Breaking Down Mike O'Brien's SNL Digital Shorts

Summary

Podcast Summary: Breaking Down Mike O'Brien's SNL Digital Shorts

Episode Release Date: January 27, 2025
Podcast Title: The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast
Guests: Jorma Taccone, Mike O'Brien
Host: Seth Meyers

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Introduction and Setting the Stage

The episode begins with Seth Meyers welcoming his guests, Jorma Taccone and Mike O'Brien, to a special edition of the podcast. Amidst discussions about logistical challenges in Los Angeles, Seth introduces the focus of the episode: delving into Mike O'Brien's influential series of SNL Digital Shorts.

Notable Quote:

• Seth Meyers [00:00]: "Welcome to the Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast. We're doing another special episode."

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Mike O'Brien's Journey to SNL

Mike O'Brien recounts his initial audition for SNL in 2004 alongside a young Jorma Taccone. Despite his enthusiasm and creative attempts—such as attempting to break a Guinness World Record by flipping continuously—Mike’s audition did not secure him a spot on the live stage.

Notable Quotes:

• Mike O'Brien [00:56]: "2009 was when I got the Seth Meyers call."
• Mike O'Brien [02:03]: "I did improv. I got out of Guinness Book of World Records and I flipped and I said, tell me when to stop and I'll try to break that record."

Jorma reflects on the nerve-wracking audition experience, highlighting the uncertainty and the side-room setting that left both feeling excluded from the live performances.

Notable Quote:

• Jorma Taccone [01:18]: "Like the minute you actually said it, it did. But I was so nervous."

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Transition from Writer to Cast Member

After four years as a writer, Mike was promoted to the cast, though this move was met with mixed feelings. Seth shares memories of welcoming Mike back to the writer's team post his cast tenure, emphasizing Mike’s dedication to creating unique and sincere content.

Notable Quotes:

• Seth Meyers [07:55]: "One year in the cast. So is Sad Mouse the first Mike O'Brien film?"
• Mike O'Brien [08:29]: "It was in my fourth writing year. I wasn't in the cast."

Mike discusses "Sad Mouse," his first short film for SNL, which Seth and Jorma fondly recall enjoying for its heartfelt narrative and creative storytelling.

Notable Quotes:

• Jorma Taccone [08:35]: "This is the one I saw, too, and thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed."

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Deep Dive into Specific Digital Shorts

Sad Mouse

"Sad Mouse" is highlighted as a standout short that resonated with audiences for its emotional depth. The sketch features Bruno Mars as a melancholic mouse navigating personal struggles, juxtaposed with Seth’s comments on Bruno’s acting prowess.

Notable Quotes:

• Mike O'Brien [12:12]: "Girlfriend played by Sarah Schneider in a photo."
• Seth Meyers [12:42]: "It drives me crazy that we didn't stay on him for the word smarter."

Mike humorously reveals an alternate, more risqué ending to "Sad Mouse," which remained unfilmed due to Seth’s insistence on maintaining the short’s sincerity.

Jay Z Story

Mike elaborates on the creation of "Jay Z Story," a digital short where he portrays Jay Z in an earnest, non-impressionistic manner. The sketch subverts expectations by avoiding traditional impressions, instead focusing on a sincere portrayal that garnered positive feedback despite initial skepticism.

Notable Quotes:

• Mike O'Brien [24:03]: "The general feeling that I felt on the show, like I was bad at the show in my first year on the cast..."
• Seth Meyers [25:14]: "This is the definitive, fully accurate biopic."

The interaction between Mike and Jay Pharoah, who frequently impersonates Jay Z on SNL, adds a layer of meta-humor as Jay Z himself reacts to Mike's portrayal.

Notable Quotes:

• Mike O'Brien [33:29]: "You had me so nervous."
• Seth Meyers [33:55]: "But I will say, as sad as I am not to have it be Dennis Franz..."

Prom King

"Prom King" is another favorite discussed, featuring Michael Keaton. The short is praised for its comedic timing and the chemistry between Mike and Keaton, despite production challenges such as late-night shooting schedules.

Notable Quotes:

• Mike O'Brien [36:35]: "Yeah, he's like a top tenner for me as well."
• Seth Meyers [38:38]: "It's amazing."

The podcast touches on cut scenes and Seth’s commentary on editing decisions that shaped the final version of the short, ensuring it remained concise and impactful.

Grow a Guy and Dragon Babies

Mike shares insights into the development of "Grow a Guy" and "Dragon Babies," highlighting the creative processes, challenges with animation, and interactions with guest stars like Charlize Theron. These shorts are lauded for their originality and the seamless blending of live-action and animation.

Notable Quotes:

• Mike O'Brien [49:46]: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. To death. To the death. He's going to take that to the grave."
• Seth Meyers [54:29]: "This one is a truly 50/50 with Tim."

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Behind the Scenes and Collaborative Dynamics

The conversation delves into the collaborative environment of creating digital shorts, emphasizing the importance of diversity in writing and the support from the SNL team, particularly from Lorne Michaels. Mike discusses the balance between creative freedom and adhering to comedic timing and audience expectations.

Notable Quotes:

• Jorma Taccone [18:09]: "Can I ask a nerdy question? Which is, what did you guys shoot on?"
• Mike O'Brien [32:19]: "We did not have the confidence to just let it end nice."

Seth reflects on his own experiences with writing and editing, drawing parallels to Mike’s creative decisions and the shared understanding of comedic integrity.

Notable Quotes:

• Seth Meyers [16:00]: "I am glad you came."

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Impact and Legacy of Mike O'Brien's Shorts

The episode underscores the lasting impact of Mike O'Brien's digital shorts on the SNL legacy and online comedy landscape. The pioneers of these shorts arguably helped shape early YouTube content strategies, blending viral potential with sketch comedy.

Notable Quotes:

• Mike O'Brien [67:31]: "He was very generous."

Jorma reminisces about the reception and the enduring fondness for these shorts among both audiences and the creators, highlighting their unique place in the evolution of digital sketch comedy.

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Conclusion and Final Thoughts

As the episode wraps up, the guests reflect on the enduring friendship and collaborative spirit that fueled the creation of these memorable digital shorts. Seth encourages listeners to revisit Mike O'Brien's work, praising its artistic merit and comedic brilliance.

Notable Quotes:

• Seth Meyers [67:46]: "Once you start watching Mike O'Brien videos on YouTube, the algorithm will be your friend."
• Mike O'Brien [71:05]: "Love you guys. Thanks for having me. This was great."

The podcast concludes on a heartfelt note, celebrating the creative achievements and continued camaraderie between The Lonely Island, Seth Meyers, and Mike O'Brien.

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Key Takeaways

• Creativity Under Pressure: Mike O'Brien’s digital shorts exemplify innovative comedy crafted under the demanding environment of SNL’s rigorous schedule.

• Sincerity in Comedy: The shorts balance humor with genuine emotion, a testament to Mike’s ability to infuse depth into sketch comedy.

• Collaborative Success: The synergy between writers, performers, and producers was pivotal in the success and enduring legacy of these digital shorts.

• Influence on Digital Media: These shorts were trailblazers in leveraging online platforms like YouTube, setting precedents for future digital content creators.

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Homework for Listeners:
To fully appreciate the depth of this discussion, listeners are encouraged to watch Mike O'Brien’s digital shorts such as "Sad Mouse," "Prom King," "Grow a Guy," and "Jay Z Story." These pieces not only highlight the comedic genius of Mike but also the collaborative spirit that defines The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers' contributions to modern comedy.

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Note: Advertisements and sponsored segments were excluded from this summary to maintain focus on the podcast's core content.

Transcript

[Seth Meyers]

The Lonely Island Sampathize podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Lonely island and Seth Maria's podcast. We're doing another special episode. It is very much due to all the turmoil in Los Angeles and just try to figure out the logistics of doing this. But we have a very exciting guest today. First of all, I'm here with Jorma. What's up, Yoram Woo.

[Jorma Taccone]

I'm pumped.

[Seth Meyers]

I feel like terrible choice of vibe and energy right after I talked about the fights.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yes. And I'm also somber. Yes.

[Mike O'Brien]

Awesome.

[Seth Meyers]

We're also joined by Mike O'Brien. Hello, Mike.

[Jorma Taccone]

Woo.

[Mike O'Brien]

What's up, guys? I'm somber too.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah. I feel like Yorn laid out a real what not to do. Sorry. All right. So, Mike, this is very exciting. You did a series of short films at snl, most of which I realized when I went back to watch were after I left. But I was there when you got hired. What year did you start at the show?

[Mike O'Brien]

2009 was when I got the Seth Meyers call. But jumping back real quick, I was flown out from Chicago in 2004 waiting to go in and do an in studio audition next to a young Jorma. And we were chit chatting and talking about calling our parents or something. Do you have any recollection of it? It'd be a boat.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, my God. Like the minute you actually said it, it did. But I was so nervous. I was like, probably between vomiting when I talked to you, but like as soon I was like, that's right.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah. I have no idea where that was because it was not in 8H.

[Jorma Taccone]

No, we're. It's such a bummer to like have the experience of auditioning for the show and then not get to at least have been on the stage at 8h.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jorma Taccone]

We were in some side room, some shitty side.

