Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade - Did Jim Downey Write that?

Episode Date: June 18, 2026

David and Dana have Jim Downey back on the podcast this week to talk about One Battle After Another, being officemates with Bill Murray, and the new documentary about him, Downey Wrote That. Also, the most potent writing staff he ever worked with, Eddie Murphy’s first year on SNL, and Casey Kasem. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And I remember he came in. He came in. He had seen Jaws at a theater in Times Square. And he told me that his favorite thing about it was there were guys in the audience during the scary scenes going, get him, Jaws. Get him. I was constantly encountering Eddie Murphy. This was who was a featured player.

And he was just going into everyone's office and being hilarious. And I remember going to Gene and saying, You know, Jane, there's the, that Eddie Murphy guy. I mean, I don't think I'm this mad genius who's spawning something no one else can see. I think you really, you got, I think you might want to put that guy on camera. And her attitude, I remember it, is being like, I think he needs a little season. The writer's assistant comes up to me. I'm at the head of the table and whispers to me, just so you know, Chris, Chris Farley,

out in the hallway and he's completely naked. And so I told everyone, okay, Farley's going to come in, you guys. He's going to come in naked. So it's vitally important that no one given anything. No one reacts. We just have to sort of go, oh yeah, hey, Chris. What's up? Jim Downey, his second time with us.

It's scintillating. A return visit with the one and only Jim Downey, writer extraordinaire. from Sarah 9-5. We always jump into it without saying too much because we just think everyone knows Downey but he was

our head writer while we were at SNL. He was one of the great writers from Harvard. He did, I think, the first five years of S&L and then he went

and started Letterman for the first beginnings of shaping one of the greatest shows ever Letterman, came back to SNL and has been dabbling ever since.

And I think he did a little work on Tommy Boy. I have asked him about his rewrites and his movies and he's a great dude, he's a funny dude, and he is one of our good buddies, and we have a great laugh with them and learn a lot. Yes, please welcome. James Downey, Jim Downey.

Who's better? The Rolling Stones or the Beatles? You have five seconds. He seriously. He considers it. It's so funny. It reminds me of one time I was, there we go.

I was late at night. I was watching Dana Casey Kasem. And it was like, it was like, we're counting down the greatest bands of the rock era. Number three, the Rolling Stones. Number two, the Beatles. We'll be back with the greatest band of the rock era. Smoke those two.

Who remembers that? What are you? Okay. So anyway, I was, I was just flipping around and go, wait a minute. Number three, the Rolling Stones. Number two, the beat. Number two, the beat. We'll be right back to the number one band in the history of rock and roll.

What the fuck would be number one? And so I waited through like 12 minutes of commercials. You know? And then finally I was like, would you please fucking get to the fucking number. number one. And it was like the number one. All right. Number three, the Rolling Stones.

Again. Yes. Number two, the Beatles. And the greatest band of the rock era queen. And I was just fun, no. Was that considered a joke? No, I, well, I mean. I thought it would be like, in the number one band of the rock era, golden pony.

They came out of Scotland. and, you know, Herman and the hermits. No, but Japan doesn't ever exist. Anyway, I love doing Casey K's. What a great voice that guy had, you know? He's a great man. Did you know him? Yeah, are you friends of him still?

I saw him. I saw him one time at the Emmys. His wife was, there was a greater height discrepancy between him and his wife than I've ever seen within a car. Who was taller or shorter? Two individuals. The wife was. probably close to three feet taller.

His wife was like 6'1 and he was like 5. Well, actually, now that I think about it, she was probably only a foot taller, but still. With heels. I just won a million dollars on Polly Market that you would start the podcast with a Casey Ksum story. Well, congratulations. I can tell the audience,

Jim was my boss in case they don't recognize them from his star return. one battle after another. I recognize. Well, they may not. I've put on some weight. Jim Downey is an actor. You're like a,

you were in the chair, you're all Paul Thomas Anderson movies. I don't know. What is it? You're like an actor. You're like a really funny and good actor. I just thought of you as a writer. And now you're hogging parts.

I am. I'm denying parts to way more deserving people. and it's wrong. And all I can say is, you know, a lot of the people that we've all worked with over the years are now, like, directing and writing and things. And I guess it amuses them to have me around on the set or something.

No, no, no. I see the incidences. I think that your voice work in Change Bank kind of solidified this style that you have. underplay. Well, you underplay everything just on the edge of too much underplay, but like perfectly underplayed would not, nothing put at. And so that's its own charisma. Who's a famous actor that would do that? Might have been Henry Fonda. Burr Alives. I don't say too much. Burr lives. A lot of people say you remind them of Pearl Lives. That's always a good name to come up.

You're kind of like, you're like Broderick Crawford. Do you ever get stopped in the street? I'm looking more and more like him all the time. What do you mean? You look cute. Oh, well, thank you. You're jolly and cute. The thing is, I mean, I think the underplaying thing is because I don't have the acting

chops to overplay, you know? I do like, I do dry deadpan because that's sort of the. the easiest thing to do. And I think people who are capable of doing more tend to do it, you know, I'm like in, in, I'm idling when other people are. So basically you are, and I'm not, this is exactly who you are. You are the modern Gary Cooper. Discuss. Yeah. On a, on a, on a, I think you're wrong. Um, I'm trying to think, I'm trying to think, I tried to remember. Come back with somebody.

Classic Gary Kootenow. Well, it would be high noon. He says like three words at a time over a 20-minute span. Like, he has three lines. And he's very low-key. I don't think we ought to be- We shouldn't be a going that way. And then he doesn't talk for 10 minutes.

But being dry with no jokes is different than being, you're doing it. You're doing it. And it's funny. Like, you sent me that thing of you. It was Billy Madison, right? And you gave this. So the more. dry and then the speech is kind of critical or aggressive, the actual words are

serious. You've lowered the IQ of every person here, but with nothing given to it is its own. I just like it. I like it. It always makes me laugh. All right, Jim Downey's been our guest, the actor. You can always look him up on Wikipedia. He wrote for some comedy show.

Okay, go ahead. What are you pondering? No, I'm just listening to this. and it doesn't make any sense that all this stuff happened at the same time, and none of that is related to the other, you know, the chair company. Well, the chair company is another great comedian, Tim Robbins, an hilarious, weird show. Talk to your late in life, quote unquote, acting career and film. Well, the first thing sequentially would have been working with Paul Thomas Anderson.

Every 20 years or so, he calls me up and says, there's something very specific that I need you for. So like in 2006, I was in, there will be blood. Yes, I remember the same. And then I was out trying to hang it around on the set later for inherent vice, which was like 2014 or 2013. Yeah. And then, yep. And then in, and then he, I got a call in early 2024 about doing one battle after another,

which at the time was called the BC project. And then, yeah, I just said. When you're on the set at lunch, do you go, I got battled tomorrow? No, well, we, we have taken the call. at O BAA. That's harder. Yeah. So I was doing OBAA with PTA.

