yeah, I don't know how this will play in description, but he's very unfair to ask you to do a wordless visual sketch on a podcast.

He's housing some Chips Ahoy cookies, and he's gotten it so it's half empty.

And then there's a knock at the door that was usually our friend Peter Gross.

And

so he thinks he's being clever by taking the tray out and turning it around.

So I guess this person will not notice that he's eaten.

20 cookies or whatever.

And then it just was a minute and a half of the knocking getting more frantic and the struggle to get.

If you ever try to get those plastic trays back in the yeah, and

then a slow fade, and then kind of a realization from the audience of like, oh, we're never going to know who was at the door or what's going on.

Okay.

Yeah.

But what we did know was this has happened before.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Like whoever's at the door and you have had issues over how many cookies you've eaten.

It probably wasn't his package of cookies, I'm guessing.

Yeah.

So your order was writer, then cast member.

Yeah, then a hybrid demotion.

Okay, so you've got a promotion.

Yeah.

If you call cast a promotion, which I always resented as a writer.

Right.

But yeah, so I did four years of writing.

Fifth year was in the cast.

Sixth year, they said, you're back to a writer, but you can be in your own videos.

Okay.

That's good.

Yeah.

That's a, that's a good.

I also do remember calling you to tell you you had had the writer's job, which is very exciting because one, I was a fan, two, we were friends.

And Joram, I called him from the Sedimacruber.

Oh, I remember that's where I was.

I was in New Mexico.

Yeah, because you always remember where you were.

Yeah.

But you don't always remember, I guess, where you were when you called the guy.

Yeah, that's true.

Right.

Yeah.

And mine, I would have remembered almost any call because I was on an elevator at Northwestern Hospital going up to meet my nephew Liam, who had been born a day before.

So it was already a very memorable day.

And then I was like, I don't know if I'd known New York number.

I was like, weird number.

Yeah.

And that was it.

And then your sister was probably like, not very cool how you just walked in and stole my thunder.

I'm like, who wants a picture with me instead of the baby?

You walked in and said, a lot of babies got born yesterday, but guess what only happened to me?

It truly was the biggest thunder seal.

All right, one year in the cast.

So is Sad Mouse the first Mike O'Brien film?

Yeah, and I don't think it had that card.

Right.

I think it was the first Matt Nas directed anything as well.

Oh, really?

I don't know if they had done a commercial parody or what Matt Villains and Oz Rodriguez are the pair that you see at the beginning and end of these.

And yeah, Sad Mouse was the first.

It was in my fourth writing year.

I wasn't in the cast.

And so you also were not in this short.

So I think this is the only one we're going to talk about where I was still at the show.

This is the one I I saw too and thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed.

How many did you do before you got on the cast?

I don't know.

Maybe just one or two.

It might have just been that.

Yeah.

I think there was that and then a long pause and then maybe Grow a Guy, which was when I was on the cast.

But I remember at some point, Seth, you being like, do you have another Sad Mouse?

I was like, I can't think of anything.

No.

It's pretty great.

Well, the best thing about Sad Mouse is,

and Jorm, can you sing us into Seth's Corner real quick?

Seth's Corner, you're all invited.

Seth's Corner, it's happening right now.

Take it away with it.

So Bruno Mars is hosted musical guest.

And I think this tells you the difference between Mike and I and also how writers come from many different cloths.

And the best writing staff you can have is a diversity of takes.

So I sit in my room and I'm thinking, what could Bruno Mars do?

And I realize he can sing in any genre.

He can do all these voices.

And so I wrote a sketch where I think it was Pandora at the time, right?

It wasn't Spotify.

No, you're right.

It was Pandora Headquarters, and Pandora went down.

And he was the janitor at Pandora and he had to sing all the music.

Now, that is a very good example of what can this guy do that no one else can do?

And he was fantastic in it.

And I actually can't go back and watch it because it is one of those sketches that I remember going a little bit better at dress.

And so I'm still just a little mad at how, because it required a lot of choreography and a lot of really intense cutting.

And it was just, it was not bad at air, but it was so perfect at dress.

But then Mike was like, oh, Bruno Mars, I know what that guy should do.

Wear a full,

full mouse costume and walk around Times Square being sad.

Literally nothing about Bruno Mars makes you think he'd be good as a sad guy.

It's just like a bottle of joy.

Was that him the entire time?

I assume it was.

No.

Oh, it wasn't.

No, no, no.

We got him to take his head off a few times, and it was like too crazy that it would be Bruno Mars in a from the neck down mouse costume.

So tourists were walking right by, just like, get out of the way, dude.

Oh, I just assumed it was like Brad Pitt and Jackass.

Like, he wanted to do his own stunts.

Like, he was like, yeah, I'm in it for the long haul.

No, because it was becoming like, you know, 1 a.m.

or whatever.

But yeah, then there was a guy from the film department that did the rest.

But, oh, I rewatched.

I keep calling it Spotify and it does Google that way.

But yeah, it's Pandora.

And it was so good.

I thought Sad Mouse Mouse was also better at dress.

So maybe that was a hotter audience too.

Yeah, right.

I'm blaming it on other things.

And it's just not.

It was just a hotter audience.

Because the

Michael Jackson lean and everything were still

really tight.

I thought.

And today, because his great in it, it's really super fun.

Yeah.

The thing I loved about Sad Mouse and rewatching it was that it reminded me, we did like a recap of all the SNL shorts, like our third or fourth year.

And it was like Andy like hosting it in a movie theater and it went through like the Albert Brooks ones.

And there were a couple shorts that played that were SNL shorts that were just concepts and they weren't necessarily hilarious, but they were like short films that just either moved you or like, you know, there was one with like these mariachis and ballerinas dancing together that I was always just like, this is really inspired.

And there was something about that one that I was just like, this is really nice.

And I was also like knowing you, Mike, and what you're capable of and how deeply sarcastic you can get to sort of like see this sort of introspective, sincere side of it was really, really sweet.

I mean, I watched a bunch of yours today like there is a core sincerity that goes through all of them so i feel like we are bearing the premise so sad mouse starts with bruno mars he's talking to sedeges about how bad things are going i think his girlfriend broke up with him yeah girlfriend played by sarah schneider in a photo oh right in the photo my friend sarah schneider

and she said she loved me but she couldn't picture me as her husband and that was it man Six years of my life, gone.

And it all went down the same week.

And my dad says he has another family.