[Mike O'Brien]

Some big empty room with the auditor sitting even further away than when I came back in 2009.

[Jorma Taccone]

How did you do? How was your audition?

[Mike O'Brien]

Awful.

[Seth Meyers]

Same.

[Mike O'Brien]

I was gonna show them what an artiste from Chicag is all about.

[Jorma Taccone]

You did it years later.

[Mike O'Brien]

At one point, I did improv.

[Seth Meyers]

Oh, no.

[Mike O'Brien]

I got out of Guinness Book of World Records and I flipped and I said, tell me when to stop and I'll try to break that record. And they weren't saying stop. I kept going all the way through and finally Tina was like, she probably said stop. Like, please stop. She was like, stop.

[Seth Meyers]

You built in a fail safe, which is you did a thing so terrible that you knew you'd get him to say stop at Some point.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yes, exactly. Exactly.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, my God.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah.

[Jorma Taccone]

Good, good times.

[Seth Meyers]

That is very bold. But it's interesting you said that because I am going to jump ahead. I was not sort of in the decision making team in 04, so I don't have the same recollection as you coming through then, but I remember going to I.O. with Lauren in the lower room at the old I.O. when we were doing a showcase or we were seeing a showcase and you came out. And I think the nice part of this is you did not learn your lesson, but Lauren sort of came around to appreciating what you were doing. Do you remember that bit you used to do about how you were going to come out and play the spoons?

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah. It was a guy I was teaching spoons. And all I remember about it was that it was based on my freshman college roommate who would play guitar with headphones on and the amp plugged in, so it was not disturbing us. But what he didn't know is when he started playing speed metal, he'd go like. And so I was a spoons guy who couldn't help but make those noises, I guess, or whatever.

[Seth Meyers]

But you dragged a chair to the front of the stage. Lauren and I were pretty close to the front of the stage. And you're doing this spoons bit. And it was very esoteric because I also feel like most other people that night, which probably would have been the advice I would've given. You did a way more classic SNL audition.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

You did the spoons thing. You know, the moral of the story is one, your instincts were right. And two, it's a real credit to Lauren because I had known you, I was rooting for you to do well. You were doing the spoons thing, which I thought was very funny. But seeing it through Lauren's eyes, I definitely thought, well, not gonna happen for old Mike. And then we left. And I remember Lauren saying, you know, I think there was something to the spoons guy. And he really did sort of see. And then, I mean, it bore exactly the kind of fruit you would think the person who did the spoon's bit. Like, you did do esoteric stuff that Lauren really celebrated in your time on the show.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, I mean, he didn't celebrate it to me.

[Jorma Taccone]

He's not a celebratory kind of guy.

[Mike O'Brien]

He said one time after season one, we'd done Tina Fey as a nine inch tall hooker and he's like the only thing it was missing was a single joke.

[Jorma Taccone]

Still a writer.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Jorma Taccone]

He always surprises you by revealing that He's a writer.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah. He always surprises you.

[Mike O'Brien]

Solid burns.

[Seth Meyers]

I always joke forward. Can I ask, this is unfair. Cause I always try to remember how to explain this bit I saw you do. I saw you do a one person show in Chicago. When I went back to visit, you did a wordless sketch which was a guy eating cookies out of maybe like a Chips Ahoy package. Do you know the bit I'm talking about?

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah. You did a bit in that show, didn't you? Isn't that.

[Seth Meyers]

I do remember sort of being backstage.

[Mike O'Brien]

At one point, but yeah, that guy. It's that. Yeah. I don't know how this will play in description, but he's.

[Seth Meyers]

It's very unfair to ask you a wordless visual sketch on a podcast.

[Mike O'Brien]

He's housing some Chips Ahoy cookies and he's gotten it, so it's half empty. And then there's a knock at the door. That was usually our friend Peter Gross. And so he thinks he's being clever by taking the tray out and turning it around. So I guess this person will not notice that he's eaten 20 cookies or whatever. And then it just was a minute and a half of the knocking getting more frantic and the struggle to get. If you ever try to get those plastic trays back in the.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah.

[Mike O'Brien]

And then a slow fade and then kind of a realization from the audience of like, oh, we're never going to know who was at the door or what's going on. Okay.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah. But what we did know was this has happened before.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean?

[Seth Meyers]

Like, whoever's at the door and you have had issues over how many cookies.

[Mike O'Brien]

You eat, it probably wasn't his package of cookies, I'm guessing.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah. So your order was writer, then cast member.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah. Then a hybrid demotion.

[Seth Meyers]

Okay, so you got a promotion.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, if you call cast a promotion. Which I always resented as a writer.

[Seth Meyers]

Right.

[Mike O'Brien]

But, yeah, So I did four years of writing. Fifth year was in the cast, sixth year, they said you're back to a writer, but you can be in your own videos.

[Seth Meyers]

Okay, that's good.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah, that's a good.

[Seth Meyers]

Not bad. I also do remember calling you to tell you you had the writer's job, which is very exciting because, one, I was a fan, two, we were friends. And Yoram, I called him from the set of MacGruber. Oh, wow. That's where I was. I was in New Mexico.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah, because you always remember where you were.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah.

[Jorma Taccone]

But you don't always remember, I guess, where you were when you called the guy.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah, that's true, right?

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah. And mine, I would have remembered almost any call because I was on an elevator at Northwestern Hospital going up to meet my nephew Liam, who had been born a day before. So it was already a very memorable day. And then I was like, I don't know if I'd known New York number. I was like, weird number.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah.

[Mike O'Brien]

And that was it.

[Seth Meyers]

And then your sister was probably like, not very cool how you just walked in and stole my thunder.

[Mike O'Brien]

I mean, like, who wants a picture with me instead of the baby?

[Seth Meyers]

You walked in and said, a lot of babies got born yesterday, but guess what only happened to me?

[Mike O'Brien]

It truly was the biggest thunder seal.

[Seth Meyers]

All right. One year in the cast. So is Sad Mouse the first Mike O'Brien film?

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, and I don't think it had that card.

[Seth Meyers]

Right.

[Mike O'Brien]

I think it was the first Matt Nas directed anything as. Well. I don't know if they had done a commercial parody or what. Matt Valines and Oz Rodriguez are the pair that you see at the beginning and end of these. And, yeah, Sad Mouse was the first. It was in my fourth writing year. I wasn't in the cast.

[Seth Meyers]

And so you also were not in this short. So I think this is the only one we're gonna talk about where I was still at the show.

[Jorma Taccone]

This is the one I saw, too, and thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed. How many did you do before you got on the cast?

[Mike O'Brien]

I don't know. Maybe just one or two. It might have just been that. Yeah, I think there was that and then a long pause and then maybe grow a guy, which was when I was on the cast. But I remember at some point, Seth, you being like, do you have another Sad Mouse? I was like, I can't think of anything. No, that's pretty great.

[Seth Meyers]

Well, the best thing about Sad Mouse is. And yhorm. Can you sing us into Seth's Corner real quick?

[Jorma Taccone]

Seth's Corner. You're all invited. Seth's Corner. It's happening right now. Take away Seth.

[Seth Meyers]

So Bruno Mars is host and musical guest, and I think this tells you the difference between Mike and I, and also how writers come from many different cloths, and the best writing staff you can have is a diversity of takes. So I sit in my room and I'm thinking, what could Bruno Mars do? And I realized he can sing in any genre. He could do all these voices. And so I wrote a sketch where I think it was Pandora at the time. Right. It wasn't Spotify.

[Mike O'Brien]

No, you're right.

[Seth Meyers]

It was Pandora Headquarters, and Pandora went down, and he was the Janitor at Pandora, and he had to sing all the music. Now that is a very good example of what can this guy do that no one else can do? And he was fantastic in it. And I actually can't go back and watch it because it is one of the sketches that I remember going a little bit better at dress, and so I'm still just a little mad at how. Cause it required a lot of choreography and a lot of really intense cutting, and it was just. It was not bad at air, but it was so perfect at dress. But then Mike was like, oh, Bruno Mars. I know what that guy should do. Wear a full, full mouse costume and walk around Times Square being sad. Literally. Nothing about Bruno Mars makes you think he'd be good as a sad guy. He's just like, a bottle of.

[Jorma Taccone]

Was that him the entire time? I assume it was.

[Mike O'Brien]

No.

[Seth Meyers]

Oh, it wasn't.

[Mike O'Brien]

No, no, no. We got him to take his head off a few times, and it was, like, too crazy that it would be Bruno Mars in a from the neck down, mouse costume. So tourists were walking right by, just like, get out of the way, dude.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, I just assumed it was like, Brad Pitt and Jackass. Like, he wanted to do his own stunts. Like, he was like, yeah, I'm in it for the long haul.

[Mike O'Brien]

No, because it was becoming like, you know, 1:00am or whatever. But yeah, then there was a guy from the film department that did the rest, but, oh, I rewatched. I keep calling it Spotify and it does Google that way, but, yeah, it's Pandora, and it was so good. I thought Sad Mouse was also better at dress, so maybe that was a hotter audience too.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah, right. I'm blaming it on other things, and it's just not. It was just a hotter audience because.