You would have been great. One of the most disturbing movies I've ever seen, and it is brilliant, but the theme of the movie that PTA did called Phantom Thread. I love Phantom Fred. It's meditation on marriage is so it's dark. And it's, you'd have to see the movie to understand it. going to ask you about one battle after another if you had that kind of subterfuge theme or does it have multiple themes what are the main themes because it's a lot of movie yeah crunch on yeah there

are so many different things going on yeah i mean i i guess we we the christmas adventurers club were kind of the dry comic relief whereas uh leonardo decaprio and benicio del torro were more, we're a little wetter, you know? I mean, I thought Venizio was hilarious in that movie. Yes. Or BDT, as I call him. Oh, yeah. Or Dorro.

Adoro. I. But he was just flat out funny, and what we were doing was dry. Dry counter. And Leo can play White Hot mess. Leo, listen to this guy. Yeah. DeCap.

You can call him Leo. Decap was... LDC. Oh, God, dang. He's even better. Once upon a time in Hollywood, he was a white hot mess, you know. I'm in the little dick club.

Is that what you're talking about? No. He's, but he, again, he was pretty funny when he was funny in the movie. Oh, yeah,

no, his range is enormous. He can do whatever he wants. He's, you know, were you a white supremacist? Was that sort of the situation? That was, Yeah, that was the idea.

I mean, I'm not sure. Did you base it on yourself? Was it based on you, Jim, the white supremacy part? Was it based on, you go, would it be funny if we were all white supremacists? I went through that phase. Yeah, everybody does. That was, I think everyone does, yeah. You know, then I grew out of it, then dabbled again.

Yeah. Then grew out of it the second time. And now it's been, it's been a year and a half. caught up in a chat room. Yeah, you know, you late at night. Sean was funny, just walking crazy like this. Especially toward the end when he's already, when he wipes out his car and he's walking back. No, his face was hilarious in the, I got to see him, you know, at both the before and after up close.

Oh, right. Oh, you have the ending scene. Most of my important work in the film was. A lot of the work is toward the end. You have to stick around. You were at the Oscars too, right? We did that. I just got your text.

You were at the Oscars too, right? I could have been, but I don't. No, didn't you do a bit? Yes, we shot that. We shot that before. Yeah. We shot that, I think, a couple weeks ahead. Yeah, yeah.

I remain one of the most surprising things. I've ever been a part of was the fact that that actually made it on air because, you know, the thing with the Oscars is always that the one thing everyone knows about it is how it's always running long. They're always playing people off. I was shocked by that. And I knew this had to be the very last thing on the show. And I said, look, a Conan called me up, asked me to come out and do it. And I said, I'm happy to do it.

it'll this will be fun but don't kid don't tell me that there's any possible and end up in the show and he said um well even if it if it doesn't um it's going to be online and probably more people see it online and then when i was there there was some representative from the academy there and and he said oh no no we're definitely doing it this is in for sure so okay it is weird it's like after the super ball the show but actually the credits are usually here's the winning Oscar movie everyone runs on stage, thank you

credit start, blah, and it's like because that's the biggest one everyone's waiting for sorry we ran late, goodbye, and then it's Jim's scene. And I'm like, oh, there's an added scene. I don't know if I've ever seen that on Oscars. I don't see the Oscars every single year, but

I don't, I can't imagine there was ever like an epilogue before. I enjoyed it immensely because I did not expect it. And it took me a minute to kind of process what it was. And then I saw you and I went, okay, I'm in. And you were underplaying. It is beautiful.

Only thing I can do is under. Spencer Tracy would kind of underplay a lot too. He was often not, you know, demonstrative. And Clint Eastwood. You're like an early Clint Eastwood. But anyway, let's get back. There you go. Let's get on the topic of what we're,

what you've got to get in on the podcast. You had a documentary. It's on Peacock. What's it called? It's called Downey wrote that. That's right. Ah, that is a big phrase you hear. So a highly well-received documentary about your existence as a supreme sketch comedy writer.

Your words. Your words, not mine. Actually, not my words, but they were the words of. Did I get that right? They're the words of Andy Breckman, whose idea was. Yeah, Andy Breckman. Yeah, Andy was an Lerwriter. Came up at the time.

And I met him at Letterman in 82, 83, 84. And then he went to Saturday Night Live after Letterman. And we shared an office for a year there, the year with Marty Short and Chris Gest. Larry David was there. Anyway, his, Larry's, Andy's wife is a documentary filmmaker. And the two of them had sort of been pushing this idea for a very long time since, like, 2006. And then finally, I was not anxious to do it for a variety of reasons, but finally the pressure became a little too great, starting around like 2020,

2021. So it happened. Well, I didn't ever see you as vain at all or a vanity. You were actually served. You were just behind the scenes. You were Jim Downey. So this is like in a psychologically like all this exposure is that was like you said, there were a number of reasons. Was it energy? Was it like, I'd rather just let it lay and let the world discover me or what was your pushback? A lot of it had to do with the fact that in the beginning, the first 10 years it was being pushed, I was working at the show, and I just thought it would be a really bad idea. While I'm there with the, you know, and then afterwards, I kind of wanted to get away from the thing, you know, the show and show biz and everything.

and then right when they really cranked up the pressure and basically said, we're going to make your life a living hell unless you agree to do this. I was one of the first people to get COVID. I got COVID in December of 2019, and I was like a mess. And I wasn't, I wasn't.

Is your vacation in Wuhan or what's that about? It actually was, I was flying back from Charleston and I was waiting the night of December 2nd, 2019, at Kennedy Airport, waiting in the rain. And I was the only accidental in a group of like 200 people who had just gotten off a flight from Wuhan. Are you serious? I'm absolutely, because I looked it up later. I noticed, I just noticed it was an odd thing like, geez, did I just walk into a, like a tour group from from china and everyone was coughing and sneezing and blowing their nose everything

and i'm going like oh man i am so getting sick uh tomorrow morning and i did and it was only a months later that because i went to a doctor like yeah late december and he said i have no idea what you have you have something and then when remember it was like early february when you started to hear the term Wuhan and everything yeah And then I went online and discovered that there were two flights a day from Wuhan, China, to Kennedy Airport. So it wasn't just China. It was Wuhan, China. And yeah, so that's, so that's.

And so anyway, I was not, I was not in the right frame of mind to begin with. And then right, you know, in the, in the thick of COVID. Yeah, not. Anyway. web. Well, Jim, my question to you is, and we were in it. It's a lot easier, which I'm getting to, Dana, it's a lot easier if they think you're going to use your connections to go personally ask people to talk about you, which

is an awkward situation. So I think it's easier. They just say, we'll take care of everything. And so Dana and me, we get a call. It's about Downey, done. So I don't think it's that hard to extract. And maybe they knew that because some documentaries. are tough because I don't want to do every documentary that comes my way.