He had them the whole time he likes them even more because they're smarter

and here's where you you can't rewatch these it drives me crazy that we didn't stay on him for the word smarter yeah and and when you get into camera angles when you're re-watching then it's not fun but um anyway and then sadakis is sort of taking this in and you don't quite know their relationship and then it turns out sadaikus basically says this is the easiest hundred bucks you're ever gonna make you're gonna put on this patriotic mouse costume walk around a times square and take pictures and then people will pay you and we'll split it 50 50.

and then

oh he says you got to wave at people and bruno and i will say watching it back i kind of can't believe bruno hasn't been an actor yeah he's so good in it and his face is so i mean it's so camera friendly yeah very he's handsome and he he's crying hard which is a really hard thing as an actor to do and i give him all the credit and sudeikis too who was of course sitting straight and and bruno was nervous about like crying and everything and they were just in their own little world and and Jason was kind of talking to him quietly and there was as much directing probably from him as Matt Nas and um but Bruno killed it yeah he probably has he not been in stuff I seem I don't know it seemed like such a good calling card to have somebody have the brilliant idea in Hollywood to be like hey you know who's mighty good is this Bruno Marx right they do that with any popular singer so how did he not but yeah and then he says you know he wants the job obviously but he's really worried in his fragile state that if he waves at somebody and they don't wave back, it's going to be like the straw that broke the camel's back.

And so we're all just sort of watching and rooting.

And the one, of course, callback to the setup is Bruno Mars is like sitting in Times Square.

It's clearly just regular people.

Like you said, Mike, nobody is clocking that it's Bruno Mars.

And he looks at a, he's got a letter from his girlfriend and then he also has a letter from his dad, which I feel like a dad who had a secret second family wouldn't send.

That's bad.

He wouldn't tell you with a photo of the new family.

That's definitely, definitely my favorite joke.

But then it just resolves itself with, you know, he sees somebody in a frog costume and they just kind of wave at each other.

There's no, there's not more than that, but it's genuinely, you can tell by the audience reaction, there was an emotional investment in it.

I think I was just so happy that it didn't end with it being a reveal that it's like Lady Gaga is in the other.

Oh, yeah.

You know what I mean?

Like it could have, it could have gone that route and I didn't.

And I appreciated that.

Well, it was never that, but it was a different ending.

Um, oh, here we go.

Let's hear it.

We've thrown the praise out of him.

Now let's hear his terrible first incident.

Spill the tea.

For the horrible ending, because I wouldn't have written something where it's like they hold hands and walk off.

The end.

Okay.

All right.

So I'm giving you a lot of credit.

Yeah.

For the sincerity.

I know.

No, I feel like that wasn't our job at SNL.

But they get into a pretty sexual furry relationship.

And there's a scene in the alley where he like undoes the frogs brat thing under the bleachers.

The audience had cheered so hard when they walked out holding hands.

And then this added minute, Lauren just like looked over him.

It's like,

do you think maybe the ending was that last part?

And I'm like, okay, okay, okay.

Oh my God, I want to see that so bad.

I can't believe I have no memory of this, and I'm sitting here praising you for your restraint.

Yeah, no, there wasn't restraint.

I was like, we got to get a laugh at the end.

So good.

Wow.

Well, there you go.

Margins, man.

It comes back to Sudakis, and there's something where they're like, so you guys are fucking, though?

Yeah, we're fucking.

There it is.

That was all just meant with silence.

So the magic of editing.

Yeah, people like sincere.

I wrote an episode of documentary now called Globesman.

It was based on Salesman.

And the original ending was Fred and Bill get into a car and just get T-boned by this rival Atlas salesman.

and so it was this real dark ending and bill i wasn't on set i was doing my show and they were filming it out in la

and bill was like hey man uh fred's playing it really sad because it they were getting t-boned right after fred had like a minor victory and he's like i think people are gonna be super bummed out if it ends with him dying

and uh and it was the same thing like i didn't have the confidence to just let it end nice yeah and it was uh thank god for bill's good instincts instincts because it is the way it ends now, I love, and it's so crazy.

I also think probably somebody was like, can you call Seth so we don't have to have a car accident?

Oh, yeah.

Our day is done if we don't have to do that.

Yeah.

I mean, it's also because if it isn't quite right and you're like, they look off into the sunset, a tear rolls down their cheek in a comedy setting, you can get crucified.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Like the audience and your friends will talk about it forever.

I mean, you're like, that one for some reason doesn't work.

And you text your friends about it.

Yeah.

You never want to be the one who got texted about.

I think it helps that you tried the other so you at least know.

Yeah.

You know, even if you got burned by your friends.

Yeah.

Well, even though, like, your friends are like, what was that?

You're like, oh, Lauren would let me do the furry stuff.

He was blushing.

But it was one of those that was so different.

I remember, and correct me if I'm wrong, it got really good feedback, right?

People really liked it.

Yeah, I think generally it did.

Like I say, I felt when I re-watched it, like the audience wasn't going crazy, but I think people around the building were nice about it.

Can I ask a nerdy question, which is, what did you guys shoot on?

Because what I also like about it is it has a different quality, as in it's the quality of the film is less than the show, which is nice because it actually stands out as its own.

But like, you're not shooting on film or anything, right?

What were you guys shooting on?

It wasn't film.

I don't know if it was Reds or whatever, but what I loved was that there were obviously no lights ever.

And just relying on those like humongous building-sized billboards that'll go from white to black as they're flashing different ads made for this like moody, weird lighting.

I mean, in Matt Nas were utilizing it well, but it was kind of a lot of found cool shots because of the crazy lighting of that place at night.

Yeah, no, I love it.

I love it.

It just makes it stand out immediately.

Totally, completely to show your range here.

So, first of all, then I know this is a real burn on your and my other two co-hosts.

They just fully was like, Yeah, you can put a Michael Bryan film up there.

Oh, that's right.

It was okay for anybody else.

It was so funny.

Lauren held the line so hard on Digital Short, then he's like, Call it what you want.

Sure.

Yeah.

It's 2009.

And then, yet, that's the one we hold up the highest: Lonely Island.

Everyone knows that term.

No one says, like, oh, are you the guy behind Michael Bryan pictures?

If that even was what the thing was.

But

I also would be remiss if I didn't say,

what's your go-to, Seth?

That you're trying to lose the expression.

Oh, yeah, I should know.

Yeah, I'm going to try to make mine.

I'd be remiss if I didn't say

it was very cringy whenever anyone, once I did a couple, would say anything about Lonely Island and that.

I was like, this is not going to be Lonely Island.

I can't do Lonely Island.

They did 110, 120 amazing shorts.

They have musical talent.

They have rhythm.

They're funny.

Please don't.

Yeah, they were more like, these might be Albert Brooksy or something.

Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know about the musical talent because this segues really nicely into the Jay-Z short.

