Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - Janky Flight to the Emmys | Ep. 348

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

Daniel heads to the Emmys expecting five uninterrupted hours of bad movies, only to discover his “janky flight” has no in-flight entertainment. Things improve in Los Angeles when he finally experiences the privilege of losing an Emmy — leaving him free to enjoy the ceremony, celebrate everyone else, and end the night eating Del Taco in bed while watching Big Daddy.We want to thank Mint Mobile for supporting this episode. Make the switch at http://MINTMOBILE.com/QQFollow the guys on Bluesky!https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.socialBonus episodes 2x/month at patreon.com/quickquestion OR Apple Podcasts

It's a quick question for you. Who did you have a great time? I think you'll have a great time, yeah. It's a quick question, the podcast. We were recording this on Thursday, September 10th. A lot of people already know the sad news that I'm going to bring up terrible thing happened

September 11th I just got to I just got to get ahead of it and jump into the sad news that you've probably all already heard about yes it's true are flags at half mass today I was

flying to the Emmys and the inflate entertainment was down and I couldn't watch my movies on the plane it is genuinely a really difficult loss for me. As somebody who's experienced that, Dan, as a parent, I want to say, I'm sorry for your loss. Thank you so much. It's, I'm sure I mentioned it on this podcast or if I hadn't, I, I, I'm not trying to be too cool for school or glip.

the most exciting thing this year about going to the Creative Arts Emmys to me was getting on a plane and drinking and watching movies for five uninterrupted hours watching movies that came out a few months ago

and we're sitting in this plane and the captain gets on and he was being so fucking slick about it. He was like hey I'm Captain Ted, welcome to the to the flight. We're looking at pretty clear skies. I-F-V is down right now. We have great complimentary Wi-Fi. You can connect you with the Delta app. And we will be coming around with drinks and food service shortly once we get to our cruising altitude. Again, I-F-E is down, but Wi-Fi is working. And we're all sitting around and looking at each other thinking,

I-I-F-E is not something. In-flight entertainment. We all put, we're all looking, we're all poking our screens at the same time. We're all looking at the flight attendant. And she is like shaking her head. She is, she has mentioned she shouldn't have come in to work today. She's so unhappy. She is telling all of us that we should write letters to Delta. And I'm just like, but this, but could I get off this plane and get on one with movies? Please, I don't care if I'm six hours late to L.A. I've seen L.A. I haven't seen L.A. I haven't seen Mandalorian and Grogu, I don't even know if I want to, but you're telling me I can't? I know that sometimes you will pay people to take a different flight. What if I paid you?

Yeah. I will pay you more money if you bump me. And the second bit of devastation hit a little bit into the flight. When they ran out of, my wife discovered they ran out of champagne. And I'm not a champagne drinker, but Mama is. And this was Mama's part of the trip that she was looking forward to. And again, the flight attendant, I've never seen this before. But she was like, I really have to apologize for this. Her words, janky flight. I know this is a janky flight.

And I really implore you to write to Delta and let them know. And man, Soren, I can't even start drafting this letter. I can't, in good conscience, say, dear Delta. recently I was on a free trip to Los Angeles for a work party full of other free things

and the movies were down and my and the plane ran out of champagne after my wife drank the champagne I am I am demanding what what could I be demanding how could they make it better

they could not make it better because they can't they can give me a hundred dollar credit for a Delta flight they can give me a $300 credit for a Delta flight. They can't give me five hours where my parents are watching my son and I have nothing to do and know where to go and there's a toilet right there and I can watch whatever movies just came out. They can't give this back to me.

It's already gone. So what am I doing by writing a letter? Nothing. I am just upsetting people. And I do not want to create more upset people in the world. It's hard to explain. to a non-parent, that the vacation is the flight

when you don't have kids. That's a whole big, really nice chunk because what people don't understand is like, let's say you go on vacation without children and not even vacation. This is a work thing for you. Yeah. But you are going to be spending time, downtime, wherever you go. You still are obligated to do things

during that downtime. You have to take advantage. And so you're constantly like, well, we don't have the kid like what should we be doing let's go out like let's go see a show let's go do something that we can't do when we have our child you're not allowed to do any of that on a plane you are forced to burn time and burning time is the thing you miss the most when you become a parent is just having time that doesn't matter and so you're going to watch bad movies and that's the point like the point is i want to watch a movie like manor learning grogoo that i've heard is terrible and that nobody likes because I want to like burning time is the luxury all of a sudden and I only get

that on a plane I couldn't watch mandolorean and grogou any other time in my life you're not going to see that for six years now no I would I it would destroy my marriage if my wife came home to find me watching mandolorean and grogoo while our son was at daycare yeah it It's, it's the, I've, I've joked before. Like, we, we came to New Jersey to see you. And you guys like, well, it sucks that it's raining. I was like, Dan, I would have flown here and then got on a flight and flown back just to be on a flight without my children. It's just, I mean, I love my children.

