The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast - Japanese Office
Episode Date: December 16, 2024The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers talk about the digital short, The Japanese Office! Plus, they talk about memories with Steve Carell hosting, what it was like having Ricky Gervais on as part of The J...apanese Office, Usher performing, and other fun anecdotes from sketches like Bless this Child, Yankee Stadium, Paul and Gene, and more! The Japanese Office - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmTfxyoEqAcMonologue: Rainn Wilson on the Differences Between SNL and The Office - https://youtu.be/QC0acqbjizI?si=4mZB0npxIoh96jf9Weekend Update: Sen McCain - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoRkXVsni1ICPR Class - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtmlCJ25lGgCommencement Open - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WPwGGoR5S0Bless this Child - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDKCKWdBbj0(Not all the clips we mention are available online; some never even aired.) If you want to see more photos and clips follow us on Instagram @lonelymeyerspod. Send us an email! thelonelyislandpod@gmail.com Support our sponsors:AirbnbVisit Airbnb.com today and book a guest favorite.  These are the most beloved homes on Airbnb.  Aura FramesSave on the perfect gift by visiting AuraFrames.com to get $35-off Aura’s best-selling Carver Mat frames by using promo code ISLAND at checkout. This deal is exclusive to listeners, so get yours now in time for the holidays! Terms and conditions apply. Produced by Rabbit Grin ProductionsExecutive Producers Jeph Porter and Rob HolyszLead Producer Kevin MillerCreative Producer Samantha SkeltonCoordinating Producer Derek JohnsonCover Art by Olney AtwellMusic by Greg Chun and Brent AsburyEdit by Cheyenne JonesMix and Master by Jason Richards
Transcript
Discussion (0)
I'm gonna start. Here's what's going on right now.
It's a big day.
Not only do we have a guest joining the pod,
but also Yorm's back, everybody.
Pew, pew, pew, pew.
Yeah.
Last day tomorrow, guys. Let's shoot.
Oh.
So back on the pod still in Finland,
and Yorm, let me just say, we missed you a lot,
and I've heard from people who enjoy the pod.
It was a nice dramatic built-in arc
that you were sort
of both in Finland and didn't understand time zones. It was all of a sudden our
podcast had a like serial element to it. Yeah and then I got drunk and then I
disappeared which you know could have been related to that you know. They had
a story arc to it. I do really like that when you get drunk you will find the
nearest celebrity and drag them to do a podcast.
Immediately.
Well, that guy's pretty willing, I gotta say.
I feel like there are nights you've been drunk
where you have then texted us all,
hey, you know, I can bring this person too.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's like you're at a bar talking to someone
being like, you wanna do a podcast?
I was considering doing it with Juliette Lewis,
but I was like, ah, no, I won't do it again.
I won't do it again.
Oh, bummer, that would've been good.
I'll see you about tomorrow then.
Hey, Lutz, you want to say hi,
and then we're going to do the intro to the show.
Hi.
The Lonely Island Seth Meyers Podcast.
This is the Lonely Island and Seth Meyers
with John Lutz podcast.
Now, Lutz, what year did you join the SNL writing staff?
2004.
You were also on 30 Rock and I never remember,
what was your character's name?
Lutz.
Right. Yeah, it's a bit of a stretch.
I feel like you did remember that, Seth.
I maybe did.
Typecasting.
I remember when they just started 30 Rock and they were like,
we just need basically background actors who you will be in the writers room in the show, the fake writers room.
Interrupt me if I'm wrong, but I remember this because Liz did it for a little with
you.
Yes, that's correct.
It was just basically like them realizing on 22 episodes of the season, we're going
to see these background actors.
So wouldn't it be nice if it was people we like, as opposed to just randomly casting background actors.
But we can't pay them as actors because they're not going to have lines,
they're just going to be there.
Yes.
Then that slowly grew to you actually being a character on the show,
because you were right there and you're funny and they're like,
well, why not throw them some stuff?
For the pilot, Tina said she wanted to cast it all with people she
could trust with a line if she needed to give it to them.
Right.
Then when it got picked up, she was like,
oh, I have an episode that I want to write for you
where you'll call me the C-word.
Because I don't want any of the regular cast members
to be hated by the fans.
Oh, good.
So that was great.
Give it to Lutz.
But yes, for the first two years, I think,
I was paid, well, I would be paid as a principal if I had a line,
or I would be paid as an extra if I didn't.
And so for our listeners, a principal,
like as in the principal of a school?
Oh, jeez.
And what is a principal's salary?
$32,000 a year.
Private school, then public.
Oh, you're still on that.
Yeah.
Couldn't you tell?
It's weird that they either pay you as a background actor
or as a principal of a public high school.
Yeah.
I completely agree, Kiva.
I completely agree with what Akiva said.
It's a weird scale.
It's part of why we went on strike.
Yeah.
The extras actually make more money than a principal does.
Yeah, that's how bad the public school system is.
Wow.
So Lutz, this was a time in your life
where you were sitting around in writer's room
as a full-time job,
and then you would sometimes get days off
and you would use those to go pretend to be a writer
sitting in a writer's room all day.
Yes, named Lutz.
Yeah. In bell suits.
With all the same, like the set was the same,
the carpets looked like 30 rock carpets,
the elevator bank was the same, everything was the same.
It seems like the beginning of a Charlie Kaufman movie
where you have a job playing yourself.
After work, you go and play yourself on a TV show.
On a set of the exact same job.
It's really weird.
And you never sleep.
I mean, I guess you're a severance.
Maybe you're ahead of the curve on severance.
Are you a severance?
I was a severance.
You were a severance?
Yes.
So which LUTs did we get?
Did we get above ground LUTs or below ground LUTs?
You got above ground LUTs.
Gotcha.
Sorry, there's a squirrel right outside my window.
That's what you get with above ground LUTs.
You see animals.
I mean, we can't see it.
So if you hadn't mentioned it, it would have just came in.
He doesn't understand podcasts.
Seth, should we do a little pop culture roundup
before we jump in?
Yeah, let's do a pop culture roundup.
All right, New York Magazine SNL cover came out.
Seth, you happy with your photos in that?
I am not super happy, but it could have been a disaster,
so I will take middle of the road.
Here's what I'm least happy about my photo, Andy.
Yeah.
I mean, again, each one of us was in a photo with 10 absolute legends, right?
And for whatever reason,
I'm the only person who's looking off
as if there's more interesting people elsewhere.
Oh, is that the problem you have with it?
Well, what do you got?
Oh, I love it.
What is your problem with mine?
No, I thought you looked totally fine.
Clearly there's something.
I did not like that I was looking off
and it looks like I have like two chins.
Understood.
I mean, I think the whole spread to me
is, like, kind of a fun fever dream.
Yeah.
I mean, I will say that David Lashabelle, like,
blown out color thing that he's been doing for a long time.
It's kind of fun to see my...
I mean, that was the only way you and I
were gonna get photographed like that.
I tend to agree.
Were you there at the same time?
No.
No.
At SNL, yes, we worked with you.
There were a bunch of different days apparently shot in different groups.
And then maybe even some people that couldn't make one of those days who were airdropped
in or something.
Yeah, there were a couple of airdroppers.
I saw Steve Martin afterwards and he said, if you told people who was in that photo,
they would all say, I bet it was so much fun. And it wasn't even a little
bit fun. And that's really the true thing because we're all standing there. By the way,
I'm sure I got caught laughing at somebody off camera, which is why I'm looking the wrong
way. You know, everybody's both in their head about they don't want to have a bad picture,
but also they're around people that they want to be funny around. It was not fun. It was
stressful.