The Jay-Z one.

I had a really funny thing, which is the first time I went looking for this today on YouTube, I wrote Mike O'Brien, and I think the third option was Jay-Z.

Then later, I accidentally went and looked for it, and I wrote Jay-Z first,

and your name does not pop up.

Whoa, weird.

If you go Jay-Z first, it turns out Jay-Z Michael Bryant is not in the story, but Michael Bryan, Jay-Z is like the third.

You're saying I might be benefiting more from the relationship than he is?

I don't know.

It's hard to say.

All right.

So it's the Jay-Z story, and you play Jay-Z.

And I have so many things to say about it.

But first, just talk about where this one came from.

Oh, I don't really know.

I think the general feeling that I felt on the show like I was bad at the show in my first year on the cast and that I can't do impressions.

I can't sing.

All these things that I was seeing all the people around me do really well, I can't do.

And it was almost like, just make that the joke.

I feel like Andy doing impressions next to Hater early in his time might be the same move of like, fuck it.

Just, yeah, look, I can't.

I can't.

Do it with a smile.

But it was fascinating to watch the audience process this because first, it's beautifully shot.

Yeah.

I mean, beautiful black and white.

And it's the Jay-Z story.

And then the first reveal is that you're Jay-Z.

And there's a fear, I think,

because the worst thing that could happen is you're doing an impression, right?

We don't want to actually hear you do an impression of Jay-Z,

which you quickly don't do.

You're absolutely playing it it like yourself, but you're not even saying things Jay-Z would say.

You're super earnest and really sweet.

This is the definitive, fully accurate biopic that is the final word on the subject.

This is the Jay-Z story with Michael Bryan as Jay-Z.

Cocaine?

Cocaine for sale.

Cocaine, want to buy some cocaine?

Hello, walk right by me.

Hey, you seem a little down.

What's on your mind man i think i might try to stop selling cocaine do what

i think i want to try to be a rapper

the amount of fact-checking that went on during that like crew members coming up to me and saying like his first album wasn't the black album and i'm like i know that this is not a good biopic

uh also it was thrust upon J.K.

Simmons.

It had been to the table many times and did well, but wasn't picked

for whatever reasons.

And then Lauren was just like, just shoot it on Tuesday with J.K.

Simmons.

So he walked into this world and was like, you're Jay-Z.

And I was like, yeah.

He goes, and I'm Nas.

He had never heard the laughs that it had gotten at Table Reads.

And he goes, and is it a problem that I don't know who the fuck Nas is?

And I said, nope, no, it's much better.

That's way better.

Yeah, that's perfect.

I forget that you had to bring these to table because that was one of the advantages that we had is that because we had sort of gotten the first few and lazy sunday in particular under the radar we just started to not have to bring anything to table ever and like the idea of having to read some of these must have been hard to get by because obviously with a lot of our stuff the visuals don't necessarily you don't quite get the concept if you just read it out loud like was it harder for i mean that's that's a harder row to hoe for sure i think so sometimes um because yeah it would be lorn reading pages and pages of silent words,

stage directions.

The mouse goes up to a couple, he tries to get them to take a photo of him, but instead they want him to take a photo of, you know.

But there was one or two times where they got like championed.

You know how like Hater during this era, like a Leslie would get behind a sketch and almost like get the room going?

Yeah.

And one or two may have gotten over the hump because of that.

Oh, man.

Yeah.

The way Hater would laugh occasionally when he liked something was so infectious.

Yeah.

Just that giggle monster.

Yeah.

Hater had put a lot of

shoe leather into having taste.

And I think late in his time, Lauren had a lot of respect for Hater's taste.

Yeah.

So if Hater was laughing louder than other people, it was almost extra cool points, I think.

Yeah, I think that's right.

And but he would even like slap the table, just like waking up the hair department or whatever.

Like it was,

it was great.

That's so late.

It's also a very very funny tone for the Jay-Z story, which is everybody in it is really sweet and encouraging.

And I don't even know what your archetype is in this sketch because you're not even like a basic white guy.

It's almost like, I don't know, like a movie about a teenage girl.

Like it's such a weird.

Yeah, you're bashful.

You're really bashful.

Right.

Bashful.

You're on the cover of like a made-up rap magazine and you just like clutch it to your chest and fall back on a couch and kick your feet.

Which is called Awesome Rappers?

The Awesome Wrappers of the cover of Awesome Rappers Magazine.

I mean, I guess this is sort of a breakthrough moment for me because in my mind, I'm a version of myself, like

which maybe my inner persona is a teenage girl.

Yeah.

Just blushing.

Because I'm just like, what if someone handed me a magazine?

Now I was on the cover.

I might be like giddy.

There's really fun moments where you ask how to get home and somebody says you can take the J or the Z.

Classic, classic.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I think I read that that is rumored to be how he got his name and it's incorrect.

So we put it in.

I should head back to Marcy Projects.

You know what trains are around here?

You should take the J or the Z.

You just gave me an idea about what my fake name could be, you son of a gun.

I love that people corrected you, but I think that is because you constantly say that it's all totally accurate.

Right, right.

Yeah.

And then I did have to wrap by speaking to what you were saying, Yorma, and that was hell.

Really good, really good.

They had me come back.

I kept getting a text like, hey, can you swing back again?

And they'd be like, can you just do it again?

It's not, it's not on the beat.

It's not.

And it's not good.

It's on good rap.

No, he's saying I'm so humble and I got to the top because of luck and

all that.

But I had to redo that, I think, with Eli at that time.

And he was like, okay, I'm going to play it again.

I'm going to point to you when you start.

It's so much sadder when you're dealing with like a really accomplished musician who like, this is so basic, like just trying to get on the bar.

Yeah, I was editing and I couldn't get you on beat.

We,

I forget the Prince song.

Let's go crazy, maybe.

There was a network-wide promo where they had all the talent on the network sing like one line of that song and Spike Lee directed it.

And Spike Lee came to my studio, Studio HE.

And I was like, look, I'm just real bad at singing.

I'm just going to tell you right now.

And he's like, Don't worry.

I know how to get this.

I've gotten it from a lot.

Everybody tells me that fine.

And we did it for like an hour.

And then he walked over.

He's like, We couldn't do it.

You broke it.

He really looked at me.

He's like, You were right.

We couldn't get it done.

He goes, You were just like, You want to just shake your shoulders a little bit?

We'll probably cover that.

Oh, man.

Man.

He gave you like peanut butter, like they give to dogs to make your mouth move.

Missed your head.

But it was really, he was really sweet about it because he was like, you know what?

I thank you for your honesty early on.

I should have listened to you.

Yeah.

