Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - Daniel Invents a Game (and Wins an Emmy)

Episode Date: January 30, 2024

Daniel invents a game to play with Soren and shares some stories from his night at the Emmy's with his dad as his plus one.Follow the show on socials: https://www.linktr.ee/QQPodcastSoren Bowie: https://twitter.com/Soren_LtdDaniel O'Brien: https://twitter.com/DOB_INC

I've got a quick, quick question for you, alright? I wanna hear your thoughts, wanna know what's on your mind I've got a quick, quick question for you, alright? The answer's not important, I'm just glad that we could talk tonight So what's your favorite? Who did you get? When will I be remembered? What's it out there? Where did all that go? Did we talk? Oh, forget it

Saw a movie, Daniel O'Brien Two best friends and comedy writers If there's an answer, they're gonna find it I think you'll have a great time here I think you'll have a great time here So hello again and welcome to another episode of Quick Question with Soren and Daniel, the podcast where two best friends and comedy writers ask each other questions and give each other answers. I am one half of that podcast, senior writer for last week's night with John Oliver, author of How to Fight Presidents, and no longer fast runner,

now distance runner, Daniel O'Brien. Joined as always by my co-host, and no longer fast runner, now distance runner, Daniel O'Brien. Joined as always by my co-host, Mr. Soren Bui. Soren, say hello. Hello, everybody. I'm Soren. Also, Soren, I'm still very fast. Go on.

I'm Soren Bui. I'm a writer for American Dad, and I have, one of my intentions of the new year is to start doing leg day. I was always under the impression that i didn't have to do leg day because i run so much right and i also do squats yeah uh incorporate into my other workouts does that count as enough leg no it turns out no it turns out no shit um i mean it depends on what you're going for but like i i was like i run I was running like 14 miles a week, maybe 16. And I was like, and I do these plyometric things where I'm like, I'm jumping into these lunges, you know, like, uh, I'm trying to think how to describe it.

Like you're touching a knee to the ground each time and you're doing like alternating jumps. Yeah. And I was like, this is a lot of leg stuff. Like my upper body is heavy enough that it counts. Um, and then I went and did a leg day and I couldn't walk for two days. Oh, damn. Yeah. It means that there's like, I'm not trying to,

listen, if you don't lift and you hear about like somebody lifting, you're like, well, why are you trying to bulk that up? That's not what's happening. And so it's so hard to make a muscle group. Also, first of all,

if you don't lift, why are you listening to this podcast? Yeah. What are you doing yourself? I just wanted stronger legs. And I started doing so the very first day in I did. God, maybe this is maybe this is alienating. I did like deadlifts and I did squats just like normal, like big leg workouts, lunges.

And I was at the end. I was like, okay, I hope that was enough. And then the next two days, like it was a real problem in my life trying to get around. I was not mobile, even sitting down hurt. Cause my butt was so painful to my, like my glutes were so painful. And, uh, and then two days later, uh, after the workout, I was like, okay, I should get back into my run schedule. And I went outside to go run to the gym and got about 50 feet and had to go home because I was like, it's too painful to run. I can't do it. Man.

Yeah. That's, and you, this is just like a thing that you, what motivated this? Yeah. Vanity, I think. thing that you what uh what motivated this yeah um uh vanity i think oh okay yeah i assumed there was some usually at the heart of any kind of change in your life is uh some benefit to your family like you were trying to launch one of your kids in the sky and couldn't do it as high as you wanted. And then you realized I need to strengthen my legs at the sacrifice of everything else so I can throw my son onto the roof. This is vanity, but like vanity in like the most childish form. This is not like vanity, like I want bigger legs, like I have a bunch more sex. It was, I realized I couldn't jump as high anymore. But jumping is who I am.

I know. That's huge for you. My identity, that's all my showing off involves some form of jumping. And I got to get back into form. So there I am. Thanks to Rocket Money for supporting our podcast, Quick Question. Rocket Money will quickly and easily identify your subscriptions for you so you can stop paying for the ones you don't want.

Stop throwing your money away. Can cancel unwanted subscriptions and manage your expenses the easy way by going to rocketmoney.com slash qq um speaking of showing off uh let's just uh we'll get into the show in a second but our friends brian and nick britannic they have a podcast and one of the recent episodes they were talking about how brian mckelhaney who was uh an accomplished juggler and clown i heard is trying to uh he's working with a trainer to set a record for longest juggling of pins yeah uh how long do you think because the record that he's going for is something in the three to five hour range i believe i don't have north of that it like 5.30 or something like that. It's 5.30?

Okay. So both of the numbers were correct, just as the order that I struggle with. And it made me curious how, because I don't know, juggling seems like the kind of thing that if you could do it, you could do it forever. I was shocked that the world record

was so low to begin with. So I'm curious to hear from you as a juggler. Yeah. Like how long do you think you could just juggle? It doesn't need to be pins because I know that's a different art than the juggling that you do. Hearing him talk about it, I realized, oh, it starts to get painful. For him, with the pins, he said his hands really started to hurt after like half an hour. And I was like, oh yeah, I guess that totally makes sense. Like your wrists and

