The Three Questions with Andy Richter - A Fatherly Recommendation From Andy

Episode Date: September 2, 2020

If you’re a big CONAN fan, you might know the very funny comedian Rory Scovel from his appearances on the show over the years. Now get to know the fatherly side of Rory with his brand new podcast from Team Coco! It’s called “Dads: The Podcast.” Each week he and co-host Ruthie Wyatt are joined by their hilarious celebrity friends to unpack the mysteries of fatherhood, parenting, and the weirdos who raised us. As a proud daddy himself, Andy couldn’t be more excited to share some of it with you. If you’re into it, head on over to the show and subscribe!

Hey, friends, it's me, Andy Richter, and I wanted to tell you about a new show from Team Coco. It's called Dads the Podcast, and it's hosted by the very funny comedian Rory Scovel. Each week, he and his co-host, Ruthie Wyatt, are joined by a special guest to talk parenting, fatherhood, and the ways our families all made us who we are. I'm talking about folks like David Cross, John Leguizamo, Sabrina Jalise, and yes, even me. It doesn't matter if you're not a dad, the show is for everyone. The first episode drops today with my pal Conan O'Brien. It's funny, it's thoughtful, and they get a little deep, which I enjoy. So I'm going to play some of it for you now.

If you like it, head on over to Dads the Podcast to hear the whole episode and subscribe. And now here's Rory Scovel talking with Conan O'Brien. Did your other siblings also realize the reward of making your dad laugh? Yes. Did that become competitive where it was like, who could be the funniest? Who could get his attention in that way? I think it's Bill Murray who said that, or his education in comedy,

a lot of it was around the kitchen table. And my parents are still with us and still living in Brookline, Massachusetts. And they sit at that same table. And I see it every time I go home. They still serve food to the places of their kids, and you guys aren't there. Yeah, and the kids aren't there. So sad.

Yeah, but it's like baseball now. They've just put up cardboard images of us. Food just going bad in front of these. And they ladle oatmeal onto the old cruddy cardboard cutouts that are rotting with stinking food. Oh, man. And the food just dribbles down the front. And then they have arguments with us.

You know, why can't you do better in math? But anyway, yeah, I go and I sit at that table and I think, yeah, I used to, I know exactly where I used to sit and each one of us would try and get on a roll and try and get something going. And

that's where it started. That's where it started for me. Yeah. Is your dad funny? Yeah, he's funny. It's so funny to talk about my dad this way, but I'm talking about him now like a comedian, meaning I'm like, you know, he's funny, but sometimes his delivery is too slow. He winds it up too much and it's a little too precious. Well, if he's a scientist. Well, he's too analytical about it. Yeah, he's too analytical about it. He's not a musician about it. You know, he'll tell you a story and then go like, but then, but then now, now, now,

and remember, remember what I told you earlier? He'll remind you of the part that's early. No, no, no, I got that part. And I'll be like, Dad, speed it up. Yeah. And give me, we're going to rewrite it. You've repeated the setup seven times. Yeah, exactly. I get it. I get it.

We all get it. What are you, a fucking scientist or a comedian? I'm the funniest scientist at work. Oh, God. And I work alone. Yeah. I have cardboard cutouts of other scientists in the lab

I'm funnier than my microscope I mean I don't know what was your experience when did you Rory you're I'm going to say it I'm just going to say it you're one of the funnier people

I know and I don't know a lot of people you know me I know you and your dad and I know the Secretary of Defense and I think you're And your dad. And I know the Secretary of Defense.

And I think you're the funniest of those two. Yes. But you're a very, very incessantly funny person and in a very unique way. And it's just thinking, like, you had to have known that early that you had that superpower. You had to know. One, I appreciate you saying that very much. I agree that I think with Bill Murray and what you just said is that it starts at such a young age. It also started for me realizing how much my dad and like his siblings, how you could get their attention if you did something funny because they would all try to be funny. they would all try to be funny, I think, to make their dad laugh. And as like the grandchild of that, I got to witness that process and then try to figure out how to fit into it, which is funny,

because I don't think any of my other siblings do that at all. I had no competition of anyone else trying to be funny. All of my other siblings were like, no, we're like making straight A's and becoming doctors. And that's what's impressing dad. And I'm like, well, I'm choosing a career that doesn't pay anything for a solid decade. So who's winning now? So who's winning? Because he'll smirk sometimes at my comments. But I remember my dad very clearly.

I think it was on AMC back when AMC was actually played classic movies and it was like Turner Classic movies but Marx Brothers Horse Feathers came on and my dad made me watch it and I remember that kind of the light bulb went off that adults can be silly and then I was

like oh I like this I thought adults could make jokes but then it never occurred to me you could make a career out of it. So I'm willing to bet that there's a lot of comedians who do have influence of either parent. But for some reason, and I think that's kind of where this podcast generates from, is that mystery of dads and fathers and why was it that when your dad laughed at a joke, that meant so much to you? And I bet you there's so many dads who were like tough, it was tough to get them to laugh or it meant something. It's one of the best connections you can have with somebody because there's a kind of making someone laugh at something even kind of strange that's uniquely you is a way of almost having a secret handshake.

Like, you know, you know that they really understand you. It's such a right. It's such an intimate thing. thing and so um you know obviously freud explained it a million times but we're afraid of our dads but we also there are heroes you know part of us wants to murder them uh the other part thinks well no i'll get caught um i can't kill him i'll do time in jail but it could look like an accident then you go down that whole wormhole. I'm still a minor, so maybe this is the time to do it. Do it now before

I turn 16. But I'm always putting stuff off, which Freud also says. Yes, exactly. And, you know, he doesn't have a set schedule. He goes to the lab at different times, so it's hard to position myself with the rifle in the right place. I don't know when the car is going to come by. And you know, the right rifle,

I ordered it through the mail, which was Oswald's mistake. Don't do that. You want to make sure it's not connected to you. Anyway, we've all had those thoughts and that sums up all of our thoughts about fathers. But if you can make your father laugh, it's magical. It's just this magical, like, oh, he gets me. And I just reduced him to this shaking, red-faced, guffawing pile. And you're like, that's fantastic. So, of course, you'd then want to double down on that. That was just a sneak preview of Dad's The Podcast. Are you enticed?

Did you like it? Are you not entertained? Well, if you are, head on over to Dad's The Podcast and listen to the whole thing. And most importantly, subscribe. You can find the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you're listening to this right now. And that's my time. Thanks for listening. or wherever you're listening to this right now.

And that's my time. Thanks for listening. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf.