"CLOWNS" (w/ Ana Gasteyer)

Summary

Podcast Summary: "CLOWNS" featuring Ana Gasteyer

Episode Details:

• Title: CLOWNS
• Hosts: Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
• Guest: Ana Gasteyer
• Release Date: November 20, 2024
• Production: Big Money Players Network and iHeartPodcasts

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1. Embracing the Holidays Amidst Chaos

The episode kicks off with a heartfelt discussion about the significance of the holiday season in turbulent times. Matt Rogers and Ana Gasteyer explore how holidays serve as a sanctuary for community and joy, especially when society faces challenges.

• Matt Rogers [22:14]: "I have to flat iron my hair. I'm trying to get close. That's why I'm saying this right now."

• Ana Gasteyer [22:16]: "I have more faith, oddly enough, than ever in that. And we do have one move left and that is literally send in the clowns."

The hosts emphasize the importance of spreading joy and maintaining community bonds, especially in the aftermath of significant political events. They discuss the role of entertainers as modern-day jesters, using humor to alleviate societal tensions.

2. Nostalgic Memories from Saturday Night Live

A substantial portion of the conversation delves into nostalgic memories from Saturday Night Live (SNL), reflecting on the camaraderie and creative chaos behind the scenes.

• Matt Rogers [15:24]: "It is one of my great sadnesses. Because music rights are so expensive, so many of my sketches don't re-air in a regular way."

• Bowen Yang [13:22]: "No, no, no. It's what a terrible, rancid tone to start this episode."

Ana Gasteyer shares anecdotes about iconic SNL sketches, including interactions with cast members like Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon. The discussion highlights the collaborative spirit of SNL and how it fostered lifelong friendships and professional relationships.

3. The Power of Humor as Political Commentary

The trio delves into the role of humor in political discourse, discussing how comedy can serve as a tool for subtle yet impactful commentary on societal issues.

• Matt Rogers [46:07]: "I saw him laughing hysterically. It imprinted in my brain the surrealness of like, whatever."

• Ana Gasteyer [50:07]: "It's difficult to navigate being jesters and addressing real issues simultaneously."

They reflect on President Jimmy Carter's appreciation for SNL, noting how humor can bridge gaps between political figures and the public. The conversation underscores the delicate balance comedians must maintain between entertaining and offering insightful critiques.

4. Personal Journeys in Comedy and Theater

Matt Rogers and Ana Gasteyer share their personal journeys in the realms of comedy and musical theater, illustrating how their careers have intertwined with their passion for bringing joy to others.

• Matt Rogers [07:31]: "My biggest compliment that I was so excited by was when the LA Times reviewed it. They said like Frank and Dino would have wanted to sing this song."

• Ana Gasteyer [29:44]: "I did, like, one of these shows where I had to sing during the show."

The hosts discuss their transitions from performing on stage to creating and producing content that resonates with diverse audiences. They highlight the therapeutic aspects of performing arts, especially during challenging times.

5. Building Community Through Volunteering and Support

The conversation shifts to the significance of community involvement and the positive impact of volunteering, particularly in fostering a sense of belonging and mutual support.

• Bowen Yang [03:21]: "New York Cares is a great thing to do. I really enjoy the times I've done something related to it."

• Ana Gasteyer [03:39]: "We just want to say, if you're feeling down, that you have a hug from us."

They discuss initiatives like New York Cares and the importance of being present for one another. The hosts advocate for small acts of kindness and collective efforts to strengthen community bonds.

6. Navigating the Challenges of Modern Technology

A critical segment addresses the complexities introduced by modern technology, particularly the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in entertainment and its ethical implications.

• Ana Gasteyer [74:14]: "I don't think so, honey. The AI Recreation of people that have been long dead. He's been dead for 40 plus years. I don't think so, honey."

• Bowen Yang [75:56]: "AI is part of it now it's all kind of blending together."

The guests express concerns over AI recreations of deceased artists, debating the moral and legal aspects of using AI without consent. They highlight the potential for AI to disrupt traditional creative processes and the entertainment industry.

7. Reflections on Personal Well-being and Mental Health

Personal well-being and mental health emerge as recurring themes, with the hosts candidly discussing their coping mechanisms and the importance of self-care.

• Matt Rogers [30:53]: "I just found my thing. From then on I was like, oh, I think this is my."

• Bowen Yang [57:44]: "I'm not a fan of anything that, like, if we participate in it to enough of an extent, makes us lazier and dark."

They share stories about overcoming personal challenges, such as dealing with anxiety and finding solace in activities like running and gardening. The conversation underscores the significance of maintaining mental health through meaningful engagements and community support.

8. The Role of Women in Comedy and Media

The episode highlights the evolving role of women in comedy and media, celebrating their contributions and discussing the ongoing challenges they face.

• Ana Gasteyer [34:36]: "The women of SNL are killing it. And it's like, I love that kind of."

• Matt Rogers [34:05]: "People came up to me and they were like, oh, you're so funny. I'm so bummed that you're going on snl."

They reflect on the strides made by female comedians in breaking barriers and gaining recognition in predominantly male-dominated spaces like SNL. The discussion touches upon the importance of representation and the impact of trailblazing women in shaping comedic narratives.

9. Navigating Political Polarization Through Comedy

The hosts explore how comedy can bridge political divides, fostering understanding and empathy amidst increasing polarization.

• Matt Rogers [62:02]: "No, listen, I wanna say my husband just, he's an advertising, but he just did this huge research project on the heart because he also feels, as we all do."

• Ana Gasteyer [60:33]: "It's about redistributing respect or something."

They discuss the tension between staying in one's lane versus using their platform to address pressing societal issues. The conversation emphasizes the potential of comedy to unite people by highlighting shared human experiences and promoting mutual respect.

10. Final Thoughts: The Enduring Power of Laughter and Community

In their concluding remarks, Matt Rogers, Bowen Yang, and Ana Gasteyer reaffirm their commitment to using humor and community engagement as tools for resilience and positivity.

• Matt Rogers [87:25]: "It's so hard when you don't feel respected."

• Ana Gasteyer [93:40]: "We end every episode with a song. Have yourself a merry little charisma."

They advocate for maintaining a sense of humor and fostering supportive communities as essential antidotes to societal anxieties and divisions. The episode wraps up with a lighthearted "one-minute rant" segment, further illustrating their dedication to blending humor with meaningful discourse.

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Notable Quotes:

• Matt Rogers [22:14]: "I have more faith, oddly enough, than ever in that. And we do have one move left and that is literally send in the clowns."

• Ana Gasteyer [74:14]: "I don't think so, honey. The AI Recreation of people that have been long dead. He's been dead for 40 plus years. I don't think so, honey."

• Bowen Yang [75:56]: "AI is part of it now it's all kind of blending together."

• Ana Gasteyer [50:07]: "It's been an interesting walk and you know, I would imagine like it feels probably very similar when you are on Saturday Night Live."

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Conclusion

The "CLOWNS" episode of Las Culturistas with Ana Gasteyer is a rich tapestry of humor, nostalgia, and thoughtful discourse. Through personal anecdotes, reflective conversations, and spirited debates, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, alongside their guest Ana Gasteyer, navigate the intricate interplay between comedy, culture, and community. The episode underscores the enduring power of laughter and the importance of maintaining human connections in an increasingly complex world.

Transcript

[Matt Rogers]

Hey, comedy fans, the funniest comedians in the world are on tour, and you.

[Bowen Yang]

Can get tickets to see them live near you.

[Matt Rogers]

Laugh at the biggest names in comedy like Atsuko Okotsuka, Chelsea Handler, Corey Holcomb, Matt Matthews, Nurse John, Ralph Barboza, Ronnie Chiang, Sarah Silverman, Sebastian Maniscalco, Wanda Sykes.

[Bowen Yang]

And so many more.

[Matt Rogers]

All kinds of shows, all kinds of venues, all kinds of funny. Head to livenation.comcomedy to get your tickets today. That's livenation.comcomedy.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Hey, everybody, it's me, Matt Rogers, letting you know tickets are on sale. Now to see me on tour. The Prince of Christmas tour, that is. I'm doing my whole album have youe Heard of Christmas? Plus a lot more with the whole band, all throughout December. Go to www.mattrogersofficial.com to see me in a city near you. And now, las coach drums.

[Matt Rogers]

Look, man.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, I see my.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, my.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Bowen, look over there.

[Matt Rogers]

Wow.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Is that culture? Yes.

[Bowen Yang]

Goodness.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Wow.

[Bowen Yang]

Las ding dong. Las culturistas calling.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I mean, it's a new era.

[Bowen Yang]

And what do you mean by that?

[Matt Rogers]

Christmas.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It's officially.

[Bowen Yang]

It's officially the holidays.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Officially the holidays. That's a fun spin on everything that's happened. It's holidays now.

[Bowen Yang]

Do you think that the Christmas spirit can thrive under fascism?

[Ana Gasteyer]

You know, that's an interest. Well, the thing is, we're not officially in fascism yet. We still have one.

[Bowen Yang]

But, you know, some people might argue with you. Your Noam Chomsky's might say, oh, we've always been under. We've been in fascism for so long. Which is, God, what a terrible, rancid tone to start this episode.

[Ana Gasteyer]

What are we gonna do when you look around and the world's on fire? What are you gonna say, like, ooh, pass me my iced tea.

[Bowen Yang]

That's what we're meant to do as entertainers sometimes is pass the iced tea.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Is that, hey, pass me the iced tea. I mean, this is. It's a complicated thing, people. It's our first episode recording since the election. Obviously want to express to everyone out there that is feeling terrible that, you know, we are all in it together. Lots of avalanche of reasons why this may have happened. It's kind of neither here nor there. Certainly you're not gonna get into it here on this episode.

[Bowen Yang]

No, certainly not.

[Ana Gasteyer]

But just if you're feeling.

[Bowen Yang]

Although we have the greatest political minds in one room.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

I'm looking around and everyone here has something to contribute. Everyone has something to contribute to the solution.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I mean, it's we just wanna say, if you're feeling down, that you have a hug from us.

[Bowen Yang]

And I really appreciate you saying that, Matt, about being in this together. I think this is an easy time for people to start to go for individualism and say, well, as long as I'm taken care of, then it's the best I can do. And that's true, and that's important. But also, I think I was talking to someone like, a week before, just being like, God, but what if it happens? And then we were saying, I think the best thing to do is just to be there for each other. Which sounds so saccharine, but I think it really is the only thing.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I think it's actually kind of time to think about things in a way like that, to be honest, because, again, more to come later, more to come when it feels appropriate, and things have died down a little bit, but community is gonna be the way. And maybe some unexpected community if you're in New York.

[Bowen Yang]

New York. Care's great thing to do. Just in terms of a spirit of volunteerism. I really enjoy the times, the few times that I've done something New York Cares related, but it was during lockdown, and it was kind of like the only thing that made me feel good.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

So I'm gonna start doing that again.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Tiny, beautiful things.

[Bowen Yang]

Tiny, beautiful things. And we have a tiny, beautiful person.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Tiny, beautiful. But here's the thing. Big, gorgeous talent.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, of course.

[Ana Gasteyer]

A frontrunner for Tidal of Episode.

[Bowen Yang]

Big, gorgeous talent.

[Ana Gasteyer]

She's pointing to her talents.

[Bowen Yang]

She's cupping her talent.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I have, like, a confession to make. When I heard about Once Upon a Mattress being revived, I was a little bit like, really? Cause it's one of those shows where I'm like. I just was surprised to hear that that was getting revived. I went to go see it. A delight from start to finish.

[Bowen Yang]

It is one of our great, joyful shows. My first musical that I ever did in high school. Really, I was the jester's understudy. I had to learn the choreography for Very Soft Shoes. And I know every song word for word.

[Ana Gasteyer]

This is important to know.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, sensitivity is.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, it's great.

[Bowen Yang]

A plus, A plus villain song.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I think I just forgot how delightful it is. And combined with this really amazing, incredible book.

[Bowen Yang]

New book by Amy Sherman Paladin.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Amy Sherman Palladino, who just, like, punched it up for all it's worth. I mean, it's so funny. It's like, really just, like, from start to finish, a great time at the theater here's. The thing. It has a couple more weeks on.

[Bowen Yang]

Broadway at the Hudson Theater when this.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Comes out and then from December 10th to January 5th, you can see it at the Ahmanson in Los Angeles. This would be well worth your time.

[Bowen Yang]

Absolutely.

[Ana Gasteyer]

And it stars our guest who among other things is also Christmas royalty.

[Bowen Yang]

Christmas royalty.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, I talked about this with her actually.

[Matt Rogers]

Of course.

[Ana Gasteyer]

If Mariah's the queen of Christmas and I'm the prince, we're actually speaking with the Duchess of Christmas self appointed. The only way to gain royalty in Christmas is to self appoint. And so this person has done it and we're so grateful and happy.

[Bowen Yang]

Sugar and booze. The at this point, I would say it's. Oh, it's. It's in the canon of great Christmas albums.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It's in the canon, truly.

[Bowen Yang]

She is going to do a few cities beginning of December. Lansing, Evanston, Illinois, Indianapolis. Please catch her. What a sublime time that would be.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Of course, you know and love her from being a true SNL legend. I mean one of the greats of all time. We are absolutely fucking thrilled to welcome to this podcast the one, the only Anne Gaston.

[Matt Rogers]

Yay.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It's Yay. Can you imagine when's gonna come to the point where she comes out and does it and it sounds like that.

[Matt Rogers]

We'Re like, oh no, it drops down like four octaves.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It's time. But it is time.

[Matt Rogers]

It is time. Hi. Thank you for mentioning my Christmas title. Yes.

[Ana Gasteyer]

My status.

[Matt Rogers]

Thank you. My title, my honorific. Thank you for so much.

[Bowen Yang]

Okay. Self appointed Duchess. There's a court we have to fill out or there's a whole feudal system.

[Matt Rogers]

That Christmas people say. But I feel like I've earned it. I mean I'm best known for sweaty balls in it. Snl which runs on the Christmas episode. Arthur Stewart's Topless Christmas.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

Then I wrote Cluster Fun Christmas, which was the Hallmark parody movie with Dratch. And yeah, lots of things have happened around holiday time. It's my favorite time of year.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Did you seek out this Christmas canon status or do you think it happened?