everything. I think that where I juggle, I like juggle kind of out in front of me, but it's enough that like, same as if I have my hands up just a little bit from my body, eventually they will fall asleep. And I think that that would start to really weigh on me. And then, uh, I think as far as like the motion itself, it's just like oranges or bean bags or something like that. I could, I could go indefinitely if my, if I don't run into these other problems, but I think that's where you like get into trouble is you're like, the focus is there. That's fine. You can like even look at other people while you're juggling generally, um, because you're so used to the motion, but there's these things you don't think about like i think i'm pretty

confident my hands would just fall asleep i bet my they would also my shoulders would get very tired um just holding your arms out in front of you for that long a period of time yeah i feel like you would lose like dexterity in your hands is that what you mean by falling asleep like just the like numb a little bit yeah i feel like that would be that would knock you right out uh i don't yeah i don't really i don't totally understand it i guess you could learn to juggle pins way down at your waist like you're running basically you know like the way your arms move when you run that's comfortable that doesn't by the end of a run you're not like oh fuck my arms yeah um so i guess if you could figure that out you could do it but there's yeah it's just it's too much my kids

by the way so so deeply unimpressed with my juggling have they tried it do they understand how difficult it is well that everything's hard for them so like oh, they're just like, they can't even vote. They don't get it. It's the same with like doing magic for like a two-year-old or a one-year-old. They're like, yeah, man, the world's magic. That's no different than anything else I've seen. I probably do have coins in my ear. Yeah. They don't care. I juggle for them frequently and they're just not into it. The only thing my daughter is really impressed by now is when I do the escalator behind the kitchen island where I step onto an escalator and then go down the escalator. And every single time she crawls up on the counter and looks on the other side. Yeah, I get that.

Did I forget that we had another floor and there's a little conveyor belt that leads there uh i guess i'm i'm i'm always fascinated by uh records because for things that i have no real like uh conception of and even things that i do have a conception of that i i i it's almost always not as long as i imagine it would be how long do you think is the record for uh duration in the dead hang position that's grab a pull-up bar or any horizontal bar yeah and just i'm telling our audience i know you know and just hang on it like like they would have you do in gym class if you couldn't do pull-ups just like just hang on the bar for a certain amount of time.

What do you think the world record is for that? Like 10 minutes. Oh, really? Yeah. It's 80 minutes. Oh, really? That's totally short. I thought I was going to find out it was like days.

No. I thought I was going to find out there was some guy in a village who dedicated his life to this and the whole town comes out and they're like he's doing he's gonna set the record i'm gonna feed him snacks and give him gatorade and someone's gonna be on on call to like wash him and empty his his pp and poop bucket right uh because this is like our whole town's thing so like the fact that it's 80 minutes that someone could bang it out in an afternoon and then and no one has touched that was very surprising to me that's tough footage to watch if you're like you work at guinness

and you've got to figure out if somebody actually did do it you got to sit there and watch someone for 80 minutes and make sure there's no cuts in that. And this specifically 80 minutes and 41 seconds. So the Guinness person can't even at 80 minutes be like, I'm sure he's got it. I'm positive he's got it. I have to pee so bad. Yeah. I don't know if there's anything that I could do for long enough that I could ever break a world record. It just doesn't.

I think they're all done. I think we- You once, early in our time together, there was some kind of fitness challenge at work. Yeah, yeah. And I did not compete in it because I was not on my fitness journey yet. And you were, you performed very well in it. And you said at the time

that you could hold a plank forever. Yeah. Is that still true or was that ever true? Oh, I don't know. I mean, I've never tried it forever. I know that when people are always like, no, you want to engage your core, like you want to work your core, you plank. And I'm like, nah, it doesn't fly for me. It doesn't work. I will sit in a plank. Yeah, I can sit in a plank for a very, very, very, very long time and yeah by the end of it be like i if there's nothing happening for me i don't i'm not getting anything from this and different types of planks like there's planks where like your elbows are on the ground and your toes are um there's also ones where like your butt's kind

of in the air you're kind of making an upside down v like all of them they don't they don't really do much for me i smoked in that competition for for that. But there's a, they did, we did another one, which was like a sit-ups competition, which is crunches. But I think it was crunches with your legs in the air. And it was like reaching up, touching your toes and coming back down. And they're like first one to like 90 or something like that. And I was like, okay, great. And I started doing it and everyone's like yelling at me. Everyone's like, go faster. Come on, come on. And I'm like, what? And I'm looking around and everyone else's form is dog shit. Like no one is doing this right, but they're going so fast. And I'm like, yes, but I am the only one who's like,

I'm the only one getting something from this. So, I still think about that. I think about how I totally misunderstood the assignment and thought, no, you're supposed to, this is how you get like your best workout. Right. You want a referee who is counting only good sit-ups. Right. You go all the way down. You keep your back straight as you come up. You're not flopping your legs around in the air as you're doing it. And you're going all the way down. You keep your back straight as you come up. You're not flopping your legs around in the air as you're doing it. And you're going all the way up. You touch. And then you come back down as slow as you went up.

Shay and I were doing some kind of plank challenge a few months ago. She found a thing that was like, this will have you in X amount of days. You'll be able to plank for five minutes. And we're always looking for fitness things to do together. So she asked if I wanted to do that with her. And I thought, sure. But like, sight unseen, I bet I could hold the plank for fucking five minutes right now. Yeah.