Now, Dana's Dr. Doc. So he does, he's done a couple. I did, I did POTUS. Oh, yeah. With Jim. Yeah, I was a minor. It's a documentary called playing POTUS, which. President of the United States.

They couldn't get Dana for the panel at the premiere last Saturday, but they snagged me. And Robert, our friend Robert Smigel, was there. And Dana's great in the documentary. You highly recommended. What did I see? What did I do? I told him you got to come to me. I told him to move the panel to where I live up in the forest. You got to come to me. It was hard to tell. It seemed like a perfectly modern structure you were living in. Well, they had lights. They were just in a rented Airbnb near my house.

But it was very scientific. You talked, you and And Daryl and James Austin Johnson all talked about constructing impressions. It was really interesting from that point of you. But you were my co-conspirator with Bush 1, along with Al, because I didn't have the impression. Well, you were way too modest about that in that documentary, but I thought, I always thought your Bush was very bushy. You got better, not better, but you got crazier with it as time went on. Because you did, I don't know how many times you did Bush, but it was a dozen or more anyway. Well, more, way more than a dozen.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Over four years. Yeah. Standard cold open. If you compared the first two to like the last two, it was crazy. Well, the perfect thing with that, which I may have talked about, it's only interesting. in that the audience took the ride with me.

So as I started to do what I would have done in high school, extrapolate things because I'm bored, the audience was right with me. So by the end, I think my favorite thing, and it might have been your idea, but he just, or Al, the non-sequitur of just education. That's it. I think that was, that was maybe something that we kicked into it,

but it was mostly just trying to feed you stuff that you would do in the character you were already developing. Run with. Yeah, it became a song. You know, it was like a lot of musicality to all these different components. Bring it in here. Good, good. That area doing that thing. Got to do it.

You know, so it was fun. Anyway, look for the dog. Look for potus. did like Dana when during the week it would be, I was working back then. I was newer and they'd say like there's no cold opening. And the easiest slam dunk was on Thursday. They go, right up a bush cold open. So he probably did it a lot more than 12 because it was always like such a good go-to that would work.

Only used one cast member, but it was easy to put up late in the week. It wasn't a lot of blocking straight. Yeah, you said Thursday. It seems like more Friday evening. Saturday morning sometimes trying to let the audience know. But I had so many in ones, which I didn't realize later how valuable that was because the studio's quiet. It's just you in the frame so you can dance outside the lines because they're just locked on you. But now when they do cold openings, a lot of times it's ensemble.

I don't, you know, it's like a sketch with a political figure in it. Observation, I don't know. Yeah, they populate it. It's different. But that is true. When you're doing an in one, there's no such thing as a miss shot or not, you know, something not being captured. And it is, but you were one of those people that you could just send out there with often slender, you know, material. And you would, you would make it more.

History that doesn't suck is a legit, hard-hitting American history podcast told through entertaining stories. As we approach America's 250th anniversary, Now it might be the time to go back and learn how we got here. With more than 200 episodes, you can binge your way, decade by decade, defining event to defining event from the founding into the 20th century. Join me, Professor Greg Jackson, for History That Doesn't Suck, an Odyssey podcast, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. I like less words.

You know, I used to say, can you guys take out some of these words? Yeah, it's too many words. I don't want to feel like I'm doing homework. I just want to be taken time. But the other thing that we worked on and Smigel worked on was Perrault, which we didn't talk about last time, but that was just as much fun.

I don't think I did it near as much, but that was just as much fun as Bush or easier, really, you know. Well, that, I think, is my favorite political character you ever did. And I worked on one of them with you, but I think it was the time you hosted, and it was the one where you were on Larry King

and Will Ferrell was Larry King and it was you were on you were, it was the minor party candidates and it was the female circumcision party candidate the totalitarian yeah Chris Catan and they would do the most ornate female whatever you just said

and then and then parole would always go the same old clap track that's what I hear all the time and it was the weirdest policy idea you could ever hear. That was what I loved about. It was a long run from Chris Catan. Katan was a great, great sketch player. Absolutely.

He had those great, groundling chops. And he was doing this thing about, once we mandate and fully fund female circumcision, you'll see the economy take off like a, and then you're going, same old, same old, you know, candy-coated ice cream Sunday with a chariot. on top. We don't have the money, Larry. We don't have the money. Larry, can I finish one time? You can interrupt me?

Go ahead. Well, it's like, you have to complete freedom. What's fine as you be? Anyway, you know, can I finish one time? No, that was so, so much fun. Still kills in my stand up. It's the best. I think I might have voted for Perot in that election just because I, I, um,

You know, he was right about NAFTA, I think. And it would have been fun to have him as president. He was right about the debt. You know, remember he had the chalkboard and the pointer? Here's our debt. Here's where it's going. We're just giving the credit card to our kids. Preciant.

Jim, David Spade here. Yes. Can you tell me if you have been asked to write or rewrite some of these movies we've seen out there, some of these comedies? or punch up, punch up? You know, from time to time, I have been asked to work on stuff, and it's not my favorite thing to do. The one thing, I think that one reason that I've been asked as often as I have

is because I never want my name on anything, which, which, Why? Well, just because I don't particularly, you know, if it's someone else's script and I'm just throwing some things into it, I don't particularly need it. And that's really important. It makes you very popular with the other writers on the project, you know, because most people, when they do contribute something, then they often, they start sort of messy fights for, to get screen. credit and then there's a guild arbitration. So, but it's been a long time since I've, um, did you ever write one stretch?

Sorry. Well, yes, we did. I wrote, I wrote one with Tom, Tom Davis and Al Frank and many, many years ago that, that, um, we had some funny stuff in it, but it never, never went anywhere. It's funny. I was asked, I was asked one time, uh, Bill Murray asked me,

to take a look at a script that he was considering doing. And he said, I really think it could use some of your help with this. I really have. And the script was lost in translation, which won best screenplay, the one the best screenplay Oscar. And to my credit, I said, I think this is a great script, and I wouldn't change anything. Certainly, I can't think of anything that I would do to change it.

And so I recommend that he'd do it and that it was good as it was. It was great. I'm sure Bill does go to advice from a lot of people. It doesn't seem. Oh, Bill loves you. I've been in the room with you and Bill. Bill, like, when you start to mention an idea, Bill gets quiet in a good way. He's like, what, what were you saying?

Well, you guys were, if people don't know, you were either roommates or office mates at S&L or just friends, right, during the early years. Well, we were first office mates before we became friends, but we were both hired at the same time. And so they put us in the same office. And over time, we became very close. And I still, I talked to him just the other day. He's fun to talk to. One of the most beloved dudes out there, not you, Bill. Was it your idea?