I had a nice easy time. I was clumped with Billy Crystal and Lorraine Newman, both of
whom had so much chill it really put me at ease. Oh, that's nice to hear. And we just kind of
gently chatted through the chaos and didn't do anything crazy pose-wise. And you know,
it was good to see people. It was very nice to see people. I'd like to present an area for a spicy
take from either of you.
How do we feel about Alec Baldwin and Malaney's inclusion?
So we got to the bottom of that.
They wanted a few five-timer hosts.
Yeah.
There's the two of them.
There's Walken, Candice Bergen.
And is that four or five?
That's four.
Well, Steve Martin.
Oh, it's Steve Martin.
Yeah.
Okay.
I will say the other thing that was really fun.
I was standing next to Tina and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
And again, David Loeschbeil,
it's not surprising that he blasts music
at his photo shoots.
No.
But also, at one point they were both screaming,
none of us can hear you.
And it was just really fun to watch those two
just sort of take charge.
Yeah. And it's just in general, the those two sort of take charge. Yeah.
And it's just in general, the idea that, I don't know,
this group needs music to have fun.
And in general, we're also just less fun than I'm sure
David Lashabel thought.
I'm sure people were saying to him, like, oh my god,
was it so funny?
And I'm sure he's like, no.
Well, also, they're blasting like, we are family.
Where everyone in there is just like,
we're the most cynical dead inside people on the planet.
Did he play music while you took your single?
Yeah, I'm sure.
Disaster, because he's like, what kind of music do you like?
And I'm like, I'm not gonna tell you,
and I don't wanna do this.
Like Wilco.
Exactly, I'm like, no.
You're like, now I'm in the mood.
And then I'm like, I don't know, like 90s hip hop.
And then he started playing it, and immediately someone,
I won't say the name,
was like, what, this is your music?
What?
That's a sweet brand.
So that was a real flashback.
Sure, sure, sure, yeah.
To the early aughts.
Dunking all over you for your taste in music.
Should have gone over and been like, I don't know, man,
just play whatever somebody else likes.
You're like, they like it on Broad City, dude.
Yeah, dude.
So just totally stressed out the whole time.
Okay, and then something else that happened today,
Spirit Award nominations came out.
I'm just wondering how they gonna not nominate Beetlejuice?
Seemed like the best spirit of the year to me.
Oh yeah.
Oh wow. Wow.
Wow. It took a second.
I was sitting on that for three hours.
Yoram, where's the air horn, bro?
Wait, hold on, hold on.
That deserved it.
The other thing about that was Andy, again,
really impressive that you put that second
in the pop-cult roundup.
Because again, you're just like a Mexican jumping bean
over there trying to get that joke out.
And right after you said it, you took a big swig of water.
Had to.
That's what I was going to point out.
Had to. It was like he was on stage.
So he couldn't follow it up.
Post-bit goal. You got to wait for everyone to applaud. I think it's the anticipation of it That's what I was gonna point out. It was like he was on stage. So he couldn't follow it up.
You gotta wait for everyone to applaud.
I think it's the anticipation of it had just like given you like incredible dry mouth.
He was like Dean Martin for a second having a sip of his whiskey well timed after a great punchline.
That's what you're doing man, you surfing the web?
No, I was thinking to this gold.
How long before this comes out too?
Like six years.
No, this one's like a week.
OK, I'm just hoping that more people don't make
that joke within the week.
Oh, good call.
It might become a Twitter thing.
Seth has like six chances to steal it over the next like
four episodes of his show.
You know what, Andy might be in the clear.
We're on hiatus, so I think he's actually OK.
Oh, that's true.
But I will say it is 12, 4 at 1.22 p.m. Eastern time.
So if you hear somebody else make the Beetlejuice Spirit Award joke, I just want to timestamp
when Andy did it.
Thank you.
I have something else before we get onto this, which is that I just listened to last week's
episode in my car and for the first time ever, like, actually almost cried laughing and it
was I'll tell you when. So it's best look in the world. I'm in the car alone. actually almost cried laughing. It was, I'll tell you when.
So it's best look in the world.
I'm in the car alone, I'm just tired,
I'm heading to work and I play it.
It does the first five or six minutes,
we're talking about it and I'm like,
oh my God, we're talking so much shit about it.
It's really fun, but whatever.
Then Seth, you had done an impression of it going like,
let me tell you about it, no.
I was like, oh yeah, that's accurate, whatever.
Then the thing that happened,
that didn't happen when we were recording,
of course, is that they had edited in
a snippet of the song starting.
And I was hit in the face with
the recording of the actual song of Andy going,
let me tell you about it. And it sounded so much like your impression set.
And after the five minute wind up about it,
and in my head going it can't
be like that bad. It's not going to be.
Oh yeah it is though.
When Andy's voice hit, I involuntarily and it takes a lot to get an actual real laugh
out of me. Involuntarily alone in the car, I started laughing so hard out loud until
tears welled in my eyes hearing Andy's voice. It brought me pure joy. I mean, you might
be right Seth. It might be Criterion for a real reason.
Yeah, I mean, we do have to find another category
for like the, uh, I don't know, the Criterion shitbox.
Which is like worth having, but not because it's good.
Criterion extras, maybe?
Yeah, I don't know.
Shitbox, I don't feel like shitbox.
Okay, let's stick with shitbox then.
First thought, best thought.
Yeah.
Well, extras? Like, I mean, man. Uh, oh, let's stick with shitbox then. First thought, best thought. Yeah. Well, extras?
Like, I mean.
Oh, man.
Oh, here's something from the last episode.
You guys can just pile on as soon as I say this out loud.
I have a book club.
I have a monthly book club with some gentlemen.
Wow.
I go to my book club.
Thank you.
A little late.
Yeah.
I was taking another one of those famous sips of water.
This has been one continuous sip since Beetlejuice.
Since I spiked it.
You've been talking about the side of your mouth
a little bit with it last year.
So we got a room at a restaurant,
and we rotate who hosts, and we try to find a private place
to have dinner and talk about a book.
And I walked in, and one of the other guys goes,
you have to grease a palm to get in here?
And it was very nice to hear a lot of the book up guys
had listened to the episode, and then we had a palm to get in here? And it was very nice to hear a lot of the book
of guys had listened to the episode.
And then we had a long conversation about palm greasing.
And had?
Had any of them greased a palm?
There was one guy we all knew.
We were like, you're the palm greaser.
And he said, I grease in, I grease out.
I like walk by a restaurant I'm not even having dinner at,
and I'll just grease a palm.
Is it a born and bred New Yorker?
Yeah.
Because my uncle's the only person I've seen do that.
It is.
And it was at a Yankee Stadium, and he handed $20,
and the whole other section opened up for parking.
I was like, whoa, shit.
I'm gonna go on a limb.
I'm gonna say, John Lutz, you've never greased a palm.
I don't think, no, wait.
I did in college when I took a girl out on a date
before a dance at Olive Garden.
Oh, my God, you greased an Olive Garden palm?
How much did you give?
So it was like $20. It was $20.
To get what?
To just, I was just like, take care of us.
To the waiter or the maître d'etat?
I wanted to, to know, to the waiter.
To the waiter because I was really trying to impress this girl
and it didn't work.