And boy, I was wrong. Boy, I could not do that. I really assumed the only thing, the only reason that I haven't done a five minute plank before I assumed was because I got bored and wanted to do something else. Yeah. only reason that i haven't done a five minute plank before i assumed was because i got bored and wanted to do something else yeah but i really i i think i i never completed this challenge because we got distracted and did other stuff instead i think i uh if i say two minutes i think that's being generous to myself that's pretty good though uh you know what i think it is it's some of its genetics too i think that, um, like I used to do that flagpole thing all the time where I like

hold myself up on a flagpole and pretend it's really windy, you know? Um, that's a genetics thing. I think that's just like, yeah, do you have certain areas of your body that are stronger than others? And for whatever reason, through thousands of years, that was the one that I got. My legs, my wrists, they're all dog shit.

But for whatever reason, my core is just very strong. And I think that's just the lot I was given. Yeah. That's my curse, Daniel. I know. I think the...

No, we don't need to talk to fitness anymore. So we're not getting into the show. I do have something important that I want to talk about right up front because it's the elephant in the room Daniel yeah I want to offer you a huge congratulations on winning

another Emmy my good friend congratulations you deserve it yay before you say anything about awards, you do hard work. You do good work. You're very funny. You make that show what it is with other people.

I understand there's other people involved, but your contribution should not be ignored. You are value and that Emmy is yours and you deserve it. So I'm pissed off for two reasons obviously one of them is is you rightly know that i that uh i have a mantra of when uh complicate compliments come for you uh run for the nearest fire escape yeah because that way leads madness um so to begin with compliment corner uh upsets and bothers me but second of all just logistics i'm reading back the most recent text that i sent you from less than an hour ago because i knew you wanted to talk about the emmys i said before we get into emmy stuff i have a game for Soren to play.

We're about to jump around. What if I just left that hanging? I figured you would get to it. I knew you were going to do it. All right. But I figured you would get to it eventually. Thank you very much for saying that. Let's leave it in the compliment corner.

We'll pick it up again in a second. We'll pick it up again later. Yeah. If you're anything like me, you've signed up for subscriptions to change your life and then completely forgot about them almost instantly. Or you joined some random streaming company because it was the only one that was showing French kiss in the world and you just had to see French kiss that night. But then you forgot about your subscription and it just kept charging you

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rocketmoney.com slash qq. But now for my just delicious game for you, Soren. Yes, I'm excited. This is where I'm going to read you someone's tweet.

And they are the tweet will come above a quote, an image or a video, and you are going to have to guess what the person is tweeting about. Okay. I promise you, you're not going to be able to, to nail it. You're trying to find, uh, the treasure, uh, on Twitter. nail it you're trying to find uh the treasure uh on twitter and uh because elon musk's twitter is is x now uh we're going to be calling this game which i hope to do a lot twitter marks the spot what do you call a post on twitter now it's an it's an i think it's an x. I think you X on X. That sucks. And then you re-X or you quote X. So this, I want to give full context. The tweet comes from a user whose handle is Sargon of Akkad.

His name is Carl Benjamin. And to get some things out of the way, he's not a good dude. He's like a, not necessarily a Charlie Kirk or Ben Shapiro level troll, but he is in like that far right trollish provocateur world. But he is, I want to stress this, like he's not doing a bit he is a serious person he's his uh bio is englishman post-modern traditionalist sensible centrist i just want you to know that you're not getting into like joke territory or satire territory okay carl benjamin says this is what the world looked like before mass immigration, widespread racial and gendered guilt activism, and before bankers had totally screwed the economy for their own gain. People

were just allowed to be themselves and they did fun, wholesome things for their own sake. And he is quote tweeting a video. Okay. That's all I'm going to give you right now. You can ask as many questions as you want. He's quote tweeting a video saying, this is what the world looked like before mass immigration, widespread racial and gendered guilt activism, and before bankers had totally screwed the economy for their own gain. People were just allowed to be themselves

and they did fun, wholesome things for their own sake. And the implication is that the video that he has quoted is an example of the fun, wholesome things that people did for their own sake before bankers and woke activism and immigration ruined all that. Soren, what is he talking about? First of all, I'm screaming for the fences. Is it Balloon Fest 1986? It is not Balloon Fest 1986. Oh, no. Oh, that would have been a fun one.

Yeah. Is that the thing that like a bunch of people died from balloons yeah yeah i mean it was it was supposed to look very spectacular on the day when it happened it did look amazing and then the aftermath was horrendous it was like horrifying um okay let's see i know and and you could treat it like a 20 questions thing or whatever where you ask as much. Yeah. All right. Let's get down to brass tacks. Is this something that happened in the last 20 years?

The last 20 years, no. Okay. Is it something that happened before you and I were born? No. Okay. Is it something that happened before you and I were born? No. Yeah. Okay, good. I like this guy. He's a big dummy. It's recent. Okay. Is it from a movie? No. There's so much joy I get knowing that you're never going to get it. But I want you to keep going. Okay. All right.

It's not from a movie. Is it footage? It's a video. Is it footage that I would know? I believe so, yes. Okay. Is it all white people in the footage? No. But he might... No, it's not. Okay. I'm trying to think if he might think of it as white people. It's possible. It's not from a show.

Is it from the news? No. Interesting. Is it home footage? No. Is it something that was televised? It was on television. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Is this a ball dropping ceremony? No. Oh. But it wasn't on the news. Is this a game of some sort? No.