It's just kind of interesting to have. Because people would remember this at a. certain age for the lounge singer to sing the theme to Jaws or was it well that actually the one of my earliest memories is Billy singing a fragment of that in the office and I remember he came in he came in he had seen Jaws at a theater in Times Square and he told me that his favorite thing about it was there were there were guys in the audience during the the scary scenes going get him Jaws get him And so that was where he started calling the shark jaws. And so I remembered he would sing a bit of that around the office.

And I thought, we've got to do something with that someday. And we talked about it over the years. So it goes all the way back to 1976. And then when we did the 40th in 2016. 14 or whatever it was. 2015. It must have been 2015. Anyway, I really, I added more parts to it.

And then we got together with Paul Schaefer, and it became a thing, a very successful thing, some say, in the 40th anniversary show. Oh, no, I was doing, I was part of the cutting around to music. I was doing John Brockland and the piano, so I was up on the stage. And so I looked right on top of Bill and watching him electify that audience with his incredible commitment. Yeah, he does.

So you guys had to, so this is for people at home. You think of an idea like that. And it's kind of wispy, but there's something there. And you're like, this is how you either make it good or ruin it. You say, how do we package this into a sketch? So I think one of the first I remember he was at a ski resort and a lounge. and maybe Lorraine's there and he's going from table to table

and he's maybe singing Star Wars I didn't work on that piece but that was Billy he just he it started with him just having that that kind of Vegas character that you don't see there are no acts like that anymore

probably in Vegas and haven't been for a long time Loud Lizard he was always one of the first things he did around the office was that kind of cringy, greasy, you know, minor showbiz character. And I'm trying to remember the very first one. I think the Star Wars one at the ski lodge was the second. That was the one where people really started paying attention.

And then there was one, they got, we would look forever more eccentric locations. And there was one, my favorite one was on the auto train. the Amtrak train where you can drive your car onto one of the service cars and then ride your train. You'd ride the train down to Florida with your car on the train, right? And that sounds fine. And so I remember Billy had this great speech there where he's doing one of his. You know, I was thinking watching him load the cars. And like you may drive a Dodge Comet.

I may drive a Nissan Ultima and Joe over there might drive a Coup de Ville. But yet every car on the auto train is treated like every other car. And then he gets kind of a, and everyone starts. And then he sings, Not go changing to try to please me. But it was early, it was like early. I guess what they would call cringe comedy today. Maybe, yes.

I mean, it's not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I have two questions for it. One is, how do you recall something like that right now? The second one is watching all that original cast go through that four or five year period. It seemed like Bill Murray, I would never imagine him not being at a 10 in terms of confidence, but did some cast members, were they all sort of fully formed or who were the ones that sort of evolved? just in terms of confidence.

Because the way Bill Murray does comedy, you have to be utterly committed to it. You can't have any kind of fear of not getting a laugh. Actway, too, seems right. Oh, yeah. So those are two questions. Why do you have a photographic memory of 50 years ago? I don't know.

But people have commented, like, as though I must be forgetting more important things because your whole life was skates. Manusia. Forgetting weddings. Yeah. I remember things that make an impact on me, and it's easy to, if something really makes you laugh, it's a little easier to remember that.

But I would say, as to your question about confidence, all of these people had, like Lorraine had come out of the groundlings, and Lorraine, Danny, Belushi, Billy, second city. So they, Jane had done improv stuff and up in Boston. So they were used to live audiences. And I think Dana and you guys both having been touring standups, that that's the tough school, right? Oh yeah. I had to really try to, I would look at the audience if I got a laugh in a sketch. My impulse was to look at the crowd laughing. So I had to kind of go, oh, no, I'm in a sketch. First catch I ever did, forget theater or anything on anywhere, was the meteor hitting, hitting Jan on the head. I think it was Jack Handy. That was the cold opening.

So I was going to ask you this question for our audience. What was your first impression first, even before we did anything, David Spade and me, first impressions, don't think. I thought you were. Losers? No, that's not losers exactly. I thought you were well-meaning. I saw you guys auditioned. So I thought you were funny. So before we ever met, I had already seen you. And for all you know, seeing hundreds of hours of tape.

We didn't just, you know, do this stuff willy-nilly. We actually took it seriously. So, no, you guys. Yeah. And I, yeah, you guys. came you didn't need to impress anyone okay david your first impression of jim downing oh jesus mine was how can you get dana out of here quicker uh david's on deck um if you should fall the funny thing is he's there is the first of me not being aware of like you're here to like light a finer under dana

I go, I don't think Dana is scared of me. I go, I don't do these impressions. He runs this whole operation. I'm sitting here going, let me do a fucking update. Let me just get out there. But everyone was just so good. It was just hard. I think I joined in a pocket when there was so many good writers and so many good performers.

And it was a little harder to swim to the top. So just treading water there was good enough for me for a while. but I'm just glad I got through it. And Jim was my boss for people that don't know, head writer, came up with the idea of Thursday rewrites. I didn't know that until today. And which were fucking grueling. Worse than the Green Berets.

I'm not even joking. Worse, harder than the Marines. And basically, I like Jim because he's a very pleasant guy, fun to hang out with, fun to walk down to yours with. And he had a really hard job of feeding. all the little birds in the nests going to get and then he gives you something and then you go

well the great thing about Jim I love what Jim often pre-masticated things Jim would do this if there people around were kind of riffing on ideas and then Jim would just look up not say anything and just usually the entree was

there's something really funny about and then this brilliant idea would follow it it would be this weird off kilter. One time Jim told me, Dana, he goes, I think he maybe told the table, he goes, or maybe just me and Schneider

when we got started, he goes, sometimes you're going to pitch an idea and I'm just going to say, I don't think that'll work. And I can't sometimes explain why. It's just from experience. I just don't see that working. And so that was good to know

because sometimes he just said, I wouldn't write that up. I'd probably write up the other one. You know, because you're kind of also wanting that advice before you write and everyone wants a piece of him and he'd maybe go work, not hide, but work in your office and lock it.

And then Schneider would sleep against the door and we'd all go in there and try to go when he comes out, we got to ask. It was just constantly on top of you. It's hard being head writer of that show. It was hard to, I mean, the part that I, you know, you have to decide how much you're going to lie to people

to, and sort of string them along. and give them false hope and how much. But I remember the old expression. My father always used to tell me, you should always tell the truth because it's the easiest thing to remember. Yeah. You know?