Oh my God.

At least you got it from the best.

That's very exciting.

There's a very fun casting move, which is Beyonce comes in played by Sashir,

which then establishes, at least in my mind, when I was watching it, oh, Mike's the only one who's going to be a white person playing anybody in the story.

Then you go talking to Kanye, and then we reveal it's Sudeika.

Yeah.

And then you guys have a very sweet scene where Kanye tells Jay-Z he also wants to be a rapper and you're incredibly encouraging.

You've been making some fantastic beats for me lately, Kanye.

Oh.

Thank you.

Hey, where do you see yourself in five years?

I want to be a rapper.

Like you.

I think that

could be amazing.

Holy guacamole.

Oh, man.

You made me so nervous.

I didn't know how you would respond to that.

I didn't know if you'd think, Kanye, look at me.

Your brain works like no one's I've ever met, truly.

It's so funny.

It's so well acted.

Was the sashir thing laid in as a misdirect, or was it just she's really good as Beyonce?

I know, and she's got like the fan effect.

I think it was, of course, longer than all these are so much longer than Lonely Island videos, videos, but there were other beats.

He goes to Annie and he's like, oh my gosh, this Hard Knock Life song

could actually be a rap.

And people are like, no, that's impossible.

So everything was going to be accurate except Kanye was the only other one.

And then Nas got added in and other beats got cut to give the host something to do.

And so then it became almost like, well, now more than half the world are white guys.

But that wasn't exactly planned.

I will say, if Beyonce had also been white, it feels like a different sketch.

Right.

Like it happily kind of grounds it back to the world.

Yeah, that's interesting.

With it being sushier.

There's also, of course, the really funny thing, which, I mean, maybe my favorite part is that Jay Pharaoh's in this game and Jay has a lights out Jay-Z impression.

Yeah.

And Jay must have been sitting there just wondering what had gone wrong that he was playing Jay-Z's friend and you were the one playing Jay-Z.

Yeah.

And he pitches me the song, Empire State of Mind, doing a great Jay-Z.

And I think he'd done it on the show.

Yeah, he'd done Jay-Z at that point.

So it was, at least he didn't have to think, oh, now Mike's the Jay-Z.

Right.

Right.

And then, by the way, jump forward to the 40th, Leslie Jones, who knows Jay-Z,

saw me and him in proximity and was like, oh, this is going to happen.

And I was like, I don't know, I don't know.

And she made me go up and talk to him.

And it became clear, but it took me way too long to understand this that he had never seen the video.

Yeah.

I assumed it not because I thought it was so amazing, but like assistants and people almost always show the person.

Like they're like, hey, there's a thing that literally was shot where you grew up and stuff.

Like we're at Marcy projects and stuff.

And he just, I said, I think Leslie wants me to say, you know, I'm the guy.

I'm that I played you, you know.

And he just was kind of blank stare, scanning the room for anyone else to talk to and just kept going, it's all good, man.

It's all good.

And then Ariana Grande.

I mean, to defend the man, if he hadn't seen it, what a weird moment.

I replayed it and he's like, I have no idea what that was, but he probably has psychopaths come up to him once a day and say something like that.

Right.

You and me were the same.

But

also, a guy who looks like you being like, I played you.

Like, it doesn't even make sense.

You're like, well, okay.

I thought the fact that Leslie said it up like it was a big moment.

I do worry that you walked over with a little bit like, it's finally happening.

Oh, 100%.

Big moment we've both been waiting for.

Give me a hug.

Come on.

Water under the bridge.

Hey, no beef, no beef, no beef, man.

Did you ever get the sense that after it aired that J.K.

Simmons appreciated it?

Did you ever get any feedback from him?

I don't remember talking to him at the after party, but I'll say that that was the only one where I got what the Lonely Island got for five years, which was for a couple weeks, hosts came in saying they wanted to do something.

Oh, nice.

Gotcha.

And one of them that I'll obviously leave unnamed

said,

What if you and I are NWA?

And it was like the next week.

And I was like, well, that would, that feels similar.

But I was like, I think that's too soon, too close.

But then there were general other ones, like the Michael Keaton short happened because he came in and said, I'll do a short with the Jay-Z guy, which was cool.

Oh, great.

Oh, that's very cool.

It's one of my favorites.

And again, Michael Keaton, there's very few actors I like more than Michael Keaton.

Yeah.

So this is Prom King,

and you're both so good at it.

Yeah, he's like a top tenner for me as well.

And for Andy to not be on here when there's an organic Betelgeuse avenue and exit ramp.

But

yeah, we, of course, got him from midnight till 4 a.m.

Friday night.

Should I do it?

Should I be the guy who does Beetlejuice now?

No, I don't know.

I think maybe.

Oh,

Sam Hortons.

I love Hart.

This podcast is legally obligated to do it.

I mean, I already took his Swedish chef.

So I mean, like, you know, might as well be that Darren Betelgeuse guy now.

Yeah.

I'm going to get married.

Wife's back.

Yeah.

So, anyway.

So, yeah, it was this.

Maybe this is still the case, but a crazy time on the show where the host would usually have to shoot three or four videos on Friday.

It was crazy.

I think it's worse.

I mean, not worse is the wrong word, but I think it is as taxing, if not more taxing now.

It's insane.

They handed us this American icon at midnight, and he was just broken.

And we were just about to start shooting.

And of course, we didn't get him till four.

And so the thing we had to cut from prom queen was the prom.

We cut the whole prom.

I'm going to say something.

Yeah.

I kind of love that it's not there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't remember if there was like jokes I loved in it or whatever, but watching it already, again, it's too long.

And it's fine with it just going like, and he won.

And he won, so who cares?

Yeah.

The trope is that teen movie where the super cool guy says, I will, you know, make a girl who is unexpected.

I will bring her to prom.

She will win the prom queen.

But it is a cruel bet that he makes with a friend.

In this case, it's really nice because Pete doesn't pick the nerdy teacher.

He points to Kate and you just misunderstand who he's pointing to.

Yeah.

Kate is set up very clearly to be.

a taming of the shrew or whatever.

Yeah.

She's got headgear and everything.

A big old headgear and a move of moving the pencil within the body of the headgear.

Yeah, she had one line in it and got like four laughs.

It's amazing.

Yeah.

I had remembered she had a line and watching it again, which is

you don't realize she's still in the room, and Keaton looks down and she's just still there.

Sure, I suppose I'd be all right.

Right?

Yeah, great.

My next class is in here.

And this was, I mean, I did this as a 10-minute play at a place called Stage Left in Chicago.

This was late in the game, and I was still like, let's bring theater to SNL, hence having to cut it down a lot.