Okay. No. Okay. Okay, did it happen in the United States? Sure. Oh, sure. Oh, okay. So there may be multiple occurrences of this. Well, I don't necessarily know where this was filmed but i i

think it's reasonable to assume filmed in the united states okay um are there is there any athletics in it at all hmm there is a boxing ring in it is there actual boxing happening? No. Oh, okay. Is this the fan man? Fan man? Yeah, the guy who rode a flying fan into MGM Arena. I see. No. Okay.

That was pretty cool. Do you know that footage. No. Okay. That was pretty cool. Do you know that footage? Yeah. Okay. It's a guy who comes into the middle of a boxing match and lands. And instead of everyone being like, well, that was amazing. Everyone's so angry. They fight the guy.

Is that one where they got him pretty quickly? Because I live for the moments where like a streaker or some kook runs on stage or on the field for an event of some kind, thinking they're going to get tackled quickly. And then they's not chasing me fuck uh i don't i guess i should do a speech or something i wasn't prepared for this much attention um no because this guy's attached to a fan that weighs more than him so he's pretty easy to catch and i think he's also got a parachute with him and stuff okay there's a boxing ring in it. But there's no athletics. There's some event happening in a boxing ring. I can't think of what this would be.

Okay. Give me a hint. I think I'm... You want a this would be. Okay. Give me a hint. I think I'm... You want a hint? Yeah. Okay. One thing that you haven't asked about that will blow this up for you and change the way you're thinking

is it is a music video. Okay. Okay. Oh, is it Christina Aguilera? No. Oh. Oh. This is what the world looked like before mass immigration, widespread racial and gendered guilt activism,

and before bankers had totally screwed the economy for their own gain. People were just allowed to be themselves, and they did fun, wholesome things for their own sake. Is... okay, uh, is this... I can't remember if in this video they're in a ring. But there's a... Cut my life into pieces. This is my last resort. Is it that song? No, it's not Papa Roach, Last Resort. Oh.

What other videos are they in a ring for? It's not Christina Aguilera. It's not that, but it is. Already, I'm pretty excited that it's a music video. I know. It's not Bruce Springuilera. It's not that, but it is. Already I'm pretty excited that it's a music video. I know. It's not Bruce Springsteen? No. That is like...

That's almost... close to what his point should have been. What he wants to say is that things were better in the past and his version of better is uh white people having fun and doing whatever they want and it's not a bad guess to uh assume if you don't know a lot of the context of what bruce springsteen is actually talking about it's not a bad guess to assume he's talking about a bruce springsteen video where people are yeah driving cars and being white at each other in americana there's oh there's a there's a bon jovi one there's a

there's a bon jovi song where he's in a ring is there yeah it's not this one. What is this song? Are you ready for me to tell you? Yeah, I am. It is the 2001 music video of the cover, Smooth Criminal by Alien Ant Farm. Every once in a while, a thing will come across my Twitter feed where you'll see someone saying something and it's quote tweeted by someone else saying, I promise you, you're never going to, you're never going to guess what he's talking about here. And it's such a delight when they're right. And I clicked through, I got, this came across my internet desk from a writer and friend, Nicole Conlin, who works at works the daily show she's very funny

check her out she retweeted this and i was so tickled to find out that he was talking about the music video to smooth criminal i god i didn't buy alien ant farm and and like every bit of it there's the uh it's it's a a cover of a song it's a cover from a black man it's a song that came out in 2001 right when things were pretty tough for a lot of folks i don't know why he's the year he's choosing to go back to is the good old days happens to be the 9-11 year. It's also, it's a song about a woman illegally crossing the border. Yeah. It's the front man, I believe. I mean, he's, I think, canceled for different reasons at this point.

I haven't looked into. But I believe one or both of his parents are, uh, like first generation immigrants into the country. Uh, and also it's a stupid fucking music video where a, a, a band of weirdos set up a boxing ring in the middle of the street. And there's like, definitely like a block party vibe happening in this music video. But, uh, a crucial thing to remember is that a music video is not like a reflection of real life this wasn't a thing we all used to do before banks stepped in and ruined everything we didn't just like sit on chairs with our pet monkeys in an homage to michael jackson uh before woke politics came in and ruined everything.

And sang songs while wearing our Arnett sunglasses. Right. It's incredible. Wait. Ah, man. What is... There's...

I really thought this was like... Before I brought this to you, I wanted to check to make sure, because I'd never heard of this guy, and I wanted to check to make sure that... This wasn't a joke guy and i wanted to check to make sure that this wasn't a joke yeah it wasn't a joke or that he wasn't like maximizing twitter engagement to make a profit of some kind and i don't believe he's doing that there's and there are plenty of people in in his replies who are like hey man this is a music video he's like i never said it wasn't a music video.

You're serious. I don't think he also knows that shooting a music video has never been fun for anyone. Speak on that. I think that it's always a nightmare to film anything. And to make something look fun on camera is probably the most unfun you like the the the the worst time you will ever have shooting a party scene is a goddamn nightmare do you know who justin hawkins is uh no lead singer for the darkness he uh he talks about

doing he's a podcast but he talks about shooting music videos and like how part of that was like one of the main reasons he stopped his career. He was like, I was so sick of making them. Little did I know music videos wouldn't even matter in four years after the darkness died. Right. What were you gonna say? I don't know why you needed to explain this to me because there's a memory that I've blocked out from nine years ago. Our friend, friend of the show, Rachel Bloom, released a music video for one of her songs nine years ago called the OCD... Yes.