[Matt Rogers]

Happy accident A good fit for who? Like for my value system, if that makes sense. Not to say that I'm like really obsessed with Jesus birthday as much as I do have a little bit of an old fashioned traditional side.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Do you.

[Matt Rogers]

And just sort of more in like the domestic part and the kind of actually oddly referring to what you were talking even post election. The sort of coziness and the I love to cook and I love throwing parties and I love kind of domestic Connection. And I do think that the holidays kind of allows us a little bit of an old fashioned, broad kind of a moment. And that's why the album. The album felt so important to do, not just to like make a Christmas album, but rather that it fit kind of my style. You can be sort of throwbacky in a way that doesn't feel as kitschy or as annoying to people.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes, well, that's the thing. I feel like the cocktail lounge jazz aesthetic of Sugar and Booze is that it's like very. It's like the wink is so pretty and like, that's such a nice sort of like comedy sensibility about it.

[Matt Rogers]

That was sort of what we went for. Like, just. It shows feel like an old fashioned album, but not campy or not like kitschy, I guess is the word. Like avoiding kitsch and making it more like. My biggest compliment that I was so excited by was when the LA Times reviewed it. They said like, Frank and Dino would have wanted to sing this song. Oh. Which to me was like. As opposed to just like someone doing a lounge act. Like you're saying, you know, it feels a little more somewhere in between. And you're a real vocalist too, so it's like your Christmas stuff definitely resonates in that way as well. There's a coziness to the holidays. You know, there's a reason they play the standards at Banana Republic when you go in, you know, so that's.

[Bowen Yang]

And that's the most Christmas place of all.

[Matt Rogers]

Absolutely.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It's a cozy Christmas.

[Matt Rogers]

Hashtag dream board. That J. Crew is very.

[Bowen Yang]

They kind of nail the Christmas.

[Matt Rogers]

They love Christmas. I'm trying to get close. That's why I'm saying this right now. But I wear a lot of their. I always end up buying a lot of J. Crew to wear in my show.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It really, honestly, you. You walk in J. Crew, it's hard to leave empty handle.

[Matt Rogers]

It is.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Because you want to know what coziness, which is really what this is really about. If we're. We're not saying the word cozy, but it's about being cozy. It's huge.

[Matt Rogers]

Hygge.

[Bowen Yang]

Hygge.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Hygge.

[Bowen Yang]

Hygge. Hygge. Sure.

[Matt Rogers]

Hygge, that's a placement thing. But Hygge, it is placed here, right between the eyes. Yeah. I think anyone Scandinavian would place it right here. Yeah. In their upper.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Which is really a hard place to find.

[Bowen Yang]

Hard place to find. Now, are you on this sort of within your coterie of SNL people I feel like everyone is obsessed with Iceland newly because of polar. Oh yeah, she's loving Iceland. The last time I spoke to her, she was like, are y'all going to Iceland or Scandinavia in general?

[Matt Rogers]

I heard that you said that. I mean, it's not high on our list. You should go. You should go. I do want to see. I mean, we're always sort of debating because we have these like reunions. The girls have all these reunions. And so we're always debating. You know, there's an east coast, west coast kind of conversation and different places come up depending on what's happening. I mean, at the moment, I think everybody's just going to try to have dinner in New York together.

[Bowen Yang]

Right? That's nice. Okay, who's holding it down on the east coast right now? It's you. Tina.

[Matt Rogers]

Tina. Paula. Paula lives up in, you know, Westchester.

[Bowen Yang]

Breast with her a million breast Chesters. Her a million dollars.

[Matt Rogers]

Her dog's on wheels.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah, her dog's on wheels.

[Matt Rogers]

She just got another wheeled dog. The best. She like zooms around the apartment, the house. Yes. And Poehler's here part of the time and then Maya's in LA and Spivey's up in North Carolina. Down in North Carolina.

[Bowen Yang]

Spivey.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. So we sort of float.

[Ana Gasteyer]

What's been the best vacation you guys have taken together was strap to fifth year.

[Bowen Yang]

Was it what one country's based on?

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, wine country was really fantastic. I mean it was actually in wine country. And we ate and drank to our hearts contents and literally the whole movie basically is what we did. And then, you know, we like our night at the strip club was just like an antique mall, you know, like everybody's like, ooh, look at this teapot. And then for my birthday we did Palm Springs and everybody wore really old fashioned. We wore moo Moos and we wore really old fashioned bathing caps that I bought everybody on the Internet and I made everybody wear it. Like do gentle, don't ruin your hair swims.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is an important image. Hair up. Like okay, okay, okay. Neck up.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, yeah, totally neck up. But lately we've done more cozy things. We've gone to Fire island or we've gone to.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Where do you go? Fair harbor, basically.

[Matt Rogers]

Saltaire.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Saltaire.

[Bowen Yang]

Saltaire.

[Matt Rogers]

Fair harbor area. Yeah.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Gay audience. These are the non fun gay parts.

[Matt Rogers]

I get a lot of gay cred when I say Fire island. And then it immediately evaporates by the vague white supremacy. Supremacy of my area.

[Bowen Yang]

Don't, don't worry. No, you should Take the gay cred.

[Matt Rogers]

I try. Also.

[Bowen Yang]

You have plenty from. From so many things from your life.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, I try. You're. Now, before I go any further, my daughter said to tell you, and I quote on air, that she's a huge fan and so are all her gay fans.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Hello.

[Matt Rogers]

But I wasn't going to get credit if I said it off air. She was like, you have to tell them on air.

[Ana Gasteyer]

So I guess that she's a Katie.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes, I believe.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah, I would imagine.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes, of course.

[Bowen Yang]

Of course. And a Katie is. Is kind of Katie.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Has a lot of gay friends.

[Bowen Yang]

Has a lot of gay friends.

[Ana Gasteyer]

So we have some sub sex of our fandom and Katie's.

[Matt Rogers]

I believe she's a Katie. For sure.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I believe a Katie would be like me and all my parents love it.

[Matt Rogers]

How she could be my child and not be a Katie. Well, of course, because I have a number of gusbands, which is G, apostrophe, silent, H. Sure.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Who's the top gusband?

[Matt Rogers]

My top gusband's my friend Tony, who I've lived with on and off, who's my first director at the Groundlings. My actual husband named him my gusb because I lived with him throughout a bunch of TV shows I did in la.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes, great.

[Matt Rogers]

Because as you know, everybody in LA has a second. So I for years just had pajamas and things there so people have more space. My next Guzman is my friend Ryan, who is my. What was the name of that character? It's too old to reference that Murphy Brown, that guy that lived in her house and did all her work. Anyway, he's like my carpenter. He's a former Broadway boy, now super talented contractor, and he just. He helps people set Fire Island. He does my IKEA run and my Costco run with me. He's really done a lot for my actual marriage with my straight husband.

[Bowen Yang]

That's wonderful.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Did you acquire a lot of Guzbins and Guzman types during your run as Elphaba?

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, I've always had Ghostbusters.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You've always had Elphaba. You didn't need to be Elphaba to have Ghostbusters.

[Matt Rogers]

No, but it certainly helped.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah, I'm sure.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes. As soon as the news of the belting got out, it had. My gay Q went way up.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I do remember obviously loving you forever on Saturday Night Live and then hearing that you were belting on Broadway as Elphaba did make something like your shoulders drop as a gay person.

[Matt Rogers]

It was a relief. It was a relief. And she can support, sustain, and she does vibrato at the end. Yeah. All of those things got me very far in the wrong straight tone. With a little vibrato at the end.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah, well, you know, I mean.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It took me a second, and I'm like, oh.

[Matt Rogers]

And that's it.

[Bowen Yang]

Wow. I was gonna say, you know, the sketch that really hooked me when I moved to the US Was Gemini's twin. Oh, my God.

[Matt Rogers]

Thank you.

[Bowen Yang]

And the line read, that even rang in my ears today. No, no, no. You're gonna love it.

[Matt Rogers]

It would be canceled.

[Bowen Yang]

It was whack, whack. A big man. The flapjack. And then at one point. This is the Charlize Theron episode. This is like the first episode of SNL I ever saw.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, my God.

[Bowen Yang]

And then you had a line.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, no.

[Bowen Yang]

Where someone's Carson Daly. It's trl. And then they're like, you know, what's the song about? And then Maya has a line. It's about. Or Maya Charlize has a line. You know, it's about, like, when you're done with a man, and then it's you, and you say, oh, no. It's also about a pancake breakfast.

[Matt Rogers]

It's about a what?

[Bowen Yang]

It's also about a pancake breakfast.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Cause wasn't it, like, flip, flap, flap.

[Bowen Yang]

Flap, flap, flap, flap, whack, whack, flap, Jack.

[Matt Rogers]

Pancake breakfast.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It's also about a pancake breakfast.

[Bowen Yang]

It's also about a pancake breakfast. And like that. And that I belly laughed as a fucking.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It's the funniest line.

[Matt Rogers]

I wish that they would. You know, they never re Air any of. It's one of my great sadnesses. Because music rights are so expensive, so many of my sketches don't re. Air in a regular way. And which is sad because, you know, we wrote so many dumb things. And Gemini's twin. Like, we wrote this ridiculous thing with Lucy Liu about Eric Caroline.

[Ana Gasteyer]

And that's my favorite. Gemini's twin. Because Lucy Liu at one point bends over and, like, kind of fingers her own crotch.

[Matt Rogers]

It's so dirty.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It's so shocking.

[Matt Rogers]

And it was. I don't remember. It was about airplane. I think it was about airplane safety. I don't even remember what it was about. And then we did one with Pierce Brosnan. Oh, that all I remember. Oh, it was actually good. Anita man. Anita man. Anita. God, it was so dumb. It was, like, with a something credit card and a central P10. Anita man. It was a real man. It was a man. Anyway, he. For some reason, we did, like, a Frankenstein this is a bad story. You should just watch it. But it doesn't air. Cause of the music rights. He had, like, you can find it. Somebody sent it to me. He's doing, like a Frankenstein thing. Oh, yeah. Cause we were like, Dr. Eviling it. And I don't even remember what the premise was, but I remember writing for him. Like, he was like, I'm alive. I'm all up in it. Alive. It was so dumb. Anyway.

[Bowen Yang]

Why are the music rights so tricky with that when it's like an original song?

[Matt Rogers]

I don't know. Because the. I know.

[Bowen Yang]

ASCAP rights or whatever, there's that. But the Britney Spears one, too, I.

[Matt Rogers]

Think that was super Politically Incorrect. Didn't we do, like, a Dixie number?

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, but it was like.

[Matt Rogers]

It was like. We were. We were hunting.

[Bowen Yang]

You guys worked on. It was. You guys worked on, like, Monticello or something.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, yeah, that's what it was. I thought it was more like Gone with the Wind kind of vibes.

[Bowen Yang]

Or maybe it was.

[Matt Rogers]

It might have been Tara. It might have been Tara. I don't remember. But I was so. Yeah, it was so fun because it was Maya. I mean, it was again, like those.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah, yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

Those nights with Maya and with, like, Will on Bobby and Marty were like. Those are my most, like, truly treasured nights. Because they were James Anderson and Paula Pell and, like, the greats. I mean. And I'm a terrible procrastinator. We would stay up, Bobby and Marty. We were, like, super famous. Like, when people would start something late, they would be like. No, I mean, famous for how much we dicked around. Where they would be like, we're Bobby and Marty ing at, like, starting at 6 or whatever. It was just because we would sit and do bits and talk.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

Light farts. Like, all of the worst. You know, until, like, 4 in the morning.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, wow.

[Bowen Yang]

We talked about 6 in the morning on Wednesday before.

[Matt Rogers]

On Wednesday.

[Bowen Yang]

Holy moly.

[Matt Rogers]

All the way up to the line. And then we would write it. And then many times we would go to McDonald's and get a night McMuffin on the way home at like, 8. Or often will, because Will famously. So this is another Will dressed as Jerry Reed from the Smokey and the Bandit series. Okay, bear with me, please. So Norm MacDonald and Will did Burt Reynolds. It was the Burt Reynolds. They were writing to the Burt Reynolds impression at the time. And they did these Smokey and the Bandit commercials. And Will, it was like a pre tape. And Will was dressed as Jerry Reed, but he had to keep going into blocking and so he never got out of his outfit of Jerry Reed, which just was like a. Like, not famous. You know, like a 70s trucker costume. Basically. Like, really, like kind of high bad pants and like a western thing and a big trucker hat. And Adam. It was like, a bit. And somebody was like, are you not gonna. Are you not gonna ever change out of that? And so then he didn't. And it became this, like. What's the term? Like, a bell, a lightning rod. Like a thing where you could tell who was fun and who wasn't by who would be. Like, certain people in the front office were like, why are you still wearing that outfit? You know, like. And meanwhile, he was just like, I'm gonna wear this all season. So he proceeded to wear it from before. It was, like, around Thanksgiving all the way. If you go back, it would have been the 1997. Eight season. He wore that costume. Tom Broker would just go and clean it at every break.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, bless.

[Matt Rogers]

Cause he, of course, got it. It was like, well, he's comfortable in it. So, you know, just like, immediately, like.

[Bowen Yang]

Tom Broker always gets it.

[Matt Rogers]

Always gets it. And Exactly. And then. Anyway, many, many times, writing a Bobby Marty, Will would fall asleep on the sofas in the old research area. Which is now offices.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

Which was, like, across the hall. Because back in the day, like, we just had a million VHSs. We didn't. We couldn't.

[Bowen Yang]

There was no Internet.

[Matt Rogers]

There was no Internet. Y. Wow. So. I know. Crazy.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Did you ever meet Chip Kudrow?

[Matt Rogers]

No.

[Ana Gasteyer]

So this, I guess, was Will's character of Lisa Kudrow's brother. Brother.