[Mike O'Brien]

The Michael Jackson lean and everything were still really tight, I thought.

[Seth Meyers]

And Sudeikis is great in it. It's really super fun.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Jorma Taccone]

The thing I loved about sad Mouse and rewatching it was that it reminded me. We did, like, a recap of all the SNL shorts, like, our third or fourth year. And it was like Andy, like, hosting it in a movie theater. And it went through, like, the Albert Brooks ones. And there were a couple shorts that played that were SNL shorts that were just concepts and they weren't necessarily hilarious, but they were like short films that just either moved you or, like, you know, there was one with, like, these mariachis and ballerinas dancing together that I was always just like, this is really inspired. And there was something about that one that I was just like, this is really nice. And also, like, knowing you, Mike, and what you're capable of and how deeply sarcastic you can get to sort of, like, see this sort of introspective, sincere side of it was really, really sweet.

[Seth Meyers]

I mean, I watched a bunch of yours today. Like, there is a core sincerity that goes through all of them. So I feel like we are bearing the premise. So sad. Mouse starts with Bruno Mars. He's talking to Siddex about how bad things are going. I think his girlfriend broke up with him.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, girlfriend played by Sarah Schneider in a photo.

[Seth Meyers]

Oh, right. In the photo of my friend Sarah Schneider.

[Mike O'Brien]

And she said she loved me, but she couldn't picture me as her husband. And that was it, Man. Six years of my life gone. And it all went down the same weekend. My dad says he has another family. He had them the whole time. He likes them even more because they're smarter. And here's where you can't re watch these. It drives me crazy that we didn't stay on him for the word smarter.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah.

[Mike O'Brien]

And when you get into camera angles when you're rewatching, then it's not fun. But anyway.

[Seth Meyers]

And then Sudeikis is sort of taking this in, and you don't quite know their relationship. And then it turns out Sudeikis basically says, this is the easiest hundred bucks you're ever going to make. You're going to put on this patriotic mouse costume and walk around in Times Square and take pictures, and then people will pay you and we'll split it 50. 50. And always says you got to wave at people. And Bruno. And I will say, watching it back, I kind of can't believe Bruno hasn't been an actor. He's so good in it, and his face is so. I mean, it's so camera friendly.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, very. He's handsome and he's crying hard, which is a really hard thing as an actor to do. And I give him all the credit. And Sudeikis too, who was, of course, sitting straight. And Bruno was nervous about, like, crying and everything. And they were just in their own little world. And Jason was kind of talking to him quietly. And there was as much directing probably from him as Matt Nas and. But Bruno killed it. Yeah, he probably. Has he not been in stuff, I assume.

[Jorma Taccone]

I don't know. It seemed like such a good calling card to have somebody have the brilliant idea in Hollywood to be like, hey, you know who might be good is this Bruno Marx.

[Seth Meyers]

Right.

[Mike O'Brien]

They do that with any popular singer. So how did he not? But yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

And then he says, you know, he wants the job, obviously, but he's really worried in his fragile state that if he waves at somebody, they don't wave back. It's gonna be like the straw that broke the camel's back. And so we're all just sort of watching and rooting. And the one, of course, callback to the setup is Bruno Mars is, like, sitting in Times Square. It's clearly just regular people, like you said, Mike. Nobody is clocking that it's Bruno Mars. And he looks at. He's got a letter from his girlfriend. And then he also has a letter from his dad, which I feel like a dad who had a secret second family. Wouldn't send. Wouldn't tell you. With a photo of the new family.

[Jorma Taccone]

That's definitely. Definitely my favorite joke in it, obviously.

[Seth Meyers]

But then it just resolves itself with, you know, he sees somebody in a frog costume, and they just kind of wave at each other. There's no. There's not more than that, but it's genuinely. You can tell by the audience reaction there was an emotional investment in it.

[Jorma Taccone]

I think I was just so happy that it didn't end with it being a reveal that it's like Lady Gaga is in the other.

[Mike O'Brien]

Oh, yeah, right.

[Jorma Taccone]

You know what I mean? Like, it could have gone that route, and I didn't, and I appreciated that.

[Mike O'Brien]

Well, it was never that, but it was a different ending.

[Seth Meyers]

Oh, here we go.

[Mike O'Brien]

Let's hear it.

[Seth Meyers]

We've thrown the praise at him. Now let's hear his terrible first instinct.

[Mike O'Brien]

Spill the tea. Get ready for the horrible. Because I wouldn't have written something where it's like they hold hands and walk off the end.

[Jorma Taccone]

Okay, all right. So I'm giving you a lot of credit for the sincerity.

[Mike O'Brien]

I know. No, I feel like that wasn't our job at snl, but they get into a pretty sexual furry relationship. And there's a scene in the alley where he undoes the frog's bra thing under the bleachers. The audience had cheered so hard when they walked out holding hands. And then this added minute, Lauren just looked over. Do you think maybe the ending was that last part? And I'm like, okay, okay, okay.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, my God. I want to see that so bad.

[Seth Meyers]

I can't believe I have no memory of this. And I'm sitting here praising you for your restraint.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, no, there wasn't restraint. I was like, we gotta. We gotta get a laugh at the end.

[Seth Meyers]

So good.

[Jorma Taccone]

Wow. Yeah. There you go. Margins man.

[Mike O'Brien]

It comes back to Sudeikis. And there's something where they're like, so you guys are fucking, though? Yeah, we're fucking.

[Jorma Taccone]

There it is.

[Mike O'Brien]

That was all just met with silence.

[Jorma Taccone]

So the magic of editing. Yeah. People like, sincere.

[Seth Meyers]

I wrote an episode of documentary now called Globesman. It was based on Salesman. And the original ending was Fred and Bill get into a car and just get T boned by this rival atlas salesman. And so it was this real dark ending. And Bill. I wasn't on set, I was doing my show and they were filming it out in la and Bill was like, hey, man, Fred's playing it. Really sad because they were getting T boned right after Fred had like a minor victory and he's like, I think people are going to be super bummed out if it ends with him dying. And it was the same thing. Like, I didn't have the confidence to just let it end. Nice.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

And it was. Thank God for Bill's good instincts because it is the way it ends now. I love. And it's so crazy. I also think probably somebody was like, can you call Seth so we don't have to have a car accident.

[Mike O'Brien]

Oh, yeah. Our day is done if we don't have to do that. Yeah. I mean, it's also. Cause if it isn't quite right and you're like, they look off into the sunset, a tear rolls down their cheek. In a comedy setting, you can get crucified.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah.

[Mike O'Brien]

Like the audience and your friends will talk about it forever. I mean, you're like, that one for some reason doesn't work. And you text your friends about it.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah.

[Mike O'Brien]

You never want to be the one who got texted about.

[Seth Meyers]

I think it helps that you tried the other. So you at least know. Even if you got burned by your friends.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

Well, even though, like, your friends are like, what was that? You're like, lauren would let me do the furry stuff.

[Mike O'Brien]

He was blushing.

[Seth Meyers]

But it was one of those. That was so different. I remember, correct me if I'm wrong, it got really good feedback. Right. People really liked it.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, I think generally it did. Like I say, I felt when I rewatched it, like the audience wasn't going crazy. But I think people around the building were nice about it.

[Jorma Taccone]

Can I ask a nerdy question? Which is, what did you guys shoot on? Because what I also like about it is it has a different quality. As in, it's. The quality of the film is less than the show, which is nice because it actually stands out as its own. But you're not shooting on film or anything. Right. What were you guys shooting on?

[Mike O'Brien]

It wasn't film. I don't know if it was reds or whatever. But what I loved was that there were obviously no lights ever. And just relying on those, like, humongous building sized billboards that'll go from white to black as they're flashing. Different ads made for this, like, moody, weird lighting. I mean, Matt Nas were utilizing it well, but it was kind of a lot of found cool shots because of the crazy lighting of that place at night.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah, no, I love it. I love it. It just makes it stand out immediately.

[Seth Meyers]

Totally, completely to show your range here. So first of all, then, I know there's a real burn on Yoram and my other two co hosts, they just fully. Lorne was like, yeah, you can put a Mike O'Brien film up there.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, that's right. It was okay for anybody else.

[Seth Meyers]

It was so funny. Lorne held the line so hard on Digital Short. Then he's like, call it what you want.

[Jorma Taccone]

Sure, yeah, it's 2009.

[Mike O'Brien]

And then yet that's the one we hold up. The highest is Lonely Island. Everyone knows that term. No one says, like, oh, are you the guy behind Michael Bryant Pictures? If that even was what the thing was. But I also would be remiss if I didn't say, what's your go to, Seth, that you're trying to lose the expression.

[Seth Meyers]

Oh, yeah, I should know.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, I'm gonna try to make mine. I'd be remiss if I didn't say it was very cringey. Whenever anyone once I did a couple would say anything about Lonely island and that, I was like, this is not going to be Lonely Island. I can't do Lonely island. They did 110, 120amazing shorts. They have musical talent, they have rhythm, they're funny. Please don't. Yeah, they were more like, these might be Albert Brooksy or something.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah. I don't know.

[Jorma Taccone]

I don't know about the musical talent because this segues really nicely into the Jay Z short.

