Andy's Dad

Welcome to another Lonely Island Seth Meyers podcast.

Are you guys ready?

Hey, everybody.

Welcome back to the.

You have something to say, Andy?

Because I'd love to get this clean intro.

I was just saying, I'm recording because you asked if we were ready.

Recording as well.

Welcome, everybody, to the Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast.

Once again, Yorma is in Finland.

You know, during QA at my show, my late night show the other day, somebody asked, when is Yorma going to be back from Finland?

Because they missed him on the pod.

Oh, that's nice.

It was nice.

But also in the news, Andy is here once again because of SNL.

As a fan, maybe.

I'm not saying he's going to be on the show, although again, by the time you hear this, you'll know.

But Andy and I had dinner last night with Mike Shoemaker and Maya Rudolph and A-plus, right?

It was a good time.

Another winner dinner?

Yeah.

It was another winner dinner.

And the only thing that was sort of, I don't know, bagging on the vibe a little bit was Keeve was sending some very upsetting texts.

They were upsetting.

What were they?

Well, Keeve, tell everybody what your current issue is that's limiting you from having cool dinners.

Well, I'm in LA, but I also have COVID.

I know that's what you're getting at.

It's the second time that we've had a COVID situation for me on this pod.

Last time we didn't do a pod while I had COVID, but there was discussion of me showing up after having had it before and some early pods.

Yeah.

So it's a bummer.

I feel like you held out for a long time and now you just get it constantly.

Yeah, that's right.

This is my third time having it.

I was late to ever have it and then I'm really making up for lost time.

Now it's just like rolling COVID.

But you were sending a lot of like sweaty COVID pics to Andy saying, you want me to join?

That is true.

Some version of that, right?

Yeah, I was getting a little loopy on the couch.

I've been alone upstairs for a lot of days in a row.

Apologies to listeners if I sound disgusting during this.

You sound great.

Hey, thanks.

You know, COVID, probably have a lot of time.

I'm assuming you've used that time to watch my new HBO special because Andy's seen it.

Yeah, I mean, that's, and to critique it, honestly.

Got a lot of problems with it.

Oh, no.

You'll get there.

You'll get there.

Anyway.

Does that count as a plug enough?

It's on HBO, guys, for anybody just too late.

Do you think anybody jumps right into this one?

Maybe if they just find the pod, do people, they hear about a pod.

Do they jump to the most recent and just hit play?

Or do they go back?

I don't know.

We did get a nice shout out.

You sent it out.

The cut.

There was an interview with the person online who her Twitter handle is bald and Dowed.

She had a nice thing to say.

So thank you very much for the nice shout out of the pod.

But I do, I would hope that if anybody listens to this pod, they would go back to the beginning, especially since the first pod we did eight years ago.

That's right.

That's how many.

She also gave a nice documentary now.

Shout out.

Yeah.

Seth, have I talked about your special on the pod yet?

No.

It's so funny.

Thank you, buddy.

I mean, obviously, this seems just like buds stroking each other off, but I've told you so much in person.

I loved it.

But man, I was laughing.

Giggling and laughing.

It's a good time.

You're very good at stand-up.

I'm very proud of you.

You said that last night at dinner, and it was very important to hear that from you.

And thank you.

Akeesh Lorraine.

I've been waiting to watch it with Liz.

I would hope you would want to watch it with Liz.

That makes me happy.

And I don't want you watching it with her now because you got the COVID.

She's not worried about it.

She had it recently.

But listen, the point is I haven't watched it yet because it's very hard for us to find times to watch anything.

But we haven't watched anything anything else either.

Yes.

So I believe that.

Did you watch the World Series?

Yeah, but not with, not, you know, I could just throw that on in the background.

Yeah, you got it.

You can't focus on that.

It's different.

And who'd you root for, you fucking sellout?

Listen, I'm a man without a country now.

Now that the A's have left today.

How do you guys feel about your beloved Oakland A's uprooting?

So sad.

It's a bummer.

So sad.

Yeah.

I mean, obviously Keeve and I and Yorm, of course, are big A's heads.

We made an entire Netflix special about the Bash Brothers.

So it was pretty brutal.

I will say, you know, if the Bash Brothers special on Netflix couldn't keep the A's in Oakland, nothing could.

You know who name-dropped the Bash Brothers recently on my show?

Who?

Lynn Manuel Miranda.

Oh, bless his heart.

What a nice guy.

Because he was talking about how he was doing Brooklyn with you.

That's right.

The 9-9.

Yes.

And he asked you what you were up to, and you said the Bash Brothers.

I said that.

And he just released this concept album

based off the movie The Warriors.

Yes.

And he said they were kind of parallel ideas, which is it was hyper specificity based on a thing you loved for no audience whatsoever.

Yes.

And we played each other like demos we were working on at the time on set.

And that was years ago, obviously.

But it was very fun.

And it's also very fun to have somebody like, I don't know, I think it's very cool, Lynn Manuel, who obviously made one of the great successes of both art and commerce with Hamilton, also appreciating that he has this, you know, monster to feed that's just art.

You know, he's right.

Yeah.

By the way, because I had been clued into that he was doing Warriors, uh, a couple months ago.

He was like, Hey, I'm going to do like a listening party in LA and we're going to play it for the director of the original Warriors movie.