[Matt Rogers]

No, but he also did. Yes, I remember Jim Kudrow. He also did Jim Signorelli's former dp. That started at a party, a zipper boot party at my house. Where everybody had to wear zipper boots. And Harper Steele and he. And all those people all wearing zipper boots.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, wow.

[Matt Rogers]

Like,'70s boots. Zipped. And then he wore, like, a red pantsuit with an ascot. And then he just.

[Bowen Yang]

That was Chip.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, that was Jim Signorelli's. Did you ever hear about Ron?

[Bowen Yang]

No.

[Matt Rogers]

No, wait a minute. That was Ron. Ron was Jim Signorelli's fired DP who was still trying to get jobs. And so he was coming around and he's dressed as Ron. And then famously, when P. Diddy came. We're getting into it. I gotta find this tape. Cause I have it. He, of course, like, shut down the whole building. Like, you know, snl. It's like, you can tell, like, the five assholes in the six Years that I was there when they would be like, so and so's in the building. Everybody stay in your dressing rooms. You know, like. And you're like. Which is applicable if you're a presidential candidate. But apart from that, really, it's my house.

[Ana Gasteyer]

And they did it for P. Diddy.

[Matt Rogers]

For P. Diddy. He demanded a totally closed set.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, no, no, no.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Cool.

[Matt Rogers]

Sean Combs.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Sean Cones.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes. And he was doing cashmere. Do you remember that? Da na na na.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Of course I remember that performance well.

[Matt Rogers]

Right, okay. And they brought in, like, the New York philosopher.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, wow.

[Matt Rogers]

And they had them in there, and they were sealed off on Thursday. And we were in the writers room on nine. And will. And typically McKay or somebody was like, it would be. So he was dressed as Ron. Cause he would stay in character for, like, the whole week. Like Danny Khan. So he was dressed as Ron at the table. I think we were rewriting Bobby and Marty, and he went down. They were like, wouldn't it be so funny if Ron just went in? And he did. He went on down the stairs, and he marched right in. And I have the video from the control room. He goes on stage where Sean Combs is, like, rapping with, like, behind him, and he's just like. Ron's, like, walking around looking really, like, really disoriented and looking for Jim. He's like, have you seen Jim Signorelli? Fearless Jim Signorelli, to be clear to your listeners, was the OG Pre tape guy. So he was like the director who did all of the commercial parodies, all of the Gemini's twin videos, all of the videos that you would do before Lonely island came. It was like you would go. And they were shot on film by this guy, Jim Signorelli, who was in his own right. Yeah. So, yeah. So it is the greatest thing that's ever happened. Because what a deserved person to have their cashmere moment interrupted by Ron.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, God.

[Matt Rogers]

And he really did not. He did not roll with it. He was very uncomfortable. But it was so also just like, the artifice of all that faux importance. Like, what's gonna happen, truly, you're gonna walk into the studio and you're gonna be like, I'm in the studio. I work here.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah. What's crazy about the P. Diddy of it all is it's like you look back at his time of being, like, when he was huge, dominant, dominant, huge, huge in pop culture. It was always weird. Like, if you go back and watch, like, making the band, the way that he treats people.

[Matt Rogers]

I know.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Is so Crazy. The way he talks to these. Especially, like, I think it was the second season where they were making Danity Kane. The way he talks to these girls is absurd.

[Matt Rogers]

You wouldn't believe how they talked to us in the 90s. I mean, it's really like the mind bend is like every now and then I look back and I'm like, wow. Like, the things that we sort of endured. But I mean, whatever. Like, it all evolves. And thank God for you guys and your generation and, you know, we didn't do it. No, you didn't do it. You didn't do it. You weren't born. No, but that's what I'm saying. Like, it's just been. I really do want to speak to what you said about Community at the beginning of your show because I'm old enough now that I've endured a few of these, like, bumps. And I was telling you right before we went on Life the first time, the election didn't go, you know, our way. I had to do a reshoot the next day of the Goldbergs where a chandelier fell on me. And it's literally like, how did it fall on you?

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, my God. I'm sorry.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Sorry.

[Bowen Yang]

Stupid.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I don't even remember. But all I'm saying is, did the character die? Were you killed on the Goldbergs?

[Bowen Yang]

I wish.

[Matt Rogers]

A very special Goldberg. No, I don't remember.

[Bowen Yang]

It just pretended a lot.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

This year I had to wake up and dress up as Martha Stewart and go be with Martha Stewart on the Drew Barrymore show. And then doing Mattress, which is this extraordinarily joy oriented show, it really is full of people who are just of the best, sweetest intentions. Everybody who did Mattress did it in high school or at camp.

[Bowen Yang]

Wow.

[Matt Rogers]

And there's like this real kind of collective. I do have this weird moment of gratitude in this time that there are so many of us who love making joy and who will take care of one another and will take care of our community. I have more faith, oddly enough, than ever in that. And I do feel like, whatever. Even in this terrible scenario, no matter how we want to parse it, there's still half of us. I mean, it's a lot of people and you know, it's a lot of people. It's millions and millions and millions of people. And you guys know. Cause you tour like, I'm going to Indiana, which is a red state, and these people show up with tears in their eyes at my shows sometimes. I mean, it's like the joy and that's An I don't mean to be arrogant about that and whatever. Like, I just. I feel like we have one move left and that is literally send in the clowns. This is your job, literally. And have a good time doing it and take care of other human beings. Because church is gone for a lot of people. And as a singer, like, corny part of me that is the closest I've ever felt to God. And I'm not a religious person at all, like, at all. I went to like a Quaker school. Like, you know, that's like as close as it got, which is not saying very much, you know. So service, as you mentioned, reaching outwards towards others when you are feeling desperate is very helpful.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

And singing with others, like, there are these, like, pop up one day choirs. Have you read about that?

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, yeah. You don't have to audition or do anything.

[Matt Rogers]

People just get together to make music together. And I do think when you sing and when you. That's why I went back to do musicals after all was said and done, because sharing that, it's outside of your control whether you can sing, you know, and so like, being able to share that with other people, not to be corny, but, like, no, I don't think.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It'S corny at all. I actually think, especially after, like doing something. And we love SNL and, you know, there's lots of amazing memories, as you were saying, but it does feel like by nature of the show, a lot is out of your control. So when you leave, you want to run towards the joy. And I feel like. Do you think that that is a direct correlation that you can see in looking back?

[Matt Rogers]

That's such a cool way of putting it. I've never thought about it. Yes, absolutely. And even with regards to my gender and my whatever, all those specific things to each of us that we felt have impacted who we became or whatever. I do find, especially in this chapter, which I guess is my third chapter of five, let's say the total. I definitely.

[Bowen Yang]

We're on three. And there's two more.

[Matt Rogers]

We got two more. Okay, we got two more. Thank you. Well, listen, but I feel like in this chapter, so many, like actually literally when I got the offer for Matris and I hadn't worked for a while. Cause I've seen your parents. I was dealing with them and some stuff was going on and after the strike and all that. So I literally looked at the offer and I saw the cast, I saw Daniel Breaker, I saw Brooks Ashbanskas, I saw Sutton, I saw Michael, I saw the people Lined up. And I said to my husband, oh, my God, this cast is so fun. And he was like, stop. Don't even tell me anything else about it. Go do it.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Do it.

[Matt Rogers]

Because for me, backstage is everything. It's much more fun. Beautiful. Each person's different. But snl, my favorite was never Saturday. My favorite was always the rewrite table. Which is weird. Cause the writers hate the rewrite table. But I loved it. I loved the idea that you could be with all these funny fuckers who would make your thing better.

[Bowen Yang]

You're in a lab and you're just.

[Matt Rogers]

Putting things to be great. And, like, clocking on Thursday's fun. And that joy of the community is ultimately, for me, what makes a thing real. And Elphaba, to that point was a hard job. Yeah. To follow up SNL with Wicked was stupid. Yeah.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You didn't give yourself a break.

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, it's really hard. Especially that early. I was like the whatever, third, fourth, or fourth Alphabet replacement. So, I mean, I was the. Yeah. Cause it went 2006.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Dina, Shoshana, then Shoshana.

[Matt Rogers]

So I was in that audition round, which is how I got Chicago. So it was me, Shoshana and Eden. Well, Eden and Shoshana had been standbys on Broadway. So usually those people get bumped. Cause the costumes are already made. But also. Cause they're amazing and they've been on.

[Ana Gasteyer]

They are fantastic.

[Matt Rogers]

And then Stephanie, who had been in San Francisco, went on first national. And then I did Chicago.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[Matt Rogers]

So, arguably, I was the first person outside the family.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah. Wow.

[Matt Rogers]

But it was great. But it was super hard work.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Who was your Glinda?

[Matt Rogers]

Kate Reinders.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh.

[Matt Rogers]

And so what I was starting to say is that Kate. Everything's funnier from McGlinda, by the way. Cause they're also. They talk literally like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like, even when she was angry about something, she would be like, he looks old for 40. You know, like, whatever. It would always make me laugh. But she said she was like, we're playing best friends, so we should just probably be best friends. And we were, and we still are. Beautiful. She's a really good girl. And we've always been very. We just took care of each other. And again, as number one. And you said all the tones. I was like, we can gossip and we can talk shit, but only to each other.

[Ana Gasteyer]

To each other.

[Bowen Yang]

But you guys, really. I think people talk about that cast when you were Elphaba of just like, that was setting this model for the future on how, like, this is the tone setting that we want. This is the environment that we want. It's not toxic.

[Matt Rogers]

It's not toxic.

[Bowen Yang]

Not that anything before was like obnoxious, but, you know.

[Matt Rogers]

But no, it really wasn't. It was a really sweet group of humans. And part of it was Chicago too. We had a lot of Steppenwolf. Like, Rondi Reid is like a Tony winner from the Steppenwolf production of August Osage County. Like, incredible people were there. Heidi Kettenring, who I went to college with, like, she played Nessa forever. So there was this real gratitude amongst a lot of the Chicago locals that were. This is a good equity gig for a long time. You know, people bought houses and stuff, so there was a nice feeling. And we did Thanksgiving together and we didn't. And mattresses. I mean, next level. We have a book club.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah. The company.

[Matt Rogers]

We play Traders.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You play Traders?

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. I mean, all of it, like all of the things. Have you. Daniel Breaker's like an incredible chef. So he's like, every other day they'll be like, oh, there's jambalaya in the green room that Daniel made, you know, pulled pork. He made pulled pork the morning after the election.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You can tell, you actually can tell that it's like that. When you see the show, it's really fun. And you get the sense too, that while all of the amazing physical comedy is incredibly well blocked and everything, it feels improvisational.

[Matt Rogers]

There's a lot of it. Yeah. And the ensemble is really, really engaging. It's a small ensemble. Where? Close. It's nice.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah, yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

It's just a fun show. Those songs are really, really well, the music is fantastic.

[Matt Rogers]

And that's actually probably the most important part. And nothing outside of our control because that stuff gets. When you do a musical, it gets stuck in your head. I've been living with it for some time. So what else, what else, what else?

[Bowen Yang]

Wait, but was singing first or was it violin first for you growing up?

[Matt Rogers]

So violin, theoretically and truly, I love that you know that, but I really hated it. That's a lonely ass instrument.

[Bowen Yang]

Do you play the violin I played growing up?

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

And I have neutral, complicated feelings about it.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It's complicated.

[Bowen Yang]

I was good at it and I enj it was also. I was better at it than piano for sure.

[Matt Rogers]

But the perfectionism fact is really, if you're a little OCD, as I imagine everybody in our community is 100% is really dangerous and it's lonely. Like, I mean. I mean the sad part is like, so I was playing violin. I was Good.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

Same exact. Like you. Like, if I had really loved it, that would have been the thing.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

Went to like camps for it and stuff like that. And then I went to Interlaken. Oh, wow.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Sure.

[Matt Rogers]

Theater camp break. And I went as a violin major. And I went. And I was like, I want to do plays like I saw. So I came back and immediately booked in my middle school Helen Keller and the Miracle Worker. You were Helen.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Were you Annie?

[Bowen Yang]

You were Annie.

[Matt Rogers]

I was Helen.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You were Helen.

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, yes, go off.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I love it.

[Bowen Yang]

Go off.

[Matt Rogers]

Helen. Even as blind, deaf, mute Helen Keller, I was like, I'm home. I found my thing.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

And from then on I was like, oh, I. I think this is my. It was. Honestly, it was all backstage people. It was people doing bits backstage. Even like in seventh grade, I was like, oh, this is what I wanna do. Like the bits. But I didn't know that they were bits then. I just thought, you know, Todd was funny.

[Bowen Yang]

Exactly. And then was it college? Was it Northwestern where you were like comedy?

[Matt Rogers]

Yes, because then I switched to voice. I bargained out from violin. Cause my family was very classical music, very training oriented. So my mom there was not gonna be not doing an instrument or training of some sort. So I bargained into a classical vocal program. I did some roles in the Washington Opera as a kid, like La Boheme Children's Chorus, Ghost and Macbeth. Whatever. Beautiful. Which I also hated. And then again, Community. I liked the kids, but that was it. And then when I got to North, I sang my way into Northwestern. I never would have gotten in without my audition. And then I was the worst music student on earth. I mean, I don't.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Because you lost interest or.

[Matt Rogers]

I just. I mean, I did not want to be an opera singer.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Got it.

[Matt Rogers]

And then I found improv there.

[Bowen Yang]

Titanic Players was it.

[Matt Rogers]

It was called Meow show. And like, Seth was in it and I think Sarah Sherman was in it. And yeah, it's a very like all the legacy. Julie Louis Dreyfus. Yeah, all the time. But that's how I did it. I just found the people. And I'm sure when you start doing improv, you're like, oh, my God, my mutant friends.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. And then that's why I went to LA and went into tv and I didn't do anything vocally. I kind of part. I like, smoked a bunch of cigarettes and did comedy and then did the Groundlings. But I was always like, going back to singing because it's in the toolkit. And then after snl, I sort of Wanted to. Like, it was reaction formation, all the chaos and the sort of. The thing I started to feel at the end of SNL was I was sort of always just not failing, if that makes sense. Totally. Like, I was sort of not, like, just pulling it off. Whereas with theater, like, you have the opportunity to constantly refine and make it better and better and better.