And so very early on, I think I did, I decided, you know what, I'm just going to explain to people if they come in and look at the board after read through. And we'd have a read for, you know, the audience of the podcast, we would have our read-through Wednesday, and then Wednesday evening,

Lauren would slip out of the room and go to dinner, and then I'd be there when the cast and riders streamed in and looked up at the board to see which pieces represented by little three-by-five cards were part of the show, at least for now, and which weren't. And there were always outraged people, like demanded to know why. A was in the show and there B wasn't. And, you know, I tried to, I tried to be as honest as I could, but in an encouraging way, you know, and I tried to, sometimes I actually was the only voice in the room for a particular piece

that ended up not making it. And so I tried to avoid, like, you know, doing the chicken shit thing and so I was for it. I was... Smiley was telling you, Frank and hated it when I asked about mine. He was really like it. Franken hated it. I go... But by the way, David,

you were talking about the idea of when you come onto the show, like looking for a way to emerge, you know, more clearly. But the way we cast the show, and I'm not saying it was the necessarily

the ideal way, but we're like those people who like, you know, go to an antique store or something and they, even though they already have a dining room table, they so fall in love with this other dining room table that they go like, I'm just going to buy it and we'll figure out what to do with it later. So if you've been in people's homes where they have like three or four of everything, it's sort of, it wasn't well thought out. So if we saw people who were really funny, if there, if someone else was brought to our attention. We just,

we just want them here. Grab them. Give them their $600 a week and bring them out. Yeah, it's only going to cost us $600. So, yeah. But that was the first junior varsity era. I mean,

we added Mike Myers, which was incredible for us. And then we started adding more and more. And I actually did a song about it when I hosted that 90 to 93 was very poached. Because we had Sandler and Farnley. and Farley coming up, Spade was coming up, Schneider, Tim Meadows, on and on. And we still had Phil and myself and Mike and so forth. I was going to ask you this question, because it's always these just fun of best cast or best cast member.

But behind the scenes, and I don't know if you want to answer this question, when was the most potent writing staff? Because I only know my era. like was because you were there in the knots of the will feral era and amy sure it was a polar all that so do you have an answer to that or was it the original writing staff or were they all just very comparable well i mean five seconds okay i would say and then we'll say the right answer the the writing staff that had um you know robert smigel jack handy uh uh al frank and time did Davis, that era was a pretty good writing staff. Was that Cohen, Otterk? Yeah. Cohen was around, Otterkirt. That's where.

I guess from, you know, 86 to like the early 90s. And it wasn't a gigantically large running staff. I mean, it was the early writing staff, though, was like nine people of whom like six or seven were fairly active. you know and nowadays i mean i think they have like more than 20 writers and they yeah so go ahead but but but i the um but there were great writers you know at every period the other thing is a lot of the best writers were performers so what what do you mean i mean people ask me occasionally hey who wrote that thing you know that because you don't it's what i i've accepted it a long time ago but you don't get a writer's credit if you're on SNL as a main cast member. If you're a feature player,

you get a writer's credit. So I remember Mike came on the show like in April as a feature player writer. He soon went up to the main company. But then we won the Emmy. So on the plane ride back to New York, Mike had this giant Emmy. He'd only been there like three weeks as a writer. That happened. I mean, there were, we figured the longer you stay at the show, it comes out in the wash, you know, but it's true there were some, um, um, well, it's just, there were some strange things. But, but, but yeah, the, the idea was, I suppose that performers are, are going to get the writing, writing for themselves helps that help is good for them. Right. That's its own reward. And, um, if they're not paid, um, they have to, they would have had to pay us, right? Because I would

have taken a credit without pay, but that would have been outside the union. Yeah, that's the writer's guilt. What I told Lauren, just from my perception, it's not just about me, but from 90 to 93, he had a lot of weapons. Like there's not, I've heard they don't do as many reoccurring characters now, except on update or whatever. But back then, you could have a tuneses or a Sprockets or a Hans and Franz or a Hollywood minute or Sandler would do a sing a song, you know, his office.

And there were so many to start the show with that it just seemed like a very, and then I said that to Lauren on this podcast. And then I heard him talking about it to the New York's time. The early 90s, we had a lot of weapons. Yeah, we had a lot of variety within, we had a lot of variety within the comedy of the show so that distinct flavors, you know. And so a lot of people could pick. you know, a dozen people would pick maybe eight different things as the best thing in the show, you know. Yes, and we should mention, but I want you to continue, but Bonnie and Terry Turner as well. Because they could punch things up. They were really great with the church slay and other things. So go ahead. What were you going to say? I'm just saying that that era, I was just identifying it with, and I know I, whenever I'm asked questions like that, I like to worry about as people I inadvertently leave out. Yeah, accidentally.

We're leaving out people for sure. But there have been every year of the show. And by the way, I think there were like, there were like three or four distinct periods of the show where I thought that we were doing a lot of really great shows, like the early years. Yeah. And the next great period, well, the next great period was that one year with Marty Short and Chris. guest. Yeah. And then, and Harry Shearer did great stuff that year. And, um, and then, um, your era, which I, I would make like 86 to like 93. That was the time I was here. Yeah. Then there was the second Farley. The Will Ferrell era. And then,

David was overlapped with that a little bit. Yeah. I was in there. Yeah, I was, I was, I overlap one year with Will. But Will Ferrell was, yeah. But he was another force coming on. Yeah. Right. And then that cast that sort of that Kristen Whig, Fred Armisen, Will Forte, yeah. The Lonely Island guys, yeah. And that, so there have been, there have been enough of those,

enough great eras. It's like a, you know, it's like the Yankees or something. Oh, yeah. It's only enough to talk about for fun. Because they take time to think you're good. No one really told us any of. us were any good until 10 years later. And then Will Farrell said, they said, we sucked. And then 10 years ago, they said, oh, they were great. So it takes a while to look back. Like, right now,

you'll look back later and go, oh, these people were really, you know, that's just how it works. Yeah, I gave up a long time ago trying to answer the question. Like, if you had to pick, like, an all-star team, because it ends up being, it ends up being like 25 people, you know. Yeah. One of the things I really liked about the 50th, and Dana, I'm sorry that, that that you weren't there. He didn't care how long. But there was, you've got so many people on camera in combinations that you'd never seen before.

That was really nice to see. You know, I wanted to introduce something with Eddie Murphy. I thought that would be a perfect time for us to get together. Sort of address our little fake. That spat has lasted so long, but I think is it finally done? People don't know. David made fun of Eddie on weekend. Probably because of Jim Downey.

Probably Jim. Probably Jim. Yeah. Eddie, if you're watching this, I was dead against that. Absolutely. But I worked with Eddie in that in a film that Andy Breckman, it was his thing. He directed it. Not moving.

What was it? It was the White Like Me thing. Oh, yeah, yeah. That was. You did work on that. That was during. That was the first time I was ever recognized on the street in New York. It was just from that brief, you know, exposure with the great Eddie Murphy.