You should come.

And I was like, Oh, awesome.

And I like rolled down there in my sweats and got in there and was just like, Hey, you know, Nas and Rizza.

And I was just like, What?

Oh, no.

And they were just like, hey, everyone, very nice.

And obviously the Warriors thing is super cool and trippy.

It's a great lesson.

Yeah.

It's a

love letter to New York, as it always is with Lynn.

And it's just fun.

And it goes so many places you're not expecting and spans like 15 genres.

And dude doesn't fuck around.

Hey, so let's get into it.

I was delighted to go back and visit everything about this episode with Jonah Hill.

This is the first time Jonah hosted.

Jonah would go on to host a great many times more.

Jonah would join the Five Timers Club.

But this first time was really very special.

It was a great show.

Truly.

And it was apparent immediately.

I mean, we already knew Jonah and we're friendly, but it was there's certain hosts that come in from our perspective where you're like, oh, they're going to pick all the stuff I like.

Yes.

Which is to say, the weird, like, you are really into comedy stuff.

He was only 25 years old or maybe 24, 25.

That's crazy.

It is crazy.

And also, he's just so very good.

Yeah.

He's funny.

He's also, we'll get to the short, but even in the live stuff, he has that subtlety that works on film that sometimes doesn't work live.

He manages to do.

Yep.

There is a game show sketch called, I think What's Your Situation, where he's the host and it's three female guests.

And basically, he asks a trivia question, and then the follow-up is always: so, like, what's your situation?

Contestants, for 50 points, what measure of energy comes from the Latin word meaning heat?

Bethany Graham from White Plains.

That would be the calorie.

Very good, Bethany.

You are on the board.

And let's follow up this question with another one just for you.

Bethany, what's your situation?

I'm sorry, what?

You know, what's your situation?

Are you single?

Are you seeing somebody?

Oh, I'm single at the moment.

It's good to know.

It's good to know.

It's good to know.

It's a really hard shift that he does exceptionally well, and I think was unique to him.

A couple other things about this episode before I get to the short.

I do remember Bill in the final like hours before the show learning Elliot Spitzer impression for the Cold Open.

And I often remember him, like, sort of talking about that was sort of a good example of how stressful the show was for him.

But also, he did a great job.

Great job.

Now that I've resigned as governor, I intend to bring that same passion and intensity to my new career as an attorney in private practice, specializing in lurid, embarrassing sex cases.

The thing that's really hard to do and is always very cool when somebody pulls it off is a recurring character for a host.

And Jonas showed up and brought a character called Adam Grossman, who was a six-year-old at Benihana.

Bill was his dad.

Fantastic sketch.

And it was an idea that Jonah had.

And I was lucky enough to sit in a room with him and Bill.

I think he and Bill had talked about it before.

Joan had showed up and they had all these really funny beats.

And

it's just a great sketch.

And I remember Fred plays the Benny Hannah chef named Sushin.

And I went back and watched it.

And there's a line that really makes me laugh where he's basically a roast comic.

And he's just roasting his dad, who's Bill, as a divorced dad.

And at one point, he goes, Sushin, I'm joking, Sushin, Arigato, and Mazeltov.

And it's just delightful.

So I sent him questions about all these sketches, right?

Yep.

So he sent in a voice note where he goes over all of them.

Okay, great.

Mamima,

Mamima Schaffer,

Andy Yorma Seth it's Jonah

So one of the things I wanted to chat with you guys about was about the episode and stuff but I also wanted to let you know that it's fuck I don't know you guys have maybe so I've Seth's probably heard of it so Dave Chappelle had a show on

before all this like recent stand-up stuff on Comedy Central and

it's insane dude.

It's called

Dave Chappelle's show And it's basically,

you know, like different sketches, like an SNL kind of thing.

Can you please stop it for a second?

Yeah, you want to explain our inside joke here?

Jonah's going straight to the well of an inside joke that he's had that is now running 15 years?

Yeah, when was the height of Chappelle show, Seth?

What year was that?

2005?

0405?

Yeah.

It was when we were recording one of our albums.

He came and hung out with us in L.A., and he kept doing this exact bit where he was telling us us about this new show called Chappelle's show and it was already just a smash hit.

He was at the height of I'm Rick James bit.

And we were like, yeah, no, we know about it.

He's like, dude, it's so funny.

It's got like sketches and skits and he does some of it live and some of it goes into pre-taped stuff.

And we're like, yeah, we know about Chappelle's show, dude.

He'd wait till you were deep into a hangout or a conversation so that you'd be off guard and just kind of go like, oh, wait, have you guys seen this thing?

It's so funny.

Like I was watching late night TV, whatever it would be, find a new way into it.

But now it's even weirder because we only talk to him like once a year when something, like someone puts out something, you go, dude, I saw your thing.

And then he immediately goes to it.

It's, it's, it went from being like maybe 3% of our conversations to 97%.

That's right.

It's a very funny bit.

And I'm glad he is still leaning into it.

Because, of course, with each passing year, it becomes a better bit.

Yes.

All right.

Well, let's keep going, see how much longer he talks about it.

And then

he'll help.

So

One of the things he did was he would

have friends tell stories about

famous people he had encounters, that they had encounters with, and then he would kind of reenact them.

Fuck, dude.

