Doppleganger

Speaker 1 What's the name of our podcast again?

Speaker 2 I feel like you were phrasing it really good last time.

Speaker 1 Was it the Lonely Myers podcast? No, right?

Speaker 3 Not terrible.

Speaker 2 It is the Lonely Island Seth Meyers podcast where we get granular.

Speaker 4 Oh, right. Yeah, great.

Speaker 6 Get granular.

Speaker 7 That's what everyone wants.

Speaker 8 It's like an E40 slang.

Speaker 9 Get granular.

Speaker 10 It's the Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast.

Speaker 1 Hey, everybody. I'm Seth Meyers.

Speaker 1 Welcome back to episode episode seven of the Seth Meyers and Lonely Island podcast, where we get into the weeds with deeply specific details about the digital short era at SNL.

Speaker 1 I'm joined as always by the Lonely Island. Hi, gentlemen.
Hi there.

Speaker 13 Hey, yo.

Speaker 1 So this is going to be a very traumatic episode for me. Let me just start by saying that.
We are coming off a high, a new high watermark in the digital short era.

Speaker 1 We're coming off Natalie rap, Natalie raps or Natalie's rap, depending on how how you choose to phrase it. It's a hit.
You guys now have two like genuine hits in your back pocket.

Speaker 1 And now there's an era, a very brief era, where there's a dip. And it's the TMS era of digital shorts.
Too much Seth.

Speaker 17 We went to the Seth well again.

Speaker 18 Yeah.

Speaker 2 We gotten a taste on Natalie rap of what you could bring to a short.

Speaker 1 Exactly. So I did not, even though I was in Natalie rap, I didn't fuck it up bad enough.
So you guys thought, maybe the reason it's a hit is Seth's mini cameo. Hard to know.
Let's flesh it out. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Now, we're going to discuss two different shorts this episode. One aired, one did not.
Thankfully, we're going to start with the better of the two outcomes, which is Doppelganger.

Speaker 19 Oh, my God.

Speaker 19 That guy over there totally looks like he will. One? Where? Over there on the bench.

Speaker 11 That guy?

Speaker 19 No way. He doesn't look like me.

Speaker 1 Now, you guys are the three credited writers for Doppelganger. Is that your memory memory of it?

Speaker 8 We wrote it for our submission packet.

Speaker 14 Ah.

Speaker 8 We were trying to get higher.

Speaker 20 Question, though, did we change it for air or did we just shoot it straight up? I can't remember that.

Speaker 2 I think we invented the ending for SNL.

Speaker 20 Yeah, it feels like it.

Speaker 21 It also feels a little bit like we were just done and we were like, okay, we're done with that.

Speaker 2 I think we wrote it for Awesome Town, to be honest, when we thought we might have a sketch show at Fox pre-SNL. That's right.

Speaker 2 And that's why we had in our back pocket when they asked us to submit for SNL. We were like, oh, we have some sketches we wrote for our failed Fox pilot.

Speaker 8 It stands to reason because it is starring three people. Yes.
Yeah.

Speaker 8 I think I remember us sitting down when we were making the submission packet for writing and changing the names from Keev and Yoram to Seth and Will Forte.

Speaker 23 Yeah.

Speaker 1 When you watch it, it does look like a lonely island sketch where Keeve and Yoram were taken out for two of Andy's dad's friends.

Speaker 9 You guys look great. You do.

Speaker 4 You look nice and fine.

Speaker 1 We look fine. And again, like I mentioned, this is going to be a traumatic episode for me.
Don't get me wrong. I was super psyched to be in a digital short.

Speaker 1 I go back and I watch it, and it just looks a little wrong. By the way, I think Forte is great in it.
I feel like I'm sticking out like a sore thumb.

Speaker 14 No, no, no, not at all.

Speaker 8 In fact, you have the last line of the whole thing, which you added on set and is my favorite part.

Speaker 19 I shot the wrong guy. Yep.

Speaker 19 Back to work. Back to work.
Let's go, Bozo.

Speaker 8 Let's go, Bozo.

Speaker 21 Yeah, let's go, Bozo.

Speaker 17 But it does feel a little bit like we're done with this sketch.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And your tapping of the wall, kind of just figuring out, like, oh, it's a building is one of the high points.

Speaker 2 I don't want to jump ahead, but I just want to say your performance in that moment might be the best performance in the whole piece.

Speaker 1 Now, this is going to sound like, again, I'm really shifting gears here from saying this was a bad moment for me. And now I'm talking about all the praise I'm getting for this.

Speaker 1 But I mentioned this to Shoemaker today and he said, oh, that's the one where you tap the wall.

Speaker 14 So tapping the wall.

Speaker 14 Everybody loves it.

Speaker 1 All right. I want to talk through Doppelganger real quick.
It is a very simple idea. It is three gentlemen sitting outside 30 Rock eating sandwiches.

Speaker 1 And all of a sudden, Andy and I say to Will, oh my God, that dude looks just like you. Cut to Forte looking just like Forte, but now he's got a mustache.
And he tells us, that doesn't look like me.

Speaker 1 And we tell him, it definitely looks like you with a mustache, which is the first real logic leap. He says, all right, let me find one for you.

Speaker 13 Because that's not,

Speaker 1 if you see a friend's doppelganger, you don't assume that everyone there has their own doppelganger nearby.

Speaker 8 Well, yeah, I mean, I guess you could argue like he's trying to get us back. Yes, right.

Speaker 1 It's a burn. He's going to find somebody that doesn't look like me and say it looks like me.
And then it's me and I'm wearing a top hat and it cuts over to me. Definitely looking like me.

Speaker 1 There's a real big moment where I tap the wall. Everybody still talks about it.

Speaker 23 Legendary wall tap.

Speaker 1 By the way, the audience, not to say the audience doesn't respond to the wall tap the way that history has, but you audibly hear the tap. There's no laughter.

Speaker 1 There's no laughter over the tap as it plays. And then we say we find Andy's and cut to Horatio looking like a garbage guy standing by a trash can.
All right, let's do Andy.

Speaker 19 Okay. There he is.
Wait, I got one too. By the trash can? Same one.
Oh my God, that is you, Andy. That guy? Yeah, that guy.
He doesn't look anything like me. What? He He looks exactly like you.

