SNL Hall of Fame | Écouter podcast en ligne gratuitement (2024)

• The Class of Season 5

  This is what we've been building up to! Now is the time to announce the newest inductees into the SNL Hall of Fame. Bill Kenney and Kirstin Rajala join Thomas Sena to reveal the inductees and breakdown the ballot as a whole. Who got in? Are there any snubs? Join us in discussion and celebration as we chat about the Class of Season 5.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/snlhof/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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• Season 5 Roundtable

  This week we're back with the popular Roundtable episode of the program. In this version we invited Ashley Bower and Deremy Dove to share their ballots with host Thomas Sena. Enjoy and don't forget to vote! https://forms.gle/ECAVQbPBE6r3krpS6Transcript:Track 2:[0:42] Yes, hello, welcome to the SNL Hall of Fame podcast.Track 2:[0:45] I'm your master of ceremonies, your co-host for today's proceedings, Thomas Senna. Everybody, welcome. I think I would be remiss, and I think I need to do, Jamie, do a solid here, because it's very important to Jamie for me to tell you to wipe your feet before you enter the SNL Hall of Fame. I think Jamie would fire me from this post if I didn't tell you guys that. So welcome to the SNL Hall of Fame. Today is our customary end of season extravaganza. It's the SNL Hall of Fame Roundtable. This is the show in which we invite SNL Hall of Fame voters to share their ballots and their thought processes behind their choices. So this is always an interesting exercise to get into the psyche of some of the voters.Track 2:[1:40] Previous roundtables, I think minds have been changed. I think people have stood on islands and been steadfast on who they're voting for. It was interesting to see. I think we all just gained a great insight as to what voters may be thinking. Friendships were formed. I think rivalries were formed. So we've had some interesting roundtables in the past. It's always nice to get a peek into the mindset of SNL Hall of Fame voters. So with me today is two of my guests for this past season on the SNL Hall of Fame podcast.Track 2:[2:16] One first-time roundtable panelist, which is going to be fun. I'm excited to hear her thoughts today.Track 2:[2:24] So we have two panelists, and for full disclosure, for transparency here on the SNL Hall of Fame podcast, I will be sharing my ballot as well. So it's going to be the three of us sharing ballots today. So I'm not just like the co-host here on the SNL Hall of Fame. I am a panelist today, and I will give some transparency and let you all know my ballot and how I'm feeling about the voting cycle, about the votes this year. So without further ado, let me introduce our panel for today. And I have an icebreaker question, too. So I'm going to introduce them. My icebreaker question, I asked this last panel, last roundtable, and got some interesting responses. I haven't asked these to this question. I don't think. So...Track 2:[3:15] I want to ask which current cast member, not including Kenan Thompson, because that's the obvious one. Kenan's an SNL Hall of Famer. So not including Kenan Thompson, who on the current cast could you see in the SNL Hall of Fame someday? So that's going to be the little icebreaker question. Get a little peek into the mindset of our panel today. So my first guest, Ashley Bauer, SNL super fan. My guest for Kate McKinnon this year. Ashley did such a great job. And Ashley, thank you so much for joining us today here on the roundtable. How are you? Good. Good to see and talk to you again. Excited to be back. Yeah, this is great. So which current cast member, not including Kenan, that's the obvious one, could you see in the SNL Hall of Fame someday?Track 2:[4:03] So I thought about this and I went back and forth between two, but I think my vote's going to ultimately go to Bowen Yang. I'm going to have to give it to Bowen. And I think he kind of came out of the gate, you know, really with a bang. And he's really been in some pretty epic and memorable sketches already. And I kind of think he's a jack of all trades. And it's rare that he's in something I'm not dying of laughter in. So, yeah, I'm going to go with Bowen. Bowen's like Mr. Charisma. He really is. I love the iceberg weekend update sketch that he did. That was a really great performance. It's like one of the most memorable things that I can think of that Bowen's done. He's just a very likable person, a lot of charisma. Bowen Yang, Ashley could see in the SNL Hall of Fame someday. That's awesome. All right, so also with us is my partner in crime on the Pop Culture 5 podcast. He also is co-host of the Bigger Than the Game podcast. He's just podcasting all over the place.Track 2:[5:07] He's everywhere. And he was my guest for Tracy Morgan. this season on the SNL Hall of Fame. So I'm welcoming Mr. Deremy Dove to the proceedings. Deremy, how are you? I'm good, man. Always a pleasure to talk SNL and SNL Hall of Fame with you guys. So I'm honored to be on. Yeah, you're one of our go-to guests for the SNL Hall of Fame. Your insights are always so great. So welcome. You've been on for Dick Ebersole. You were on for Adam McKay and this year for Tracy Morgan, which was an interesting one. I think we did Tracy Justice with kind of a more loose sort of format I think Tracy would have wanted it that way I agree I agree absolutely yeah that was fun so who on the current cast not including Keenan could you see in the SNL Hall of Fame uh like like Ashley said it was there's a few who I was going back and forth with but I I went with James Austin Johnson um as my pick I think he um.Track 2:[6:02] He really brings, I love the impressions he does, and he kind of fits that mold of like what I think of. I think of just like what you need to make a great SNL cast member. He has that design. I feel I get like some Daryl Hammond kind of feels from him. I just really love what James Austin Johnson can bring to the table. And I see him. I don't know if he's going to be like the big star, but he's that person when we have rankings in a few years. It's going to be like, we'll be surprised. We'll be like, oh, James Austin Johnson, he's a Hall of Famer. He's a top whatever cast member of all time. So he's who I pick as like that future Hall of Famer for the current cast. I could see that.Track 2:[6:44] He's not just, so he started obviously with his Trump and Biden impressions. And I think he got hired on the strength of that. But he's not just an impressionist. I think he's filling out a lot of important kind of glue guy types of roles. He's kind of branching out and not just being an impressionist. Right, right. Yeah, he plays the dad role really well, kind of the everyday. Because I could see maybe a little bit of Phil Hartman in him, too. Yeah, it's big. In that ways. I mean, Phil's personally one of my top three cast members of all time. So I don't think James is on that tier. But I think there's elements of Phil Hartman that I can see in James. Yeah, I think he's a glue, like you said, a glue guy. And I and I feel like especially those if you're listening to the show or you vote for the SNL Hall of Fame, you're probably a big fan. We all know how important the glue people are to an SNL cast. And I think he fits that role very well. Yeah. What do you think, Ashley? James Austin Johnson's trajectory?Track 2:[7:42] I had to laugh because that was actually who I went between. I was going between whether or not I wanted to vote for Bowen Yang or James Austin Johnson. So I am right there with you, Deremy. I agree. I think he's so versatile. You're right. He definitely evokes some of the greats in the past. He has that, Tom, you said charisma for Bowen. I think James Austin Johnson does too. He just has this swagger every time he's in a sketch. And yeah, he can play just a side character or the main character. Or he can do an impression yeah i was really close to voting for him but um ultimately went with bowen obviously but 1000 agree yeah good solid choices i think i could see in a few years we could be looking up and seeing heidi gardner having the hall of fame kind of resume she has talent she's a hall of fame talent i think she needs to get maybe a couple more seasons have some more good sketches she's very good on weekend update i think that's a lot of times where she's shines is coming on weekend update and doing kind of off the wall but sometimes relatable.Track 2:[8:46] Characters heidi so i can definitely see heidi forming a case uh dark horse it's for me and he's been awesome i think he's my mvp of season 49 is andrew just mugs honestly yeah he has and he has his own lane on the show too it's almost like a will forte ish kind of lane like andrew he has a more offbeat kind of sense of humor than a lot of the cast and i think he's all of my My favorite pieces from this current season 49 have been Andrew Dismuke's pieces, quite frankly. So I see maybe Andrew a little bit of a dark horse, but I wouldn't be surprised if he if he continues what he's doing this season. We could be possibly making a case for Andrew Dismuke. So those are a couple of people that I wanted to shout out.Track 2:[9:29] So how this SNL Hall of Fame voting is going to work every season. The voters have up to 15 votes that they can use. Voters can use one vote if they'd like. I don't know why they would, but maybe that's, you know, they're very hardcore and stringent and they only think one person deserves to be in the SNL Hall of Fame each season. Though from looking at the ballot, that would just mean like, I think you're an SNL Grinch or something and you might be shamed if you just come on here and say you're just using one vote. I don't know. So I'm curious, how many votes, Jeremy, are you leaning toward using today? I'm using all 15. All 15. All 15. I think there's some easy slam dunk people to put in, and there's a lot of people who I don't want to knock the SNL family, the SNL fan base, but I'm just like, why are these people still on the ballot? And this is a shame, and I'm going to stick up for it. I'm going to continue to do it. So I got all 15. Jeremy's going to be an advocate. Awesome. All 15, the opposite of a Grinch. Good job, my man. Yes, yes, yes. Ashley, how many votes are you using?Track 2:[10:39] I'm going to copy Deremy again. I'm using all 15. I found it difficult to keep it at 15, to be honest. And there was one that I realized wasn't on the list. And so I had to unfortunately kind of kick somebody off to make sure this person got on my ballot. But yeah, again, a lot of great, so much talent over the years. And I'm going to fight for them too. All right. So both Jeremy and Ashley are using 15. Coming in, I have 13 locks. So what I'm doing right now is I have 13 on my list that I feel are locks for me. But I have two that are open. So I think my goal here, one of my goals here on this roundtable is to be persuaded maybe as to how I'm going to use those final two votes. Votes so 13 i have locked in but you dare me you ashley you could persuade me you can make the case for maybe somebody that i don't have on my list and as to why they should be in the eston hall of fame so if there's anybody that's a grinch it seems like it's uh it might be me more so than ashley and dare me but it's strategic grinch it's it's i'm utilizing strategery on the round.Track 2:[11:52] Well done yes uh so then i'm gonna name the nominees and then we'll get to it just to refresh everybody's memory uh on who the nominees are uh this season on the snl hall of fame uh in the cast member category we have 13 cast members first time nominees rachel dratch will forte taryn killam kate mckinnon tracy morgan lorraine newman and adam sandler returning to the ballot We have Fred Armisen, Vanessa Baer, Ana Gasteyer, and Chris Parnell. And their final time on the ballot.Track 2:[12:32] Maya rudolph and molly shannon so that means if maya and molly don't get voted in in this cycle they're off the ballot so i know jeremy's shaking his head what a shame i can't believe it i know i know it's the will of the people i don't know what to say that's true that's true so for the host category there's 12 on the ballot first time nominees john ham and hathaway and martin short returning to the ballot but not for their final time candace bergen jim carrey buck henry scarlett johansson and paul rudd final time on the ballot for these folks melissa mccarthy john mulaney emma stone and justin timberlake we'll see if emma stone she's been on the ballot since snl hall of fame season one she just became a five-timer here in season 49 we'll see if that That helps bumper up as far as making the SNL Hall of Fame. So I'm curious about that. Musical guests. There's one first-time nominee. That's Pearl Jam. Great episode with Ryan McNeil. I love doing that Pearl Jam episode. Returning to the ballot, we have David Bowie, Dave Grohl, and Lady Gaga.Track 2:[13:43] On the ballot for the final time, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Prince. So those are the musical guests, which is always a fascinating category to me, musical guests. And we'll probably get into that and your philosophies behind musical guests and the SNL Hall of Fame as well. Writers, there's eight writers on the ballot. First-time writers, John Mulaney. So yes, you heard him as a host. John Mulaney is also on the ballot as a writer. So when we did the draft, I believe it was Matt Ardill who said, let's, you know, John Mulaney is a great host. But he's also known for a writer. Let's put him on the ballot as a writer, too, and just kind of see what happens. So Mulaney's on the ballot for the first time as a writer, as is Julio Torres.Track 2:[14:28] Returning is Jack Handy, Adam McKay, Paul Lappel, Herb Sargent, and Rosie Schuster. Final time on the ballot for Frankenden Davis and Michael O'Donohue. So the writer's always interesting, again, to me. And one producer on the ballot, Dick Ebersole, which Jeremy and I did an episode on. I believe back in season three. Yes. Yeah. So Dick Ebersole on the ballot still here on the SNL Hall of Fame. So with that said, let's reveal those ballots, those votes. So I'm going to start with Deremy to kick things off. Who's the first person, Deremy, you want to talk about who you're voting for? Well, I just think you guys did a great episode on this person. And if there's the biggest lock or just slam dunk for the Hall of Fame, SNL Hall of Fame, it's this person. And let's just get her out the way because it's just so obvious. But Kate McKinnon, I think it's just, we're looking at somebody who.Track 2:[15:32] Is a top 10, maybe top five cast member of all time. And we're almost at 50 year history of the show. And someone, I heard you guys talk about just, just a prodigy and just from day one, you're just like, you know, and for me, I get nervous with that because I'm always like, oh, this person shows so much promise and you start thinking, can they be a great, but there's so many great names in SNL history. You don't want to put that pressure, but Kate McKinnon lived up to deliver and exceeded all these expectations. And when I think of SNL in the decade of the 2010s, she's the first name that comes to my mind. So I figured let's just the number one slam dunk on this list to me, Kate McKinnon. Yeah, the most recent cast member on the ballot. Season 47 was her final season, and she went through the waiting period for the SNL Hall of Fame on the ballot this year. I wonder if there's going to be some sort of recency bias maybe against Kate, because she's so recent, and maybe some people feel like they need to put others ahead of Kate in the Hall of Fame. I mean, that's the only reason that I could think of as to why somebody would not vote for her. Because I agree with you, Jeremy. I think she's a slam dunk. Definitely on my ballot. I assume, Ashley, you were my guest for Kate McKinnon. I assume Kate's on your ballot.Track 2:[16:56] I feel like I could call myself a Kate fan. And my entire podcast should have been thrown away if I didn't put Kate on my ballot. So, yeah, she was actually my number one. I think, Jeremy, you and I are on the same wavelength. We're twins. We're SNL twins.Track 2:[17:09] Yes. So, I was going to come out of the gate strong with Kate, too. And, yeah, like, I was worried about that, too, was, yeah, is she too, quote, unquote, young? Is she still too junior? We were kind of talking about, you know, are we putting people up with, you know, people like Phil Hartman and all these kind of big greats. But I think she is up there already. I think she has proved herself to be a name that will forever echo the halls of Saturday Night Live with the impact that she's had. Yeah, and I can't imagine, you know, don't sleep on her just because we think she's going to sit on this ballot for a little bit. Like, I think she's she deserved it for sure. Yeah, I definitely agree. And I know some people have a philosophy of deciding whether somebody's a first ballot or not. I've always been of the mind, even in sports halls of fame, that if somebody's a Hall of Famer, they're a Hall of Famer. And I don't think there should be tiers as far as first ballot Hall of Fame. And to me, if they're a Hall of Famer, they're a Hall of Famer. And I don't look at them as like, I don't separate the Hall of Fame into tiers like that. Some people do. I think Kate's, even if somebody does separate into tiers, I think Kate's a quote-unquote first ballot Hall of Famer, even if somebody is strict like that. To me, she's almost comfortably in the top 10 all-time cast members.Track 2:[18:28] For me and i hope i hope as the years go along that people really have an appreciation for what she did on the show i know there were a lot of maybe hardcore snl fans toward the end of her tenure who were like oh we need some new blood i'm kind of sick of kate and that's unfortunate because we didn't know how good we had it with kate honestly apparently some people didn't know because she's an all-timers all-timer so that's just kind of where i stand so jeremy i'm curious i don't know if we've talked about this do you separate halls of fame in general into like Like, if somebody's a first ballot, if somebody's not? No, I don't have, like, the tier list. Like, I don't do, like, oh, you're on tier one. But there are in SNL Hall of Fame or in Sports Hall of Fame, there are names that are, like, you can just say their name and there's, like, enough said. And, like, you know, you stand up and you sit down. And there's some Hall of Famers where you have to have a discussion more and, you know, talk about it and you might have some debate. And I understand there's, like, both. But once they're in, there's no separation. You're a Hall of Famer. But there's some where it's like, you know, in the NFL, if I say Tom Brady, and if someone goes, really, I'm not sure about him, I'd be like, what's wrong with you? And, you know, Kate McKinnon's like on that level.Track 2:[19:40] It's like if someone's like, I don't know. I'd be like, really? You don't know about Kate McKinnon? Like, it's going to be a long day. So it's like Kate McKinnon's just, you just got to say her name, and then you sit back down. Exactly. No, I'm with you. I'm going to suck up to Ashley here and say Kate McKinnon's like Tim Duncan. In the nba like tim duncan ashley's his first fans oh okay nice tim tim duncan is like you say tim duncan it's like oh he's like a top 10 all-time great nba player like for sure hall of fame like he's on that first tier of hall of famer so to me kate mckinnon's like a tim duncan yeah like it's just a no-brainer like that absolutely and ashley like did a raise the roof there so i'm on her good side i i think my love for saturday night live may be tied with my love for the san antonio spurs it's really close i'm quite a fan girl when it comes to both so yeah tom could not have picked a better reference for me exactly and i'm jealous you get to follow victor wimpy llama same year how many years she's so lucky with the spurs, I was really happy that draft day, for sure. Oh, I bet. So, Deremy, Kate McKinnon, all three of us have Kate McKinnon on our ballots. Ashley, I want to go to you. Who do you want to start with?Track 2:[20:56] The next person I had right after Kate McKinnon on my list that I want to put on my ballot is Maya Rudolph.Track 2:[21:03] Again, I think she's another name. You say her name and it's no question. Profession the the breadth and the depth of talent that she had while on that show i i think was unmatched and i don't think there's been anyone like maya since on the show that's been able to kind of hold the candle to what she was able to do um i mean vocally she could do any of the you know finger impressions and and give us either you know song parodies um but she could also just really own and commit to being silly and ridiculous um but comes to mind is the sketch that she did with kristin wig where they're the prize girls on the on the game show and kate's you know driving around in the golf cart and they're just acting ridiculous and there's a lot of breaking and again i'm sure lauren wasn't too pleased with it but you could get these really serious impressions like beyonce out of maya but then also these just ridiculous ditzy dumb you you know, physical comedy, throw yourself type of sketches from her. And I think she's definitely, you know, she belongs in this hall of fame. Yeah. Well said. I think we've talked a little bit about Maya. Jeremy, is this the, one of the ones you've been upset about over the last few seasons? Yes, Ashley. I don't know what it is. We're on the same page. I'm going to say this. I think Maya Rudolph is the most.Track 2:[22:26] Under appreciated underrated cast member in the history of snl and i think it's crazy i to me i think she's top 10 but at most i'll give someone top 15 like cast member of all time um i think and maybe that's like a people have that sexist view could we say glue guy so we think of just like phil hartman dan akroyd no to me it's a glue person because my rudolph I think maybe the only glue person I think of more than her is a Phil Hartman, in my opinion. I just think, like what Ashley said, the versatility, what she was able to do, how unique she was, where before or since there's not a talent that Saturday Night Live has seen like her. And I think it's a travesty that she's been on this ballot for so long. So absolutely Maya Rudolph. off.Track 2:[23:17] Jeremy, you could partly blame me for some of that because I have been one of those people that's a little on the fence about Maya. And I know that's one of the things that you and I probably disagree about the most. Absolutely. As far as us in the Hall of Fame. And Ashley wants to throw a tomato at me right now, I think. And I love Maya. I love Maya.Track 2:[23:37] I'll watch anything that she pops up. If she's on a podcast, she was just on Dax Shepard's podcast. And I made sure that moved up in the queue. you like i wanted to listen to maya on dax's podcast like i absolutely love maya and i landed on why i was on the fence about it in the beginning and i talked this over we did actually a relitigation episode with rebecca north she came on and advocated for maya and i think for me i think maya was in the wrong era i think the the type of humor that was around when maya was on the cast probably in the early 2000s. I don't think it really fit the skill set that she had. I think she was honestly better than a lot of the material that was on the show around that time. I think if she was on the show early 90s, or even if she got to be more part of the cast in the other Golden Era from about 2007, I know she overlapped a little bit, but I would have liked to see her move on into like 2012 and you know i think she left the cast a little too soon before it really gelled and blossomed so i just think a lot of the material a lot of this the humor in the early 2000s.Track 2:[24:49] I always felt like it was a little edgelordy it was just weird all around like we were in a weird time in the country and just in comedy in general and i think the humor was just kind of off in the early 2000s and i didn't and i think that that didn't cater to to what made maya truly great I always love watching her on screen, but there was always something missing, but I think I landed on that it wasn't her fault. Really?Track 2:[25:15] You know, what gets me is like a lot and not this isn't at you, Thomas, but a lot of people look at the ladies of that era with Maya as like really breaking through the boys club of Saturday Night Live. And Maya was a big part of that.Track 2:[25:28] And the other women to me get talked about so much more than her when I think she was the best of those ladies who broke through, which is always kind of weird and conflicting for me where it's like there was great women on SNL before. But you know they had to fight that boys club and then it's like that's the era where it's like oh like the ladies broke through but then they leave maybe like one of the biggest pieces or the biggest piece off that list when we're talking about we give amy polar love and everybody like we don't give maya rudolph so it always kind of confuses me yeah i can agree with that what do you think about that ashley oh gosh yeah i can't imagine anybody being on the fence about maya rudolph um i think you saw my jaw hit the floor um because yeah it was oh yeah we talked you know jeremy.Track 2:[26:13] You talked about the glue person i think she could have been in every sketch and she held it together she always brought something to it even if she wasn't the star of that sketch or wasn't bringing her main like impressions um to it and again i know on my kate podcast i talked about you know to me when i think of somebody in the hall of fame for saturday night live is you know does their talent take them beyond the show and again look at her i mean she's still making amazing stuff and i i do i see where you're coming from tom a little bit when you're talking about um you know it not being her fault i can see that i think had she stayed and gotten to do a little bit more with like tina fey and annie puller she was like kind of in this weird she She wasn't on too long before they left.Track 2:[26:59] But then kind of also left herself not long after like Kristen wig and stuff was there, you know, only overlapped a little bit with those. I think she was kind of a little bit in between where it really would have catapulted her to a little bit more star power. Had she had a little bit, you know, better chemistry to meld with, but I loved her every second she was on the show. I loved every sketch that she was in. Um, huge fan of her impressions, of course, who I thought she was really good at it.Track 2:[27:32] Yeah, I'm trying to like, I'm a lawyer in my day job and I'm totally failing right now because I'm like, how do I advocate and convince Tom to put Maya on this ballot? Well, I will say that she's one of my locks. So Maya's on my ballot as a lock. So and I think I think she's going to get in this time around. But I had to have a sort of epiphany as to why I didn't 100 percent connect with Maya like everybody else. And it was like a goodwill hunting thing. I had to look at Maya and say, it's not your fault. And then she's in the SNL Hall of Fame as far as I'm concerned. So I'm writing my previous wrong and putting her as a lock on my ballot. And I think it's going to happen for her. I think she's going to get in this time around. That's just my gut feeling. I hope so. Yeah, I think you'll be fine. I will withdraw my objection. I apologize, Tyler. I've apologized. I've done all of, I think, the right thing here and admitted my error. And arrived at a proper conclusion, I think. So Maya Rudolph is on all three of our ballots here on the SNL Hall of Fame. I'm curious. I'll stick with you, Ashley. I'm curious as to who you want to talk about next. So this is a name that I am shocked is still on the ballot.Track 2:[28:51] That she hasn't been voted into the Hall of Fame yet. I got to go with Molly Shannon. Yeah, I think I talked a little bit on on my episode about, you know, what really made me fall in love with Saturday Night Live. And again, I think, you know, there's a few other names from her era that are on my ballot, too, that I won't bring up yet. But again.Track 2:[29:12] I mean, Mary Catherine Gallagher, just how can you not put Mary Catherine Gallagher in the Hall of Fame? She's a superstar. It's literally on her name. Well said. Yeah, she's on my ballot. So Molly Shannon is one of those. And similar to Maya Rudolph, this is her last year on the ballot. So if she doesn't get in, she's just off the ballot.Track 2:[29:33] So I have her as a lock. So that's one of my other locks. Um daramie uh molly shannon uh what are you what's your feeling on molly oh absolutely a lock um and and i agree with you guys i agree with ashley like she should have she should have been in i'm always going to give love for those cast members and writers who bridge a gap at a really tough time in snl history when i know like we all know the stuff like every year saturday night dead and blah blah blah and it's like okay but there's certain points in the show's history where it was really at a shaky point and on the rocks and she came midway through that awful 94 95 season and stayed on one of the few people who stayed on and really helped bring in a new transition with that fall of 95 96 cast and just the different characters the way she just jumped into the bazaar and didn't hold back and could you know have mary katherine gallagher but just really brought such a weird uncomfortable character to the mainstream and she was able to do that time and time again on this show uh definitely a hall of famer for.Track 2:[30:44] Yeah that's both of you said everything i think especially like she i think mary catherine gallagher on the snn they did a character count and i think mary catherine gallagher finished top five i want to say and that that's that's molly shannon's work her physicality is something.Track 2:[31:01] That i think everybody will always mention probably to her detriment like you watch some of those sketches back and she probably will admit like yeah she could have heard like she probably shouldn't have done that necessarily like i bet the producers on the show and writers and stuff like what are you doing like you don't have to like totally throw yourself through this table or wall or so i think she did a little damage to her body but she sacrificed herself for the good of the show and for our entertainment and she's just so wonderful and she has a really great memoir called hello molly uh i don't know if you have ever if you have a chance to read it i don't you need to pick that up Ashley if you haven't it's so good it's in my it's in my to read list right now for sure I admit I got a little bit sidetracked by some other kind of book talk recommendations that I very cliche got into but it is downloaded it is in my queue I've been dying to read it and yeah yeah you were talking about her physicality and I think what I loved about her too is we haven't seen a female comedian do physical comedy to the extreme like chris farley did you know when i think of extreme physical physical comedy to their actual physical real detriment you know obviously um you know chris farley would chug you know i don't even know how much like caffeine or espressos to get into that you know really hyper mindset in addition to you.Track 2:[32:31] Know, throwing himself through walls and tables.Track 2:[32:34] I loved that a female comedian would do that. And it was, I can be just as funny as the men who do this. And it's not improper. It's not inappropriate.Track 2:[32:43] She nailed it. I think it worked for her. And you're right. She did have so many quirky characters that I feel like other comedians who came after her tried to do, you know, they tried to bring that kind of weird and unique humor, but it didn't really land, or at least I didn't really get it. First person that comes to mind is Kyle Mooney. I apologize to Kyle Mooney fans, but he was just somebody that I couldn't really understand.Track 2:[33:11] I applauded his attempt and because, you know, comedy is so subjective and there's something out there for everybody. But I think Molly was that weird kind of quirky as a weird, quirky girl, awkward, you know, growing up, I was like, Oh, I feel seen like people can laugh with her and not at her. And that was really, really awesome to see. Do we have a Kristen Wiig or Kate McKinnon without Molly Shannon? Yeah, she's a trailblazer. Yeah, exactly.Track 2:[33:42] And I'm looking at Molly's trajectory as far as voting, and she started off at 34% after season one, and she's climbed to 47, 54, and then 57 last time around. So she just needs that last kind of push to get into the Hall of Fame. And with Maya, she started off at 47, and then she's been at 57, 58, and 58 the last few times. So I think both Molly and Maya both hovering around like the 57 to 58 percent of the vote mark. This is their last time. I think Molly's going to get into that's my gut feeling as well. I think the fact that I think voters will look at it and say that Molly and both Molly and Maya deserve it. And they've been on the cusp. They've been so close. And again, I blame myself for Maya. I've voted for Molly in the past. So I'm off the hook as far as Molly goes. But I would love to see both of them get into the SNL Hall of Fame. So we've had agreements on Kate McKinnon, Maya Rudolph, and Molly Shannon, three great cast members. Jeremy, I'm wondering who you have as far as non-cast members.Track 2:[34:53] Yeah, that's actually where I was going to go next because I'm like, you know what, let's just get weird on this roundtable. Let's get weird. Let's get weird. and I'm gonna go with this person and I'll be honest Thomas and, you know have listened to snl hall of fame since season one and usually when i'm listening the the conversation's great and you kind of lean me either way i'm thinking either where i'm like yeah they're hall of famer they're already just you're proving that or i don't think so and you're kind of going that way never have i been more conflicted listening than to the michael o'donohue episode where you had brad and gary on and i'm driving around and i'm going yeah and then right away. Then the next, someone makes a point and I go, no, he's not a hall of famer. Then I'm like, but yeah, he is. And I was just back and forth, like, and I'm like, I really don't know.Track 2:[35:40] And so I thought about it a lot, but I I'm going to vote them in. Okay. And I can understand if people don't, but I'm going to go there because of when the show started and, you know, because we've been making sports references, I'm going to keep that train going. You know, the dynasty docu-series just happened with the Patriots. And of course when you look at the Patriots dynasty there's a lot of players coaches, administrators who are a part of it but the big three like headed leadership Robert Kraft Bill Belichick, Tom Brady. When you look at the first year SNL the three headed leadership it was Lorne Chevy Chase and Michael O'Donohue and Michael really did if you listen to a lot of people that original those first five years You know, Saturday Night Live brought an edge. It was cool. It was hip. It was something that TV in the 70s hadn't seen yet. And who really helped to bring that sensibility was Michael O'Donoghue. And he's also done things, especially in the early 80s, that really could hurt the show. So I understand the negative, but I feel like his positives do outweigh the negatives, which is why I kind of went with he should be voted on. And he was a part of that original crew and I feel like everyone who was a part of the first season in my opinion should Be in the Hall of Fame just because you were a part of the foundation and you started this.Track 2:[37:05] Huge franchise that will stay in pop culture forever, no matter how long the show is on or when it goes off. So I vote for Michael O'Donohue. It's interesting that you bring up O'Donohue because I've, I put him on and then took him off. Like I alternated just so many over the last few days. I was like, nah, I don't know Don Hugh. And then I thought, and then I would think about what Brad and Gary said. I'm like, well, those are good points. I'll put them on. And then I took him off again. As of right now, Now he's not one of my 13 locks and he was one of the ones where I could be persuaded for him to end up on my final ballot. He went actually, I think Brad and Gary did a really great job of advocating for Michael O'Donohue because he went from 11% of the vote after season three to barely, like barely staying on the ballot. He got 35% last year. So that was quite the jump for Michael O'Donohue. I have, I don't know. It's just some, I don't know if it's just his, his persona or something like the, the, the edgy bordering on mean material that he possibly wrote that sometimes rubs me the wrong way. But, but I, I, I definitely grant like how important he was, uh, to the show. Uh, Ashley, it was Michael O'Donoghue, somebody that you've been maybe considering, uh.Track 2:[38:20] He is not on my ballot actually. And yeah, it was one of those things where I totally agree with you, Jeremy. He, I mean, he was part of that first season and I, I do agree with your statement that anyone from that first season because of what they created and what we have now is because of them. Um, but again, I wasn't a huge fan of, of his, some of his sketches were, I don't know, maybe it's just cause they didn't age well looking back at them. Um, but I do have a few writers on my ballot for sure. Um, and he just didn't land in one of my top favorites. Um, so. Yeah. He, uh, looking at his sketches, like, so this will be have like the, the good and the bad of it. Like he wrote Godfather therapy with, uh, Belushi Belushi, which was awesome. He wrote the last voyage of the starship enterprise, which I think is one of the better sketches of those early five seasons. Absolutely. Both of those. Yeah. Yeah, those are great. Norman Bates' School of Motel Management was awesome.Track 2:[39:18] I even liked the, he had a weird concept of the attack of the atomic lobsters that was like, I think O'Donohue's sense of humor kind of reigned in a little bit. Then like you have things like the Needle, the Needles Impressionist, where he just said like, here's my impression of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with needles stuck in their eyes. And he would just like yell he would like mind putting needles in his eyes and just yell so it's just kind of interesting uh but again Jeremy he's not like totally off my ballot it's just something that I have to like keep thinking about well don't get me wrong like I so personally I agree with you guys like there's a lot of things that I'm like uh it doesn't I mean there's some sketches he wrote that hits me it's a lot that don't but I have to take myself out of it and look back on what, for our parents' generation, what TV was like in 1975.Track 2:[40:14] And we look at it like, we look at the late 60s into the 70s, music and movies were ahead of the game, where they reflected what society was doing. TV was dead last. And I think about what really changed TV. I think of, number one, like Norman Lear and his sitcoms, and then, number two, like when Saturday Night Live premiered. So like him doing like the needles in the eye, like it's not, I don't laugh at it, but like at that point, TV was so far behind. That was just bizarre to see on television where you're used to seeing, you know.Track 2:[40:47] Green Acres and Mr. Ed, you know, not that long before. And that was like, that's what you got. And then even like in late night, it was Johnny Carson.Track 2:[40:55] So then it's like, you're getting this and just this sensibility. That's just, whoa, like the counterculture is taking over NBC for an hour and a half on Saturday nights. Like it was very different for that generation, which is why I had to take myself and my personal taste out of it and look like that was different for that time. Totally no i agree i mean that's that's why he's still kind of like i might be persuaded honestly he might end up on my list of 15 i'm trying i'm trying i know yeah you're very persuasive you do that on our other pod too on pop culture five you always kind of like get me on your side yeah so and michael donahue was the first person to appear on camera on snl like just a little like historical fun fact the first person that we see on snl it was michael o'donohue and that wolverine sketch so but Jeremy has Michael O'Donohue Ashley's probably a no I'm a maybe at this point Ashley you said that you had a writer or a couple writers I'm curious if you want to reveal one of those yeah so I have four writers actually um and I I gotta go with my girl Paula Pell brilliant just absolute brilliance like she is my comedy um I if I saw her on the street I might might die just like i would next to kate and tina fey but i think because we got paula pell like in the era of tina fey to such strong writers