I love spending time with them. But it's this, it's this very specific thing where you, you have time to burn. And it's like this beautiful golden luxury that. you've never had for the last five or six years or whatever you, whenever, when you're, when you're, .

And so I, that was, that was the peak for me, was getting on the flight, just like looking through and being like, Marty Supreme, that seems long and bad. I'm gonna watch that.

And then watching Marty Supreme in its entirety and being like, enchanted by just the time I'm wasting. Yeah. I ended up watching Netflix on my phone on the plane, because they did have Wi-Fi. And it's Wi-Fi that, like, works. I don't think it's Wi-Fi that was designed to sustain phone streaming for five hours. So there's lots of stops and starts.

And also, I have Netflix at home. Right. I don't have Mandelorin and Grogu at home. Or maybe I do. I don't know. I think it might be on Disney Plus. It's certainly possible. But, and your wife didn't get her champagne.

either. After, or some, she got some of her champagne. And that's even worse. Yeah. Because imagine just having one, imagine going to a wedding and only having one glass of champagne and nothing else. Yeah. By the end you'd be like, why the fuck did I do that?

Why did I have one glass? I had just full of bubbles. I got all the, the ill effects of champagne and none of the benefit. We got to enjoy. That's brutal. The other parts of traveling when you have a kid. And you're right, we love our kids so much and missed him desperately and like woke up the first morning just waiting for his wake up time. And then as soon as it was like acceptable, I was texting my parents like, okay, FaceTime now.

FaceTime now? FaceTime now. And my mom was like, he's sleeping. Pressure's little angel is napping. And just like, wake him up. I need to see him. I want my son. It's all we thought about, all we talked about.

I think because another thing that we're learning at this stage of our lives, because you've talked before about having date nights with your wife seven or eight years into having children. And you have your date nights and you catch up with what's going on in each other's lives. We've not lived enough life yet that there's things worth catching up on. So we just talk about the kid. We just talk about the kid and we do, like, oh, we're at a, we're at a nice, we're at the Ritz Carlton in downtown L.A. Which we, have you ever thought about what would happen if our son died? Let's talk about it the two of us because I know we've both thought about it constantly.

Well, yeah. How would you kill yourself? Right. This is fun. If the boy was gone, how would you end? It was a lot of like, do you want my help? I would also like you and then I'd do me. The Lindsay Clancy trial stuff is going on.

And we're getting news updates about that. And Shay was like, what would happen if I killed our son? I was like, that'd be terrible. And I would, I would, um, postpartum psychosis is little understood in little research. And I would, I would come to you with empathy and make sure you got the help you needed and do whatever we could to spread awareness about this horrible thing. And then, uh, I think I'd walk into traffic. Or I would like take a boat out to sea and just, jump in because I don't because that's that's curtains for me and she's like yeah

of course I would do whatever I could to help the world understand it before I die by my own hand yeah this is not a death sentence I say with like a huge boulder strapped around my waist pushing it off the bridge my every situation is different yeah I used to have a whole stand-up set that was about the ways I would kill myself if my son died when we were kids summer meant freedom no home No work, no teachers, no school. And as adults, summer will still mean freedom thanks to MintMobil's summer sale. Right now, all of Mint's plans are $15 per month, even unlimited. So free yourself from big wireless and their gimmicks and gotchas and switch to MintMobile for high-speed data

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we got room service breakfast, and we were just sitting staring at each other in silence having our breakfast because we'd finish talking about the boy. And I said, do you want to, you want to see me catch this blueberry in my mouth? And she goes, yeah. And I threw the blueberry up,

and I caught it in my mouth. And she goes, that's very sexy. And I went, yeah. What else? What else? What other... What other... What other tricks do I have?

We should have brought a deck of cards. Yeah. Yep. We still do a lot of that, too. We still talk about our children on most dates. Yeah. Because that's what's going on in your life. But sometimes...

I mean, just having a conversation at all is impossible when your kids finally talk. Yeah. Because they hate it. They hate it when you... talk about a thing that they don't care about. It's somebody else. My daughter is six. And I'd say for the past four years,

when Colleen and I try and have a conversation, she's right in the middle of it, just like grabbing my face, being like me, focus on me. Please focus on me. This is so boring. Yeah. I feel like we are already seeing it just when my parents are over

and we're all talking together. And like talking is happening that is not directed right at him. he will follow it and then just do his like, ah, what are you doing? Okay, yeah, you're part of it too. Yes.

Yes, sir. You have the floor. How did it go with your parents? This is the first time they've had an overnight with him. Yeah, they had two overnights. And it was great. And how did it? He went great.

We were not worried about anything. He, you know, they, we have been struggling with sleep training for him trying to get him to stay in his crib because he just doesn't doesn't want to do it and we're trying to be strict and and keep him to his crib uh and that didn't you know my parents are not going to uphold that nor should they their grandparents and like if they say he doesn't doesn't want to sleep in his crib but he doesn't want to sleep in my arms and i'm going to uh stay up all night and hold him and he was like sure he can you know he will get some sleep my parents will not and that's their choice but

He is sleeping and he's happy and he's alive. And that's the important thing. And then we get back to our stupid training when we get back. I guess so. I mean, I always found that we were trying to create routines with a baby and get the baby on a routine so that they understood. And when a grandparent would come, they would know the routine, but they derailed anyway.