[Seth Meyers]

Support for the Lonely island and Seth Meyers podcast comes from Airbnb. Hey there, Yhorm.

[Jorma Taccone]

Hi.

[Seth Meyers]

You love cool stuff.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, my God, I can't. It's like my fave. Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

And you know, sometimes when you go to one of our great cities of the world, sure. You might end up in a touristy area and shout out to tourists, I'm not looking down my nose.

[Mike O'Brien]

Sure.

[Seth Meyers]

But you like to plug in to the parts of the city, the beating heart, as you like to say, of where the locals Live beating heart.

[Jorma Taccone]

I like authentic experiences. I like local food or comita, depending on which part of the world you're in. Yeah, like all that shit.

[Seth Meyers]

Well, I have good news, because that is what Airbnb provides to you, Yoram. You don't have to stay in a hotel where the other tourists are convening. You can find your way into a local neighborhood that you otherwise maybe would never step foot in. One of those neighborhoods that doesn't have a big old hotel, but rather just an apartment where some people live and now are being kind enough to let you stay. So, anyway, I feel like you get this. You're a smart guy. I don't have to keep saying it.

[Jorma Taccone]

You're speaking me language.

[Seth Meyers]

Thanks to Airbnb for sponsoring the pod. And do check it out.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

Support comes from Shopify. Hey, Yorm.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yes?

[Seth Meyers]

You know, sometimes it's not enough to have a great product. You gotta have somebody who helps you sell that product to people.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yes, and so glad you brought this up, Seth, because I'm developing antique coins. You would take pictures of them and then sell them like baseball cards with stats and all that sort of stuff. You sell the cards, but not the actual coins. And I think it's a great idea for a business.

[Seth Meyers]

Okay. Now that actually might be one of the few products that Shopify can't help with. But Shopify can help with products like Allbirds or Untuck. It Skims. When you think about a great product, a cool brand, brilliant marketing. The often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business. Making, selling, and for shoppers, buying. Simple. For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify. Nobody does selling better than Shopify. It's home of the number one checkout on the planet. And the not so secret secret. With Shop Pay, it boosts conversions up to 50%. One more time. We've tried this before. What do you think that means? That it boosts conversions 50%?

[Jorma Taccone]

Jorm, it boosts it half of 100%, which is great.

[Seth Meyers]

You're like the Beautiful Mind guy of this podcast. The amazing way you just like process math so quickly.

[Jorma Taccone]

Thanks. Thank you.

[Seth Meyers]

What that means actually, Yoram, is that less carts go abandoned and more sales go forward. So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web, in your store, in their feed, everywhere in between. Businesses that sell more sell on Shopify.

[Jorma Taccone]

Coincards.com.

[Seth Meyers]

Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Skims uses. Sign up for your $1 per month. Trial period at shopify.com lonelyisland all lowercase go to shopify.com lonelyisland to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com lonelyisland Tell me one more time. So it's a coin. It's a picture of a coin.

[Jorma Taccone]

It's a picture of a series of coins, different kinds of coins. And then it would have stats.

[Seth Meyers]

The Jay Z1. I had a really funny thing, which is the first time I went looking for this today on YouTube. I wrote Mike O'Brien and I think the third opt was Jay Z. Then later I accidentally went and looked for it and I wrote Jay Z first. And your name does not pop up.

[Mike O'Brien]

Whoa, weird.

[Seth Meyers]

If you go Jay Z first, it turns out Jay Z. Michael Bryant is not in the circle, but Michael Bryan. Jay Z is like the third.

[Mike O'Brien]

You're saying I might be benefiting more from the relationship than he is?

[Jorma Taccone]

I don't know. It's hard to say.

[Seth Meyers]

All right, so it's the Jay Z story and you play Jay Z, and I have so many things to say about it, but. But first, just talk about where this one came from.

[Mike O'Brien]

Oh, I don't really know. I think the general feeling that I felt on the show, like I was bad at the show in my first year on the cast, and that I can't do impressions, I can't sing. All these things that I was seeing all the people around me do really well, I can't do. And it was almost like, just make that the joke. I feel like Andy doing impressions next to Hater early in his time might be the same move of, like, fuck it, just. Yeah, look, I can.

[Jorma Taccone]

I can do it with a smile.

[Seth Meyers]

But it was fascinating to watch the audience process this because first, it's beautifully shot.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

I mean, beautiful black and white. And it's the Jay Z story. And then the first reveal is that you're Jay Z. And there's a fear, I think, because the worst thing that could happen is you're doing an impression. Right. We don't want to actually hear you do an impression of Jay Z.

[Mike O'Brien]

Right.

[Seth Meyers]

Which you quickly don't do. You're absolutely playing it like yourself, but you're not even saying things Jay Z would say. You're super earnest and really sweet.

[Jorma Taccone]

This is the definitive, fully accurate biopic.

[Mike O'Brien]

That is the final word on the subject. This is the Jay Z Story with.

[Seth Meyers]

Michael Bryant as Jay Z.

[Mike O'Brien]

Cocaine. Cocaine for sale. Cocaine. Wanna buy some cocaine? Hello. Walked right by me. Hey, you seem a little down. What's on your mind, man? I think I might try to stop selling cocaine, do what I think I want to try to be a rapper. The amount of fact checking that went on during that, like, crew members coming up to me and saying, like, his first album wasn't the Black Album. And I'm like, I know that this is not a good biopic. Also, it was thrust upon J.K. simmons. It had been to the table many times and did well, but wasn't picked for whatever reasons. And then Lorne was just like, just shoot it on Tuesday with J.K. simmons. So he walked into this world and was like, you're Jay Z. And I was like, yeah. He goes, and I'm Nas. He had never heard the laughs that it had gotten at Taylor. And he goes, and is it a problem that I don't know who the fuck Nas is? And I said, no, no, it's much better. That's way better. Yeah, that's perfect.

[Jorma Taccone]

I forget that, like, you had to bring these to table because that was one of the advantages that we had is that because we had sort of gotten the first few and Lazy Sunday in particular under the radar, we just started to not have to bring anything to table ever. And, like, the idea of having to read some of these must have been hard to get by because obviously with a lot of our stuff, the visuals don't necessarily. You don't quite get the concept if you just read it out loud. Like, was it harder for. I mean, that's a harder row to hoe, for sure.

[Mike O'Brien]

I think so sometimes, because, yeah, it would be Lorne reading pages and pages of silent work.

[Seth Meyers]

Stage directions.

[Mike O'Brien]

Stage directions. The mouse goes up to a couple, he tries to get them to take a photo of him, but instead they want him to take a photo, you know? But there was one or two times where they got, like, championed. You know how, like, Hayter, during this era, like, a Leslie would get behind a sketch and almost, like, get the room going.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah.

[Mike O'Brien]

And one or two may have gotten over the hump because of that.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, man.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Jorma Taccone]

The way Hayter would laugh occasionally when he liked something was so infectious. Yeah, Just that giggle monster.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

Hayter had put a lot of. A lot of shoe leather into having taste. And I think late in his time, Lauren had a lot of respect for Hayter's taste. So if Hayter was laughing louder than other people, it was almost extra cool points, I think.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, I think that's right. But he would even, like, slap the table, just like, waking up the hair department or whatever. Like, it was.

[Jorma Taccone]

It was great.

[Seth Meyers]

It's Also a very funny tone for the JZ story, which is everybody in it, is really sweet and encouraging. And I don't even know what your archetype is in this sketch because you're not even like a basic white guy. It's almost like, I don't know, like a movie about a teenage girl. Like, it's such a weird.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah, you're bashful. You're really bashful, right?

[Seth Meyers]

Bashful. You're on the COVID of, like, a made up rap magazine and you just, like, clutch it to your chest and fall back on a couch and kick.

[Jorma Taccone]

Your feet, which is called awesome Rappers, I believe.

[Mike O'Brien]

Awesome Rappers.

[Jorma Taccone]

The COVID of awesome Rappers.

[Mike O'Brien]

I mean, I guess this is sort of a breakthrough moment for me because in my mind, I'm a version of myself, like, which maybe my inner Persona is a teenage girl.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah.

[Mike O'Brien]

Just blushing because I'm just like, what if someone handed me a magazine and I was on the COVID I might be, like, giddy.

[Seth Meyers]

There's really fun moments where you ask how to get home and somebody says, you could take the J or the Z.

[Jorma Taccone]

Classic. Classic.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah. And I think I read that that is rumored to be how he got his name and it's incorrect. So we put it in. Should head back to Marcy projects. You know what trains are around here. You should take the J or the Z. You just gave me an idea about what my fake name could be. You son of a gun.

[Jorma Taccone]

I love that, like, people corrected you, but I think that is because you constantly say that. It's all totally accurate.

[Mike O'Brien]

Right? Right. Yeah. And then I did have to wrap by speaking to what you were saying, Jorma, and that was hell.

[Jorma Taccone]

Really good. Really good.

[Mike O'Brien]

They had me come back, I kept getting a text like, hey, can you swing back again? And they'd be like, can you just do it again? It's not. It's not on the beat. It's not.

[Seth Meyers]

And it's not good. It's not a good rap.

[Mike O'Brien]

No. He's saying, I'm so humble and I got to the top because of luck and all that. But I had to redo that, I think with Eli at that time. And he was like, okay, I'm going to play it again. I'm going to point to when you start. It's.