Speaker 19 I mean, you gotta look past the gloves. It's not the gloves.
That guy's a loser. Fine, who do you think he'd look like?

Speaker 19 I don't know.

Speaker 19 How about that guy? Yeah, that guy does not look anything like you. I mean, he's wearing a green bandana around his neck.
Yeah, I know the first guy. That guy's your twin.
That guy.

Speaker 1 And then Andy goes and stands next to him, and it becomes very dramatic.

Speaker 19 I don't know which one to shoot. What?

Speaker 19 Why are you gonna shoot anyone? Wait, we can ask him something that only Andy knows. Andy, what do you think about sandwiches?

Speaker 19 I love them. Andy does love sandwiches.
Everyone loves sandwiches. You're right.

Speaker 1 It escalates very quickly. Will takes out a gun.
Ice cream takes the shot. Cut to me and Will and Horatio eating the sandwiches.

Speaker 1 And we realize while we're eating the sandwiches that we definitely shot the wrong guy.

Speaker 13 Yep. That's about it, right? Yeah.

Speaker 20 Very, very simple premise.

Speaker 8 We once again, we hadn't done a lot on SNL, but in our other work, we incorporated the fact that I like sandwiches. Yeah.

Speaker 13 Yeah.

Speaker 20 You and Joey from Prince.

Speaker 26 Is that a Joey thing?

Speaker 20 The two guys who famously love sandwiches.

Speaker 8 In what way does Joey love sandwiches? Is that like a known thing?

Speaker 20 He's just like a big sandwich guy, I think.

Speaker 2 He also loves pizza, to be fair.

Speaker 21 That's true.

Speaker 20 Food in general, I think, is Joey's big thing.

Speaker 2 So he's got a little more of a rounded, but they had a lot of episodes to kind of round out his character.

Speaker 27 Got it.

Speaker 1 I should note that we received a note from the podcast producers that if this could also be a friends podcast at the same time, it would help.

Speaker 13 They they feel like

Speaker 1 i would imagine but we won't get as granular as you can tell with the friends details well yeah i mean i don't think i'm equipped clearly i didn't even know joey likes sandwiches that was the extent of my friend's knowledge though i mean i think we're kind of rushing through doppelganger but i think doppelganger sort of lives as a not really an indicator of what digital shorts are going to be No, but I think it's a good thing for people to know that that's one of the sketches that got us SNL.

Speaker 20 So, you know, if you watch it and you're just like, I can write something better than this, then maybe you can.

Speaker 2 Can I say, I remember being very proud of it because it was a little bit regular. Like it has a beginning, middle, and end, and it's not flashy.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 There was something about it where I felt proud of it in a different way because it didn't feel like it had any gimmicks. It felt like an actual piece of normal sketch writing.
Yes.

Speaker 20 And I will say, I actually enjoyed all of your acting, especially yours, Andy.

Speaker 6 I thought you were super natural.

Speaker 5 Thank you. Fucking finally.

Speaker 20 And this perfectly tees up your new turn into serious dramatic acting.

Speaker 11 Tell us about your.

Speaker 14 What?

Speaker 2 Oh, get a plug in.

Speaker 13 Yeah, get your plug on.

Speaker 2 By the time these air, it'll be relevant. I'll say this.

Speaker 8 For us, making stuff that was not songs, it definitely was kind of one of the like templates for us.

Speaker 22 Yes.

Speaker 8 Of like, oh, there's like a premise. It feels grounded at first, then it escalates, then it cuts faster and faster, and then it ends.

Speaker 8 And, you know, that's all sketches, but for us, it was thinking of ideas that specifically worked as a pre-tape that you you couldn't do live you would have had to do pre-tape doppelganger shots and intercut them live and the timing would have been wonky for this idea so it did kind of have to be a pre-tape oh right of course yeah that's very true everyone was playing two roles it was classic jeremy iron's dead ringers it was basically a clumps

Speaker 2 or if i was gonna quote magnus mcloud i'd say simple sketch limited budget perfect execution damn well who's magnus mcloud the second comment on youtube god damn it if you were to quote McCloud.

Speaker 1 We really underutilized the fact that people have left YouTube comments like a decade ago.

Speaker 2 I mean, it was from three years ago.

Speaker 24 Okay. Okay.
Still in the mix.

Speaker 2 And three years ago, Jemster also said it's pretty amazing how they managed to find actors who look so much like them for the doppelgangers, though.

Speaker 25 I like that guy. That's a good comment.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 We could just read these all day.

Speaker 8 They're great. Keith, what's the most recent comment? When's it from?

Speaker 2 I'd have to organize by sort by.

Speaker 28 Hold on.

Speaker 2 Sort by. Newest first.
This is good.

Speaker 1 Good content. Good content.
Hold on.

Speaker 2 Five days ago.

Speaker 8 Someone watched it five days ago.

Speaker 2 There's three different comments from five days ago. And one is from Joe Mama.

Speaker 7 Right.

Speaker 2 It says Will Forte's doppelganger is one of the guys in Kraftwerk, the band.

Speaker 20 Okay. That's true.
He looks exactly like one of the dudes from Kraftwerk.

Speaker 2 And then Matthew Casella says, Take the shot with the emoji of like crying, laughing. And then I think this one's a diss.

Speaker 2 Garnett Nelson says, SNL, home of horrendous closers.

Speaker 1 Oh, well, I think that is a diss.

Speaker 21 That is a diss.

Speaker 8 That's a Seth diss.

Speaker 14 Wait, no.

Speaker 14 He didn't like Bozo?

Speaker 10 You don't think he liked Bozo?

Speaker 2 That was just that line.

Speaker 1 You established earlier in this podcast that I came up with a closer. You gave me credit for it.

Speaker 8 Yeah, and I liked it then until I read that comment, and now I'm questioning everything.

Speaker 21 That's what social media does, guys.

Speaker 1 Don't let it tear us apart. Oh, my God.
It does. It poisons the brain.
Hey, here's another thing that I want to ask you guys about.

Speaker 1 There's that weird thing where you watch something that is, in this case, I guess, 17 years old or thereabouts. Oh, shit.