[Bowen Yang]

It's so ephemeral. It's so ephemeral. Doing it at snl. Sorry.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes, exactly. Exactly. And especially if you're one shot Saturday night and you're like, I kind of, you know, didn't love how it went at air. I went, you know, whatever. Yeah.

[Ana Gasteyer]

That is a feeling, I guess. You never get to correct anything.

[Bowen Yang]

Never, Never.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Which is kind of beautiful. But also frustrating. Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah, I'm at the frustrating point of this.

[Matt Rogers]

It's frustrating. It's a weird feeling because the stakes feel very high, which they are. But also, what I will say is, not that you're asking, but please, you know, 22 years out. The part I remember is the creative part. The part I remember is the people and the community and the making things. And those skills never go away. No, they never go away. And the community never goes away. I mean, I've worked with so many people across so many generations of SNL that I wasn't even on the show with. But the shorthand of understanding one another. I mean, Rachel and I never wrote together at the show, and she's, like, my writing partner now. Wow. So it's like, you know, Jorma, I've done things with Fred Armisen, and I have done things like people who. Because, you know, the shorthand, you know, the mutant skin.

[Bowen Yang]

Sure, yeah, it's the mutant skin. And also. But I feel like what you've done with SNL sort of like. I don't know, I guess like, holding some kind of, like, weight on the tablescape of. It is, like, so, like, it is your own specific tableau of things. Like, no one else from SNL has been that kind of vocalist and has, like, used their specific talent in that way, the way that you have. And I feel like that's just what's kind of incredible about, well, everything.

[Matt Rogers]

Since you kind of, you know, whatever. What is it? Necessities, the mother of invention. I mean, just what things that you love and that you do. And it gives you. I mean, it really does give you the freedom to go a lot of places. I mean, it's insane. I couldn't even get Generals as a girl on SNL in the 90s, literally. Like, coming out and then now, like, it's just, you know, the legacy of the place is such a gift. Like, it's unreal.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It's so crazy, because I feel like that was the time when everyone was talking about the women of snl, the women of snl, the women of Snow.

[Matt Rogers]

A lot of attention. We definitely did, and I don't mean to deserve that. And anyway, like, especially the beginning with Molly, Sheri and I, just. Because it was coming, like, when I got the show. I'm not making this up.

[Bowen Yang]

It was a reset.

[Matt Rogers]

People came up to me and they were like, oh, you're so funny. I'm so bummed that you're going on snl. You're gonna be squandered. Like, the idea of being a woman on the show was not a good idea.

[Bowen Yang]

Right.

[Matt Rogers]

Because they had just fired Janine Garofalo. Do you remember that?

[Ana Gasteyer]

And Sarah Silverman.

[Matt Rogers]

Sarah Silverman had been fired. Like, all these really kind of interesting girls had just sort of been eaten up and chewed out, or chewed up and eat. Now, that's not what I meant to say. Let's stay away from this metaphor.

[Ana Gasteyer]

They got mawed and shit out.

[Matt Rogers]

And it was hard, you know, it was hard to navigate. But for whatever kind of cosmic reasons, the three of us kind of powered through. And then. And then by the time I left, there were a lot of women. There was, like, Amy and Tina and all these kind of dominant figures. It did feel watershed.

[Ana Gasteyer]

And then all of a sudden, almost like ever since then, it's like, who are the women of snl?

[Bowen Yang]

I love it this way. No one's really ever talked about the guys since. And I'm like, that's totally fine. I think even now, it's like the women of SNL are killing it. And it's like, I love that kind.

[Matt Rogers]

Of Sean and Bowen, the women in.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Bowen, the women in this gay guy.

[Matt Rogers]

No, no, that is not true. You cut right through, my friend.

[Bowen Yang]

You know, I am getting healthier as I get older, because that's just the deal you have to make with your body and yourself.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Mm. I so agree, Beau. You know, taking care of ourselves as we get older is essential. Exerc, prioritizing sleep and eating well are all commonly talked about. But not many people talk about taking care of their hair health.

[Bowen Yang]

No.

[Ana Gasteyer]

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[Bowen Yang]

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[Ana Gasteyer]

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[Bowen Yang]

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[Ana Gasteyer]

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[Bowen Yang]

Nutrafol.com promo code CULTURISTA do you like podcasts, music and audiobooks? Because when you subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited you get all three in one app. Imagine listening to your favorite podcasts and music on the go to work, school, the gym, or better yet, Vacation. I love those. Now imagine being on vacation with your favorite audiobook from Audible and then listening to a new one every month from a huge selection of popular titles. While not on vacation. That sounds like a pretty good vacation, right? Audible is now included on Amazon Music Unlimited. Download the Amazon Music app now to start listening Terms of One of my fondest SNL memories ever was doing my most random update ever. I don't even want to mention it.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Because it was Just mention it though.

[Bowen Yang]

It was Bottle Boy. It was a total like let's just fucking write it. It was fine. And then I just went into my dressing room and then I was kind of like, I had a light show. I had nothing else to do and I just sat in my dressing room. And then I hear a knock at the door and I think it's like a page dropping off like Chris Red's lunch or something and I'm like, come in. Nothing. Another knock, come in. And then I finally like open up the door and then it's you, Drag and Tina.

[Matt Rogers]

It was your aunties, it was my aunties.

[Ana Gasteyer]

They had to see their gephew.

[Matt Rogers]

We wanted to meet you.

[Bowen Yang]

It was so surreal to me.

[Matt Rogers]

Like we love it.

[Bowen Yang]

But the three of you @ the same time.

[Matt Rogers]

It was a lot. The three headed monster screamed at the.

[Bowen Yang]

Door like come in. But I was like oh. And I couldn't believe it. And we talked about Fire Island. We Talked about.

[Ana Gasteyer]

We talked about Soldier, the Mines.

[Matt Rogers]

That's what we do.

[Bowen Yang]

And that was just such a. I will never forget that he texted me.

[Ana Gasteyer]

When you guys did that. It was so exciting. I mean, you have to know, like, for gay boys who grew up with snl, like, you guys are legends. I mean, like, I'll never forget, like, I mean, we talk about Gemini's twin, talk about Shreddy Balls. All these things are, like, in the fabric of our comedic upbringing, you know? And that. It's not just that. I mean, mean girls. I mean, like, all these things.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, so many of the things.

[Ana Gasteyer]

So many of the things I'll never forget. Like watching the intro to Divas Live.

[Matt Rogers]

Okay, I can't believe you just said that.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Well, I'm saying no.

[Matt Rogers]

You want to know why? Because when you. Your question about what the cultural moment is, like, I've been, like, really chewing on. We'll get there. But it's funny because I was like, do I bring up Diva's life? Because I do. That was speaking to the power of the women on the show. That was a moment where I think, you know, you have these moments when you're like a nobody, and then suddenly you're on. It must be so intense now because you guys are all over social and whatever. We were just like, quietly. I mean, the day I got the show, I think I had on my OG answering machine. 36, like, messages @ the time. I was like. And it's also funny. Cause there's a lot of assholes, like agents who didn't sign you and stuff. Like, you know, we're like. I just wanted to say congratulations. We had such a sense. And you've landed where you deserve.

[Bowen Yang]

Such a sense.

[Matt Rogers]

Even though we told you you weren't. Wouldn't work unless you look like Courtney Thorn Smith. Deep cut, but true. Twice I had that had said to me. Twice I went to la. Isn't that crazy? Terrible? I know. Well, Tina and I have a saying which is ethnic in the 80s because we both had, like, super curly Greek hair. We were ethnic in the 80s.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Tina's Greekness.

[Matt Rogers]

My mom is Greek. So it was literally like.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I was also Greek. Ethnic.

[Matt Rogers]

Ethnic in the. Yeah, so ethnic in the 80s. And now. Because literally my school was like, you know, wanted me to, you know, whatever. West side School. Now you're like. My daughter is scandalized when I tell her.

[Bowen Yang]

She's like, you gave her that.

[Matt Rogers]

You can't be any now.

[Ana Gasteyer]

But you. So you were Celine Dion, Molly was Shania.

[Matt Rogers]

Right.

[Ana Gasteyer]

And Sherry was Mariah.

[Matt Rogers]

Mariah.

[Ana Gasteyer]

And it was the three of you, like all discussing. It was a sketch with the three of you before the show started.

[Matt Rogers]

Do you know who you guys was? Destiny's Child. We were introducing Destiny's Child. Isn't that crazy? Wow.

[Bowen Yang]

After you'd already done jumping. No, no, because Maya hadn't been at the show.

[Matt Rogers]

Maya wasn't on the show yet.

[Bowen Yang]

I was on the show yet.

[Matt Rogers]

It was 96, I think, or 7. Early 7. That was my first moment where I was like, oh, this is a thing.

[Bowen Yang]

This is a thing.

[Matt Rogers]

And the first paper to mention it, the first paper of record was Playboy.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Wow.

[Matt Rogers]

Playboy did like a little story on the girls of snl. Popping. Wow. Isn't that weird? But it used to be. My husband has a plan. By the way, Playboy's for sale. He's like, I think we should buy Playboy and we should just quietly talk to all the white straight boys who don't know how to vote and how.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Sad they do need to be spoken.

[Matt Rogers]

And give them a place that isn't like such, like it's only semi toxic masculinity.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Exactly.

[Bowen Yang]

No, there's a way to climb.

[Matt Rogers]

Give them a grayscale.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Let's find a.

[Bowen Yang]

Give him grayscale. Yeah, yeah.

[Ana Gasteyer]

So I think we're kind of conclude.

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, I have a sweet straight boy, so I want it to be okay.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Listen, they're not all bad.

[Bowen Yang]

No, they're not all bad. Like. Like, how'd you get him that way?

[Ana Gasteyer]

How'd you get him that way?

[Matt Rogers]

He has an anxiety disorder. That's it. So he just runs constantly.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, great. So he's healthy.

[Matt Rogers]

He runs like constantly running, like distance running. Like he ran the Brooklyn half as a sophomore in high school. Like, he's. So that's how he handles his despair about the world. You know what's funny?

[Ana Gasteyer]

Looking back, I know that was why I was a runner too, and. Cause I was also a heavy track athlete.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, I bet you were.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Looking back, I'm like. Like it was my anxiety.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, yeah, 100%. I ran cross country in high school too.

[Bowen Yang]

Did you? Look at you.

[Matt Rogers]

Badly.

[Bowen Yang]

Badly.

[Matt Rogers]

But I liked it. It was the only thing that kept me sane because it was, you know, very.

[Bowen Yang]

Sure.

[Matt Rogers]

It was pre diagnosis times.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Right, right, right.

[Matt Rogers]

I keep aging myself in my day. My mother bought me Dexatrim. Dexatrim. My mom bought me Dexatrim. Can you imagine?

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

I'm like, you know what? You should probably. We all did the Scarsdale diet. Diet. It was so gross. It was like. Like half A. I can't imagine having an adolescent in my house being like, here's your half a grapefruit and black coffee.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Grapefruit coffee.

[Matt Rogers]

It was black coffee, half a grapefruit, and then hilarious 80s pasta for dinner.

[Bowen Yang]

But it all sets it with the grapefruit.

[Matt Rogers]

We were all on Dexatrim anyway, so it didn't matter.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah, but you know what, though?

[Matt Rogers]

There was a time you're high as a kite. We were all Judy Garland. Jesus.

[Ana Gasteyer]

We were told, like, you can't eat enough pasta. The runners. You know what I mean? Like, it was a carbo load all the time.

[Matt Rogers]

That's actually still a thing.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Well, yeah. I remember I would go for pasta party dinners at Applebee's and I would fuck myself up because I would just have the three cheese chicken penne, and I would run my race the next.

[Matt Rogers]

Day and be kidding.

[Bowen Yang]

But you were fast.

[Ana Gasteyer]

There was a day where I had to stop and shit. Which is, like, horrible.

[Matt Rogers]

No, I just read an article about it.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah. Like, it's out there. It's happening. We're kind of existing in this area where I think we should ask the question.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes, I think we should, because we're.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Sort of back in time. So, Anna Gosteyer, what was the culture that made you say culture was for you?

[Matt Rogers]

Okay, so I'm gonna be. This is. I'm not gonna be as fun on this answer as you might want.

[Bowen Yang]

No, please.

[Matt Rogers]

Because we are existing in this time, and it is the only thing I can think of. And it's gonna sound really humble, braggy, but it is about snl, and it's about the importance of laughter. I can't believe I just said that.

[Bowen Yang]

No.

[Matt Rogers]

My friend Tony and I have a bit where we always make fun of people who use the word humor.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, of course. It's so humorous.

[Matt Rogers]

It just sucks. All comedy.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Humor.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. People who call that out. Exactly. I love how you use humor.

[Bowen Yang]

Humor. Someone calls yourself a humorist.

[Matt Rogers]

A humorist. I love how you use humor to diffuse awkward situations.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

Just destroying it. Ruining everything. Ruining it.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Random humor.

[Matt Rogers]

What I was gonna say. So this is a weird thing to throw out there, but as a kid, I was friends with Amy Carter, President Jimmy Carter's daughter. I grew up in Washington. Okay. So for starters, let me just start with culture. Like, I grew up in a totally black neighborhood. I was a little white girl who played the violin, and I had an eye patch.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Why?

[Matt Rogers]

So due to blindness.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, due to.

[Matt Rogers]

Due to permanent. Just whatever legal blindness in my writing. So I was always patched they patched me for like ever. So I would go to like my all black elementary school with my violin and my eye patch. And as you can imagine, I developed a sense of. I used humor a lot to get through the situations. Okay. So anyway. But then weirdly, I was in this after school program, like this GT kind of thing, and I got. I became friends with Amy Carter, Jimmy Carter's daughter, and we became really good friends. And she played the violin. She was like a reader. And so I weirdly had this like whole childhood life in middle school where I would go and like sleep over at the White House and like go to Camp David. Like, I went to Camp David during the camp. During the Camp David Accord. I played. If you research it. If you go to.