[Jorma Taccone]

It's so much sadder when you're dealing with, like, a really accomplished musician who, like, this is so basic, like, just trying to get on the bar, like, just.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, I was editing and I couldn't get you on beat.

[Seth Meyers]

We. I, I forget the Prince Song Let's Go Crazy. Maybe there was a network wide promo where they had all the talent on the network sing, like, one line of that song. And Spike Lee directed it. And Spike Lee came to my studio. Studio. He. And I was like, look, I'm just real bad at singing. I'm just going to tell you right now. And he's like, don't worry. I know how to get this. I've gotten it from. Everybody tells me that fine. And we did it for, like, an hour. And then he walked over. He's like, we couldn't do it.

[Mike O'Brien]

You broke it.

[Seth Meyers]

He really, like, looked at me. He's like, you were right.

[Mike O'Brien]

We couldn't get it.

[Seth Meyers]

He goes, you were just like. You want to just shake your shoulders a little bit? We'll probably come to that.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, man.

[Mike O'Brien]

He gave you, like, peanut butter like they give to dogs to make your mouth move.

[Jorma Taccone]

Mr. Ed stuff.

[Seth Meyers]

But it was really. He was really sweet about it because he was like, you know what? Thank you for your honesty early on. I should have listened to you. Yeah.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, my God. At least you got it from the best. That's. That's very exciting.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah. There's a very fun casting move, which is Beyonce comes in, played by Sasheer, which then establishes, at least in my mind when I was watching it, oh, Mike's the only one who's gonna be a white person playing anybody in the story. Then you go talking to Kanye, and then we reveal it's Sudeikis.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

And then you guys have a very sweet scene where Kanye tells Jay Z he also wants to be a rapper. And you're incredibly encouraging.

[Mike O'Brien]

You've been making some fantastic beats for me lately, Kanye.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, thank you.

[Mike O'Brien]

Hey, where do you see yourself in five years? I want to be a rapper like you.

[Seth Meyers]

Hmm.

[Mike O'Brien]

I think that could be amazing. Holy guacamole.

[Seth Meyers]

Oh, man.

[Mike O'Brien]

You had me so nervous.

[Jorma Taccone]

I didn't know how you would respond to that.

[Mike O'Brien]

I didn't know if you'd think, Kanye, look at me. Your brain works like no one's I've ever met. Truly.

[Seth Meyers]

It's so funny. It's so well acted. Was the Sasheer thing laid in as a misdirect, or was it just. She's really good as Beyonce.

[Mike O'Brien]

I know. And she's got, like, the fan effect, I think it was, of course, longer than all. These are so much longer than Lonely island videos. But there were other beats. He goes to Annie and he's like, oh, my gosh, this Hard Knock Life song could actually be a rap. And people Are like, no, that's impossible. So everything was gonna be accurate except Kanye was the only other one. And then Nas got added in and other beats got cut to give the host something to do. And so then it became almost like, well, now more than half the world are white guys. But that wasn't exactly planned, I will say.

[Seth Meyers]

If Beyonce had also been white, it feels like a different sketch.

[Mike O'Brien]

Right.

[Seth Meyers]

Like, it happily kind of grounds it back to the world.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

That's interesting with it being Sasheer. There's also, of course, the really funny thing, which, I mean is maybe my favorite part is that Jay Pharoah's in this and Jay has a lights out Jay Z impression.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

And Jay must have been sitting there just wondering what had gone wrong, that he was playing Jay Z's friend and you were the one playing Jay Z. Yeah.

[Mike O'Brien]

And he pitches me the song Empire State of Mind, doing a great Jay Z. And I think he'd done it on the show.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah, he'd done Jay Z at that point. So it was. At least he didn't have to think, oh, now Mike's the Jay Z night.

[Mike O'Brien]

Right, right. And then, by the way, jump Forward to the 40th. Leslie Jones, who knows Jay Z, saw me and him in proximity and was like, oh, this is gonna happen. And I was like, I don't know, I don't know. And she made me go up and talk to him. And it became clear, but it took me way too long to understand this, that he had never seen the video. Yeah, I assumed it. Not because I thought it was so amazing, but like assistants and people almost always show the person, like, they're like, hey, there's a thing that literally was shot where you grew up and stuff. Like, we're at Marcy projects and stuff. And he just. I said, I think Leslie wants me to say, you know, I'm the guy. I'm this. I played you, you know, and he just was kind of blank stare, scanning the room for anyone else to talk to, and just kept going. It's all good, man. It's all good. And then Ariana Grande.

[Seth Meyers]

I mean, to defend the man, if he hadn't seen it. What a weird moment.

[Mike O'Brien]

I replayed it and he's like, I have no idea what that was. But he probably has psychopaths come up to him once a day and say something like that.

[Seth Meyers]

Right.

[Mike O'Brien]

They're you and me. We're the same.

[Jorma Taccone]

A guy who looks like you being like, I played you. Like, it doesn't even make sense. You're like, well, Okay.

[Seth Meyers]

I thought the fact that Leslie set it up, like, it was a big moment. I do worry that you walked over with a little bit, like, it's finally happening.

[Mike O'Brien]

Oh, 100% moment.

[Seth Meyers]

We've both been waiting.

[Mike O'Brien]

Give me a hug. Come on.

[Seth Meyers]

Water under the bridge.

[Jorma Taccone]

Hey, no beef. No beef.

[Mike O'Brien]

No beef, man.

[Seth Meyers]

Did you ever get the sense that after it aired that J.K. simmons appreciated it? Did you ever get any feedback from him?

[Mike O'Brien]

I don't remember talking to him at the after party, but I'll say that that was the only one where I got what the Lonely island got for five years, which was for a couple weeks, hosts came in saying they wanted to do something.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, nice.

[Seth Meyers]

Gotcha.

[Mike O'Brien]

And one of them that I'll obviously leave unnamed said, what if you and I are nwa. And it was like, the next week. And I was like, well, that feels similar. But I was like, I think that's too soon. Too close. But then there were general other ones. Like the Michael Keaton short happened because he came in, said, I'll do a short with the Jay Z guys.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh.

[Mike O'Brien]

Which was cool.

[Seth Meyers]

Oh, great.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, that's very cool.

[Seth Meyers]

It's one of my favorites. And again, Michael Keaton. There's very few actors I like more than Michael Keaton.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

So this is Prom King. And you're both so good in it.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, he's like a top tenner for me as well. And for Andy to not be on here when there's an organic Beetlejuice Avenue and exit ramp. But, yeah, we of course got him from midnight till 4am Friday night.

[Seth Meyers]

Should I do it? Should I be the guy who does Beetlejuice?

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, I don't know. I think maybe Sandworms.

[Mike O'Brien]

This podcast is legally obligated to do it.

[Seth Meyers]

I mean, I already took his Swedish Chef, so I know, like, you know, might as well. Juice guy now.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah, I gotta get married.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah. So anyway, so, yeah, it was this.

[Mike O'Brien]

Maybe this is still the case, but a crazy time in the show where the host would usually have to shoot. Shoot three or four videos on Friday. It was crazy.

[Seth Meyers]

I think it's worse. I mean, not worse is the wrong word, but I think it is as taxing, if not more taxing now.

[Mike O'Brien]

It's insane. They handed us this American icon at midnight, and he was just broken. And we were just about to start shooting, and of course, we didn't get him till 4. And so the thing we had to cut from Prom Queen was the prom. We cut the whole prom.

[Seth Meyers]

I'm gonna say something.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

I kind of love that it's not there.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah. I don't remember if there was like, jokes I loved in it or whatever, but watching it already again, it's too long. And it's fine with just going like. And he won and he won, so who cares?

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah. The trope is that teen movie where the super cool guy says, I will, you know, make a girl who is unexpected. I will bring her to prom. She will win the prom queen. But it is a cruel bet that he makes with a friend. And in this case, it's really nice because Pete doesn't pick the nerdy teacher. He points to Kate. And you just misunderstand who he's pointing to.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah. Kate is set up very clearly to be a Taming of the Shrew or whatever. She's got headgear and everything.

[Seth Meyers]

A big old headgear and a move of moving the pencil within the body of the headgear.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah. She had one line in it and got like four laughs.

[Seth Meyers]

It's amazing.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

I had remembered she had a line and watching it again, which is, you don't. You don't realize she's still in the room. And Keaton looks down and she's just still there.

[Jorma Taccone]

Sure.

[Mike O'Brien]

I suppose that'd be all right, right?

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah.

[Mike O'Brien]

Great.

[Seth Meyers]

All right.

[Jorma Taccone]

My next class is in here.

[Mike O'Brien]

And this was. I mean, I did this as a 10 minute play at a place called Stage Left in Chicago. This was late in the game and I was still like, let's bring theater to snl, hence having to cut it down a lot. But that was from that too. And I think it was something to do with having the blocking of it. And I was like, just say your next class is in there.

[Seth Meyers]

He's so good in it. Vanessa is so good in it. You do get a sense that there's not a lot of excitement in his life.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, she's hitting the sack at like 7:30. She's gonna do her Vicks.