Speaker 1 Our super blousy shirts yes i did notice that super blousy button-up shirts were guys who obviously work in an office and i don't think shirts were that blousy then it felt like a 90s kind of shirt yeah it felt like the way shirts looked on kids in the hall or the state you know what it also looks like though is the wire i felt like the wire did that really well i think that we were a little bit more in league with what they were doing for the wire of just like realism and with a social commentary yeah these guys are shopping at marshalls they're on their way up the ladder i do remember saying these are regular guys on a lunch break yeah like office workers and so i don't know maybe they made a choice over in wardrobe yeah blame the snl costume department yeah i mean i guess we shouldn't have looked like the strokes these were just work dudes it wouldn't have made much sense but we are swimming in those shirts we are really swimming

Speaker 1 there was a third doppelganger hiding in our shirt blouse that was the part that was cut if there was a late reveal that it was actually a quado no one would have been surprised.

Speaker 1 Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Speaker 1 Although it is nice to tease Quado. If you're listening right now, know that there's going to be multiple episodes where I just go hard at Andy for quado comedy.

Speaker 4 All right, I agree, though.

Speaker 1 I think that this is, you know, again, is it Criterion Collection Digital Shorts? No, but I also felt proud of it at the time. I thought it was really nice, beginning, middle, end.

Speaker 1 Good indication of the new kind of things we could do with digital shorts. Again, now I've been in Natalie rap, scored, been in Dobbelganger, scored, and I get a little thirsty.
And I write one.

Speaker 1 I don't know why I'm trying to hide from it.

Speaker 1 I write Handelbar and Lobster Claw.

Speaker 7 It's a good song. Yeah.

Speaker 14 Good theme song.

Speaker 4 So, didn't air.

Speaker 1 Not only did it not air, Yoram, you only think four of these ever didn't air.

Speaker 20 We said that we did 101-ish on the show, but I think we probably did more like 115, 100.

Speaker 17 Like, it was a lot.

Speaker 2 And I think out of those, four of them didn't air to my knowledge i don't know if you guys recollect differently and this is one of them do you want to try to list them now there's this one there's the zac ephron yes one and then there's the will farrell one oh maybe it's five and then there's that weird cartoon that we did which i can't even remember what it was yeah with um who was in that one hanna ferris oh yeah what was it called it was so weird i actually kind of liked it i don't remember what you were even talking about it was trying to do a cartoon but with real faces we were like trying something almost collagey It was like an experiment.

Speaker 8 Oh, like the flowers and stuff?

Speaker 2 Yeah, we didn't quite have enough of a premise to make it work.

Speaker 20 Yeah, it felt like a Korean cartoon or something.

Speaker 13 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 20 For like preschoolers. Yeah.

Speaker 8 It was like a little kid thing, but then it got weird.

Speaker 21 It was really strange.

Speaker 8 There was also Tudor with Kutcher, but got bumped.

Speaker 1 That was a Twitter-based one. Right.

Speaker 20 So that's five.

Speaker 8 And then there was Dudes in Sunglasses looking dope or something.

Speaker 20 That was the Zach Efron one. Oh, that was Efron.

Speaker 24 Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 I want to ask real quick. So we've come up with a few get cut.
Off the top of your head, give me a number of how many you wish hadn't aired.

Speaker 22 Oh, I'd have to go through them all.

Speaker 17 Higher, a higher number.

Speaker 9 Do you think 10?

Speaker 1 Do you think there are 10 that airs that you wish? Yeah. I'm very excited to start getting to those.

Speaker 2 Because, well, there's two categories for that, though. There's the ones that on the day we were like, don't air this, and it still aired.

Speaker 2 And then there's the ones that in hindsight you're like, oh, I could have done without that airing.

Speaker 20 But that's not particularly fair because you're so exhausted by the process because most of them we did in like 48 hours.

Speaker 20 So by the end, and sometimes going to air, you were so mad at yourself for it not working that you wanted it not to air. And I would put I Wish It Would Rain in that category, too.

Speaker 8 Oh, never take that back.

Speaker 20 I mean, hindsight.

Speaker 1 I wish it would rain is top three for me all time.

Speaker 8 The only regret I have about Wish It Would Rain is that we should have stuck to our guns and aired the super long version.

Speaker 18 Yes, I mean, at that point.

Speaker 8 But we'll get there in six years when we do that episode.

Speaker 1 We will get there in six years because we're basically knocking out one of these every three months. Yeah, yeah, we're near it.
So, wait, here's the thing I want to say real real quick too.

Speaker 1 Early on, I think there was way more, if it's good, it's in. If it's bad, it's out.
Later, once digital shorts became their own thing, Lauren was very loath to cut them.

Speaker 1 And I think you guys got to a place that was maybe a little divided from Lauren where he needed a digital short. And you guys would say, this isn't up to our standard, which by the way is fair.

Speaker 1 Every writer in SNL, no one hits their standard every week. Of course.
That's why it's so hard to do. But digital shorts became so valuable to Lauren that he was putting them on no matter the quality.

Speaker 8 Well, oftentimes it's what happens with a particular cast member where it's just clear they're a hit and then they get gently forced into the show to like make sure they have something because that's why people are tuning in.

Speaker 8 And I think the shorts became its own version of that.

Speaker 13 Yes.

Speaker 1 And there was probably a happy medium, you know, if you guys could have cut everyone you wanted to cut, that probably would have been too many. But there probably could have been five to ten.

Speaker 1 Now, I should note: in any era, I would argue that handlebar and lobster claw is not going to make the show.

Speaker 14 Yeah, correct.

Speaker 20 When re-watching it, I was like, There's no way this aired. And then looking at the rundown and being like, Oh, right, it did get cut.

Speaker 15 So it didn't air. Can I say something about it, though?

Speaker 8 Yeah. We'll explain what it is first.

Speaker 1 Okay, so I wrote a sketch called Lobster Bar, sorry, Handlebar and Lobster Claw.

Speaker 1 It was like a 70s cop show, opening graphics, kick-ass song from the go team, is that?

Speaker 12 The go team, yeah.

Speaker 21 That's maybe the best part of the sketch.

Speaker 1 All right, enough.

Speaker 1 Stop hurting my feelings.

Speaker 17 That's right.