at the same time we got such great stuff out of them.Track 2:[42:25] Um and again i keep repeating myself but what they've been able to do beyond the show as well, you know like conan o'brien when he was on and what he's been able to do afterwards because he had such talent i think paul is the same way and she kind of stays in the you know she doesn't really take that limelight that I feel like she deserves she's kind of I think happy to be a writer and not necessarily take those starring roles but when she does you know come in and do even just like a supporting actress I sign me up I'm gonna see it every single day any chance I get to see Paula Pell and again I think what she was able to do with around that time with Tina was pushing again we talked about Jeremy you said um breaking the boys club not just for the the comedians we saw on TV, but I think that's what Paula and Tina were doing in the writers room was they were trying to break up that boys club, and again say women are funny too and we can be silly and ridiculous and I think even bringing in the.Track 2:[43:21] You know, the topical humor of calling stuff out and making it funny, though, like bringing up issues in a way that made everybody laugh instead of making them uncomfortable. So we could talk about it and kind of understand it and see it. And I think she was such a trailblazer for it. Yeah, she was one of the minds behind some of the great recurring sketches of that era. She was she was behind the cheerleaders and other just really big recurring sketches like that. She was like you could you definitely felt her voice in that era. And it meshed well with, like you said, Will Ferrell, Sherry O'Terry, and all of those. And she has Girls 5, Ebba. That's kind of like the thing that she's involved with right now. Paula Pell. Deremy, I'm curious before I kind of – because I have a little situation here with Paula Pell and another writer that I might want to hash out. But, Deremy, I want to get your thoughts on Paula Pell. Oh, she's on my list. That's a slam dunk.Track 2:[44:17] Should have been in for a writer. She's the first ballot. Hall of Famer in my opinion um I talked about you know with Molly Shannon those who helped really re like revigorate and save the show in like the fall of 95 we talk about the people on screen you always give credit to those behind the camera and like the writers Paula Pell's one of those people and you mentioned I mean from like the cheerleaders to Debbie Downer to Justin Timberlake in the omelette ville like so that's like over different years she's doing these memorable characters and like writing these great sketches um and just someone you know that lauren trusted you know like i think ashley great point like how huge was it for when tina fey became the first female head writer that having a paula pell there like i'm sure that was like a big help and i just think she's getting this just due now because like in the public eyes because of girls five ever but like.Track 2:[45:16] Maybe it's by design. I know she was behind the scenes, but to me, she's one of those writers who should have always been talked about up there with a Smigel, a Jack Handy, all those people. She's that great. She's a slam dunk for me. me yeah it seems like if you ask somebody who worked at snl around that time they would tell you that paula pell was probably the funniest person yeah in the building so that's kind of the that's the reputation that she had uh and by the way if you listen to wtf with mark maron paula pell was a recent guest yes on and she was great she's hilarious she's so likable love paula pell that was a really great interview she did with mark maron um paul is not a lock on my list and she's honestly one like that I'm not discounting and I wanted to hash it out because I don't know I have another writer that might be a little I'm gonna take controversial but a lot of people might tell me might urge me to put Paula Pell in ahead of him for many reasons I want to hash out as to whether I should swap out Paula Pell for this person or if I should add Paula Pell to my list and keep this person so i want to kind of dive into i have julio torres.Track 2:[46:25] On on my list and i and i didn't think that i didn't think that was i was gonna feel that way heading into the season but then i started looking at the sketches that he wrote and his unique voice and i know the one limiting factor is he was only on the show for he was only a writer on the show for like three seasons but some of the stuff that julio did i mean he he was behind uh papyrus which we saw a second installment papyrus 2 now the actress with emma stone he uh he also wrote wells for boys which was another wonderful emma stone pre-tape he wrote a lot of really great political things he had the melania moments his so you julio had just like such a clever unique voice at that time of the show i think he really stood out he had a really great one with With Lin-Manuel Miranda.Track 2:[47:18] Where Lin-Manuel Miranda played a character. That was like. He was in Montana or North Dakota or something. And he called his mom. Because he was an immigrant that called his mom. And was describing like how his life was. So like. Julio Torres' voice was just so unique. And to me he was almost like a comet. That came through SNL. And he made the show so great. But he just wasn't there. For a long time. Where somebody like Paula Pell was. Was and so i want i was wondering about like the merits of of julio torres in that should i i don't know ashley like should i move another rider a more of a legacy rider in front of him or like what do you what do you think about julio's contributions and then even like compared to somebody like paul appell.Track 2:[48:06] Yeah, I mean, and not to discount Julio Torres. Yeah, I loved his sketches. I thought they were hilarious. And I don't want to say that somebody doesn't deserve to be on a ballot just because they weren't on Saturday Night Live for I don't think there's a requisite amount of time. I think we could, you know, vote somebody in who was in for one season. Obviously, we've got some hosts on the ballot that aren't necessarily in the five timers club and things like that. But I think to me, the difference between if we're going to put Julio and Paula together is not just not that Paula was legacy because she was on for so long, but because of what her sketches did to, you know, move the show. Like Jeremy said, you know, taking it out of an era like she came in, I think, right at the right time to kind of rescue a drowning show and then continue to evolve it and stay relevant and kind of help us, you know, continue to keep SNL moving with the times.Track 2:[49:01] Whereas you know i mean i get papyrus and they just did you know part two a couple weeks ago is just genius um i think it should be nominated for like an emmy for a short or something but um yeah given the two i really think paula um i mean is julio again i hate i hate to do this but this isn't his last year on the ballot correct no and you're right no this is his first year actually so i mean that that plays a role yeah that plays a role too in the thought process i think yeah yeah so i i think you got to go with paula i really do i think and again julio he's also someone who continues to write um and doing great things for other shows you know that we still watch today and so definitely not to discount his humor what what he did um his sketches.Track 2:[49:50] But i'm biased i'm like i said i would fangirl over paula pell in the street so So yeah, you know where I stand. Yeah, I think Jeremy, the thing about Julio to me was like his batting average, putting in sports terms, like his batting average was just so high that it was hard for me to discount. He did so much in such a little time, like almost everything that he did was a hit for me. And to me, that plays a big role. Like, is it quantity or even if he was only on the show for three seasons, but his batting average is super high? Like, how do you weigh stuff like that? No, it's hard. I feel like you could have both on there, and I think that would solve it, but if you have to choose.Track 2:[50:31] Between one or the other, I would put Paula just because.Track 2:[50:35] A little bit of the longevity and what she did over different eras. So her batting average was, you know, it, you know, if you have someone who hit three 50 for three seasons and someone who hit three 25 for, you know, 15 seasons, like it's like, you know, I'm gonna go with that three 25 for 15 over three 50 for the three. So it's like, I have to weigh it like that. I'm probably gonna, you gotta, it's hard because like my, The guy who I look at is either, I go back and forth between first or second greatest cast members, Eddie Murphy. And he wasn't on very long, but what he did was amazing. So I hear you. It's tough. And I think with Julio bringing that different sensibility to a show and really bringing that diversity in a different mind, that's a great factor for him. But Paula did that too. Yeah. So it's like, it's, it's just hard. Like if you have to pick one or the other, I would go with Paula, but it's a tough choice. Yeah. So I think all of that weighs into my thought process. I think, I think.Track 2:[51:40] I think it either come down for me to Julio or Paula, or you're right. I could, I could just put both of them on. I might have room to do that. It's all, I mean, nothing's set in stone right now. I just wanted to hash that out. Cause I think it's interesting. And Julio actually has a better case than I thought even like on the surface, you're like, okay, Julio Torres, like, you know, memorable, talented rider. But then you start looking at his work and it was like, oh my gosh, he might actually have a real case here. Like more so than I thought. So, uh, so I just wanted to hash that out. And I thought that was the perfect time to do it. But Paula Pell is one of the other ones where I was like, man, I love Paula Pell. And I was just considering that. So, yeah, thanks for – see, here, we're all learning something. And we're all kind of like – or at least I'm like kind of getting my thought process in order and maybe swayed a certain way. So, yeah, Deremy, I wonder what is next on your list.Track 2:[52:29] Another crime I'm trying to justify or undo on the SNL Hall of Fame. You came with anger, everybody. Deremy's just like – I'm just like, jeez. here we go i brought this per i think i was on the season three round table before and i nominated this person then and they're still on here but we're talking about you know because ashley you just brought up like host and we're talking about the og five-timer guy he was on 10 times in the first five years he was the person who suggested doing recurring sketches like to that to the original like cast like hey you should do that samurai thing again john like come on i mean it's classic when they did the samurai and belushi like by accident cuts him on the forehead and they're all wearing like the bandage you got to have buck henry on here the og the five timers club is such a known thing in the snl like pantheon and how do we not have the og of the five timers club in the snl hall of fame he should be a first ballot guy because he's one of those people.Track 2:[53:37] I think of him and Steve Martin, where people to this day get confused and say they were part of the original cast. Because that's how much they are a staple of that show. And so I'm just like, outside of maybe Steve Martin, to me there's no more important host than Buck Henry. So it's like, how is he not in the Hall of Fame yet? I don't know. I don't get it. But I'm going to do it again.Track 2:[54:04] Nominate and bring up buck henry for the snl hall of fame let's hopefully we get it right this time people yeah he's on he's a lock on my list too and and i voted for him in the past i think he's just so important to the show he's a 10 timer yeah but it's not just the quantity of like he he was solid like you watch every single one of his hosting gigs there's a reason why they asked him twice a year to come back and he always hosted the finale and it was just like i think the cast and the crew and the producers it was just like they knew they were in good hands with buck henry and they could throw stuff at him and he would he would be great in it he could he could lead a sketch he can just find like a role to kind of hang back and just be a supporting player i think buck just in synonymous with the show i mean he wrote the graduate uh and he was a great writer but people know him for snl like i think that's just as far as on screen especially like he they know him as like the guy who used to host SNL a bunch. And I think, yeah, I think Buck Henry needs to get in. So he's for sure on my list. I don't know how you feel about Buck Henry, Ashley, if we have to like persuade you or where do you stand on this?Track 2:[55:15] I don't, it wasn't a matter of not being persuaded that he deserved to be on it. I think just because I, like I said, at the beginning of this, I had such a hard time whittling my list down to my 15 votes. And that I, you know, have a little bit, you know, my bias is going to show through with my votes of, you know, kind of the more...Track 2:[55:37] Relatively recent um you know people i only have three hosts on my list actually, because again i had such a really hard time with it so i i had to give that spot to somebody else and i think it was kind of me selfishly hoping that somebody else like like you guys would push him through because i agree he believes or excuse me i agree that he deserves to be in the hall of fame um i'm not against it i don't think you have to convince me that he deserves it but you may have to convince me to take somebody else off my list if i'm going to put him on mine so a lot of it's like an era maybe kind of thing like uh buck henry's a more old timer maybe and so so so we're looking at like an era that more so like resonated with you possibly i will say this buck henry was on the ballot for the first time after season three so this is not his final year he's been.Track 2:[56:32] On twice before he went from 23 after season three to 48 so he made quite the jump so i think uh this being his third time on the ballot i wouldn't be surprised uh i would be a little surprised if he got in but i but i think he's gonna be one of those where it's like he's inching toward there so you have another couple seasons after this ashley to to write this wrong that might be made so yeah so this isn't totally the last chance for buck henry and i think that was the thing is you know there's so many greats from that original era that are in the hall of fame already that it was kind of a shock that he isn't on that list um because i mean like how do we get anywhere with it we are today without jane curtain gilda radner you know these ogs um that again like derry said started the show um they made us know what it is and yeah you're right.Track 2:[57:26] Literally you know wrote one of the greatest films of all time you know and then we're like oh no but his his work on snl don't worry about um you know the graduate um thing about snl so you're right i think next year i'll have an updated ballot okay okay so so we'll check back in next year i think if buck henry was more famous just in general in pop culture he would probably get in but he's He's just like a writer, a movie writer. So he just kind of like is under the radar. But I think if he was a little more famous, like Steve Martin or something like that, then I think Buck Henry would be in. So we'll see. I'm curious to see where Buck Henry lands this year. What host do you have, Ashley? So I actually, yeah, kind of going like a little bit more to an older era, I put Martin Short instead of Buck Henry as my vote for one of my hosts. Because, again, he's somebody else that I find synonymous with SNL.Track 2:[58:26] And, again, just that silly, quirky... You know, doesn't apologize for how he is or who he is or his comedy or anything. And even to this day, I mean, we saw him, you know, a couple of weeks ago with, with Kristen Wiggs episode and just still making, he made Lauren break. I mean, come on, like how, how epic is that when you make Lauren Michaels laugh at a sketch? I think that shows how great and how funny he actually is. Every time he's on, I get so happy.Track 2:[58:56] I think because of what he's been able to do, the fact that, yeah, he keeps coming back. As well we keep inviting him back no matter what um i mean they brought him back for kristen wig they brought him back for uh steve martin he's just somebody again it wasn't just a glue person but could you know steal the scene and steal the sketch no matter what he was in yeah just always a wildly entertaining person to watch martin short and he he hosted two all-time classic christmas episodes he has two of the better monologues i've ever seen i'm still teetering though i'm kind of on the fence he's not a lock for me but he's one of those where i just like kind of wanted to wait and see what other people said and i'll do some more thinking on so i didn't totally discount martin short he's in that michael o'donoghue paul appell range where i'm just like i don't know not not a lock for me but i want to see somebody make the case uh jeremy where do you stand on martin short he's a new on my list i don't i don't have him on mine um i think there There is no, in my lifetime, there's no more guaranteed lock to make a person laugh. If I have to pick someone in the world to save my life, like, I dare me, you can only survive if you pick someone to make me laugh.Track 2:[1:00:10] I'm Martin Shorts, like, he's on my Mount Rushmore, probably like number one. Like, he's just that naturally funny. Like, he's like the ultimate talk show person. and it makes sense he's the ultimate person to kind of fill in on SNL and to be there and to come on but I just don't I know he was on for the cast for that season that transition that Steinbrenner year I just still don't.Track 2:[1:00:34] When I think of Martin Short, I don't think of SNL with him. I know that's a part of his history, but I'm going to go to movies. I'm going to go to his talk show appearances. I'm going to go to other things. I'm not his, you know, not his relationship with Steve Martin. I'm not going to go to SNL. And I think that's why. But I still do believe like he's hilarious and he's funny. And I'm always glad when I see him there. But I don't think of him like, oh, as a host or as even a cast member. Like yeah he's one of those you know for our podcast essential people so that's why i don't have him on my list but i could be persuaded to like for sure but he's off mine he had more of a case after i after i re-watched some of his at least a couple of his episodes he had he had the episode there was one in the late 90s that was classic though his episode in 2012 when paul mccartney was the musical guest that's like a stone cold classic episode to me as well and his His monologues there were great. So when I watched specifically even those two episodes, I'm like, all right, yeah.Track 2:[1:01:35] I mean, he put in two amazing performances here. One thing that's interesting about him, too, is he has another, you know, in the 80s, he hosted with Chevy Chase and Steve Martin. And then he also co-hosted with Steve Martin. So some of his hosting gigs have been with other people as well where Martin wasn't totally featured. So I could see both sides. That's why I am kind of like he's still up in the air for me. But anything to add on that, Ashley?Track 2:[1:02:05] I think I'm going to steal your Maya Rudolph explanation. And I think Martin Short was, I think, the victim of being a cast member on a time where maybe his type of comedy or whatever the reason didn't mesh with everything else going on. And you're right, he wasn't on very long and he ended up doing much bigger things, after Saturday Night Live. But I think...Track 2:[1:02:29] The reason Lorne kept bringing him back was because he understood that maybe, the time that he was a cast member, maybe not have been the best time to have him shine, but recognizing his talent, his comedy, what he's able to do.Track 2:[1:02:45] And I think that's why I would vote for him as a host, as opposed to a cast member is you're right. Every time he came back to host, whether it was by himself or, or with, you know, the three amigos, I just, Just, it makes me wish that he would have been on. And sometimes it makes me forget that he wasn't on longer than he was.Track 2:[1:03:05] Because my brain has clicked and associated him so much with Saturday Night Live. And I think, too, just his association with all the other greats on SNL, I think, helped bring him along a little bit to that star power. But I think even without them, he can stand on his own. So and i should say too like uh for snl hall of fame purposes and how how it was set up a few years ago um we there are the categories technically so martin short isn't eligible as a cast member because he was only on for the one season that's why he's on host but it's up to each individual uh voter and it's just to what their criteria is so if they want to count his cat time as a cast member that's up to the voter uh technically it's just kind of his host hosting gigs that we're looking at, but that's interesting as far as... This is why we do these things, is kind of peek into the criteria of a certain individual. Like Jeremy brought up, Martin Short made his mark elsewhere other than SNL. And so there's all sorts of different factors, but I can definitely see Martin Short. I'm curious. This is his first year on the ballot, so I'm curious to see how voters feel about him. So this will definitely be interesting. Jeremy, I want to go back to you for your next pick. I'm gonna go back to another wrong.Track 2:[1:04:20] I've been trying to write it here, and it's the first episode I ever did on SNL Hall of Fame with you, Thomas. And I know I'm still going to use this vote here. I got to go with Dick Ebersole, the man who created Saturday Night Live and who brought Lorne Michaels in as the executive producer and was really like he got hired to create a show for the film on Saturday nights. He picked Lorne Michaels, and they really together co-created Saturday Night Live. That right there is huge. But then after the first five years when Lorne and the rest of the cast, all those original people left, and they hired Gene Domanian in season six as a nightmare. They're looking at canceling the show. They fired Gene Domanian. What do they do? They bring in Dick Ebersole to run it, and he has one of the most important conversations in SNL history. He talks to Lorne because he knew no one would help him from the past if Lorne didn't give it its blessing. Lorne gives it the blessing.Track 2:[1:05:24] Dick Ebersole sees the – he fires everybody, but he keeps Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, Barry Blaustein, David Sheffield. And Blaustein and Sheffield as writers with Eddie Murphy save the show. So that show keeps going you know for the early early into the mid 80s because of what dick ebershaw did and you know he saw the talent in eddie murphy he saw that bright shining star gene domanian had eddie murphy on the side not really doing anything he's like we have this rising comedic the megastar we're going to pump him out and i mean we got some epic sketches some all-time great performances because of that. And where would we be? We wouldn't be doing this roundtable, technically, without Dick Ebersole.Track 2:[1:06:13] So the fact that he's still on there, I'm going to go advocate for him because I think it's shame on the SNL voters that we wouldn't be having this talk if it wasn't for Dick Ebersole, and you're not going to put him in the Hall of Fame. So I've got to give it to Dick Ebersole. Yeah, Dick Ebersole, I mean, he's somebody who helped create the show along with Lauren. He helped save the show so i think he's on my list so he's one of the ones where i just he's he's a lock on my list i think ebersole should be he gets lost in the shuffle because everybody thinks of lauren as like the the guy which he is i mean this is lauren you know ultimately his show but dick ebersole like right right there alongside him at the beginning and and i mean he picked lauren like he could have picked somebody else yeah you're right well it was dick ebersole who yeah yeah so yeah great points i'm with it uh ashley dick ebersole what say you oh ditto yes gavel struck 100 percent um we don't exist all the people we've been talking about don't exist without dick ebersole another one of those i mean.Track 2:[1:07:18] Left bug henry off while i believe he deserves to be in it dick ebersole i would not leave off um because yeah he's gotta go gotta go on the list sorry yes yes so we're all bonding here all three of us have dick ebersole for sure i think just his name like that again the name factor i think hurts dick ebersole and uh i i just gobble up snl uh books and memoirs and stuff and dick Dick Ebersole had a really great one that both Jeremy and I referenced quite a bit when we did the episode as well. So you want to learn a lot about Dick Ebersole's career. Fascinating career. Dick Ebersole is honestly like the Forrest Gump of TV. Yes. Great point. Yeah, very much so. He really is. Yeah, he really is. So Dick Ebersole, hopefully we can welcome you into the SNL Hall of Fame after this season. Ashley, I want to go back to you. You've shared six of your choices, so maybe a little one behind. So I want to, I want to catch you up a little bit and take another one off your board here. I'm going to have to go with John Mulaney. As a host or a writer? So I put him, I put him as a writer. Okay.Track 2:[1:08:24] Um, and I went back and forth on this because again, he's somebody, I mean, we talked about earlier, you know, can bring him back. He hosted, you know, the season finale, like I think two years in a row, um, and has absolutely killed it. but we have so many great sketches because of him before we ever saw his face and knew what he looked like. We got graced with the presence of Stefan in the world. And I know my, my life is better because of it.Track 2:[1:08:55] Stefan is one of my all time top 10 favorite characters of Saturday night live history. And so I love not just what he did with Stefan, but anything he did with hater turned to gold um i i think despite you know putting him you know on the stage and getting to see him as a host was really good and i think kind of helped, propel him when he started to do his own stuff but to me i think his genius and what solidified him to me as being great was was his ability to write um lobster diner even i guess as a writer and a host i know he hosted when lobster diner aired but he wrote lobster diner and so i gotta give that i think that's ultimately what pushed me to put him in the writing category for this vote, um was at the end of the day i think he's a writer at heart and we talk about daramie like, voices like a distinct voice on snl to me john mulaney you know it's john mulaney's voice and i think i don't know if that counts for something to me it does absolutely i i agree actually i have him on my list and as a writer, because that is what I know him for, for SNL, that's what I think of. You know, you mentioned Stefan.Track 2:[1:10:11] Definitely top 10, but maybe top five character in the history of the show. How just how popular it seemed like to me every Sunday morning. People I knew we were talking about what Stefan like that sketch like and what he did with Seth Meyers. So and just him being a voice behind that and all the different sketches. And he felt like in his short time, he was one of the go to writers for Lorne, for the cast.Track 2:[1:10:36] And I think this like you said, Thomas, he you know, it's him. He has that you know it's his voice you know what that sensibility he brings to it so i i think and he wasn't a writer and i think that's due to just his crazy talent same with a julio like wasn't a writer for that long because he was just that great and that talented that you know hollywood came and swooped him up but um john mulaney's a slam dunk for me as a writer yeah he's one of the ones on the short list for me of like i'm still contemplating and i wouldn't be surprised if i ultimately put him in and to me there's just like it's it's it's a stacked class so to me it's just like no shame on john mulaney he's he's had some of my favorite sketches.Track 2:[1:11:20] You mentioned stefan actually stefan might be my favorite character of all time and that's a big uh john will obviously bill hater played stefan but john mulaney's a big reason why he was behind what's that name that's a John Mulaney thing and you totally see Mulaney's voice in a sketch like what's that name there was a one-off called what's wrong with Tanya that I always go back to Anna Faris is in that that's just such like a brilliant satire and parody on Lifetime movies recently two seasons ago one of my favorite recent sketches when he was a host and he helped uh write was the monkey judge sketch which I just that that just floored me with how creative and clever it was so he's behind a lot of stuff that I love it's no shame on him that I don't have him as a lock already there's just some other people that that I have as locks that.Track 2:[1:12:11] Be ahead of him but no no offense to Mulaney but I think you both bring a very good point so I'm curious to see John Mulaney's on on the ballot as a host and a writer so I'm curious to see how that impacts things this is last time on the ballot as a host so maybe if he splits the vote this time around maybe if he's just on as a writer then that'll push him through but I'm curious to see how that might impact um the voting uh there for John Mulaney uh so I wanted to share somebody off off my list and i want to talk musical guests and i and i'm curious to see what you you'll to think about musical guests and to me if there's one musical guest that should be in the hall of fame if we're going to put one throughout the show's history to me it should be dave grohl and uh and i just think the fact that he's not already in the hall of fame to me speaks more of how people view musical guests and their relation to snl rather than dave grohl himself He's been on the show 15 times as a musical guest with Nirvana, with Foo Fighters, with them Crooked Vultures. He's come on and played with McCartney, with Neil Young, Tom Petty. I don't know if he played with Neil Young, but he played with Tom Petty for sure. Tom Petty recruited him, and he was going to be in Tom Petty's band. And Dave Grohl's been in sketches as a musical guest. He's had memorable appearances in sketches.Track 2:[1:13:33] So I think if there's one musical guest that should be in the Hall of Fame, it's Dave Grohl. And he's not paul simon's the only one but i have dave grohl as a stone cold lock for me i'm curious i don't know ashley like what kind of thought did you give to musical guests how do you feel about dave grohl and his place in snl history no i i have dave grohl he's the only musical vote that i have on my ballot actually and i felt kind of bad because you're i i think I think that musical guests are a very underrated part of the show.Track 2:[1:14:09] And when you think of what makes Saturday Night Live so iconic over the years is who they've been able to bring on over these years. And I think that speaks to how important this show is to people and culture. I mean, everybody that comes on is, I've been watching this show since I was a little kid. I've been dreaming of this since I was a little kid. Everybody says that you know when they come on the show and I think.Track 2:[1:14:33] Who they get as a musical guest speaks volumes to that as well. And the fact that somebody like Dave has come back so many times, time and again, and in so many different capacities shows the versatility. And I love when you get a musical guest and you get that cameo in a sketch. And I think that makes the crowd go wild. It gets people so excited because you have this, this rock star come on and they're, it kind of brings them down to earth a little bit. You see them as a real person, And as somebody who's not afraid to be silly, put themselves out there on live TV, sometimes in a sketch that makes fun of themselves. And so now you have that, you know, self self deprecation and makes them even more likable. And I think there's an art and a science to who they pick. Obviously, you know, their scheduling and agents and contracts and all the stuff that goes into it. But I think when they can marry up a host and a musical guest, I think that can really set the tone and the theme for that entire episode that whole night. I think when you bring on somebody like Dave Grohl, regardless of who the host is, you know you're going to get something good all the way through from start to finish.Track 2:[1:15:43] Yeah, Jeremy, he's been appearing on SNL for going on 32 years now. His first appearance was with Nirvana in 92. The most recent one was season 49 in the Nate Bargatze episode this year. He was in a sketch this season. So what do you think, Jeremy? Do me, do me proud. Yeah, he's, he's on my list. He's a lock. I think it's interesting because I do feel like of all the categories we have, the one that is hard to line up as musical guests, because to, to your point, Ashley, it is such a huge and important part of the show and the show's history.Track 2:[1:16:20] And it's also, if you look at, like, what MTV is now and all these other, it's, like, the one platform I feel like, you know, oh, you're the musical guest on SNL, where, like, all of America can, like, really see you. Like, no matter, like, if you're Bieber or Taylor Swift, we're all watching you, which is, like, I think in today's culture very hard to have that, where it's, like, oh, we all saw blank on SNL. Like, we don't really have any place to see musical people, like, all at the same time anymore. More so it's important but i think it's weird because it's like oh that shows the establishment that's the window in time of who was popular you can look at snl's musical guest but i think we think about like you got to have this amazing performance on there to be memorable and all that being said dave grohl he has that because if you look at dave grohl's career on just with With the Foo Fighters being on SNL, he should be a Hall of Famer, just how many times he's been on. But to your point, Thomas, Nirvana, that was a memorable moment in music history and in SNL history. When Nirvana came on SNL, that's when we're like, wow, alternative music has really broken through. It was seeing them overtake Michael Jackson and them being the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. And they gave a memorable performance. So all that combined is like, if there's a slam dunk musical guest throughout the show's 49 year history, it's Dave Grohl.Track 2:[1:17:48] Yeah, and he's inching toward that line. So he was first on the ballot in season two, did an episode with Ryan McNeil on Dave Grohl. He had 32% of the vote, went up to 54% in season three, 55% after last season. So he's inching there. And I think the more we advocate for Dave Grohl as the musical guest, to me, he's the musical guest in SNL history. People say Paul McCartney, Paul Simon. To me, Dave Grohl is the musical guest in SNL history. For sure. So, and one of my favorite all-time performances was in 2020 after Biden got elected. They performed, Foo Fighters performed times like these. And I like got a lump in my throat when they performed that. Absolutely. That was amazing. So, he has an iconic performance. I actually cried. Like, I was crying watching that. Yeah, for sure. No, it was just like stunning. We know that was strategic. There's a reason for so many reasons that Lorne, that they went and picked the Foo Fighters for that. And also, you've heard Dave Grohl talk about it with the Foo Fighters and the Letterman appearances and SNL. He has an appreciation for comedy and appreciation for what those comedy institutions mean. And I like that he appreciates that. So that also is another, for me anyway, another feather in his cap. He appreciates what this means.Track 2:[1:19:10] Yeah, this is awesome. I hope Dave Grohl gets his just due. All three of us have him on our ballots. it's the way we're whittling this down Ashley it makes sense to go back to you so I want to get your next choice um so I picked uh listen I'm trying to because you know I know we have a few left I'm trying to think of who I want to put on here oh I one of my hosts that I voted for was Justin Timberlake again I think he could have his own best of DVD at this point he's been on so often what he's done not only as him as himself you know when he's hosted and musical guest at the same time but also what he did with the lonely island and his bromance with andy sandberg i think just it gave us genius they those two worked so well together not just in the digital shorts but i think just with anything that they did on screen we talked about paula pelsketch omelette bill again and then how many times he came back and we got all the different iterations of you know the wrapping paper or but just iconic absolutely iconic to me he's somebody too that i think we saw the first time that he was on it was like oh.Track 2:[1:20:24] Should he be a cast member? I remember thinking that to myself. He could totally come do this every single week, and I think he would fit in seamlessly as a cast member. And I think he had great comedic timing, also wasn't afraid to make fun of himself, and just really go all in with whatever they gave him. Yeah. Well, Ashley, what I thought to myself when Timberlake first appeared on SNL was, I hate this guy. I hate him because he can sing, he can dance, he's good looking, and he's funny, and he's good on SNL. Like that's just no unfair like i hate you man and for those reasons i have him on my ballot i hate him so much that he was so good on snl that i put justin timberlake uh on my ballot he's one of like the picks that were it was a lock to me so it's i'm surprised that timberlake's not even just for name recognition alone i'm surprised that timberlake's not on jeremy do you have timberlake i'm gonna be honest with the people here yes okay um last time i was on here i left Lonely Island off and people made points which was egregious it was bad and I was like people were making points and I'm like I'm like I'm.Track 2:[1:21:34] I'm like, should I double down? But, like, man, they're kind of convincing me, like, I made a mistake. And then I was like, I think I told you afterwards that. And then I'm like, I'm not going to do that again. So I'm going to be real with you, Thomas, Ashley. I had Candace Virgin on it for my, like, other host. But hearing the points you made, Ashley, I just crossed her off. Sorry, Candace. I love you. I love Murphy Brown. You're important. Five-timer. but i'm uh i'm putting justin on um for everything that you said and i think it's impressive like just to add on yeah the duo i think of with justin on snl is andy sandberg but he's so great in the snl pantheon that like the duo people talk about is like him and jimmy fallon another great cast member yeah i know that's from the tonight show and stuff too but still it's like he's got like like, two, like, partnerships with SNL, like, greats here. That's how awesome. I mean, some of his sketches are some of the all-time great moments that in the 21st century that really put SNL on, like, a new generation's, like, radar.Track 2:[1:22:39] And it's not the show. It's, like, a different category. I think it means something. I know he's a big name, but for the SNL 40th, him and Jimmy were the first one. They opened it. And that has to mean something for all those amazing, talented people who were in that room that night that Lauren ultimately went with, I mean, and Jimmy, but Justin and Jimmy to open the 40th anniversary special. So I righted my wrong. Sorry, Candice, love you, but I'm going with Justin Timberlake. I agree, Ashley. Well done. Yeah, Candice too. Candy Bergen was somebody who I considered as well. Almost put her on the list. She was one of those, like Michael Donahue, I put her on, then took her off, and then put her on, then took her off. Candy, to her credit, she hosted... We did the same thing. Yeah. Candy, to her credit, she hosted maybe the best episode in SNL history. It was a Christmas episode. I think it was the season two or three Christmas episode. Frank Zappa was the musical guest. Yeah. But it was just...Track 2:[1:23:39] Five-star sketch after five-star sketch. So she has a great, great all-timer episode under her belt. She also hosted, I think it was the fifth episode. And it's what many people, like critics, but of the cast and crew who say that was the first episode that established the template for what SNL would be. It's like that first episode she hosted. So that's why it was tough. I considered her for all that. that but ashley i you know i see your law skills because i'm i'm like you you got me you got so i will say this between candy and justin