But that was from that, too.

And I think it was something to do with having the blocking of it.

And I was like, just say your next class is in there.

He's so good in it.

Yeah.

Vanessa is so good in it.

Yeah.

You do get a sense that there's not a lot of excitement in his life.

Yeah, She's hitting the sack at like 7.30.

She's going to do her VIX.

And she is just, the line readings from Vanessa are so dead.

I was so impressed when I watched it this morning at a look she gives when she's leaving the room that's really quick.

And it's like, a little like, what the hell is this tutoring session?

Like she kind of senses it.

She still goes off to bed.

It doesn't become a story, but there's a tiny look from Vanessa that is really like says a ton where she's like, Well, we have a dead marriage, but I don't know that I love this.

And it's

amazing.

She does come around.

She does want him to go to the prom.

I mean, she doesn't quite know the stakes, but she does

support him.

It's really lovely.

And I will say another one that it sort of does end sweetly.

You know, there's no like furries fucking in an alley.

Well, that there was a longer version at dress where, no,

we get into a big teddy bear cast cows sooner than fuck uh keaton he brings so much integrity to it yeah it's so funny for you to say how tired he was because of course you don't see it and man it it really goes back to how hard that show works its hosts oh it's crazy and um yeah we got him i think till like 3 30 he got in the car probably but yeah he um another thing that i like that we didn't do was that we had a kiss in the rain and he's like i don't think we need it i don't remember if he said this but it's that thing i feel like you you guys have talked about of like, what is the laugh

based on?

And he's like, tell you what, let's do it.

But if you want my vote when you get into the edit, look at not having it.

So I got to kiss Michael Keaton five times and then agreed with him and took it out.

They'll never take those kisses away.

No.

You got those.

Only we know about that now.

Stored in the bank.

I think his instincts were right.

I liked Nazi and the prom.

I liked how just happy he looked to have the crown.

Yeah.

It was happy.

Yeah.

It was good.

I think he's one of the first because that's pretty soon after I left.

He was the first, like really, I felt the ache in my bones of like, ah, I can't believe I didn't get to write for Keaton.

And I bring this up because after you had left, I remember one time we were sitting in Higgins' office and I won't name names, but all anybody was doing was complaining about the host.

And it was like a real moment of wisdom where you said, these are the ones you're going to talk about with everybody here like 20 years from now.

Nobody remembers anything but the absolute disasters.

And it was really, it was like such a nice moment because I was like, oh, you're right.

This is the one that they're going to, yeah, they're going to laugh about.

We still, when you get together with people,

Tim Robinson, who, by the way, this is late in the game to be mentioning, he co-wrote a lot of the videos that we're talking about.

But when I see him, we talk about the same five weeks.

So you never go like the example I'd be like, you and I always use is,

remember when Paul Rudd hosted the second time and it was super smooth, and Paul was great?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nobody talked.

I mean, you're happy to see Paul out because of how smooth it was, but like the fun stories are.

It was like, you said it in the way that in the movie Parenthood, remember when the grandmother like makes some speech that like kind of grounds everybody in the world?

Like, I can't quite remember.

I think it's something about a merry-ground, but it was a real, everybody got quiet while you're like, don't you see?

These are the moments.

And now I must go.

Yeah, I'd been, I think I'd I'd been in LA for six months.

And then when you go back and you're so excited to be back and be like, what are the bits this week?

And everyone's like, we're furious.

And you're like, whoa, why are you mad?

Life is great.

And SNL is the best.

Yeah, it's true.

You're like, there's no other place like this.

And the fact that you can do bits about an impossible host is one of the gifts.

I do think Timmy was always on the side of this is hilarious.

Yeah.

Timmy was never in a bad mood.

I remember saying, is the host as bad as everybody says?

And he's like, oh, it's the worst.

Oh, my my God.

Okay.

So speaking of this, and coming back to SNL after however many years it was, and you and Tim, O'Brien, you were in your office.

And I, for some reason, nobody else was like on the floor.

I don't know what you guys were doing, but you were dressed up as this character.

I came in and like just, you guys were having such a fucking blast.

And it just, it just reminded me of all my favorite moments at the show.

But you were wearing this like giant coat.

And like, I can't remember what you were doing, but you were just like, Was there a character that you were playing just in your office?

Well,

I was a character for most of a year that final year.

I was, yes, uh, I claimed that the reason I'd been taken out of the live cast was that Lauren found out my age and he was mad that I was old.

And that he screamed, at least start fucking acting and dressing young and get a fucking nickname.

And then, and so I was Obi and I bought all this hip-hop clothing.

But I remember that moment too, because Tim loves ripping on.

I have bunions, so I wear wide shoes.

And I was wearing Merills.

And he was like, one thing Obi can't be cool about it, though, is his wide Merills.

And do you remember what you said right away?

You're like, we made sure Magruber always had Meryls because we thought they were so dumb.

It was the first shoe selection right out the gate.

I forgot about Obi.

That was a real,

I still had enough friends at the show that I could go back and visit.

And it's not, by the way, I think people would be very polite if I stopped by, but it wasn't instant bits.

But I remember showing up and Timmy, almost with tears in his eyes, explaining how you're now Obi and you wore young clothes and how happy it made him.

And how absurd it was like sitting in the pitch room.

It was always,

that was the time it was, I had to really kind of like steal myself because wandering around or just writing with one person and like, who cares that you have a sideways baseball cap on?

But

sitting down in the room and I was at that point sitting like right next to Lauren, and he never would acknowledge it.

He'd just be like, how's your Sunday?

And we'd talk with me having a sideways baseball cap on.

And he did not know the bit, correct?

I don't think so.

No.

Yeah.

I would have been happy to tell him it, but I don't remember ever doing that.

Oh, I did not know that you did it everywhere.

That's great.

So Lauren spent a whole year.

where you for no reason, or certainly for no reason he knew, were all of a sudden dressing young.

Yes.

I think that speaks to the kind of people Lauren have worked with over 50 years where he's like, I'm just going to let it go.

Wait, how often do you think he was like, I made a huge mistake.

He should be on the cast.

He's so young.

He's so dope.

I'm going to say zero.

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I will say, Prom King, you have a super stupid, cool guy haircut that works very well.

Yeah, this is now we're hitting the Timmy stuff, but one of his favorite things is SNL 34-year-olds playing high schoolers, which happens every week.

Every week, they're like, if you throw a striped shirt and backwards baseball hat on Mikey Day, he's 14.

Yeah.

And it's just the nature of sketch comedy, but it looks so dumb.

And me sitting next to what, 23-year-old Pete Davidson also makes it stand out, and a bunch of other, like, teenagers.