If you guys haven't been, check it out.

And Andy's dad, well, that was the first time I hosted SNL, and I was friends with you guys, and I was friends with Bill because of Superbad.

And I knew Wig a little bit.

I don't know how well I knew Seth.

I really liked Seth.

I worked with a ton because I think he was head writer at the time.

And it was so exciting.

It's so fun.

And Seth wrote my whole monologue.

I did not have anything to do with my monologue.

It was all about being fancy, I think.

He can talk to you about that.

I'm going to pause right there.

Seth, do you remember the monologue?

I do.

It was a song called I'm Fancy.

And it was just about how he was a fancy fella.

And I think one of the reasons I had the idea is he had a tattoo on his finger.

Do you remember the tattoo he had on his finger?

Oh, yeah, it was a little mustache.

A little fancy mustache.

It was a little mustache.

So he would hold his finger up to his lip and it looked like a mustache.

And it was, it was some version of I'm Fancy.

Oh, so fancy.

I'm fancy, so very fancy.

From my top hat right down to my underpants.

And I've got style.

Oh, so much style.

I got style to make the Queen of England smile.

And I've got class.

Yes, so much class.

I got so much class that it's coming at my butts.

Well, my idea of fun is to strap on a cover bun.

So tell me, hope, and now you know I'm very fancy.

But it was a fun song and dance monologue.

And I know that sometimes there's a little bit of a knock on them, but it also seemed very not what people would expect from Jonah.

Yes.

And that made it delightful.

And there were backup dancers.

Andy, what do you think the chances are you were one of the backup dancers?

I'd say 50-50 at least.

I mean, it's wonderful to me that you have no idea.

You have no memory of it, clearly.

Again, most of the stuff I did live is a blur.

Sure.

Would you say you were blacked out like Asa did last week?

I would not.

Okay.

But yeah, I thought a very fun monologue and that was very sweet that Jonah remembered.

We've talked about this with other young hosts and we were young at the time too, where it was always just such a good feeling.

I think we talked about it with like Natalie when it was like, oh my God, one of us is now the boss is the host.

Yes.

And it would always be just a different level of excitement that it felt like.

Like, would you say we worked in like a nut house and like the inmates were running the asylum?

Is that a fair thing to say you would say, Seth?

Yeah, I mean, that's sound like something you'd say, Seth.

It is a go-to, I think, when I'm trying to paint a picture of a situation.

You know, and it's not that it wasn't true of Natalie, but I think it was super true of Jonah, because I think because Jonah came from a world where so much conversation was about comedy, there was a boldness to the way he sort of stood up for things that was very impressive for someone his age.

Yeah.

Because he was genuinely also just the right age to be an actual fan of the show and know what he liked on the show and what he didn't and etc.

Yeah.

Seth, you kind of casually mentioned that there sometimes are knocks against musical monologues.

Yes.

I feel like that is such a in the eye of the beholder kind of a thing, though, because so many people I know are like, oh my God, I love that, you know?

Yes.

And I think for us, it's very much depends who it is.

Well, it's who it is.

It's how it's executed, right?

Mm-hmm.

If it's someone who I'm like, they just want to show that they can sing, that to me, I'm less interested in.

But I also acknowledge that a lot of the world is interested in that.

Yes.

But for me, it's what you're getting at, which is Jonah is not known to have a strong singing voice, nor was he in the market to let everyone know he had a strong singing voice.

So all of a sudden, I'm like, well, this is going to just be a goof.

Yes.

Which I get excited about.

Also, he's famously sort of not fancy, which is also.

By the way, he did have a good singing voice.

he was he was great which was a nice little surprise on top of it and another thing that i think they're knocks on is um game show sketches which again his was really funny because it was different and new and so i think that's one it's a shame to paint with a big brush there i feel like you keep bringing this up that people knock game show sketches but i have never heard of anyone knocking game show sketches where are you getting that intel I look,

I'll venture to say that I think maybe people who recap SNL, and I think that they are fans.

So I'm not being critical, but I think sometimes they will make the point that the show is falling back on a game show sketch.

Whereas I feel like

because SNL is live, sometimes it looks the best when you mimic another type of show that's live.

And so that's why game shows and news shows, I think that's why they look better as sketches.

Whereas, you know, pre-tapes can cover things that, you know, look more cinematic, but it's hard to do that in the live format.

Anyway, I've made my point.

Yeah, I dig it.

I mean, to me, that's an interesting thing to talk about.

So that's why I asked.

Thank you.

I'm glad you did.

Just to tie up the monologue here, we got sent a photo.

It's Keenan, Forte, you, Andy, and Sudekis all in nice little tuxedos with the tails, the canes, and the whole deal.

I'm sure we can put that picture in the show notes.

I'm looking at it, and my hair indeed looks like, as Seth said, it is eating my head.

I think the top hat they probably had to like staple on.

This is fascinating.

I mean, Jonah looks decidedly not fancy.

Keenan, Forte, and Suds look quite done up and fancy, and I'm back there just ruining the illusion.

But again, this is why it was a dream era for the show.

We had no other options.

They could have put me in a wig.

The show was all starters, no bench.

And so everybody played every down and it was super fucking fun.

Can I say something?

I guarantee you, Harris was like, let's put you in a wig so you can have like neat, tidy, fancy hair.