[Seth Meyers]

And she's just. The line readings from Vanessa are so dead.

[Mike O'Brien]

I was so impressed when I watched it this morning at a look she gives when she's leaving the room. That's really quick. And it's like a little like, what the hell is this tutoring session? Like, she kind of senses it. She still goes off to bed. It doesn't become a story, but there's a tiny look from Vanessa that is really like, says a ton where she's like, well, we have a dead marriage. But I don't know that I love this. And it's. It's amazing.

[Seth Meyers]

She does come around. She does want him to go to the prom. I mean, she doesn't quite know the stakes, but she does support him. It's really lovely. And I will say another one that it sort of does end sweetly. You know, there's no like furries fucking in an alley.

[Mike O'Brien]

Well, that there is a longer version at dress where no we get into big teddy bear costumes and fuck Keaton.

[Seth Meyers]

He brings so much integrity to it.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

It's so funny for you to say how tired he was because of course you don't see it. And man, it really goes back to how hard that show works its hosts.

[Mike O'Brien]

Oh, it's crazy. And yeah, we got him, I think till like 3:30 he got in the car probably. But yeah, another thing that I like that we didn't do was that we had a kiss in the rain and he's like, I don't think we need it. I don't remember if he said this, but it's that thing I feel like you guys have talked about of like, what is the laugh based on? And he's like, tell you what, let's do it. But if you want my vote, when you get into the edit, look at not having it. So I got to kiss Michael Keaton five times and then agreed with him and took it out.

[Seth Meyers]

They'll never take those kisses away.

[Mike O'Brien]

No, you got those. Only we know about that now.

[Jorma Taccone]

Stored in the bank.

[Seth Meyers]

I think his instincts were right. I liked Nazi in the prom. I liked how just happy he looked to have the crown. It was happy. It was good. I think he's one of the first. Because that's pretty soon after I left. He was the first. Like, really? I felt the ache in my bones of like, ah, I can't believe I didn't get to write for Keaton. And I bring this up because after you had left, I remember one time we were sitting in Higgins office and I won't name names, but all anybody was doing was complaining about the host. And it was like a real moment of wisdom where you said, these are the ones you're gonna talk about with Everybody here. Like 20 years from now, nobody remembers anything but the absolute disasters. And it was really. It was like such a nice moment. Cause I was like, oh, you're right. This is the one that they're gonna laugh about.

[Mike O'Brien]

We still, when you get together with people, Tim Robinson, who, by the way, this is late in the game to be mentioning. He co wrote a lot of the videos that we're talking about. But when I see him, we Talk about the same five weeks. So you never go. Like, the example I feel like you and I always use is, remember when Paul Rudd hosted the second time and it was super smooth and Paul was great.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah. Nobody talks. I mean, you're happy to see Paul out because of how smooth it was. But, like, the fun stories are. It was like, you said it in the way that in the movie Parenthood, remember, when the grandmother, like, makes some speech that, like, kind of grounds everybody in the world. Like, I can't quite remember. I think it's something about a merry ground. But it was a really. Everybody got quiet while you're like, don't you see these are the moments?

[Jorma Taccone]

And now I must go.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah. I think I'd been in LA for six months. And then when you go back and you're so excited to be back and be like, what are the bits this week? And everyone's like, we're furious. And you're like, whoa, why are you mad? Life is great and SNL's the best.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah, it's true. There's no other place like this. And the fact that you can do bits about a impossible host is one of the gifts.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

I do think Timmy was always on the side of. This is hilarious. Yeah, Timmy was never in a bad mood. I remember saying, is the host as bad as everybody says? And he's like, oh, it's the worst.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, my God. Okay, so speaking of this and coming back to SNL after however many years it was, and you and Tim, Brian, you were in your office, and I, for some reason, nobody else was, like, on the floor. I don't know what you guys were doing, but you were dressed up as this character. I came in and, like, just. You guys were having such a fucking blast. And it just. It just reminded me of all my favorite moments at the show. But you were wearing this, like, giant coat. And, like, I can't remember what you were doing, but you were just like, was there a character that you were playing just in your office?

[Mike O'Brien]

Well, I was a character for most of a year. That final year, I was. Yes. I claimed that the reason I'd been taken out of the live cast was that Loren found out my age, and he was mad that I was old and that he screamed, at least start fucking acting and dressing young and get a fucking nickname. And then. And so I was obi, and I bought all this hip hop clothing. But I remember that moment, too, because Tim loves ripping on I have bunions, so I wear wide shoes. And I was wearing Merrells and he was like, one thing Obi can't be cool about though, is his wide Merrells. And do you remember what you said right away? You're like, we made sure MacGruber always had Merrells because we thought they were so dumb.

[Jorma Taccone]

It was the first shoe selection right out the gate.

[Seth Meyers]

I forgot about Obi. That was a real. I still had enough friends at the show that I could go back and visit. And it's not, by the way. I think people would be very polite if I stopped by. But it wasn't instant bits. But I remember showing up and Timmy almost with tears in his eyes, explaining how you're now OB and you wear young clothes and how happy it made.

[Mike O'Brien]

Him and how absurd it was like sitting in the pitch room. It was always. That was the time it was. I had to really kind of like, steel myself. Cause wandering around or just riding with one person and like, who cares that you have a sideways baseball cap on? But sitting down in the room. And I was at that point sitting like right next to Lorne. And he never would acknowledge it. He'd just be like, how was your Sunday? And we'd talk with me having a sideways baseball cap on.

[Seth Meyers]

And he did not know the bit correct?

[Mike O'Brien]

I don't think so, No. I would have been happy to tell him it, but I don't remember ever doing that.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, I did not know that. You did it everywhere. That's great.

[Seth Meyers]

So Lauren spent a whole year where you, for no reason, or certainly for no reason he knew, were all of a sudden dressing young.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yes.

[Seth Meyers]

I think that speaks to the kind of people Lauren has worked with over 50 years, where he's like, I'm just gonna let it go.

[Jorma Taccone]

Wait, how often do you think he was like, I made a huge mistake. He should be on the cast.

[Seth Meyers]

He's so young.

[Jorma Taccone]

He's so dope.

[Mike O'Brien]

I'm gonna say zero.

[Seth Meyers]

Support for the Lonely island comes from Thrive Market. Hello. Ym.

[Jorma Taccone]

Hi, Seth.

[Seth Meyers]

I know a Berkeley boy eat healthy.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah, all day and day.

[Seth Meyers]

And we're a healthy eating family, especially with our kids. And we get a Thrive Market box once a week. Basically there's this mango jerky that the kids just love. And I'm not gonna lie, Yoram, I love it too.

[Jorma Taccone]

I'm so often stealing my kids food, it's not even cool, actually.

[Seth Meyers]

But it is cooler when the food is healthy. You know what I mean? I'm not some grown man eating, you know, sugar popsicles or anything. I'm eating nice, healthy, you know, beef jerky. Mango jerky. It's mostly jerkies now that I'm saying it out loud.

[Jorma Taccone]

You gotta take care of those calves.

[Seth Meyers]

Exactly. So here's the thing. Raising a family today feels like navigating a maze of unhealthy options. Between hidden sugars, artificial ingredients, misleading labels, it's hard to know what's actually good for our kids. That's why, as I've established, I love Thrive Market. It's like having a personal guide to healthier living for my and Jorma's entire family. It's not Andy's. Andy's family.

[Jorma Taccone]

No way. Those guys are just a big old.

[Seth Meyers]

Big old. Just a. He rolls in a wagon of pudding every morning.

[Jorma Taccone]

This is the sound he makes.

[Seth Meyers]

Also, this is fun. Thrive Market's smart card feature takes the guesswork out of healthy shopping. When you create an account, they ask you your family's needs and automatically build a cart full of cleaner versions of your favorite brands. You can tweak it before checking out, but it's a great way to get started. So if you're ready for a junk free start to 2025, head to thrivemarket.com island and get 30% off your first order plus a free $60. That's T H R I V market.com island thrivemarket.com island can you make the noise Andy makes one more time when he feeds his kids?

[Jorma Taccone]

Don't make that noise, guys. Go get Thrive.

[Seth Meyers]

I will say prom king. You have a super stupid cool guy haircut that works very well.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, this is. Now we're hitting the Timmy stuff. But one of his favorite things is SNL. 34 year olds playing high schoolers, which happens every week. Every week they're like, if you throw a striped shirt and backwards baseball hat on Mikey Day, he's 14.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah.

[Mike O'Brien]

And it's just the nature of sketch comedy. But it looks so dumb. And me sitting next to what, 23 year old Pete Davidson also makes it stand out and a bunch of other like teenagers. And I mean, we have a joke in there where I'm a six year senior but I'm clearly 34 or whatever I was.

[Seth Meyers]

It's so funny because Mikey Day. Absolutely. They pass him for 14 and SNL all the time. And yet if it was like one of those Netflix documentaries about like a, you know, a 35 year old who like tricks him way back in the high school, you feel like they would catch him like halfway through the first period.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah.

[Mike O'Brien]

Right away they're like, no, dude, no. You're a cop. You're clearly a Cop.