They were just like, that's not what I'm doing. It's not how I do it. They wouldn't derail. And then you're like working for like a week after that trying to get back. this child back on the routine. They were not derailing it consciously. I think just it's a routine that requires them to ignore a baby who's crying when you know that holding them will stop the crying.

And it's like, yeah, we're all human. That's different. Yeah. I think maybe you're also. Yeah. They're at an age where it doesn't, there is no. He's five months in change. Yeah.

Oh, he's just not growing up very fast, is he? He has got two little chum. Mumpers soaring. He's got his two bottom front teeth. It's crazy. It's great. It's so weird because he's just been like breast milk and bottle fed for his whole life. And then our last doctor's appointment, the pediatrician was like, you could start giving him some,

giving him some solids. And at first solids was very scary to me. And she's like, you know, it's like oatmeal cereal mixed in with a little bit of of breast milk or formula that just looks like goop or you could do like mashed avocado you can have him try some of that mashed bananas see what he likes and we've been doing that and now he's got little teeth and we saw the doctor again a few days ago and our doctor is very good and the most chill casual person I've ever met in my life and we were like so doc we've been doing we did avocado for three days we did the cereal for three days and and do you have a list of like what we should give

and in what order and in what amounts and she's just like, no, you can see what he likes. If you want to start doing eggs, even though it's an allergen, just see how he reacts. And maybe chicken? We're like, fucking chicken!

A whole roast chicken. What are you talking about? Well, he's going to have to learn how to carve one at some point. Yeah, because I can't do it. My hands. Get him a whole roast. You didn't learn as a child. That's the problem. This is the same thing with peanut allergies, because we're not giving the kids' peanuts. You've got to give him a whole chicken. And the carving life.

And well, electric is fine too. Whatever's going to be easiest for their little hands. But yeah, get them, getting them harvesting chicken meat pretty early. Do you, when you give him avocado, are you just Jackson Pollocking all over a tray table and he's eating it? Or do you have one of those strainer things? We have a strainer thing. What you're describing, it looks like a giant pacifier almost. Yes.

You can fill it with goop like avocado. or the cereal or whatever other food is conducive to goop. You put it in there and he can suck on that. We also offer spoons. So he can, he's starting to, he certainly grasps the idea that like, this is a thing that holds food and I put this in my mouth. He is not quite, he's not quite set yet on what side of the spoon has the food. He just knows that the spoon is the object.

And he's definitely a little ways off from like, I can use the spoon as a tool to get the food. We are still scooping it up for him. And I'm trying really hard to show, like, you will soon be in control of how much food you can get. And isn't that, isn't that exciting to you? He can intentionally bring his hand to his mouth, though, right? Yes. So, I mean, this was a thing that was always so surprising to me with both children was, when you're teaching them to eat, it's not intuitive to them.

We think about like you put food on your lips. Getting that food from your lips to your throat, easy. That feels a priori. Like that's just something that we all know how to do. Turns out we didn't. It turns out like they have no idea what to do. Their tongue is just this thing in their mouth they don't understand. Like they can get, if you give it to them on a table and they just like put their hand in it.

And they're not even totally confident where their mouth is. and they'll get it kind of like maybe on their lips or some, if you're lucky, you get a big chunk of something in their mouth. And then you just watch it, just orbit the tongue for a while. And like they don't know where to go with it. They're just moving it around. Sometimes it's falling right back out. They don't know.

We're moving in one direction here. We're all like, we're pulling back into the throat. There's no concept of that for them. And so you have to teach them basically like the nutrients go back that way. You got to get them that way. We've got to make some progress. Meanwhile, I was driving him home from daycare the other day, and I'm looking in my mirror that can look into the mirror that faces him in the back seat. And I watch him perfectly as if he was born to it, lift his foot up, take his sock off with his hand, put his sock directly into his mouth, and I'm like, fuck!

You have to pull over and get the socks away from him. Don't, no, no, no, you're gagging yourself. Hang on, buddy. You understand so much of your power. except when it's like the things that I actually want you to put in your mouth then it's then it all goes out the window extraordinary

I would give Ronan we would have you know bottles of Advil and you when they rattle right and you're like harmless because how's you going to get into that and I would give it to him in the car to play with till I got out of the car and there was just Advil all over him

I was like what the fuck did you do that should we go to poison control now How many of these did you eat? That's designed to thwart an older child. Yeah, yeah. Just cracked it. So you're kind of happy with them at the same time.