[Bowen Yang]

You play the violin.

[Matt Rogers]

I play the violin. For Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin. Just me. And. And it's such a weird thing for.

[Bowen Yang]

The Middle Eastern leaders.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes. For the Middle Eastern. I watched Star wars with the Sadats. Insane.

[Bowen Yang]

You're kidding.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Okay, so just to make this clear, this is while he was president.

[Matt Rogers]

100%. Okay. So all this kind of weird fact about my life just by this accidental biography. Okay.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

To say that I was in the White House sleeping over at Amy Carter's, and now remember, Saturday Night live started in 75.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

And it was everybody, like liberal parents, all the people on my block, everybody was aware that this kind of radical piece of television had come out. And again, I know for your audience it's hard to imagine, but nobody had made fun of the news. Nobody had made fun of basic sort of tropes that we're accustomed to. The Onion, that was so radical. And I was a kid, I was little, but I was aware that they were edgy and cool and making choices that were strange and wearing costumes and funny. We knew it was cool and hip.

[Bowen Yang]

It's right after Watergate. It's right after Watergate.

[Matt Rogers]

Right after Watergate, the last chopper release. And basically what we watched, which was great, it was like Carol Burnett and Bob Newhart and like what was on TV when it was scheduled.

[Bowen Yang]

Right?

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

So you just kind of like consumed television. Idly, if you will. Sure. So. And again, also, I remember I was 10, 11. So I'm in the White House and it's after dinner, it's late, it's a sleepover. And we go to this little like, kitchenette in the. In the living quarters. And President Carter was like, never there because he was the president. And we were usually just with her nanny and her. Maybe Rosalynn Carter was around a little bit.

[Bowen Yang]

Wow.

[Matt Rogers]

And we went to get a snack and we came out and sort of in the middle of the White House living area, President Jimmy Carter was sitting in a chair with a burgundy V neck and a beer. And he was watching Dan Aykroyd play himself on Saturday Night Live. And he was laughing hysterically.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh my God.

[Matt Rogers]

And it like imprinted in my brain of the. Well, obviously the surrealness of like, whatever. There's this person dressed as this person, imitating this person, leader of the free world. And also, I just think he's the most amazing human being. Obviously, we know he went on to do incredible acts of humanity, humanism. But it has stayed with me so much in the last 12 years. Our lack of empathy and understanding. Like when as soon as the president elect. I'm not even gonna say his name, was not able to laugh at anything about himself. In fact, arguably ran for president because he was a laughing stock because Seth made fun of him. It's so the ability to laugh at things and the ability to pull yourself out of situations and to find what's funny about it. And I can't even believe I'm saying this, but the gift that humor does actually give us as a piece of sort of storytelling and political commentary. As much as I really hated dressing as Martha Stewart the day after the election and I hated doing the Goldbergs and having a chandelier fall on me. A chandelier fall on me. It's more important than I thought, you know, And I feel like we're gonna have a lot of places in this new era where whatever news has proven itself to be untrustworthy and social media has certainly proven itself to be like, maybe we idiotic performers will be able to tell the truth a little bit. It's starting to get all deep and.

[Bowen Yang]

Go, no, no, that's really important.

[Ana Gasteyer]

And what a special memory to have. Yeah, that is wild.

[Matt Rogers]

And even my 10 year old brain was like, oh, he's so good at. He's laughing at himself. Like, I understood it on some profound level.

[Bowen Yang]

And like you understood what was being shown on television was this like purposeful lampooning.

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, I don't think I was a kid, so I wasn't like dialed in totally the nuance of the politic, you know, But.

[Bowen Yang]

But you saw him laughing, you just understood that he was.

[Matt Rogers]

Understood that it was an impression of him, that he was. We were in the White House and that he was watching this Saturday Night Live still. And yet one of the cooler pieces of cultural Reflection in our society and that he understood that it was funny and that there was a power to that.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah. It's like the Ron thing or it's like, it's like whatever. It's like either you, it's a bellwether. Either you get it or you don't.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

And like right now you gotta get it.

[Matt Rogers]

We gotta get it. I mean, it's really hard. I don't get it. I don't think anything's funny right now except for you and all of the work that you do.

[Bowen Yang]

But it's like.

[Matt Rogers]

But you know what I'm saying.

[Bowen Yang]

Totally.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. And whatever. Sometimes that means we just need something light and fluffy and joyful and whatever the moment calls for. I just. The irony anyway, that's myself.

[Bowen Yang]

It's about humility and it's about humility. It takes you out of solipsism. It takes you out of like thinking that your own reality is the most important one.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I've definitely been thinking a lot about like, because as we, as we have like this platform where we're expected to comment on culture and everything, it has been. I don't know how if you feel this way, but it sometimes can be confusing about like, do we come on here and like say this is what I think and like da, da, da, and react in real time or are we supposed to be clowns? And I think it's sort of a mix of both. It's been an interesting walk and you know, I would imagine like it feels probably very similar when you are on Saturday Night Live. It's like we do have to speak to real issues, but also at the same time what we do and what our talents are, are being funny and being the jesters. And the literal role of the jester is to point to the king and say, this is what's crazy about the king. I mean, and it feels, that's like where humor, that's like where comedy is birthed from. That's literally the job of the comedian is to do the very thing. But it can sometimes feel, I think, and this is where I think we can, as comedians and as people in the arts check ourselves is it can become very self important and didactic and didactic. I wanna get in there.

[Bowen Yang]

Didactic.

[Ana Gasteyer]

But when people I sometimes like. For example, I've really been thinking a lot about the celebrity endorsement. Right?

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Ana Gasteyer]

And how it didn't, I mean it literally didn't matter at all. In one sense. Of course, it's great to be able to speak out against like fascism and these Objective evils and to let people know, like, hi, women, I see you. I'm sticking up for you. I'm standing up to this. But at the same time, it feels like we've been given a clear message that the public, I think, across the board, wants entertainers to be entertainers and not scolds. And not scolds. And also to not feel like they can control culture, because I think we've seen that they don't. You know what I mean? I'm not saying don't speak up, but I am saying it's.

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, I do see some fault at the feet of those who have characterized it as such. I do feel like, yes, stay in your lane to a certain degree, but we also are what we're made of, right? So finding common ground as human beings is part of what comedy is like, finding the things that we share in common. And actually, I do think it gets harder and harder and harder as we're more and more sort of forced into these tribal lanes. It's really tricky. But, you know, whatever. Like, I love. That's what I'm saying. Like, I love doing shows in Kansas and red states and places where I can just share a love of the holidays and try to find a place that's, like, a little less lightning Roddy for people. But there are fewer and fewer places to do that. The holidays is one. But just the things that we all kind of universally share. But I do feel like. I guess what I was really trying to say is that people are like, shut up, you entitled libs. I think that's very activating for me, too, because in many ways, we share the same values. And I think for women in particular, it's heartbreaking. I mean, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, like, those people showing up to people like my daughter who are 22. It meant a lot because it's very. It's a very hopeless feeling to be a young woman right now in this country. Not just from the tactical standpoints of reproductive care, but also, you know, they've now, in their very short lives, seen misogyny, really run the whole. Now pull the camera back. Back. We've run two candidates in 12 years. That's not bad. I never thought a woman was even an option for a president, let alone a person of color. Like, it was not even in there. So whatever. In 50 years, yeah, we're probably going to have both of those boxes checked. You know, it just feels very immediate right now.

[Bowen Yang]

Right. And this is a thing that I've learned from, like, Mike Shoemaker via Seth.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

I don't know if this gives me pause or if this, like, puts me into more despair. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just like, anytime Seth wanted to have it out with someone at snl, like, Shoemaker would be like, it's a long life.

[Matt Rogers]

It's a long life.

[Bowen Yang]

If you wait, whatever you're feeling about these particular people is gonna go away, then they'll be at your wedding.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, that is true about snl.

[Bowen Yang]

Totally. And I don't know how I can.

[Matt Rogers]

Apply that to the greater landscape. I don't think Trump is gonna come to any of my children's Christinas.

[Bowen Yang]

He might.

[Matt Rogers]

He might, he might. It could happen.

[Bowen Yang]

I don't know. You were friends with the Carters.

[Matt Rogers]

It's true. I was friends with the Carters, but I. And he turned out to be the best president ever.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, my God. Did you ever go to Georgia or Atlanta or.

[Matt Rogers]

No, I mean, they literally moved back. And that was sort of that. And again, this was like pre. It was like long distance phone calls cost something, you know, But I mean, we had some friends in common over the years. And President Carter did a pen and whatever. This is just humble bragging now, but somebody told me that a book on tape editor had also worked on his memoirs. And I don't know how it came up, but he mentioned he was like, oh, the comedian, Anna Gasteyer, she was a friend of Ian's. Which was such a weird feeling that he knew who I was. But. But like, of course. Like, I was on television. Yeah, but not. Of course, but.

[Ana Gasteyer]

No, but at a time when everyone. That was monoculture. SNL was monoculture.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

And the thing about Christmas. Sorry to go back to this, but.

[Matt Rogers]

For you, too, if you can. So braggy.

[Bowen Yang]

No, but you two kind of going across the country performing these shows about Christmas, having it be so resonant and people loving it. It's like. It's because Christmas feels like the holidays feel like the last kind of been a.

[Matt Rogers]

They do. They're the last safe space that we can all get. And also because they are so just admittedly pagan at this point. It's not like, you know, I always Kind of.

[Ana Gasteyer]

What's funny about it?

[Matt Rogers]

I know it is kind of funny because I just feel like people, like, need a fucking break.

[Bowen Yang]

I know.

[Matt Rogers]

Like, they just. Can I say fucking? Yeah, of course you can. That they, like, people are just tired and they want to be. It's a funny time for programming. Like, it also gets. Really. Because I've done so much now, like, with clusterfunk. With our Christmas movie and Lifetime and Hallmark. And like, we're developing the clusterfunk into a musical actually for the stage, but. I know. So fun. But everyone's always like, well, yeah, it's such a weird time to program because nobody thinks about it. And then everybody's trapped in the house and they're all watching Hallmark movies. Cause all they wanna do is comfort food.

[Bowen Yang]

Cause they just want something new. Cause the old stuff kind of like, why don't revisit the old stuff?

[Matt Rogers]

There's not that much, but many people do.

[Bowen Yang]

I know many people do.

[Matt Rogers]

But I'm like, like, I do White Christmas. I do It's a Wonderful Life. I do Rudolph. I do. What do you do?

[Bowen Yang]

Charlie Brown.

[Matt Rogers]

Charlie Brown.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Rudolph's good. Frosty's good. Yeah. There's also Heat Miser and yeah, the Heat Miser. Those are bops, by the way. I'm Mr. Heat Miser. Whatever I touch starts to melt in my clutch.

[Matt Rogers]

I'm too much Rankin and Bass, right? That's what we're.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah, that was good. You know what's funny though, like, you're talking about, like, going to, like, red states. And I remember I was looking at. Cause I'm going on the road for all of December. And the by far slowest markets, like, the tour's selling great, but, like, the slowest ones were Philadelphia and Atlanta. And I asked my agent, I'm like, why are these so slow? And they were like, oh. Cause those cities are like, the anxiety is so high for the election. For the election. And like, as he said across the board, like, those are. Any swing state is like, tough. And now it's kind of like, wow, I really do hope people, like, come out because I think that the amount of anxiety that had to have been felt.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, they were also getting like, that. Think about how many calls. Robocalls. Exactly.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, yes. Spending a lot of money, I bet, too, like at different events and because people that were really activated in those areas are spending a lot of money, like, in the way that other areas may not have been also just. I mean, we were in Pennsylvania recently and it's tense. Like, it is tense. You look around at people and you're like, how are you looking at me? And I think that. You know what I'm saying.

[Matt Rogers]

I know.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I'm gratitude for that.

[Matt Rogers]

The next day after the election, it was rough. No, I had people in canvassing say, I'm afraid to vote because I'm afraid what my neighbors will do. I mean, it's. You know, people are Scared.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah. It's tough.

[Matt Rogers]

That's why we're going to continue to need a little Christmas right this very moment. Need a little Christmas.

[Bowen Yang]

I feel the scent of the clouds theme is really, really trenchant or trenchant. Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

I don't know what that means, but I like it.

[Ana Gasteyer]

We need to find out in real time.

[Bowen Yang]

Well, favorite Christmas on a cover, say what? Favorite Christmas song to cover on the album or off the album? Off. Sugar and booze. Favorite Christmas song to cover. I'm so sorry.

[Matt Rogers]

To cover. Well, I love the version that on my album is Sleigh Ride.

[Bowen Yang]

It's great.

[Matt Rogers]

Nobody, like. It's not that popular. Like, nobody listens to it, but I love. It's like, this sort of bossa nova cover, and I love it. Yeah. Yeah.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You're so at home in that style too.

[Bowen Yang]

You and Maya and that, like, sort of, like, Cuban.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. We have that secret Santa song that I wrote.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

Maya's so funny on it. You know where we recorded that? Which is so crazy because Maya's, like, knows everybody. We recorded that in Joni Mitchell's studio in LA because her friend, like, runs that studio.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, that's amazing.

[Matt Rogers]

And actually, Pharrell, they snuck us in. Just do it really fast, because apparently Pharrell had it for the day. So Pharrell doesn't know that he paid for my studio time. That song, which is kind of excellent.

[Ana Gasteyer]

He's good for it.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, exactly.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Means vigorous or incisive in expression or style.

[Bowen Yang]

And then what did I say was trenchant?

[Ana Gasteyer]

The point that Send in the clowns. Point.

[Bowen Yang]

Send in the clowns is trenchant. I would say vigorous and incisive in expression or style.

[Matt Rogers]

Send in the clown.

[Bowen Yang]

Send in the clown is trenchant. That's a rule of culture. That's rule of culture number 75.

[Matt Rogers]

Send in the clowns is trenchant.

[Bowen Yang]

Good.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You would do a great rendition of that song.

[Matt Rogers]

It's kind of a downer.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah, but that's okay.

[Bowen Yang]

But there's an ounce of triumph to it.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, a little bit. Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I think it's beautiful. In how sad and resigned.