Did you get never-ending breadsticks after that?
Yeah.
Did he give it back and he was like,
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, buddy, when you're here, you're family.
Wait, you did it in front of the girl?
Like she saw you grease the palm?
No, no, no, no, no. I did not do it in front of her.
Got it. You wanted to impress her not with the greasing, but with the meal.
I wanted to be like anytime we needed something.
Unlimited breadsticks. I think I just saw it in the meal. I wanted to be like any time we needed something. Unlimited breadsticks.
I think I just saw it in a movie.
I don't know. I was just really trying to...
I want you to walk us through, like,
your best case scenario post-grease.
Like, what does this person do for you?
I don't know. Like, I don't know.
Get us...
Say it.
Like, get the food faster.
Get us out of there on time.
Yeah! Oh, no!
I don't know. We had a place to be.
Just be attentive.
I'm not sure, yeah.
I bet when you grease a palm and olive garden,
the waiter's like, oh, what the fuck?
Oh, shit, I didn't...
Oh, God, that's never happened.
Uh, yeah.
God, that's so good, Lutz.
Can I just say something, Lutz?
Thank you for sharing that.
Yeah.
Yeah, you're welcome.
That paid off better than I think any of us could have hoped.
Oh, and one other thing that I feel like
is in the pop culture roundup.
Keev, you just sent a text that Balenciaga
has released their new line of shoes.
Oh yeah.
Really cool looking shoes.
Balenciaga. What the fuck?
Unveils its bold new shoe that makes you feel barefoot.
And if these motherfuckers aren't trying to get away
with JJ casuals with heels,
I don't know what the fuck they're doing.
So-
Wait, did it have heels on it?
Yeah, it's heels.
Well, I can't, no, maybe not heels.
No, I think that's just around the heel
to adhere to the foot.
Yeah, you're right, it's around the heel.
I mean, better design than JJ Casuals.
What?
No offense.
Yeah, it is.
I just, it's hard for me to accept that they-
I mean, it's shoes that look like feet.
Oh, no. Yeah. They to accept that they- I mean, it's shoes that look like feet. Oh, no.
Yeah.
They do have ones that are like colored,
like not flesh colors, like pure black or pure white.
They do look kind of cool on.
But the one in the thing is decidedly a beige,
could look like someone's feet.
Yeah, the white ones look kind of neat though, maybe?
Yeah, once you're into like the white ones or black ones,
it's like flip floppy, weird shaped flip flops.
Yeah. Let's get to the question everybody's asking. Why Lutz? Yeah, once you're into like the white ones or black ones, it's like flip-floppy weird-shaped flip-flops. Yeah
Let's get to the question everybody's asking why Lutz why is Lutz here the digital short this week is
The Japanese office is there a digital short title card? I can't remember now. Well, it's a great question I think there is because it has an interesting framing
Well our rule as we've talked about for a while was we only put it in front of ones where at least two of the three
Worked on it.
Oh, that's right.
But so did we leave it off this because it was just me and you guys?
No, I think it's on.
Oh, it does say it.
It does.
There is. There is. Okay.
So my first question, Lutz,
did you guys know that you wanted Ricky Gervais to introduce it,
or did that happen late in the week?
Well, I'll say that I talked to Marika right before this.
So Marika Sawyer is your co-writer on this piece.
Yes.
And she's not on here because she's shy.
Is that correct?
Yes.
We invited her, yeah.
I said, Merica, can I say you're not here because you
hate the spotlight?
And she said, you can say whatever you want.
I'm on a high from getting out of this and will allow anything.
Yes.
She's on a high from not having, she was in a pen.
Literally, yeah.
Yes.
But the first thing she said was,
we talked about Ricky and Ricky was added later.
He just happened to be around and I think,
we weren't sure who asked him,
but we were thinking it was Steve.
Yeah.
And then we shot that, I think,
Akiva, do you remember, was it Friday
or was it Saturday that we shot it?
The Gervais part we shot on Saturday.
One of the few times I've shot something
on a Saturday for that night.
Yeah, so he came in real quick
and we shot his thing, I think, in one take
and then that was it.
We shot it on 8H using studio cameras.
Yeah.
They brought in that little red light
and we dimmed everything and it might have been
during like meal break or something.
His first thing was one take.
I was actually watching that and was like,
oh, that was like very succinct and good.
He nailed it.
I think we had cards.
It's interesting when you watch it back,
you realize not everybody had seen The British Office.
And everybody obviously at SNL had
and was a huge fan of it.
And so we saw that comedy and the adaptation of it
and the comedy of Ricky being like, they ripped it off.
It's not as funny. Mine's the classic.
The audience, I feel like, doesn't have that moment
of recognition for him.
And they're also surprised he's being mean.
Now, even like a few years later from stuff of the Emmys,
that was a running gag between Steve and Ricky,
that paid off.
But this is sort of pre Golden Globes Ricky
and pre Giant Stand-Up Ricky,
and even like the other, I feel like the other shows maybe.
But we do have Ricky Gervais introduces it,
and it's a very nice framework.
Knowing that you added him late, it does help a great deal.
Hi, I'm Ricky Gervais,
creator and star of the far superior British version of The Office. help a great deal. to Jim. Brilliant. Way to make it your own.
The whole thing was lucky because America actually told me that this was a fake pitch
and she was like not going to do it. This was something she pitched in the pitch meeting
to Steve and it was a fake one and then I think everybody was like interested in it
and then she said the reason I was asked to do it I
think she said I was one of the only people who watched the American version
of The Office and had written that monologue with Sudeikis in it.
Yes. When Rainn Wilson hosted and so I had written the characters so she came
to me I think and was like oh you the office. I don't know anything about it.
Familiar.
Jason, how you doing?
Hey, Ryan.
So, Jason, what are you up to?
Just compiling my monthly invoices.
What, what are you talking about?
Why are you at a desk?
I'm always at a desk.
No, you're not.
Okay.
Wait, you just looked at the camera. No, I're not. OK. Wait, you just looked at the camera.
No, I didn't.
No, you just did it again.
You're looking at the camera.
He looked at the camera, didn't he, Kristin?
I didn't see anything.
Wait, Lutz, will you go back to re-explain fake pitching
and what that was?
Oh, sure.
I'm so glad, because no one could
get burned worse than having to write up a fake pitch.
Yes. So what I learned when I got to SNL
was we go into Lauren's office to meet the host
for the first time on Monday,
and you have to pitch them two ideas usually.
What I found was that people were doing joke pitches
just to get a laugh in the room.
Yes.
And you just try to get a laugh in the room
just to get it over with, and you also don't want to burn your laugh in the room. Yes. And you just try to get a laugh in the room
just to get it over with.
And you'd also don't want to burn your good joke.
Yeah.
If you pitch something and you get this big laugh
in the pitch meeting, and then at the table,
everybody's heard that joke, nobody laughs at the scene.
Especially if it's a premise sketch with a turn.
Yeah.
You never want to burn the turn.
I also think it's important to note,
when you hear pitch meeting,
there's this idea of everybody throwing ideas around
and people adding to ideas and zig-zagging.
Pitch is one-way traffic, the host sits there quietly,
basically doesn't respond at all,
and it's just this workman-like rotation around the room.
Yes, the biggest thing I learned from the pitch meeting
was my first year when Harper Steel,
the pitch was, so something about you playing a baker.
Oh, these don't have to be a thing.