You're like, ah, you got that saga. That was pretty good. Let's remember that. I'm glad that he's eating solids. I'm really excited because you got those two perverse teeth. Those are always the first ones, those bottom two. The next ones can be very exciting, Daniel, because you'll either get the incisors on the top,

or you'll get the eye teeth on the top like the canines on the top I think actually yeah canines and so sometimes you'll have a little vampire baby where he just has like these two sharp teeth on the that's the only thing on the top it's in the vampire spots and when they smile it's the funniest thing to see a little vampire baby smile I think teeth showing up early not early it's not like there's he's a strange baby

teeth developmentally being one of the first big changes is so funny and bizarre to me because they just seem they seem like they should come much later in my head you know he's not talking he's not he's scooting and like rolling over and wriggling on the ground but he's not crawling he's not really controlling where he goes and then suddenly he's got these like like fucking chompers. These teeth. It seems like you, like, it almost feels like I'd wake up one day to see he had a five o'clock shadow.

It would be like, ah, get that. What? That's for men. Yeah. He's got like grinders in his mouth. These, like dad let's get, let's get some stakes of petrilles together. Just a toothpick hanging out of there? What are doing with that?

Well, I, I'm happy things are going well. I'm happy that he's doing well. And I'm really, really sorry about your loss on the plane. Disasterous Emmy's trip. We also lost the Emmy, but that is of less consequence to me. And we're going to talk about it this whole episode. I almost put it behind a Patreon, but I guess it all. Not really that.

I mean, I wasn't. I mean, I wasn't clocking. We also, by the way, decided to continue our illustrious tradition of losing. I wanted to know, because we didn't really talk about leading up to the Emmys this time. The Emmys have just sort of like have become a foregone conclusion for your show, that you go and you win every single year. That must be nice. I imagine that that's great, but I also imagine that it gets monotonous. And this was the first year where there was a show that this was their swan song, where.

where that everybody everybody was mad that this show was pulled right talking about Colbert they won they won big night one of the Emmys for writing for a variety of years for directing I think maybe for picture editing too

and their digital team might have won something as well it was a huge night it was very fun I I hate to correct you there was another um

another swan song season of a show No, when Conan, I mean, he ended on his own terms. So it was different. There wasn't as much of like the groundswell of support of people who felt like. Yeah, we'd be politically disastrous for the guild not to give this to. But yeah, we thought Conan's team was going to win years ago. And we were always like, good, yeah, that's great.

Give, we all, everyone in comedy around my age is in comedy directly or indirectly because of Conan O'Brien. So we're like, great. His team deserves as many awards as there are. And they didn't get one. But Colbert's team got one this year, which was very nice. And I, there are a bunch of, I think it's going to sound, when I get my thoughts out, I think it's going to sound like I'm being over the top magnanimous and poly about the whole thing. So I will start with the part where I'm not and just say that like I was hoping we'd win for the sheer reason that like winning it feels better than losing. Like there's no question about it that like I went into that ceremony even though I've gone into every one of these Emmy ceremonies knowing inside my heart. If we lose it doesn't matter. If we win it doesn't matter.

It's not going to change the quality of, like how I view the quality of our work. It's not going to change the process of the work. It's not going to change how I view myself win or lose. It's not going to change my life or my business. And it's okay. I still love myself no matter what. But it would feel better to win. I went into all of these.

Like, it's okay if we lose. it would be nice to win because it feels better. Like I'm not going to pretend it doesn't feel good to walk around with a trophy and to have people say congratulations to you all night. It feels awesome. That said, I've never walked into one of these things, hoping I would lose.

I have multiple times, uh, I've wanted to have lost for a number of reasons. One is, is we've been winning a, bunch and it it really bothers people that we've won many times in a row there have been who's it bothering variety and holly reporter and fucking matt blow me at the at the at puck and whatever just all these people who every year he's making snide comments about how four years people write articles

about how boring our category is less the writing and more like variety late night in general but I also consider myself part of the show as well for writing late night and when people write these articles which they've been doing since 2018 saying wouldn't it be great if last week tonight lost it's so boring get some new blood in there

get rid of these people and it's like yeah totally or wouldn't it be wouldn't it be nice if they won though and I and I'm really sorry that it bothers you that we've won before and I know you'll be upset if we win again. But can you just keep that in your heart and not write articles about it every year? Because we see all of them. We see all of the articles where people talk about how great it would be for us to lose.

People hate dynasties, man. They hate dynasties. And they hate them because they're not them. Sure. They hate them because they ain't them. So I'm excited that I feel like losing will stop people from being bored. and annoyed by us for however long that's going to go. I also, I'm happy to have it under the belt because like every year that we've won was like,

it felt like we were getting taller and the fall when we lost would be louder and hit harder. So I've been also quietly thinking just like, let's just bite the bullet and lose and then not have this weird pressure that we try not to feel but sometimes feel. Another reason that I was happy about losing. When you win, which I've done seven times, the night is a blur. They call your name, you're on stage, your adrenaline is crazy, and you're getting, you get whisked backstage, you're signing out a trophy, you're getting your picture taken backstage a lot, you're celebrating the coworkers. Your your your your your head is out of your fucking body and you feel good.