timberlake if it makes a difference with voters so candace bergen has one more year after this on the ballot so she she was first got on the ballot in season two justin timberlake was a season one so if he doesn't get voted in now he's gone so and that would really surprise me so if that's like that could possibly be a tiebreaker for some people like us who are kind of like candy or justin timberlake and candice bergen has another year if she doesn't make it so that could be like a tiebreaker too so much love for you candice bergen for sure yeah love girl yeah uh jeremy uh what's your next one so i'm gonna go with someone who, I go back and forth with, but I could be convinced to go the other way. I don't know how you guys feel, but I'm just going to keep on keeping it spicy.Track 2:[1:25:06] I'm going to go with the Sandman. I put Adam Sandler on the list.Track 2:[1:25:11] I wasn't sure because I do feel like he definitely gets a lot of love for his name and post-SNL career.Track 2:[1:25:21] I think about him, and when you think about the early 90s, you're thinking, one of the first names you're thinking about is Sandler. He's a part of that group, the bad boys of SNL with Farley, Sandler, Spade, Rock. You're always going to think about it. And in some of his moments, some of his musical performances on there, the songs are just classics, and they're still played over and over. And that's his time on SNL, from the Thanksgiving song, and, you know, opera man and just memorable moments who I feel like he kind of was like, I guess, another sports term, like a home run hitter. To me, his batting average wasn't the highest, but he can knock it out the park and get you like a big home run, but he might strike out too. And when he strikes out, you're like, golly. But when he knocked it out the park, you jumped up and you were cheering the loudest. So it was tough for me, but I'm like, you know, He did make his mark on the show, and he is memorable. And there's moments with him. There's sketches with him from Schmitz Gay and all those different things. You've got to think about.Track 2:[1:26:29] He's probably the hardest one for me, but Adam Sandler. I'm completely with you. Yeah, Jeremy. I'm completely with you. He's like Reggie Jackson. Yeah. Reggie Jackson struck out a lot, but at the same time, are you going to leave Reggie Jackson out of a Hall of Fame? I don't know. Yeah, Sandler to me, that's a similar case, because his time at SNL probably wasn't as good as people remember, but he left such an impact. It's like...Track 2:[1:26:54] I got to vote for him just because of the impact alone that he left on the show. So that's one of those weird things. He's like on a personal Thomas favorite.Track 2:[1:27:04] Sandler's not that high, honestly. Same, same. But he's undeniable as far as like the highs were super high for me personally too. And just the mark that he left on the show and the impact that he had. Like i i have him in there but for the same kind of with the same similar hesitancy as you dare me yeah yeah so what do you think ashley again i'm just gonna sound like an echo um because i completely agree with you guys i went back and forth and not because i don't think adam sandler is absolutely epic um one of my favorite comedians of all time but you're right i oscillated between.Track 2:[1:27:42] Because when i think of adam sandler i think of what he did off of us and now i think of Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, Big Daddy, you know, I think of all the amazing movies that he made, but his diving board into that was Saturday Night Live. It was SNL. And I think too, he was so unique. I think he was so different than anybody that they had had up to that point, but they weren't really quite sure what to do with him. And so there were some just not great, great, you know, sketches or things that he did. But, you know, if we wanted him to do a song on Weekend Update, you know, he was our guy. And I think that other than Opera Man are probably, to me, his songs on Weekend Update were more memorable than anything else. Is that an Opera Man? I can't really remember anything else other than sh*tsuke that he really did. And I think that made him a good glue person for some of the sketches as well. But I think what he was able to do after SNL was so much bigger. And so that's why I ended up leaving him off, actually. I know this is probably going to get some people very angry. I could be absolutely convinced to put him back on, though. I mean, that's how it was really, really hard.Track 2:[1:28:56] Only because, again, personally, actually, my brain associates Adam Sandler with, you know, his movies and not SNL. Yeah. Could I ask a quick question, I guess, to both of you? How do you guys feel? Because I've seen it go different ways with big SNL fans. When a former cast member comes back to host a show, and let's say they have a really good hosting gig, does that bump them up as a cast member? Or is that just like, oh, that's nice, but it doesn't really make a difference as a cast member for you?Track 2:[1:29:32] Oh, that's a really good question. Cause now that you say that, I remember when he hosted and he did the tribute to Chris Farley and I was a puddle of tears. I'm going to cry thinking about that. Oh my God. Yeah. I just, to me, that was just, Adam Taylor, what a great guy too. I mean, just an amazing. By all accounts, maybe the nicest guy in Hollywood. Absolutely. Right. I've never heard anybody say a bad thing about Sandler. Me neither. Seriously. Maybe I'll put him on. I think Jeremy, I mean, just that one hypothetical question, I don't even think you asked it to change my mind, but I think that question alone changed my mind. Yeah, because I go back and forth because I'm like, should that be like, oh, that's a nice little feather in your cap, but should that bump you? And I've seen some, I know like with John Schneider, and that does bump for a lot of the people on his shows. Like, oh, they had a great memorable hosting gig. and I'm like, should that matter? Like, affect your cast member career? And I'm not saying there's a right or wrong. I'm not sure, to be quite honest. Like, does that matter? Like, does that affect it or not? Like, I don't know. I used to, yeah, I used to think that it, I used to completely separate it. So, like, I used to just only be the type that would just look at Sandler's cast member career and that was it. I've been persuaded more so by, like, John, people like John Schneider, who, he does, take more of a.Track 2:[1:31:01] Wide lens look at the person's contributions to snl and so he does take a look at their hosting gig so i think i'm inching more towards john's side but i'll say this i think i might add a few points if it's a good hosting gig but i won't subtract from a bad one because i like that yeah i have somebody who's on my ballot as a lock who who quite frankly had a terrible hosting gig in my opinion uh so i but i don't dock points for that i only add points for like a really memorable hosting like kristen wig not like she needed to be her points added for her in my mind but her hosting gig here in season 49 to me that's like one of the best episodes in years i absolutely love that episode and so that adds maybe some points in my mind for for kristen wig not like she needs it that's my hall of famer all-time great but like to me that adds a little something To your point, I look at, like, when Eddie Murphy came back, like, I think that was Christmas 2019, like, right before COVID, and he hadn't done it in a year, and he was phenomenal.Track 2:[1:32:07] And, like, that was, like, amazing. But then the other side of it, you know, God rest his soul, when Chris Farley hosted, like, it wasn't good, but I don't hold that against him at all. Like, it doesn't dock him, but, like, he's an all-time great who had not a good hosting performance. And we know why but it's like i don't ever think about that and be like well is chris farley that all-time great now because of that bat like that doesn't matter so it's like to your point yeah yeah and because i thought i thought sandler's hosting gig was really good it was i thought it was a strong episode aside from the farley song too like i thought there were a lot of really strong sketches that night eddie murphy called him to get like because since sandler hadn't done it so long eddie called him for like advice because then murphy did it afterwards well and i think what your question kind of triggered in my memory, Jeremy, was, oh, yeah, like.Track 2:[1:32:58] He did have such a huge impact on the show because he had that relationship with Farley and he had that relationship with Spade and kind of, he really did become part of that group. And even though his humor may have been a little bit different and maybe his sketches didn't always succeed like, like some of those other guys did, but he really was embedded. And I know I talked about in my episode too, about, you know, he was part of what helped me fall in love with SNL, you know, at that age when I was a kid, but when I was looking at my ballot, and I was trying to be clinical. I wasn't trying to totally vote just based off Ashley's heart. You know, I was trying to, you know, think of certain factors and everything. And like I said, I kept going back and forth. But I have been convinced, Jeremy, I will give you an honorary law degree. I appreciate that. You have lawyered the lawyer. All right. All right. That made my day. All right. That's awesome.Track 2:[1:33:48] That's awesome. All right. So Adam Sandler, a lot of really good discussion on the Sandman. Ashley, who's the next one that you would like to talk about so uh the next one that i want to talk about is rachel dratch and again noticing a theme you know kind of these like quirky female comedian characters.Track 2:[1:34:10] Um i think of i was obsessed with sully and zazu um the characters that she did with jimmy fallon the boston teenagers um that was probably one of my favorites during that era and uh of course we you know when we talked about debbie downer earlier that just goes without saying um such a genius genius concept and executed so perfectly by rachel dratch and she could do i think she was a little bit to me like kate mckinnon and they gave rachel a lot of like male impressions to do because she did have that kind of unique look about her. But I think also because she was so versatile in her comedy that she was able to do so many different things, anything they asked her to do, she did it and she nailed it. In addition to having her own characters that go down in history as some of the all time greats. Great and i i actually saw tina fey and amy puller do their stand-up this last year and they brought rachel on as a guest and they recreated um some of the weekend update stuff that they did together and again it sounds like i cry 24 7 i promise i don't but there were tears.Track 2:[1:35:26] During this show as well just because i was like i feel like a kid this is evoking so much happiness and I think that reminded me of just what the impact she had on Saturday Night Live when she was there.Track 2:[1:35:40] Alright, yeah, Rachel Dratch. Jeremy, how do you feel about Dratch? I mean, I do love Rachel, and I love all Ashley's points. I don't have her on, and it's not that I don't think she's a Hall of Famer. It's more like there was just so many... Like you said, Thomas, earlier, it's such a tough class that I couldn't put her on this year, but it's not that I don't think she is a Hall of Famer. I do think she is that. I just couldn't get her on over some other people this year but she every point ashley made is dead on and and like is if she gets in i'm like happy i'm not like how does she like but i just on my list couldn't bump her over some other people on here no i'm the same way like it's no offense to rachel that why i don't have her on i could see myself voting for her in future seasons uh definitely depending on how the ballot shakes out a hall of fame talent for sure uh very memorable i think You said that she was given a lot of male roles and she really excelled in them. One of the ones that comes to mind is that movie, that old movie producer, Abe, what was his name?Track 2:[1:36:49] But yeah, Rachel played that so well. Of course, Debbie Downer and Sully and Zazu. So they were just, yeah, she was just a really important part of that cast, like a part of the rebirth of the rejuvenation of SNL around that time. Um don't have her on my list but i think that's a solid choice it's an understandable pick and i can see myself voting for her uh down the line this is her first year on the ballot so yeah and i can see you know i think it's maybe she was my kyle mooney you know maybe not a lot of people got some of her her comedy too and um so shout out to the mooney fans who probably hate me now um but yeah i can definitely appreciate like i said you know comedy is so subjective i think I think that's what's so wonderful is there's something out there for everybody. And yeah, she's one that I wouldn't be mad about. Cause I.Track 2:[1:37:40] Yeah, all those Mooney bros are going to attack us now, Ashley. I know, I apologize. Thanks for that. You sicked them on us. So it looks like we each have four left. So I'm curious to see what kind of overlap there is by my count. So I'm curious to see what the overlap is and whatnot. Jeremy, what's the next one you want to talk about? Yeah, I'm going to go. Let's keep it going. Let's get weird again. I'm going to go with somebody who I feel like probably won't get in. But I have this platform to talk about this person. I will.Track 2:[1:38:14] I nominate Herb Sargent. Oh, yeah. Interesting. I put Herb Sargent out there because one of the OG writers, and you guys already know how I feel about everyone associated with being there from the beginning, came up with the name Not Ready for Primetime Players, which is important in the SNL history. Also, Weekend Update. How much do we associate Weekend Update? A lot of people I know who aren't even SNL fans would like Weekend Update. And that's been throughout my entire lifetime. They don't like the show, but they'll watch that part. Weekend Update is such a key factor of it. And he was big in creating it and really executing that. You know, Chevy Chase worked hand in hand with Herb Sargent. And Herb made sure all the news stories, the real ones were in there. Plus also like the goofy ones. And then once Chevy left, he kept that with Jane Curtin and Aykroyd and Murray. And then even it got revitalized with Dennis Miller. He was a part of it. A lot of those writers, which I thought was cool to Lawrence... Him picking out those writers in the early days, they weren't typical sketch writers. They had some lampoon background. They were just different. He liked their sensibility. It was Herb Sargent as that veteran writer who really had to break down step by step of how you write a sketch to them and teach them.Track 2:[1:39:36] They all got there in July of 75 and then they went on the air in October. In that time, he's really being like the... He was much older than those guys, including Lorne, to really show them how to write sketch and how to be a comedy writer. So I just think his importance to the show, his importance to being a mentor to the writers, his importance to creating one of the most, if not maybe the most iconic sketch in SNL history with Weekend Update, I nominate Herb Sargent. Yeah, the adult in the room. He was that voice, the steady hand, the veteran, the adult in the room that the original cast and writers needed.Track 2:[1:40:15] Maybe in a lot of ways, they might have been a little aimless with that. But I think he helped focus, like harness their creative, youthful energy to something productive. I think that was very patient is whatever. Very patient, man. Yeah. And he took a pay cut like he he he didn't get paid what he was worth because he had so much experience. But he did that as a favor to Lorne. Mm hmm.Track 2:[1:40:37] Taking a pay cut like that to be on the show so uh i don't have him as a lock he's honestly one of the like handful of folks who i'm still mulling over um ashley have what kind of consideration did you give to herps argent you know he didn't end up on my ballot either um darryl you made an awesome point again with you know we wouldn't have we can update it without him so that's kind of making me rethink it a little bit, but, you know, I had a couple other writers on my list that I think ultimately took the cake. And I think had the earlier years of SNL had the media presence or the media accessibility that we have today, I think that would make a lot of these producers and writers and, you know, the staff and the crew behind the scenes way more, more it more accessible to us to know who they are we're now you know we can name writers by name we can name their sketches we can follow them on on social media um it's they're so much more accessible and i think that kind of keeps them in the forefront of at least my mind a little bit more than some of these older guys but yeah yeah definitely gave him good consideration ultimately lets him off my list um i 100 agree that he deserves to be in the hall of fame though though, because you're right. I mean, weekend update is SNL. SNL is, I mean, those are just anonymous things.Track 2:[1:42:02] I can't imagine SNL would ever get rid of Weekend Update. I think people would riot and revolt as they should. Yeah. Yeah. And if anybody has any, if they want to go listen to our episode on Herb Sargent, John Schneider and I go back into the archives. John Schneider was my guest for Herb Sargent. He laid out a really good case for Herb Sargent. I developed even more of an appreciation for Herb Sargent after doing that episode.Track 2:[1:42:27] So Herb Sargent, let me see here. as far as herb sergeants uh where he's kind of landed on the ballot so this is his third time on the ballot he went from 11 in season three to 21 so probably a bit of an uphill climb but we need people like dare me to kind of like yeah to kind of count his fist on the table to make a drum for him so uh we'll see we'll see what happens with herb sergeant uh this season uh i want to go to one of my choices. I have three cast members and one writer left on my ballot. And I want to talk about one of the cast members and one that I might be, good chance I'm on an island with this person, but I think it's one of the more, underrated cast members in SNL history. If you look at their body of work, it's pretty striking. It's a Hall of Fame resume, in my opinion, but this person might not have a Hall of Fame name. And I'm going to advocate for Vanessa Bayer. To be in the SNL Hall of Fame. If you look at her list of sketches, if you go chronologically, she did Miley Cyrus, she did Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy on Weekend Update, she and Cecily with the ex-p*rn stars.Track 2:[1:43:40] She did Rachel with Friends. I know you don't love Kyle Mooney, but she had a classic Kyle Mooney sketch. It was called Awkward Flirts. The Totino's trilogy, trilogy. Vanessa Bear totally made those Totino's trilogy. She did Santa Baby with Ryan Gosling, which is still like a Stone Cold, I think like Christmas classic. She ended her tenure with the Weather Girl, Don Lazarus on Weekend Update. And she filled in the gaps in between. She was like that steady hand. She could be the lead of a sketch. She can be the glue person in the sketch. Sketch she i think she put in her tenure she put in enough years at snl uh but i just think like she wasn't i think she got a little lost because she worked with kristin toward the end of her tenure then she worked with kate and cecily in 80 and so i think vanessa bear probably got lost a little bit in the shuffle but i think if you look at her resume to me it's pretty striking and if you think back to what she did i think vanessa bear honestly is an snl hall of famer i have her in the top my top 25 to 30 cast members of all time and i think that's hall of fame territory so am i on an island on this like ashley what do you think of vanessa bear.Track 2:[1:44:54] Oh, she's on my list. Yeah. Oh, okay. I cannot see a Swarovski crystal store out in real life and just not start cracking up. Like my poor husband, every time we're walking and I see one of those, I, we're not p*rn stars anymore. Um, it's just, yeah. One of my favorite things that she did, um, of all time. Yeah, you're right. I think she, she's, I think she's an underrated. I think she was a dark horse.Track 2:[1:45:24] And she could go from the, again, kind of the same thing with these really silly characters to the Santa baby where she turns into this kind of serious, creepy, could start a fight in the middle of the sketch type of person. And yeah, sorry, I'm just really in awe of the amazing. Yeah, to me, she could do it. She could do it all. And to me, it's just name recognition that probably holds her back because other people on the cast got more shine. But I just love Vanessa Bear. I'm biased. Vanessa Bear, quite frankly, is one of my two favorite cast members ever. So I'm pretty biased here. Jeremy, I don't know. Should we slow our roll with Vanessa Bear? On my list. Really? Yeah. I'm pleasantly surprised by this. And honestly, you said my point that I was going to make this. Is she's, you know, I'm going to keep that sports comparison going. She's Scottie Pippen. She played with MJ and Kate McKinnon. And I'm glad Kate was there, but I think if Kate wasn't there, Vanessa Bayer would get that recognition that, you know, we're talking about. She'd be more known. But she was just, you can't blame anybody. She was next to an all-timer with Kate. And so I feel like that kind of overlooks it. So it's like that MJ and Pippen relationship.Track 2:[1:46:43] And MJ did a lot of great things, but the all-around person was Scottie Pippen. And I think Kate was the slam dunk with the all-around person in that time. To me, it was Vanessa Bayer. She could, like you said, could do everything. So I feel she's a slam dunk Hall of Famer. I think if it wasn't for Maya Rudolph, you can make the case that she's been the most overlooked or underrated cast member. I still have Maya over her as in that top seed for that. That but hopefully that changes but i think vanessa um just had the misfortune of being next to a top five cast member in kate mckinnon i think we all just became best friends i'm so i'm so pleasantly surprised by this i thought i was going to be on my own lonely island as it were like with with this but yeah so so this is awesome so vanessa bear surprisingly enough to me on all three of our ballots she got 33 of the vote last year in her first time which to me.Track 2:[1:47:43] Wasn't bad honestly for her first time out like i wasn't disappointed uh with that i thought people would see gloss over her name and she would get like 10 of the vote or something but 33 like one in three people voted for her for the arsenal hall of fame so let's up those numbers but i think um i'm pretty encouraged and i'm encouraged by what you two said she has a cult following i feel And especially what she's done, she's still, like, with different podcasts, she's still out in people's minds. So I feel like she's not as overlooked as you would think, but she doesn't get the recognition, like, to your point that she should. But I'm not surprised. Like, I think that's a good number, like, where I'm like, I think enough people don't know her, but it's more than what you would think with her. And she has a good podcast, yeah, with her brother Jonah, How Did We Get Weird. So go listen to that. Vanessa's really good Ashley I want to go to you it seems like do how many do you have left three did I lose count.Track 2:[1:48:43] I lost count too, I admit, because I kind of, I didn't write like numbers. I just kind of wrote a list. So I'm trying to make sure I don't repeat. So yeah, I had Vanessa Mayer. I also had Fred Armisen. He is on my ballot. Fred is somebody to me, I think too, at first was kind of this silent assassin. Assassin like he wasn't you know kind of in your face like some of these other comedians are and I think it kind of took a little a few seasons for him to kind of be like oh like who's this Fred guy, um and even I admit that some of his sketches weren't necessarily gelling with my type of humor um some things that I didn't really get but I could appreciate it for what they were and what his talent is, one, his impressions, his voices, his musicality, the glue that he always is holding sketches together, but also, you know, he would kind of team up with some other people as well. I feel like he and Maya Rudolph played off each other really well for a while, especially the Beyonce Prince, you know, impressions that they would do.Track 2:[1:49:48] And yeah, I would call him the silent assassin to me. I feel like, you know, he isn't someone that you would readily think of necessarily but he was on for a really long time and I think not just because he he kind of was like hiding in the shadows and not trying to ruffle feathers I think it was because, he just kind of had that subtle humor um that was still very powerful at the end of the day and I think I I would be remiss if I were to talk about you know who I think belongs in a hall of fame for snl and not say fred armisen's name okay yeah uh jeremy fred armisen he is on my list as well, um and and i think ashley made a great point in the fact that he's someone who not that i'm ever going to make it or try out for snl but a lot of times i'm like well that doesn't fit me because, yeah when i see these people perform they're very like loud and they have these over-the-top characters and i love what she said where he was subtle he was quiet and that kind of i like the people who like you have to kind of like watch like they're not just in your face and i think.Track 2:[1:50:56] Pre fred armisen i kind of thought well yeah you gotta have to be like as a performer in your face and loud but he was very subtle very quiet his versatility was unique and different and i also also say this and I could be off but just from he brought you know people talk about like alternative comedy and like waves of it I feel like he brought a new wave of alternative comedy to SNL like with what he was doing and his sensibility and it was like that hipster kind of I mean I know he did Portlandia but I feel like he really did bring that hipster into the 2000 late 2000 2010s comedy into Saturday Night Live and so So.Track 2:[1:51:39] For everything that Ashley said and for all that, I had to put Fred Armisen on there. Okay, Fred. I've struggled with Fred a little bit over the years.Track 2:[1:51:48] To put it in the batting average terms, for me, his batting average wasn't as high as a lot of other great cast members. I know he was important to the show, but maybe not as important as someone like Adam Sandler. So i couldn't give as many legacy and impact points to fred as i did someone like adam sandler so i don't have fred on my list he's one like rachel dratch where i could see voting for him like ultimately like this is his second time on the ballot so he does have a little bit of time he's one where depending on how the ballot shakes out i'll look and be like yeah dude i think fred i think fred is a hall of famer and i think he does like have all ultimately i think he has a hall of fame impact i think he does have like his his the highs were there like he has high highs as far as sketch goes on the show uh he couldn't jump a lot of the people here on my ballot now um but quite frankly there's probably more than 15 deserving hall of famers so that's why this exercise might be a little tricky and fred's an example of that for me which if you put a water gun to my head and was like, is Fred Armisen a Hall of Famer? I'd be like, yeah, Fred Armisen's a Hall of Famer. Just maybe not right now because of how the circ*mstances, but you both bring up really good points. And I expect Fred to get in at some point. Again, he got 51% of the vote his first time out. That leads me to believe that his trajectory is Hall of Fame at some point.Track 2:[1:53:15] So Fred Armisen, both of you, it's a no right now for me. I want to go on my list to another cast member somebody they called the ice man because he never broke he was always a steady hand and i think he's an again like a very underrated glue guy type of person but he could also play very like wacky he had no shame put himself out there chris parnell to me i have on my list i definitely think chris is a hall of famer one of the few hall of famers well i guess no because farley and sandler got fired but chris parnell got fired too but then they brought him back at the urging of like Will Ferrell. You have like, in my opinion, the greatest of all time is telling Lorne, hey, we got to bring this guy back because Chris worked so well with everybody on the cast and he was part of so many...Track 2:[1:54:05] Great moments in the show he was part of lazy sunday he was part of all these like iconic things and chris parnell was like he had a thankless role in a lot of ways on snl where he was so good at sketch that they just sort of like handed him things that they didn't feel comfortable with other cast members maybe doing because he was such a steady hand uh i did i just think just looking at chris parnell's work and his his role on the cast i i had to put chris parnell in dave Dave Buckman, who does sketch in Austin, he was my guest for Chris Parnell, and he really made a great case for Chris Parnell. So a little to my surprise, I looked at the list and I said, I'm putting Chris Parnell in over Fred Armisen, surprisingly enough. But I do feel like Chris Parnell's sketch work is just really underappreciated and really great. So, Deremy, Chris Parnell, you have some thoughts? Yeah, he's not on my list.Track 2:[1:55:03] Um you know the always hear debate for hall of fames the hall of fame or the hall of very good i want to put chris parnell in the hall of very good i i like chris parnell i do think he was a glue person um he was a part of lazy sunday which is iconic in a memorable sketch in snl history, um i just think talk about great glue people like he he's not he's not my rudolph like he and i i don't think he's he's not fred where fred brought a totally different sensibility i feel where like for me fred's not personally like haha but fred brought something that like oh this is a new type of comedy that's out there that people are gravitating toward and maybe it's not always for me but like he's bringing that to the mainstream in a way with like what he's doing on here and so that's where like i and i hear you i probably maybe laughed more times at parnell than fred but i i will give fred that uh parnell is uh i like him very but i just i couldn't put him on the list um but he's someone because that episode you did was very good like to ask about him i could be persuaded i maybe need to like re-evaluate but like like we've been saying The list is tough. It's a great class.Track 2:[1:56:25] I have him off, but I definitely could be persuaded. I'm not locked in stone. It's definitely not. I'm just right now, I'm not quite there with him. It's not like a laughable thing. Not at all. Not at all. Ashley, Chris Parnell was part of an era that I know that you really love that's near and dear to your heart. Chris Parnell was smack dab in the middle of a lot of that. What do you think about Chris Parnell?Track 2:[1:56:52] He made my list. Yeah, you're right. That was, you know, one of my favorite eras for sure.Track 2:[1:56:57] And, you know, even, you know, we talked about Lazy Sunday. And of course, I'm a huge, huge, huge Lonely Island fan.Track 2:[1:57:04] And I mean, even they say that, like, they were afraid to kind of do what they did. And they invited because, you know, shout out to their podcast as well with Seth Meyers, that they asked Chris Parnell to be in Lazy Sunday because they didn't want to step on his toes of the fake rap. Of the comedy rap that ultimately they knew that that was his kingdom and they were just happy to you know to be there and be involved and i think that speaks volumes to you know the genius to me that is lonely island looked at chris parnell like that and recognized that you know he was the one to do it first and to do it well and i think you got so many great things from him the versatility his voice i think we were talking about milaney's voice is so recognizable and to me chris parnell's is the same way i mean i'll just be watching tv and randomly hear a commercial and say that's chris parnell's voice um 100 and i just really appreciate everything he brought to that era and you're right i mean will ferrell like the world ferrell saying uh-uh no this guy is that he needs to come back and i cannot imagine snl in that era without chris parnell yeah definitely there There were a couple of things like he did some some kind of alt comedy on SNL around that time. Like some weird Chris Parnell could dabble in like the oddball weird stuff like he did the doctor. He was in the Dr. Beeman sketch with Will Ferrell.Track 2:[1:58:28] Well, Will Ferrell played that just ridiculous doctor. It was such like nonsense and Chris Parnell played the perfect role. He kept it together. He was kind of that steady hand amidst nonsense. And then there was one that he did with Christopher Walken where Chris Parnell played a, like, what do you call a half man, half horse? Why am I blanking on this? Like a centaur? A centaur, yeah. A minotaur, I don't know what that's called.Track 2:[1:58:56] Yeah, so it was a centaur. So Chris Parnell played a centaur that was interviewing for a job with Christopher Walken. And Chris Parnell just played that role so well. It was so odd even for the time on SNL in the early 2000s. So those are just some of the one-offs. And if you want to see like alt comedy and stuff, like I think Parnell, those were two examples of it. I mean, how huge was he? I mean, this may make me sound like a hypocrite, but in maybe the most famous sketch of all, with more cowbell, like he was huge in playing off of Will Ferrell in that and being that like adversary role. Like he played that part very good. Like, which I mean, obviously Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken stripe it and just kill it. But like.Track 2:[1:59:41] Having chris parnell to be that guy and that like you said didn't break what everyone else was breaking like you needed the ice man there especially with jimmy fallon right next to him you need the ice man to like and her ratio and ratio yeah geez yeah both of them break it so like it was just him you know i mean i think my favorite part of that sketch is you know when he complains to chris walkie like you know just tone it down a bit and will ferrell just coming right up to him and playing it so slow like in his face and then they had that like come on gene like it's just classic so i mean he is a part of like you could say maybe the most iconic sketch in snl history yeah a couple of them that and lazy sunday yeah so good point jeremy thanks for making my point yeah i'm a team player yes so so we're almost to the finish line i my account you both have one left and i have two so i'm gonna take one of mine off the board and it's gonna be a writer uh and i'm gonna advocate for jack candy he's um one of my last off my list he's one of my locks just we talked about paula pell in her time people saying that she was the funniest person in the building that's what people said about jack handy in the late 80s and early 90s you have people like conan o'brien and robert smigel and jim downey saying that it was jack handy who cracked us up and made us laugh and and he was a writer's writer and just and we talk.Track 2:[2:01:04] About voice too like jack handy you knew it was jack handy and not just because his name was on the segment but because he had that oddball sensibility that you're like oh that was a jack handy unfrozen caveman lawyer that couldn't have been anybody else but jack handy doing something like that toonsis the driving cat that was jet that was a jack handy deep thoughts i think deep Deep Thoughts alone might get Jack Handy into the Hall of Fame for me. When I was a kid, I didn't think that that was a real person. I thought Jack Handy was a fake name because it sounds vaguely dirty to a kid's mind, especially.Track 2:[2:01:43] So I thought that was like Al Franken or somebody writing under a pen name. And then I found out that Jack Handy was a real person. I started delving more into his comic sensibility and other work. And I'm like, this guy's a genius. and I think just for deep thoughts alone Jack Handy might be a Hall of Famer but then when you look at some of the other sketches that he was behind and a part of and the distinct voice that he brought to SNL to me Jack Handy's a Hall of Famer, so dare me, I know you you're very into advocating for writers and what not, where do you stand on Jack Handy here?Track 2:[2:02:20] I'm glad you – I figured somebody would say, so I couldn't get him on, but he's definitely a Hall of Famer. So I'm glad you kind of did me a solid and advocated – because there were just some other writers who I felt got more disrespected or not represented, so I put them on. But Jack Handy, everything you said, absolutely. Just his sensibility, what he brought, especially to that era that he was on. So he didn't make my list only because I was hoping, and I'm glad that somebody else would nominate him, and I could be like, thank you. So um i he didn't make my list only because of i only have 15 to pick from but jack handy is is a hall of famer for sure and he could go 50 50 and that's reflective in the voting because he's been hovering around 50 for three cycles now so that's not a surprise to me uh ashley where do you stand on jack handy so i mean pretty much everything you said tom for jack handy is what i was going through my head when I was looking at Jack Handy. I mean, I get toons is one of my favorite, favorite sketches of all time. Like I get the giggles, like uncontrollably cannot control and stop laughing every time I watch a toons sketch.Track 2:[2:03:30] But again, you know, it was getting hard. Cause you know, I'm torn because I, you know, I had Jack Handy and Adam McKay as two writers that I kept going back and forth on as far as to me, you know, iconic writers for Saturday night live. And then, you know, gosh, gosh, I love Ana Gasteyer so much. Do I save a spot for her?Track 2:[2:03:53] Yeah, I wanted so bad to put Jack Handy on, but I'm torn between those three. And I think kind of listening to you talk about it and lay it out, I may, I don't know, Jeremy, do you want to play the counter argument to me putting Jack Handy in my last spot? What do you think? I think Jack Handy, it's good for them to put him in that last spot. I really do. do i think he's he's that writer who like thomas thomas made the points but just brought that sensibility and brought that funny and brought that uniqueness to that show i i think he's a writer that you know when you think about like a golden era of writers in that time like his name is always one of the first ones that you mention and i think that says something to how important So I think it's cool to have him on there. And Ashley, Jack Handy's basically a New Mexican. So if that does anything, because he lives in Santa, he's lived in Santa Fe for a long time. So he's basically a New Mexican at this point. Okay, done. That's it. I guess, although, do we need to ask him red or green? His answer to that may also, you know. Yeah, we'll ask him red or green. And that might be, I'll see if I could get a hold of him. And then I'll let you know by the time voting ends. Although, to be fair, I don't know that there's a wrong answer to red or green. Yeah, that's a trick question sometimes. I don't know. It is.Track 2:[2:05:20] So uh so jack candy maybe ashley yeah i mean again it was one of those i looked forward to deep thoughts being on that week's snl like i ended up looking forward to digital shorts being on by the moment like if i saw that black screen that said a digital short an snl digital short pop-up i was like oh my god yes my week is made and it was the same thing when i saw the little cursive start going across the screen and the little stock video of the couple like walking down the beach holding hands my week was set like i knew that it was going to be good because i was getting a deep thoughts by jack candy so i mean i think the nostalgia may be pushing me into it, oh god absolutely no talking about how like they would visit uncle caveman and every now and then uncle caveman would eat one of them and it wasn't until later that they found out that uncle caveman man was a bear kind of things like that like jack just jack candy sensibility like i love those deep thoughts like i like buy a book of deep thoughts like yeah.Track 2:[2:06:20] Oh, man. So yeah, Jack Handy's definitely on my list. Is there anybody, Ashley, left for you that you want to kind of hash out here with us? Yeah, I guess I had a few that I was really torn between, like I said, Adam McKay and Ana Gastar. I was really torn about putting them on.Track 2:[2:06:39] Ana Gastar, to me, is part of the Sherry O'Terry and Molly Shannon and just that epic group of women at that time who had such hilarious and iconic roles. I mean, obviously we got Martha Stewart because of Anagostia and all the amazing things that she would do to parody, you know, like her cooking naked, you know, while doing her show and being completely serious and unbothered by it to the, to the cults, you know, being one half of the cults with Will Ferrell, I think is such an iconic sketch as well. That would make me laugh every single time. And to this day, if I'm near a microphone, I will say, we got a hot mic here. We got a hot mic going on. I mean, who doesn't, who, who watched that and doesn't do that when they're near a microphone now. Um, and so it was so hard and I kept going back and forth. Yeah. Like you said, this is such a challenging exercise because I would say almost all of the names that you presented deserve to be in the hall of fame at one point, but there's definitely a case to be made for, for, for almost all of them. Yeah, for sure. Well, we got the Adam McKay guy right here. Jeremy did the Adam McKay episode with me yes I did so if you want like Jeremy if you have any like thing to advocate as far as Adam McKay I want to hear it well I think we've all even throughout talked about Will Ferrell's impact and I think.Track 2:[2:07:59] Most people have him as the goat and we talk about that writer you know we talk about how Mulaney and Bill Hader have that well even like we've seen like what they did with the movie career but before that a lot of like what Will Ferrell did on SNL.Track 2:[2:08:15] That partnership with Adam McKay was showing. A lot of those iconic sketches that we think about with Will Ferrell, he was doing that with Adam McKay. And also just the fast track that he got to being bumped to being head writer. It was like, I think, Tom, it was like a year. That's like a year on the show. He was like the head writer. And also, once again, just like I said about Paula Pell and Molly Shannon and being a part of that crew in 95, 96 to help really bring the show back when I think Lorne has said that was his toughest time as producer and he was getting hit from the critics, getting hit from network execs at NBC and he really had to change the show up and I credit a lot of people but also people behind the screen like Adam McKay. So that's the strong case I have for him.Track 2:[2:09:08] And to show how highly Lorne thought of Adam McKay, Adam McKay pulled a really great power play, a power move when he was going to leave SNL. He was going to leave, but he told Lorne, I'll only stay if I could have carte blanche to make these little short movies and have my own segment. And Lorne said, go for it. So we saw these little weird movies that Adam McKay made, the digital shorts, honestly. These were the first digital shorts. that's where the Lonely Island guys got the digital short term and even like the font and stuff was from like the Adam McKay shorts and Adam McKay had such sway and pull at SNL that Lauren said okay yeah we'll give you our own segment you can make these movies and Jeremy and I went through the Adam McKay shorts on our episode and they were just wild some of them were so out there and just, wild and funny there was that one with the.Track 2:[2:10:00] Pond the food pond shop and then the shimmy is that one with the shimmy one that's such a great one the one with ben stiller the h is o with glenn fry hilarious just yeah so he had adam mckay's just had his own sensibility and so i think there's a strong case for adam mckay on a gas tire too one of my favorites as well around that era so so yeah so this is tough i'm glad we're hashing this out.Track 2:[2:10:25] Ashley, you made a case because I do appreciate those era, those ladies who broke that crappy boys club thing. And I do think of that time. I think of Sherry O'Terry so highly and Molly Shannon.Track 2:[2:10:40] And what you just said about Anna Gosteyer, I'm like, wow, I maybe haven't given her. I liked her, but I'm like, did I give her enough credit for what she did on SNL? So you're really making me rethink about her legacy. Seeing like man i'm like she she's i think yeah she's a hall of famer now jeremy who's who's on who's the last one on your list last one on my list is um i think so many people's favorite just i think a lot and he's one of those people where you look at it in sports where you're like wow this person yeah like he's a great player i know that and then you start having like discussion you're like oh he's like a top 20 player and then you go is this guy like one of of the all-time greats yeah and like that's Will Forte for me where it's just like you'd like oh yeah Will Forte's great and then you start talking about it you're like oh wow he's even greater then it's like is this dude like a top 10 guy like he's just and like am I sleeping on Will Forte like I like him but like just what his versatility the sketches what he was able to do um just from being the guy to be the king of that you know 10 to 1 sketch that like he just personified that but then to do like Mick Gruber and that to take that sketch and then to just build upon that and to making that like An SNL character that has its own movie and just the versatility that he showed.Track 2:[2:12:03] He's the glue guy He's the quirky like strange guy He's the established character person will Forte is someone I feel like people already put him in like the top 20 top 15 and I think like.Track 2:[2:12:17] It's weird to say. He still could be underrated, and I think as time goes on, we could be bumping him up higher and higher on the all-time list. Yeah, you're speaking my language. My two favorite cast members, probably just personal favorites, are Vanessa Baer and Will Forte. Yeah. And Will Forte, because he had such a distinct voice. It was the oddball. It was the 10-to-1. He had his own lane on the show. Even to me, when the show was kind of slumping, I want to say around 2003 2004 it was a little on a downswing Will Forte was like the.Track 2:[2:12:56] Shining light like he was like that saving grace saving grace in some otherwise maybe down episodes I knew that if a Will Forte, sketch that was led by him that was his sensibility popped up it was like the saving grace for me of an otherwise maybe kind of like era that i didn't totally love and you're right jeremy like people know and love will forte and they say oh no you know he has his own lane he has weird sense of humor but then you go look like the falconer he uh did a lot of great one-off sketches um like the spelling bee one there's one duluth live or um jeff montgomery with the trick-or-treater uh you mentioned mcgruber he has the clan ct baclarat which he brought back um when he hosted locker room motivation with peyton manning yeah potato chip thief like greg stink like all these this is a laundry list i did the show with john schneider and we just like geeked out because there was so much to talk like there's so much meat on that bone to talk about and so i think the combination of just quantity and quality and having a distinct voice, Will Forte is one of the all-time greats to me. To me, he's a slam-dunk Hall of Famer. And it's also an example of somebody who.Track 2:[2:14:21] I'm going to be quite frank with you. I thought his hosting gig was terrible. And I was looking forward to it. And I love Will Forte. And then at the end of the show, I was like, man, that was really bad. But it doesn't take points away from me, though. Right. So we'll just ignore that part of it. Ashley, I hope you're a Will Forte fan. Maybe not as much as me and Deremy. But I'm curious to see where you stand on Will Forte. Oh, no. We used to talk about The Falconer after they came on, like back in the day. Like that was our jam you know we we bonded over the falconer with will forte and uh yeah no 100 agree and like this is so random but his ability to like loud whisper is oddly really impressive to me like the voices and the impressions that he does and some of them where he just does that.Track 2:[2:15:09] It's the quietest and loudest whisper all at the same time and it's just so impressive to me somehow it's it's um probably kind of random but i always appreciated his ability to not just do impressions but to kind of make his own characters and make his own voice associated with them, um he also i think unfortunately played you know kind of a pedophilia looking man a little bit too easily and i think that may be off-putting to some voters but don't let that don't let that deter you just focus on you know mcgruber um and falconer and all too convincing maybe yeah yeah right yeah so um no just i i'm a huge huge huge will forte fan um mcgruber was definitely my favorite at the time i'm pretty sure mcgruber and the lonely island got me through law school and kept me sane.Track 2:[2:16:02] Yeah and the movie's wild too we think the sketches are wild but the movie mcgruber is so wild oh yeah probably an extension of and they filmed it in new mexico he did another new mexico connection and uh he filmed they film a gruber in albuquerque mostly but yeah a side note for me like and another sports reference i love charles barkley i think he's funny on inside the nba not my favorite host but uh will forte did one of impossible task. He made Charles Barkley seem funny in those MacGruber sketches where it's Daryl. It's Daryl. But I still cracked up all the time. And I'm like, Barkley to me was not a good host. But Will Forte did something that was hard. He made Barkley funny to me. So another tip to Will Forte.Track 2:[2:16:52] Yeah, Will Forte is just an all-timer. I think that was a good place to end. I don't think, by my count, Ashley and Jeremy, me you're you're all out of votes i'm out yeah that he was yeah so that's perfect to me i think that's a very fitting one will forte honestly like had such a blast with john schneider go re-listen to that if you haven't because john schneider just like laid out the case perfectly and there was so many sketches that will for today we didn't even talk about he worked with who i consider the goat will ferrell in a sketch called pepper grinder yes ferrell was hosting and they just like yeah will forte and will ferrell that was like a dream come true for me oh yeah a completely weird oddball sketch with the two of them that was like perfect that pepper grinder sketch so yeah so we did it everybody we shared our ballots uh i think um a lot to consider uh voting is open now until may 17th at 9 p.m eastern time so we do have some time to kind of like some of the things that were up in the air that weren't locked but we were considering we have some time to mull those over and potentially put them on the ballots or not. So, Ashley, thank you so much for coming back. You're my guest for Kate McKinnon. You did a great job today.Track 2:[2:18:09] Great conversation. Thank you. Took me back to over 20 years ago, like you said, when we would geek out about the Falconer and the Culp's and all this SNL stuff. So that's so much fun. I don't know if there's anything you want to promote or say hi to anybody or oh my goodness um hi mom stereotypically and uh just yeah thanks so much for having me on I have such a blast doing this like I said it's always great when um I'm with people who like to enjoy listening to me talk about SNL as much as I enjoy talking about it so I had a lot I had a blast.Track 2:[2:18:43] You are awesome. Thank you so much again for coming back. We'll probably see you again, season six of the SNL Hall of Fame. We're doing another season, definitely going to get the lineup here in a few weeks. And I'll definitely get a hold of you for that. So, Deremy Dove, thank you so much again for joining me. Always great to have you here on the SNL Hall of Fame. What would you like to promote? mode uh thomas it's you know always a pleasure when uh when you and jamie have me you know i make sure to keep my feet clean wipe them off when i get to come into the the hallowed halls of the snl hall of fame and ashley it was just awesome chatting with you today and not just because i got out of yard work but it truly was a pleasure talking with both of you so thank you so much and uh just yeah to plug our show thomas pop culture five where we'd look at anything in pop culture and we give our five essential you know lists of that topic for the week and uh a lot of people are liking it and i know you feel the same way we're just humbled and glad that people are liking it and i love doing it with you so thank you for that and uh for those you've heard us doing these sports references i also do a sports history podcast bigger than the game with daramie and jose so uh me and my my co-host jose talk about a coach a player a game.Track 2:[2:20:07] In sports history and we connect the past to the present. That's on all platforms too as well. Same with Pop Culture 5. I know there's a lot of stuff out there, but if you have time and you like what we're doing here, please give those a listen as well. Just thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely, man. Thank you for being a great co-host on Pop Culture 5. A little tease, SNL-related tease here. I think we're cooking up a little something to coincide with around the premiere of season 50 of SNL. So we're kind of already looking ahead, kind of cooking something up a little bit at Pop Culture 5 to kind of coincide with the premiere of the 50th season of SNL. Excited. Yeah, I'm excited about that. Thank you both so much for joining me. For the listeners out there, for the voters, you can register to vote if you haven't already at SNLHOF.com. If you're a past voter, Jamie will email a ballot to you. Voting is now open and will close on May 17th at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. So thank you so much for listening. For Ashley Bauer and Jeremy Dove, I'm Thomas Senna.Track 2:[2:21:19] See you next time on the SNL Hall of Fame podcast. So long, everybody.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/snlhof/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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  2:22:16

• Don Pardo Award

  This week on the podcast we reveal the Don Pardo Award winner for Season 5. This high prestigious honor is bestowed onto a person or group of people who contribute to the show's success despite not being eligible for traditional election into the Hall. Transcript: Track 2:[0:42] Thank you so much, Doug Donatz. It is great to be here in the SNL Hall of Fame.The SNL Hall of Fame podcast is a weekly affair where each episode we take a deep dive into the career of a former cast member, host, musical guest, or writer and add them to the ballot for your consideration.Once the nominees have been announced, we turn to you, the listener, to vote for the most deserving and help determine who will be enshrined for perpetuity in the hall.Except for this week. Because this is our very special Don Pardo Award show where the three of us, Thomas, Matt, and myself put our heads together and award the Don Pardo Award to a deserving individual, or in the case of this year's award, deserving individuals.I won't bury the lead any longer, but before I go anywhere, please. please wipe your feet.Track 2:[1:43] This week, we are going to be talking about a major component of Saturday Night Live, and that is the SNL band.So the way we're going to tackle this is we're going to go in chronological order to the best of our ability.We might miss a couple of years, but we can fill Fill in the blanks as necessary for you to get your little history lesson.But this has been enough of me talking right now.How are you doing, Thomas? Hey, JD.Doing really well. It's nice to be on a little like an actual episode with you and Matt, like the three of us kind of uniting here. Yeah. One united front.This is really fun. We were talking as we're recording this, we're coming off a really fantastic Kristen Wiig episode. So I think all of us are kind of energized by SNL right now.So we're taking that energy from the recent Kristen Wiig episode and putting it forth here for this. Oh, that's fantastic.Matt, you're not in your usual corner this week. No, no. Yeah, I've moved things, moved my desk around.I need to make room to watch that, you know, 1970s French disco funk and dance around.Track 2:[3:00] I wonder if they were even i know when they counted the numbers they were speaking french but i wonder how much of the rest of it was was actual french my wife was asleep on the couch i would have asked her she's a french teacher i wanted to wake her up and say you got to watch this sketch but she was gone i'll ask i'll show it to her today and ask it sounded right from my grade nine general French.So it may be like Google Translate. Who knows?But it had the right shapes. Yeah. And I think Bowen's a French speaker.So I think at least Bowen was probably speaking good real. Oh, OK. I think he is. Yeah. Didn't realize that.Well, Matt and I have failed our Canadian tests here.For those listening from other places in the world, Canadians are not truly bilingual, even though our country is.Track 2:[3:52] But I digress. Let's start at the start.Track 2:[3:57] And speaking of Canadians, we're going to talk about the original SNL band.And it's not band leader, but it's musical director. And that is Howard Shore, who is immensely talented.He played the alto sax in the band, and he, like I said, was the band leader.But he was, before he came to SNL, he worked with Lorne Michaels and Hart Pomerantz on the Lorne and Hart Terrific Hour. hour.And when Lauren got SNL, it seemed like a slam dunk for him to come South and work with Saturday Night Live.To me, his most defining moment in the role is that he wrote the closing.He wrote Waltz in D, is it D minor?Waltz in A, written by a founding member, Howard Shore.And And that is something, maybe the only thing other than update that is like lasted the duration of the show.I'm not as versed in the 80s. I don't know if they ended in Waltz and A, but definitely all the Lorne Michaels era, it ends with that.And it's always very exciting when you get to hear the bulk of it and you get to see the credits roll and you get to see them mingling on the stage.Track 2:[5:24] Oftentimes here in Canada, when it aired on global TV, they would cut it off and you wouldn't see much of anything.But now for some reason, you get to see it all.Track 2:[5:35] Uh, do you guys have any feelings about that original music director in that original band?I'm going to get into more detail in a moment, but I'm just curious if you guys have any sort of thoughts or feelings.We talked a little bit about this concept in the Don Pardo episode from last season, Matt and I, but it's just branding.And you touched on it, JD, like the Waltz and A and all of that, like the SNL band, And even with them playing in between sketches and bumpers and stuff, it all goes toward the branding of the show, the show's identity.And when talking about Howard Shore, the fact that he created such an iconic piece of music that's obviously stood the test of time.Like how much aside unless you're one of the more famous cast members or lauren michaels himself it's hard to find somebody who's had such an imprint as far as the identity and branding of the show so right away like he's he's an icon just because of that along with the other like founding members of the snl band but howard shore will highlight at this moment as like the leader So that's what sticks out to me about Howard Shore, specifically his contribution to SNL.How about you, Matt? Yeah, for me, I feel like he's one of those instrumental components creating the feeling Thomas was saying.Track 2:[7:03] Because that early band was much more involved in the day-to-day operations.They were. The later bands, because they would play as part of the show.So you don't get that anymore.In those early first few seasons, they would do extended musical numbers.Or like there's this one sketch with Lily Tomlin where the entire band are dressed up as nurses.That's right. And they do St. James Infirmary Blues.And it's it's just like they're they're they're a component of those early days, setting the tone, part of the vibe of the entire thing.Uh and i think it's no small part due to the camaraderie that shore had with the rest of them, that's right the rest of the cast yeah you're gonna mention this jd but also like the ama king b yes i was just gonna go there that's so funny.Track 2:[8:16] To Matt's point, they were much more a part of the show.You have the nurse band, you have the beekeeper outfit.Track 2:[8:28] Not to mention the fact that the band is responsible for creating interstitial music for sketches and even main music for sketches in some cases.So, I think that that is woven into the fabric of the blueprint or the DNA of SNL at this point.Even though, you know, more contemporary SNL bands aren't as involved.Now, I say that having just come off the Kristen Wiig episode where we got a really funny joke from Lenny Pickett.And that was just, you know, just fantastic.To steal a page from matt's book and just offer you a little trivia i thought it was very interesting that howard shore gave the name blues brothers to akroyd and belushi he was the one who came up with that term and obviously we know how successful the blues brothers were both on the show and in their feature debut uh you know really good stuff shore moved on from snl and And had a phenomenal career post-SNL, scoring films.And he scored films all through the 80s. There are some pseudo-notable ones that I don't have written down right now.But in the early 2000s and late 90s, I think it's late. Is Lord of the Rings late 90s?Track 2:[9:57] Or is it early 2000s? I think the first one was early 2000s.Early 2000s. So it entered production late 90s.Sure. So he did the score for all three of those movies and the three Hobbit films.And to me, that is just phenomenal.He's won three Academy Awards. He's been nominated for Golden Globe Awards.He has won some Emmy Awards as well.And he's just all over the place in terms of success. sass.He's been pursuing music since he was basically eight or nine years old.Track 2:[10:36] At 13 and 14, he became good friends with the young Lorne Michaels in summer camp.And obviously, we know what happened from there.Gosh, if I could have been in summer camp with Lorne Michaels, if only, maybe I'd have a different career right now. But I digress.Any other thoughts on Howard Shore and his influence and importance in the legacy of SNL?Yeah, I think Howard Shore, and not just him. So I'm looking at like the members of the founding band.A lot of them were in the Blues Brothers.So a lot of them played in the Blues Brothers and like role class musicians. You had Paul Schaefer.That's right. Yeah, involved. And of course, we know Paul Schaefer went on to do he was accredited cast member.Paul Schaefer at one point. Tom Bones Malone is a really well respected trombone and trumpet player in the music world.So you have all these world-class musicians, Cheryl Hardwick on keyboards, all these people, super well-respected.And Howard Shore is like the leader of this group.But these musicians, and this is going to be a theme throughout our conversation, are just world-class musicians.Track 2:[11:52] Do you two know if Shore was responsible for putting, I'm guessing he was, but for putting the band actually together?Other yeah i would imagine so because i mean that's how it works now uh as reading an interview, uh maddie rice uh the guitarist and she was talking about how lenny the audition it was sort of like the their version of the lauren michaels the musician's version of the lauren michaels audition where he just sort of sits there dead faced kind of thing but yeah like so i i would assume like he's just going around and getting the best of the best of these musicians that.Track 2:[12:31] At that point, it's a regular gig, good money.So for the 70s, that's a nice enticement to a lot of musicians, I'm sure.You're in New York. You're in New York, yeah. So you have ample opportunity to go to a live venue and play during the week if you're not rehearsing.Almost like the stand-ups and the sketch artists on SNL. Very similar through-line there. That's interesting, Matt. Yeah.Well, shall we move forward? Shore was there, I guess, from the inception through 1979.Track 2:[13:05] So he left when everybody else left, including Lorne Michaels.There were two band leaders in the early 80s, one that only lasted a year, I want to say.Yeah. And one that was three or four years on top of that.And then Lorne came back. so kenny vance succeeded howard shore as the musical director but kenny vance right he was only there basically probably just when gene dumanian was there as the producer so i think maybe when dick ebersole came uh some of the retooling that they did uh i imagine uh affected kenny vance as well as musical director but then they replaced him with the aforementioned tom Tom Bones Malone, who was in the original SNL band that Howard Shore was musical director of.So Tom Bones Malone from 81 to 85 was the musical director.Not that much on Tom Bones Malone. I just know you always hear that name as far as when you talk about great respected musicians.Track 2:[14:10] The name Tom Bones Malone is one that I remember people always talking about.Out but so it was kenny vance from 80 to 81 and tom malone from 81 to 85 i don't know much about that period i just know tom bones if he got bones as a nickname yeah no it's tom bones malone he's like and speaks to the quality of the music those original musicians uh he played multiple instruments aside from trombone he played saxophone trumpet tuba flute bass guitar.Track 2:[14:42] Oh like he could be half the band if and i mean that that was all these musicians were these multi-instrumentalist talent powerhouses um so so yeah it's just it's amazing again like i think that period is sort of like a weird dark period in a lot of ways where a lot of that doesn't make it out kind of like a black hole of saturday night live but it's a little bit yeah yeah tougher to to find information on that era.So that brings us to a member, I want to say he was a member of Tom Bones Malone, his troupe.You guys can correct me if I'm wrong, but he became bandleader, and that is G.E.Smith, and we're going to pass the torch to Thomas on this one.Track 2:[15:27] Yeah, so they were doing retooling, so Dick Ebersole left, and so Lorne Michaels came back to the show in 1985, so they're doing a lot of retooling.That was the year, you know, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Michael Hall, we saw Lovitz and Nora Dunn and Dennis Miller come into this season, but just a lot of reshuffling and new energy into the show.So that's the season that G.E. Smith started as the musical director of the Saturday Night Live band.I don't know, Jamie, that he was in previous iterations. I think he's a Lorne guy.Okay. And he knows Lorne because G.E. Smith, he was married to Gilda Radner for a couple years in the early 80s. So he got to know Lorne that way.And we've seen, obviously, now that Lorne hires people who he knows and trusts.That's a really big factor. So you're right. Right. If I had married Gilda Radner in the early 80s, I might have a different career path as well.Track 2:[16:31] But as it stands, G.E. Smith's the one who married Gilda Radner.So he became SNL bandleader in 1985.But G.E. Smith, if you've ever heard him speak, he has the blues in his blood.He's like a true blues man, the way he speaks and just his cadence.And you could tell he plays the blues when you listen to G.E. Smith talk.He did a really great episode, I'm going to say probably around when COVID first came up with Marc Maron. He was on WTF with Marc Maron. Oh.Yeah. So he and Marc Maron just geeked out about music because Marc's a guitar player.And so he and G.E. Smith just geeked out about the blues and, oh, what about this musician? What about this guy and that guy?And so it was like two music blues geeks. Oh, that's great. So you can tell, you can feel it in G.E.Smith's blood that he's a blues man. He started playing guitar when he was four years old.Track 2:[17:26] He started kind of learning cursory notes when he was four.Yeah. And by seven, he actually got like a friend of the family gifted him a really good, like the nice starter acoustic guitar.So G.E. Smith's been playing since he was a really tiny kid.You could tell he's just a he's just such a prodigy. That's what he was. He was a prodigy.Yeah. When he was a kid, man, he's he's he's just he's gotten his blood.And he said something to Marion that I thought was interesting. and it says a lot about G Smith's musical style so he said in in talking about the Beatles and the Stones and stuff he said he respected the Beatles he liked the Beatles but it was the Rolling Stones and the Kinks he said that really like motivated him as far as music goes so that's just where he's coming from like he likes the Beatles but he's like a Stones guy so I think that could say a lot about a musician when they state that like which way they lean you know what what I'm saying he has more stones in him he ended up working with Mick Jagger which is probably was probably cool for him but does that make sense like like you get to kind of tell when a musician says I like the Beatles but like I had like the stones more in me absolutely and that he mentions the kinks too yeah I can add that vibes with me or I'm like yeah yeah I get a kinks energy.Track 2:[18:46] Yeah, so this guy is just a true blue musician. He played with Hall & Oates.He was on some of Hall & Oates' biggest records from 79 through the mid-80s.G.E. Smith was... So that's what he was doing in the early 80s.He was mainly playing and touring with Hall & Oates.He's done albums with Tom Waits, Mick Jagger, Carly Simon, Buddy Guy, Bob Dylan.Track 2:[19:09] Worked closely with David Bowie and Roger Waters. I mean, this guy has been around.That's what he loves. He loves playing. He's made a lot of connections, very well respected.Track 2:[19:19] And we talk about branding, you guys. And I know, JD, I'm pretty sure this is when you started watching, was around the mid-80s. Maybe when Phil Hartman and Carvey and Lovitz and those guys.G.E. Smith, to me, was part of the fabric of the show. They would even build G.E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live band.And watching him, the dude with the blonde ponytail, just shredding on the guitar.Guitar like he was to me as a viewer part of like that branding he was part of like the essence of the show i don't know if either of you felt that way watching that era of snl absolutely every time they cut to commercial you just see him wailing away on that guitar uh with these incredible licks and it's just yeah that was just the moment and it's like i that early ge smith you know saturday night live band is like i couldn't at that time i couldn't have imagined it i can almost hear don pardo saying it ge smith on the 70 my wife the way he said ge smith it was like it felt like it meant something i don't know here's something nitpicky do we know what ge stands for oh george edward george edward smith oh it's cooler george edward dad actually oh let's say that again george edward haddad.Track 2:[20:43] Yeah, his dad's side of the family is Lebanese. Oh, wow.So, yeah, so he grew up kind of like culturally Lebanese in a lot of ways, G.E. Smith did. That's fascinating.Yeah, so like a real cultured guy, a lot of influences, has worked, like I said, with so many people.People uh he says and he gives he gives credit to a lot of people that were in the his band at snl because he tells he tells marin that he just wanted to keep up with these amazing musicians, so he's like that that's just what you know that that's he said that was my role in the band i was kind of like the leader but like these were world class he's like snl had the budget he said this is a big show they had the budget to get these amazing musicians so he's like i felt every week like i just had to keep up man well he gives a lot of credit he gives a lot of credit to uh to the other people uh that were in the snl band at the same time and i'm looking and um yeah it was guys like george young i know he's a he's a pretty respected player earl gardner who was there forever he started with ge smith all these really great uh great musicians matt chamberlain that That blew my mind when I read that.Yeah, he was probably best known for Pearl Jam, but he's been drummer for a lot of bands. Soundgarden?Track 2:[22:05] Soundgarden, yeah. He was, from 91 to 92, he was part of G.E.Smith's band a little bit.We'd see David Johansson as Buster Poindexter make appearances every now and then in that era.Track 2:[22:18] So, yeah, G.E. Smith really gives a lot of credit to other musicians, the people in his band.Even though he was the one that was billed and people just think of G.E.Smith from that era, he really is very complimentary of all the musicians that he got to work with on SNL.There seems to be a through line here so far that these band leaders put together these world-class bands to play one night a week for 90 minutes. Yeah, right.Probably the best gig going. Yeah, what a great gig. Yeah.Well, from GE Smith, we go to...The longest running, the Kenan of band leaders.I don't know that anyone will surpass his record at this point because I don't know when he's leaving even.But this brings us to Lenny Pickett and his cohort at times that I'm sure Matt is going to get into here.Based on a Facebook post I read earlier today. Yes. Well, Lenny was one of those 1985 hires. So he came in at the same time as G.E. Smith.Track 2:[23:34] He was co-musical director with Cheryl Hardwick, who founding band member.She was co-musical director with G.E. Smith.She was in the band until 1995 when she retired at the end of season 25.So, I mean, she was the last member of the founding band.But so you get this i think that's why there's such a through line in the psychology of the band leaders because you had members of that original band all through the years up until you know 95 like just a little over you know a little under a decade ago so you you've got like just the psychology and it is a very music forward psychology uh you've got going on like He's a former member of Tower of Power, R&B funk band, amazing.He led their horn section before joining the SNL band.Track 2:[24:30] He's entirely self-taught. This is a guy who picked up his instruments as a kid and just taught himself, except for a brief period where he went to work with a particular musician for less than a year.So I don't even really count that. So he's learned everything on his own.He went to study with Burt Wilson, a jazz musician, for a short time.But he can also play clarinet, flute, as well as the alto saxophone.He's considered a virtuoso of the altissimo register.This is a technique where you can just change your position of your tongue and the shape of your throat and make your saxophone play way outside of its register so he'll you'll key like a b flat and you'll get a high f that kind of thing like totally outside of the range so that's why he gets this incredible performance out of his uh out of his saxophone because he's like pushing it beyond the limits but you know.Track 2:[25:37] He's performed with the greats. He's also performed with Paul and Oates.He performed with David Bowie as well.Aaron Neville, Katy Perry, Talking Heads. He was recently a part of Love This Giant, an album by David Byrne and St. Vincent.So he played saxophone. Wild.So, I mean, he's still a vibrant, powerful musician.He surrounded himself with, if we look at this, his current band, they're all veterans at this point there's only a couple of people who are relatively new uh you know leon uh pendarvis keyboard since 1980 he predate he's like predates the you know the band leader uh alex foster 85 uh steve turay trombone 85 christine olman vocals since 91 sean pelton drums since 92.Valerie Naranjo, you see like rocking out back there every every episode.95 James Keenis 2000.Ron Blake, he's on baritone sax 2005.Track 2:[26:50] Toughest Zimbabwe keyboard since 2010.And then you have Maddie Rice, a guitarist that I mentioned earlier, and Summer DeMarco, who's on trumpet both 20 and 20 and 2022 respectively so for the most part these are band members who are seasoned respected and talented musicians um and it's like an incredible like i was doing a little bit of digging into their process and i have to say in a in some ways they have it harder than the sketch comedians because they don't generally come in during the week they come in on saturday day.Track 2:[27:29] Sometimes they'll do a bit of a rehearsal on Friday if it's a complex piece, like a big piece.But they work with Elijah Bruggeman. He's the sketch musical director.And he will collaborate like Rice was talking about, the Tampon Farm sketch, where Kate actually laid down a guitar track.But it was you know it's not professional quality because she's just a home guitar player so she came over and played over that and sort of expanded the composition but they did that on thursday so it's like she just came in listened to the track and just sort of noodled something over top of it and uh but yeah like they will come in they'll they'll start rehearsal on friday a Saturday and then be ready for dress.Track 2:[28:26] So it's just like, there's no time there. And like those sketches are so tight.Like you look at the sketches just past weekend, you had multiple sketches where you've got this intense musical number or, or some of the classic sketches where, where you've got music feature very prominently.No, they've had a day to figure that out is like, this is why you have the best of the best on that band.Track 2:[28:52] Yeah they i noticed snl especially this season in season 49 they like to do one sketches where a character gives a dramatic monologue and then you hear like the dramatic music playing in the background so yeah so a lot of i don't think a lot of people realize that in in most of these sketches that require music that's the band that's like the house band playing in a lot of these sketches so it's not just like oh we're gonna play uh in between commercials or we're gonna play the good nights or or whatever like they're like involved in sketches i think that's a really good thing to bring up pros pros they are absolutely pros pros and very well deserving of this prestigious award the don pardo award that we will be presenting every season uh so far the list is short it's don pardo and the snl band any final thoughts on the snl band gentlemen i'm curious who you think might be good for the like when lenny retires to take over the reins hmm.Track 2:[30:01] This is almost, I mean, this is almost harder than Who Replaces Lorne, because with Lorne, it's a short list.But like we could, if I knew anything about, you know, jazz music in New York and, you know, R&B music in New York, I would have a couple names for you.But I don't. So I don't even have any names.Thomas? Yeah, I wonder if SNL would do something like want to pry like John Batiste or something from his Stephen Colbert gig.Oh, wow. So here's the thing. Maddie was in that band. Yeah, yeah.Yeah, Maddie came from that band. I kind of feel like she's being lined up because she's featured more and more prominently in the transitions and stuff.She's also a multi-instrumentalist. she's young so she can she's sort of got the vibe for the modern sound but also, jazz musician and guitarist so she has that respect for the old ways as well as the new ways I think she'd be a good fit to sort of transition a new era because I don't Lenny would leave before season 50 but you know like if there was a new new guard let's say were to take over I think that would be a good fit because it's it's a legacy.Track 2:[31:25] How old is Pickett? When he turned 31, 31, he was born at 31.She. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Lenny Pickett.Lenny is he was born in 1956.OK. No. Yeah. Lenny's turning 70 in three days, actually, on April 10th.So as we're recording this, Lenny's going to be he's 70 when this when this. Yeah. April 10th, 1954.Sorry. Yeah. So he might be. Yeah. No, I think Matt brings up a good point about Matty Rice, though. Matty. Yeah. Yeah, Maddie's 30, 31.Track 2:[31:57] She could be next in line to follow, to succeed Lenny Pickett, for sure.She did a good interview with Vulture earlier this year.That was the interview that I think Matt was referencing, was her Vulture interview.So yeah, she used to play in John Batiste's Stay Human house band for Stephen Colbert.My wife and I, a few years ago, went and saw a taping of Stephen Colbert.Dana Carvey was on that. So that was like, as an SNL fan, that was pretty special.So I got to see Maddie and John Batiste and do their thing.It's interesting about Maddie Rice is, and it's kind of unfortunate too, but she was almost at the center of a really, really unfortunate nonsensical discussion online.Imagine that, a nonsensical discussion online.Line but people were focusing in on if she laughed or not during the monologue and her reactions during the monologue and i think she even came out and said i've seen a lot of these jokes in this monologue like this is probably the third or fourth time that i've seen it so she said she doesn't want to like do fake laughter so she's like these are just kind of my it's not no offense against the host or whoever's doing the monologue but it's just so it was just very weird like yeah Yeah. Focusing on Maddie Rice's reaction.Track 2:[33:15] And to be fair to her, most of the other band are pretty deadpan during that, too, because they don't want to they don't want to telegraph stuff.Yeah. They want to, you know. Right. And J.D.Track 2:[33:34] Right. So so what you want to refresh people's memories about that?Yeah, well, it was interesting. Kristen came up for her monologue.And before she monologued, she said, you know what?I haven't talked to the band in a while. Toughest on keys. How you doing?Sean on drums. How about you?Great. Lenny on sax. How you doing? I'm OK.And it was something that we just have not seen before on the show in that manner.So it was really, for a show that is 49 years old to do something it hasn't done before is pretty incredible.And I think that's why we pointed it out to each other earlier today, because it does seem sort of shocking in a sense.But it just goes to show you how important this group of people truly are, that they can, you know, take us to a commercial break.Oftentimes, when there's not enough time for another sketch, we get a commercial break, and then we come back to an interstitial, and then another commercial break before we go to Walt's and A.Track 2:[34:45] So that is this year's Don Pardo Award winner.We have some exciting news as well.As you're listening to this, we are opening voting today, and voting will run through the 17th of May, at which time we will do some tabulation, and then we will present with you the Monday episode that will reveal Season 5's SNL Hall of Fame.Gentlemen, it has been an absolute pleasure for Matt Ardill and Thomas Senna. I'm JD.Track 2:[35:23] Do me a favor on your way out as you pass the weekend update exhibit.Turn out the lights because the SNL Hall of Fame is now closed.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/snlhof/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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  36:25

• Kate McKinnon

  Join Thomas, Matt, and jD as they welcome Ashley Bower to the show to discuss the shoo-in candidacy of Kate McKinnon. Do you agree she'll end up in the Hall. Time will tell. Transcript:Track 2:[0:42] Hey, it's J.D. here, and thank you so much, Doug DeNance, for that warm welcome.We are thrilled to be back here in the SNL Hall of Fame.Before we go anywhere, take a look at that mat outside that says, Wipe your feet, sucka.And wipe your feet, sucka. So there's that.Listen, I'm going to get right to it. The SNL Hall of Fame podcast is a weekly affair where each episode we take a deep dive Dive into the career of a former cast member, host, musical guest, or writer and add them to the ballot for your consideration.Once the nominees have been announced, we turn to you, the listener, to vote for the most deserving and help determine who will be enshrined for perpetuity in the hall.And that's how we play the game. It's just that simple.Track 2:[1:30] So, you're chomping at the bit to get voting. You've only got one more week to wait.If you are listening to this in real time, May the 6th is the date that we will be starting the voting and it will run through to May 17th, at which point we will tabulate the ballots and we'll check in with you on May 20th for our finale extravaganza and let you know who made the Season 5 SNL Hall of Fame. name.It's going to be interesting. And today's nominee is about to throw a monkey wrench in all your plans because, well, let's go to Matt Ardill because I've got a question to ask Mr. Ardill.Matt, my friend, I hope you're doing well. I have a question for you.Track 3:[2:22] Where do you start with a girl named Kate?I don't know. There's so much, there's so much Such an incredible talent.I'm just going to have to start at the beginning. I guess that's all I can do.Go for it. All right. Kate McKinnon, height 5'3", born January 6, 1984.78 acting credits, 4 writing credits, 5 soundtrack credits, and 1 producer credit.She was born in Seacliff, New York, and attended Columbia University.University uh growing up she had a pet iguana and she attended ucb in ucb manhattan school and uh yeah she grew up in a funny house full of funny people she and her sister were encouraged to watch mel brooks the producers on a weekly basis always watched snl growing up uh she thought Madeline Kahn was the tops and that that's a fact.You can't argue with that.That is, that is a.Track 3:[3:24] Great choice. Yeah, yeah. Now, her parents, they encouraged her to approach the world through the lens of comedy.Now, Funny runs in the family. Her younger sister, Emily Lynn, is also a comedian and does stand-up and is part of a comedy double act with Jackie Abbott. Check her out on YouTube.Super funny. Unfortunately, their father passed away when Kate was quite young, at the age of 18.Track 3:[3:51] But that didn't slow her down. She's a multi-instrumentalist, able to play piano, cello, and guitar.She can also speak three languages, English, French, and German. She makes me sick.Yeah. Well, that explains why her prime minister is such a good impression, because she can actually speak German.Right, yeah. It's not just making the noises.She knows the language. Her first job was as a little league umpire, but she left because she didn't actually know the rules for little league baseball, which is, you know, that's fair. No, it's foul.Yeah, it's foul. It's foul. She was PETA's sexiest vegan in 2017, but she actually gave that up that title because she just like a true New Yorker missed cheese pizza.Pizza um now she is an extreme introvert which she deals with by adopting funny voices uh which honestly sounds like 72.4 of the comedians i know her comedy heroes were molly shannon anna gasteyer.Track 3:[5:03] She says Kellyanne Conway, but that's obviously a joke because you can't ever give a straight answer like that.Her dream role, and this is another one I would pay good money to see, is Willy Wonka. Oh.I would have rather seen that than Timothee Chalamet.Really? Okay. Yeah, I would have loved to have seen her playing Willy Wonka.Um now before snl she starred in logo's big gay sketch show and uh she took over from the original miss frizzle uh lily tomlin uh who became a professor and a phd and as she started playing miss fiona felicity frizzle uh the original miss frizzle valerie felicity frizzle's younger sister.Track 3:[5:52] Oh i watched a lot of magic school bus with my kids yeah it's a great show uh yeah yeah and the thing is you think with this great education and all this like higher learning she would be you know a muckety muck when it comes to the comedy she finds enjoyable but honestly she said thing says one of the funniest things is a fart wow it's the ultimate bad thing a person can do and you know farts are funny they just they just are this is two weeks in a row you brought farts to the table well i mean it is comedy there you can't really get away from from a good fart um oh so whoopee cushion is a very funny thing if executed properly whoopee cushion and a rubber chicken comedy staples that's right yeah so that's that is uh that is Kate McKinnon.Track 3:[6:46] Well, I think that, um, we should head downstairs and listen in on the conversation this week. Excellent.All right. Take it away, Thomas and Ashley Bauer.Track 4:[7:27] All right. Thank you so much, JD and Matt. Yes, we are talking about a very recent SNL cast member, the most recent cast member that we've ever talked about on this show.This is her first season of eligibility, and I'm so excited to honor the great Kate McKinnon and see if she can make it past the voters, see if she can get into the SNL Hall of Fame.So to chat about Kate McKinnon is somebody who I go back with for over 20 years.We've known each other almost 20, probably 21, 22 years now.We've known each other quite a long time. And SNL was actually one of the things that we really bonded over, my guest and I.And if she slips and calls me Tom, that's how you know that somebody really knows me.Because, you know, I kind of go by Thomas and here and there, you know. But if somebody calls me Tom on this podcast, that's how you know that we go back.So my guest today, Ashley Bauer, if Ashley calls me Tom, then we've known each other for over 20 years.But Ashley, thank you so much for joining me here on the SNL Hall of Fame. How are you doing?Thank you, Tom. You're right. I can't even imagine calling you Thomas. That's so funny.Track 4:[8:45] But no, I'm great. I'm so excited. Yeah, like you said, this is how we bonded.And oh my gosh, talking about Kate McKinnon.I can't be happier. year yeah we really bonded I remember talking about because it was like probably about 2002 2003 that we became friends and we remember we really talked about like the Will Ferrell Sherry Oteri kind of years that was like the cast that that we always laughed about and shared sketches and stuff so I remember having a lot of conversations about those people but I never really knew or maybe forgot because it's been such a long time like your SNL fan origin story so why Why don't you let us know how you became a fan and what cast might have got you into it? What's your SNL origin story?Oh my gosh, yeah. So I grew up, my parents always had some sort of comedy type show on.And I remember being pretty young and my dad had on like...It must have been like a repeat episode or something of like a really old original SNL.Like I'm talking like Gilda Radner, like Jane Curtin.And I kind of just sat down to watch it with him. And I was like, Oh, okay. Yeah.This is kind of funny. Even though I was like kind of young and the humor probably went way over my head.Track 4:[10:01] So those are kind of my earliest memories, but I think when I really fell in love and like the light bulb went off that this isn't my parents show anymore.Like this is my show was, they started to let me watch them when it was Adam Sandler and Chris Farley and David Spade.And of course, I may have been like, eight, nine, 10 years old.So the slapstick comedy humor of, you know, Chris Farley, especially his physical comedy just had me in stitches.And I think that was the lightbulb moment. And when I really became obsessed.And I remember being, I can still picture this today, however many years later, standing in line at a grocery store and looking over and seeing the tabloids when Chris Farley passed away. And I just started to cry.And my mom was like, what's wrong? And I was so devastated when I learned that he had OD'd.And again, I was maybe 10, 11 years old.And that always kind of struck, hits me in my memory of, I think that's when I realized it was more than just a show I liked, that I was you know kind of borderline obsessed I felt like these comedians were like you know my friends so.Track 4:[11:12] But yeah, I guess that's probably one of my favorite casts, again, for sure, because I think that's when SNL really, you know, kind of transitioned into my show.But like you said, too, you know, gosh, it's hard to compare that that cast to like Will Ferrell, Sherry O'Terry, Molly Shannon.And, you know, when they started to kind of overlap with Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon and it kind of started to mesh into that newer generation.Track 4:[11:37] Gosh, it's kind of hard to top that that cast, if you ask me.Yeah i always remember us talking about like will ferrell and anna gasteyer the culps so that i think i think that was one of the ones that we would always laugh about was like all the all the mashups and sharing videos that we found in youtube was even was even around when we when you and i were chatting about snl so we probably had downloaded sketches from like uh limewire or whatever i was just gonna say that i think we shared omia on limewire or like Napster or whatever, you know, that's definitely aging us a bit.Yeah, totally. So, yeah, so I know that, but that's interesting to me because I always associated you, yeah, with like Will Ferrell and Sherry O'Terry and those people.But yeah, you do go back to like Chris Farley and Sandler.And so that's awesome. Most of us SNL geeks remember watching when we were eight or nine years old, sometimes seeing sketches that maybe we shouldn't have been seeing at eight or nine years old.Track 4:[12:33] Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but it helped form form our comedy palettes and our love for SNL. So, so that's awesome. Thanks.Thanks for sharing. So our friends over at the Saturday Night Network, they did like a cast member countdown.So they went like, one through 50 talked about and John Schneider, the Lorne Michaels, essentially of the SNN, he kept asking this question, or he asked the question, like, you know, if you were to build a cast member in a lab, what would it look like?Or was this person and built for SNL.So that got me wondering, I'm interested in your perspective on this.Like if you had to create an SNL cast member in a lab, actually, like what traits would you give that cast member?Oh my gosh. You know, I'm such an SNL nerd.So I've actually thought about this before. I know what you're talking about.I saw that, that post in that episode.I mean, I think it goes without saying, obviously the improv skills, even, you know, I don't think you necessarily have to come from, you know, the Groundlings or Second City or anything like that.But I think just the ability to...Track 4:[13:39] Be able to go with the flow and take something and not be stuck to a script.I think having that trait, I think being a good writer too, I think understanding how a sketch is created, even if you don't necessarily write that one for yourself, but understanding, I think, the science behind it and what your writer wants you to contribute to that sketch, I think is a really good trait.I remember seeing an interview too, too.I think it was with Ana Gasteyer, actually, like you were mentioning and talking about, like musical abilities and how, you know, being on a show like Saturday Night Live, you don't necessarily have to be like a Mariah Carey or a Beyonce type singer who's really good, but just enough to kind of make it through a sketch.And I think Ana Gasteyer again, like with you know, the cults and anything else where she would have to sing, it was just good enough to get by and make it funny.So I've always thought I agreed with that assessment that having some sort of musical ability, you know, to make it through a good sketch and execute it. Timing.I mentioned, you know, I really liked the physical comedy and physicality of Chris Farley.But even if you don't throw yourself into a wall or a table like he did.Track 4:[14:58] I think Molly Shannon did a really good job of that.You know, Mary Catherine Gallagher would throw herself into something but um sally o'malley would even just stretch and pull her waistband up and i think just knowing whatever little physical ticks your character would have i think really kind of makes that more well-rounded you're not just reciting you know a line or like i said a script for a sketch but you're really creating a person and i always thought that was kind of fun.Track 4:[15:25] Um something that i think kate our girl kate was really good at was having zero modesty i think I think you have to be able to not take yourself too seriously and be okay looking like a fool on live TV.That's such a good point. I never thought of it that way as far as having zero modesty. But you're actually super right.That type of commitment to the character and the bit.And I know over the years, oftentimes there's cast members that come along and something doesn't feel right about the fit of the cast member.And I think a lot of times it's that they seem self-conscious up there and it makes me feel bad for them.And I don't want to feel bad for somebody who I'm watching on SNL.I want them to be completely confident and I want to feel like as a viewer, I'm in good hands with the person on screen.And sometimes I don't get that with certain cast members over the years.And those seem to be the ones that kind of like peter out as far as cast members.But you're right like it's just like that lack of.Track 4:[16:31] Being self-conscious, like, you know, the lack of modesty, the, the commitment.And I think our subject today, Kate McKinnon exemplifies that to a T along with like a lot of the other traits that you mentioned, like, Hey, she could sing a little bit, right? Ashley.Track 4:[16:47] Yeah. Again, I think just, just well enough where you're like, I mean, I'm not, maybe not like a Cecily strong, you know, type where Cecily could actually sing, but, um, I think enough.And she definitely sunk herself into a character like yeah you're right kate was like maybe one of the least self-conscious cast members that i could ever think of on the show and her physicality was great i mean we'll probably get to all of that but i think if you built a snl cast member in a lab it would look a lot like kate mckinnon honestly yeah no i agree i kind of thought that when i was you know going through my head and thinking about them like wow it sounds like i'm just describing kate you know like this is a shameless plug just for this topic but no like Like I genuinely believe that those are really good traits and that, yeah, she embodied all of them. And I think that's what made her so great.Yeah. And do you have a recollection of like what your reaction was to Kate when she joined SNL? She joined in 2012.So it's like April. We're coming up on 12 years almost of when she started on SNL. It was April of 2012.Do you have any recollection of like what you may have, what some of your first impressions might have been of Kate?I do actually. And I do this every season. And I always have this, like, cause you really do kind of grow to, to be fond of some of these.You're right. Maybe not so much the ones that kind of peter out and Lauren gave him a chance and it's like, okay, maybe not.Track 4:[18:04] Um, but especially like you said that year, that was when Kristen wig left and she was hired to replace Kristen.And so I think I was really like, hold on, who do you think you are?Nobody can come in here and replace Kristen wig. Are you serious?Is like there's no way anyone's going to be able to top what Kristen did and so I remember being like okay let's let's see what what this girl can do um but her first sketch ever on SNL that Sofia Vergara um Penelope Cruz impression that she did oh my gosh I just remember thinking, holy cow I wouldn't believe that she's a brand new featured player I thought that she embodied such confidence and comfortability in that sketch.Like she'd been doing it her whole life.And to be sitting next to such a big star at the time, Sofia Vergara and I'm sorry, I'm laughing because I'm thinking about the sketch, but I thought, wow, okay, she can hang. Maybe this is going to be okay.And that was kind of my first impression, even though I was kind of, you know, like a mean girl attitude about it at first, like my loyalties to Kristen, not to you. And it's funny to look back because now I say that about.Track 4:[19:16] Yeah, exactly. You know, I think a lot of people felt that way.There were obviously a lot of really hardcore Kristen Wiig fans, even someone like me who she wasn't my total favorite, but I loved her a lot of her characters.I think Kristen Wiig's an all time all timer.So having so you do look at somebody like Kate a little bit with like a skeptical eye and it's like, okay, well, you know, it seems like you're the person that they hired to replace Kristen.I don't know if the show Out and Out said that. I don't know that they would because they don't want to put that in there.Kind of pressure on her but the optics were such that Kate McKinnon seemed like she got hired to replace Kristen Wiig and so you're gonna look at her skeptically and be like okay well I don't know show us what you got and that Penelope Cruz sketch the Pantene one with uh yeah that with Sophia was just it showed me like the confidence with which Kate sunk herself into this character i must have given the show and snl fans like assurance like she was going to be a keeper on snl i can't imagine that was her first episode too that sofia vergara episode that was kate's first episode the sketch happened later on in the show and it was almost like i couldn't think of a more perfect introduction to somebody that was potentially going to replace a legend than this It's like, what kind of pressure is that for Kate? Gosh.Track 4:[20:40] Right. Oh my gosh. Like she could, like you said, we as audience members could have felt so bad for her.Like, you know, she could have been so nervous and unsure, you know, even with her, you know, prior experience in improv.I mean, it's so different when you do it, you know, for such a big institution like SNL.And I think that demonstrated too, because not all SNL cast members have been good impressionists necessarily.Necessarily um and i think that showed too what her range was going to be that she could come on and do such a big impression again first sketch first show ever and just nail it glossy nice.Track 4:[21:22] No no no no no no no penelope it's phytomorphogenesis, refrigerator no no sweetie listen to me it's it's not refrigerator okay say it with me fido fido good morpho morpho genesis jeff bridges no.Track 4:[21:44] What i love about kate's impressions too is a lot of times they are like pretty accurate she can do the accurate thing but a lot of them are always maybe 20 20 20 to 25 off kilter like she has that perfect she sprinkles in the perfect amount of caricature for a lot of these impressions and we saw that right away with this penelope cruz the way she was pronouncing things and then she kind of like turned penelope cruz into this sympathetic human kind of person where she kind of says is it it just me am i the only one who thinks that like i'm getting the big words here or you know what's going on like so she kind of turned penelope into this more human like you kind of relate to her like yeah she's right she is getting the hard words isn't she so kate did that little trick right away with with this one yeah it was so genius even then in her first sketch like you know she could have turned penelope into a diva or something but it was just kind of this like nice little timid like um excuse me but are you not seeing this am i the only one who thinks this and i just thought it was so so genius to bring to the sketch yeah that was great season 37 episode 18 kate's first episode on the cast and she already turned in something memorable and that just completely fits what what kate would become on snl so she started her first full season, season 38, that's the post-Kristen Wiig era.Track 4:[23:10] What kind of stands out to you, Ashley? Like what should we start with in terms of, of Kate McKinnon's work on SNL?Oh my gosh. Yeah. Where do you start with somebody like Kate? Um.Track 4:[23:22] You know, I think Ellen DeGeneres was one of her big impressions, for sure.Like you said, doing just enough to nail it, but kind of taking her a little bit over the top and making it a caricature.Now, as many of you know, this Sunday I am hosting the Oscars.And I can only hope that somewhere a guy named Oscars hosting the Ellens. I'm kidding.Track 4:[23:44] But you know what movie I love this year? Twelve Years a Slave.Slave that's about how i've been forced to dance on this show every day for the last 12 years, i'm just kidding it's about slavery i'm alan the justin bieber again the mannerisms you know the shrugging of the shoulders and the you know thumb in his nose and um but gosh i think my favorite i lump those two together though and it's kind of it's cool that you started like with those two specifically mentioned those two because i do lump them together the ellen degenerates and the Justin Bieber and you'd mentioned physicality with the performer like you're going to build somebody in the lab you want them to have some sort of physicality and Kate she's not necessarily like like Chris Farley like or Molly Shannon like jumping through sets and tables and and stuff like that with like Ellen and Justin Bieber but she's just doing those little moves like with Ellen it's like how she just kind of contorts her body when she's dancing, Too bad this isn't a video podcast because I'm sitting here like kind of like swaying in my chair.So only Ashley gets treated to my little chair dance moves here.But yeah, the way Kate...Track 4:[24:57] Moves her body as Ellen, and then I love even her exasperation.Like, you know, I shouldn't have danced my first episode because now everybody just expects me to dance and I have to do this.And so she takes that, like, kernel of something about Ellen or something about Justin Bieber and kind of dials it up, puts that absurdity, that caricature on it so perfectly.It's interesting that I, in my mind, associate Justin Bieber and Ellen DeGeneres.Those two are kind of almost one of the, they're very different, but I just lumped them together in my mind.Yeah, no, so epic. You're right. And I think she kind of debuted him around the same time as well.And I like when she takes, you know, celebrities like that in the impressions.And regardless of how much kind of they grow and change throughout their careers, I like that she kind of picks an era and kind of keeps the characters that, like, Justin Bieber, no matter how much he grew up, she kind of still played him as this, like, you know, baby heart.Heartthrob, you know, kind of still a little bit nervous and playing flirty, like throwing the hood up.It's okay. People can't see me doing my little shoulder shrug either, but, um, throwing the hood up and trying to act all coy.And I just thought, oh my God, it was so spot on.Track 4:[26:06] Yeah. Her Bieber, he, she played him like, uh, she captured the spirit of this young oblivious pop star who's so in love with himself.And I think that maybe that's the angle that Kate saw. And she just captured that aloof kind of thing about bieber that he just like really loved himself he did those they did those parodies of those calvin klein ads and i think that's where we first saw that seeing kate and tidy whiteys that was hilarious i think that's what you're saying like lack of modesty like she didn't care she she would parade around in tidy whiteys and for a sketch.Track 4:[26:42] And go all in. Like, I just, yeah, I love that about her.And I loved, too, if we're going to keep talking about favorite impressions, her, of course, Ruth Bader Ginsburg impression.And it makes me think of RBG like that and kind of wish that she was like that in real life.And I'm, like, convinced myself that that's how she was.But, you know, I mean, the Ginsburg.That's just so brilliant. It seems so simple, but I can't tell you how hard I laughed every time she came out on Weekend Update and did Ruth Bader Ginsburg and then would just burn all these people and, again, get up and dance and have the Ginsburg and just be all into it and being this little frail old 80-year-old woman just getting down.Let's focus. Now, were you swayed by any of the arguments you heard on Tuesday?Oh, man. They were useless.Useless. next time I'm just gonna put a crumpled up black co*cktail napkin in my place no one will know I'm good the arguments I heard they were so weak I just hope they're not holding up Justice Scalia's chair oh that's a gills burn.Track 4:[27:57] Total commitment to to the character and to the bit that's what I always know Kate from her time at SNL as just somebody who just immersed herself into something.This Ruth Bader Ginsburg was perfect. And this wasn't even...Her voice was pretty spot on, the squeaky voice, but that was about it.This was kind of Kate putting on a robe and dancing on Weekend Update, and it was endlessly entertaining. So that's a really good call out.Track 4:[28:29] Gosh, I could go on and on. But even not just her impressions, but I think her ability to create an original character, too.I don't know that you can talk about you know Kate McKinnon potentially being in the hall of fame without talking about Colleen Rafferty in the close encounter sketches like oh my gosh I think I shed tears I laughed so hard during each and every one of those and again yeah the physicality and not just her own lack of modesty but I think forcing those in the sketch with her you know to kind of get up all up close to them and touch them and you know and get up all into their face and usually make them break um but gosh i just thought that was brilliant too to portray you know the third of a trio who clearly did not have the same experience these other people did, these fancy cats are seeing god meanwhile i'm starting phase two which is me sitting on a stool while 40 gray aliens take turns gently batting my knockers in.Track 4:[29:32] Did y'all get the knocker stuff? Uh, no. No knocker stuff. Sorry.And did you feel threatened, Ms. Rafferty? No. No, no, no, no, no.They were, uh, they were real respectful about it. They were... they were in a line.And then, uh, one by one, they'd step up, slap a knocker, and then go to end the line, wait for another turn.Kate, as a performer, you could tell she was like, well, it's not just going to be me that goes to 11, basically.I'm going to take all of you with me. I'm going to climb on Ryan Gosling.I'm going to do all this stuff to Liev Schreiber and...I'm going to bring you all along with me into this absurdity, whether you like it or not.I'm going to take you with me. That's like a powerful performer right there in Kate.I never thought about it totally that way, but she just was just such a powerful presence in kind of like a small stature.But she was so powerful up there on screen.Track 4:[30:38] Seriously. And I love this. I know Lauren hates it when they break, but I know the audiences love it.And especially in those, I mean, yeah, she wouldn't just make Ryan Gosling, you know, completely break down and laugh.But even like Aidy Bryant and those, you know, conducting the interview just could barely hold it together and ask their simple lines.So it's just, I think watching her was so great. They couldn't help but get immersed and forget where they were too. And you're at kind of go along with her.Yeah. Lauren, Lauren's like, oh, we're, uh, we're not the Carol Burnett show.We don't, uh, we don't do that kind of thing. but I guess it's okay for this one Kate keep doing your thing so that's probably that's probably in my mind what Lauren what Lauren told Kate right there it was a real good Lauren by the way I've been working on I've had like years to kind of like start fine-tuning my Lauren and at some point I'm gonna make all my guests do do their Lauren impression too so oh gosh please don't start with me and I would probably be terrible.I basically just do Dr. Evil when I try to do Morn.That's kind of my cheat code for it. I know it's like the worst kept secret that Mike Myers Yeah.Track 4:[31:50] This was Colleen Rafferty. Yeah, these close encounters.Perfectly weird like Kate character. It made me cry with laughter but also honestly made me tear up.I don't know some sadness some joy some sentimentality because she chose this as her unofficial send-off in her last show for a reason it was yeah it was the cold open, uh in her last show and she did calling rafferty and she did this like send-off where she was gonna go into the spaceship for good well earth, i love you thanks for letting me stay a while.Track 4:[32:39] Live from new york it's saturday night, it made me tear up i'm not even afraid to to say it like i was sitting there watching her last episode like what is this salty discharge like i'm i was like kind of crying like did it have that effect on you Ashley oh 100% yeah like you could ask my husband I was in tears because when I was devastated that she was leaving of course because I think Kate became SNL and it was so hard to imagine SNL without her so yeah obviously it was tears of you know just sadness that she was leaving and just that kind of oh trying to have to process that reality but just so brilliant that she chose that and what a way to kind of I love that she had the say in it and And kind of how she laughed on her terms and, and.Track 4:[33:29] To give that character that closure too and of course i you know you could tell that kate was tearing up so how could you not i mean yeah what a career like you said um she was on it for so long and um yeah don't don't worry i was absolutely bawling like a baby not even just tears like i was probably sorry yeah i think i think most snl fans like through the hardcore fans were sitting there on their couches crying a little bit another oddball character that i think we need to to bring up with kate she just excelled at playing these really odd i mean there's like probably a laundry list but she did this one nine times uh including her first full season in season 38 she broke broke out uh sheila savage the last call at the bar so so this this is hilarious she says like kate has this gift of saying like the grossest things with such sincerity and confidence, What's your name, sweetie?It's, uh, it's Sheila Sauvage. You can remember that because if you mix up the letters, it almost spells Vagisil.Track 4:[34:42] What's your handle, brother? They call me Ace Chuggins. Ace, get out!I'm wearing one of your bandages right now because I ran out of underwear.Mom, wow. Oh, my gosh. yeah like just the complete lack of inhibition like she did it with what like um dave chapelle louis ck adam sandler um larry david would just go yes oh and keenan's you know like pouring gasoline in his eyes on the side because you're right just these absolutely gross grotesque things coming out of her mouth and what she's doing you know at that bar and for keenan to be that kind of sane person that like, this is not okay.Like anyone else watching this would be completely tortured by it, but you couldn't help it. Just be me.Track 4:[35:29] At least for me, I get almost in tears laughing just so hard.I think the one with Dave Chappelle, especially, was one of the best ones.I just loved, again, like we keep saying about her, she goes all in and she takes it from a 10 to at least an 11, if not higher.There's certain performers. So there's different classes of performers.And some were if they're asked to do something like say say these insane gross things be so oddball and out there you could tell that that's against type and as they're performing it there they know that they're playing against type and so they're not all the way committed like that happens a lot of times with hosts so they bring a host on and then they have the host do this weird character maybe like scarlett johansson she's great love scarlett johansson but you could tell maybe sometimes it's scarlet's playing somebody weird that there's maybe an element of her that's almost calls attention to it while she's doing it but kate doesn't you think that this is really kate when when she's playing these characters like it's almost like a dana carvey kind of gift of sinking into a character and not calling attention to it so much Yeah, no, 100%. I think you're right.Oh my gosh, yeah, Dane is a perfect example of this, where they become so immersed in it.Track 4:[36:55] And I love that they don't take themselves too seriously. You're right.You see it a lot with hosts who just, they're so afraid of being embarrassed or how it's going to look and what the reviews are going to be that you can tell that they're holding back.And it completely changes the dynamic of that sketch. whereas yeah what Kate goes all in because she doesn't take herself too seriously I think she takes what she does very seriously clearly because she's so brilliant at it but I think that's the key of a good SNL performer is take what you do seriously but not yourself and I think that's why we got such amazing characters that other otherwise you could have walked away from a sketch being like okay wow that was odd why'd they do that and instead you got this oh my gosh what an epic, epic result we got from her yet again.I love that. What'd you say? Take the work seriously, but not yourself so seriously. Yeah. I love that.That's almost a perfect way to describe Kate and why maybe a lot of what she did worked on the show because she did find that formula of taking the work seriously, but letting herself go in the process. That's such a great way to put that.Ashley, I love it. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I just, to me, that just seemed like the best way to describe it, because there's no way she could have done what she did if she took anything about herself seriously.Track 4:[38:15] Yeah, yeah. One last oddball character that I think about, too, is her, DeBette Goldry, the old, the actor, the actress from old Hollywood.Who's always on these panels sharing matter-of-fact anecdotes about how women were treated back then.What do you think is still holding women back?I think there are all these tiny little things. Like, you've got to change your hair to fit your type.Yeah, and you have to act a certain way so you don't get labeled as difficult.Yeah, you gotta eat arsenic to make your skin pale.What? Well, yeah, I mean, Samuel Goldwyn had a rule that all of his starlets had to eat arsenic tablets to make their skin glow.And then they discovered it made us, um, I'm sorry, what is the word? Psychotic.So to calm us down, they'd send in the monkey with a tray of opium, you know how it goes.Track 4:[39:09] That works because Kate is so matter-of-fact. as a performer about how she's sharing this awful stuff about what would happen to actresses in the whole of Hollywood.Right. Yeah. And it would have been so easy for that to have too closely mirrored Colleen Rafferty of, you know, trying to deliver this deadpan of all these horrible, ridiculous things.But that was such a different character. And it made you think it was a totally different concept again, because she was just so great at, again, the accent and her delving into that character made you believe you were talking to this old timey Hollywood actress.And, you know, when the interview is over and she's like, OK, I know what that means. And she starts undressing to lay on the table.Track 4:[39:49] It's kind of it could go right up to a point where you almost feel uncomfortable because there's probably way too much truth to that.But to that reality, but in a way that still lets you laugh at an otherwise very unfortunate reality.Reality yeah she's talking about things like forced marriages and tranquilizers being like just all sorts of very vivid descriptions of what what it must have been like and she just totally this like said and then she looks at the other people i think jen remember jennifer aniston being being on one or amma stone i think they were on actually the same one and she's just kind of looking at them like what that just what that's that's how it was like like am i right ladies like yeah am i right like you can relate that way probably yeah yeah yeah that's such a perfect kate like oddball character and she i think she did that four times it was toward more toward like her later the later half of her snl career but we love those and i speaking of like the almost later half of her snl career i think she had kate had a lot of things working against her as far as the era that she worked in because she was saddled with a lot of thankless roles because around 2016 Trump era hit unfortunately and it had a weird effect on comedy and SNL as well so I think Kate.Track 4:[41:19] Was almost i don't know doing sketch comedy with like weights attached to her in some ways with having to do political figures but ashley i don't know if you agree with this i think she did the best she could i think she did a really good job with a lot of potentially thank thankless political roles no i 100 agree you're right it's such a you know there's been unfortunately times in our country where it's is hey is it okay to laugh and i think snl has always been brilliant about reminding us as a country that it's okay to do that.Um, even when you otherwise don't feel like you should.And I think for, you know, a lot of people that Trump era was really jarring.And I know sometimes I've commented, gosh, is this too real to be funny?It's almost, it's not even satire anymore. This is real. But I think Kate was such a breath of fresh air through that.Track 4:[42:12] And I think by giving, I mean, they, she didn't just do, you know, female impressions. I know we talked about Justin Bieber, But she did Jeff Sessions and Rudy Giuliani.And again, just turned to these people that were certainly not very likable or well liked by most of the country and just made you laugh at the ridiculousness of it.And I think reminded people that it was okay to do that.And kind of like, okay, good. Yeah, this is ridiculous, right?Like, she's kind of highlighting, you know, the ridiculousness to what was going on in a way that I think made us not so scared anymore. more.And you're right, that could have really gone either way, I think, depending on the temperature of our country and were people ready to laugh at it.And I think Kate just had that knack of making it successful and getting us through that era.Track 4:[43:03] Yeah, I think she did the correct thing as far as you take like Jeff Sessions, Rudy Giuliani. Those are great examples.She didn't try to do spot on impressions, like maybe a little bit, certainly with the accents and things like that.But then she she inserted she tried to find the right angle to make it a unique impression, but also kind of roast those people. So like with Jeff Sessions, she played him like a possum.And she even, I mean, she made that obvious.I think there was even one time where Sessions was on maybe Weekend Update or a sketch and she had him eating like something like a possum would, like a rodent.So that's how she decided to play Jeff Sessions as this like rodent type of squirrely kind of character.And I think that was the perfect way to go about it. Do you really not remember meeting with George Papadopoulos about Russia?Well, you know, Colin, I've had some memory problems stemming from a childhood trauma.A childhood trauma? What was that?The passing of the Civil Rights Act.Track 4:[44:13] Yeah, and I think, too, I think we would be remiss if we didn't talk about her Kellyanne Conway impression through all of that, And especially the Pennywise pre-recorded sketch that they did, or was it Kelly wise?I'm not really sure. I can't remember now that I'm talking. Yeah. They turned it into, but again, just taking it just far enough to be a little bit roast of the character, but also, you know, enough past it for us, you know, the logical parts of our brains to remember that this is a parody of, And, you know, not taking it too far to like, I think, actually, you know, forget that those are still human beings.Track 4:[44:51] She's just so brilliant at towing that line and taking it over the top.Just again, like like Kelly Wise.Yeah, it was almost. Yeah, it was almost perfect that she played Kellyanne Conway.Like that was the Kelly Wise one was a logical extension of how she played Kellyanne.She almost played Kellyanne like a horror, like a movie villain, like a horror movie villain anyway.Yeah, there was this emptiness. behind her Kellyanne behind those eyes just like really creepiness and slightly unhinged that's how she played Kellyanne so like dressing her up as a clown and doing the whole Kelly wise thing was like almost a perfect extension of just how she played that character in general and she had to do this like 16 times so so it could have just been become another boring political impression Russian, but she made it her own.It's me, Kellyanne Conway.Track 4:[45:43] But you can call me Kellywise. Kellywise, the dancing clown.Track 4:[45:49] It's Kellyanne. What'd you do to your makeup? I toned it down.Put me on TV. I have to go. Wait, don't go.Don't you want a coat? No. I'll give you a coat. I'll give you a crazy, crazy coat.How about this? Okay, so Puerto Rico actually was worse before Hurricane Maria and the hurricane actually did blow some buildings back together.And I don't know why Elizabeth Warren won't tweet about that. That's insane.I know. I think, too, just, yeah, playing off the fact that there was always something in it for Kelly.She wasn't doing it for anybody else. And I think that Kelly Wise sketch really sold that message home, too.I keep thinking, too, of her physicality. With Rudy Giuliani, she decided to play him almost like the Crypt Keeper or like a serpent in some ways.Her Giuliani would sit there and he would manipulate his hands like they were spiders.Track 4:[46:45] These little mannerisms. It was just so perfect the way she played Giuliani because she could have just said, I'll just do an impression and let the crazy things that he says in real life speak for themselves.I think that was a crutch that SNL maybe still hasn't shaken, is sometimes they'll just do verbatim what the person said.But I appreciate Kate, because she tried to find a different angle, even if it was with her physical performance.So a lot of people don't necessarily appreciate that, about that era of political SNL was how Kate approached it.It yeah 100 because i think too they get so stuck on okay we need an impressionist who's gonna nail it and be so much like this person and i think you know will ferrell's george w bush i think kind of lulled snl into that because he was so spot on with it and then trying to find i think they go through like three or four different cast members trying to find someone to replace will ferrell's george w bush after that because they wanted so badly for it to be the way will ferrell did it and they just couldn't they couldn't replicate it and i think that's what was so genius about kate was once a cast member would leave who had otherwise done that impression and she stepped in to do it she made it her own she made it totally different so that way it wasn't like it was an exact comparison to either the real person or the cast member who had done it before.Track 4:[48:07] Yeah yeah that's a really great point kate almost played a president that she played hillary clinton and I think she really found...She did it over 20 times and I think she really...Track 4:[48:23] To me kind of subtly found this great angle on hillary like this element of desperation, but also competence at the same time like part of the joke was that she was so competent that it was boring so she would try to like spice things up and maybe the real hillary tried to do that a little bit too in 2016.Besides who can remember how many states i've lost in a row is it a two or is it three i don't hey miss clinton i'm here to fix seven holes in your wall.Track 4:[48:55] Come to think of it it might have been seven and and that's fantastic it humanizes me i'm the underdog now i'm this election's rudy and i like that after all i don't want to be a big old b and win every single state that's no fun she captured like like i said like the desperation but also So there was competence in how she played Hillary.Yeah. And again, she had to follow Amy Poehler's impression of Hillary Clinton, which was super popular.And again, made it her own.And they were both such perfect, you know, Hillarys, for sure.And same with Elizabeth Warren.Her impression of Elizabeth Warren was just so...I think that one was probably a little bit more like spot on to how she was.Um or at least how i i saw her in in media i put down enthusiastic nerd for uh elizabeth warren, yes yes oh my god yes oh and then she did that tiktok with her i don't know if you saw that where it was like the the drake um was the the drake song was the trend i think oh okay gosh again i'm an elder millennial i'm not cool enough to remember the names of these songs anymore but But, yeah, and just taking it outside of, like, a live SNL sketch and, you know, portraying, you know, some of these people in things like TikTok, I thought was genius.Track 4:[50:18] Yeah, so. You should look it up if you haven't seen it. Yeah, I will, because I actually haven't seen that one pass me by.Again, elder millennial, Drake, TikTok, these are all, like, words I barely know. So.Track 4:[50:33] I'll go take a look. Recently, like Robert Mueller, Anthony Fauci, like those could have been really thankless.Track 4:[50:40] But I think she found like a funny angle on Fauci, too.Track 4:[50:45] Just like especially that was a little more spot on and the way she looked and like her Fauci was just fun to listen to and look at.So even in like the later Kate years, she still tried to I think she still tried to work hard to find angles on on different societal and political figures.Figures and i think too we saw that with um doctor we notice kind of late on i think she only did that maybe two or three times but um i love how that kind of blended and it always turned into kate are you okay you know joe's asking her you know being that fourth wall even more so um and kind of reminding us hey kate um are you are you gonna be okay and her trying to get through the rest of that sketch i thought was really great and really again kind of captured how everyone was processing you know 2020 and 2021 um yeah like her doing those fourth wall breaks like i remember a cold open that she she hosted a talk show where it was just essentially her i think even the title of the talk show is like like what the hell is happening it was like in something along those lines where kate was just like marveling at just like the the craziness of of what was happening in the world.Track 4:[51:57] And I like seeing Kate start to almost share her exasperation about what was happening in the world through characters and sketches like that.So we started seeing Kate more, kind of come out of her shell a little bit in that way, as far as just like, the doctor we noticed was perfect.Track 4:[52:16] Fourth wall break and asking her like are you are you okay what's going on kate like i yeah i just i thought that was perfect and now he's holding rallies yeah who does this he did this we notice we hate us he do this we notice.Track 4:[52:31] I'm sorry doctor we notice um yes are are you saying we know this or are you just saying your last name oh okay we know this is greek in english it translates to we know this like we're aware of this okay okay yeah i think i think i got it are there any like almost hidden gems or one-off, sketches or anything like that that might maybe maybe she did once or twice that just always like tickled you oh my god yes did you did you see or do you remember the birds sketch it had john mulaney in it and it was keenan it was like the turner classic movies and he is playing you know reese to what and it's this you know supposed cut scene from alfred hitchco*ck's the birds, that oh my god gets me every time because it's just so ridiculous you've got to do something Please, these birds, they're the jerk of the year.Has anyone said, like, shoo, get out of here, bird, like with a hand wave?No, no, there's too many and they're too mean. Okay, so these are birds of prey, like a hawk or an eagle?No, no, they're seagulls, you know, the little guys that eat french fries at the beach. Oh, no, look!Track 4:[53:57] They set fire to the gas station. How? Wow.Sir, I cannot explain. She plays the main actress in the movie who's running from the birds and Kate runs into this phone booth, locks herself in and she calls the sheriff and the sheriff is played by john mulaney and kate's just hysterical and beside herself and the birds the birds are killing everyone and john mulaney is basically playing himself in this sketch and it's like i'm sorry like they're just like pecking a lot of people or like what's happening just like no they're murdering us all she's so hysterical he's trying to be like she's like there's no time to explain you have have to come quick and he's like no no no i need you to explain like you just said the birds murdered a man i need you to explain how that's possible and to me that is just one of the funniest one-offs that i think she ever did and um beck bennett kind of runs off and on screen every now and then getting attacked by the birds and then it just keeps getting more ridiculous and now now the birds have picked up turtles and they're throwing turtles at people and now the turtles can fly like the bird it just look at this could have been the most random dud tank of a sketch and to me it's one of the funniest things that she did the entire time.Track 4:[55:20] She's so good about playing that dramatic old hollywood kind of delivery that affectation that's so good i remember that sketch i found it hilarious and it was it was just like the premise was super silly the premise was almost like yeah that makes sense like you watch the movie and you're kind of you are thinking I remember I saw it when I was like a teenager or something and I remember thinking wait these birds are like murdering people like what what this doesn't make sense why I like Hitchco*ck but what so I think yeah that's where they were coming from and Kate delivered that so well I love her affectation it's kind of funny that you bring up like how when she played like a 1950s actress because the one off that really like spoke to me with kate was from season 44 i don't know if you remember teacher fell down yes oh my god i almost forgot about that one yeah the sketch started with uh it just shows a shot of the outside of a school then you hear like this commotion in class and the students are like oh like gasp and then the sketch starts with kate just like on the ground just laying with her legs out almost like I'm a seated but with her legs out and she does this monologue this dramatic monologue almost like a scene from a.Track 4:[56:38] 1950s movie about how she fell down and we got in this predicament and we're in this together and and, I've been doing some thinking about this. And then just the reactions of the students like Jonah Hill, A.D.Bryan, and Pete Davidson have these like perfect reactions to this teacher who's just like she fell down and she's monologuing. And it's because she was wearing willies. Her shoes had wheels on them, so she fell.Track 4:[57:05] But just Kate's just like commitment in her delivery, her affectation is this 1950s dramatic delivery.Like Teacher Fell Down is kind of like, over the last five or ten years, one that I always go to is like, this was such like a possible, unappreciated, one-off, weird kind of thing that I totally connected with. Teacher fell down.Are you okay? Yeah, because you really fell down there. No, you need like help?No, no. It's too late for that.Track 4:[57:42] Teachers on the ground like a silly little girl well i'm not a little girl and i didn't fall.Track 4:[57:50] Yes you did do you want to like get up.Track 4:[57:53] Though no no we're staying in this i loved it i think because i am also kind of weird and random that i connected so much with kate and the characters that she did because it's like she made it okay to be weird and random and people celebrated it and enjoyed it and yeah like again just this she's having this existential crisis in front of a bunch of high schoolers like on the floor but it it made it funny like i just yeah um even even the one-offs like you said are so memorable when 80s says he said she's sharing her existential crisis with the students and when 80s says don't tell us stuff like that i love like i could just imagine like some 16 year old like i don't want to hear about my teacher's life like don't tell us stuff like why are you saying why are you telling us this yeah did you have any any more were you about to say oh gosh i don't know if it was a one-off but i loved when she did the russian like olia um and she was like again same thing like this deadpan delivery of like all these horrible things happening to her in russia um but oh don't worry america like you know you're going through this but you know we don't have you know like food um but no i don't think that was a one-off because i think she did olia a few times but yeah that was a great weekend character yeah yes it's around the same time she was doing the the angela merkel.Track 4:[59:23] One-two-one weekend update yes yes oh god see she did so much i can't imagine kate not being a candidate for the hall of fame like i think that would just be criminal i know i know it's amazing my wife's a french teacher so one sketch that this is like maybe the last one that i'll bring up but one sketch that i had to show my wife because she's a french teacher was the america's funniest pets okay well then i'm gonna let you guys handle this next clip of a cat who has this It's his first taste of ice cream.Track 4:[59:55] This cat has seconds to live. She purposefully cut off her oxygen.This life is too much to bear. She is quietly backing out of this world.And she will not be missed.That's a funny cat. Yeah, very funny cat.Kate and Cecily were playing these French women commenting on pet videos.And they were these cute pet videos, but they were playing these nihilistic French women who were inserting these like these like kind of messed up scenarios with these pets and it was such wonderful caricatures and i showed my french teacher wife and she's like that's really funny like it's kind of a funny uh take on like a stereotypical take on like french culture aspects about french culture but that was one where she she and cecily were great in that and She was a really good teammate and especially had great chemistry with Aidy Bryant.Is that one of the better duos, do you think, that we've seen on SNL, Kate and Aidy?Oh, I think that would definitely be up there with Molly Shannon and Sherry O'Terry and those kind of duos. Like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, I think.Track 4:[1:01:06] Maybe not quite as iconic as that um again tina's my queen um but i think kate and ade like fats and, is it dyke and fats um the top duo sketches that they did together and then the um the spiced meats that they were selling on weekend update um the like um whatever farms they're both vegetarians and they're trying to talk about this like rancid meat that's sitting in front of them um yeah Yeah, their duo together was perfection.I loved it so much. Yeah, they were so good together.And you could tell that they just fed off of each other's energy so well.There was a fairly recent one.John Krasinski hosted the episode. I thought it was a great episode all around.But they did one where it was like a game show from the early 90s. And they were partners.But they went on like there were these couples. And then it was Kate and 80.And it was obviously they wouldn't say because it was the early 90s.But they were a lesbian couple. couple and the way they talk to each other like you're my soulmate you're my life I like this.Track 4:[1:02:09] Just like they're you can do it yeah you can exactly there's chemistry was so so great that was like a wonderful encapsulation to me of just how Kate and 80 work together so well now let's learn a little bit about our front runners what do you guys do for work I have a doctorate in grocery riddles that's right I'm a I'm a Unitarian minister neat what will you do with the money if, Well, our blind horse needs a full-time nurse.My snowshoes are looking a little ratty. And I do need titanium ankles, because mine are just sort of bone on bone. Ouchie!Track 4:[1:02:43] Well, good luck catching up, couples, because these two are really in sync.Yeah. We got a really good thing. Yeah, this woman taught me how to trust.Sometimes I lie awake, praying that we die in the same moment.Kate is one of the... She was in one of the biggest movies of, like, last year, Barbie.I thought she did really great. She played weird Barbie, of course, but other Barbie would, would Kate play and do well.I mean, she could probably play any Barbie, but she was just so perfect as weird Barbie, really memorable performance.That said, how could you see her post SNL career kind of playing out like types of roles?And what would you like to see her do with her post SNL career?Track 4:[1:03:25] Oh, gosh, yeah, I mean, she was brilliant in it. And I think obviously, you know, uh, Greta Gerwig was, you know, her friend since forever.And so I think knew that too about that Kate would be perfect for that role. Um, I mean, it's hard to say as much as I love her. I don't know that I see Kate in this, like, you know, she's the main kind of starring character.I think she's always going to kind of be this like supporting actress role, but you're right.Like you said earlier, she's such a good teammate that I think she understands that that kind of followership role in comedy or in a movie is just as important as like the lead.And she really makes it such a well-rounded project to be in.And so I would just love to see more of that.I know she's had, you know, a few of those things here and there where it's been that side character.I think Barbie, again, was the biggest and most brilliant and kind of the most mainstream that we've seen her do.I would love that. I know we've seen like Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig get a lot of like recurring kind of shows now.Track 4:[1:04:26] I do think kind of in that smaller kind of show realm, Kate would be perfect for like a main role like that.Just anything that Kate wants to be in, I will watch. watch um is essentially all that i ask is that she keeps making comedy and kind of showing us that it's okay to be weird and random and people will enjoy it yeah 100 i can see you're settling in so you said maya because maya appears for guest spots and so many different things and it's always appreciated will forte is another one where he he appears in so many things he did get a chance at a leading role in the last man on earth and maybe kate will get a chance to do something like that but I can see her settling into like how will Forte settled in as we bring in this person to do a few minutes on this episode and they totally steal the show and they're so great and I think that's the kind the type of energy that she has I can totally see her settling into something like that and you're right whatever whatever she wants to do especially if it's in comedy.Track 4:[1:05:27] I'm all aboard. I'm just so interested to see what she's going to do in the next few years.Yeah and i hope that barbie was that kind of catalyst for more projects to come her way because she certainly deserves it yeah we always we talked a lot about her sketches as that kind of old hollywood actress and her making fun of the drama but really if you isolate those i mean i think she could pull it off too like she has that seriousness and the commitment to it to really do anything and have such a range of work available to her hopefully yeah i think so so So, not like it should even be a question.To me, this is one of the more obvious ones that we have, just in general, especially this season.Track 4:[1:06:13] But, why do you think SNL Hall of Fame voters should put Kate in the Hall of Fame in her first season of eligibility?Track 4:[1:06:21] I think she's just iconic. I think she really became one of those big names that you think of when you go through all those different casts over the years.I think her name holds up.And again, elder millennial, as we keep saying, so I still have the actual D of the best of, you know, when they would actually publish the DVDs of, you know, there's like three or four volumes of Will Ferrell and best of Chris Farley and everything.And I think that is kind of when you think of what goes on those types of, I don't even think we call them DVDs anymore, but those, those movies that you're going to put together is, can you fill 90 minutes of just this this one player and you could i think fill two or three volumes for kate mckinnon because she became so iconic and had so many roles that we identified with and love and quote and reference today in pop culture um and i think too one snl is such a big part of pop culture but i think the mark of a hall of famer is you know when that comedian comedian and their characters become part of pop culture outside of SNL.And I think Kate's really done that for comedy and continued to really kind of evolve it and evolve it for women.And I think be such a great role model for, you know, comedians to look up to and try to emulate.Track 4:[1:07:46] Like we said, the kind of the traits of an SNL character in a lab, I mean, she has them all.I think if you you could literally build somebody to be on SNL, I think they would look exactly like Kate McKinnon.And I can't imagine anybody else not being eligible, even though it's just her first year.Track 2:[1:08:17] So there's that. Kate McKinnon nominated for the SNL Hall of Fame in the cast member category.Track 2:[1:08:26] It's going to be interesting to see what kind of votes she receives.She's a first ballot Hall of Famer to me. It's a slam dunk.And it's just a matter of what percentage she gets in with. Does she top Dana Carvey and Will Ferrell?Does she you know just squeak through ultimately the percentages don't matter once you're in but they are curious to note and we will be noting them to satisfy your curiosity speaking of curiosity why don't we go to a sketch now with ms mckinnon this is a good sketch and i I want to just set it up for you.That's right. It is from season 44 and this one's a bit of a hidden gem that Kate pretty much carries, except for some interjections from Aidy Bryant and Pete Davidson and the host Jonah Hill.There's also not much to the visual. It's just Kate sitting on the ground after falling in class. So let's go to that now.This is Kate McKinnon in Teacher Fell.Track 5:[1:09:54] Are you okay? Yeah, because you really fell down there. No, you need, like, help?No, no. It's too late for that.Teacher's on the ground. Like a silly little girl.Well, I'm not a little girl, and I didn't fall. Yes, you did.Do you want to, like, get up, though? No, no.We're staying in this. Because I've got a hunch. I'm no psychologist. Yo, this is driver's ed.But maybe you're laughing because you're afraid.Teachers on the ground. Everything's different. Are we okay?Yeah, we're good, but are you okay?Oh, because I tripped. Because I was teaching too fast. You remember how fast it was?No, I think you just didn't realize that your shoes were Heelys.Say, honey, we're at a what now? Uh, uh, Heelys are, uh, sneakers with wheels in them. Impossible!Track 5:[1:11:04] This is all funny now, but... it's not gonna be funny if it turns out I've got two broken legs...And I'm in a full-bottom mermaid cast... wheeled around in a trash bin, Yeah, covered head to toe in stinky trash.That's not funny. Spaghetti in my hair.Track 5:[1:11:33] This is some episode of Friend. Do you mean friends?I don't know movies. I can't take this. I got to help her. Halt!I can teach from the ground, can't I? Yes.Let's place our hands on the wheel, okay? Remember, how old are my kids? 10 and 2. Oh.Oh, my dear God.Track 5:[1:12:03] Teacher fell more. It's honestly not that different. You're, like, three inches lower.God, I'm on the ground. Oh.I'm where I belong. Yeah, we said I was too frail.Said I wouldn't live past three, and I wish I hadn't. Oh, no, don't tell us stuff.You know, I've fallen down before. Once, at my own wedding. And a thousand other times.Stop sharing. My ex-husband used to tell me, "'Gayle, you're too weak.Gayle, you're too clumsy.Gayle, those shoes have wheels. Put that phone away!" -"Yo, I'm calling the nurse." -"You know what?This is good. Film this. Film this." Hello.How does it feel to see teacher, teacher who used to lord over you with such power, fallen down?Knowing you could get up and kick her. Could step on her.Come on now. Take a whiz on teaching. Oh, my God! Get up, you. Spit in my hair.Okay. No! What she said to you. Oh.Look at us.The world's gone topsy-turvy, and so have we. We're all here.We're all laughing like cats.Track 5:[1:13:29] You ought to try it. Falling down. See the world differently down here.You realize how small we all are, how big the floor is.All right, I learned my lesson. Someone help me up.Well, they've left. I guess school is over. And wha-? Would you look at that?There's a wheel in my shoe. What?Track 2:[1:13:56] That is stellar work from Kate McKinnon.Virtuoso, if you will, in the cast member category.I remember seeing her the first time, and you won't believe me when I say this, but I remember her popping off the screen and just thinking, she's going to be a star.She's going to be a star. She just looked different on my television and sounded different on my television and was funnier on my television than anybody I had seen since the third golden age.So there's that.Track 2:[1:14:32] Voting again opens next Monday, May the 6th.We'll be back with the Don Pardo Award winner, which you don't vote for.So it won't get confusing for you but the ballot will be ready for you it will be emailed to you if you've signed up for the uh to be registered as a voter and if you haven't you can go to snl hof.com and you can vote through the link there we'll also have it on our all our social and.Track 2:[1:15:01] You'll be able to get access to it quite easily i really want to thank matt and thomas and And especially our guest, Ashley Bauer. It's been great to have you.And that's what I've got for you this week. So if you would please do me a favor.And on your way out, as you pass the Weekend Update Exhibit, turn out the lights because the SNL Hall of Fame is now closed.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/snlhof/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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  1:16:18

• Will Forte

  Join us this week in the SNL Hall of Fame as we welcome Jon Schneider onto the podcast to discuss the one of kind, Will Forte. Will he be enshrined in the hall? Only you can decide.Transcript: Track 2:[0:42] Hey, it's J.D. here, and I want to thank Doug DeNance for another lovely introduction.Welcome to the SNL Hall of Fame podcast. As I mentioned off the top, I am your host, J.D.I am joined by Matthew Ardill in the trivia corner, and of course, our chief librarian, Thomas Senna, will handle the conversation with John Schneider today. So that's really exciting.But who are we going to cover? Well, before that, the SNL Hall of Fame podcast is a weekly affair where each episode we take a deep dive into the career of a former cast member, host, musical guest, or writer and add them to the ballot for your consideration.Once the nominees have been announced, we turn to you, the listener, to vote for the most deserving and help determine who will be enshrined for perpetuity in the hall.And that's how we play the game. It's just that simple.May the 6th is the date you're going to want to circle on your calendar.That is when voting opens in the SNL Hall of Fame, and we have one hell of a ballot.There are some stakes here, as there are people that are on their fifth ballot that if they don't make it in, they will be removed from the ballot.And that is as high stakes as it really gets here on the SNL Hall of Fame, except for that time that we had lava on the floor.You bet your ass people wiped their feet then.Track 2:[2:10] Let's go to our friend, Matt Ardill. Matthew, my friend.Track 3:[2:13] How are you doing, JD? I'm great. I'm great. Thanks for asking. How about you?I'm good. I'm great as well. Yeah. Yeah. I've got, I'm really excited.I love Will Forte on so many levels.I can't wait to share. Well, learn me up.Okay. Well, Will Forte, 5'9", born June 17th, 1970. He has 132 acting credits, 26 writing credits, 20 soundtrack credits, and five producer credits.He was born in Alameda County, California, and attended the University of California.He was a member, and this shocked me.He was a member of the varsity football team, varsity swim team. So he was a jock.Track 3:[2:57] That's not what I would have expected. Me neither. I want a picture of Theater Nerd. Yeah.Exactly i would have imagined that as well but i mean it's that's just you know that's i guess us not seeing past the stereotype but uh yeah he went on to earn a history degree valuable lesson you just taught us matthew yeah let's do just because somebody plays sports doesn't mean they don't have the the love of theater in them that's right but yeah so thank you for that yeah not from but yeah got a degree in history from ucla and um then he realized his true love was comedy so he joined the groundlings he also tutored faye dunaway's 12 year old son in mathematics while he was in high school which is like that's just a weird i mean this is the weird connections you get living in california yeah i suppose so yeah yeah you know so it's just it i i don't know No, I feel like living in Canada, we don't get those wacky connections, but, um.Track 3:[3:59] At a young age, he went to see Tony Orlando, and Tony brought him and his friend up on the stage, and he encouraged them to follow their passions.So much so, he wrote him and Tony a nice letter many years later.What a class act. Yeah, yeah. And he, in fact, is a class act in multiple ways.He is also a class act video game player. He is the 36th highest scorer in the world in Donkey Kong.Long whoa yeah he watched the that fistful of quarters documentary and he's like i can do that and is now registered on twin galaxies as number 36 in the world that's brilliant that movie also very very good yes and it's not to go on a tangent you watch that fistful of quarters that the villain in that show is a total nut bar you can go down a rabbit hole all on its own as As well as an amazing video gamer, he is also a super sweet dude.Rachel Dratch describes him and Seth Meyers as her comedy non-boyfriends, basically her comedy brothers.She's remained incredibly close to them.Track 3:[5:12] But he's also remained close to other cast members.He attended Andy Samberg and Seth Meyers' weddings, both in character as Hamilton.Hamilton oh my gosh i would have paid good money just to see that i mean just a full character problem is a lot of their families don't know the character so all they know is there's a super racist weirdo walking around at the way which is the most will thing like that just is like yeah i that that that makes sense that makes sense um he collects life preservers and construction helmets he actually got his start uh as a published author he wrote 101 things definitely Definitely not to do if you want to get a check.Track 3:[6:12] It was a comic that he wrote at 24, which he parlayed into his first gig writing for the Jenny McCarthy show and then moving on to Letterman.One of the weirder things that I read is at one point, Val Kilmer was trying to find a house in Malibu.So he was just couch serving and will let him stay on his couch for a couple of months. And one night they were watching the amazing race and they thought that'd be awesome and wanted to go on the amazing race there.Their agents ultimately stopped them.Track 3:[6:46] Uh, boo, those agents did not really do the right thing.Uh, and then unfortunately time got away from them and it didn't happen.Um, but yeah, just, and just to illustrate how amazing a dude he is.Uh, he gave his entire per diem to the crew, uh, for MacGruber, which when he was filming the film MacGruber, he, uh, his mom visited the set on this, the naked celery scene, uh, shooting day.So that must've been a little weird.Um, you think, yeah, it's like, uh, but yeah.So as a part of a fundraising event for boys and girls club of Venice, he auctioned off an opportunity to see, um, a early cut of MacGruber with him and Ryan Philippe, uh, before its premiere.Um but he said if somebody paid a hundred thousand dollars he'd take them out for yogurt twice a year for the rest of his life thought it was a joke and someone called us bluff so now wow ever since the release of mcgruber he's been taking this person out twice a year for yogurt.Track 3:[8:00] Um oh that's they're gonna develop a friendship yeah yeah that i mean you don't you don't do that not actually start to like one another you would think you would explore it at least yeah yeah and and i mean in the ultimate expression of how good a duty is like a true gentleman when filming the last scene for the last man on earth he and kristen shaw had a sex scene after her character ate a can of beans and she let one rip like crazy and he took the bullet for it he claimed it was his so, Just a true gentleman all around. Wow. A gentleman of thoughts.Track 3:[8:47] Yes. Yes, indeed. Well, I think that I'm pretty excited that our guest today is the Grand Poobah over at the Saturday Night Network.It's John Schneider, and he is joined right now downstairs with Thomas, so let's join them in conversation.Track 4:[9:40] All right, J.D. and Matt, thank you so much. Yes, welcome to another episode, another wonderful conversation with a great guest.Welcome to the SNL Hall of Fame podcast.And today we are talking about, this is a personal favorite of mine. This is a chance for me.And my guests to just be total geeks. It's almost for me like when Sammy K and I did the Vanessa Bear episode last season.That's like 14 for you and one for me kind of thing.So this is what this is like with Will Forte, our nominee today.So to join me, another fellow Will Forte nerd, possibly he's, Will Forte is one of my favorite, probably in the top two or three favorite cast members of mine personally.And I think for my guest, Will Forte falls under that category, too.So I am joined by a friend, somebody who I greatly admire in the podcast.He's kind of like a podcasting influence for me personally.Track 4:[10:42] It is from the Saturday Night Network, John Schneider. Hey, man, what's up? Thanks for joining me. Hey, Thomas.Track 4:[10:49] Well, I'm very first of all, I'm very humbled that you would say that mutual respect here and love what you've done with the show and and JD and Matt and everybody here so thank you so much for having me back and I have to say Thomas I maybe have podcasted about I'm gonna just I'm gonna throw out a guess here I'm gonna say like 300 podcasts about SNL I maybe have done like over the last few years I don't think I've ever been as excited to do a podcast as I am right now like this is this is one of the best things I could have ever done as an SNL podcaster is get to talk about will forte he is definitely my favorite cast member of all time i wouldn't be talking about snl or podcasting about snl or doing all the things that we're doing at the snn if i didn't fall in love with will forte on the show and everything that he did and i i know i'm not alone with that i know that there's so many people out there that will forte is such a big influence on so thank you for having me today i can't wait to have this conversation yeah absolutely i'm so giddy too and then redoing some refresh because with will forte i don't necessarily need to do research quote unquote but i like to refresh myself watch sketches go in with uh you know having watched these sketches as close to recording time as possible so they could be fresh and this is like the most fun quote unquote research i think that i've done for this entire show because.Track 4:[12:07] I love will forte so much so so yeah this is gonna be great thanks for so much for joining i meant what i said as far as you being like a podcasting influence what you've built at saturday night Network is just amazing.Track 4:[12:19] So tell us, tell the listeners what's been going on over at the S&N a lot. I know.Thank you so much. Yeah. I mean, it's been pretty crazy. It's been great to get the show back after that writer's strike and glad that everything turned out well over there. And.Track 4:[12:37] You know, nonstop coverage of the season. As we go through all the live weeks, we have coverage right after the show is done airing.So we have this great group of people who stay up late with us and talk about the show.If you're watching on YouTube, you can always find our hot take shows and join us in the conversation.So let's say, you know, you're tired, you're lying in bed, you just enjoy the show, but you just have to talk to somebody about it.It's a great place to go and hang out. And we also have our Monday night round tables where we're just, you know, breaking down the show even further, talking about the legacy of a specific host in a specific episode.And then our By the Number shows that we do on Wednesday that Mike Murray hosts for all the stats on, you know, turning SNL into a live sport.So that's our regular coverage. We also get to do some really cool interviews that we do on our show called SNL Stories.We just had Christine Ebersole, season seven cast member. We just spoke to Bobby Moynihan. There's a lot of great ones out there as well.Track 4:[13:25] Yeah, now we're sort of turning our heads towards the end of season 49, finishing up all the coverage on that, doing some summer stuff.And then it's season 50. It's the big one. So we have lots of stuff planned for season 50, and I can't wait to get to all of that.And yeah, you got to come hang out with us at the Saturday Night Network.Yeah, so this guy's built like a true network, like you and everybody else.Bill Kenney, Sammy K, the Andrews, everybody who's really closely involved.You've got quite the community going at S&N. It's a true network, like you have a Saturday Night thing, a Monday thing, a Patreon thing, by the numbers.So it's really definitely a true network there. Maybe you can get Will Forte on, like, SNL Stories one day.That is the dream. I'm hoping for, like, yeah, that's the big one or one of the big ones for sure.I'm hoping maybe for a special numbered show, maybe a 500th, maybe a 1,000th, something like that.I can convince him to do it. I have met Will Forte before.Track 4:[14:21] I actually went to go meet him on my birthday when he was at Just for Laughs.This was before I was doing SNL media coverage. But I went to go talk to him, and he could not have been nicer. and I know that some of our podcasters have bumped into him over the last few years and he said that he would do it.So I'm hoping one day we'll get him to, you know, come on board.And I think we're gonna have a blast whenever that does happen.Yeah, that that would be a biggie. So Will Forte, our nominee today on the SNL Hall of Fame on the cast from 2002 to 2010.And from what I understand, John, that was basically the era that made you love the show like that whole that all those was cast between 2002 and 2010, that whole era.So what were your impressions of Will Forte when you first saw him on SNL, this oddball?Track 4:[15:08] Yeah so very fun fact that he almost got hired the year prior but i think he wanted to keep writing on that 70s show which was also a show i enjoyed very much at the time but uh yeah so when so i'll go back to like my original my origin story for watching the show the first time, and um i really fell in love with the show you know from like 2005 to 2010 i was in high school then and that for me was just like will was such a big part of that cast but prior to that i tuned into SNL.I knew what it was. We had like friends who had older siblings who were watching it all the time.And at times I would just like turn on the show and just catch glimpses.And I remember seeing like Tina and Jimmy on the show and being like really intrigued. Some of, you know, Smigel's TV Funhouse stuff.But one time I remember my parents going out on a Saturday night and I turned on SNL and I was very curious what I was gonna see.And I saw Will Forte as Tim Calhoun, this politician who's just like is so anxious and can't get anything out and just like nervous flop sweating I think I would make a real good president because I'm a hockey dad soccer uncle football cousin ping-pong brother and And Donkey Kong best friend.Track 4:[16:35] My opponents have been using my full name to scare people.Is it my fault that my middle name is Boo?Track 4:[16:47] I just fell in love. For me, there's just something about it that clicked.And getting to watch him throughout his time at the show, So I've like psychoanalyzed this over the years, Thomas, where I'm like trying to figure out what it is for him that just, you know, makes me laugh harder than anybody else.And I think it's because like...I think I'm like a pretty like I have quirks, but I think I'm like a pretty normal person Yeah, but like will brings out the weird in me Like he brings out something in my personality that isn't brought out by most people And it's something that I watch on the screen and I just get purely happy So in some of like the you know saddest times of my life i've turned on will forte sketches and he's just Brightened my day.That's such the mark of a good performer, too He does that for me As well, like i'm a pretty normal i'm probably a little more weird than you i would say like if we're doing a scale or we have to ask listeners i'm guessing we'll ask we'll take a we'll take a poll or something but uh i'll ask them on i'm doing the hot take show so maybe that'll i'll chat to see to see about that uh but so but you're right so he brings out like the the weird aspect of me to like all those little those little things that i'm like why do i relate to this like because i've kind of i kind of had that like weird side of me but that that's That's like the mark of a good performer is like he's relatable in that weirdness that maybe you didn't know you had until you watched him perform in some ways. Does that make sense?Track 4:[18:09] Yeah, I mean, I think he's he's reminds me a lot of like the friends that I chose like for my life.Like I'm I have a very unique situation in my personal life where some of my friends have been my friends for over 20 years. Like these are friends from when I was really little.And I won. I always like wonder like why I gravitated to a specific type of person.And it's like the people who will go the furthest with a joke like that and like they have a lot of will forte qualities in them and i just think i like to surround myself with people who are um sort of like you know don't give a sh*t and you know and it will like take something really far not not offensively but like um i remember seth meyer is telling this amazing joke uh this amazing story about will forte once on late night where he said that um i believe it was one of the writers, I'm blanking on the name of the specific writer, but one of the writers had been so hungry on a Tuesday night writing night and was writing all night and ordered Chinese food.And it took so long to get upstairs to the 17th floor.Hours and hours. Finally, the delivery guy drops out the food, gets there. The writer is like so excited.Will Forte goes to pick up the bag and drops it out the window.Track 4:[19:17] It's one of the greatest things I've ever heard. And I'm just like, you got to look that up on YouTube and like watch Seth tell that story.It is so funny to me and it is perfectly like encapsulates Will Forte and why everybody loves hanging out with him.That's so oddball. That's so Will Forte. You honed in on something that relates to something that I wrote down, like a key word.I was thinking about Will Forte, and the word that keeps coming up for me is commitment.I think Will Forte, more than most cast members that have come through the show, is he's 100% committed to this sketch.No matter what, this character, this sketch, Will Forte is in it.And to me, John, when I see cast members, won't name names obviously, but when I see cast members who maybe are less so, who I gravitate less toward, or maybe cast members who I feel slightly uncomfortable watching on screen, I think it's a lot of times because they lack commitment on screen.Because I see there's something that's not letting them just break out of their shell completely.With Will Forte, that was never the problem. Can you think of a performer on SNL that can rival? I mean, there's probably people who can rival, but is there any performer who could exceed Will Forte's commitment?Track 4:[20:34] I think Will Ferrell probably is a good example. I mean, the like the two Wills, I think like, you know, Phil Hartman and Dana Carvey.You got to put that in that category a little bit. Those are all time greats, though. Yeah, like I really I really do feel.But Will, like it has his own kind of commitment where he goes to like he goes to one side that is so unique to the show. And, you know, a lot of times on on our podcast, when we're evaluating an episode, we'll talk about the 10 to 1 sketch.And he basically, you know, that did exist prior to it. But, you know, it's really the Will Forte slot in the show.Like, I think everyone that's come after him has always been like looking for a Will Forte to be the weird sketch.Sketch um and i think like the committed weird is really what people are looking for in that 10 to 1 it's not just like oh here's like a random weird one-off character that's quirky it's like somebody who is so weird that it just makes everybody in the sketch and out of the sketch just like amazed at that person i think sarah sherman does that sometimes as well and i wish we got that more on the show but yeah i mean i think you nailed it i think that's that is a quality that we look for and will but i will also say one other quality thomas, that i always stuck out to me about will was that he's like a very normal good-looking guy.Track 4:[21:49] And like you know maybe like barring the time like for last man on earth that he like shaved like half his beard and half his head like he is like so normal looking and he's a secret sicko, that's what i love is that like you would never know that this guy in his head is an evil genius and i love that about him yeah and i think that's one of the things when i first saw will forte on screen i'm like okay he's just kind of a your standard issue male cast member that they hired and he's just gonna be like cookie cutter but you put this real quick he he totally dispelled all the notions that i had just by looking at him you're right there's like this sicko i love that word that's that's a perfect word to describe a lot of what's underneath the surface of will Will Forte is just, yeah, like that sicko, right?They're like a nondescript, normal-looking guy, but then something comes bursting out of him that's just very weird.And when I think about all-time greats, Hall of Famers, whatever, I think it scores bonus points, especially, you know, with Will Forte, that he had his own unique lane in the show.Like, you can see a sketch and say, that's a Will Forte sketch.Track 4:[23:07] And that's rare. And that's something that I, you know, when it comes to SNL, when I see a cast member like that, I really gravitate toward it because that's a rare quality to have where it's just like, that's Will Forte's lane.You mentioned 10 to 1, any sort of oddball thing.Andrew Dismukes kind of has that right now. That's why I kind of gravitate toward him because Dismukes has a stamp.But to me, that scores Will Forte bonus points for having his own unique lane, John.Track 4:[23:37] I agree. I mean, look, I think we had this very interesting discussion when we did the SNN's cast member countdown.So Will Forte was voted 18th overall by the viewers.I was doing my rankings at the same time. I had him at 21.So really around the same range, but slightly lower than that.And you may be saying like, John, how can this person be your favorite cast member? And you have them at 21st.And the truth is, is that I think that, you know, when you're looking at the 50 year legacy of the show, um, there are a lot of performers that are extremely well-rounded that have contributed and just, you know, built in every aspect of the show.And I just, I don't, I think that will have the ability to make the show all about him like an Eddie Murphy at times, like a Kristen and wig at times.You know, like a Will Ferrell. But the show was never built around Will.Will was always one or two parts or three parts of an episode.And you would watch his sketches and you may walk away feeling like they were your favorites.But it was very rare when you you watch an episode of Saturday Night Live during Will Forte's tenure, that you're like, that is a Will Forte episode, or this season was Will Forte season.Track 4:[24:42] So I also needed to be objective and fair about that. Now, I don't think that disqualifies him from the Hall of Fame whatsoever, because I think that like The Hall of Fame is a whole other thing where you're talking about people who built the legacy of the show, and I think he's very, very much a part of that. Yeah, absolutely.And still, I mean, you said 21st. He ended up on the, or 18th on the countdown.18th on the cast, 21 on my list. Where do you have him?I think I had him probably about 16th, ultimately, even though he's one of my two or three.Yeah, he's one of my two or three favorite cast members, but favorite, and then, and I'm trying to put together the greatest.So it's different, but to me.Track 4:[25:18] Shoot like top 20 top 25 that's right smack in the middle of hall of fame territory right there if we're talking 160 or something now cast members so to me will forte is a slam dunk hall of famer so this is gonna be like the listener will know where i'm coming from and where you're coming from obviously with this episode but i was surprised i think that i had him higher than you but really you're right like it's the same ballpark so we both view him about equally i think yeah i mean the other thing you have to you know like the other thing that i factored into my cast rankings was also you know his contribution after his time in the cast he does leave in 2010 um and i think that he you know we'll get to this full conversation of his career but i i do think he could have stayed an extra couple years and that really would have helped him in terms of legacy like had he left at the same time as andy sandberg and kristen wigg he He has only come back to host once.That episode that he hosted was one of the weirdest episodes in SNL history.I think we could say that now.Track 4:[26:18] So, you know, that to me is a factor that I think about in terms of overall contribution to the series.So, you know, these are things to think about. But overall, I mean, what a career that he put up at the show. I can't wait to get into it. Just amazing.And we can get into it. What is maybe the first sketch or character that you think about when you think of Will Forte?All right. So I got two that are my quintessential Will Forte sketches.These are two of my favorite sketches of all time.I've always I've had the trouble of deciding which one is my truly my favorite all time.But if I had somebody who came to me said I've never watched a Saturday Night Live sketch before, which one should I start with?Track 4:[27:01] I'm going to start with Jeff Montgomery, the sex offender.Just out of curiosity, what exactly is your Halloween costume? I'm a sex offender.Track 4:[27:17] Excuse me? I'm a sex offender. For Halloween.A sex offender. Yes, pretty convincing, huh? Here, watch this.I'm Jeff Montgomery. summary by law i'm required to inform you that i'm a repeat sex offender and i'll be living in your neighborhood it's a great costume right yes yes to me this to me like encapsulates everything i look for in the show it is so fantastic this is a this is a sketch by the way that was cut once previously from the brian williams episode in 2007 it was then brought back for the john Jon Hamm episode in October 2008.Track 4:[27:57] And this is a guy who rings the doorbell, trick or treat, and says that he's dressed as a sex offender and needs some papers to be signed.And the confusion between Jon Hamm and Will Forte, as they discuss, are you dressed as a sex offender or are you actually a sex offender, is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.And Will Forte plays this beautifully.It's beautiful wordsmithing by Will Forte to dance around the fact that he's a sex offender needing to go around the neighborhood.And this is a great example of understated Will Forte, in my opinion.I think the other one that you're going to mention that I have a feeling you're going to mention is more so on the bigger side a little bit.But this, yeah, this Jeff Montgomery one is more understated Will in a lot of ways.Yes. And I want to credit Colin Jost, who wrote that sketch with him.So that, you know, the two of them, I mean, what a team that is.Collins wrote some fantastic sketches over the years.But yes, I would say this is the sketch that I would show people the most of, of Will Forte.I have, I struggle whether it's truly my favorite sketch because there's one that like sentimentally means more to people, but I don't know if you get it if you're not an SNL fan. So do you want me to jump to that one?Yeah, I think you're going to, well, go ahead.Track 4:[29:19] So so i also want to say jeff montgomery did come back a second time with tim mcgrath which is uh but but yes um the the one i'm the one that means the most to me in my heart is the dancing coach sketch with peyton manning yeah and that to me is like i i think i can say it's my favorite sketch of all time this is where peyton manning uh is on a is not a football player he's a basketball player in the sketch and it's halftime in a basketball game uh like sort of like a college basketball situation and him and keenan and fred and andy and bill and jason they all come in uh to the locker room, and Will Forte is the coach and starts talking to them about, you know, being more motivated.All right, listen up.Track 4:[30:00] I see a lot of mopey faces around here. Granted, we're down by 34 points.McMillan broke his ankle, and our cheerleaders have started cheering for the other team. That doesn't mean we can't come back and win this thing.And Wally, you got something you want to say? Yeah, coach.Guys. And gives them the speech that leads to Will Forte playing the theme or one of the songs from Casino Royale and he starts dancing.You definitely got to look this up if you can find it online because Will Forte dancing and making everybody laugh, including, you know, watching Bill Hader's face in the back of the sketch is.Honestly like when this came out and i saw this live we watched this sketch maybe a hundred times thomas that's how much you watched it was so funny to me and i cannot watch it without laughing, great one of my greatest sketches of all time this is amazing physical comedy by will forte i'm glad you paired this one with the jeff montgomery one at the top because it's almost like the comedic yin and the yang for will forte like i said jeff montgomery's more like it's about how Will Forte's delivering the lines and it's more understated.And this one, it's just like physical comedy, these dance moves, how he times it out with the song.Track 4:[31:17] You're right, like Keenan. Keenan's almost the first one to break.He and Peyton have to cover themselves, their faces with towels just to not break.And Fred, Fred's usually like pretty, you know, keeps it together.Famously in the Debbie Downer sketch, Fred was the one kind of like watching everybody going, going okay guys we still have a scene to do in this one fred was this is one of the few times that i saw fred almost break and bill of course bill hater uh always does but how could you not this was such great will forte physical comedy like i i absolutely love this one john honestly i think a lot of cast members feel like this is one of their favorite sketches of all time bobby moynihan when he joined us uh he he mentioned this sketch at one point about how this is one of his favorite sketches and then he got to be in the second one in his first episode and it was just like so exciting for him to see the dancing uh you know the dancing coach and i just you know like i said it's one of those visual things that you got to go watch this it is so amazing the commitment from will forte absolutely fantastic so to me those are the two quintessential will forte sketches there's a lot more though i can't wait to get into yeah i have a quintessential central one as well it comes toward the end of his SNL tenure and it's the one that he and Jason Sudeikis did with Blake Lively the potato chip, Janelda, how many potato chips did you put in here today? Thirty-five.I thought so. I thought so!Track 4:[32:43] You didn't happen to take any out for yourself? Oh, God, no.Why, that would be stealing. It certainly would.Track 4:[32:53] Janelda, what would you say if I'd have told you that that man right there is nothing but a common potato chip thief? Ah!Potato chip thief! to me if i wanted to show somebody like this is will forte's humor this is will forte's playground i might show them potato chip thief too that'd be one of the first ones that i show them, like just just displaying will forte's like humor what he brought to snl he and this one he plays it big like it's maybe a little more understated at the beginning but he ends up like yelling screaming but underneath that screaming he says some really funny things so potato chip thief john would be to me like another quintessential will forte yeah so i love this sketch a lot it has a lot of elements of other sketches which is maybe why i don't put this at the top of my will forte list like i would say that this is and i get what you're saying i think for a lot of people this is the top will forte stuff um for me i'd say this is maybe like my B tier Will Forte, just because it has elements of other things that I think ultimately led to this occasion.Track 4:[34:01] It's a brilliant sketch. Love Jason Sudeikis in this as well.Love Blake Lively. Like this is a really, really great sketch.I believe this is John Solomon and Will Forte in this one.John Solomon wrote a lot with Will when he was on the show. But the, you know, chewing the potato chip and spitting it into, you know, the mouth, which is just like, again, something you got to see I know that that happened a little bit in the 2000s the baby bird stuff with Will Ferrell and all that stuff so the grossness of the sketch I think really does work here but it does lose its luster a little bit if you've seen it before whereas I think the dancing coach like is just like non-stop money but yeah ultimately I do I do really really love this sketch and I think that the commitment here from Will is fantastic and the reason that I felt like it has you know stuff from Will's earlier career is because him yelling is a another staple of Will Forte with the Zell Miller impression which you ever go see that you know one of his like talk show guys that he did and like he would just yell that's like an early Will Forte career thing where he would just yell so much that his face would turn red.Senator Miller knowing what we know now how could we possibly avoid such destruction from future tsunamis? Tsunamis!I'm sick of hearing about tsunamis!Thank you.Track 4:[35:30] And that is also incorporated into the sketch a little bit. But I love this one too, Thomas.Yeah, definite Zell Miller vibes, one of his recurring characters.Zell Miller, Georgia politician.I think Zell Miller said some crazy things, especially about Barack Obama.And then Will Forte just sort of turned him into a caricature completely.Track 4:[35:53] I do want to talk about Will Forte as a breath of fresh air for the show.Show to uh because i think and i know it's subjective but he started at a time where i think snl was trying to find an identity will ferrell had just left and they didn't quite have an identity they were playing around with like do we push seth meyers as the star of the show who's the star of the show what's our humor what's our viewpoint and i think will forte was a breath of fresh air amidst them trying to figure themselves out i mean the show and things like the falconer that premiered in season 28 and that was so to me that was so unlike a lot of what was on snl at the time that it was um it was a relief sometimes to see the falconer something like that pop up on screen and this the falconer is one of the things that will forte is best known for but it was just like a relief for me as a viewer when it popped up in this era of SNL.Donald, we're starving to death.This land that once filled us with life is now barren.One of us must search elsewhere, and only one of us can fly.Track 4:[37:06] No, Donald, you! Oh, Donald, even in these desperate times, you still retain that dry sense of humor.Now you must fly away from these woods and bring back something, a possum, a squirrel, anything to keep us alive. So be gone, my friend.Bring us life. Bring us life.Yeah, I do like the Falconer a lot. I think those sketches are pretty forgotten because of all the great things that Will Forte did after.But I truly believe those are great sketches.That's Will with Eric Slovin and Leo Allen. And I think Eric Slovin was the guy who, by the way, who will dump.Track 4:[37:47] Before but yeah those falconer sketches are really great and just so weird and bizarre for a time where snl's writing was a little choppy and they were trying to figure it out like you said in that you know post will ferrell world and pre kristin wigg bill hater jason sudeikis and andy samberg world and i think that those sketches are really great i think they did nine of them um and they are very enjoyable i love will getting to talk to objects like that and i think you know or Or animals like that.And I do think you get to see more of this in Last Man on Earth.If you ever go watch that show.Track 4:[38:23] Yeah. That he brings out some of his Falconer character.Yeah. Especially like at the beginning of the series. The Last Man on Earth.When he's talking to the balls.The various balls that become his friends.That are like placed inside the bar.I can definitely see that. I'm going to go ahead and call Donald an object too. Because you could see.One of the funny things is you could see the strings on that puppet.I'm sure that was a choice.Like let's make the strings show and make it look as ridiculous as possible and john when i sometimes when i as a viewer when i complain about like little writing things and stuff one of my chief things is escalation like how do you do escalation what's proper escalation the sketch needs more escalation that's if i always say that like it could have been bumped up just another notch with the falconer to me a lot of these sketches were just perfect examples of how you escalate, especially a recurring sketch.How do you find escalation in something recurring?I think Will Forte and the people behind this Falconer sketch just did that escalation beautifully.Track 4:[39:32] I totally agree. I think that's a great point for these.You know, there are some other sketches from early in his career that I think are really important to bring up that are often lost upon people.So I think now is a good time to maybe pivot to some of those um one of those is from the season 28 episode 14 episode with queen latifah i don't know if you know what i'm gonna say but this one is give up the ham give up the ham, such a good sketch that is like because of the i don't know if it's like the song like it doesn't get put up a lot and like you gotta look you gotta google it and look up this but um basically people fighting over ham at a grocery store and then the sketch breaks down with bull forte singing singing, give up the ham.Track 4:[40:44] And it is so so good and like i think maybe the first moment of really seeing like how great this guy is i know that him and fred sort of did some stuff on update but like this was to me the first like major major moment for well for a day on the show it's commitment to something ridiculous or like a commitment to an everyday thing like uh shopping at a grocery store say so how can we take that scene that scenario and and play it up into something ridiculous and and uh it was that amy poehler and queen latifah i think rachel dratch comes in as amy poehler's friend so all these people start walking in but then will just totally owns it with this song like yeah that's just total commitment again like you'll never have trouble with will forte and commitment give up the Ham's one of the ones that I go back to semi-regularly, honestly, if I need a good laugh, I do that.That's a really good shout out. That's from season 28, episode 14.One that I thought of, season 28, the next episode, episode 15, it was a sketch that he did with Jimmy Fallon, Salma Hayek.It was called Cardboard Box. You remember this one, John? I do.Yeah, go ahead. So Will Forte, so he played a husband who was suspecting his wife of cheating.Track 4:[42:06] So Will Forte's character mailed himself to their house in this big cardboard box so he could catch them in the act.And this is just, to me, like we're talking early examples, like such a wonderful early example of a truly absurd premise that Will Forte completely sells.And he has to do this inside a box that he's not even on on camera most of the sketch and what he has to do and what he has to convey from inside a cardboard box is like chef's kiss like beautiful work yeah he does this thing sometimes where he can like we talked about zell miller with yelling till he's red but sometimes he does this like angry yell in a calm way that it's very hard to describe unless you hear it but um he did this recently on like i think you should leave in one of the episodes uh tim robinson's show where he's like almost like he like fell on the sidewalk and he was like under a car but he wasn't like really stuck um but yeah he does this thing sometimes where he's like stuck in a place and he's just like someone will say something to him and he'll like respond with this sarcasticness in his voice that's like oh of course you would think that you know like that type of thing and it's just so brilliant to me and this is this is This is a real deep cut Thomas, but this is a great sketch.You don't think he has any idea what's going on with us, do you? Oh, please.That ignoramus doesn't suspect a thing. He does now.Track 4:[43:32] Ray, where are you? Right here.All right here i'm in the box what the hell are you doing in the box i thought you went to cleveland i was but i mailed myself home to lay this little trap for you and now after laying in wait for 28 hours the trap is sprung ha 28 hours it's awesome i think what jimmy fallon was hosting this or was it salma no salma hike was hosting it jimmy fallon was still on the cast obviously season uh 28 uh but yeah this is like kind of a deep cut i think will forte has a lot of these it's like these one-offs yeah where you you get reminded of it and it was like oh yeah will forte.Track 4:[44:14] Did this well let me take you to one of the greatest episodes in snl history i think which is the jack black episode from 2005 that december episode that had you know lazy sunday and all that stuff in it um that really like changed uh you know changed the era of the show and brought on this new golden age and one of the sketches there that uh really cemented you know will's place in the show throughout this golden age is that spelling bee sketch that's very famous well forte moment where they ask him to smell business and he keeps asking questions back and he goes on and on and on and on and it is the ultimate commitment to the bit as he continues to go on Q, M, T, S, D, T, Q, M, P, R, F, T, D, P, D, P, N, H, R, K, T, E, T, F, business.Track 4:[45:20] And I think that so many people growing up writing sketch comedy have tried to find a take on this specific sketch.And I don't know that anyone's ever matched the level at which Will Forte can pull something like the spelling bee sketch off.It's a very specific type of humor where you're testing how far you can push the joke.And sometimes so like you're testing the cycle of a joke almost.So you make the joke. It's funny, funny, funny.And it hits the peak and then almost becomes less funny.But then he's still doing it. And it's less funny, less funny.But then he does it enough to where it circles back around and it's really funny again.That's a very specific type of thing. A very, I think, maybe possibly brave thing to do on a show like SNL.I can see people doing that on like, you know, let's make a YouTube video and try this out.But to do something like that on a show like SNL where you're almost messing with the viewer in some ways and testing their patience.But there's a really great reward ultimately. I think the spelling bee sketch is a perfect example, especially like the run he goes on of saying Q, I don't know how many times in a row.Track 4:[46:32] But you know what's great about something like this is that I don't think there is a person that came before Will Forte that can pull off this sketch as well.Like you think about uh great like orators in snl history like people like dan akroyd or phil hartman who can just say things really quickly but still make the listener understand them and it's so brilliant at the speed at which they communicate whether it's as a pitchman or even just as a game show host or something like that but will forte can say things slower than the average person and it doesn't sound like too slow where it's not entertaining and that is like a whole other level of brilliance that i don't know that i've seen before prior to well forte yeah his voice it's almost like asmr in a lot of ways like yeah like with this spelling bee one you mentioned tim calhoun and that's one of the things that stood out was almost like a low-key asmr kind delivery with Tim Calhoun.He was a little bit nervous, but it gets that he's just like whispering, but not.And just, yeah, it's just that like a very unique delivery.Track 4:[47:42] And I had written a note. So Spelling Bee, as far as like testing, see how far you can push the joke.It also reminded me of something else that he did on Weekend Update when he was, he appeared He appeared with Amy, I think Amy and Seth, in season 34, and he appeared as himself, and he was recapping a Senate vote.When Friday's tally was finally counted, and that was all she wrote, people asked, how did that pass?Track 4:[48:37] So this was an example of him kind of taking a joke so far that maybe it becomes unfunny but then it circles back around so he was he made up this song and recapping how certain how certain senators voted and then amy interrupted him and he's scolding amy about how rude it is to interrupt your friends when they're singing and this reminded me of spelling bee in like how far can Can we push something?It is really great. I mean, he basically started on SNL when he kept coming on and doing songs with Fred Armisen a couple times and, you know, in different variations of that.But yeah, he will come on update and do songs on a regular basis throughout his SNL tenure and he will push things to the absolute limit.And, you know, I think a great sketch to jump to off of this conversation is Fly High Duluth, which to me is like an underrated classic john yes this is uh this good snl podcaster, that's from the scarlett johansson episode and it's basically like a tv talk show where they're like oh we have a band that's finally gonna come out and do the theme song for the show and they just like keep going and going and going with the song where they keep thinking it's over but it's not and will forte is like drinking and going like full rock star with it and it is so brilliant.I cannot wait to hear what you think of the sketch because I don't get to talk about it enough. Mama.Track 4:[50:04] Don't you point that gun at me.I said, please, Mama.Track 4:[50:15] Don't you point that gun at me.Because my love is consecrated in the blood of the.Track 4:[50:36] It's an example to me. Well, by the way, first of all, as an example of the, just the breadth of will for taste sketches, we had mentioned spelling bee.That was season 31 episode 9 fly high Duluth was season 31 episode 10 so this came like one episode after that like you can look through all his great sketches and like dang that happened those happen like back to back and that happens a lot uh like I'm on my list I'm seeing like back to back to back episodes but yeah fly high Duluth is again one of those where I frequently go back and watch it and it's just again that commitment to the sketch the commitment to the bit it's so So ridiculous.He's like this Jim Morrison type of guy singing this theme song for a show in Duluth, Minnesota. And he's like...Track 4:[51:25] With his with scarlett johansson so his his his lover his his uh what's she line or she tiger i think he called her something like that i think her name is yeah it's like they're wally and char char yeah yeah yeah so it's just like this is a wonderful example to me of like will will forte's commitment to the sketch just doing these ridiculous things chugging which i assume was iced was tea or something like that in a jack daniels bottle uh but no this is one of my favorites and i never get the sense that will forte is is self-conscious even for one split second up there and so to me as a viewer it makes me feel like i'm in good hands with will forte in this sketch yeah absolutely and this is uh this is one that he put together with eric kenward who's is now a producer on the show um but yeah i mean this is a this is another brilliant sketch that you just got to break down it's a very long sketch and sometimes you know my personal preference is not to go too long with sketches unless we're talking about like one of the great debate sketches in snl history that really has like something to say i think then you can push things a little bit which is my opinion but you know i think you know i prefer shorter sketches but the the joke here is that you know will is going to push this and push this as far as it And they've done this a couple times in the talk show format in SNL history where things just like break down to an extreme and you need somebody who can.Track 4:[52:53] You know, you can drive the ship when that's happening and not let the sketch go off course to the point where people are like, oh, they're doing the same joke over and over again. And why was it so long? Why did it drag?Track 4:[53:05] Will forte never lets that happen he always lets it escalate he always has to get to another point that's interesting like i find that there's never a will for to sketch i'm watching and i'm like ah i wish i saw less of that no you're completely right like by the end of this duluth live sketch like they're doing a full-on breakdown like he's starting and he's kind of seeing the lyrics are kind of weird but you're like okay this is kind of like a weird kind of hippie or 70s rock band doing this but okay like it's kind of weird but then you're right like it escalates and escalates to the point where like Fred's doing this full drum solo and he's shredding on the guitar he's breaking the guitar Will's screaming on the mic like yeah so yeah the escalation this was beautiful beautiful escalation and something that I always look for as an SNL fan uh yeah go check that out that was season 31 episode 10 and we haven't with Will Forte we haven't talked about.Track 4:[54:00] Impressions so much or anything i have kind of a maybe a hot somewhat of a hot take for you i actually think i actually think he was a decent george w bush oh okay i i really do and i think it suffered because he had to follow will ferrell's george w bush that was its own thing but i think just in a vacuum i think he could have really made that work because i think he has the type of personality to where he can play understated but he could also say weird things and be squirrely and have that bizarre nature underneath the surface which was george w bush and kind of how will ferrell depicted it but i think it suffered because he had to follow will ferrell but i think in a vacuum and going back to re-watch some of these i was thinking to myself like, a pretty good George W. Bush, honestly. You know, we're roughly $7 billion in debt. But don't worry, I got a plan.I've decided to consolidate all of our debt with one of those debt consolidation companies.Track 4:[55:09] That's right. We're going to go with Dytek.Like me, you've probably seen their commercials late at night on ESPN2.You know, the ones with the guy who says, lost another loan did I take?It's a funny commercial.I think he's a decent impressionist, and that's a very interesting take.Now, I think that the decline in the show post-Will Ferrell, I think, gets unfairly associated with the Bush impression a little bit.And that sort of falls on to people like Will Forte and Sudeikis and Daryl Hammond, who tried to do it for a bit.Like you know you know i think people were were upset that will ferrell wasn't around anymore, and that was like nobody really gave it a chance um and the show has like a history of not being able to transition over these iconic impressions in a way maybe besides daryl is bill clinton who took that from phil harman i think that maybe is the only exception but yeah i see what you're saying i just don't know that i ever really gave it a chance as much as i loved will forte i wasn't Like, you know, we're talking about like a post 9-11 world where people are pretty down on Bush in general.Track 4:[56:24] And, you know, the, you know, you know, Will Ferrell made Bush lovable because he was like a frat guy.And that's what he turned him into, like a bro and a frat guy.And I think that Forte never got the characterization or the writing to be able to turn the sketch and make it something of its own in the way that Will Ferrell had that leash to do. Yeah, you couldn't make the George W.Bush around when Will Forte was playing him lovable like Will Farrell did.I'm going to confuse that the whole darn show. Will Farrell, Will Forte.But so so will forte's uh george w bush i think it it was at a disadvantage because of just where george w bush was as a political figure around that time you know the kind of the whatever paul shine was on him if you could say that was was worn off quite a bit around that time so so you couldn't do the same type of depiction as will ferrell did and i i was like you i didn't really give it a chance but this is just sort of in hindsight kind of re-watching it sort of dawned on me I'm like this could you know it's not like.Track 4:[57:33] He was the best impressionist or like mimic but you don't have to be if snl history has taught us anything about impressions is you don't have to sound exactly like the person or even look exactly like the person i think he could have found an angle that i think he had the right personality to do and i saw i saw something in these george w bush impressions impressions that i hadn't really given a chance prior i mean he did it for a while i think he did it for over were he did 20 of them yeah like maybe two years he was doing it so sort of like finished up a little bit of um you know uh george w which is tenure of the show i guess they handed to sudeikis for like that the baton for like a little bit but yeah i don't know i i just i always felt like will forte um like i said he brings such a like a bright light to the show and and stuff like that and i don't think that the country was like very happy in general with bush and you know was looking for a change and like i don't know that um will it wasn't the right place in the right time for him to play him i think ultimately but i love the hot take i think it's a great hot take it's like there's a lot of what-if scenarios like do i