I mean, OCDance. Yes. Are you in that? No, I'm not, but it... Okay. Greg Burke and I, our friend Greg Burke and a bunch of others are in the party scene in this music video where some of it is like doing the dance that Rachel describes. It's a very funny concept for a video, but for our purposes involves many takes of us like being in the backyard, having a cookout and dancing and having a good time. being in the backyard, having a cookout and dancing and having a good time. And, uh,

I was there for maybe four and a half hours and it was fun for maybe 90 seconds. There's, there's, it's, it's fun to dance around a little bit with your pals. You're in between setups, making jokes with your friends. But at the end of the day, it's a lot of hurry up and wait while standing outside in the sun, dancing over and over again. And, and being in the background of someone else dancing and like, it's exhausting to look like you're having fun for four and a half hours. I mean, you go to a taping of anything, go to a taping of a, of a show. And it's like, your job is to be enthusiastic as an audience. You don't realize how much of a job you have. Like you're supposed to be loud, uh, trying to sound like you're having a good time or look like you're having a good time for that amount of time. While there's a lot of people just being like,

we didn't get it. Let's go back. Yeah. Uh, is it's, it's rough. It's really, it's really bad. Um, and also this is just like a peek behind the scenes to people who don't shoot stuff. If you are in a party scene, you have to be fucking silent. You have to be looking like you're having a good time, looking like you're talking, looking like it's a lot of fun, but you have to be quiet.

All the noise of a party comes later because otherwise you're going to fuck up the takes. You can't be talking over or talking at the same time as one of the actors in the scene so you're supposed to be like you'll watch uh actors in the backgrounds of like restaurant scenes and stuff and you'll watch them like pretending to eat food and like pretending to cut it but they're not actually even touching the plate because even the noise on the plate fucks shit up so like you can't do any of that and then you'll watch them drink and then very, very delicately put the glass back on the table. It looks like a bunch of people trying not to wake

up a baby. Yeah. And that's like what a party is supposed to be. Oh, I'm glad I got to share this with you. And you're right. There are a million reasons for why this is a strange, one of the, one of the most wrong things to choose if what you're going for in your weird far-right nonsense trolling is we used to be a country that did things like this and it was great it's like no we didn't no it wasn't and it has nothing to do with any of the things that you think are problems that ruined it we used to make things in this country uh that's incredible thank you dan thanks for sharing that with me you got it um now i'm gonna just put your phone down there i'm gonna just take your hand and guide you back over here to the compliment corner welcome back dan um i want to say congratulations. Now, how many...

I know you hate doing this. How many Emmys is this? This is five. Good Lord. It's too many. Logistically, where do they live? We've now reached crisis point for me, which is such a wonderful problem to have and it's not even a

problem because i gave one to my parents uh like this is because emmys are for parents more than for people and i gave when i got another one i gave one to my brother and sister-in-law and another one gave one gave the other one to my other brother and sister-in-law and then i got one more and i was like i i will i'm out of siblings i'll keep that in my home and and like bring it out if if i'm gonna have company but mostly it would live you know away uh when company comes it lives in the living room floor right in the middle right it occupies one of the spots on the couch i want everyone to to i want people to know about it and and for it to be a problem for them for it to be inescapable don't move that don't move that yeah uh and now i have a a second one for the home and i don't there there's that there's like a uh symmetry and balance issue that i i need to sort out at this point well i mean good luck with it i but thank you i'm only asking like

these types of questions because now i want to get to the brass tacks sure who did you take to the semis i took my dad and this was uh uh, so for, it was very exciting. I, for, for all like the, the evasive maneuvers and self-deprecation I'm going to do, I want to be clear that, that, that it's an exciting time. I'm just, I'm just bad at expressing that. And I'm very grateful for the opportunity. Um, this was, uh, longtime listeners know that our category is one that bounces back and forth between the primetime ceremony, which is the one with all the fancy celebrities that you see on television, and the creative arts ceremony, which is home to a lot of the technical awards that you don't see

on television because it's not televised. Ours would alternate back and forth in those ceremonies every year, and obviously awards ceremonies are fun and a blast one of these is is slightly cooler than the other one for all the accoutrements that go along with it the prime time is the cooler ceremony we went there in 2019 i took my mom then uh 2020 and for some reason they didn't have emmys in 2020 they didn't have large gatherings of groups of people in an enclosed space. And the year after that was compromised Emmys

for the same reason, just like a different compromised Emmys. The year after that was the, we were in the Creative Arts Untelevised Ceremony, which I took my brother to. And we were in the nosebleeds for the proper ceremonies. Yeah, ceremony, which I took my brother to, and we were in the nosebleeds for the proper ceremonies. Yeah, ceremony, which I took you to. This was to be my second year in the actual primetime ceremony. So I took my dad to it, again, for balance. I took mom, took dad, and now I owe my parents nothing.