Speaker 1 Well, and then I liked New York City. That was good.
That was a good part of it. So we're two cops.
I play Handlebar. I got a Handlebar mustache.
And he plays Lobster Claw.

Speaker 1 He's a police officer with lobster claws for hands. Yeah.
Antonio Manderis is the host of the show. He is only in the opening credits as the chief.

Speaker 1 You can tell we just shot him on the roof real quick.

Speaker 1 And end of the opening credits. The scene is the two cops in a diner and I'm reading a newspaper.
The newspaper says a ninja has robbed a bank.

Speaker 1 By the way, as I'm saying this, I want to be like, it was funnier when you saw it. It's exactly this funny.
If you're listening and not laughing, that is exactly the right response.

Speaker 1 A coffee gets set down. Lobster claws have trouble picking up a coffee.
Basically, the only sound you hear because nobody's laughing is just like tink, tink, tink, tink.

Speaker 1 Then the ninja, is it you, Yorm? It is.

Speaker 4 It's you, right?

Speaker 14 Yeah.

Speaker 13 I forgot about that part two.

Speaker 1 So the ninja sits down. I can see the ninja.
Andy can't. Zoom in on me.
Zoom in on the ninja. Zoom in on me.
You think I'm about to apprehend the ninja. And instead, I get a straw.

Speaker 14 Yeah.

Speaker 8 Thanks, Hannah Mar.

Speaker 1 No worries, lobster claw.

Speaker 8 And the credits, I should point out, are just very clearly the sabotage video, except I have lobster claws.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Very borrowed from a more popular thing.

Speaker 20 Yeah, to be fair, though, there's a lot of stock footage of explosions. So, you do think that the show is going to be exciting and then it's not.

Speaker 1 Right. That's everybody's favorite comedy move where you set up a big, like, we're going to do a cool thing, and then you do a quiet thing.
Everybody loves that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Now, I will say, it does seem like a lot of those explosions, I think, had more success later on in McGrubbery.

Speaker 20 I think every single one of them made it into Magruby sketches.

Speaker 24 Yes,

Speaker 1 it also has the rainy feel of Dyke and Fats, which was a far more successful take on the 70s cop show.

Speaker 1 But in general, I think the saddest thing that happened when I re-watched it, and I have not gone back and looked at this because we'll get into why I didn't need to go back and look at it.

Speaker 1 But late in the sketch, my handlebar mustache just starts to droop. Like one side is just, it's almost like the mustache nose.

Speaker 23 It's trying to escape the sketch.

Speaker 13 We got to get out of here.

Speaker 22 In a pre-tape.

Speaker 2 This isn't even a live sketch where that can happen and you're like, they can't get fixed.

Speaker 8 It's like if you were watching a movie in a theater and they started breaking, you'd be like,

Speaker 23 The actors are just laughing through takes.

Speaker 20 It's fine, just keep going.

Speaker 1 I like that Keith said to the makeup artists, go fix that. And they're like, No, no, we're good.

Speaker 20 No, I know what this is.

Speaker 2 That's not going to fix this.

Speaker 8 Yeah, they're like, It's not airing.

Speaker 1 When this doesn't work, that's not the problem.

Speaker 1 I mean, great shame because one, it was like, oh, this is is great. Now I'm digital shorts too.
I'll just write it and then I'll be part of digital shorts. So I have great shame about that.

Speaker 1 And then the other shame is not only did this not air, but it went to dress seven times.

Speaker 13 Oh, wow.

Speaker 21 That's why I thought it had aired because we saw it so many times.

Speaker 1 Did not remember that. That's why I never had to go back.
I watched it. I mean, week to week, an SNL audience is vastly different.
You guys will all attest. Some nights the crowds are hot.

Speaker 1 Some nights the crowds are ice cold. Seven.

Speaker 9 But what about on this?

Speaker 21 I feel like we should watch all seven versions for the laughs and just see which one was closest on.

Speaker 1 I mean, you know what we should do is watch all seven versions. Take the laughs, stack them.
Yeah. You multiply the audience by seven and see if even then.

Speaker 2 They're definitely different cuts, right?

Speaker 8 I thought we tinkered.

Speaker 9 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 I think we tightened dramatically thinking that the first one was playing in the awkward silence of just like how quiet it gets.

Speaker 2 Like, what if we speed it up yeah i don't know if we did anything besides that i remember you pitching one do you remember this seth yeah you pitched at one point that what we should do is graphically make a dvd menu as if it was a hit movie and then do dvd commentary on top of it where we can like pause it and fast forward it and talk about what went wrong and then air that as a short that's fun and i remember thinking that was a pretty good idea we just didn't ever write it yeah that's more of the garth marinke version it is very nice to think back to one one, the fact that I was completely infringing on your guys' thing.

Speaker 1 And two, you were still trying to fix it. Like that is a great credit to you because this was very much a doctor who should walk out and be like, she's gone.

Speaker 8 You were not infringing on our thing, Seth. We were still so new.
Yeah. We were just excited to be hanging out with you and like trying to fix it.

Speaker 15 And we didn't know that we had a thing even yet.

Speaker 8 We just knew that we were like getting to make shorts on SNL, which was like our lifelong dream.

Speaker 15 So for us, it was like, shit, maybe we can fix it and then we'll get another one to air.

Speaker 8 Yeah. There was no entitlement around it at all.

Speaker 1 I do think that I do a thing where everybody who's ever worked at SNL has done. I'm projecting how I think Lorne felt about it.

Speaker 1 That Lauren was like, can someone tell Seth he's not the digital short guy? I have no proof that he said it, but I feel as though it's a thing he said.

Speaker 20 When you do watch one that is not doing well, it does immediately put you back into that chair under the bleachers with Lauren and just feeling that

Speaker 20 space of nothingness while he glances over at you disappointed.

Speaker 8 Okay, but as my mom would say, now let's say something positive, right?

Speaker 22 Great.

Speaker 18 Right.

Speaker 9 I like the look of it. Looks really good.

Speaker 8 Yeah. When it starts, it's got good energy.
As we mentioned, the music's dope. I like seeing you and me together, especially because we look so much younger.

Speaker 1 So much younger.