It was a film piece and it was where Eddie was in Whiteface. Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, I remember it. Is it a killer vision? That, Andy, Andy Brickman director. Oh, I'm sorry, Andy. The thing about Eddie, which. now that we have 50 plus years, you know, it's kind of like, how did someone get that evolved and confident?

I guess at 19, he gets on the show, but he put in his dues. He started at 17 and his dad would drive in the comments. But seriously, being, I got on at 31. I was still waitering until I was 24. I mean, just Eddie is amazing how great he was. was it's not a hot take. It's just interesting in the context of this conversation. I remember I had recommended when the original writers and cast left the show in May of 1980,

and Gene Domanian took over as producer. I always got along pretty well with Gene. Her office was directly next door to Billy and my office. And so she asked me if I had any advice. and I recommended a couple of writers, one of whom became a very valuable writer for the next couple of years. But anyway, when I would go to visit these people, you know, I was at Letterman at the time or I was doing something else. But I would come by and just to, you know, stick my head in and say, hi. I was constantly encountering Eddie Murphy.

This was who was a featured player and he was just going into every. one's office and being hilarious. And I remember going to Gene and saying, you know, Gene, there's that Eddie Murphy guy. I mean, I don't think I'm this mad genius who's spawning something no one else can see. I think you really, I think you might want to put that guy on camera. And her attitude, I remembered as being like, I think he needs a little seasoning. He's got something there. There's something there for sure.

But I just think he's not ready. to go up against. I heard about him as a stand-up in the comic strip because I was living in New York doing the Mickey Rooney show with Nathan Lane. And then a friend of mine was on Broadway with Mickey. He was a juggler, Michael Davies. And he just were walking around New York

and he goes, there's this comedian, young comedian at the comics series. You should really check him out. But this is why I just popped into my brain. There are certain things that are, I just stick with me as being really funny. And that was just, just James Brown in a hot tub.

I don't know why, but that still would get me every time. Do you know the bit, David? Well, everybody does. You can just say it and it sounds funny. This is a scenario. And the way he could do James Brown, how he could hit the scream after the thing. So it's one of those, why is James Brown near a hot tub? Why is he keep sticking his foot in the hot water?

Why is he screaming? Yeah, I feel you get to five questions. It has the absurdity to last. Maybe it's a little bit like chopping broccoli. Like, why does this exist? But that was transcendent as just a full-year sketch. You guys are writer-performers, but I think you'll agree with me that the show really is a performer's show.

I mean, it has more scope for writing than most shows like this do. But it's like they always say that in baseball, you know, good pitching beats good hitting. it's like performing Trump's the writing. And a piece like that that has a great premise, I mean, I'm assuming it was Eddie, but it could easily have been one of the guys who wrote with him who said like, how about James Brown in a hot tub?

I mean, but it doesn't matter. It was just for however long that piece was, it was like flat out, just high energy laughs. I mean, I've never written anything that can compete with a piece like that for energy and laughs, you know. I mean, you know, obviously that there's just Bob Odecourke's, but full peak Chris Farley

doing, oh yeah, yeah, there are those kinds of things that are just, okay, that's a kind of a one-off, you know? But also Eddie went right into movies and the conference immediately good. Like, immediately, yeah. So that was, he was good, Esnell, good over there, like, it was pretty crazy.

Like I say, he had, he was plenty confident backstage and I'm talking about 1980, 81, it's just that he, it wasn't appreciated. And then when Dick Eversall came the next season,

he very quickly broke through. Oh, so he didn't blow up the first year. Well, he wasn't, he didn't get a lot of camera time. His only year is struggling. I love that he got a little taste of all the shit that we all were crazy about. But also,

Darrell Ammon calls him. the world's greatest impressionist. Not that he does a lot of impressions, but the ones that he did were, you know, he did his Stevie Wonder. I don't know if it was the first one to do that, you know. And he could sing like Stevie Wonder. Yeah.

It was like he had every metric going, you know. Like Jamie Foxwell also has some really good ones too. Secretly. It's like a secret weapon. Yeah. But I still like Hans and Franz. That's still kind of my favorite thing only because they're so insecure.

they have this cable show and they're imagining people denying them and then they're threatening to go to their house and do these really evil perverse physical things to them. I actually have a very clear memory of you coming to be and pitching that idea and you explaining that, but they're just incredibly abusive without actually helping their clients. So it's just like humiliating. They have the breakdown part really well, but not the build-up part. Yeah. Well, because then they bring it to themselves. And if you don't think we're properly pumped, let me tell you somebody. Properly.

We could very easily come to your house and stretch the flab of you back into the shape of a rope ladder. So you could crawl down in the sewer because that's where losers live. You know, it's supposed to be a Jack La Lane show helping people. And they always turn. turned it to shit on. They've never showed them working someone out. It's just always yelling at the camera. And I love that Kevin Neeland when we would be right before, right before the camera came on,

Kevin would just lower his IQ. I'd seen Will Ferrell have that trick. Kevin would just make his eyes go stupid. And it really made me laugh. Yeah. You know, so Kevin and I are playing a gig together and we'll come out as Hans and Frans. We're playing it in Seattle.

Yeah. So I'm already thinking, yeah, the Puget Sound should be called puny sound. Because the jokes are so bad and they're so pleased. So anyway, I still like that. And you worked a lot on that. You were so glad to have you and Smigel come in at a given time with Kevin. But that was just, you know, so easy to, you know, to just, we were like bouncing stuff off in the room. I mean, you guys had, you knew what you were doing.

And it was another thing where it was a single shot, so you could just go to town. But I remember the very first time that was on, it was the last piece in the show. It was five to one. And, you know, it just shows if you lead the audience, you know, you bring them along. They might not recognize at first how much they really enjoy it. But if you... Well, they really... true statement. I mean, you know, Dana, let's say Jim was there for Cheeburger, Cheeburger, Cheebker,

I look back at Conehead, some of the early ones don't work at all. And the audience just has to sort of absorb what's going on. And the next time they do it, like recurring, then everyone's onto it now. Yes, because I think they thought we would pick up fake barbells. Yeah, they're figuring you know, we're on Zafrons. And I think, you know, we had padded things. I think that that's what they thought. That was never going to happen. But in that case, too, my character involved because when I would look in the mirror and I was so much smaller than Kevin,

it just became sorry. Whoops. You know, just what... Do our muscles frighten you? Your stupid buzz cuts. So that made me happy, you know, because I get bored very easily, but that was...

So anyway, that was fun to work on. Anything else for Jim, who was the first five years of S&L, for people don't know, the first five years of Letterman? maybe? First, like two. Yeah.

You have Letterman and then you went back to him? Huge influence on the Letterman's sensibility because you were right there in the beginning. He was lucky to have you. You see him out there anymore? You talk to him a lot or no. Well, actually, yeah, we just did. I hadn't seen very much of Dave over the years except running into him now and then.