Yeah.
These are just so that the host sees everybody they're working with.
We've talked about it at length when he's been a guest on my show,
but JB Smoove was
the most entertaining pitcher because he would just sort of rotate
through the same 10 pitches over the course of the year
and he would do five of them real fast.
And they were all super funny premises that would
never make good sketches, but would crush.
And then he finally wrote one, right?
Which about getting pregnant in the butt.
Yeah.
I think that that one actually, yeah.
Cause he pitched that a lot.
But pregnancy did air.
And I would say it aired as a cautionary tale
to not write up the other one.
I remember working on that one with Tina
in the rewrite room trying to figure out,
is Forte the butt baby or, you know?
Well, Seth, also with the pitch meeting,
my thing became that I wanted to make
the other writers and cast laugh.
Yes.
So I would, you remember, I would always say,
hello, sir, or hello, ma' laugh. Yes. So I would, you remember, I would always say, hello sir or hello ma'am.
Yeah.
And I remember when Paris Hilton hosted,
you paid me $50 to say, bonjour Paris,
before the pitch.
Oh, that's $50 well spent.
That's good money.
I was gonna say, that's easy money.
By the way, as you were saying it,
I was like, oh boy, how's this 50 buck dare gonna age?
And I'm pretty happy with it.
By the way, Seth, you're kinda greasing a palm.
That was like greased a palm, you guys.
Yeah.
It's more like bribing a weirdo, but yeah.
I bribed a weirdo.
Wait a minute.
I mean, you could also describe what Let's Did at Olive Garden as bribing a weirdo.
Yeah.
They just bring you to the worst table and you're like, what happened? You're like, oh, I think is bribing a weirdo. Yeah. They just bring you to the worst table and you're like, what happened?
You're like, I think I bribed a weirdo.
Sorry.
I don't think.
I don't work here.
Right this way.
My biggest burn on, cause again, getting caught,
this is actually a happy ending of a fake pitch
that you had to do.
I, my first year pitched went out, Baldwin was there.
You have a jet ski on your lake
and the lake just voted to ban jet skis.
So it's a sketch about you taking one last crazy ride.
And it got like a laugh in the room.
And then he kept coming up to me for the next two days going,
very excited about jet ski.
How's jet ski coming?
Can't wait to see jet ski.
And then I like wrote it up.
It was like, again, fun pitch, terrible sketch.
And I wrote it up and it just died at the table. And then it was in the first half of
the table read. And when it went to the break, he walked by and he goes, I expected more
from Jetski.
Did not hold back.
Did not hold back. Nor should he.
I mean, I feel like we've talked about this a lot, but my only time it happened was Pirate
Convention.
Right? I love that one.
But the most famous one obviously is MacGruber.
Yes, yes.
That was not intended to be a real, no.
So in the end, there's a purpose is served
from even the fake pitches.
So fake pitch to a movie and a TV show is pretty crazy.
Good track record.
Unbelievable.
So it was at the table then, right?
Lutz, you and Mariko wrote it?
Yes. She was saying,
I think when we wrote it,
and I honestly don't 100 percent remember for sure,
but I think we wrote it for it to be live.
Yeah, I'm sure.
Then I think you guys,
I don't know how it got picked to be a digital short.
It was not our idea.
I don't know who it was, but somebody came in and said,
could you shoot that?
Yeah.
And it's perfect for me because it also,
the only digital shorts that I ever did never included Andy.
Right.
Yeah, that's just law.
That's just law.
I can't have him in it.
He was like, I love those shorts,
but what if they didn't have Andy?
What would that look like?
Yeah. But then I do think once it was made into,
like it was given to you,
then it made more sense because then it could look like the show.
Because it wouldn't have looked like the show live.
How long did it take to shoot?
I mean, we didn't really even light very much.
It was very well executed, I thought.
Yeah. Watching it back, the thing that struck me the most was how much it looked exactly like the show.
But the craziest part about it is we didn't build a set,
because we were never doing that at this time.
And now they would immediately build a perfect office set.
Yes.
But we just went down the hall on 17.
On 17.
Yeah.
And it's crazy how much it looks like it.
Yeah, that back area.
Yeah, and we maybe hung the blinds was the most we did,
just to make the blinds be the same blinds,
and we just faked everything.
That's nuts.
That's really good.
I just watched it an hour ago,
and in my mind's eye, you did build a set.
Yeah.
America also told me that the extra,
the bald extra who was in the digital short was,
he was really Japanese,
and he wrote all the stuff that was on the board.
Oh, the chalkboard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. the stuff that was on the board.
Oh, the chalkboard, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah. It was a good detail.
So let's get into that part of it real quick.
So I remember when the premise came up,
a bunch of white actors pretending to be Japanese
is not a great start.
You go, uh-oh, you can't do that.
Yeah.
Even back then, which was 11 years ago, 12 years ago,
how many years ago? I don't know.
Here's how long ago it was.
Usher was the musical guest and he looks exactly the same. Oh yeah. So it might have been 30 years ago, 12 years ago, how many years ago? I don't know. Here's how long ago it was. Usher was the musical guest and he looks exactly the same.
Oh yeah.
So it might've been 30 years ago.
Please let's get to Usher.
Oh, we will get to Usher.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But anyway, I remember being concerned at the time.
Now, Merika is Japanese American.
Yes.
And she speaks Japanese,
not perfectly by her own admission, I believe.
But I remember her being like, she can speak it enough,
it's spoken in her house.
And she was the one doing this. And that was the only thing that made, I would just keep looking to her own admission, I believe. But I remember her being like, she can speak it enough, it's spoken in her house. And she was the one doing this. And that was the only thing that made,
I would just keep looking to her and go, okay, I'm here to bring your dreams to life.
I just want to say for the record, like, I would never have the audacity to,
I think everyone was looking at America being like, this is your baby, let's go,
we're going to support it. Yes.
But it was her thing.
And she also wanted to make sure that,
and we tried to make sure that everything
that everybody said was as close to real Japanese.
It wasn't like gibberish.
You can tell too, I think.
Mirka told me that she would say the dialogue to Steve
and then Steve would just repeat back what she said to him.
Correct, she was doing that to everybody.
Yeah.
I was looking at the comments
and there was a lot of discussion
about how they really are speaking Japanese,
but their pronunciation's not good.
Yeah, their accents are a little off, obviously, but yeah.
By the way, this is another reason why it would have been a terrible live sketch,
because you would never have had time to have that attention
to getting the Japanese part right.
Or as right as it was possible for non-Japanese speakers.
Yes. As right as it can be in a 48-hour span to be airing on SNL.
Yeah, and when Miracle rewatched it,
she said that Steve and Wig were both very good,
like she could understand what they were saying,
and she was very impressed with them.
All the comments from Japanese speakers
seemed to think that they can understand everything,
whether or not they're doing a perfect pronunciation.
And all the credits, too, were in Japanese.
And they were all like, um, America's cousins' names
and sister.
And also, um, she said that Jason's credit
in the episode was Mike Schur.
Oh, funny.
So Jason's character was played by Mike Schur in Japanese.
Support comes from Aura Frames.
Keev, I've been talking about AuraFrames a lot,
so you know it comes from the heart.
You won't shut up about it.
It's really fantastic.
These are a perfect Christmas gift.
I gave one to my parents.
Really, my brother did it.
I don't know why I try and take credit for it,
but my brother gave it to my parents,
and he loaded it up with pictures,
and they're just changing all the time.