And I mean, we have a joke in there where I'm a six-year senior, but I'm clearly 34 or whatever I was.

It's so funny because Mikey Day absolutely, they pass him for 14 and SNL all the time.

And yet if it was like one of those Netflix documentaries about like a, you know, a 35-year-old who like tricks his way back into high school, you feel like they would catch him like halfway through the first period.

Straight away, they're like, no, dude.

No.

You're a cop.

You're clearly a cop.

It was after we did Hot Rod.

I remember having a conversation with Lauren and it was sort of about like,

it didn't do as well as we had expected it to do.

Those projections were a little off.

And at one point, he did say, He's like, Well, you know, in a normal movie, you would have been played by a 14-year-old boy.

Just accurate.

I was in stripes the whole time.

Yeah, they tried to stripe you down, but it just didn't work.

Yeah, it's tried to stripe me down.

Uh, all right, Grow a Guy, one of my all-time favorites.

I never tire of watching it.

Oh, so good.

It's absolutely fantastic.

Do you want to lay out the premise or how you came up with this one?

Yeah, I think this one was because my college housemate Fred had sea monkeys.

Did you guys have these?

Yeah, I mean, not in college

as a small child.

But for people who don't know it, they're like a powder you buy out of the back of a comic book or something.

And when you put it in water, they come to life.

They're like little brine shrimp or whatever.

Yeah.

But I was like, how is that a living thing?

And what if someone doesn't buy the package?

Does that thing never live?

So the premise is that there's a guy.

And by the way, this is one of my favorite Beck performances ever.

It's unbelievable.

Beck Bennett.

It's unbelievable.

Oh, it's wonderful.

Beck being a jockey jerk is always my favorite.

Yeah, he tapped into some kind of like awful Naperville guy he knew growing up, I think, or something.

And we're all hanging out, and you can tell he just hates me.

I'm kind of the quieter, nerdier guy in the group.

And he's just kind of staring at me as we're all having fun.

And then his burn, he decides, is, do you have any other friends besides us?

Which is confusing because he is saying that we are friends, but he knows that a real person should have many groups of friends.

And I clearly don't.

And so I notice in the back of a magazine, you can get a powder where you grow a guy.

And I grow a fake guy played by James Franco and bring him to show back.

And the guy does great.

I crash course him in all pop culture and all things to joke about.

And he does great until he asks about hashtags, which are a real thing that were bothering me at the time.

That's the best part is he doesn't talk about him in a way that anybody should think he's a grow a guy.

He just has a kind of a genuine question about it.

Hey, what are hashtags?

Say that again?

Well, no, like I get that there to flag a searchable term in your tweet, but wouldn't it work just the same if you, you know, didn't put the number symbol there?

It doesn't.

What?

I'm seriously asking, Ted.

It was a valid thing that it was bothering me.

And immediately Beck is like, you're a fucking grow a guy.

I know it.

And then everyone starts self-destructing.

and it turns out yeah spoiler everyone's a grow guy because it became fun to do that blow-up effect uh the blow-up effect is great what was the solution that you splattered on people was it like applesauce or something so it's so perfectly gross yeah oatmeal plus something but yeah it was some guy with a bucket of it throwing it on the cast members who i mean that's another shout out i have to give although it's not in this one but taryn's in so many of these because you're kind of asking a lot to be in shorts i I feel like everyone was excited to be in Lonely Island shorts because you might be in the next dick in the box, but people weren't banged on the door to be in my shorts.

And they're in Brooklyn, and it's the night before you're doing a live show and all this.

So, one person you could always count on to be like really good in it and never complain and add a little bit more was Taryn.

And that's why he's in almost all of them.

But yeah, in this one, you know, Beck and Vanessa and Pete and everybody are so good and sashier, and they all had to at some point get stuff splashed on them, and all these little things where you're like, this isn't even their baby.

Yeah.

No, my favorite back line is him saying, what?

I'm trying to help him.

I like, I think twice he says, I'm genuinely asking.

That genuinely is such a shitheel move.

Yeah.

The other great thing, because he has all these great line reads, when it's revealed that

he's a grown guy, he basically self-destructs by saying, peace, straight to camera.

Yeah, so he's happy about it.

He says he's thrilled.

He kicks up his legs and says peace down the lens and then blows up.

It made me laugh so hard and was obviously not what I'd picture.

It's also so wonderful that he's a grown guy who has just grown into a dickhead.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

To death, to the death.

He's going to take that to the grave.

Yeah.

Peace.

And then Dragon Babies is insane.

This is where it gets so specific with me.

Like they just get getting to this point being like, oh, man, it was like helping you out with any of your album stuff that you were doing or seeing your live, like, one-man show that I saw in L.A.

I was just like, the, the specificity of what you're bringing to this comedy is so, it's so specific.

I mean, I know you're a Chicago guy, but like, this was so specific to me.

Also, every moment in this.

If you stopped it and said to a hundred comedy writers, what happens next?

Nobody.

Yeah.

Now, what do you think happens next?

Like, there's no way to stay ahead of this one.

This one is a truly 50-50 with Tim.

And I don't remember how we got to it being an animated, you know, dragon movie, but

because it started out as a bit we always talked about writing where for some reason to promote his new show, Dennis Franz is going to play one play of football in the NFL.

They're like, oh, and look at this.

It's the star of the brand new, also on the same network, you know, cop show.

Dennis Franz is in safety.

And then he rushes the passer against the orders of the defensive coordinator and breaks Brady's leg.

And then I think it was a lot of post-game interviews or something of Dennis Franz always promoting the show while talking about his one play or whatever.

And then I don't know how it got to maybe just Dennis Franz owes, I mean, the director owes him a favor and puts him in as a voice of a little dragon.

And then we dropped the Dennis Franz, but you can tell that that's what we told Harrison makeup in Constance.

It looks so much like Dennis Franz.

That's great.

But I will say, as sad as I am not to have it be Dennis Franz, the fact that you play someone who looks just like Dennis Franz and your name is Rick Shoulders.

Yeah.

Bibbo is voiced by retired Chicago police officer Rick Shoulders.

So

it's always been my dream to do voiceover work, so after I retired in 09, I headed to Tinseltown to try my luck.

We need a fire to stay warm.

Bibbo, can you try to breathe fire?

No, shut up.

I can't do it.

You just have to believe.

Yeah, no, I know.

I got believe in myself, but I don't yet.

You know, there's the rub.

Well, Rick cut me off a lot

and cleared his throat and almost every take.

It's gonna be a little hard to animate around all that coffee.

Just take a moment now to get that out of your system.