And I was like, nah, I don't want to do that.

And then trotted out looking like I was a little kid dressing up in my dad's clothes.

All right, I'm hidden play.

Seth, me, and Hayter wrote the Benny Hana Kid.

And the Benny Hana Kid was from dinner.

We all had dinner.

I don't know if Seth was there or not, but I know Andy was there.

And I know Bill was there.

And Bill was telling us a story about a Benny Hana he went to, and he saw a kid in like a Tony Soprano track suit that he couldn't tell if he was like six or like 46

and he had like a gold chain in a track suit and he just couldn't tell if he was a kid or an adult and when the chef did the shrimp in like the hat trick or whatever the kid clapped just using his hand leaned back and one hand clapping against the table and then we all started doing this kid as like a kind of Tony Soprano kid at a Benny Hana who was six and then it morphed from like a Tony Soprano kind of guy to like a Catskills comedian, kind of reminding me of my grandpa vibe, just loud catskills comedian.

And Seth Bill and I wrote that, and it was so fun, and we were laughing.

And I remember it kind of killed right away, and that was really, really fun.

And then I ended up doing it, I think, I think five times.

I think all five times I've hosted with different Benny Hana chefs through the years.

I think Fred was the OG, but that was so fun.

And Bill played my dad, and it was just so epic.

All right.

So that was Jonah talking about that.

But I think Yorma joining us.

And we'll get back to Jonah in one sec.

What's up, Yorman?

He has a special guest with him.

What up?

Oh, my God.

It's fucking Oliphant.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You guys in an igloo?

Uh-huh.

Just for the listener at home, they look so cold.

They are red-faced.

They are clearly kind of sniffly.

Yorm, especially.

It's amazing that I look colder than Tim because he has been acting on camera without a coat.

Yeah.

Or a director.

Wow.

No, no, no, no.

That's who we want.

We want that.

We need that.

So everybody, this is Timothy Oliphant, who is truly one of my favorite guests on late night.

And I'm a little heartbroken because we're text friends that he didn't give me a heads up that he was working with Yoram in Finland.

This is just news right here.

Well, first of all, thank you.

You know I love you.

McDan all you guys.

It's good to see y'all.

You too, buddy.

Can I just say for real quick, Seth, because that's very kind of you to say that you appreciate appreciate my talk show appearances.

I heard you on the thing you did with all the talk show hosts.

Strike Forest Five.

Thank you.

I listened to that podcast and someone brought up the subject of great guests.

Yes.

And I'm not going to lie to you, I was walking the dog listening to it.

And as that subject came up, I think I said out loud, come on, Seth.

Come on, come on, baby.

Give it to me.

And boom, you go always can count on Timmy the Oliphant as a great guest, like top five or something like that.

Oh, yeah.

And And I so appreciated it.

And the very next moment, all I could think of is I noticed nobody chimed in.

None of the other hosts.

It was crickets.

And they just moved on.

No one's like, yeah.

They were all like, oh, I guess, okay.

They're like, all right on.

By the way, if anybody wants to know what it's like to be an actor for a living, that's it in a nutshell.

You get praised and then you immediately move on to so like no one else?

No follow-ups.

No one else.

What am I now to do with the vacuum left in in its wake?

Exactly right.

Oh, so now it's the arrows pointing down the rest of my life?

Exactly.

Do I praise you as a director?

So far?

Yeah, no, you're fantastic.

I've told you.

Yeah, no.

This guy's great.

I queued him up.

Yeah.

No.

Don't worry.

Yeah.

This whole thing's going great.

Well, I hope he's directing well because he certainly is shitting the bed as a podcast host.

He didn't even make Lunch Week, huh?

No, I don't think so.

We don't even know.

Yeah.

Did you guys just rap, or are you in the middle of stuff?

No, we're on lunch break.

I actually got to go to a props meeting in a second.

Great.

So is it a full night shoot then or is a split?

What are we talking about?

Well, we're going to like 1, 1 a.m., but we'll probably end early.

That's a split.

That's called a split.

Well, gentlemen,

Twilight.

Keep up the good work.

Yorma's going to go to a prop meeting.

Yeah.

Thanks for dropping by the Zucrew.

For one brief moment, we were five shot jocks.

By the way, I am so enjoying this.

If I watch the podcast and I'm not on it at all, it'll be that moment again.

I know I got cut.

Well, we'll hear you.

You'll be in.

You're getting me.

Yeah, you'll be in.

Trust me.

Are you kidding me?

A cameo?

That's mana from heaven.

That's huge for us.

You're the first in-person cameo.

We do voice notes.

When you just logged on, you were hearing Jonah Hill, but it's just a voice note.

Well, that was a voice note.

Yeah, you're the first live guest we've ever had.

And I think we're going to see a difference in the downloads, personally.

A D in the D?

I think a D in the D.

Oh, a D in the D.

Difference in the downloads.

downloads.

D and the D.

That's our shorthand.

Guys, we're sending our best from Finland.

All right.

Thank you.

Pleasure.

Fun in the Louvre.

Nice seeing you.

All right.

Love you guys.

I got to go.

Godspeed.

All right.

See you.

Peace.

Bye.

Oh, hey, before we move on from Benny Hanna, I wrote down earlier one of my favorite lines, which I know I didn't pitch it.