And my parents are so happy,
because otherwise they're just like hounding me
for pictures of my kids.
And this way I can just use my phone,
upload it to their house and then everybody wins.
Guess how long it takes to set it up, Keith?
I'm gonna guess two hours.
Two minutes, bud.
Whoa.
Yeah, also guess what, Yorm?
I know you're always like, you know,
a lot of us are like save the trees
and you're always like save the wrapping paper.
Well, good news, every frame comes packaged
in a premium gift box, no price tag.
Love that.
Add unlimited photos, videos,
invite as many people as you want to a frame.
There are absolutely no hidden fees or subscriptions.
If I bought one for Lutz,
could we all put our pictures onto it?
Yes, we could all do that for Lutz,
which I think we would all do
because we all love him equally.
You could put any pictures you want on there too.
How many photos and videos could we put?
Like three, four?
It's unlimited.
Whoa.
And it's, by the way, not limited to even photos.
Videos work as well.
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Terms and conditions apply.
Support for the Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast
comes from Airbnb.
Akiva, you love to try to pass as a local when you...
Oh, that's my thing.
If I go to Rome, first thing I do the first day
is just try to look at what people are wearing,
what kind of hats they're wearing,
and I go to the local haberdashery,
and I try to, like, really get in there.
And if I'm going back to a hotel,
I feel like the gig is up. So I need to be there. in there. And if I'm going back to a hotel,
I feel like the gig is up.
So I need it there.
It's a dead giveaway.
When you walk to a hotel, they know.
They're like, this guy's from the States,
despite his local hat.
Exactly.
Keev's known to just go to the local city
and get a local Airbnb and then just get a Coney dog
in Detroit.
That's right, a Coney dog in Detroit.
So they know you're from there. Mm-hmm.
And so the reality for you, Keev,
is that some trips are better at an Airbnb
because you're traveling with a group of friends,
you want to hang out in a way that they don't let you
hang out at a hotel.
That's right.
And Airbnb ticks those boxes for you.
Plus, I'm just into some weird shit, you know?
And it's just better when no one's around.
All right, Keev, I'm going to start yelling out cities.
Tell me what you do when you're there
to make you feel like a local.
Paris.
The Paris baseball team's local hat.
The Paris baseball team's local hat.
Here's the thing, you guys.
I'm in a real talk right now,
but in Airbnb, what I love is my kid's bedtime
doesn't need to be my bedtime.
Keef, we were just at my brother's wedding.
You stayed at a hotel.
Yeah.
Well, I stayed at Airbnb because I had my kids with me,
and the hotel was where the wedding was,
and the music was loud.
And instead, I was at Airbnb two minutes away.
My kids stayed there.
The music didn't wake them up.
You had room to kind of spread out and be comfortable.
I was just jammed in a room.
You were just jammed in a room, like a sardine.
Yeah, exactly.
I had so much sympathy for you.
So anyway, thanks to Airbnb for my brother's wedding weekend
and also for sponsoring The Pod.
So again, we were talking about Rikki Trevace introduces this
as the American office ripped off my show.
Our show is based on this Japanese show,
but you can tell it's pretty different.
And of course, it is exactly the same
with Steve Carell playing the Steve Carell part.
Man-O-Man did our cast overlap with the cast of
The Office incredibly well for the purposes of impressions.
I was shocked re-watching it,
how each one nailed it perfectly.
I think you could argue an alternate universe.
Every one of those people could have been cast on
The Office and the path of that show would have been almost exactly the same.
That's a big thing to say.
I'm just saying that, again,
I say this credit to everybody in The Office was amazing,
but the amount Wigg has the Jenna Fisher mannerisms
down while she's also speaking in Japanese.
I remember playing this sketch for Gervais before he recorded his part.
He came in, I found a computer,
we've huddled around it, I showed it to him.
When it got to Keenan's part playing Stanley,
it was the only moment where he was giggling and enjoying it and like,
oh, this is so cool. Then it got to that and he's like,
huh? Because that character does not exist in the British office.
Right.
And it took him a second and he's like,
what? And he's like, who's that?
And I was like, oh, Stanley's like, oh, from the, okay, yes, yeah, yeah, got it.
Yeah, yeah. Because it would have also worked as a parody of the British office.
Yes, exactly. Every beat in it is from both.
Right.
I think on purpose, right?
Let's say you chose the most iconic moments that were from
the British office that were repeated because for the logic of it, it had to be things that were in
the British office because it was the precursor.
Yes.
So the jello with the stapler.
Yeah.
It was like all the trailer moments.
It really is all because the pilot,
the American pilot is basically the British pilot.
It's very similar.
Yeah.
Right.
They don't change a lot.
How many seasons into the American office were we at this point?
It had to be after Rashida was in the show
because Rashida was in the monologue with Rain.
Well, that's later, I feel like.
That's like at least three seasons in there.
It's less, I bet it's season three.
Yeah, I bet it's season three.
Because first season, I don't think it really kicked off.
Office premiered in 2005.
And this is 2008, yeah. Yes. There's just really nice moments in this.
Suds and Bill and Kristen are fantastic. Steve seems to be having a good time as
well. Keenan is Stanley great. And also the audience just seems to very much
enjoy it from the kickoff. Yeah. One other last thing I'll say that
Merika gave me was that that music
for the calisthenics that they're doing is real calisthenic music that she used to have to do
with her school and she would do the calisthenics outside to that exact music. When Gervais saw it
all, he asked about it for a scene and just springed it up. He's like, should I at the end,
should I say it's racist?
And I remember being like, yeah, go for it.
And then feeling a mix of like, ooh, this is dangerous.
And also kind of a little bit of relief
of like for anybody out there that would be like,
ooh, is this okay?
Which is something I think I felt is like, is this okay?
Oh, I thought 100% that you had added that, Keefe,
cause it feels like a very lonely island move.
And also you're from Berkeley and you would have added that.
100% Gervais, but I was happy to have him do it and just be like, all right, hopefully
that's us calling out that we are aware this is a tightrope being walked.
And then the other thing I remember is at this time, this was 2008 and on American Airlines
and most flights, there was still a communal TV, multiple communal TVs where yes,
you could watch your own stuff if you had something you could watch it on,
but there would still be a program that had to be watched by everybody if you put in headphones.
NBC had a, what would you call it, a partnership?
There'd be NBC stuff that played before the movie,
and SNL always got to put a sketch in,
and of course, it would never be ours
because ours are not something you would broadcast
to an entire flight of people of all ages.
And this was the one that,
we should say it went over very well.
And afterwards, people at the show would be like,
that was very, I remember getting so many compliments
on this one and being like,
oh, I just directed it, like, it's not really mine.
Like it was a hit sketch in the SNL world.
Did we get residuals for that?
For American Airlines.
Did we get residuals for those planes?
That's what the first strike was for, was airplane residuals.
Okay.
You might've honestly.
Yeah.
But it was chosen and it would play on every flight.
And I remember seeing it on one of our flights back to LA.
That's crazy.
Did they have the Gervais part as well before?
Or did they cut that out?
I think so. I think it played the whole sketch and I remember seeing it and being like why don't they put dick in a box up there?
But also being like that's cool. So it went over very well
Well, I think it also though, Keeva, the way you shot it you really did like we were saying capture how it felt
The intro the music everything it just really came together
how it felt. The intro, the music, everything, it just really...