Speaker 8 And I'm in, and then it just doesn't hook me. But I will say there's something there.
We just never quite figured it out.

Speaker 2 I like your looks. I like the 70s style cop, like street cop outfits.
Like they're not dressed in police blues. They're dressed like cool leather with like the badge on the necklace.
Agree.

Speaker 2 And I like there's big cardboard boxes you're running through and stuff.

Speaker 8 I like that. There's something there.

Speaker 1 The lobster claws are very good.

Speaker 17 And also, again, Andy, you're acting.

Speaker 9 Dorm loved my acting.

Speaker 22 I loved your acting.

Speaker 21 It was very subtle.

Speaker 8 Well, especially at that time, I was Hambone McGee. So for me to do with that, that subtle was a great feat at that time.

Speaker 8 But the lobster claws did look good, as always, prosthetic and makeup, and all those guys did a great job.

Speaker 12 Yeah, some of them don't work.

Speaker 20 Yeah. And Antonio Banderas is actually sort of a joy to see.

Speaker 14 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Antonio Banderas has two shots. He basically runs along the roof and then he stops and finds the camera.
And you realize he's that kind of actor who's super fun to look at. Yeah.

Speaker 20 And then he does a punch at the end.

Speaker 17 Yeah. Or whatever he's doing, some action move.

Speaker 8 Which also, by the way, if we had cut that into young Chuck Norris, no one would have noticed.

Speaker 1 We should have just cut shots of this into Young Chuck Norris.

Speaker 1 But once again, back to what you were saying, Yorm, another promise we then don't deliver on, which is we put Antonio Banderis in the opening credits. Yeah.
Being kick-ass, punching.

Speaker 17 Nothing more disappointing for an audience.

Speaker 1 And then he's not in it.

Speaker 8 But I will say we knew that was funny.

Speaker 1 Yes. We enjoyed that.

Speaker 8 Like, it's an annoying joke, but it was funny to us.

Speaker 1 I remember enjoying the company of Antonio Banderis and Matt Dylan a great deal. Don't remember much about these shows.

Speaker 10 Do you guys remember much about these shows?

Speaker 14 No.

Speaker 20 I wrote a Legends of Zorro sketch with Horatio, and I remember that was like one of my first times, like writing in another room with other people.

Speaker 10 And so that was kind of memorable for me.

Speaker 8 And did we get mad at you for stepping out on us? Oh, fuck yeah.

Speaker 14 I mean, I was ostracized the entire week.

Speaker 1 I don't remember anything about that sketch, but I'm going to guess Horatio was a other Zoro. Yeah.
Who was worse?

Speaker 16 Yep.

Speaker 8 It's a safe bet. Yeah.

Speaker 17 You're right on the money.

Speaker 2 Your name is on it as a writing credit, Seth. Yeah.

Speaker 1 I had a sketch cut from dress in both shows that I have no memory of. One called Soccer Game that I wrote with Fred, no memory.
And one called Brain Eaters that I wrote with Fred.

Speaker 1 No memory of that either.

Speaker 8 I mean, once you were head writer, Seth, I tried and get your name on anything I could to try and give it a shot of getting picked by you.

Speaker 21 It's got to stack your bets.

Speaker 1 Oh, you would put my name on it so that I would then, my own ego would.

Speaker 14 Yeah, you'd be like, oh, yeah, I guess so.

Speaker 21 There's something about this one.

Speaker 14 I guess I did more wrong than that.

Speaker 8 But alas, it was not to be. Andy wasn't allowed on stage, only in the edit bay and on the rough streets of Manhattan.

Speaker 13 Oh boy, this all-just kidding.

Speaker 8 Juliana cleaned all that shit up.

Speaker 22 Am I right, guys?

Speaker 1 We all agree. That was it.

Speaker 14 Jeez.

Speaker 6 And he remained the best.

Speaker 1 America's mayor.

Speaker 27 Packages by Expedia.

Speaker 27 You were made to occasionally take the hard route to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Speaker 27 We were made to easily bundle your trip. Expedia.
Made to travel. Flight-inclusive packages are at all protected.

Speaker 1 It's funny to me that Arctic Monkeys are now way older than then.

Speaker 13 Yeah, they were pretty badass, as I recall.

Speaker 1 In my head, Arctic Monkeys were super young dudes, and now they're probably... They're 40, right?

Speaker 8 I feel like it was their first album, right, that they were on, and they looked like actual children.

Speaker 20 Yeah, I will say they impressed me pretty hard on that show because on air, the lead singer pointed up to the crowd and said into the microphone, that man just yawned.

Speaker 25 And I was like, that's incredible.

Speaker 14 During their live performance?

Speaker 10 Yeah, I believe so.

Speaker 7 I was just like, these guys are fucking great.

Speaker 8 I mean, when you're a teen on live television, you do whatever you want.

Speaker 1 In his defense, they went on right after Handlebar and Lobsterclaw had aired.

Speaker 1 So a lot of people were yawning. You know, the fact that he only saw one yawn,

Speaker 21 God bless.

Speaker 9 The guy yelled out, it's Residji's.

Speaker 24 Residji from the thing who says things from the thing that won't air.

Speaker 4 Even I can tell.

Speaker 9 He's like, fuck you, Lone, for putting that on before us.

Speaker 22 Oh, spot on.

Speaker 11 Wow.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. I don't even know.
That was like channeled through me. Yeah.
I wasn't even thinking about it.

Speaker 1 Hey, this year, either the first versions or are pretty early versions of now some of the recurring sketches in our generation. Oh, yeah, hit us.

Speaker 8 Hit us with that.

Speaker 1 A-holes at a travel agency. I think that might have been one of the first A-holes.
Oh, wow.

Speaker 6 That was big.

Speaker 1 That's a really fun Sudakis and wig.

Speaker 8 Keeve, do your A-holes.

Speaker 2 Babe.

Speaker 14 Babe. Yep, you got it.
He's still got it.

Speaker 21 But it's based off you and Liz, though, right?

Speaker 17 Yeah. That's how you talk to each other.

Speaker 23 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Sudeikis observed us.

Speaker 1 Alexi and I ironically started calling each other babe based on assholes, and then it kind of took.

Speaker 7 Oh, that's not good.