I think it was either a Jonah line or a Bill line, but it's maybe my favorite.

He talks about how he can hear his divorced dad crying when he stays at his condo for the weekend.

Please, what?

Please get you back together with mom.

I know that's what you want because you're talking your sleep.

I'm not eavesdropping, mind you, but the walls in your condo are thinner than Shelly Duvall.

I'm joking.

I don't even know what that is.

I'm six.

That logic just folding in on itself.

Yeah, it's just fantastic.

That was a lovely section of the voice note.

Yeah.

I liked hearing that.

Do you remember a dinner, Dandy?

Were you even at that?

Do you think it was just the host dinner on Tuesday he's talking about?

I think it's entirely likely.

Oh, there you go.

Yeah.

And then they went back and wrote it, maybe?

Yeah.

That's what it seemed like.

That'd be pretty fun to think about coming up with a bit.

I mean, that happens all the time, though, where you're like, what am I going to write?

And then you come up with a bit right then and there and just start.

I think it's Phil and Chris, Phil Lord and Chris Miller that I always talk about when people say like, where do you get your ideas?

And they're like, when we're sitting in an office trying to think up ideas.

Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

Yeah.

Who've come up with some really good ideas.

So it's nice to know that sometimes it is just making your job coming up with them.

Yeah, you just focus.

Yeah.

You go, what would be funny?

You shut the door and torture yourself for a while as opposed to in the shower.

Before we get to the short, I want to talk about Jackie Snadd and Clancy T.

Bacclarat, which is one of my favorite sketches ever.

Same.

This is one of the most uniquely wig and forte sketches of all time.

Jonah plays a music producer.

Do you remember his name?

I do not.

Tim Jackal Pappy.

Every name in this is fantastic.

Tim Jackalpappy.

And he talks about two of the best singers in country music.

They are are Clancy T.

Bacclarat and Jackie Snad.

And they have something in common, which is all their songs reference four different things, which are Model T cars, jars of beer, toddlers, and spaceships.

That's right.

We hear one song from each of them.

And you know what?

I don't think our listeners and mine kind of think we should play them.

Agreed.

When you think of the most influential songwriters of our time, two luminaries immediately spring to mind.

Clancy T.

Backlarat.

Driving down the

Rocket ship heading straight for the moon.

I'm going into space with a toddler.

It's a hell of a ride with a toddler by my side, and my beer is sitting here in my space jar.

So, anyway, that's their solo work.

And then Tim Jackal Pappy is very excited because now they're working working together.

And

now, again, this is one of my favorite premises of all time because you immediately get it, despite the fact that it makes no sense at all.

But they just lay it out.

They are country singers.

All their songs have these four things.

They sing about them in very unnatural ways.

They're super catchy songs, though.

There's a song, for example, called Hey Clancy.

And you know what?

I think we should play it.

Agreed.

Hey, Clancy, we're in space.

Well, it's very, very far.

Do you think that I can get there there in my models here?

Hang on, according to this toddler.

It's actually near.

You can rent his spaceship.

It runs on drugs of beer.

We're going to space.

On the advice of a toddler.

There you go.

Then there's a song called The Worst Day.

It's one of those sad country songs.

And by the way, when it starts, I remember when at the table when it starts, and it's about a funeral.

I was so worried.

I was like, oh my God.

Cause I feel like country songs do that thing where like sometimes they're about like a family member dying.

And I knew that they were going to have to to mention toddlers.

Oh, yeah, it was a funeral for a spaceship.

The toddler does.

Well, you know what?

Just listen to the worst day.

This is

the worst day

of

my life.

I buried my spaceship, and my toddler gave the eulogy.

The procession

consisted of modern cars and a giant

beer

later rose on his grave.

And then, um, oh, I do want to say something about the worst day.

I think they queued the music early while Jonah was still talking.

And Will and Kristen are so good that the music ends, but they still have a couplet to go.

I remember that, yeah.

And they just sing past the music because they're such pros.

That's why the music stops and they're still singing.

You know what they do?

They go, motherfucker beat, I'm a duet a cappella.

Then a new national anthem.

And new national anthem is

wonderful because it does that thing that Forte does better than anybody, which is scream sings, and the veins are popping in his neck and his temple.

And it was shot with a really fun, like that double profile move.

Yes, yes.

And even when it cuts back to Jonah, you can still hear Will

America, your fertile plane gives rise to stars appear,

and spaceships are buried in your beautiful mountains.

And one day, a toddler will salute you with his tiny, tiny hand and sail through the seas of freedom on a monologue.

America, America, America, America,

use

your new national.

When it goes to that sort of double-dissolve shot or whatever, like the cable access cross-dissolve shot, and they're just screaming and the audience is laughing.

I definitely remember that as one of the moments from our time at the show when we were in such a comedy soup.

Yeah.

You know, where you're just like, it transcends the sum of its parts, right?

You're, you're now just in a giddy state of psychoticness.

And one of the most fun things about it is Joan is in a giddy state.

Oh, yeah.

The whole time.

Well, because he loved the sketch.

And again, he was both the presenter of it within the body of the sketch, but he also was sort of the presenter of it as the host of that week's SNL.

And I think he took some real pride in the fact that it had made the show.

I think I even had mentioned this earlier.