It came together.
It was a very good parody. And I think it's also because
the office itself is shot kind of in bare bones,
kind of a documentary style.
Yes, it's the perfect thing to try to copy
because you can do it.
Hey, this is really... I just had a feeling,
sometimes I look at sketches that get cut from dress
and I go, I bet that one's fun to read. And I saw there was a sketch cut from dress
called Paul and Jean that was written by Fred.
So what does that make you think
when you see Paul and Jean written by Fred?
Folk singers.
Kiss.
Kiss is correct.
So open on Jean Simmons office,
it's decorated with gold records.
Fred is Gene Simmons, Steve is Paul Stanley,
another member of Kiss.
Jason approaches them with a video camera.
Thanks again for doing this, you guys.
This tape's gonna make my son so happy.
He's been in the hospital, he's a huge Kiss fan,
so this is really gonna cheer him up.
Fred, this is what we're all about.
Fred, of course, if you don't know,
does an incredible Gene Simmons impression.
Anything for a fan man.
Jason, okay, I'm ready when you are.
Fred, here we go. Shoot.
Super still, so now it looks like it's being recorded
through a video camera finder.
Hey, Billy. I'm Paul Stanley from Kiss.
And you know who I am.
And we want you to get real soon, so soon, and get well.
Because rock and roll all night, party every day.
Yeah, get out of that hospital
so you can chase the ladies around
and make them beg for your musky sweat.
Now we know what the premise is.
Mm-hmm.
Gene's not gonna do well.
Gene Simmons is bad for making a video for an eight-year-old.
Yeah, yeah, he's missing the tone.
Oh!
Oh my God.
What else we got?
You know what?
I'll just say it.
GOP nominee, Senator John McCain was on the show,
did update, did a sketch as well.
That was a gentleman I always enjoyed the company of.
He was a fucking good guy and super funny
and was a blast to be around.
He was always good when he came on.
He was always good when he came on.
He basically came on update and he made the argument,
it was right around when Hillary was maybe gonna drop out
and he made the argument that both should stay in,
Hillary and Obama should stay in as long as possible,
and, like, basically saying, like,
they just should beat each other up.
But he was saying it as, like, very helpful advice.
Democrats, I have to urge you,
do not, under any circumstances, pick a candidate too soon.
Oh.
Oh, so you don't think Hillary should drop out?
Absolutely not.
I told you. Cool it.
You cool it. That's right. Fight amongst yourselves.
There's an interesting cut-on-air one, Seth. You see it on there?
Uh, Yankee Stadium?
What those are is the one we already talked about, the New York stories.
Yeah. The ones I shot with Poehler and Fred, and they would be like Fran Lebowitz and Scorsese or whatever.
This was a sequel to it and I remember it's one of the first things I think Solomon directed
because I remember giving him all my pointers on how I made it look the way I looked and what to do
and blah blah blah and they went to Yankee Stadium and shot a bunch of them. I wonder if those will
air next time. They do. They do air next season. It's very fun. I love the way they look. These are
the people that Amy and Fred play, Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker, Scorsese, Rosie Perez. And then it
must be Gene Simmons and Kim Gordon.
That's impressive that they went from a whole season. Like, does that ever happen? I don't
remember anything.
Because it's a pre-tape.
It's a pre-tape and it's sort of timelessly they were playing people from different eras.
And no host.
Right.
Yeah, no host. That's the key.
And, Keev, when you said Solomon directed,
you meant Solomon Rushdie?
Yeah, yeah.
It was after the fatwa and he was trying
to do some different stuff.
Oh, wow.
And Lauren's like, we need to get him back in.
He was trying to stay under the radar,
so he went by John, right?
Didn't think that's what I was teeing up.
By the way, last time I saw Solomon Rushdie
was at Lauren's apartment.
FYI.
So they are friends.
Last time, meaning you've seen him a lot or?
Sure, he's been on my show.
I run into him.
Famous author.
Famous author.
You know, Seth has a whole book club
where they talk about books with fellow gents.
Yeah.
A men's only book club.
I was stretching it.
It was John Solomon.
It's completely different spelling.
Yeah, it is.
I think everybody knew you were stretching it.
Solomon Rushdie is spelled almost exactly like Sandman,
which is crazy to me.
Seth, are women allowed at your book club?
Uh, we can see here. What's next?
Won't answer it. Won't answer it.
What's next? There's a really funny thing,
because now we can still transition into Usher.
It says, update cut, Usher, in parentheses, older women,
and then obviously the name of the writer, nobody's certain
because it just says Tucker, question mark, question mark.
And I want to be like, yeah.
If there was a update feature that was called older women
with Usher, that was Tucker.
It just seems like Tucker comedy right there.
I'm just going to, I texted him during this.
We'll find out.
It was also something Usher wanted to talk about,
I remember.
Yeah.
Usher wanted to talk about Aldo Werner,
because he wanted more of it in his life.
He was married to, or dating or married to someone
who was much older than him, and he was like,
this is all anyone talks about, about me right now.
He gets asked a lot about it.
Yeah.
He wanted to address it.
By the way, are we talking about MC Usher?
Oh boy.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean.
MC Usher.
See, I feel like this is all on you, Andy,
for the Salman Rushby thing,
because now you've planted that in Lutz's head.
It's actually pronounced salmon.
Salman Rushby.
Now it's okay for everyone.
Do you remember when MC Usher came out for the musical act
and kept walking down the stairs,
but never got to the monologue?
Yeah.
This is me slow clapping for Seth.
He kept flipping upside down, and all of a sudden,
he'd be walking on the ceiling. He'd be like,
-"Hull?" -"By the way, that's what Usher
basically does."
Yeah.
Wait, what else do you want to say about Usher?
I mean, it was fantastic to have Usher around.
I mean, Usher's the shit. We love Usher.
And for me, just, I was so excited
that he did Love in This Club,
because I love that song.
It was amazing.
I believe Love in This Club,
if you did like a mashup
or whatever with Alphaville Forever Young,
would be very close, and I really love both those songs.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
I just listened to it on the way to work yesterday
and was loving it.
Which one?
Both. He mashed them up.
No, I didn't mash them up. I did not mash them up.
He brings a little boombox and then it's car rating.
So wait, which one though, Jorm?
Usher, in this club.
I did not listen to, no.
You weren't listening to Alphaville?
No.
No.
So Usher got cut from Update.
Obviously, he did both of his songs.
He appeared in another sketch.
Does anybody remember?
He appeared in a sketch I wrote.
Yes.
Congratulations.
It did not get cut.
It did not get cut.
CPR class, talk us through CPR class.
Samberg, Solomon, and Schaffer.
This is Andy doing a live sketch.
Cause this ticks a lot of your boxes.
Me, Akiva, and Sam and Rushdie.
This was a classic stupid live sketch, CPR class.
Carell is the instructor.
Yep.
And he wheels me in as his assistant.
It's so weird that you're wheeled in
because I feel like a normal assistant
would get on the table.
So now Andy, why do you think you were wheeled in?
I mean, it's obvious why I was wheeled in
because his hands need to go bursting through my chest
and blood needs to spray everywhere
and I was clearly set up on a rig.
The only thing that I really take issue with,
because I did actually rewatch it, Seth, before this,
because I saw it on the rundown, and I was like,
what was that?
And then now I totally remember.
That's how I knew the usher answer.
Full disclosure.
If we just, it took so long to get to the moment.