You're getting a million texts and you're sending a million texts and you're walking around with the trophy and strangers are after the show at the parties, they, they are talking to you, they want to hold it, they want to take your picture, they want to ask your name, they want to find out what you won for, they find out what you won for and they're like, and they walk away. And the whole night is like this weird, buzzy, very positive, adrenaline blur. Once we lost, I felt like I got to be more present than I've ever been at one of these

ceremonies. And I was like, all right, we lost. And the energy emanating from the Late Show team was infectious. And like they kept winning all night and it was so exciting to watch them win. and collect their long overdue flowers. And it was fun to bask in that and also completely separate from them. As I'm sitting at this show being present,

it's just like, it's cool. I was talking to my wife about it afterwards that it was just like, this is, this is where I want to be. I want to be in the TV room with all the TV people. and they're so I'm really listening to every speech and it's the Creative Arts Awards

so they're these are not properly televised and they're people that don't ordinarily get big stages and big speeches and big recognition and they're so pumped the the speeches from the winners

are just so genuine genuine and and earnest and I'm just in this room like taking in all of the joy from all from these people who work hard all year and maybe didn't never expect an Emmy and now they're holding one and they're on the stage and there's famous people in the audience and it's and it's and it's just this this this insane amount of energy that now that I'm actually like conscious and present for it was just like this this is this this this is the this is the the community of hardworking creative psychopaths that I've always wanted to be in a room with and surrounded by. And I was, and I just felt right about it. And at the, the parties afterwards, continuing that

same trend of like, I'm not walking around with a trophy getting stopped every couple of seconds. I'm just genuinely taking in this space and talking to my coworkers and talking to other people that talked to Scott Gairdner for a while because he and Aaron were there and just catching up with. What was he working on? He worked on the Oscars. He did the last two Oscars. And I believe he was here. He was nominated for that. And Bad Bunny halftime Apple TV Super Bowl show swept all of the categories for like. live variety thing okay but he was also he was just like he was pumped to be there and it was fun talking to him and and I don't know that I would have had as coherent a conversation with him if I if I'd won and and had like weird emmy buzz on my brain um and instead I got to have it and I got to be present and and run around and enjoy and and pay attention to things and and just like

re remind myself that the the emmys are fun and winning an Emmy is very cool but I still I'm so committed to and in love with writing that like winning an Emmy is not it's a good reminder that winning enemy is not the reason to do it. And it's not the thing that I love about this job or this industry. And it's still like being in rooms with creative people who are excited to work and see their work rewarded. And it was nice and it was fun. And the Sorin, after that, my wife and I danced because there was a band at the party. And then after that, Soren, went back to the hotel and ordered Del Taco Sorin.

Yeah, you did. We sure did. You don't have that. I don't have that on these coasts. And I was like, do I want one of the chicken French fry burritos or do I want the steak French fried burrito and brother? Oh, you didn't do a big fat chicken taco? No, I got two burritos.

Those are back, baby. I got two burritos. I got the chicken and steak French fry burrito. And I ate them in bed watching Big Daddy on the hotel television. Oh, that's a perfect movie for a hotel. Well, I'm happy for you, Daniel. I'm happy that you got to, for so long. Other people have had the privilege and you have not of celebrating the night as a loser.

And I'm just happy that you finally got that privilege. It's awesome. That's how I spent the Emmys. That's when I went with you was I, I, it was somebody else's wedding. And that's like a really nice thing to be because you're not, it isn't whirlwind. You get to experience everything. You get to really take in all the speeches and everything. It's wonderful.

It was, the Emmys was great for me. And I'm glad that you finally get that opportunity. Finally. And it's nice to hear. hear, it's nice to know you were there having that because it's hard for me sometimes to find representation in television. And so knowing that there was a loser also there was like, that's really, that's good for me as well. As a kids like me who, and you know, who just want to see themselves out there. It's not just me. A loss for me is a loss for all of us. For everyone out

there just like us, we all lost that night. Yeah. And it was good. It was a good thing. Did you go to an HBO party? No, for the creative arts ceremony, there is no HBO party. It's just the ceremony and then the guff on the Scala. Okay, so that's why you would dance and then had Del Taco. I was like, oh, Dan. Can I tell you, there's a huge piece missing. Can I tell you a genuine highlight for me, Soren?

Yeah, yeah, people follow me on Instagram already know this, but you don't, so it'll be fun for you. there's no host for the creative arts Emmys. There are presenters for different awards, and sometimes it's some, forgive me, nobody, someone I've never heard of who is just going up and saying, Webster's Dictionary defines editing

as putting their things in order. And here's the person who did it the best. Nobody's writing jokes for them. But every once in a while, they will have a ringer come in and present like, five awards and they'll do some bits like Wanda Sykes did a bunch

Jaliel White did a bunch and there was a duo that came up and did four or five awards with some honest to goodness bits and it was as if this night was designed for me two of the guys from those progressive commercials about

turning into your parents in character stories I was so fucking stoked I almost gave them a standing ovation I heard on this Because they're like the guy who's helping them and then one of the and then the other person was one of the shorter guy with the glasses and and and and the tech fest and and Got it. They just came out and they did they they stayed in character and they presented their awards and in between awards. They did bits and I was like this is this. I? I love these men. I want this. Are these commercials? Are these commercials saving commercials? Can I?

Um, oh man, that sounds wonderful. I do. I mean, that's that's that's like the the high. of commercialdom right now. So I'm so happy you got to see that. It's my favorite show. Just wait until they have a Ted Lasso show that sucks so bad. And you have to watch it because you feel like you've already hooked your horse to that wagon. Well, Daniel, I'm sorry you didn't win. That's okay.

I mean, you've won a lot. I think it's fine. I'll say that each time that you won and you are sad that the entertainment, industry was coming down on the show like that, you deserve to win. The reason the show kept winning, nobody wants a show to keep winning like that. It's not good for the television. It's not good for TV. It's not good for anything. So nobody wants that to keep happening. But that's why when you're the team that does it, how much more amazing it is every single year that you do it, that you're forcing them. They have no choice. It would be crazy for them not to give it to you again

because it's such a good show. And that should be a testament to all of the work that you've done. since 2019. You started on the show? Yes, yes. That's wild. And you know what? It's going to, what's really going to piss people off is that you guys are going to bounce right back next year. And everyone's going to be angry again.

Oh, who knows? Yeah, yeah, we say that. I mean, just like, I'm not saying that. Who knows if late night variety will be a genre of television next year? Right. It's entirely possible. You'll all get canceled for political reasons. We submit every year.

Did you know that? Not a lot of people know that. American Dad submits. I, because night two of the creative arts, Emmys, to which I'm not invited, they have other awards for, like, guest actor and actress,

and they also have animated, and I was just looking through the program to see, like, Bob's Burgers and Simpsons and South Park, and I forget whomever else. And I wondered if American Dad submits or,

if there's like any kind of FYC push that's the difference is that we know so we learned this at cracked when we would win Webby's that there's a campaign that has to go along

with whatever you're producing so you make the thing and then there's like an active campaign around award season to make sure that people are aware of it and that people within the industry or if it's audience choice like the people are voting for it. And Daniel, we don't even do campaigns for our show airing.

Yeah. Like, there's no campaign out there. It's like, hey, the show's coming back. They rarely tell you when your episode is going to be on. This is how insane our release schedule is, is that we're now releasing two episodes on Sundays, but Sundays that are separated by about two or three months. So this show just gets, I don't understand it at all. I don't think that there is a rhyme and reason to it.

It just gets thrown up when it gets thrown up. There's no such thing as a prepare anymore. There's no such thing as a season finale. There's nothing. There's just like the show goes up when it goes up. And occasionally, like, if you wanted to watch it and you're like, all right, I watched it on Sunday at 8. Now I know when it's on. Good fucking luck.

Because next Sunday, it's going to be a rerun of Simpsons. And you're going to be like, what? So we don't even do campaigns for ourselves. We don't even do it. There's no merchandise. There's nothing for a script. show like ours. We're not making stuffed animals or we're not making

key chains and things that people can buy. If you wanted a American Dad T-shirt, you got to get it from somebody on staff because we're the only ones who have them because they make them for us at Christmas every once in a while. They make them in batches of 120. I will say

because I live in New Jersey and we don't have billboards for many things. And that's very different life than when you're in Los Angeles. And when And my wife and I were walking around downtown L.A. looking for stuff to do. I did see a poster for Fox Animation Domination. And Stan Smith was there.

Oh, my God. And I pointed and said to Shay, I said, Shai, I said, Soren. She goes, what? I go, demand. Stan. I just want to say, such a huge honor to be on this bus bench. This is a dream come true for. me. This took a long time to get here, everybody, and thank you very much. It's so,

it's still very funny to me the idea to even have a billboard for something as quaint and expired as the Fox Sunday animation domination, like block, like a themed night, as if people don't stream everything whenever they fucking feel like it. So people are walking by and they're like, oh yeah, Sunday means animation on Fox at night. And not whenever I want.

You know what, but I don't want them to ever stop. No. I want those things to go on forever for the 15 people that are still watching stuff when it comes on. They all have Nielsen boxes. I, man, I love that there are people out there that are just like watching broadcast television.

And like they're getting excited about TGIF or whatever. Yeah. Or Saturday morning cartoons or, yeah, animation domination. Like they're like, oh, this is the night when all my favorite stuff is on. I got to be home for it. We got home. Our Emmy night was Saturday and we got home Sunday. We left as early as possible so we can get back to our boy.

We had some burgers with my parents. Cooper went to bed. Shea went to bed. I was still wired and awake. And so I was just sitting down, stair, is reading my book and then I realized like, oh, it's almost 9 o'clock. I will tune to HBO and watch lanterns on television right now, like a person, like I used to have to do for shows that I liked.