I know for a fact he fought for that sketch specifically, but let's see what he said.

You asked me to talk about Model T's and toddlers.

Now, that one, I'm proud to say every time I've hosted all five times, I can sniff out the weirdo shit that the writers love that they can never get on.

And I'm maybe one of the people that they knew would fight to get the weirdo shit on.

And this was one of them where Lauren did not want it on the show.

And I was like, please, please, please.

I know I'm just like a kid and I'm hosting, but this is so awesome.

I'm begging you, can we put this on?

And he kind of like knew it was funny, but no, it was pretty.

gnarly and then he let it on and everyone always was really nice to me about that for many years because will forte and john solomon were those kind of writers that was like everybody's favorite writers but sometimes just so insane that they couldn't get it on and i think they had you guys can know better than me they tried to get this on and then i was begging for it to be on and and then it was on, and I couldn't keep it together.

God damn, Will Forte is so funny, and John Solomon.

And

then the version of that that I did years later would be Tim and Zach.

I would always get a weirdo Tim and Zach, Tim Robinson, and Zach Kanan.

I don't know if I'm saying his name,

but Tim and Zach would always have those kinds of sketches that were like Will and John sketches, and I would always get them on.

And later on, I think my favorite sketch ever that I ever did was one that they wrote called Boss's Dinner.

Keenan's my boss.

I'm going to his house for dinner.

And I keep like really slightly messing up a word.

And then I'll excuse myself to the restroom and then scream insane shit, but they can all hear me.

And it's so dark and weird, and so much what I love about Tim and Zach's humor.

So that was always a mission of mine when I hosted was to get on a weird OS sketch that I knew I and the writers thought were really funny that maybe, you know, a non-comedian guest wouldn't love or fight to get on or whatever.

And real quick, and I feel like we'll maybe one day we'll talk about it with Yarma, but before we get to the short, there were also a Magruber in this Jonah.

And I will say I had no memory of this Magruber.

And I went back and watched it.

And I think the reason I had no memory is we only aired two of the three.

Oh.

And it was unsatisfying to only have two of the three.

And it was also, I feel like, right before they figured out they had to have a bigger premise.

But the premise was that Jonah had talked shit behind McGruber's back and he just heard.

And then he had a bit of a crisis of confidence.

Okay, Isaac.

Okay, look, I'm just going to lay all my cards on the table here.

That little birdie was my friend Brad, and he said that the person talking behind my back was you.

Five seconds, McGruber.

Forget it.

I don't care what you think anyway.

Okay,

I'm very good at my job.

Do you really think I'm not good at my job?

But I will say the third beat, which didn't air, I went back and watched, and it was McGruber had his life coach with him, which was Bill.

And Bill was a really funny life coach, but McGruber's confidence was rattled.

And Bill was being really patient with him.

And he very quietly asked for a chair to defuse the bomb.

And it was a very funny wheel bit of just picking up a chair and using one of the legs to like gently push the bomb around.

And it's funny to go back and be like, oh, two out of three McGrubers, you can't do that.

That don't work.

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All right.

So Andy's dad.

Let's talk.

The digital short, not my actual dad, right?

Yeah, no, we are going to do a full episode on your dad dad, but this is we've already hit Roy, the brother-in-law.

Yeah.

I came in with a few ideas.

One was Andy's dad, where I just wanted to do like a really hard conversation with a friend about that I'm dating his dad.

And from the second you guys were into it and you were down, we knew we wanted Jim Downey to play Andy's dad.

That was like a big thing because I was obsessed with Jim Downey from, you know, Billy Madison and the Coinbank and all that stuff, and just a legend.

And it just happened really fast.

We all wrote it, and it was so fun.

And honestly, it was amazing, except I had to tongue kiss Jim Downey, which was not had to, but just I can still like right now, sense, memory, ghost, understand how his, like, what his tongue felt like.

And then

we shot it, and it was so fun and funny.

And me and Akiva went around and shot like annie hall kind of stuff around new york with me and jim downey that was a blast and it was funny and i loved watching it on the floor with you guys and watching it kind of do really well and the kiss got a huge reaction i remember anyway best memories ever i love you guys i swear to god i think lonely island is like the greatest art group of all time

um art group is a nice way to put it

and and the episode you guys did on this podcast about, I already sent you a voice note that you just had nothing to do with me, but Roy Rules.

I think Roy Rules is the funniest,

funniest thing.

And then one last story, in case you wanted.

After Akiva and Yorma left, Andy, the last time I hosted when Andy and Wig and Hater and all them were there, we were like, we're going to do a digital short, but we didn't have any ideas.

And I think they wanted us to do a digital short, but you guys were gone.

And then me and Andy were like, we have nothing.

And we were just in the office on YouTube.

And we saw this video of a guy deliberately getting hit in the nuts with a tennis ball, practice tennis ball machine.

And we made a digital short that is just us getting hit.

The premise is, I think, us just getting hit in the nuts over and over again with a tennis ball machine, which I haven't watched.

And maybe I'll rewatch now.

Anyway, I love you guys.

I wish we were young and being stupid again.

And

I fucking love this podcast.

I'm so the direct audience.

And

fuck yeah.

Love you guys, man.

And Seth, love you, dude.

Thanks for all the memories.

I'm very glad he mentioned the getting hit in the balls because obviously we're going to get to that.