Yeah.
That's what's inexcusable about me being wheeled in.
If I'd been wheeled in and he immediately started doing it,
it would've been fine, but there was still a lot of preamble.
Yeah.
So you're like, okay, so this is a rig
and something's gonna happen.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right.
But I did like a couple of the moves in it,
a lot of like, buddy, I'm a grown man, I can take it.
You can do it the right way.
Yeah.
I just so clearly dig it up.
The rig is great, his hands go through your chest.
Mm-hmm.
And a lot of blood.
Yep, a lot of blood, then he gives me CPR and a balloon lung starts inflating out of the hole.
Which was fun.
Which was really good.
You have to then give your dying speech while, obviously, I'm assuming you gave the instruction to the blood pump guy to just go nuts.
Yes. I said, please just keep shooting it right into my face.
And mouth. Which they did.
I've had a good life.
I graduated from high school.
I worked once ever as a lifeguard.
And I just got a free watch from the coolest guy I know.
And then the great thing is, do you
think Usher was always in it?
Or this had been a, hey, we cut you from update,
but we have another really fun thing for you to do?
That I don't remember.
Basically the sketch is over.
O to the V to the E to the R.
And Steve Carell says, you know,
I can't help but think this is somehow my fault.
In some ways, I can't help but feel responsible.
You are responsible.
We all are responsible.
Hi, I'm Usher.
CPR can be a lot of fun, but it can kill someone.
Then he gives a thumbs up, and it's over.
And it is not a fit.
There's one extra moment of it that I did appreciate, though, is he gives a thumbs up and it's over. And it is not a fit. There's one extra moment of it that I did appreciate though
is he gives a thumbs up and then it cuts to wide
and everyone else is also giving thumbs up for some reason.
Yeah.
I'm looking at that right now.
I enjoy it.
And it also cuts mid zoom out.
So it's actually like kind of nicely up cut.
It's a rare, nice shortcut.
Actually, Kevin, while we're doing this,
is there any way you can watch dress
and see if Usher was in dress?
It does make me very happy because just seeing it,
again, it was in golden era,
and sometimes we just did dumb things
at the end of sketches.
And it certainly was better than what the ending
of that sketch is without Usher coming in
and looking like a million fucking dollars.
Yeah, literally. It might be like a million fucking dollars. Yeah. Literally.
I mean, it might be like a 51 to 49% situation, but yeah.
Better than the all.
Yeah. Yeah.
Better than the other.
And it was fun, again, I love seeing you in live sketches.
I wanna also go back to, Lutz was hired,
what was your first year at SNL, 04?
04. 04.
February of 04.
Do you remember going to a SNL after party
where you were there with Liz Kikowski?
You were there almost being vetted
to see if people liked you enough to be a writer on the show.
Yes. They flew Liz and I in.
From Chicago.
From Chicago. We went to the Megan Mullally,
I think, show.
We interviewed with Lorne,
I think the day before on Friday.
And then they said, come to the dress rehearsal,
come to the show in the after party.
And then we did all that.
And I remember in between dress and air,
we went to pasta lovers in Times Square
to get some fancy New York food.
Uh, and really feel fancy.
And I remember that we did then go to the after party,
and that's where we found out we were hired.
Oh, you find out that night?
We found out that night, like, Shoemaker and, um, Higgins
came up to us and told Liz and I that we were hired.
Um, and they wanted us to start that Monday.
Now, let's, what's the over-under on you greasing a palm at Pasta Lovers?
I wanted a nice experience, you know, to pay for it.
Just to kind of take care of you guys, you know what I mean?
He called back to his local Olive Garden and asked if that guy could put a good word in for him
at Pasta Lovers.
And I actually, in my interview with Lauren,
said if you could just call Pasta Lovers ahead of time
for us, get us a good table, that'd be great.
I like that Lauren was the one who recommended it.
You were like, we'd love to get dinner in New York,
and he's like, what do you like?
And you're like, we love pasta.
He's like, Lauren and Pasta Lovers.
He didn't want us going to La Tansi.
Yeah. Yeah, that was a crazy night. And then
I we I had to go up to Lauren's table and I was standing up in my friend's wedding.
My best friend's wedding was next Saturday. I talked to Shoemaker and Higgins and I said,
I don't know if I can start on Monday. I'm standing up in my best friend's wedding. And
he said, Oh, and so Higgins and Shoemaker took me over to Lorne's table and they explained it to Lorne
and then asked if I could start a week later.
Wow. Whoa.
And Lorne was like, sure.
John, I gotta go bullshit.
My best friend's wedding came out in 1997.
I knew it was coming.
No, no, not the movie.
Not the movie. God damn it.
I watched him look it up.
Yeah, I could tell what was happening.
Sorry, brother.
Sorry to have to nail you to the fucking wall, man.
So guess what?
We are gonna bring this to Lorne.
Who you allied?
No, please don't.
I need this story.
This is my only Lorne story.
This is my main Nick Dote.
And no one does stand up in that movie.
It is not about that.
Oh my god, yeah. What was the stand up scene in that movie. It is not about that. Oh, yeah.
Oh, my god, yeah.
What was the stand-up scene in My Best Friend's Life?
Oh.
It was a good Nick-dote.
We should start calling them that, right, you guys?
Agree with me, gentlemen?
A Nick-dote.
Yeah, sure.
Seth, you should ask people that on the show.
Any fun Nick-dotes from Seth?
Any fun Nick-dotes that you want to dote upon us?
Hey, America worked reception at
SNL before she was a writer.
Oh yeah.
We would receive, I remember in the dog days of summer,
myself, Jost for a while,
Harper would read through like 200 submissions
and select out which ones were good.
I remember we all liked
America's before we realized it was America's.
That's cool.
It was this funny thing of like,
oh, is that, wait, that's Mar- that's that Sawyer?
And when we hired her,
it was one of the only cool ways to hire somebody.
I remember I was in Higgins' office with Shoemaker,
and he called reception and asked her to bring in
a legal pad and some pencils.
And then she came in and he's like,
that's for you, you're a writer here now.
Oh, that's fun.
That's fucking awesome.
Really good.
Pretty awesome.
That's kind of like a Studio 60 moment.
Yeah.
Yes.
It's how Sorkin would write it.
Yeah, exactly.
Those are yours, kid.
You're a writer now.
So Seth, you're saying Mariko was a recepto baby?
Yeah.
Man.
She was.
I am saying that.
Now that one.
Hey, move over, Nick Dotes.
A recepto baby.
Nobody's angry enough about recepto babies.
Yeah, man.
I guess she just added giving to her.
Oh, my God.
What else do we have to talk about here?
What about some Seth's Corner?
It was a very quiet day in Seth's Corner.
You did the monologue.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did the monologue.
Maybe the Senator John McCain something?
I did, I think I wrote the update with McCain and then-
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, don't start talking about it.
We haven't done the song.
Oh, sorry, go.
Seth's Corner, you're all invited.
Seth's Corner, it's happening right now.
Take it away, Seth. I'm gonna seed Seth's Corner because I was so excited to see the opening,
cold open, was a Jim Downey Jack Handy sketch according to the names on it.
Heavy hitters.
And it was a very old school sketch which is a commencement address where Correll is
handing out diplomas and he gives a big wind up as to this is the kind of school.
A lot of you came from other schools
and were more than just faculty students, were family.
This is not the kind of place where people get made fun of
for the way they look or who they are,
what their last name is.