[Matt Rogers]

I know now that I'm in my third chapter, I don't feel anything. I try to shut down feelings as fast as possible.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You know what?

[Matt Rogers]

I know it's because I figured fourth.

[Bowen Yang]

Chapter is gonna be about getting them. No, fourth.

[Matt Rogers]

Because fourth chapter, a lot of people are gonna start dying, and so then I'm gonna have to cry a lot. But then by fifth chapter, be like, well, we were good friends. And then I'll Be it.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It is crazy. Like, I was watching like, Hillary was obviously doing the rounds a little bit and a lot of her friends were dead. Hillary Clinton, sorry.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, Kelly, she's always talking about, well.

[Ana Gasteyer]

This is my friend who died and this is my friend who died. And I was like, oh, God.

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, it happens, it happens.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I know.

[Bowen Yang]

What about?

[Matt Rogers]

No, my friend Kelly, she was like, we were talking about when certain people were gonna die that, you know, might die, that maybe were just elected. And we were talking just like loosely about that.

[Bowen Yang]

Right, right, right.

[Matt Rogers]

She was just, in theory, you know, just how that might go. And she was saying, she was like, the people who feel die, right?

[Bowen Yang]

No, no, no. Someone was saying this. Like, people who are that disgusting tend to live so long. Guys.

[Matt Rogers]

I know. Cause they don't. They're not trouble. They don't get cancer from being sad.

[Bowen Yang]

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[Ana Gasteyer]

The point I was making earlier, I'm a little self conscious about because it's not really what I believe about celebrities and the celebrity endeavor, endorsement of it all.

[Matt Rogers]

No, I'm glad you said that.

[Ana Gasteyer]

What I'm talking about, I get it, is like standing up for issues is important and I think standing up for women is important. I just think all of that is important. What I'm saying is though, when a celebrity is at a certain privilege level, we all are, some people are not listening and they feel patronized for it. And I think there's something to learn from that in maybe how comfortable we all felt.

[Matt Rogers]

No, listen, I wanna say my husband just, he's an advertising, but he just did this huge research project on the heart because he also feels, as we all do, I think correctly, that many people in rural America feel patronized. And that is an understandable point of view that is, I think, very real. And it is incumbent upon us to find common ground when people feel that marginalized. And what's interesting is that this is common ground that he discovered. First of all, community is really important in rural America. That was like the number one thing Your community is almost more important than politics. Yeah. Other things. And the second is making and doing, which was really, really interesting in the research. So we may be making and putting on a, you know, putting on a show or whatever. Like putting on our wigs and, you know, getting a barn together decoratively. Right. But it's funny cause Martha Stewart, bring it back to her. One of the reasons she appeals is making and doing. There's like a lot of time spent with sort of crafts and taking care of your property and taking care of your car and sort of mechanical uses of your time, literally. But what we have in common with that is we also make things. That's what we do. And so somehow finding the way to communicate the two of those things. So it's not just arrogant fucking didactic entertainment. And it's not just like, you know, mud races. Like there's gotta be somewhere where those two things do overlaps lately. And it doesn't have to be as divisive as it is.

[Bowen Yang]

Exactly, totally.

[Matt Rogers]

You know.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Exactly.

[Bowen Yang]

Cause a lot of the messaging might have been from the left. Like, be more like us.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes, exactly.

[Bowen Yang]

There's a level of disdain that's implied.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes, completely.

[Bowen Yang]

And there's something about like redistributing respect or something.

[Matt Rogers]

It's really hard.

[Bowen Yang]

It's so hard.

[Matt Rogers]

It's hard when you don't feel respected.

[Bowen Yang]

Totally.

[Matt Rogers]

You know, it's understandable as a gay person in America or as a ethnic woman in the 80s.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

Agree.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Point. 80s.

[Matt Rogers]

I have to flat iron my hair.

[Ana Gasteyer]

See me. Yes, but I mean, so I know how it is.

[Matt Rogers]

I know, I know. Let's talk about Disney.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah, Disney.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh my God.

[Bowen Yang]

Our listeners hate us.

[Ana Gasteyer]

We've been talking about Disney so much. Our listeners.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh my God.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, we're gonna hopefully go December. Oh, I'll tell you when. But no, because I. There's this one thing that I have done over the years that is so incredible, which I'm gonna type. We all type that off camera.

[Bowen Yang]

Whatever.

[Ana Gasteyer]

What is it? Just that you can't do it.

[Bowen Yang]

Just a second.

[Matt Rogers]

Candlelight processional. Have you ever watched.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, you've done it.

[Matt Rogers]

I've done it.

[Bowen Yang]

Wow.

[Matt Rogers]

Wonderful.

[Ana Gasteyer]

That's one of my dreams. I wanna do that.

[Matt Rogers]

You absolutely have to do it. First of all, like I said, not a religious person, but boy, does Jesus flow through me when I do that. Because there are 350 voices behind you. Your spine shakes from the base of the singers. There are 56 pieces in that orchestra with those Disney arrangements. There were eight heralding trumpets. It Is so spectacularly magnificent when you read the story of Christmas and it's very hard not to cry.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yes, that's beautiful. This is it.

[Bowen Yang]

Like, there's no church anymore, but, like, what needs to be replaced is, like, meaning, and that's the unique.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, my God. And also a big part of the meaning is the fact that my family gets the guide the whole time that I'm there.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, yeah, that's huge. It's very meaningful.

[Bowen Yang]

Very meaningful.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It means no love, measly priced.

[Matt Rogers]

It means, as my husband says, you got in front of the handicapped, which apparently is the American dream.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Shout out to rvip guide Matt.

[Bowen Yang]

We'll see you soon, babe.

[Matt Rogers]

Matt and Sam.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Do you have Matt?

[Matt Rogers]

I have Sam, too.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Sam was Tina.

[Matt Rogers]

Sam has Tina and Mariah. Carew and Mariah.

[Bowen Yang]

But then Matt is.

[Matt Rogers]

Matt was, like, spit out of, like, a Disney sort of 3D printer. Right?

[Ana Gasteyer]

Are we talking about the same person?

[Matt Rogers]

He's the most lovely young guy. Yes.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Lovely young guy.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes.

[Ana Gasteyer]

This guy is great.

[Matt Rogers]

He's delightful.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, we love Matt so much.

[Matt Rogers]

Do you take in a show when you go to Disney? I like to take in a show just to cool my jets.

[Bowen Yang]

What do you mean, take in a show?

[Matt Rogers]

Like, I'll go take in a show. Yeah. I'll sit down and enjoy that year's Beauty and the Beast or whatever. I'll take in a show, you know.

[Ana Gasteyer]

What did we see? Did we go into the Frozen? I think we stayed till let it go and left.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, yeah, that's fair. I mean, aladdin. Nice little 45 minutes.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, I love Wham, bam, thank you, man.

[Ana Gasteyer]

We saw her twirl.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah. Fantasmic. I mean, all of it. I enjoy taking a show for a break because it's often air conditioned, of course.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, that's the thing.

[Matt Rogers]

And you can settle in. Yeah. And where's your favorite place to eat? Do you like Walt Disney World or Disneyland?

[Ana Gasteyer]

We'll do both.

[Bowen Yang]

We'll do both. I love World. I love Tiffany. Animal Kingdom.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Tiffins in Animal Kingdom.

[Matt Rogers]

I haven't been to Tiffins.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, you should go.

[Ana Gasteyer]

This is good.

[Matt Rogers]

No. So Jeff and Tina turned us on to the cars 1. Do you ever go to not Cars World. Do you ever go to the old Timey in Frontierland? Sci Fi movie?

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, the Sci Fi drive in.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes. Also really good for. Again, a lot of our thoughts are around the kids. Yeah, my kids are old now, but early on, these taking in a show and sitting in the drive in, those are like, it's hot. Everybody's Overstimulated. Let's sit in the dark for a few minutes.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes, that's important.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Where we went for lunch this last time was the space restaurant. Remember that? Oh, space 220.

[Bowen Yang]

Space 220. Which is the restaurant in Mission Space.

[Matt Rogers]

But it's like they pretend it's an.

[Bowen Yang]

Elevator that takes place.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, I think it was booked when we were there. We tried to get in.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It's kind of goofy, but it was good.

[Bowen Yang]

But it's fine.

[Matt Rogers]

I do OG Blue Bayou.

[Bowen Yang]

Aw, come on.

[Ana Gasteyer]

So you can have a cocktail. God damn it.

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, why not? Yeah, it might glow in the dark. It might.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It just might. It just might be too sweet. That's the thing. It's like now, whenever I go drink there, I always drink beer.

[Bowen Yang]

Cause everything is so sweet.

[Matt Rogers]

Everything's so sweet. Now you're in your sugar watching times.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yes.

[Matt Rogers]

But also post monitor times.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Sweet cocktails. It's really tough.

[Matt Rogers]

You can get wine over in California Adventure.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You sure can.

[Matt Rogers]

So your listeners are tired of hearing it anyway?

[Ana Gasteyer]

Well, no.

[Matt Rogers]

We have this game in my family. It's called Nervous Breakdown Job.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Go ahead.

[Matt Rogers]

It's what you're gonna do after your nervous breakdown.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, great. What's yours? What's yours?

[Matt Rogers]

Well, mine is gonna be. And it's kind of a cheat because it is a job at Disney, but we have different versions of it. My main one is that I'm gonna work at Trader Joe's on the Fearless Flyer, where I write up reviews of new Trader Joe's products.

[Ana Gasteyer]

That's good.

[Matt Rogers]

But if I have a nervous breakdown and I end up in Disney, I'm going to try to audition to be the wicked stepmother meet and greet Lady Tricky.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, my God, Lady Tremaine.

[Matt Rogers]

They're so funny. Those women are so funny. So I yell at people, yell at children. It's not unlike my character, actually, in Mattress.

[Ana Gasteyer]

No, actually, you're rehearsed. You're ready to go.

[Matt Rogers]

X Men's Nervous Breakdown job at Walt Disney World is. It's all Disney wants to manage. Sorry, everybody. He's going to manage the tiny barge trip from the yacht to Epcot.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, that's wonderful.

[Matt Rogers]

You know, they get on and they're like, all aboard. Oh, that's perfect.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You know what? Those simple joys.

[Matt Rogers]

And then all aboard.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah, you just go right back.

[Matt Rogers]

He's gonna do that all day and find it soothing.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You know what? The culture that made me say culture for me, in many regards was. This is not Disney, but it was Universal Studios. The Jaws Ride the boat The Skipper. I actually am off book on it. And I'm not kidding you, I did a show years ago at UCB called A1 man show called you'd Will Get Wet, which actually doesn't really qualify as where my character's biggest dream was to be that skipper on the Jaws butt. And Bo and Yang played the shark.

[Bowen Yang]

I played the big.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, I see where this is going in your future careers as well.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I did. I staged the ride and there was water effects and everything. I did it in the basement at UCB Chelsea. Actually, there is a YouTube video of it. I don't know if I've taken it down.

[Matt Rogers]

That sounds fantastic.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It was good. It was good. Shannon O'Neil did not give me a.

[Bowen Yang]

Run, but it was an excellent show.

[Matt Rogers]

It was almost.

[Ana Gasteyer]

One of these days.

[Bowen Yang]

Is that a great title. You will Get Wet.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes.

[Bowen Yang]

So good.

[Matt Rogers]

It's really good. Bring it back.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I'm gonna use it for something else.

[Matt Rogers]

Listen, there's gonna be a lot of Disney times in the coming years for a lot of America if they drop their prices because it's gotten very expensive.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Can I say this is the thing, though. It's like after the result came in, I was like, you know, it's the separation of wealth because families can't even go to fucking Disney World anymore.

[Matt Rogers]

You're absolutely right.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Like, that's what it is, is it's like we talk about the separation of wealth, we talk about wealth inequality ad nauseam, and then it's like the Democratic Party decides to put someone up who doesn't make that a forefront issue, at least enough for people, and we're surprised. I mean, the separation of wealth is the number one thing that we have to fix. Money has to come out of politics. There needs to be some redistribution. Like, I mean, a billion dollars. It's crazy. And meanwhile this like. Whatever. I'm just saying, it's like you talk about these things and then it is sad because families can't experience it anymore.

[Matt Rogers]

That's ridiculous. Yeah, the prices are actually crawling. You know what? Why don't we start a fund? Maybe I was gonna start a community college fund, but you know what? Let's start a Disney.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Disney fund.

[Bowen Yang]

Let's start a Disney fund for everybody.

[Matt Rogers]

For the community. It's for the community.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It's just so sad.

[Bowen Yang]

Why not?

[Matt Rogers]

I know.

[Bowen Yang]

Everybody gets a guide.

[Matt Rogers]

Everybody gets a guide.

[Ana Gasteyer]

But honestly, I should be a guide. I really should be a guide.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, that's a good nervous breakdown job for you. Get your steps.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Perfect.

[Bowen Yang]

Get your steps.

[Matt Rogers]

Get your steps.

[Bowen Yang]

This is my nervous breakdown job. So when you get a guide, when you arrive at each park.

[Matt Rogers]

Yes.

[Bowen Yang]

There's someone waiting there with a wicker tray full of, like, Lara Bars. Luna bars. And I want to hold that tray.

[Matt Rogers]

You know what? The rich, when they're. Okay, this is cutting deep. But when they give you the guide for candlelight processional, they give you VIP housing.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh.

[Matt Rogers]

So the housing is unbelievable. Okay, so we stay in, like, yacht club, or you stay. We stayed in, like, the Polynesian. In the apartment where the Beatles broke up. Where they sat. Yes, yes. All the things.

[Ana Gasteyer]

The Beatles broke up at Disney World.

[Matt Rogers]

I know. Go figure. Well, John Lennon was there with his family anyway. He was, like, standing. I love it. He was like, oh, fuck it. I'm out. But in the nice, like, fancy. You know, like, there's club levels or hotels.

[Bowen Yang]

Right, right, right.