Speaker 1 And that's bad. We call each other that.

Speaker 20 I bet you guys are cool when you say it, though.

Speaker 19 You want water, babe? I hate water. She hates water.

Speaker 8 Well, I guess a cruise is out of the question then, huh?

Speaker 1 And then Vincent Price. We start getting Vincent Price's out there.
Ah. There's a St.
Patrick's Day.

Speaker 8 Early Vincent Price.

Speaker 28 Early Vincent Price.

Speaker 19 Aaron Go Bra, brave pilgrim. The holiday ritual in which you are set to participate traces its origins to the most mystical of Celtic tribes, the Druids.

Speaker 19 Each year, those dark souls celebrated the feast of Flago Flag O'Dushin, a human sacrificial celebration honoring the beast god Bragoff.

Speaker 1 A priest. He is writing with Matt Murray, who I think think this is his last year on the show.

Speaker 8 God, did he leave after one season?

Speaker 1 One season with us. I think so.

Speaker 26 Yeah, the Panther skedaddled after that.

Speaker 4 Matt the Panther Murray. Yeah, so that's it.

Speaker 8 He was one of our ace homies there because we met him at the movie awards.

Speaker 10 Still an ace homie. Yeah.

Speaker 1 A very funny writer who continues to be a very funny writer. And this is a very exciting time where it's early in our,

Speaker 1 you guys know, I call it a golden era.

Speaker 18 Yep.

Speaker 8 I do like the nards on us calling it the golden era of SNL.

Speaker 1 A golden era.

Speaker 14 Yeah, a golden era. Ah, yeah.

Speaker 1 It's a golden era. Yeah.

Speaker 21 But we put the very small. That's right.

Speaker 8 There is something really funny about doing things just to antagonize other generations of SNL.

Speaker 1 Yes, but I didn't say the golden era.

Speaker 14 I said a.

Speaker 8 It would be tight, though, I think, if we started just saying that.

Speaker 10 Just beefing with other SNL podcasts.

Speaker 8 There's clearly no argument to be made for any era except the first one, right?

Speaker 21 Yeah, that's correct.

Speaker 8 To say it's the golden era.

Speaker 1 You're trying now to start beef because I do have a firm opinion about what golden eras were on the show, but I don't want to get into it.

Speaker 8 Okay, so you're saying there are multiple golden eras.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think there's like three or four stretches where everyone's like, it was working during that time, where it was just like working.

Speaker 13 Yeah. Maybe five.

Speaker 8 So what do you guys think?

Speaker 18 Hit us in the comments.

Speaker 26 We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.

Speaker 2 Put the comments under doppelganger video.

Speaker 1 Now I'm just going off titles. I'll tell you the sketch.
You guys tell me the writer. Women's Coaches Fashion Awards.

Speaker 8 Paula Pell or James Anderson?

Speaker 18 Yeah, or both.

Speaker 14 Both of them. You got them both.

Speaker 25 Those are the both.

Speaker 24 Okay, great.

Speaker 1 Paula Pell, of course, wrote the Women's Coaches Fashion Awards.

Speaker 1 I'm shocked by this. All right.

Speaker 12 This is 2006. There's a sketch called Podcast.

Speaker 13 Ooh.

Speaker 4 Were podcasts a thing in 2006? Yeah, clearly. Was that even a word that we were using then?

Speaker 20 I do think that the fact that Hater and Kenword are on there just is like, yeah, of course those guys were up on that.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Hater would be the first guy to know about podcasts. Oh, for sure.
You guys, we had a guest writer in one of these shows.

Speaker 1 And it should be noted, guest writers come in, either do one or two weeks at SNL.

Speaker 26 Was it John Glazer?

Speaker 1 No, it was Mindy Kaling. Yeah.
Oh, right.

Speaker 11 That was going to be my guess.

Speaker 26 Oh, I remember.

Speaker 8 She was on the office at that time, right?

Speaker 1 She was on the office and she came and guest wrote an SNL.

Speaker 20 That's an extra credit fucking lover of comedy right there. There you go.

Speaker 1 But Michael Che was the only guest writer who then became, I think, a full-time writer.

Speaker 8 Was that when we were there?

Speaker 1 You were probably gone when Che started.

Speaker 2 Yeah. No, we were there the week he was the guest writer because Timberlake was the host, but we were not on the show anymore.

Speaker 25 We came back for the show.

Speaker 11 Oh, so we weren't still working there.

Speaker 2 That's why it's foggy. No, but we were working the week he was a guest writer.
That's why it's a foggy weird memory.

Speaker 8 That's when we came back and did the dating game thing. Yeah.

Speaker 17 Oh, that's right.

Speaker 2 I remember being at the rewrite table on 9 with Michael Che there. He had gotten something picked up.
I don't know if it ever aired like a pre-tape.

Speaker 17 What did Mindy write?

Speaker 1 She wrote a Chad Michael Murray we got update feature with Will Forte. And you.

Speaker 14 Yeah. That's on.

Speaker 1 Where Will Forte played Chad Michael Murray. Here's a quick Michael Che thing, which I think speaks to how good the communication is at SNL.

Speaker 1 Lauren told me that I promoted him to a full writer and I was like, oh, that's great. I'm so happy to hear it.
And then it turned out nobody had told Michael Che that.

Speaker 1 And it was like a full three days later that I was sitting in his office and he just thought he was like on a week to week deal.

Speaker 13 And I said, congratulations.

Speaker 11 That's so awesome.

Speaker 17 And he was like, what?

Speaker 13 I was like, oh, yeah, you're fully hired here.

Speaker 9 And he was like, like, oh, man.

Speaker 21 That is a great story about us. No.

Speaker 13 You're like, yep, that's that place.

Speaker 8 I think we've already talked about this, but I didn't know I had gotten the show until after my meeting with Lauren, where he tells you, you got the show.

Speaker 1 I didn't know. I saw myself in the opening credits.
I had been on a subway and I'd walked out and the cameras there.

Speaker 1 And I kind of, I don't know why, but I was like recoiled, but then smiled as if like a knowing smile.

Speaker 13 Wow, that was cute.

Speaker 2 That's how they got it? That was just stolen footage?

Speaker 20 This is just documentary footage.

Speaker 1 That's how they got it.