[Jorma Taccone]

It was after, after we did Hot Rod. I remember having a conversation with Lauren and it was sort of about like, ah, it didn't do as well as we had expected it to do. Those projections were a little off. And at one point he did say he was like, well, you know, in a normal movie you would have been played by a 14 year old boy. Which is accurate. I was in stripes the whole time.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah, they tried to stripe you down, but it just didn't work.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah, tried to stripe me down.

[Seth Meyers]

All right, Grow a guy. One of my all time favorites. I never tire of watching it.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, so good.

[Seth Meyers]

It's absolutely fantastic. Do you want to lay out the premise or how you came up with this one?

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, I think this one was because my college housemate Fred had sea monkeys. Did you guys have these?

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah, I mean, not in college as.

[Mike O'Brien]

A small child, but for people who don't know, they're like a powder you buy out of the back of a comic book or something. And when you put it in water, they come to life. They're like little brine shrimp or whatever. But I was like, how is that a living thing? And what if someone doesn't buy the package? Does that thing never live? So the premise is that there's a guy. And by the way, this is one of my favorite Beck performances ever made it.

[Seth Meyers]

Unbelievable.

[Mike O'Brien]

Beck Bennett.

[Seth Meyers]

It's unbelievable.

[Jorma Taccone]

It's wonderful. Beck being a jockey jerk is always my favorite.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, he tapped into some kind of like awful Naperville guy he knew growing up I or something and we're all hanging out and you can tell he just hates me. I'm kind of the quieter, nerdier guy in the group and he's just kind of staring at me as we're all having fun. And then his burn, he decides is, do you have any other friends besides us? Which is confusing because he is saying that we are friends. But he knows that a real person should have many groups of friends and I clearly don't. And so I notice in the back of a magazine you can get a powder where you grow a guy and I grow a fake guy played by James Franco and bring him to show back. And the guy does great. I crash course him in all pop culture and all things to joke about. And he does great until he asks about hashtags, which are a real thing that were bothering me at the time.

[Seth Meyers]

That's the best part is he doesn't talk about him in a way that anybody should think. He's a grower guy. He just has A kind of a genuine question about it.

[Mike O'Brien]

Hey, what are hashtags? Say that again. Well, no, like, I get that there to flag a searchable term in your.

[Seth Meyers]

Tweet, but wouldn't it work just the.

[Mike O'Brien]

Same if you, you know, didn't put.

[Jorma Taccone]

The number symbol there?

[Seth Meyers]

What I'm seriously asking to.

[Mike O'Brien]

It was a valid thing that it was bothering me. And immediately Beck is like, you're a fucking grow a guy. I know it. And then everyone starts self destructing and it turns out, yeah, spoiler, everyone's a grow guy. Because it became fun to do that blow up effect.

[Seth Meyers]

The blow up effect was great.

[Jorma Taccone]

What was the solution that you splattered on people? Was it like applesauce or something? It's so perfectly gross.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah. Oatmeal plus something. But yeah, it was some guy with a bucket of it throwing it on the cast members who. I mean, that's another shout out I have to give. Although it's not in this one, but Taryn's in so many of these. Because you're kind of asking a lot to be in shorts. I feel like everyone was excited to be in Lonely island shorts because you might be in the next Dick in the Box, but people weren't banged on the door to be in my shorts. And they're in Brooklyn and it's the night before you're doing a live show and all this. So one person you could always count on to be really good in it and never complain and add a little bit more was Taryn. And that's why he's in almost all of them. But yeah, and this one back in. Vanessa and Pete and everybody are so good. And Sasheer and they all had to at some point get stuff splashed on them and all these little things where you're like, this isn't even their baby.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah, no, My favorite backline is him saying what I'm trying to help him, I think twice.

[Seth Meyers]

He says, I'm genuinely asking. That genuinely is such a shitheel move. The other great thing, because he has all these great line reads when it's revealed that he's a grow guy, he.

[Mike O'Brien]

Basically self destructs by saying peace straight to camera.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah, he's happy about it. He's thrilled.

[Mike O'Brien]

He kicks up his legs and says, peace down the lens and then blows up. It made me laugh so hard and was obviously not what I'd picture.

[Seth Meyers]

It's also so wonderful that he is a grow a guy who has just grown into a dickhead.

[Mike O'Brien]

Right?

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. To death. To the death. He's going to take that to the grave.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, peace.

[Seth Meyers]

And then Dragon Babies is insane.

[Jorma Taccone]

This is where it gets so specific with me, like just getting to this one, being like, oh man, it was like helping you out with any of your album stuff that you were doing or seeing. Your live one man show that I saw in la. I was just like the specificity of what you're bringing to this comedy, it's so specific. I mean, I know you're Chicago guy, but like this was so specific to me also.

[Seth Meyers]

Every moment in this, if you stopped it and said to 100 comedy writers, what happens next? Nobody.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

Now what do you think happens next? Like, there's no way to stay ahead of this one.

[Mike O'Brien]

This one is a truly 5050 with Tim. And I don't remember how we got to it being an animated dragon movie, but. Cause it started out as a bit. We always talked about writing where for some reason to promote his new show, Dennis Franz is going to play one play of football in the NFL. They're like, oh, and look at this. It's the star of the brand new, also on the same network, you know, cop show. Dennis Franz is in at safety and then he rushes the passer against the orders of the defensive coordinator and breaks Brady's leg. And then I think it was a lot of post game interviews or something of Dennis Franz always promoting the show while talking about his one play or whatever. And then I don't know how it got to maybe just Dennis Franz owes. I mean, the director owes him a favor and puts him in as a voice of a little dragon. And then we drop the Dennis Franz. But you can tell that that's what we told hair and makeup and cats.

[Seth Meyers]

I mean, it looks so much like Dennis Franz.

[Jorma Taccone]

That's great.

[Seth Meyers]

But I will say, as sad as I am not to have it be Dennis Franz, the fact that you play someone who looks just like Dennis Franz and your name is Rick Shoulders.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah. Bibbo is voiced by retired Chicago police officer Rick Shoulders. So it's always been my dream to do voiceover work. So after I retired in 09, I headed to Tinseltown to try my luck.

[Seth Meyers]

We need a fire to stay warm.

[Mike O'Brien]

Bibbo, can you try to breathe fire?

[Seth Meyers]

No. Shut up.

[Mike O'Brien]

I can't do it.

[Jorma Taccone]

You just have to believe.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, no, I know. I got believe in myself, but I don't yet, you know, there's the rub, you know.

[Seth Meyers]

Well, Rick cut me off a lot.

[Mike O'Brien]

And cleared his throat in almost every take.

[Seth Meyers]

It's gonna be a little hard to.

[Mike O'Brien]

Animate around all that coughing. Just take a moment now to get that out of your system. I feel like this is an experience I had 12 times or whatever many videos there are that Lonely island never maybe had, which is every host was like, what the fuck is going on? Cause this also wasn't at the table for Charlize. We read it like six months earlier, giving it to an animation studio. And then they're like, it's ready to go now and happens to be Charlize. And they're like, charlize, go over here. And now you like this guy and say these. And they're always like, I'm just gonna do two of these. I don't know what this is. I don't like this.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah, I'd rather not.

[Mike O'Brien]

We were thrilled to have Charlize Theron involved. She's playing May Showers, the candy.

[Seth Meyers]

Working with Rick Shoulders was a dream. So many actors are fake, but he's real. Who knows? Maybe in a parallel universe, a guy like Rick goes for a girl like me. Again, though, tribute to what a wonderful actor she is. She's fantastic at it. Oh, she's so good watching it. You would even say, oh, I bet she fought for this one.

[Mike O'Brien]

Oh, yeah. No, she did not. I wouldn't say she fought against it, but it wasn't at the table read or anything. She just was lightly confused, fairly so. Yeah.

[Jorma Taccone]

It did give me a little bit of the harkening back to seven Minutes in Heaven series that you did of just like, putting attractive ladies in the position of being like, I like that guy.

[Mike O'Brien]

The pure comedy of them saying, I'm into that guy. But yeah, And Taryn's great. Cecily's great. It's got a lot of fun performances in it.

[Seth Meyers]

Also, the logic of it is all over the place. It does seem like they have had to animate the movie based on lines that you. That we're not in the script.

[Mike O'Brien]

Right.

[Seth Meyers]

There's a moment the dragon babies are talking about who got what sandwich, and we see it's you and Cecily as your wife.

[Mike O'Brien]

And then they left that in. Yeah, A lot of crazy logic. He kind of. Yes. Ands the fact that his dragon finally breathes fire by shooting a gun into the floor of the studio, accidentally killing another person.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah. You feel as though you're trying to build in a empathy for this guy who's maybe a little over his skis as far as doing voiceover work. But then he admits that the two worst days of his life were getting cut from Madagascar. And then at time he thought somebody had a gun and then shot him 10 times.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

And the audience, you can tell the audience has a real. Okay.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

Not sure where we're supposed to stand on Rick's shoulders.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah. The. The fact that I don't remember how we got into this. I wonder if there was more of an explanation ever of how he got the Madagascar, because this was. This was his. He was the AA sponsor for Taryn, so how did he get that other one? But he said he got fired on the first day, so whatever. However he got it, they immediately were like, oh, whoops. No, no, no.

[Seth Meyers]

Right. He's also still dressed, I think, in his cop, like, windbreaker.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

Trying very hard.