[Matt Rogers]

So they have. And my family always gets so excited about this because you'll have, like, a little breakfast spread. Not a big one. Cause it's like, the club level, like, you. You're still expected to go to breakfast, but there's some, like, you know, a little, like, croissants and whatever. And they come out throughout the day, and it always. It tells you the times of the day. And every time, my husband's like, are the desserts and cordials out yet? The desserts and corals, we always get excited. We're like, let's check out the desserts and cordials. Like, oh. And we always get a dessert.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You were doing a service, A candlelight, professional service, and you deserved all.

[Matt Rogers]

I want a cadre.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I want a cordial and dessert. It's Christmas season, damn it.

[Bowen Yang]

I want to eat fresh fruit with y'all in the morning.

[Matt Rogers]

You bet. You can come. We always have extra beds. I haven't done it for a long time.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You gotta go.

[Matt Rogers]

I've gotta go.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Why not this year? I guess you're gonna be busy.

[Matt Rogers]

No, believe me. Every year I'm like, next year. Next year we went during COVID and we all discovered we had Covid the last morning. Because obviously we got it because it was Florida's. Nobody was masked. It was like that weird little omicron break. Okay. And as we landed at Orlando, I received three calls from the Department of Health from my son. Like, he has been exposed. He has been. I was like, no, no, I'm fine.

[Bowen Yang]

We're going to Disneyland.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Have you been around a lot of Florida people? Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

And then literally everybody in Florida. No mask. Nary a mask to be found, of course. And Then the last morning, and my mom, my old mom had shared a room. I mean, granted, it was a big Disney room, so it was like two queen size beds and he was in one. But literally, my mom from the other room, she's like, what does two lines mean? And I was like, get in the car.

[Bowen Yang]

God, can you imagine? There are, like all these public health officials taking sewage water from Orlando, going like, God, it's a lot of COVID and turkey.

[Matt Rogers]

I was Sam. I was like, sam, my man. Cause we were all masked.

[Ana Gasteyer]

We're down. We're down bad.

[Matt Rogers]

Sorry.

[Ana Gasteyer]

We're down bad.

[Matt Rogers]

But also it was I. And I'm not a good person. I got on the plane, I double masked everybody. I was like, no one even on the plane had a mask.

[Bowen Yang]

Sure.

[Matt Rogers]

So I was like, we're going home. I'm not gonna spend a week at Disney quarantined with a child.

[Ana Gasteyer]

No, you don't.

[Matt Rogers]

It was Christmas. We double masked and we got home.

[Ana Gasteyer]

We also. We were also on vacation. Then we got. We got Covid. Well, you had just had Covid. Yes, I. We thought we were in the clear. And then I got Covid. Gnarly in Mexico City. Yeah. Lonely.

[Bowen Yang]

Terrible.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It was crazy because I was like, in a hotel. Well, in a hotel in Mexico City. And I was starting to feel a little weird. Like two hours before we had to get on the plane was this early. Or I took a test and it was like. And it said I was negative, but I was starting to feel weird. So I like, triple masked it. And I got on the plane and I went and. But I.

[Bowen Yang]

You weren't sure if it was like a water that you drank or something? It was.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It could have been anything. And so I was like, I'm gonna test. And it said I was negative. Masked up, got on the plane because.

[Matt Rogers]

It'S a bad feeling.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Then what was I gonna do? Like, I would have had to be there for a week.

[Matt Rogers]

No, I think a lot of people did that. And that is why we had an epidemic. Anyway, you're right. Ever heard of Patience, Sarah?

[Ana Gasteyer]

That little girl was me.

[Matt Rogers]

We're really keeping it light. This post election special.

[Bowen Yang]

How we're using humor.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Post election special, title of F. How.

[Bowen Yang]

Does it feel to be on the post election special?

[Matt Rogers]

Really painful, but happy.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Painful and harmful.

[Bowen Yang]

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[Ana Gasteyer]

This is I don't think so, honey. This is our segment where we take one minute to rant and rail against something in culture that we don't love.

[Bowen Yang]

Yes. Do you have something? You'll go first.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I do have something. I do have something.

[Bowen Yang]

Okay, this is Matt Roddick. We all have something. Very good. This is Matt Rogers. I don't think so, honey. His time starts now.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I don't think so, honey. So the Beatles song, the new song now and Then is nominated for record of the year. And the way that they got John Lennon's voice on it is by AI Ing his voice out. Like, they had to bring his voice out, so they used AI on it to make it a real vocal.

[Matt Rogers]

I don't think so, honey.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I don't think so, honey. I don't think so, honey. The AI Recreation of people that have been long dead. He's been dead for 40 plus years. I don't think so, honey. The Whitney Houston holographic. I don't think so, honey. The Elvis holographic. These people actually can't consent to releasing music. And this is not just John Lennon. This is also George Harrison. And I get that his wife says George wouldn't have been on board for this. I don't know what Yoko is saying, but I don't think so, honey. If I ever die.

[Bowen Yang]

15 seconds.

[Ana Gasteyer]

No AI las cocharistas. I'm telling you, I don't care how much money Bowen Yang needs because he's talking about pivoting to holding a wicker tray at Disney. I don't care how south his career goes. No AI lost cult after I am dead. No AI Beatles song now. Especially not nominated for Record of the Year at the Grammys. Where was Ariana Grande? I'm so humble.

[Bowen Yang]

Where was Ariana? And that's one minute. No way. Especially if it's gonna, like, suck up all the power that could be used to, you know, power a small town.

[Ana Gasteyer]

That's another thing is like, how harmful AI Was for the environment.

[Matt Rogers]

I didn't know that.

[Bowen Yang]

Oh, yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

I'm really glad that it's a lot.

[Bowen Yang]

Of water to cool down all. All of the. Whatever stuff.

[Matt Rogers]

It's like a hologram or AI Voicing.

[Bowen Yang]

Well, AI Is part of it now it's all kind of blending together. It's like anything generative is AI, but for anything AI, it has to be derivative by default too. So it's like, I don't know. Weirdly, I'm like, eh. About it. Cause I'm like, it will always be derivative by definition.

[Matt Rogers]

Correct? That's correct.

[Bowen Yang]

And so I'm like, oh, you're right.

[Matt Rogers]

As a comedian, that's such a weird sort of almost constitutional stance, you know?

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

What's the word?

[Bowen Yang]

Constitutional?

[Matt Rogers]

I don't know. I mean, trenchant.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Trenchant.

[Matt Rogers]

Is it constitutional? Like, you have to take a big.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Shit after you if it references your constitution.

[Matt Rogers]

Like, people say, like, let's take a constitutional. They mean like a gentle wall or a massive device.

[Bowen Yang]

Take shit together.

[Matt Rogers]

Let's.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Let's take communal constitutional.

[Matt Rogers]

Sort of. Comedians don't like people who copy them. There you go.

[Bowen Yang]

There you go. No, so there's like, no, there's no.

[Matt Rogers]

There's no worse.

[Bowen Yang]

It's so trenchant that we've said this. There's no worse thing.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I don't know the AI of it all. Like, know what? That. Because now I get really wary of people that are like, yeah, but about AI. I'm like, I don't think so. I really think it's not helpful.

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, maybe, okay, oops, I just did it. But medical research or like, quick research.

[Bowen Yang]

Sure.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, sure, sure.

[Matt Rogers]

But isn't that just like a computer?

[Bowen Yang]

I'm just like, yeah, I don't want.

[Matt Rogers]

An AI operation, but I wouldn't mind somebody saying this cancer cure.

[Bowen Yang]

Is this effective based on your vitals? Like, absolutely. I'm just thinking like, the everyday uses of it. People are still trying to figure out. Even Apple's kind of like, I know you can write your emails with it.

[Matt Rogers]

But really, I know how to, like, I know how to read an email.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Totally.

[Bowen Yang]

We need to stigmatize this idea of, like, if you need AI to write an email for you.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah, that's fucked.

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, by the way, yeah. Whatever happened to, like, plagiarism being bad? Like, no, you can't. Truly, you can't. I used to get in trouble for reading Cliff Notes back in the day. It's the same idea.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I'm just not a fan of.

[Matt Rogers]

Read the book.

[Bowen Yang]

Read the book.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I'm not a fan of anything that, like, if we participate in it to enough of an extent, makes us lazier and dark.

[Matt Rogers]

Correct.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You know what I'm saying, by the way?

[Matt Rogers]

And that's like the Google Maps of it all. I don't know if you ever do this, but you just turn it off every blue moon and try to go somewhere.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Can't.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, also, it's a really important piece of your. The navigational piece of your brain affects other things you do in life. So if you don't want to just turn into a total, you know, rube. Yeah. Like in la, every blue moon, I will just not. It's so instinctive to just plug it in. If I'm driving, I'm like, fred, I know how to drive there.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah, Yeah. I haven't even thought about that. Like, just allowing myself to have enough respect for my navigational ability.

[Matt Rogers]

Exactly.

[Bowen Yang]

Because otherwise you do feel like a soul adrift in space. And it's like you're just being told where to go. I think.

[Matt Rogers]

How easy. It's like a bad Blade Runner movie where we could all just be programmed to drive to the same place to be bombed.

[Bowen Yang]

God.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, I went there.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Honestly.

[Matt Rogers]

Don't bring in the clown.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Okay. This.

[Matt Rogers]

I messed up. Leave.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You. You finally went. You went too far.

[Matt Rogers]

Blade Runner. Why you brother bring Blade Runner? And Google Maps and a bomb.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, my God. Is Bowen Yang. Do you have anything you want?

[Bowen Yang]

I do, I do.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You want a rail?

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Okay.

[Bowen Yang]

This. Lots of things.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Is Bowen Yang's. I don't think so, honey. His time starts now.

[Bowen Yang]

I don't think so, honey. Putting little stickers over the hole in coffee cups that you're supposed to drink out of. Cause I gotta take the sticker off and guess what? Now I'm drinking sticker juice instead of coffee. And now my lips are sticking together and I go, no, I just wanna enjoy my iced black coffee. That's it. I'm not asking for much. I just want iced coffee in a cup. And I understand that it's to prevent spillage. And I understand that you're taping over the bag so that there's no tampering and it's all security theater. But sometimes I just feel something without all this. Literally all this red tape or this white circle of tape over my drink hole. I just want an unencumbered drink hole so I can sip, sip, sip. Suck, suck, suck, guzzle, guzzle, guzzle the caffeine into my system because I need it to get through this damn day in this damn year of this damn world. Get the sticker and the adhesive off my coffee. Otherwise I'll be drinking oxy, for God's sakes. When I just. A gorgeous cup of Dunkin Donuts.

[Ana Gasteyer]

That's one minute.

[Matt Rogers]

Good timing. Thank You.

[Ana Gasteyer]

That was great. I will also say you said so many words and didn't even touch on what I think is the most annoying part, which is when you have to peel the sticker off.

[Bowen Yang]

Peel off.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Then you have stickery finger on this part of your finger is very bad. Also.

[Matt Rogers]

See gravity like this is higher. Why we don't need it.

[Bowen Yang]

We don't know that it's not coming.

[Matt Rogers]

Out much of the top. It's only spilling. Let me paint, which is a peeve of mine. It's only spilling if the fucker filled it too high, right? So that it's coming out the sides.

[Bowen Yang]

I blame the fucker.

[Matt Rogers]

I blame that lid culture, shithead.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Lid culture is in a state of disarray. Like no one can figure out what lid to put on anything. And sometimes it's like you go to a certain coffee place because you know they're not going crazy where their lid and they'll have changed.

[Matt Rogers]

And you know what? I take advantage of this. I love a barista and I have a cafe artist. They're clowns. And I really love. I love coffee. I love coffee so much that I've actually had this thought. I'm not proud. If I went to prison, I'd be super sad because the coffee situation would be so bad.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What is the coffee situation?

[Matt Rogers]

I'm sure it's non existent.

[Bowen Yang]

It's not great.

[Matt Rogers]

So I love coffee. I will never. I didn't give it up when I was pregnant. I didn't give it up. I will never, ever, ever give up coffee.

[Bowen Yang]

Should we start a fund for prison coffee?

[Matt Rogers]

Yes.

[Ana Gasteyer]

What would it be called?

[Matt Rogers]

Doesn't it sound terrible?

[Ana Gasteyer]

It doesn't sound good.

[Bowen Yang]

No.

[Matt Rogers]

What would Joe behind bars.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Joe behind bars.

[Bowen Yang]

Bruise behind bars.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Why is my brain going to. We did it, Joe. We really did it.

[Matt Rogers]

We did, Joe.

[Bowen Yang]

We didn't do it.

[Ana Gasteyer]

We didn't do it, Joe. At all.

[Matt Rogers]

Joe, we didn't.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Joe, what did you do?

[Matt Rogers]

It is so Jova.

[Ana Gasteyer]

It's so Jova. Well, what's begun that announcement, Joe, Jojo is now. Are you ready? Because this is your moment.

[Matt Rogers]

Okay.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Okay.

[Bowen Yang]

This is Anna Got Stars. I don't think so, honey. Her time starts next.

[Matt Rogers]

Now this is what? What are we starting?

[Ana Gasteyer]

No, starting.

[Matt Rogers]

I'm sorry.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Her time starts next.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, no. Oh, Kelly's gonna pass.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Oh, her time starts next. Commercial break.

[Bowen Yang]

This is on a gosh terrace. I don't think so. Her time starts now.

[Matt Rogers]

Okay, so my I don't think so, honey is about TikToker. POV, video, Instagrams. Nobody understands that it has to be an actual point of view. That is something new. So here's what it has to be a new take. It has to be observational. It has to be something that I haven't thought of. That's a witty use of humor. For example, I just saw one that was pov. You get to the airport, find your gate, pee, and get a snack. That's not a pov. That is just going to the airport and doing what people do when they go to the airport. There's no pithy observation therein. That's not, oh, my God, my dad got a dog, he didn't want it, and now he's carrying it around in a Baby Bjorn. I get it. That's a pov. That's funny. What's not a POV is pov. I took a shower before I went to work. What is wrong with people? You have to have some kind of a take. And if. If you're not doing that, you know what? Put your phone down and go to the airport five seconds. And get a magazine and piss and get on your plane.