But the, we did, I did his podcast. the Barbara Gaines show, which is, it's always Barbara Gaines introduces Dave and his guest. And I did that back in December, and they made it a two-parter, I think. And then Robert approached him about doing Robert Smigel's new podcast, Humor Me. Yeah. And Dave said, why don't I do it with Jim again? So we did that thing. Oh, you did that? Okay. Yeah, I've seen a lot more Dave than I have in the, you know, since I left the show in

1984. But, yeah, he was, that was a real case. We were talking about bringing an audience along and sort of training them to. It's like the first time you had sushi, if you can remember that, you know. it was a little you're not sure about it and then you know it became your favorite food

Jim I have a last story about sushi that you reminded me of so when we were at I lived on the southwest side when you were there and far late we'd never had sushi so we someone recommended we go to this place on the Upper West Side and so he's like

hey look you know he's just we were probably four of us there and then they brought us out like a dessert with sparklers and they come on oh my gutto and they go out and when he gets close to Chris he goes oh my eyes and then he dives on the ground that the sparks got in his eyes and then he rolls in the ground screaming and the whole place stands up and he goes on they're like

they don't know what to do and then he goes I'm fool and I'm fine and they're like what's going on is they're still trying to get help for him and he's like it was a bit You had to be very careful with Farley as to what you dared him to do because it was a weighty responsibility because do I really want to say you don't have the nerve to pick that waitress up and carry her down the stairs. Put her in the fountain. Or poo out the window on the 17th floor. I was on record as opposed to that.

What about the broomstick up? The liability. Oh, wow. Okay. At the rewrite table? That's for the after hours. Yeah, that's for the post-post show. Yeah, I think that story's been told. I do remember the time, and I'm sure you guys were there in the room. We were doing rewrites, and I think it was Tara Eli, who was the writer's assistant, comes up to me. I'm at the head of the table and whispers to me, just so you know, Chris, Chris Farrow.

is out in the hallway and he's completely naked. And so we had those big, heavy metal doors that, you know, they're pinned in the middle, you know. And so I told everyone, okay, Farley's going to come in, you guys. He's going to come in naked. So it's vitally important that no one give him anything. We just have to sort of go, oh, yeah, hey, Chris, what's up? Back to our work. And so Farley comes in and he had his privates tucked between his legs.

And he's fondling, his tweaking his nipples and going like, do you think I'm pretty? That kind of thing. And then we all did the same kind of, oh, hey, Chris. Hey, we got to talk about that update thing later. And he was so upset. So Chris Fawler. That it bombed. Too bad iPhones weren't around back.

It's all just their memories. But there's some fake subpoena given to him at the last part. Yeah, that was a, that started with, it was partly just a practical joke. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we also liked, we had been on a film shoot. It was a piece I wrote. It was, do you remember the show Tales of the Highway Patrol? Oh, Highway Patrol?

It was an early reality show, actually. It was like cops. And it was like some other networks answer to cops. And anyway, it was, we did this thing. And it was like 1993 or something. It was Tales of the Arkansas Highway Patrol. And so it was basically Bill Clinton, you know, just having, engaging in illicit sex with various women in parked cars with guarded by Arkansas straight troopers. And then it ended with a scene where it's a domestic abuse case.

And he's clearly had the shit beat out of it by Hillary. and so it's the, he's refusing to press charges and he's claiming he fell down the stairs, you know, that kind of thing. Anyway, so we had to drive to the shoot, and Farley was deep in character, you know, it's like, little lady, I got a problem, see, it seems they gave me an expense account,

unless I spend it all, they're libel, it got me back. So he was hitting on this woman who was an extra, and Schneider and I were in the car and we finally had to like physically jump between the two of them to prevent to head off something and so it began with that but we decided to play a practical joke on

where we had him served with a fake subpoena and had some of the writers from the Simpsons act as process servers and it was at the last show party and later I was told it was a cruel thing thing to do. And I'm going to come on. The poor actress who was in that car, that wasn't a picnic for her. Anyway, that's a true story. He fell for that one. He flipped out. What a character. Oh, yeah. Anytime you don't even know what it's for, he just something.

David, you always did a great impression of Farley going from, like, innocent to like barking orders to his management and everything. And it's turning while it would be like, I don't know. I'm just, I'm not really a reader. Listen, listen, listen, I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it for that money, that kind of thing. Yeah, tell him fucking $6 million or I'm out. I'll fucking walk.

Anyway, I'm from Wisconsin. Do you have a McDonald's here? Is it on wheels? Because we have one. You still doing that? I don't know. Yeah, he was, I like when he greased. his hair back like Christian Slater and wore the big glasses like Acroyd.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But he, um, uh, God, he, he, he was funny. God damn. I thought he was a cool that I greased back. I remember me and him and Christian Slater went down to Huxley's. And he's like this. Hi, Christian. You grease your hair back.

And he's like, yeah, Chris, I do. And he's like, yeah. It was all the Chris. When me and Dana met Ringo star and McCartney, We were, it's always turned into the Chris Farley show. It's the funniest thing to, to describe perfectly what you're doing. You're too giddy. You're excited asking dumb things and just being like, oh, you were in the Beatles.

Yeah. Yeah, that was awesome. Don't want to make them angry is the main thing. Or bore them, you know. Yeah. If you're talking to a beetle, you know, or something they've really heard. That was, it's a skill set. It's a dicey proposition to talk to super famous.

Jim, Jim, anything else you want? A million things you've got going. Downey wrote that on DVD. Downey wrote that, which Stey and I are in. And we're both in. And thank you very much for that. I'm sorry I wasn't looking my best at the time. I was, COVID did a number on some of us.

And I got it bad. I don't remember that. I just remember someone I was in the room to get ready to come out to the patio to do the three-hour interview. And I go, really three-hour interview? hours, it's okay, we'll be hanging out. And a woman came up behind me with just goop in her hands and just went like this. Oh, to your hair? Yeah, without asking. Never. And we got something for you. I would have been like crack, break. Piled right. Yeah, you're looking healthy. You're looking good. I mean, when you turn 65 next year, that's going to be big milestone. We're kind of the same age.

I don't want to bring up numbers, though. Well, I'm older. I'm older than anybody now. Anybody in comedy? That's active and still at the top. You're at the top of your game. Jim. Well,

I think you are. I would say I'm, I'm barking on a new career. Like we talked about the beginning, the, the actor performer with limited camera presence. but I can deliver a low-energy deadpan performance like nobody. Me too.

I'll see it the auditions. You accidentally, every time I see something that you're in, I go, fuck, he stole it. Yeah. He stole the whole thing. What I am. What I am is I'm kind of a good luck charm. I mean, if you think about it, Daniel Day Lewis, best actor, Sean Penn, best supporting actor.