Speaker 9 I was like, whoa, but then like, hey.

Speaker 1 And you just happened happened to look cute that day and then that was it that's how they get all those i heard they go to like a sushi restaurant and they'll find all of a sudden andy's eating sushi and they'll just get him or or like where you buy your balloons yeah yeah the opening credits are found footage yep what was your worst one andy what was your worst opening credits do you have one you hate no i was okay with them all there was never a moment when i did my opening credits shot where i wasn't still super gassed that i got to be in the opening credits there are some that are slightly more embarrassing like if you don't like the idea do you get to shout it down or not?

Speaker 8 Well, my last one, I think they had some idea, and I was like, What if I'm just like out having sushi?

Speaker 24 Because I love it.

Speaker 22 And they're like, Okay.

Speaker 8 And then we did that. I think it might have even been Keith's pitch.

Speaker 2 Eating sushi? Don't put that on me.

Speaker 6 Really funny pitch. Don't put that on me.

Speaker 17 Yeah, great pitch, Keith.

Speaker 2 Yeah, thanks. No.

Speaker 21 I was just like, What's the place we haven't seen in the credits?

Speaker 13 Oh, it wasn't Seki, though, was it?

Speaker 10 That's a good one. Sushi was good.

Speaker 8 You weren't at Seki, I don't think so, but it might have been like sushi of Gari or something.

Speaker 1 I, because again, I'm the worst actor of this horse. I'm in, I think my smiles always looked like a little nauseous, like I'd eaten like a bad clam.
Like that's how it looked when I did my smile.

Speaker 1 And there was one I loved, which is we shot it all on a rooftop. Like it was a one big rooftop party and it kept finding different people.

Speaker 1 And it's my favorite one I did because I looked up and Shoemaker was there and Shoemaker had taken his shirt off. And he was just standing next to camera with his shirt off.
And I have a genuine.

Speaker 21 That's how you knew he was going to be your producer in the future.

Speaker 14 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Now, I would say like now, HR would probably say that's a solid foot on the line to just remove a shirt for the purposes of laughter.

Speaker 8 I mean, they haven't seen shoemakers buy.

Speaker 1 No, yeah, no one would complain to HR.

Speaker 14 That's what I'm talking about, brother.

Speaker 8 Seth, can I just jump in on something?

Speaker 26 Yeah.

Speaker 8 I don't subscribe to this narrative about you not being good at acting.

Speaker 14 Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, I'm sorry. It sounds like I'm fishing for you to say I'm better at it.
Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 8 No, I don't think you're fishing. I think you actually believe it.
It makes me sad because I think you're a wonderful actor.

Speaker 17 Thank you.

Speaker 20 And you know who I think is good is fucking Andy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, obviously that's come across.

Speaker 8 Oh my God, Jorm, this is so nice.

Speaker 20 I just feel like it's a dramatic turn that I feel like he's taking a nap.

Speaker 1 Again, no proof it was said, but I've definitely heard in my brain, will someone tell Myers he's not a fucking actor?

Speaker 1 Again, a very kind man that I don't believe would say that, but I think I've heard that.

Speaker 8 I think you're being punished for being such a good writer. That doesn't make you not be a good actor.

Speaker 1 You know, I think the way I found happiness was was leaning into the things I was best at and great contentedness.

Speaker 15 Sure.

Speaker 8 It's hard. I was a fan of your sketch work, and I still am.

Speaker 1 And I certainly think it speaks to what a good actor you think I am, that the many cameos I did on Brooklyn 9-9 always appreciated the call.

Speaker 8 You had your own show. You're not available.

Speaker 17 I love it.

Speaker 1 You used a photo of me. You used a police artist sketch, which I appreciate.

Speaker 8 Yeah, police artist sketch. And it was clearly you.

Speaker 1 Late night talk show hosts, it's kind of a trope of the genre that they self-deprecate about their acting skills you know like letterman would always do that and fallon talks about you know like taxi and whatever it's part of the gig who's good in that though i will say this when i was on snl and i had to do impressions i was so in my head about them because i thought there was a way to approach doing impressions and totally overprepared for them and everything i did felt a little wooden and it's super fun now to have a talk show where you can just like bust into impressions with no thought before or after it and it's really fun it's my favorite thing.

Speaker 1 So I'm feeling better about myself as a performer now, Andy. I do want you to know.
Good.

Speaker 10 You, Giuliani, really makes me so fucking happy.

Speaker 8 You know what, Seth? You are by far the best at impressions out of the four of us. I mean, none of us do them.

Speaker 20 I mean, Andy, I don't know if you saw my pee wee in the Weirdo movie, but a lot of people fucking raved.

Speaker 5 Oh, my God.

Speaker 17 Two lines, but they were good.

Speaker 10 Good two lines.

Speaker 8 So like, what kind of people were raving?

Speaker 25 I don't know.

Speaker 13 Ravers? Yeah.

Speaker 2 You know, an ecstasy. Ravers, an ecstasy.

Speaker 3 Okay, so they were already raving it was in the parking lot before they got into the rave

Speaker 1 andy i think about your billy bomb thorn impression a lot

Speaker 1 do you i genuinely think about kangles a lot

Speaker 1 kangles my favorite is your beetle juice though oh man i did try to get that beetle juice on was it parakeet no it was meet the press meet the press uh there was a long

Speaker 1 All right, so Andy thought he had a really good Beetlejuice, and that is not, that does not add value to a show that is airing in 2006.

Speaker 1 So one day we're at the table read and there is Meet the Press at the time hosted by Tim Russert.

Speaker 1 And if you've ever watched SNL, you know that the cold opens, if they're not about a news story of the day, sometimes it is a talk show. Anders Cooper was one I used to do, Meet the Press.

Speaker 1 And so I saw Andy, who'd you write it with?

Speaker 4 Klein?

Speaker 25 Probably.

Speaker 1 So you see, Andy Samberg and Rob Klein have written a Meet the Press. Now, I, as head writer, am a little shocked that these guys want to dip their toe into the political cold open.

Speaker 1 Long, very well-structured, too. Long two-page intro of like today on Meet the Press, we're joined by Tennessee Senator Bill Frisch.