[Bowen Yang]

And if you open up Google Maps, you're dead.

[Ana Gasteyer]

And that's one minute. You know, I hate to break it to you, but I think that they know this and willfully aren't doing it because I'll be shocked.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, do something about your phone then. Just live your life for four seconds.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Just being a human, I guess. The thing is though, they're more interested in virality than humanness.

[Matt Rogers]

Who is going to like or comment on pov? You find your gate and get a sandwich.

[Ana Gasteyer]

So many people. That's what I'm telling you. It's like when I have worked with social media people, if I ever had to do like a TikTok or stuff like for my album, I'll be shocked. Sometimes when you realize what's trending, it's like, hey, so you have to walk from here to here, and this song is going pov.

[Matt Rogers]

You got on the elevator.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah, but literally it's like, no, people want.

[Matt Rogers]

You're mailing a letter.

[Ana Gasteyer]

The appetite is for everyday mundanity.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, that's fine. At least if you're gonna be pithy about it. I don't mind something that's like, I don't know, something new or observational. It's the Seinfeldian moment of it all. Of like, oh my God.

[Bowen Yang]

But the POV thing is even so stupid because they don't understand what POV stands for.

[Matt Rogers]

No, they have no idea it's from.

[Bowen Yang]

The first person point of view at all. It's just like, pov. I'm going to the airport and then they're in the frame. You know what I mean? That's what these kids are doing too.

[Matt Rogers]

Right? Right. And I don't.

[Bowen Yang]

At the airport. And then it's them.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Pov. Pov. Me with my friend. It's Tracy.

[Bowen Yang]

It doesn't matter. Pov.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I'm hanging out with my friend, but a friend isn't there.

[Matt Rogers]

Again, I'm just like, I don't mind. I really. You have to develop some semblance of an observation if this is supposed to be funny or engaging in any way. Like, well, this is my theory.

[Bowen Yang]

This is my, like, almost like, I'm gonna say, like, boomer take, which. Oh, language is breaking down. Like, no one moves. No one knows how to communicate with each other. And therefore. And here we are.

[Matt Rogers]

I mean, but that's also like, secondary. All of the application. I mean, of life. Yeah, exactly. Like, you're. We early on tried to, like, address phone usage with our kids or whatever, and everybody was like, the only way they communicate is to take and picture of themselves on Snap and send it to one another, nude or otherwise. But it's just. Even like, if there's courtship rituals. In my senior. No, you're right. Absolutely right. My 16 year old, you'll see him do that and you're like, what are you doing? He's like, oh, I just snapped something. I had to snap my friend. Like, there's no. There's no, hey, I'm at a restaurant with my folks. Or like, there's no even texting is one iteration too boring and bloated for them.

[Bowen Yang]

It's infiltrating. This has infiltrated being at dinner with your family. Like, nothing is sacred anymore.

[Matt Rogers]

But also, this is why we are where we are. We are sheep.

[Bowen Yang]

Totally.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Did you see that? Australia wants to do a ban on social media until. Until the kids are 16.

[Matt Rogers]

Well, I think it's actually. Well, this is boring to talk about to our audience, but I mean, I actually think it's coming. I do. I really do believe the tide is turning because that is actually a purple state issue. People across the board are understanding that attention spans aren't, you know, so the algorithm just screaming now, what is this, the third election that we're just screaming at Facebook, like, that's all we're doing, so. Or, you know, into Instagram or. None of us are actually engaging or having conversations that are face to face or human. To human. And it's not gonna get any better.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Or with anyone that would challenge an opinion that you may have. I mean, that's. I watched AOC's live, like the day or two after the election.

[Matt Rogers]

The Chandelier Day.

[Bowen Yang]

The chandelier.

[Ana Gasteyer]

We'll call it the Chandelier Day.

[Matt Rogers]

Crashing Chandelier.

[Bowen Yang]

The Martha Day.

[Ana Gasteyer]

The big pull. She said she was like, sectarianism has to stop. Like, that's why I'm so kind of blown away by people being like, unfollow this person. If you follow me. And you're this da, da, da. I'm like, I understand where this comes from. But if you. You can't see the forest for the trees, that this is the problem. The fact that we were so shocked that it went that way. If you were shocked like, that is because we are siloed off, all of us, from one another. And if we want to be a country. Which I think is a question. It seems like if we want to be a country, we cannot silo off.

[Matt Rogers]

We're in, like an algorithmic echo chamber, all of us, except for. To pop out and troll people. That's literally it, right?

[Bowen Yang]

Not me. No.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Never.

[Matt Rogers]

Bowen, you aren't trolled or you don't troll.

[Bowen Yang]

I'm not in an echo chamber.

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, really?

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah. He has incredible outside, honey.

[Matt Rogers]

Okay, That's.

[Bowen Yang]

I'm not indoors.

[Matt Rogers]

That's crushable. I love it. I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

[Bowen Yang]

I'm kidding.

[Matt Rogers]

And you power down for 48 hours every week, right? Just for your mental health.

[Bowen Yang]

I'm looking at maps.

[Ana Gasteyer]

He reaches across the aisle. It's where they call it old school.

[Matt Rogers]

AAA.

[Bowen Yang]

I miss those. Honestly.

[Matt Rogers]

AC7. I know, I know.

[Bowen Yang]

That was so cute.

[Matt Rogers]

But I mean, even those little. Everybody. We're all addicts. We're all addicts.

[Bowen Yang]

We're all addicts. Thoughts on the Martha Stewart doc?

[Matt Rogers]

Oh, my God, I loved it.

[Bowen Yang]

I loved it.

[Matt Rogers]

I loved it, actually. I love her.

[Ana Gasteyer]

I think she'd be good on this show.

[Bowen Yang]

She'd be great on this show.

[Matt Rogers]

She would be great on this show. She, especially in her sixth chapter, is extraordinarily enjoying all the things she's been through. And she's letting herself soften. I mean, I've known her now. Ish. My personal was 30 years ago or 28 or whatever. And she always been a great sport and all that. Jimmy Carter.

[Ana Gasteyer]

She allowed.

[Matt Rogers]

She's been Jimmy Carter. She allowed. Even though she's not like a terrifically funny person, but she's very easy. She understood She's a good business person, but mostly I have to say this is my fifth chapter take on her eighth chapter. Sixth chapter. Is that my third chapter take on her fifth chapter? Right. Is that she really is like, I don't know. There's something to be said for this. Like, old people wisdom.

[Bowen Yang]

Yeah.

[Matt Rogers]

Like, you get your heart broken a lot in a life, and she kind of buckles down. I love that whole thing that she says about, like, I don't want to deal with feelings all the time.

[Bowen Yang]

Like, I just.

[Matt Rogers]

I like guys that do stuff. I want to go places. I want to take in the world. Her boyfriend Charles, that she had for a while, she was like, he's just a doer. Like, we would do stuff. And I get that. Like, there's so many. I do, of course I validate feelings and of course I want. But there is a point which we have to get up and put our shoes on and not pov, we're at the airport, but rather just go get the sandwich and pee and, like, have plans and do things.

[Bowen Yang]

Water the garden and.

[Matt Rogers]

Water the garden and make a party and invite your friends over. And I don't know, there's just something very. Granted, she lives deeply within privilege, but she. I love that she's just a. She doesn't sleep at all. That's a true thing about her. I know her assistant, and that's really true. She's never. All of her businesses were born of insanity. That was early on. And the fact that she was doing crafts with those ladies in the prison and, like, growing, working on the garden and, like, she just is a doer. And there's something deeply inspirational to me about that.

[Bowen Yang]

That garden thing is what kind of cracked something open for me where she was like, if you want to be married for a year, if you want to be happy for a year, get married. If you want to be happy for a decade, get a pet, get a dog. If you want to be happy for a lifetime, get a garden.

[Matt Rogers]

Plant a garden.

[Bowen Yang]

Plant a garden. And I'm like, oh, that's it?

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

Or any kind of garden, any size. You just have to do something.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, exactly.

[Bowen Yang]

Literally, really mold the earth with your hands.

[Matt Rogers]

And she's doing that every day in different ways. I mean, and she's endlessly creative from a business standpoint, but also, let's just say, OG feminist, because she turned domestication on its ear and became a billionaire. She took. She somehow understood Purple State. Early on, people were very shitty, including me on snl, about her selling that brand to kmart and she was like, why wouldn't people at Kmart want nothing? And it's. She just.

[Bowen Yang]

She would say that on, like, Letterman, but she'd be like, it's makes total sense to me.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, I love that. I love that she, you know, again, I mean, it's insane. Like, when you look at, like, whatever, let's have cornish hens for 100 in that catering company. It was insane. It was totally insane. I mean, like, you know, you're just looking at her stuff like, what? That's impossible. She was just making it happen. And then she was like, this is a business. This is a business. And she's been very open minded about lots of types of all kinds of people across our, you know, culture. I think she's right.

[Bowen Yang]

I didn't realize that Andy Stewart, her husband, was.

[Matt Rogers]

Was a cheating.

[Bowen Yang]

Was so like that. But then that story about her in the cathedral.

[Matt Rogers]

I know.

[Bowen Yang]

So beautiful. So beautiful, but also random. She's like, I got so overwhelmed by being in a cathedral that I made out with an Italian story.

[Matt Rogers]

I love her, though.

[Bowen Yang]

That's such a gay guy thing.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah, it really was.

[Matt Rogers]

It was the pies that wasn't deeply relatable. I mean, she was like, it wasn't cheating. I was in the basilica.

[Ana Gasteyer]

You can't judge yourself.

[Bowen Yang]

Everybody's God in that space.

[Matt Rogers]

Yeah, everybody's God. And that's what she really is. She's like an instrument of beauty. Like, she loves beautiful things and she wants everyone to experience. I mean, and they are like. I don't know. Like, there's a big part of me that's like. It's so cheesy. But, like, Paris is my favorite city. And, like, I've gone. And it's like, you have a. You're like, I just can't stand how every single thing here is perfect. I'm so happy. Like, it's your. You vibrate with beauty.

[Bowen Yang]

And it reminds me of the Will and Harper thing, where at the end, like, he gets Harper those earrings.

[Matt Rogers]

I know.

[Bowen Yang]

It's okay to like nice things. Nice.

[Ana Gasteyer]

That was beautiful.

[Bowen Yang]

It's okay to like lovely things.

[Matt Rogers]

I know.

[Bowen Yang]

And I'm like.

[Matt Rogers]

And it doesn't have to be the most expensive. Like, that's what's so cool.

[Bowen Yang]

Garden. There you go.

[Matt Rogers]

Plant a garden.

[Bowen Yang]

A plant a garden. A flower, a vegetable, a fruit. It's a lovely thing that you made.

[Matt Rogers]

I know. And she was so cool. When I was on Drew, she was so like. I mean, we quote, unquote, surprised her, which I was always like, you know, Again, just a nightmare, because, you know, it's not a person who loves a surprise. And she, like, you know, I did, and I'm, like, dressed as her. And she was so sweet. She just sailing in. She kept, like, grabbing my hand, and she was, you know, ruining it by talking through the font swaddle, like, oh, you look so much like me. But it was still, like, so charming. And she hugged me after, and her assistant was like, it's so great to see you. We should do more together. You know, it's just very. She gets it. She's always gotten it.

[Bowen Yang]

Totally.

[Matt Rogers]

We were mean on Saturday night, and she. She always got it, actually. Everybody on snl, Celine Dion, same thing. So graceful about it. And I, you know, well, partially. I think she thought I had a bad voice, which helped, but because she said that to me, she was like, your voice is so horrible to hear. Which I was like, this is a language barrier thing. I'm going to choose to believe.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Horrible to me.

[Matt Rogers]

Your voice is so horrible to hear.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Okay, they're saying we got to wrap up, which means it's time to say one more time that you can see Once Upon a Mattress at The Ahmanson in LA from December 10th to January 5th. And you should. And also, if you can catch it in the last, I guess, couple weeks on Broadway, do the 30th. It really is. It's joyous. It's fun. Sugar and booze. You better be streaming it and checking out the shows in the Midwest and in LA. What day on the night?

[Matt Rogers]

December 16th. One night only. Yeah.

[Bowen Yang]

Love it.

[Matt Rogers]

But mostly just listen to it because it really. I did make it to bring people joy and listen to it while you're wrapping your presents. And you're shaking your.

[Ana Gasteyer]

And you're shaking your everything.

[Matt Rogers]

You're shaking your everything.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Yeah. Shake and jiggle.

[Matt Rogers]

Shake that ass.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Shake that ass. While you listen to sugar and booze. We are so happy you're here.

[Bowen Yang]

Thank you for joining us.

[Matt Rogers]

You guys are the best. Thank you for having me and my daughter and her fellow gays say thank you.

[Ana Gasteyer]

We say hi to all the gays and the Guzbins and everybody out there, we want to say hello to you. And we end every episode with a song. Have yourself a merry little charisma.

[Bowen Yang]

Let your heart be right. But we'll work on it.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Why didn't we say?

[Matt Rogers]

Why didn't we say Why'd you start so high? Goddamn tenors. See, this is the next.

[Bowen Yang]

We're not tenors.

[Ana Gasteyer]

This is the second time in a row our third time in a row.

[Bowen Yang]

That someone's called us out for our key.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Someone thanked me for the key.

[Matt Rogers]

No, it's a nice it's your song, it's your show.

[Ana Gasteyer]

And have had your little Christmas.

[Matt Rogers]

Good.

[Bowen Yang]

Lost Culturistas is the Production by Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and iHeartRadio Podcasts.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Created and hosted by Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, executive produced by Anna Hosnier.

[Bowen Yang]

And Han Soni, produced by Becca Ramos, edited and mixed by Doug B. And Monique Laborde and our music is by Henry Kamirski.

[Ana Gasteyer]

Hey everybody, it's me, Matt Rogers, letting you know tickets are on sale now to see me on tour, the Prince of Christmas tour, that is. I'm doing my whole album. Have you heard of Christmas? Plus a lot more with the whole band all throughout December. Go to www.mattrogersofficial.com See me in a city near.