And it was really unpleasant and not a thing that I want to do. I find, so when I'm writing, I'm out on outline right now for my episode, which means like I'm in the thick of it. and while I'm writing, I occasionally will go back and on my lunch breaks and stuff just watch the show because it's good to have the voice reminder

in your head of like the cadence and the speed of the show and how everyone sounds. God. And I'll watch recent episodes. I'm so jealous. A, that you get to have different voices and B, that you need a refresher

because yours isn't in your head all the time. Yeah. Yeah. I dream in a British monologue now. And so I will, I'll watch episodes, like recent episodes. And I don't, I'll be honest, most of the time I'm not seeing these when they get beyond the color stage, which is like one of the stages where it's not totally done, but you still have to do a rewrite on it. And so you're fixing all the stuff that still feels a little wonky or weird. And you're cutting for time.

when I'm watching them actually as they exist on Hulu with the music and with everything, everything looking very smooth and good and the jokes polished, I'm like, you know what, I like the show. I would watch this. It's a good show. Yeah. I occasionally will watch it and just be like watching it and then hear a joke and be like, that's my joke.

I wrote that. I forgot that was in here. I forgot that my joke was in here. And like, what a treat that is to just be watching television and to see something that you're like, oh, that was the thing I just said in a room once. Do you recognize it because you remember saying it? Or do you know what your jokes sound like?

Because, like, it's, it will be the funniest thing to you personally in the same way that, like, no. Not as an ego thing, but in the same way that, like, when I was in a band, we made our favorite music because it was us making it. It was like we sounded like the kind of music that we wished existed. But you hear a joke that's yours and you just remember pitching or writing it? No. No, I remember being there on the day.

I remember when, like I remember saying it. I remember having said it. I remember it's like it is my train of thought clearly. But I'm not, I've never had a joke in mind, said a joke and still love the joke the joke the minute I said it because I thought of it. It's already done. it's like, I'm not going to laugh. Like, there's nothing funny about it to me anymore.

Now the hope is that somebody else gets some joy out of it. Yeah. But like, I don't find any of my jokes funny. The minute they come out, I'm like, well, that's done. We had every once in a while on our show, um, my, my wife loves to, to play which joke is. Is this a Daniel show? Yeah. Um, well, it's, and I'm like, be insulting.

Episodes where, uh, I'm one of the main writers. it's obviously easier for both of us to do that game. There are plenty of episodes to which I've contributed jokes. And I don't watch every episode, so I don't know what makes it into every script unless I was like actively in a rewrite on someone else's story or something. And when we're doing gangs jokes,

we're all just like throwing a million jokes at the wall, ignorant to what the bosses pick. we also, we will sometimes do gangs months, maybe years before an episode airs. So a lot of it gets, gets, a lot of it I don't know, a lot of it gets lost to time. My memory is not so great with things. And a few weeks ago, there's a joke in an episode that I,

I definitely know I wasn't one of the writers on that episode. But that doesn't mean I didn't do gangs at some point for it. Right, right. But immediately after the episode aired, my wife was texting me the next day, and she was like, this was your joke. And I said, no, I, I've been doing other stuff all week. It wasn't me. And then each of my parents individually reached out later that week. And they're like, this is your joke. And I said, no, again. And somebody else reached out. And then I was like,

maybe. And at this point, yes, you know what? Yes, it was. That's my joke. Yeah. Because. Yeah. I either wrote it and forgot. about it or someone was trying to write the kind of joke I'd write and in which case I'll take that too I'm my I yeah I mean these are the that's what I'm talking about I know my episodes I know which episodes I wrote I also know which episodes I help break yeah like I can see I can see the fingerprints on stuff right and so you can see like oh yeah I remember when we came up with that in the room or I remember when we pitched and we got stuck and then we found this but but yeah the circumstances

in which I just see a joke is it's always because I didn't work on that episode at all At one point, that joke came to our room. And they're like, hey, give us a bunch of jokes for this. And we all wrote 15 jokes for it. And, well, not all, 15 in total. Not every single one of us is right. 15 jokes. And so, and then sometimes you don't even get to read that to the other room.

Sometimes, like, they just take it and they just, you're going to pick one of the, we call them Cougars. Right. So that's an episode, like, you didn't touch. You're just like, you're along for the ride. You're kind of aware of the episode. You maybe saw some of one of the rewrites. You were there for one of the rewrites. but like you didn't you weren't there structurally and you weren't there for what the jokes were going to be when they were breaking it and then all of a sudden on television there's one of your jokes that's like in the wild that surprises you and you're like hey hey it's a really good feeling a joke that i've written a like a strange completely out there joke about um eating Pokemon that uh

that I'm sure I snuck into a gang's dock at some point weeks ago. And then I'll see it in an episode about police unions. Like, oh, fuck, that's where that went? Oh, what a serious episode. I'm sorry, everybody. Wow. Wow. We should just have some sort of rules about where mine are allowed to go.