And then it's just one of those parades
where all the names are just the most embarrassing names.
Oh, I remember that one.
And again, it's that real nice Jim Downey touch.
Yes.
Where one of the names is Dick Hertz and no one comes up.
And like the name before was like,
hey, would you blow me, right?
And somebody comes up, gets a diploma and he's like,
Dick Hertz, Dick Hertz.
And you see Amy's behind him as sort of faculty and she's a little concerned.
And then she gets up and whispers in his ear,
Dick Hertz, is Dickts not with us today?
Who's Dick Hurts?
I will remind the students that this is a commencement exercise
and not an occasion for childish pranks.
That's the one fake name.
After Hay, would you blow me?
Yeah, and the next name's like Buster Hyman.
But I was like, ah, fucking A man, Tony.
That's great.
Such a good Tony move.
And this is the end of a season.
I bet we're all in a pretty good mood at the end of this one, because again, this is the end of a season. I bet we're all in a pretty good mood at the end of this one,
because again, this is the end of the season where we went on and returned from strike.
Yeah. Also, this was our second corral, is that right?
Second corral.
He was our very first episode.
And goes without saying probably,
but just the nicest dude ever and so funny and we were always like,
here comes a real comedy host.
Also, Usher's first song was This Ain't Sex.
And it may not have been, but I watched it,
and I got pregnant from watching the performance.
Lutz, is that the kind of joke that Tracy
would make on 30 rec?
Yeah.
It's 1,000% every day.
Yeah, except he would say it like 10 times in a row.
One more thing to say about this.
The 10 to 1 sketch is a perfect 10 to 1 sketch
that does not get what it deserves.
And I think it might be, I can't quite figure it out.
It's called Bless This Child.
Anybody remember Bless This Child?
I did not until I watched it today.
Wig and Correll are in it, written by Wig and Sublette.
And they are putting their newborn child in a crib.
It's very clearly a doll.
And they start doing a prayer called,
bless this child, that turns into a dance
where they are just using the baby in the dance
and like flipping it back and forth to one another.
And it's so, I mean, it's so clearly a doll,
but I do feel like the audience is like, oh.
And it ends with them each holding a leg clearly at all, but I do feel like the audience is like, oh, oh, oh, oh.
It ends with them each holding a leg of the baby upside down and singing into the feet
like it's a microphone.
Bless this child.
Keep her safe and warm.
And shield her from all harm.
Bless this child.
Protect her from the storm till the sun comes up again. Bless
this child, fill her dreams with gold and make them all come true. Look at us, we're
a family.
Man, it's really good.
Sounds pretty cute.
And I will just say real quick that Tucker has no memory
of Usher older women.
So that's an exciting way to end this.
I'm just watching Bless This Child with no sound,
and it does end with a wig dummy and Karel spinning it
in a circle and knocking over all the curtains and stuff.
Which is pretty fucking incredible.
Well, there's one more thing I have to add
that I think Chilty on his will.
That's right before she said that,
she says she's pregnant with another one.
ALL LAUGHING
And then he starts spinning a dummy in a circle
and knocking it into Chilty.
Oh, nicely done, Kristen and Sublette.
When we come back, well, a lot to talk about
going into the next, which is you guys do an album
in the summer, which is in Credibet.
You rent a kick-ass house where you host parties,
like a bunch of guys who just got a big deal
from a record company that intend to save none of it.
Very much so.
You have the room you record in, which I was lucky enough to visit a few times, was maybe
one of the hottest rooms I've ever been in in my life.
The worst room in the house, yeah.
In all ways.
Yeah.
And then we return with Michael Phelps and Space Olympics, which is one of those that
the first time you played it for me, Andy, I laughed all the way through, because it is maybe a version of your comedy
that I like the most.
Oh, wonderful.
Yeah, which is super specificity
of things that are maybe not going great.
All right, so we're gonna do a Q&A episode
with questions everybody's written in with.
And I can't wait to be back next week.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Totally, man.
Did you enjoy it, Lutz?
Did you have fun?
Lutz came by the house in Encino.
Yeah, it was a house guest.
I remember one time you came and stayed
and then we dragged you to a Die Ant Word show.
Yes, with Ryan Phillippe.
Yeah.
It was a great night.
It sounds right.
Just listening to those crazy music
that Lutz would not have been familiar with
and watching him enjoy his evening.
And it was all of us up in the VIP at the L-Ray,
just drinking with Ryan Phillippe.
We had a blast.
And then we stayed after to meet the weird singers
of that group.
They were like doing a little...
Artists.
The artists.
Yeah, that was fun.
They were so weird, you gave them 20 bucks
and asked them for a good table.
Yes.
Thank you.
One more thing I'll say about Lutz.
Lutz and I knew each other from Chicago,
and when I got late night, Lutz was one of the first writers I hired.
And Lutz still works for Late Night Now.
People might not know that, but I've been lucky enough
to know you for almost 25 years.
But Rob Janis was a Chicago improviser,
and I remember a couple other guys
brought him to a Beastie Boys concert,
and he was like, well, I would just
ask that we listen to their music on the way to the concert.
I'd like to familiarize myself with their canon.
There you go, guys.
What a lovely time this was.
Lutz, thanks for joining.
Lutz, do you think you had more fun being here
or Merika had more fun not?
I think she had more fun not.
Yeah.
But I had a lot of fun, so.
So was up there.
Yoram, it was great to have you back, bud.
Thanks, guys.
I am finally actually catching up too
because this was the last show that I wasn't around for.
I was finishing up Land of the Lost,
and this was pre me knowing
that I had a Razzie nomination for that movie.
So great.
It's your last episode where you can be not Razzie nombed.
That's a big deal, because you kind of changed after that.
Yeah, you did change.
Yeah, it's a big turning point for me.
Oh, one more thing.
I don't think any of this recorded on my end.
Oh, good.
God damn it.
I will send it. All right, I don't think any of this recorded on my end. Oh, good. God damn it.
I will send it.
Alright, I love you guys.
Let's finish this. Sorry.
Alright, I love you.
It's fine. They have his mic clean, Dave.
You're mic clean. I can talk over anybody.
We'll just cut this part out.
Oh my God, Akiva.
It's not gonna be an issue.
Can I just say something, Akiva?
Like, not letting the episode end is very unprofessional.
Oh, no.
It's a fun Wednesday.
We've clearly reached an end point. To drag it out with like side quips?
I mean, who are you?
Today's Fred Armisen's birthday, I think.
Oh, good.
December 4th to Fred Armisen.
Andy, you hosted the Spirit Awards, right?
I did once, yeah.
If you were hosting it this year,
would you be mad right now
that you had blown the Beetlejuice joke?
No, I would just keep hitting it
over and over throughout the show. And definitely come out as Beetlejuice
for an extended period of time.
Definitely.
You think?
Hey.
How are you going to leave out the juice?
Yeah, exactly.
I heard people were talking about me.
Yeah, if you're asking me, who's the best spirit?
I'm going to go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's weird to do it now that it's been on SNL, you know?
Because now it's like, oh, I'm doing my famous thing.
Yeah, now it's like a hit.
Yeah, that everyone loved and can't stop talking about.
Now it's like if Bill was doing Stefan in interviews,
you'd be like, yeah, it's a hit.
Yeah, exactly. We know what it is, dude.
All right, it's one of our classic double-enders.
Love you guys.
Love you, love you, bye.