What's the common denominator? Have you told PTA that maybe there's a spinoff and you're not pushing it, but maybe your guy could spin off and like do a sitcom or something? He's been made aware that I'm available. He's been made aware of it. You're there. You're ready to write it. Was this your idea?

Because it didn't sound like you, but it's been floated a sequel. And it's going to be called one battle after another after another. And I thought. 100 episodes. Maybe make it a streaming show. I'm not sure. A hundred battles. It seemed like it had your fingerprints on it.

I can't really tell one battle after another. It sounds like it would be a funny something to do maybe on the show as a film piece. And no, it didn't come from me. I made that up, of course. I think it's in the ether. Like people, it's ready. People are ready. Will there be a 60th?

Last question. Will there be a 60th and will you be at it? You have eight and a half years? Will Dana be at it? I'd like to think that I will definitely be invited. and as all of you guys will. No plus ones. Yeah, maybe not at that point.

By the way, do you realize, I asked about this, because, you know, the seating capacity of Studio 8-H is like if you knock out every possible thing, it's like 300 odd seats. Yeah, Matt. And there are, at the time in February of 2025, 75, 750 people had hosted the show. Oh, boy.

So you kind of have to, if someone hosted the show, you kind of have to invite them, maybe hoping that they don't come. And then you can't exactly tell them they can't bring a guest. And then that's not involving music. And so that was a real, I did. All of us got to be inside the studio. Well, Dana, you could have been.

You were not feeling well, I know. Well, what did I miss? The spill-up theater was a name. It was on TV. It was... I watched it live. I thought both of them were actually pretty good shows. Some fun stuff in them all, yeah.

And you know what I got to say? There were little things like, David, you had that thing in the piece where you completely changed the energy of the piece for a minute. And you just sort of said, nope, I'm doing this. Then you guys can go back and do it. It was fucking great. And the other thing that was... thing that really, this is a crazy thing, because you mentioned him, Nathan Lane, remember it was that piece that I think John Mullaney was the head writer on. It was like the history

of New York and like eight minutes or something. And it was just Nathan Lane dancing through did the funniest impression of a guy doing blow. I just, I don't know, that really cracked me up. That was right next to us in that scene. I'll bring that up. We're going to have Nathan on here. I don't know the timeline of these releases, but, you know, we'll be, we'll be talking. Jim, it's always nice to talk to your favorite head writer. Going through that, you know, am I an actor? Am I a writer? And then Paul Thomas Anderson calls.

Jim, are you going to host? I'm taking myself out of consideration for hosting. I understand. I just, I'm just too much on my plate right now. Plate is full. But I will say, I did want to mention. Downey wrote that. They're voting on Emmy nominations.

On Peacott. I've been asked. I've been asked to mention that. I want to mention Eddie Michaels was great. Producer. With on that producer. And everyone else who worked on it. Yes. Well, this is how I would do it as Hans. Fee-5-Fo-Fa. I smell an Oscar.

No, I smell an Emmy nomination. Here it come. Whoops. So long are the docks. Fly away. You no longer want it. We already have a winner. Jim's face.

Jim's is going, what? I think you, I think that's, you've made some excellent points there. You should have come on. This was I thought about it. Randomly. Okay. I thought that Jim would come on as the head of the network, so-called.

And do your deadpan thing of like, you know, when you do that with the audience, it doesn't really increase our numbers, you know. What do you mean? What are you talking about? Although it's appreciated. Yeah. The Billy Madison run is always on like a meme or on. Yeah, that's a famous run.

Good job on that one. And we'll see you on the next interview. And this might be our longest interview. We did it. It was fun. No. The last one we did with you. I was going to be back, right?

I'm going to be back. Well, you know what? When you get the nomination, you should come back. Oh, yeah, yeah. I like the savant. We'll never run out of stories to ask you about it. It's too fun. No, I haven't.

Actually, you know, we did. I don't think we got to any of the things we were talking about discussing. So I don't get to a single woman. We're the worst, dude. Do we talk about POTUS much? A little bit, not much. Not a whole lot. I did want to mention your Jerry Brown impression.

Oh, that's right. It was one of my favorite things ever. I was proud to be one of the writers on that piece. I know, and I looked for it because you mentioned that when we were talking to. On YouTube, Dana Carvey does Jerry Brown. Where is it? Because I got it. Because Jerry Brown now is not good.

I wanted to relearn it for this podcast because it's hard to remember the rhythm. I know it was a thing. You know, that was a thing there, but you know, I need to see it. I've got to, I'm going to say one last thing before we sign off a few years ago. Well, actually 24 years ago, I was in, San

Francisco was an event for the Harvard Lampoon. And we're staying at the home of near the Presidio of a very wealthy Harvard Lampoon alumnus who was personal friends with both Jerry Brown

and with Willie Brown. Oh. This was at a time when Willie Brown was mayor of San Francisco and Jerry Brown was mayor of Oakland. So at the dinner, we had this mayor Brown of the month contest. And we got, we found another guy named Brown who was mayor of some other town. And we had a, and the way we did it was I briefed everyone in attendance saying,

okay, I'm introduced the three mayors. They're not in the room right now. But when I introduce, you know, the mayor, of Vacaville or whatever he was, you know, I want, you know, polite applause. When I introduced Jerry Brown, polite applause. And when I introduce Willie Brown, I want everyone going crazy, like standing on your chairs.

Like, ah, ha, ah. And so we did it. And Willie Brown, and then we're doing it at the dinner, the three of them, Willie Brown instantly starts laughing because he gets a joke. Jerry Brown was very upset. His feelings were hurt that he didn't get the response. Jim, did you start the one about welcome our host?

Tom Hanks, smattering. Next week, Sharon Stone, a huge of course. Well, that was a thing that Franken used to do. I did it. Immediately make the host feel like an asshole. That's a fucking job number one at SNL. They're already nervous. They're like, who's next week?

And they're like, it's going to be this. Someone's so much better than you. Funny. It's always funny. They always be like shit. Okay. Thank you, Jim. All right, listen, if you're enjoying the fly on the wall, of course, hopefully you are.

Click follow. We don't want to be desperate, but obviously smash that goddamn button on your favorite podcast app. Smash it. Leave a review, a good one. Leave a five-star rating, nothing else. And maybe even share an episode with a friend. If you're watching this episode on YouTube, please subscribe, Dana. What do you think?

I'm going to tell you this right now. Him and now, believe me later. Fly in the Wall, believe it or not, is presented by Odyssey. And executive produced by Hold For It, Dana Carvey and David Spade. Or David Spade and Dana Carvey. We don't write this stuff. Heather Santoro, Greg Holtzman, and Leah Reese Dennis. The show is edited by Evan Cox, with production support from Phil Sweet Tech.

Talent Production and Booking by Sophia Lepore. Thank you.