I'm sorry you didn't win. I'm glad that you got to have the experience that I had at the Emmys. That's okay, Sorin. I'm happy to do it. I feel great. And here we go. Because eagle-eyed listeners know that flights don't just go to a place.

They also come back from a place. And they're wondering, did my flight on the way home have IFV? Did my United Flight have In-Flight Entertainment? And listeners and Soren, it did. and yeah, I watched Mandalorian and Grogu two out of ten stars. Pretty bad stuff. When I went to see you in Jersey, my wife and I were obviously set separately because we didn't pay the extra $20 per seat to sit together.

And when I went to the front desk, I was like, hey, is there any way of my wife and I could be together? The person was like, I got you. And put us in an exit row, put us in like great seating. And I was like, this is great. our trip there was wonderful. The trip home, the flight tried to board, couldn't board because somebody spilled something in the plane and it had gotten to the electrical circuitry. And like it took them a while to figure out. They finally let us on.

This was a plane where they were not going to make the same accommodations for me and my wife. So we were separate. I was in a middle row. And luck would have it, Daniel, that I was in the seat that got spilled on. So everything was down for just me. Man. Everything was down. I couldn't even charge or anything like that.

Everything was taped up. My screen was all taped up and my outlet and everything. And it was just me in a middle row and everybody else watching whatever the fuck they wanted. And I had to, but again, you come prepared. I rewatch some Breaking Bad on that flight. I had the best experience on the return flight. I watched the terrible Mandalorian movie. And then I watched that pressure movie.

This is for different reasons a movie I never thought. I thought I'd see for 10 years. It's the one starring Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser as Eisenhower. And it's about D-Day. And Andrew Scott is the world's best meteorologist. And they're like, we want to go on Monday. And he's like, well, you can't do it. I can't tell you that the weather's going to be good on Monday.

And like, we found a meteorologist. It's cocky American meteorologist who says we can. Well, I'm, but I'm quiet and unlikable. I say you can't, this is the whole movie. It's awesome. I was so, so pumped to see it. Yeah, that's wonderful. Yeah, weather was a big deal on D-Day. There was a huge deal. And there's really only, there's really only one conversation in that movie. And it's Chris Messina is the hot shot American Weatherman who is like, I have lots and lots of charts that show historical weather. And it says that it's going to be good on Monday.

and Andrew Scott, the pessimist, better meteorologist that no one likes. He's like, the charts don't mean anything here in Europe. Charts make sense in places with more consistent weather patterns, but in a place like this where weather patterns change all the time, the charts don't matter. They have that conversation once in the beginning and then 10 more times throughout the movie. Christmas scene just keeps coming back with the charts, and it's just like, but,

well if if you didn't believe this argument the first time then then I don't I don't know what I can do all we can keep saying like I I will come with a whole lot of information that says it's going to rain on Monday and you return once again

with charts and I don't know what to do can't do anything with it see you tomorrow where we'll have this argument again somebody wrote the shit out of that movie it's somebody somebody got that script and they were like oh fuck okay all right how am I going to

stretch this over 90 minutes. And they did. And it's great. And it's fucking awesome. And my co-worker, Owen, his wife is out of town. And he was like, hey, what movie should I watch? And I was like, oh, wife gone. Man, you want a movie where men talk to each other? I got you, buddy. It's pressure. Watch pressure. Watch air. Watch Ford versus Ferrari. This is what you got to do.

Wife is gone. Go nuts. I'm in the middle of a roof man. When I say in the middle, I mean, like, I've been watching over the course of four days in between my breaks of writing. Writing letters to your future self, my dear is Sorin. It has been so long since Roofman began. I fear I will never see the end of this film. I'm having a hard time remembering where we met Kirsten Dunst at the beginning,

so I'm not really confident on how they're together. Juno Temple, tell me, is she grown now? Has she friends? All right. Well, thank you, everybody for listening. This has been quick question with Sorin and Daniel. You knew that. If you liked our theme song, that's by me, Rex.

If you want to watch this podcast, you can do it on YouTube. If you want more of it, you just can't get enough. We have a subscription wall. And if you pay, that wall falls down. You can become a Patreon subscriber. And there's a whole other episodes that no one else gets to hear. Oh, yeah. And lastly, yeah, go ahead.

If you go to Patreon, I will tell you the celebrity that was on my co-worker's flight to the Emmys, it will surprise you, and I will tell you what they were watching on the plane, which will blow your fucking mind. That's only on the Patreon. Okay. Yeah, lastly, I just want to say a special thanks

and shout out to our deucer. The deuce. The deuce. We didn't clear that. Well, I'm flying it. going to give it a little test flight first. See how it works. And if we don't like it and you don't hear it again, it's because we did not like it. That's McKenzie Mazzell. She's got a podcast of her own called Don't Make It Worse that you should also check out. Thank you everybody. Goodbye.

I think you remember. 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.