And that's one I rewatch a lot.

Love you too, Jonah.

Just to wrap up that note, love you too, Jonah.

Thank you for sending that in.

Yeah, we love you, Jonah.

Yeah, I love you, buddy.

Thanks for sending that in.

That was awesome.

So lovely to hear.

There you go.

I didn't remember that it was Jonah's idea.

I did.

Yeah.

Okay.

Great.

I mean, the thing that he points out in that, that is my favorite thing upon re-watching it is the tone of it, which is decidedly Annie Hall.

Yeah.

Keeve, you did a really great job.

And obviously, it seems like Jonah wanted it this way and you guys conjured it that way together.

But the like light touch on it and the sort of even with the cameras we were working with, the cinematic feeling to it and the music choice and the way it all kind of flowed really put me at ease.

Also, it's just so rare on SNL to see a conversation scene with such deliberate pace to it,

which was very much how he had originally pitched it.

It's okay not getting laughs in the beginning.

It's not even trying for them.

It's setting the thing in a very nice, as you say, deliberate way.

It's completely in control of what it wants to be.

But it also feels like a movie you want to watch.

Exactly.

It feels like a movie.

And I immediately felt very much put at ease.

Also, because Joan is a great actor.

So you're like, oh, I'm watching Joan in a movie.

He's great in this scene.

And it's really funny because he basically says, Can I talk to you?

You're in wardrobe, you guys sit down.

You're both really great.

There's some really nice flashbacks.

He talks about meeting your family, and it's really funny because it's a mom, a sister, and Jim Downey is your dad.

So, you remember when I met your family last week at the show?

Oh, yeah, they actually loved you.

My mom thought you were hilarious.

Yeah, uh,

well, there's actually kind of an issue with that.

Like, what kind of issue?

Well, since then,

I've

sort of been

seeing your dad.

What's that?

And yeah, I've been dating your dad.

I remember Jonah.

I'm surprised he didn't say it in the voice note, but maybe I'm remembering wrong.

I remember him coming in and saying he had a dream that this short came to him in a dream.

I don't know if he literally saw part of the short in the dream or a dream that he really was dating your dad or in the dream thought of a sketch idea.

But I remember him saying he had dreamed this, like literally as a dream.

Dude, that fucking rules if it's true.

But I will say this, because this is about a relationship between two men, ultimately, I went into this being concerned that it would age badly.

And I think we, because the joke is not about that, the joke is about dating a parent and about a hard conversation.

Yes.

Because of all the things you just said of how we did it, I think it still holds up.

Yeah, there are a lot of turns in it that made me laugh still a lot.

Yeah.

I think that a really wonderful choice of words is Jonah telling you it's become extraordinarily physical

to put you at ease.

Also, there's a really,

he takes a sip of coffee and he goes, I'm not usually a coffee guy.

Ben has me trying so many new things.

I believe that's after the kiss.

So like the fact that he thinks you will find that interesting.

I'll say this.

I do remember the writing process and I remember, not surprisingly, Jonah was like in the zone on it.

Yeah.

Like we were just kind of riffing out the scene and he just kept saying the jokes and then we would just write him down.

Agreed.

For the most part.

Yeah.

All those little jokes like that that are so nuanced and perfectly Jonah and perfectly like needling the situation is definitely all Jonah.

Yeah.

Also, we talk about the patience of the sketch.

One of the most patient performers of all time is Jim Downey.

Yes.

Jim Downey is never in a rush.

And I think that's why so so much of what he does endures.

Jim Downey, if you don't know, the most recent great Jim Downey thing is on Conan O'Brien's podcast.

Oh my God.

He does not know about Jeffrey Epstein and what has happened.

And he keeps referring to him as the financier.

Yeah.

Jeff Epstein?

The financier?

The financier?

And Downey writes patient and performs patient.

And of course, he's the teacher in what would you call him?

He's running.

The academic triathlon at the end of Billy Madison.

He's the one that's like, we're all dumber for having listened to what you just said or whatever yeah and he was a writer on snl since season two i think season two like came in with bill murray oh my god and you know over the years i wrote things with him and it felt like a mc escher painting because i realized i learned so much about sketch comedy writing from watching sketches he had written when i was growing up yes and then you know end up being with him but it's also perfect casting because he is so even the moments where he and jonah sort of look at each other yes no one ever ever reaches for like anything lecherous, anything.

No, the meet cute stuff all really plays.

And that's sort of what I was saying before too, Keeva, about the way you directed and cut it.

Like it feels lovely.

Yeah.

And it's funny because you know in the story that it's my father, but like it's working and is funny on that level because you are selling that this.

spark between them is actually happening and it just feels very real and lovely.

Jonah says he's aware that this is a difficult conversation.

I know this is tough, but even if I lose a friend over this,

I like to think that I gained a son.

Okay.

Uh-oh, here's my guys.

I gained a son.

You're super bummed by that.

So bummed.

The outro is real memorable.

Oh my God.

Oh, it did make me laugh.

It made me laugh, too.

Do you remember who came up with the outro?

You're talking about the very final, the text on screen?

Well, everything.

I mean, so first then Jim comes in, Jim Downey comes in, and he wants to tell you.

And Jonah lets him know that he's already told you.

Yes.

And then Bill enters.