I feel like this is an experience I had 12 times or whatever

many videos there are that Lonely Island never maybe had, which is every host was like, what the the fuck is going on?

Because this also wasn't at the table for Charlize.

We read it like six months earlier, giving it to an animation studio, and then they're like, It's ready to go now.

And happens to be Charlize, and they're like, Charlize, go over here, and now you like this guy.

And say these, and they're always like, I'm just gonna do two of these.

I don't know what this is.

I don't like this.

Yeah, I'd rather not.

We were thrilled to have Charlize Theron involved.

She's playing May Showers the Candy Witch.

Working with Rick Shoulders was a dream.

So many actors are fake, but he's real.

Who knows?

Maybe in a parallel universe, a guy like Rick goes for a girl like me.

Again, though, tribute to what a wonderful actor she is.

She's fantastic at it.

Oh, she's so good.

Watching it, you would even say, oh, I bet she fought for this one.

Oh, yeah.

No, she did not.

I wouldn't say she fought against it, but it wasn't at the table read or anything.

She just was lightly confused.

Fairly so.

Yeah.

It did give me a little bit of the hearkening back to Seven Minutes in Heaven series that you did of just like

putting attractive ladies in the position of being like, I like that guy.

The pure comedy of them saying, I'm into that guy.

But yeah, Taryn's great.

Cecily's great.

It's got a lot of fun performances in it.

Also, the logic of it is all over the place.

It does seem like they have had had to animate the movie based on lines that you said that were not in the script.

Right.

There's a moment the dragon babies are talking about who got what sandwich, and we see it's you and Cecily as your wife.

And then they left that in.

Yeah, a lot of crazy logic.

He kind of yes sans the fact that his dragon finally breathes fire by shooting a gun into the floor of the studio,

accidentally killing another person.

Yeah, you feel as though you're trying to build in a empathy for this guy who's maybe a little over his skis as far as doing voiceover work, but then he admits that the two worst days of his life were getting cut for Madagascar.

And then a time he thought somebody had a gun and then shot him 10 times.

Yeah.

And the audience, you can tell the audience has a real, okay,

yeah, yeah.

Not sure where we're supposed to stand on Rick's shoulders.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The

fact that I don't remember how we got into this.

I wonder if there was more of an explanation ever of how he got the Madagascar because this was, this was his, he was the AA sponsor for Terran.

So, how did he get that other one?

But he said he got fired on the first day.

So, whatever, however, he got it, they immediately were like, oh, whoops, no, no, no.

Right.

He's also still dressed, I think, in his cop, like Windbreaker.

Yeah.

Trying very hard.

How did the animation thing work?

Because we were never able to access that part of SNL.

Like, who did it and how long did it take?

Like, I mean, it's really, it's good.

It's really good.

And it was some outside thing.

And so this was like a little bit of a coup where I think it did fine at the table.

I don't remember.

But probably like Eric Kenward or someone was like, well, let's kind of start to figure out if the animation would work or whatever.

And didn't get the proper Wednesday night picked.

They just got the wheels in motion.

And then it truly was like six months later, I'd forgotten about it.

And they came back to me and Tim and they were like, okay, we have that animation done.

And so then someone must have gone to Lauren and been like, hey, there's a sketch that's done that's animated.

Oh, wow.

Yeah,

it was backdoored in a way.

Oh, gosh.

I thought, like, I was like, did they do this in a week?

This is fucking phenomenally difficult to

do in that timeframe would be crazy.

So that makes more sense.

It is very funny to think of someone telling Lauren, hey, so we spent a fortune on this animation.

And good news, it's on this week.

And then it starts with you as Rick Shoulders.

Oh, great.

That was another thing.

He was always like, you know, wants first-year cast members to not have super heavy disguises because you're trying to get to know them and everything so yeah he's like oh great a heavily disguised first-year cast member and a thing that wasn't at the table as Charlize has got probably a great show

but yeah they let it on fantastic Bill probably laughed really hard at the table yeah that probably got it through

only because Jorm mentioned it and I feel as though people are gonna have a fair amount of homework after listening to this podcast.

But seven minutes in heaven.

How many episodes of that did you do?

Around 40.

Oh my God.

I did an episode.

Did you do an episode, Yorm?

Were you again?

No, I'm not that cool.

Never got Yorm.

I got Seth.

Yeah,

lots of fun people from our world.

We did an interview in a closet,

and it was very close and uncomfortable, and a lot of fun.

Yeah, and we were all genuinely alone in the closet for each episode.

They'd close the door, and there were little cameras on tripods or whatever.

Hi, this is Seven Minutes in Heaven with Michael Bryan.

I'm here today with Andy Samberg.

Woo!

What's up, Andy?

We're here.

And we're homies.

Yep.

And I know this guy's

pretty cocky about this.

Everything's going to work out.

Oh, man.

Watch her back, everybody.

Here we go.

I forgot my first question.

So, Andy, are these new glasses?

They are.

Yeah.

I just got them.

Do you like them?

I've got a couple other Lonely Island adjacent recommendations that we don't need to discuss, but Yorma did all the voiceovers in the underground festivals.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that always helped sell them at the table and sounded great.

And those are very fun, silly, Sadakis and Naseem.

Stag Mouth Soda presents the Underground Rock Minute, bringing you all the latest in Underground Rock and RAM.

Oh, the only thing I truly am able to enjoy watching of my own stuff when I look back is called We're Gonna Make Technology Hump.

Oh, the best.

Yeah.

Love that.

And I think part of it is that no one ever talks about it or has ever high-fived me about it.

And I'm like, these these are good.

And part of it is Andy and the host are always, there's two, and he's so good.

He's like so chipper that it makes it, I don't know, it has no context.

They're a show that makes technology items hump and then people are mad that they're doing long vignettes before they hump.

Get a load of that.

Hey, we've got some viewer email.

Ryan from Sacramento says, we don't want your dumbass soap opera scene.

Just show clean close-up shots of tech company.

Call me a hopeless romantic but this lady needs a little dialogue before the action i hear that

now for our third tech comp Colleen and I are going to be a GPS nav screen and a curling iron

that's the only one I can watch and not go like oh why didn't we uh oh interesting so underground festival because those I will say love going back and watching one of the most fun things to pitch on yeah at the rewrite table because it was just a bucket of insanity.

Just anything.

Those I see trims and stuff, and I just mean technology is, it feels okay.

But yeah, those were with Joast, and those were the most fun to write.

We did like seven.

Lauren hated them by the end, I think, rightfully so.

But

they were so easy.