think um if well forte was around a couple years earlier could he have played the original like incarnation of bush that's a possibility i think so um but.Track 4:[58:49] Well, I think you're right that you mentioned that maybe his George W.Bush impression unfairly gets lumped in with why the show was struggling around that time.I agree with that. I think there are a lot of factors. I just think where the country was, where humor was at the time.And I brought this up a few times on the show around 2000, let's say 2002 to 2005.Track 4:[59:11] That was a very weird time for humor in general. It was a lot of edgelord stuff.It was just a lot of really broad humor, I would say.And so i think maybe the the show suffered from just where humor was over in our society just in in general look i think i think um our community of like snl diehards looks back at that time, very like unfondly because you know you watch these things off time you go back and you watch these things on a binge and you'll see like all these episodes and you'll see the decline of the the show um and i'm not disqualifying you know people's feelings about those seasons because i would definitely rank them pretty low but i think tina fey often mentions how it was a very hard time to write comedy just like post 9-11 everybody you know nobody wanted to talk about politics you know they i mean the u.s was like invading countries around the world and then potentially invading the wrong countries and like you know there was like all this crazy politics stuff going on that nobody really wants to talk about.And people want it to, as far as, you know, Tina was concerned is that people wanted to turn on SNL on a Saturday night and not think about these things.So they focused more of their writing around pop culture.And the problem when you do that is that the references and the sketches become very dated.So to go back and watch like season 29 and season 30, um.Track 4:[1:00:34] I don't know almost 20 years later you're like this doesn't hold up as well as the things that came before it or the things that came after it so i think there's a lot of things working against it though i will say will forte was a bright spot in a little bit of a dark time of the show yeah breath of fresh air for me definitely and since i'm confusing will ferrell and will forte as probably a lot of people did around that time i want to talk about a sketch that i love that has both of them and when Will Ferrell came back to host in season 30 toward the end of that season it was a sketch called Pepper Grinder oh wow and yeah this is one that I think slips through the cracks for a lot of people too so basically Will Forte's character he and his wife are celebrating their anniversary at dinner and Will Ferrell oddly plays a college student you have to suspend your disbelief there for that real quick and basically will forte's character makes will ferrell's waiter character grind the pepper for a long time to teach him about grit and perseverance and and everything and this is just like to me will is so good at taking an everyday situation to like a dramatic absurdity sir my arm is starting to burn louis that's enough stay out of this jamie this is between me and the boy i can't lose this job sir then keep grinding.Track 4:[1:02:02] Oh god the pain grind son grind oh god oh god it burns please sir please.Track 4:[1:02:19] He's working with another master at that, Will Ferrell.So as a comedy nerd, as an SNL nerd, John, this type of sketch is like a dream for me.I love this sketch. It's a great one. And it's great seeing like two legends, you know, play off of each other.This is the type of sketch that you watch as a you know, what we're making when we're putting together a reel of Will Forte sketches, which is essentially what we're doing here.And then giving this off to the Academy of voters to go vote for Will Forte.I want the listeners to consider something here, which is watch this sketch and then think about if Will Forte could have fit in any era of the show.And this is a sketch that shows you why he could have like he could have done this sketch in the original cast by far like that could have fit in really well with a couple people here and showed them you know like i could just picture like a gilda radner sitting across from the table and like a dan akroyd with a pepper grinder like you could picture these things when you see these sketches because he just fits in so well with any cast um because he is such a unique archetype that i think really molds to the people around him so i do feel like that is why hosts it was It was probably their dream to be in a Will Forte sketch because he is such a great scene partner.Yeah, it was amazing to watch them work. And Rachel Dratch does a really good job with her role and her comments throughout this sketch.And now that I'm thinking about it and thinking about one of the traits of Will Forte that we've been talking about all episode, I think the pepper grinder sketch really has a bunch of them all wrapped in one. So you have that commitment.Track 4:[1:03:44] Completely 100% commitment. You have the escalation. It's what this sketch is built on, is that escalation that you're not quite expecting.You have the more kind of subtle Will Forte and good line deliveries at the beginning, especially.You have Will Forte just going nuts and yelling in this sketch.So I think this Pepper Grinder sketch encompasses encompasses all the like the a lot of the positive traits that we've talked about with will forte john am i wrong to say this is the perfect will forte sketch oh there's so many though that's the problem yeah it's not like you know there's every sketch is the perfect will for i'm just getting excited i'm just using hyperbole at this point too i like it i like it but um yeah i know i agree i think this is a like i said it represents a lot about you know what i like about will forte which which is, this is one of the sketch.I think there's another sketch that he does that is a comparable sketch to this one.And this is like later in his career, but I'm just trying to remember.It's one where he's like, maybe you can place this for me in my mind, but it's one where like, they're trying to decide like, who's going to pick up the check.And then like, he insists that he's going to pick it up.Track 4:[1:04:55] And that one is so, so great.I need to find where that was. It was called, I got this. I think if you look it up on on YouTube that's from season 35 and it's uh, it was like a game show basically Yeah, that was yes. Okay. You mentioned it's a game show.Yes It's a game show bill hater was trying to figure out who's gonna settle the bill And I think I honestly think that like that could be the same character from the pepper grinder sketch Like him just playing this like older gentleman about like who's gonna pay the bill and stuff like this and this is um One of it's in one of will's last episodes of a cast member as a cast member, but it's it's a really good sketch, Check still out there gentlemen. I got your money's no good here.I got this dad Come on, you're getting on in years, and I want to show you my love before you pass.I got this I'm only 58 I got this you introduced me to jazz.I got this you helped me to learn eBay. I got this I got my MasterCard right here.I could just not I got this I got this this is the woman I will be buried next to she comforts me when my hernia acts up the least I can do for this blessed angel is Is buyer spaghetti on her birthday? I got this!Track 4:[1:06:04] Impressive! Good rat! When people complain, like, they see, oh, another game show sketch.I think the game show format is perfect for a sketch comedy show.Especially, you could talk about technical reasons, blocking, the way the studio's set up, all of that.But I don't scoff at game show sketches just because they're game show sketches.We've had a lot of really clever ones recently this is an example and you just have to have the right premise and the right performers and we certainly had that especially with the premise of this and with will forte my problem the game show sketches is just that people don't really they're like aren't that many new game shows that's the problem right but i guess that's the you know evolution yeah that's why you invent a game show called like i got this yeah yes but But yeah, this is a great sketch.I think, you know, Thomas, we talked about how great of a great of a performer is Will is with performing with basically anybody.But I do think that he's also built chemistry with cast members that he has seen as like his ultimate scene partners.Track 4:[1:07:10] And that may have developed like later in his career, so much so that I wish he could have stayed on the show more.But I think that him and Jason Sudeikis on the show together is an all time duo that people talk about and still reference to this day of like oh that could be a forte in sudeikis.Track 4:[1:07:27] And we haven't even talked about any of their sketches together where they are so brilliant um i'll start with the espn guys the pete twinkle and greg stink you know this is a sketch that sort of premiered like very late in will forte's uh career at the show where i think it was in his last season this is season 35 and then we get it a bunch of times in that season but it's all like, espn classic so if that like does that channel still exist by the way it's been classic or did they retire that yeah i think it does okay yeah so basically in classic it's where i watched the like 85 bears on espn classic nice yeah i didn't know if it still exists with like youtube being around but basically so espn classic um you go on and you see like all of these like random sports like you know pool and bowling darts curling um shadow curling i i did that once um a couple times um but the uh and basically like pete twinkle and greg stink jason and will are the commentators and you know sudeikis is like your brilliant classic like espn play-by-play guy and will forte as greg stink is the color commentator and he always like heads over to him to say something and he has like nothing to say and their back and forths are incredible Wow, look at this, look at that. Oh, and quite a shot!Track 4:[1:08:48] Unbelievable, look at that! Oh, a big kick. Oh, she loves God.She loves God. Greg, how many points do you think she gets for a shot like that? Oh, I don't know, five?Nope. Okay. You just kind of pulled that number out of thin air, didn't you, buddy?Well, you put me on the spot I did not know what to say, so I looked down at my hand, I saw five fingers, and I went for it. I love it, I gotcha.Why is it so cold in here? Well, we're in an ice ring, buddy.Track 4:[1:09:14] And I know this is a Will thing, like a Will podcast, but also like Jason's ad reads to me are like some of the funniest things I've ever seen on the show.But just their brilliance together.All time great sketch. What do you think of that one?Yeah, Will Forte is so brilliant at playing dim-witted but likable.He says dumb things, but you root for him as much as you could root for that character in a four-minute sketch.Track 4:[1:09:40] But you really root for Greg Stink. And he just plays off just being oblivious, being dim-witted.This is another one of those where the delivery and the line read needs to be perfect.You can't stumble or else it loses that pop in the sketch.And there I brought this up I forgot maybe it was in the Jason Sudeikis episode but these Greg Stink and Pete Twinkle sketches I think set a template for for some at least one other duo that we saw on SNL it reminded me of the Don Jr.And Eric Trump dynamic okay so to where one of them was very dim-witted being Eric Trump and Greg Stink and then Pete Twinkle was almost like the Don Jr.To where he wasn't judging the other person he was almost just sort of like playing off of him and just correcting him but like in a nice way in like a friendly way like in an I love you sort of way so I think that this dynamic between like Jason and Will Forte is just like ripe for for comedy it's such a cool dynamic that I think we saw in Eric and Don Jr.Track 4:[1:10:47] I agree with that because I don't think that again, I don't know that this has been done really well before it.Like I think of like, you know, Dan Aykroyd and Steve Martin, I think they're more even even seen partners.I think Eddie and Joe, they're more even seen partners.And I'd even say like Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, like Wayne's World sketches, even though Dana plays plays it more dumb a little bit.Track 4:[1:11:09] I still think that like they're closer to even than what we get here between Jason and Will in this particular sketch.Sketch and i i do think it's set a template that is a good really good point of what came after it and i know it's something that like james austin johnson and dismukes would like love to find and maybe that's like the missing element is just being able to like be like one person in the duo has to like put the ego aside and play the dumb one right in the duo to be able to pull this off yeah it doesn't it's fine if there's like a power imbalance because that can be ripe for comedy, So I think we saw that perfectly.It was that dynamic between Sue Dacus and Will Forte with Pete Twinkle and Greg Stink.These are one, they did these, I think, six times and all of them just hit.They're like home runs each time.Your girl, Kristen Wiig, we all love her. She's great.This is where she's like a great silent actor.I know I brought up that point in our Kristen Wiig episode, but this sketch right here is where Kristen Wiig's like a perfect silent actor.Just wonderful sketches all around. Everybody compliments each other so well.Track 4:[1:12:15] Yeah. And that leads me to the other great Jason and Will sketch, which I don't know if you want to bring it up or you want me to do it.But we got to talk about John Bovey, of course. Oh, yes. Yes.Are you a John Bovey guy? Yeah, I am. Speaking of setting a template.But yeah, no, these were these were great.So stupid that I was on board immediately.All right, here we go. Two, three, four. Because I'm an Indian.Track 4:[1:12:40] Indian. On a cotton horse I do not ride And I'm unwanted.Track 4:[1:12:47] Alive and dead Alive and dead Alive and dead.Track 4:[1:13:01] Boom!Honestly, just like looking at a still picture picture of will forte's face as like the member of john bovie is so hilarious with the mustache and the long hair this is like pure joy as this is as good as it gets with like you know just you know the party of snl and feeling like you're invited to like the greatest party in the world is like watching these two of your friends just like hang out and be so stupid and silly and just like sing these bon jovi songs as john bovie that they're all like the opposite band and um Um, I, to me, every time it was popped up, I just like ate it right up.Track 4:[1:13:43] Yeah, it's got to the point where I associate the band and the artist Bon Jovi with this, where I have to remind myself that the actual real person's name isn't John Bovey.Yes, that's how closely I associate. I see John Bovey and I'm like, well, that's how it is. Right.Oh, no, no, no. It's Bon Jovi. But you're right. Also, it's because like John Bon Jovi.Yeah. And then there's a whole like, yeah, yeah.Layers to that. You're right. There's like like two of our friends just being dumb. Like I could see just at a party and they're just like entertaining people and like, oh, these guys are so stupid.But and, you know, the beat like you see them up there and you know what they're going to do. But it's still like a fun surprise as to how they do it.That that that takes a real performer to to make you laugh, even though you you know the beats, you see it coming from a mile away and you still laugh.Track 4:[1:14:32] Yeah. And I see like people on like SNL Twitter, like being like, you know, bringing up Remember Lizards.This is like the jason and uh the uh james austin johnson and andrew dismukes version of this sketch and i'm like you guys you don't know how like good it is to have something like this like i i love that they did that by the way like i'm one of the ones who didn't mind that they did that but uh but like uh to me like this is the the pinnacle of you know just stupid and it's it's so great to have that on saturday live and i wish we got more of that honestly yeah yeah that was so good and i realized so we're about an hour in and i don't know if jd's yelling at us right now but i don't care jd this is a special episode for us we're about an hour in and we haven't talked about mcgruber at all and this is maybe the thing he's most known for this spawned what i think is a hilarious movie and we have not talked about yeah yeah and and he did it nine times and of And of course, he did it 27 times, probably, essentially, because they were all three-part runners, basically. And yeah, that's...Track 4:[1:15:38] What do you think of mcgruber john yeah first of all jd this is our playground like let us let us do our thing here we're cooking uh but uh i love mcgruber mcgruber was the thing that like when mcgruber would come on and we were watching the show live in high school there would be audible cheers in the room like sometimes like i gotta talk sometimes about like my snl history and like um we would be like like my friends and i loved saturday night live so much that we would be this is like before we were old enough to like go out to clubs and like drink we would like have house parties with our friends and we'd have like a lot of people in our high school grade over and snl would be on the tv in the living room and like i'd always be like somewhere nearby so i could like see what was happening and not feel like the fomo of not having watched it and as it's happening so like two things would happen during this era that would just like make the bit like make the house shake one snl digital short pops up number two was mcgruber theme song comes on and people would be like everyone would sing like mcgruber like as that would come on and it was just like nobody like we were young like we didn't like get the whole like macgyver like the whole thing like we didn't we didn't get it but like knowing what i know now it's it's just like a brilliant portrayal of like this characterization and obviously we're gonna get like at one point the real macgyver i mean there's so many good variations of this including like betty white and everybody but But yeah, this is like his most well-known character.Track 4:[1:17:05] And it like, it only took us an hour to get here because there's so many other brilliant things on his resume.But it doesn't take away from the fact that these sketches or like blackout jokes really, because this is like the pinnacle of a blackout, you know, joke on SNL, are amazing.They're amazing. And it's like really the last real runner we've ever had at the show.Track 4:[1:17:26] Damn, this door is locked from the outside. As soon as that liquid hydrogens release this baby's going to blow sky high! What's the plan, MacGruber?I want to kiss you on the mouth. What? Ten seconds!Okay, okay, quickly. April, hand me the guitar. Give me the guitar, give me the guitar. Come on. Okay, check this out.Groober, I got ten inches of lovin' And I wanna give it to ya Are you drunk?Groober, okay, maybe it's not ten But it's certainly seven Come on, man, do something!Groober, okay, it's more like five.Track 4:[1:18:10] You alluded to something when you mentioned, oh, he did one with Betty White or Richard Dean Anderson, the real MacGyver, Charles Barkley, something really important about recurring characters and this, that this one didn't fall into that trap is diminishing returns.And that, that's a really huge topic amongst SNL fans. And Lisa from Temecula recently has been, you know, we've talked about the concept of diminishing returns possibly as far as that goes.Track 4:[1:18:38] MacGruber didn't suffer from that. I don't think there was diminishing returns in these that I could remember. It seemed like all of them basically hit.I mean, yeah, you're talking to the wrong person if you want to argue with me that they didn't. Because I think that like these to me were so hilarious.And I think that it was a great level of escalation.And I really feel like the formatting of these is like one of the last great things about traditional television, which was like we talk a lot now on the SNN about, you know, what what are the producers at SNL like really thinking about when they produce a new season of Saturday Night Live, like all the way now in the 2020s?And like, is the show being produced for somebody to watch it every Saturday night at 1130 to 1am?Or is it being produced in smaller doses for people to watch on TikTok and YouTube?Track 4:[1:19:31] And I think that you can't produce these sketches in the new format of the show, potentially, because then you have to put them back to back in like a YouTube video, which is often what they did.And I think that takes away a little bit from the MacGruber sketches, which was the the having to wait to see what's going to happen later on in the episode made these sketches even better.Like you would have to go like 25 minutes before you saw the next MacGruber or if it like is there going to be another one? Like what's the next escalation here?And I just love like the playing with the format in modern times that they were able to do with these sketches.That's a great point that I never thought of. But you're absolutely right.Like kids these days. Am I right? instant gratification and whatnot like yeah yeah they don't they don't get it yeah they just don't get it no you know that's such a good point though and i will i want to see yeah as snl fans we have like these these lists that we want to see this and that and i'm with you on runners like i love.Track 4:[1:20:31] Runners like there's an there's another example like the closet organizer oh man yeah with with john ham like in john ham's episode like that that was a really that's an unexpected runner and that was a different kind of runner that with the closet organizer but i yeah yeah i mean that that is something that like i feel like they would never do now but and they wouldn't even like really do that in 2010 like that was so unique that they allowed will forte to do something like that where like he appears as the closet organizer in the john ham episode and then like in a different sketch later in the night like he meets the guy from the closet organizer at a bar and like that's something that they would do in like the late 80s maybe not in 2010 but i.Track 4:[1:21:19] Think that lauren at the time probably was like we're gonna give this to will because like it's so brilliant yeah from john john ham that was a great episode uh we covered john ham in in the snl hall of fame but yeah that was like a brilliant another little brilliant piece of physical acting writing especially that will forte did before we kind of start heading to the home stretch and closing this out we can do like a little lightning round unless you have something else before the lightning round no we'll do the lightning round but i was gonna say uh jd i'm keeping thomas here forever because we're just gonna keep going and going i'm pumped yes yeah uh so i want to do like a little lightning round if you have like one or two sketches that people should just go check out i have a couple if you have a couple uh we'll start with you and just kind of briefly like Like just maybe one or two more sketches that people should check out if they want to know Will Forte.Track 4:[1:22:13] Sure. Yeah. I mean, one of my favorite sketches from his era at the show was a sketch that involved like most of the cast.And it was a series of sketches where there would be a toast at like a wedding or a funeral or something like that.And you get all these characters from different cast members who would show up there and they would recur.Occur um we did see this a little bit in a recent era but it wasn't as to the brilliance of like what these cast members would do and involved will forte playing a character named hamilton who's this like super far right guy who like comes up the microphone and whispers about how like.Track 4:[1:22:47] Like obama shouldn't be president and like he's like the devil and like all these things and it's like it's so weird in retrospect because like we've seen in real life over the last like 10 years like a lot of hamiltons like pop up but like at the time i think like things weren't so serious and like will forte could play this guy on the show and he plays it like with this blonde wig looking so crazy with the glasses and everything that and it to me i laugh so much at this especially one of the sketches where he admits that he's like in a relationship with gabourey sedebe yeah it's so great and i think seth myers that'd be like a jan krang like ad bryant's character like that type of that archetype of just somebody yeah i mean in a like a public setting i know jan krang was played bigger than yeah than hamilton but but that's kind of where my mind went yeah see those are more like catchphrase jokes to me like the whole like jan and krang like that's like that whereas like this is all like in the world building that is brilliant about this character which is like you only need like 30 seconds with the character to know everything about them and like that is something that will force it does really well and one of the it's one of the characterizations of like i think some of the greats in snl history i know this is the lightning round but i just i have to say like i love this sketch, so so much so much so that i think uh i think seth meyers had will forte do hamilton at his wedding.Track 4:[1:24:15] Really yes and you could look up that clip online i think he talked about that and they showed a clip on late night of him doing it there and talking about why his wife should not be marrying him and it is as good as it gets like you got to check that out i'm gonna check that out and you had another one um well yeah i was gonna say uh clancy t baccarat like i know we didn't bring it up i don't know if i know these sketches aren't for everybody but like him and kristen wigg just, Yeah, screaming and yelling, singing Easter songs or whatever it is about spaceships, tall doors, model T cars and jars of beer.Those always crack me up. And again, he's in his like full like crazy hairdo, all that stuff.To me, you know, the two of them, we talked about him and Jason Sudeikis, but.Track 4:[1:25:00] Him and kristen wig i think are another brilliant team that i just wish we got a couple more years from so another great sketch yeah well we had a whole episode of snl where that was will forte and kristen wig uh recently so that's true i was the one i was one of the ones who didn't mind that as much yeah it was a weird episode i won't dwell on his hosting gig too much but it was very bizarre but i did enjoy the when they brought back the clancy t baccarat character yes uh yeah so so can i just say about that episode because i i do think like it's it's interesting for some of the listeners who maybe weren't like following our coverage at the time of that um why that episode was so weird and unique was that like i was doing the stats on that episode like the day after and i was like that episode felt so weird and i just like couldn't figure out why and i love will forte and then i realized that that was the first episode since the second episode of the series where paul simon hosted the show where no cast member was in more than two segments I went through every episode, all 900 and something.Track 4:[1:26:00] And no regular cast member was in more than a couple of things.And that was such a unique situation that it almost felt like a clip show, in a way.It wasn't like a new episode of season 47 of SNL, and nobody will catch me complaining about more Will Forte, but it was just a very unique episode that people were excited to see how Will Forte was gonna fit with this cast and what he was gonna do.Track 4:[1:26:24] But it ended up being like a lot of MacGruber and like, you know, small sketches with a couple of cast members. And I think like a lot of people had a night off.Yeah. Yeah. So whether you thought it was a good episode or a bad episode, it was definitely a memorable episode. Very unique episode.So I'll give it that for sure. Two that I wanted to shout out were he did these he did that these three times.It was called First Night Out. So I think he was him and Kristen. in he played this guy named neil and they would basically try to rope somebody in to do a three way with them and it just his delivery about calmly explaining how a sexual encounter will unfold between the three of them like and then you show like the they're they're meeting at the beginning of the night and then they have more drinks and they even show like the hand on the clock like move like it's later in the night and then they're going from talking about regular things to will forte's exploit calmly explaining to them just in a matter of fact way about you're you're going to do this and then I'll come in and do that.And just, I found that just, just so like subtly bizarre.Track 4:[1:27:23] So, so I wanted to shout those out. Do you remember though? I'm sure you remember those, John. Oh man, those are, those are really great.There's so many good Will Forte things. I mean, it's hard to bring up everything, but yeah, those are really great sketches.And I, in particular, I think they did a very good one. I'm going to say it was with either Lindsay Lohan.I think they did one with Rainn Wilson. Lindsay Lohan was in one.Yeah. Rainn Wilson also. I think they did a good one there.Steve Martin. And I remember that one was a little bit weird.But yeah, those are some good ones.Yeah. And then there's a one-off. So I talked about how I love his one-offs.And there was one he did with Drew Barrymore and Kristen Wiig called Poison Therapy. Okay. Season 32.Track 4:[1:27:59] And Will's character, he and his wife are in marriage counseling.And Kristen Wiig plays the marriage counselor. And he's married to Drew Barrymore.And they're talking just in this matter-of-fact way about how Drew Barrymore likes to poison him. and he's and Will Forte almost plays he plays it so small and subtle and so funny he's almost like.Track 4:[1:28:22] Like excusing his wife for poisoning him and and kristen's really playing it well too and she's saying as a matter of fact like so why do you think that is and then drew barrymore is like well i do poison him so i understand why he feels that way and then will forte is like oh you do you understand so he's all happy so it's just this very great scene in a marriage counselor's office called poison therapy kristen wigg will forte drew barrymore i want to encourage people to go watch that one as well yes oh i got one more by the way sorry jd but i gotta you know we can't end this episode without bringing up gully i mean just you know will forte making those sketches as great as they are with his you know mr dylan uh you know i think those sketches like lost their luster a little bit after he left the show so uh for me that is uh one of the better you know characters within the world of another sketch yeah will forte's delivery lives on like when When everybody thinks about those sketches, I think they're thinking they're imagining Kristen dancing, but they're also thinking about Will's delivery with the ghillie.So that's a good that's a good pull, John.Track 4:[1:29:27] So post SNL, because I know and especially when you look at cast members, you kind of like to look at post SNL and we already covered his hosting stint.But after SNL, he started MacGruber, which came out around the same time as he finished the final season of SNL, like literally the same month.I think he starred in The Last Man on Earth from 2015 to 2018, which is a show that I stand by.He's got some good laughs out of that show.He tends to pop up everywhere in TV and movies as well. He's one of those.He's almost like a Maya Rudolph in a way where he's just like pops up in a lot of things.So have you enjoyed Will Forte's post SNL career? Like, what do you make of it?Yeah, I also enjoyed him on 30 Rock. He had to run there as well.I think it's like Jenna's boyfriend that.Track 4:[1:30:10] Yeah, I mean, look, anytime he pops up in anything, I love to watch it.Last Man on Earth to me was a great show that didn't get enough press.Track 4:[1:30:17] And when it got canceled, I was really upset about it because it had like a really good story about the end of the world.And then I ended up going to see Will Forte at Just for Laughs.And then he told us like how the show was intended to be finished. finished um and i was like if you if you know me like i i hate that stuff like i hate not knowing so for like close the book so if anybody wants to know like reach out i'll let you know like how that how that was going to finish i'll definitely ask you when we when we hit stop here yeah i don't want to like read it for anybody in case i don't want to but i did i do know that how the show was going to end if they had a last season um yeah so i mean like i've really enjoyed everything i've seen him in anytime before today does like a an interview or something like that i check it out i i sort of like knew that like coming off this career on the show like i think that this was his playground and there would not necessarily be outlets for his type of comedy out there unless he was going to produce his own show or have his own special or something like that i think like the tim robinson format is maybe something we could have gotten from will forte at some point um if he had wanted to go that route like if there wasn't netflix that was paying for those types of things i think that maybe that's something that he could have envisioned post his career but i don't know i mean look he's at an okay post career uh from snl but i like i said i think that snl was his you know was his playground and he was a master when he was on the field yeah i agree with that i think uh he was destined to be like a character actor kind of he plays that really well he's always memorable and whatever.Track 4:[1:31:44] He appears in snl you're right that was his playground and he did it really well so i agree with you i think i think i've enjoyed his his post SNL career and I think he's doing what he was kind of destined to do uh so now's the time I don't know why you wouldn't vote Will Forte into the SNL Hall of Fame I'm gonna I want to talk to somebody who yeah maybe maybe on our upcoming roundtable there might be uh one or two stragglers there but uh so John you want to give us a little uh pitch to end the show why you think SNL Hall of Fame voters should consider casting a vote for Will Forte.Track 4:[1:32:21] Yeah, I think he left his mark on the show that, you know, everyone who's come since has always been compared to, you know, people are always like looking for the next Will Forte.Track 4:[1:32:32] I don't think there's an easy comparison for anyone before him.So he lives in his own world in terms of the history of the show.I think he built things on the show in terms of, you know, time within the show.That is the Will Forte, you know, area for people to go and play and be weird.And I think he changed the show. Like one of these things I like to think about or talk about when I'm voting for the Hall of Fame is if you pull this person out of the timeline, out of SNL history, is SNL the same? Is it better? Is it worse?And I think SNL is a much worse series without Will Forte in it for those eight seasons, you know, just being absolutely crazy to the nth degree.Agree so you know if you listen to this whole show for an hour plus of thomas and i just going on and on about how great he is you'll know that there were just character after character moment after moment in every one of the seasons that he just crushed and i i think that you know going back and re-watching his career at the show you are going to find yourself looking for a will forte moment in an episode that's going to brighten your day and he's going to give it to you so he is is absolutely made for the SNL Hall of Fame and deserves to be in there.Track 2:[1:33:59] Made for the SNL Hall of Fame, Will Forte, an impassioned argument from our friend John Schneider, facilitated expertly by Thomas Senna.I got to tell you that I think he's a Hall of Famer.I don't think he's a first ballot Hall of Famer.He just doesn't have that gravitas. While I agree with John that the show would be very different and it would be different in a negative way without him, I do think that he wasn't ever the fulcrum on which the show pivoted.And that may hurt his case just a little bit.But you just heard 90 minutes from Thomas and John. John, and if that doesn't convince you, then I don't know what will. Maybe a sketch.Maybe we should go to a sketch right now. How do you like them apples?So let's go to a sketch called Trick or Treat. This appeared on an episode hosted by John Hamm. Let's go to it now.Track 5:[1:35:11] Here is a Snickers for each of you. And for old time's sake, how about a Charleston Chew?Thank you, Mr. Peterson. Happy Halloween.Track 5:[1:35:34] Trick or treat. Can I help you?Well, that depends. Do you have any Kit Kat bars? Heck, I'll take anything without toffee. It's a real bitch on the fillings.Hey, don't call me a bitch. You're the bitch, bitch. What?Seriously though, trick or treat. Aren't you a little old to be trick or treating?Wait, is 43 too old to be in the Halloween spirit? And by spirit, I don't mean ghost. Heck, I'm not that old. What?I realize this is a little unusual, but, you know, I just moved into the neighborhood, and, you know, I figured I'd use trick-or-treating as an excuse to get out and make some new friends.I apologize for being so awkward.No, you know, that's quite all right. That wasn't very neighborly of me, and I apologize.Bob Peterson. Jeff Montgomery. Pleasure to meet you.You know, this doesn't excuse my behavior, but I hope you'll accept a Reese's peanut butter cup.Bob, I couldn't think of a better welcoming gift. Thank you.And just out of curiosity, what exactly is your Halloween costume? I'm a sex offender.Track 5:[1:36:53] Excuse me? I'm a sex offender. For Halloween.A sex offender. Yes, pretty convincing, huh? Here, watch this. I'm Jeff Montgomery.By law, I'm required to inform you that I'm a repeat sex offender.And I'll be living in your neighborhood.It's a great costume, right?Could you sign and date these, please?Track 5:[1:37:19] What am I signing? You will get a big kick out of this.You see, as part of my costume, I'm having everyone sign this form acknowledging that there's a sex offender living in the neighborhood, et cetera, et cetera.Let's just be clear on something here. Is sex offender your Halloween costume, or are you fulfilling a legal obligation to declare yourself a sex offender?Bob, lighten up! It's Halloween!Huh? Besides, this is a tradition. You know, I do this every time I move to a new town.Are you, Jeff Montgomery, a sex offender?Am I, Jeff Montgomery, a registered sex offender on Halloween?Yes. What about not on Halloween?Yes, even when it's not Halloween, I'm still Jeff Montgomery.A sex offender. Look, you're missing the point here, Bob.The point is Halloween spirit. The point is trick-or-treat. The point is, could you sign those papers?All right, okay. You know, last chance, and I will check with the police on this.Do you have a criminal record?Absolutely not. Look, if I am guilty of any crime, it's the crime of sexually assaulting five teenagers.Track 5:[1:38:41] Okay, now this is going to sound like a terrible segue, but are you looking for a babysitter? Happy Halloween!What? What?Track 2:[1:38:55] Oh, Jeff Montgomery in a sketch called Trick or Treat, street registered sex offender um you know it's uh it's sort of a third rail and the way forte and company executed they did it in a way that had a lot of comedic value and i think that uh that just shows it really showcases Forte's knack for taking the absurd and the awkward and milking the comedy out of them where a lot of people might not see that comedy so there's that.Track 2:[1:39:39] Hope you enjoyed yourself this week I can't believe it but we've only got two episodes left Next week we're going to be talking about Kate McKinnon fresh on the ballot and we will be talking to Ashley Bauer about Kate McKinnon and building the case for her inclusion in the SNL Hall of Fame.We'll follow that on May the 6th with the Don Pardo Award winner and we're really excited to present that to you this year.That will be the same day that the ballots are distributed and voting is open voting will run until may 17th and we will wrap up the whole season five on may 20th with an extravaganza the likes of which you've never seen before now if you would do me a favor and on your way out as you pass the Weekend Update exhibit, turn out the lights.Track 2:[1:40:38] Because the SNL Hall of Fame is now closed.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/snlhof/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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