Jonah and I are dating.

I'm sorry.

I told him already.

Blabbermouth.

I know I'm the worst.

Hey, Ben.

I need to go.

Andy, Jonah.

How do you guys know Ben?

Uh, he's my dad.

Small world.

We've been.

And then he turns to camera, freeze frame, and we get a graphic of text created by Lauren Michaels.

Why in the world?

It's great.

Yeah.

Because I will say, Downey's involvement, I think, hamstrings Lauren a little bit in a great way because,

you know, he's known Downey since season two.

Downey's obviously blessed this thing with his involvement.

It plays super hot.

And then even I think Lauren has to be like, ah, all right.

You guys got me.

I've seen a recent Jim Downey performance that you guys haven't seen yet that's very good.

And it's coming.

This is a plug for something probably a year away.

Oh.

But he acts in Tim and Zach's HBO pilot that has been picked up that they are writing episodes of now.

But in the first episode that they have shot of a show called The Chair Company.

Fantastic.

But he's in it and he's very good.

He's always great.

It always pays to put Downey in.

Yeah.

Also, Tim sent me a photo of Downey with him on set.

And the other great thing thing about Downey is he's both great on camera and he also maybe has like the best hundred stories about SNL.

Yeah.

And is so funny talking about sketches of his that he wrote that bombed because he wrote some really funny things that didn't work.

We should get him to do one voice note about a bombed sketch.

We should, if we can get Downey to explain the O.J.

Simpson Detective Agency.

Oh, wow.

Okay, great.

Yes, please.

Is it Criterion this guy?

I mean, this and the mirror were the two of this golden run you kept talking about.

It ends so strong with the mirror and this.

Oh, no, hero song.

Don't overlook her.

You're a hero.

I jump right past hero song.

You're right.

But I will say, like, the point I was trying to make, you guys do four in a row where it's never, this is a catchy good song.

Because like Hero Song, the song is just set up.

We did not put it on our album.

Right, of course.

You would never.

And so I just like for me, it was you guys came out of the strike.

You had a lot of creativity.

You didn't fall back on any of your crutches.

And I was delighted.

Thanks, man.

Yeah.

I always do like seeing the trying things.

That always was exciting for us.

We always tried to really make a point of like, let's just try something different.

If it doesn't work, it just doesn't work.

But we would get bored of ourselves, I think, before anyone else would.

I remember I would talk to Lauren about like the Schiller films and the Gary Weiss films.

And I know we've talked about it in the beginning a little bit, but like, I know we talked about there was one where it was just people hugging at the airport.

It was literally what they,

I'll say it, ripped off for the beginning of Love Actually, where it's just people hugging at an airport for the opening credits.

And there was the one where he filmed a ballet, but put it to hip-hop music, or they did it to hip-hop music.

Swan Lake.

Yeah.

Exactly.

And it's in the 70s.

It's like something somebody would mash up on TikTok now.

It's so rad.

Yeah.

It's cool.

And they weren't going for laughs at all.

They were just short films to be interesting, the same way that the musical guest isn't going for laughs.

And he would talk about like, well, it is a variety show.

And so I remember sometimes us like being like, we don't need to, this is in the future, but like Cherry Battle was one I remember where we went, I don't even know if this is funny, it's just conceptual and that's okay.

Yeah, we'll get to Cherry Battle.

Yeah, or the Neil Patrick Harris one where he's playing the Doogie Hauser theme, blah, blah, blah.

These aren't spoilers.

These came out like 15, 20 years ago.

If anything, they're like teases for upcoming podcast episodes.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Teases for things 15 years old.

But I do remember there was something I liked about, I mean, any punching people before eating is experimental too, about the ones that didn't fit into any category you could place.

One thing I do want to say, we've talked about the thrill of new people who then become part of the SNL family.

Jonah was very much that.

Things we didn't mention in this show, there was a Target Lady, which is fantastic.

Wig used to do a fantastic Susie Orman.

That was in the show.

And Cut from this show was one of my favorite cut sketches ever, which only exists to watch as a second chance theater, which was Sudakis' Juggling Flyer sketch.

Oh, funny.

Which he tried so many times.

Yes, yes.

The premise of juggling flyer was Sudakis as a guy walked into a coffee shop wearing a t-shirt that said, ask me about juggling, suspenders, and he went over to his flyer, which was basically free juggling lessons and went person to person in the coffee shop and asked why they weren't interested in that.

And it was never going to work.

It sounds a lot like Andy's cut, like want to come with.

It turns out that the audience doesn't love a sketch where it's just a person getting those.

Yeah, one person who's just

surf meeting.

Surf meeting.

Yeah.

And it's always funny to us, and it always is a tough sell in that studio.

Well, it also was the Tour de Forest performance by Suds.

Like, there was a lot of moves in it as a guy getting a no-on chuggling glasses.

All right, guys.

I'm very excited.

I'm going to tease the next episode.

Please do.

Walking.

Ooh.

And as great as it is to get a first-timer like Jonah, it's thrilling to get one of the classic hosts to interact with a different cast.

And I'm going to say it, we landed the plane.

It was a great episode.

There's a lot of fun things to talk about.

And I'm very excited to have that conversation with you guys.

All right.

I love you both very much.

Love you too.

And I, you both.

Bye.

Bye.