Now we're- Yeah, you're square. We're square. Yeah. And it was good. And it was touch and go for a while because at one point Fox or the Academy, it was one of their decisions to keep us in creative this year and forever. We would never get a chance to be in primetime again, which was a bummer. But then our union, the Writers Guild, and a bunch of late night hosts, including my wonderful boss, John, got together and told the Academy and Fox, like, this is a bad idea. You should, we should let them be in the ceremony. They, they've earned it. They work hard. And, uh, in this particular year, when

writers were on strike for 148 days, it's a really, it's a particularly bad look to sideline them or hide them uh and i like them going to bat for us they didn't have to and it it worked fox in the academy uh truly with like four days before i was flying out for the creative arts ceremony we got the dramatic reveal that actually we're gonna we're we're bumping you back to prime time change all your flights change all your hotels so i got to bring my dad to the cool ceremony which which was not a foregone conclusion for this year or any year or ever for the rest of my life so i was very happy that i got to have him fly business class and stay in a nice hotel and and and and get all dressed up and

walk the red carpet and see cool celebrities and, uh, have good seats in the proper ceremony. And all of that is, is a fun gift that I was thrilled that I am stupid lucky enough to share with my dad. And on top of that, we got to win, which is, you know, that the, my self-worth wouldn't have dipped with a loss or anything like that. It's not wrapped up in awards. But it's undeniably more fun to win a thing than to lose a thing and to walk around with a trophy. Did you sit at a table? No, it's all theater seating. Okay.

And when you won, who spoke? Sorry. Sophia Manfredi. I did not watch it. Oh, Sophia spoke? Sorry. Sophia Manfredi. I did not watch it. Oh, so he spoke. Yeah. Oh, great. Okay, cool.

Yes. That's so exciting, Dan. And your dad had a good time? He had a great time. He worked in Penn Station for almost 40 years. So he's used to seeing a lot of people. He's used to seeing a lot of people. And particularly, he's used to seeing a lot of people he's used to seeing a lot of people and like and particularly he's seen like a million celebrities and he's he's he's you know he's he's

practically the mayor of penn station for years and he's just like talking to people and and and help them out get making sure people are not disturbed and have good seats and are taken care of and everything like that he's just a man who understands customer service and is not prone to freaking out around celebrities in a way that I am. I will clam up around famous people, but he will go right up to someone and talk to them. And clearly, they enjoy chatting with him. There are so many people that I, I, I don't want to name drop a ton of celebrities or anything like that. But, uh, at one point, uh, I was away from my dad for a while, just doing my own thing. And I came back and he was like, Oh good. You're here. Uh, Stephen Ewan from Beef and the Walking Dead wants a picture with me and I don't have my cameras. I was like, all right, I'm going to take a picture. And like, I took a great picture of my dad holding the Emmy

and Stephen Ewan holding just a giant sandwich. And, yeah and uh you know i had no idea what they talked about because i was away at the time and i just sight unseen assumed like steven was was being really nice and so i i leaned into him i was like hey whatever you guys whatever this was you. I really appreciate this. I'm a big fan. My dad's a big fan. This is really, really cool. I was like, no, no, no, no, no. Talking to your dad was a gift. I love this guy. And I'm like, what the fuck is happening?

Either Steve Ewing is being super magnanimous or your dad has a gift. I think he has a gift. I think he truly has a gift. And I was dragging gift i think he truly has a gift and i was dragging him down at the fancy hemi parties the minute he got away from you he's like all right finally yeah that that anchor is away off of my neck wow that's so exciting did you guys go to an hbo party we did yeah it was at the same place we went when you were there.

And there were lots of fancy and cool people around. And I talked to a bunch of people that I wanted to talk to and had some conversations that were longer and more in-depth than others. And it's certainly easier to talk to people if you have

the statue in your hand. Yeah, totally. Because you look less like a contest winner. A plus one. Which is how I always feel at these things. There was one, a very famous woman who I don't want to name drop or anything like that. Boy, you are so tough for you around stars that even secondhand stories, you can't even say their names. I know. I know. I'll explain off mic why I don't want to say this person's name.

Okay. But I was waiting for the one restroom at the HBO party and she started to move in front of me. And I said, oh, there's someone in there. And then she asked if I was on the line. And I said, yes, I am. But you can absolutely go ahead of me because you're much more talented than I am. And I just think you're great. So if you want to go first, you can absolutely go first. And she said, you're a gentleman. Let's see how much of a gentleman you are. I'm going to take your Emmy and I'm going to take pictures with it. And then she proceeded to take a bunch of pictures with my Emmy and then handed it back to me and then said, yes,

and I am going to use the bathroom first. And then she went to the bathroom and I talked to her partner, boyfriend for a while and had a nice chat with him. And then it reached a point where he was just like, she's in there for a really long time. I'm very sorry. Well, you got all those dresses to deal with. Sure. You don't just show up into the Emmys in your jeans jeans like it's tough it's tough even for guys but for ladies it's got to be like you're you have the under one and you've got the it's like made of tissue paper or whatever the fuck their dresses are made out of and then you gotta like lift it all up and bunch it in front of you yeah i'm i give her grace whoever this is is it grace yeah is it grace is it grace helbig is it jenna elfman

no that's dharma that's dharma is it the other one bro brook shields no fuck who is the no you're trying to get you're trying to get grace from will and grace i can do it i mean okay deborah messing yeah that's right thank you got it uh it just doesn't work the same as it used to, this old ticker. That's a heart. No. You wanted to... But I...

You know, this is important insight for people who want to see how comedy minds work in real time, that you heard... You want to give her grace, and then you went, hang on, grace, that's... My brain's going, that word means two things. That's also a name. Is it grace? Come on, Soren, what graces do you know? Grace Helbig. All right, going, that word means two things. That's also a name. Is it Grace? Come on, Soren. What Graces do you know?

Grace Helbig. All right, we got one out of the way. Yeah, but not one that would be in the Emmys. I got an internet star. Is that close? Yeah. My first one was Grace Castillo, and I was like, I can't do that one. Like, I don't.

No. Who's going to know? Your second one was Jenna Elfman, which is like, it's a really fun. A is Grace. C is Jenna Elfman. What could B be? And it's a confusion of that period of time in the 90s when there were two very popular shows that were just the names of two different male and female characters.

I see it. Thank you. You know what? I think that a lot of our friendship is based on that, Dan, is me being in the proximity of a joke and you being like, oh yeah, I get the work done there. Yeah. I mean, here's what it should be. But yeah, I get it.

I get where you were going. Well, that's exciting my math tests should have uh had that level of understanding we're just like yeah this is definitely not the answer but like you're trying and like an argument could be made yeah i see where you went wrong other than that one part we went wrong wrong, everything else is flawless. Yeah. That's exciting. I'm glad that you had a good time. I'm glad that you got to talk to us. You say you talk to the people you want to talk to.

I know what that means. It means you had people in mind that you wanted to speak to who were famous and you bucked up and you did it. Yes. So I'm proud of you in that respect as well. I feel good about that. Because I was very impressed by you when we went and we were in a room and we ended up in a room alone with Jesse Armstrong. And you were like, you just talked to him.

You're like, hey, Jesse, I'm a big fan. I work at Last Week Tonight. And you gave him all the crucial information. You were not fawning. You were great. And as a result, that became a real big conversation.

And it was so fun. It was so good to see that happen. It was. And I also certainly had to work myself up to it and not just working up courage or anything like that. just working up courage or anything like that, but also like working myself to a point where I thought this is okay. I'm allowed to do this. I had to like make a mental checklist of like, well, he's a writer and I'm a writer and we both work for HBO. And there are some writers who used to be on my show that are now on his show. So there's like, there's enough common ground there that I should be able to say something to this very

fancy person in a way that I couldn't, I wouldn't strike up a conversation with Robert De Niro or Margot Robbie. If I saw them, I would, I would just like, no, no, no, no. We're not supposed to be able to talk to each other. And that's very different than my dad's approach, who can talk to anyone, but not in a way that is fawning or impolite or an imposition. He doesn't have any kind of problem because he doesn't, I don't think he's as mesmerized with fancy people as i am yeah but he could just like he can say hey incredibly famous person you were great in this one thing that was awesome the thing you did in this movie and then he could just like have a conversation from there which is a thing that

uh for some reason i don't allow myself to do and i i, I, but seeing it in action when you're like, Hey, James Marsden, you're really great. I liked you in this thing. Jury duty was awesome. And James Marsden is like, yeah, thanks. Hey, I appreciate that. And my brain realizes, oh yeah, you're allowed to say that. And he in fact wants you to say that that's why he's here at the Emmys. It's for that show that he made that he's proud of. And like, what else are you going to talk to him about? I don't need to sit there and like stare at James Marsden from across the party and think like, okay, he didn't go to New Jersey, so I can't talk to him about that.

I don't think, I've never seen him fish, so I can't talk to him about fishing. He could be a runner. He's in shape, but I don't know. No, I don't fulfill enough requirements to talk to this person. Can I take a guess at some of the people that you really wanted to talk to and that might have been at this? Well, sure. Your first two guesses were Grace Helbig and Jenna Elfman. Yeah. And so, were those right?

Oh, for two. Okay. And so, this is not only people who would be there, but also people that you specifically would be like, I need to talk to that person. My first guess is Connie Britton. I did not, did not see or talk to. Okay. Would you have wanted to?

If you saw Connie Britton there, would you be like, I need to talk to her? Yes. Yeah. A hundred percent. See, like, I feel like Sidney Sweeney isn't even like on your radar. Sidney Sweeney is going to be like, no, I'm not doing it. Right. But Connie Britton feels like right in there.

Okay. There was one that was like the top of my list that I thought there was a chance he will be here either at the ceremony or at the HBO party. Because if you're famous famous enough you can just go to netflix amazon disney yeah any party you want that's just the rules are different for you but there's a chance he will be at one of these things and if so i will i'll i will use all of my my banked courage and say something to john mulaney oh okay and uh he was not there so i had nothing to do with my banked courage except say hello to martin short oh you talked

to martin short very briefly wait so only mirrors in the building they get invited to the hbo party i guess this is at the emmy ceremony he was at the Emmy ceremony he was at. Oh, at the ceremony. Okay. That's so exciting. We were backstage after our win, and you're not feeling any higher in the whole weekend than at that moment. And then Steve Martin and Martin Short walked by backstage and was like,

well, fuck it. I mean, like, I gotta say something right now. What did you say? What was your opener? Cena and I both talked to him. And I think Cena spoke to him first and just congratulated him on everything. And I said, well, I'm a big fan. You just have to know, I think you're the funniest person in the world. I'm a big fan.

You just have to know you're the, I think you're the funniest person in the world. And just goes, well, like very like diplomatic about it. Oh, he didn't go. Well,

I mean, top five, maybe. Yeah. No, he was very appreciative and a real class act. That's so kind of him. Yeah.

We did that with Paul of Tompkins once when we saw Michael and I, and I went, Oh yeah. And I'm like, it's like, we're just really big fans uh well didn't say it that way we're like hey we are big fans of yours uh we work at cracked he's like ah i was always a crazy man myself which is such like a quick good good line that i was like very off put by it and i was like oh i'm out of my league here everyone Everyone would say I prefer Mad. Right.