Joast would finish all his real work, then come and kind of sleep on my couch in my office and like wake up every 10 minutes and go,

Barney, the dinosaur,

shoot you with a BB gun.

Go back to sleep, and I'd type that in.

This was based off the Juggalos.

Yes.

Yeah, they had insane videos.

And you did go to one of those?

I did.

I went with my friend Brad Morris, and it was horrifying.

And we went dressed in like khakis and golf shirts intentionally.

We were like being dorks and shooting a video.

And Brad got punched in the nuts.

And it was, it's everyone is on meth.

It's oh, God, that's, I mean, but that's an experience, though.

You know what I mean?

In that same way that you were like, the bad times are the ones you remember.

Yeah.

juggalos icp yeah they uh a representative for icp picked us up in a golf cart and she was like you want to go meet the boys and we're like yeah sure and then she got a walkie-talkie call and she's like fuck they can't meet you guys right now and she turned and went to a warehouse and like unlocked the door and it was just tables of insane clown posse sweatshirts and stuff as far as the eye could see.

She goes, go nuts, take whatever you want.

And we're like, well, I don't need like a basketball jersey that says insane combat.

But that would have been good gifts for everyone at SNL, though.

It's true.

You know, like all your comedy friends.

I grabbed a hoodie that I think Obi wore a lot, but yeah, that did come in handy later.

I will say that voice, that like Sunday,

kind of, you know, everything's on fire, is now used on Seth's show all the time.

And I don't do the voice.

What's up with that, Seth?

Yeah.

Just fucking.

It's very fair.

We should have used you for you burnt.

I guess one of the reasons it'd be your, you just really, a lot of times I'm like, be here at 11 and you're like, Pacific Standard or Eastern?

And then I'm a lot.

You do the opposite of the one I tell you.

And then one last plug for Mike.

Mike created a show called AP Bio that was on NBC and Peacock, but now is on Netflix.

And the world is seeing it in a way that it has not seen it before.

And it's really a great show.

And Mike, will you tell the story about when you came to to the Magruber premiere?

Because I remember thinking that that was the funniest.

It was basically not much story here, but AP Bio had just been canceled from Peacock after four seasons.

They said they didn't have the budget for our

show.

And then the premiere of Magruber was like the next week and we showed up and there were like five actual helicopters as you walk up the red carpet.

You go inside and there were like...

There was a tank.

There was a fucking tank.

There's a tank they'd gotten his his miata this is the maggruber peacock show so this is direct competition yes yes which killed and everybody loved and saw yeah worth every a penny

i i mean i love the show the premiere i was like this is four ap bio episodes for sure

um there was fire everywhere there were like 150 waiters all dressed as magruber it was so crazy it's always so funny when whenever you do a show and it's like so hard to make anything, it's always like, do more with less money, less time, less like whatever.

And then you get to like the part to promote it.

And you're like, where did this money come from?

Yeah.

Like we needed all of this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But it was great.

Yep.

It was a fun premiere.

I'm glad that AP Bio is killing on Peacock and Magruber is people almost know that it exists on Peacock.

Well, technically it's killing on Netflix.

I'm sorry to say.

Oh shit.

That's even better.

It's kind of what Magruber needs.

It's a nice bump.

And yeah, Seth was an EP and he and Shoemaker were great during that four years.

So thank you for that.

Of course.

Thank you so much for joining us, Mike.

Everybody's homework, obviously.

You're going to want to watch Grow a Guy.

Jay-Z Story with Mike O'Brien.

Sad Mouse.

Prom King with Michael Keaton.

There's a bunch of other ones, too.

Oh, wonderful.

Once you start watching Mike O'Brien videos on YouTube, the algorithm will be your friend.

And it's really, they're just great.

It was so much fun to go back and watch a bunch of them.

Well, thanks for having me.

I love the podcast.

I've listened to them all.

I'll probably skip this one.

And it's my Monday morning dog walk thing I look forward to.

So thanks for doing it.

Do you feel like there's anything that belongs in the Criterion Collection that has not received enough love?

Ooh, yeah.

Like if you could save a friend.

I'd have to look again at what is in, but the one that hit me the hardest, because I wasn't really watching SNL when I was making art around the clock in Chicago.

Art just was taking it out of me.

Yeah, you do really lean into it being art.

Yeah, yeah, it was truly what, no, but there wasn't even DVR then.

So I just wasn't home watching it.

And I obviously saw like Dick in a Box and On a Boat got through to me.

But

getting there to SNL and then going back to things was really fun.

And sharing an office with Sudeikas, he'd be like, watch this one, watch that one.

And Hero Song was my favorite for like a year.

And I just didn't see the turn coming and then loved it so much and then would re-watch and re-watch.

So I assume that one was on everybody's list, wasn't it?

It did not get the love that you would have thought.

I'm surprised that that one, like that mirror for those guys.

Yeah.

I'm surprised that that one.

That one's great, but Hero Song for me still, the comedy of the turn.

Yeah.

Is my favorite.

It's so funny too to compare those two because Mirror is like ringing a sponge out.

It's amazing how many moves happened for the fact that it's like sometimes they love this move where people close a cabinet

and Hero Song is one move and they're like tied.

It's just two different ways to do it.

But

one long move.

Yeah, kind of two moves.

What if we watch Andy in a tuxedo singing?

It might be called its own move, but then

kind of one move after that.

And it's great.

It is fun.

Like, I do think the secret sleight of hand of Hero Song is if you have Andy singing with that wig and he is is sort of letting you know he's got money, you're all rooting for him to get punched in the face bunch.

Yeah, yeah, it's perfect.

I mean, I was going to say also briefly about you guys not being at the table is that when I was at the show overlapping with you, it made it for a very fun what are they up to buzz around the writers.

So like my first week, it was Threw It on the Ground.

And I experienced that for the first time.

I remember talking to Hannibal Burris and he's like, I heard the song and I'm like, oh, it's a song.

And, you know, people were like talking about that.

It was very fun.

Oh, I've never heard it talked about from that perspective.

Like, yeah, that's kind of cool.

Every time I walked in and you guys played me a song that really made me laugh, it never quite rose to that.

I always think that like I was a real jinx.

It's fine.

It's fine.

Well, no, I'll just say, I mean, the first time I heard I Wish It Would Rain, which we're going to get to, and I keep foreshadowing.

I just remember thinking, you've done it.

It's the best thing I've ever heard in my life.

Another good handy singing song.

Oh, the best.

All right.

Mike, we love you, buddy.

Thank you so much for doing this.

Love you guys.

Thanks for having me.

This was great.

We love you too.

It was great seeing you, man.

Awesome.

All right.

Bye, buddy.

Bye, guys.

Bye.