Speaker 1 And then it's like a stage direction: cut to Bill Hater is Bill Frisch. And you go through the whole thing, and then at the very end, it's a filling in for Tim Russer today, Beetlejuice.

Speaker 18 Yeah, and I I was like, oh yeah.

Speaker 14 Getting wedding.

Speaker 5 Oh, I got to get married.

Speaker 11 So, governor, you hate sandworms.

Speaker 5 I hate it myself.

Speaker 1 And then, of course, in a classic way, it's just super specific plot points of Beetlejuice. It was a lot of anti-sand worms.

Speaker 8 A lot of anti-sandworms, yeah. And then, you know, spitting into my inside pocket, you know, save that for later.

Speaker 9 But do you remember who the host is?

Speaker 6 I'll give you a hint. It's relevant.

Speaker 13 Oh, Alec Baldwin.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 4 But he wasn't in it. No.

Speaker 28 And he's like, why'd they do Beetlejuice? I was in it.

Speaker 14 And then did it.

Speaker 18 That is shocking.

Speaker 9 A dude from Beetlejuice.

Speaker 1 Yes. From the film Beetlejuice.
You did a Beetlejuice sketch and you didn't put him in.

Speaker 20 Oh, I just like thinking about Seth reading that for the first time.

Speaker 1 Look, we were very tired.

Speaker 22 Okay. We were very tired.

Speaker 8 But I'll say this. It did play pretty well at the table.

Speaker 22 Yes.

Speaker 8 And it was one in a long lineage of things that played at the table and lifted everyone's spirits, even if it had no chance.

Speaker 1 Yes. I mean, I think Mondo Butts was another example.
Oh, yeah.

Speaker 8 But Mondo Butts, we thought, was going to go.

Speaker 14 Momo Mondu.

Speaker 8 It went to dress twice.

Speaker 22 Yeah.

Speaker 1 That was another one. But we spent a lot of time trying to fix Mondo Butts.
And it's really funny looking back.

Speaker 8 And you know, I appreciate that.

Speaker 22 The attempt. Yeah.

Speaker 20 It's such a shame because it would be just a phrase now in the lexicon of all of the world.

Speaker 8 It is crazy how slim of a margin it is between, you know, like a t-shirt that says Mondo Butts in the NBC store.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 8 And also then it not ever airing and people thinking it sucked.

Speaker 22 Like that margin is so fun.

Speaker 24 No.

Speaker 3 Just razor fin.

Speaker 8 It's a fine margin, Yoma.

Speaker 1 Ooh, hold on. I got Meet the Press, guys.

Speaker 8 Yeah, yeah, I'm seeing it and I'm very excited.

Speaker 1 All right, ready. Andy, I'm going to read everything up until your first line, okay?

Speaker 14 Are you cool with that?

Speaker 8 Yeah, I mean, it's going to take a while.

Speaker 17 All right, here we go.

Speaker 1 Open on NBC News graphic meet the press theme. From NBC News in Washington, this is Meet the Press with David Gregory.

Speaker 1 Our issues this Sunday, the military officially repeals its Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, and the Republican presidential candidates increase their attacks on frontrunner Rick Perry.

Speaker 1 Joining us today, Representative Barney Frank, Republican Senator Olympia Snow, NBC political analyst Chuck Todd, and filling in for David Gregory, Betelgeuse. It's Meet the Press.

Speaker 5 Hey, shooter!

Speaker 14 Shall I?

Speaker 13 We can always cut it.

Speaker 4 Yeah, don't keep going. Keep going.
Okay, I know what you're thinking.

Speaker 11 What's this guy drawing about politics, right?

Speaker 25 Well, the truth is, not a whole heck of a lot.

Speaker 22 But guess what? Doesn't matter. Why?

Speaker 14 Because I'm the host with the most, babe.

Speaker 11 So let's jump into the issues.

Speaker 24 Barney Frank, step right up, step right up. Answer this question about politics.

Speaker 14 There we go. I mean,

Speaker 21 it's got me.

Speaker 1 That played red hot at the table. You are right.
That is exactly on a tough day at the table. There was no way that didn't get.

Speaker 7 Oh, the snorting is.

Speaker 8 Oh, no, Alec was in it.

Speaker 1 Alec was in it as Barney Frank. So there you go.

Speaker 8 He says, thanks for having me, Beetlejuice. And I go, don't say the the name

Speaker 14 you joke well that's the name

Speaker 1 i'm right again right away the first joke is dependent on the audience remembering beetle juice

Speaker 1 everyone knows the rules of beetle juice dude it's like gremlins yeah there are no new movies where we all know the rules right uh infinity stone stuff maybe infinity stone but i feel like everybody knew gremlins rules back to the future rules beetlejuice rules Stranger Things probably has some rules that we all know.

Speaker 25 Probably.

Speaker 6 Hold on.

Speaker 20 In Beetlejuice, though, doesn't she have to say like juice, Beetle, juice, Beetle? Like, she has this reverse.

Speaker 11 Oh, you are.

Speaker 8 Just please don't say it three times because we honestly don't know.

Speaker 25 Okay, for sure.

Speaker 10 I only said it two, two and a half.

Speaker 1 I feel like we have already stumbled him by reading the sketch.

Speaker 8 He's a troublemaker.

Speaker 1 All right. So for our listeners, obviously, this was an interesting episode because we were talking about one you probably didn't remember and one you couldn't have remembered because it never aired.

Speaker 1 But next episode, episode eight, we're into really the one recurring, I guess that's not quite true because we have the Timberlake trilogy, but Laser Cats.

Speaker 8 The only one that reoccurred every year.

Speaker 25 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I mean, this will be a wonderful deep cut. Laser Cats has its fans.

Speaker 6 Some people might skip straight to it.

Speaker 1 Some people might say, oh my God, I'm going to go to episode eight. If that's where Laser Cats lives, I'm going to get into that right now.

Speaker 1 So guys, you'll hear us soon, as soon as we can get our four schedules together.

Speaker 4 In episode eight, we're going to go to space with the Laser Cats. Woo!

Speaker 24 Fucking strapped in, motherfucker.

Speaker 5 Oh, yeah!

Speaker 14 Cheese, cheese, cheese.

Speaker 24 Bye, dudes.