But it's a true. But he didn't go there. It's such a great extra step to pull by name one of the other Mad ripoffs from the 50s. Yeah. Without missing a beat. It is incredible. Was Nicholas Braun there? Yes.

He's hard to miss. Yeah. Yeah. He is a very skinny Andrewrew the giant andrew the giant when you're when you get to the governor's ball and you're just looking for the hbo section he's like the fact that we share space with him and alexander skarsgård it's like i don't need to look at the numbers i know where we are yeah and they i mean they feel like giants in terms of like their talent and like who they are to walk into a party like we did at the hbo party and to see um give me one second

come on man well i'm just okay is it zendaya or zendaya it's zendaya okay to see zendaya like we walked in and here's this human who is like more than human like somebody who's bigger and just better in every single way was like oh my my God, there are literal gods here. And that must be what it's like when you see somebody like Alexander Skarsgård. You're like, oh boy. She's allowed to be one name. And I don't even correct people when they get my name wrong. That's the huge gulf between us.

You don't want to get the name of a god wrong. And so I was like, I better get this right. Yeah. Well, that's super fun. Did you embarrass yourself at all? I don't think so. I think I- Did you watch anyone from-

Actually, you can answer this question on here. Yeah. I think, again, I'm so worried uh about wasting someone's time or feeling like i don't belong there that that most conversations don't last too long and i also i i also realize in the moment talking to some of these people that i've only known from watching my television and movie screens is that like, I don't have a lot of the same, uh, like transition points in conversation.

You know, like I, I want to tamp down the urge to say, so what are you working on now? Because that's such an annoying and very Hollywood question, but it's also a reasonable thing. And not from a, like,

what have you done for me lately point of view, but like, I'm curious about your career. What are you doing next so I can support it? But I also know like what a cringy question that is. So I don't ask it. But then I also think like, what am I going to say to this person? So where do you live? Oh, here in Hollywood? That's cool, man.

No, specifically. Give me an address. Not me. I think it's a fine question. It's the same. It's like a lesson we learned on the strike lines, which was like, everyone there is for the same. We're all there for the same reason. And it's okay to talk about your jobs and like what you're doing. And so the minute you meet somebody and you're like, oh, I really liked your work your work on this hey what are you doing now like that's it was totally fine i think that in that circumstance you have the white noise of fandom i think kind of dies down in like an hbo after party for the awards ceremony you know like

yeah the people that are there are there for a reason it's okay now to just like let your guard down talk about anything and so i think that those people are i don't think that's absolutely a fine question yeah it's helpful in a party setting like that where you can bring up things at the party themselves you can ask if they've been to the sushi room or been there was like live band karaoke happening in one of the rooms so there's there was certainly like stimuli for me to point to really hey look at that you see that all right good conversation did you see anyone there from Barry yeah did you did you meet anybody did you meet a guy named Duffy no okay I talked to no ho Hank oh great I really wanted to talk to him as you carry that's so cool yeah and I was looking for and I talked to the kindest man in the world,

the actor who played Cristobal. We were both online for drinks at the HBO party and he saw the Emmy in my hand and he came right up to me and said, congratulations and talked about it, asked me my name, asked me what I worked on. And we're just like a sweet and normal person. And he was aware, it was like, you know, I'm dead and the show's over. So I don't know if I'll be back at one of these parties again. And isn't this nice? And isn't it great to enjoy this and to be here? And it was like, yeah, man, it is. Oh, Cristobal. Celebrate it while you can. That's so nice. What a good guy. Yeah. All right. Well, I'm very happy for you, Daniel. I'm so glad that you won again.

I'm so happy that you get to go have this experience once a year where you are deeply uncomfortable, but I think you deserve it. Thank you. I appreciate that. Well, Daniel, I'm very happy for you. I think we can call it there. I think that's a good place to end. If you want to follow Daniel, you can go to DOB underscore Inc. He's on, he's on X. I'm not there anymore. You have to find me on blue sky,

but it's just Soren. Booey. Quick question is also on X QQ underscore Soren and Dan. We have an Instagram, which is finally got some great videos on it of us doing our thing. It's QQ underscore with underscore Soren underscore and underscore Daniel. Just search it instead. We have a Patreon, which is Patreon slash quick question.

We have a sound engineer, editor, and producer in Gabe Harder. You will find him maybe walking down the street someday, maybe at a little boutique bagel shop, but certainly not online. Our theme song is by Merex. You can their music at me, Rex dot bandcamp.com. And you can see some, Holy cow. You can see some of, uh,

uh, videos of Dan and I doing this podcast in the same room together and enjoying one another's company on YouTube. If you go to youtube.com slash at QQ podcast, that's it. Okay. Bye. it. Goodbye. Goodbye. I've got a quick, quick question for you, all right.

I want to hear your thoughts. I want to know what's on your mind. I've got a quick, quick question for you, all right. The answer's not important. I'm just glad that we could talk tonight. So what's your favorite? Who did you get? What do I be? Remember. What's it out? Who did you get? When do I be remembered?

What did I do? Where did all the good things go? Oh forget it I saw a movie, Daniel O'Brien Two best friends and comedy writers If there's an answer they're gonna find it I think you'll have a great time here I think you'll have a great time here I think you'll have a great time here