[Jorma Taccone]

How did the animation thing work? Cause we were never able to access that part of snl. Like, who did it and how long did it take? Like, I mean, it's really. It's good.

[Mike O'Brien]

It's really good. And it was some outside thing. And so this was like. Like a little bit of a coup where I think it did fine at the table. I don't remember, but probably like Eric Kenward or someone was like, well, let's kind of start to figure out if the animation would work or whatever. And didn't get the proper Wednesday night picked. They just got the wheels in motion. And then it truly was like six months later, I'd forgotten about it. And they came back to me and Tim and they were like, okay, we have that animation done. And so then someone must have gone to Lauren, been like, hey, there's a sketch that's done that's animated.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, wow.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, it was backdoored in a way.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, gosh. I thought, like, I was like, did they do this in a week? This is fucking phenomenally difficult to, like, do it. To do in that time frame would be crazy. So that makes more sense.

[Seth Meyers]

It is very funny to think of someone telling Lauren, hey, so we spent a fortune on this animation and good news, it's on this week. And then it starts with you as Rick Shoulders.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, great.

[Mike O'Brien]

That was another thing. He was always like, you know, wants first year cast members to. To not have super heavy disguises because you're trying to get to know them and everything. So, yeah, he's like, oh, great. A heavily disguised first year cast member and a thing that wasn't at the table as Charlize has got. Probably a great show. But yeah, they let it on.

[Seth Meyers]

Fantastic.

[Jorma Taccone]

Bill probably laughed really hard at the table.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, that probably got it through only.

[Seth Meyers]

Because Yoram mentioned it. And I feel as though People are gonna have a fair amount of homework after listening to this podcast. But Seven Minutes in Heaven, how many episodes of that did you.

[Mike O'Brien]

Around 40.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh my God.

[Seth Meyers]

I did an episode. Did you do an episode, Yorm? Were you a guest?

[Jorma Taccone]

No, I'm not that cool.

[Mike O'Brien]

Never got Yorm. I got Seth. Yeah. Lots of, lots of fun people from our world.

[Seth Meyers]

We did an interview in a closet and it was very close and uncomfortable and a lot of fun.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah. And we were all genuinely alone in the closet. For each episode, they'd close the door and there were little cameras on tripods or whatever. Hi, this is Seven Minutes in Heaven with Michael Bryant. I'm here today with Andy Samberg.

[Jorma Taccone]

Woo.

[Mike O'Brien]

What's up, Andy?

[Seth Meyers]

We're here and we're homie.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yep. And I know this guy's pretty cocky about this.

[Seth Meyers]

Everything's gonna work out. Watch your back, everybody. Here we go.

[Mike O'Brien]

I forgot my first question. So, Andy, are these new glasses? They are, yeah. I just got them. Do you like them? I've got a couple other lonely island adjacent recommendations that we don't need to discuss. But Jorma did all the voiceovers in the underground festivals.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah.

[Mike O'Brien]

And that always helped sell them at the table and sounded great. And those are very fun. Silly Sudeikis and Nasim Stank Mouth Soda.

[Jorma Taccone]

Presents the Underground Rock Minute. Bringing you all the latest in underground rock and rap.

[Mike O'Brien]

Oh. The only thing I truly am able to enjoy watching of my own stuff when I look back is called we're gonna make Technology Hump.

[Seth Meyers]

Oh, the best.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah, love that.

[Mike O'Brien]

And I think part of it is that no one ever talks about it or has ever high fived me about it. And I'm like, these are good. And part of it is Andy and the host are. There's two. And he's so good. He's like so chipper that it makes it. I don't know, it has no context. They're a show that makes technology items hump. And then people are mad that they're doing long vignettes before they hump.

[Seth Meyers]

Get a load of that.

[Jorma Taccone]

Hey, we've got some viewer email.

[Seth Meyers]

Ryan from Sacramento says we don't want your dumb ass soap opera scene. Just show clean close up shots of tech humping.

[Jorma Taccone]

Call me a hopeless romantic, but this lady needs a little dialogue before the action.

[Seth Meyers]

I hear that. Now for our third tech hump, Colleen and I are gonna be a GPS nav screen and a curling iron.

[Mike O'Brien]

That's the only one I can watch and not go like, oh, why didn't we.

[Seth Meyers]

Oh, interesting. So, underground festival. Cause those I will say, love going back and watching one of the most fun things to pitch on at the rewrite table. Because it was just a bucket of insanity.

[Mike O'Brien]

Just anything. Those. I see trims and stuff. And I just mean technology is. It feels okay. But, yeah, those were with Jost, and those were the most fun to write. We did, like, seven. Lauren hated them by the end, I think rightfully so, but they were so easy. Jost would finish all his real work work, then come and kind of sleep on my couch in my office and wake up every 10 minutes and go, like, barney the dinosaur shoots you with a BB gun. Go back to sleep. And I type that in.

[Seth Meyers]

This was based off the Juggalos?

[Mike O'Brien]

Yes. Yeah, they had insane videos.

[Seth Meyers]

And you did go to one of those.

[Mike O'Brien]

I did. I went with my friend Brad Morris, and it was horrifying. And. And we went dressed in, like, khakis and golf shirts intentionally. We were, like, being dorks and shooting a video, and Brad got punched in the nuts. And it was. It's. Everyone is on meth. It's.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, God, that's. I mean. But that's an experience, though. You know what I mean? In that same way that you were like, the bad times are the ones you remember.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Jorma Taccone]

Juggalos. Icp.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah. A representative for ICP picked us up in a golf cart. And she was like, you wanna go meet the boys? And we're like, yeah, sure. And then she got a walkie talkie call, and she's like, fuck, they can't meet you guys right now. And she turned and went to a warehouse and, like, unlocked the door, and it was just tables of Insane Clown Posse sweatshirts and stuff as far as the eye could see. She goes, go nuts. Take whatever you want. And we're like, well, I don't need, like, a basketball jersey that says Insane Clown Posse.

[Jorma Taccone]

But that would have been good gifts for everyone at snl, though. It's true, you know, like all your comedy friends.

[Mike O'Brien]

I grabbed a hoodie that I think Obi wore a lot. But yeah.

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah, that did come in handy later.

[Jorma Taccone]

I will say, that voice that, like, Sunday kind of, you know, Everything's on Fire is now used on Seth's show all the time. And I don't do the voice. What's up with that, Seth?

[Seth Meyers]

Yeah, it's very fair. We should have used you for your burnt. I guess one of the reasons would be yorm. You're just really. A lot of times I'm like, be here at 11. And you're like, Pacific Standard or Eastern? And then I'm.

[Jorma Taccone]

A lot.

[Seth Meyers]

You do the opposite of the one I tell you. And then one last plug for Mike. Mike created a show called AP Bio that was on NBC and Peacock, but now is on Netflix. And the world is seeing it in a way that it has not seen it before, and it's really a great show.

[Jorma Taccone]

And, Mike, will you tell the story about when you came to the McGruber premiere? Cause I remember thinking that that was the funniest.

[Mike O'Brien]

Basically, not much story here, but AP Bio had just been canceled from Peacock after four seasons. They said they didn't have the budget for our show. And then the premiere of MacGruber was, like, the next week. And we showed up, and there were, like, five actual helicopters as you walk up the red carpet. You go inside, and there were like.

[Jorma Taccone]

There was a tank. There was a fucking tank.

[Mike O'Brien]

There was a tank. They'd gotten his Miata.

[Seth Meyers]

This is the MacGruber Peacock Show. So this is direct competition.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yes, yes. Which killed and everybody loved and saw.

[Seth Meyers]

Worth every A penny.

[Mike O'Brien]

I mean, I love the show. The premiere, I was like, this is four AP Bio episodes, for sure. There was fire everywhere. There were, like, 150 waiters all dressed as MacGruber.

[Jorma Taccone]

It was so crazy. It's always so funny whenever you do a show, and it's, like, so hard to make anything. It's always, like, do more with less money, less time. Less, like, whatever. And then you get to the. The part to promote it, and you're.

[Seth Meyers]

Like, where did this money come from?

[Jorma Taccone]

Like, we needed all of this.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jorma Taccone]

But it was great.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yep. It was a fun premiere.

[Jorma Taccone]

I'm glad that AP Bio is killing on Peacock. And McGruber is. People almost know that it exists on Peacock.

[Seth Meyers]

Well, technically, it's killing on Netflix, I'm sorry to say.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, shit, that's even better.

[Mike O'Brien]

It's kind of what MacGruber needs. It's a nice bump. And, yeah, Seth was an ep, and he and Shoemaker were great during that four years, so. So thank you for that.

[Seth Meyers]

Of course. Thank you so much for joining us, Mike. Everybody's homework. Obviously, you're gonna wanna watch Grow a Guy, Jay Z story with Mike O'Brien, Sad Mouse, Prom King with Michael Keaton. There's a bunch of other ones, too.

[Jorma Taccone]

Oh, wonderful.

[Seth Meyers]

Once you start watching Mike O'Brien videos on YouTube, the algorithm will be your friend. And it's really. They're just great. It was so much fun to go back and watch a bunch of them.

[Mike O'Brien]

Well, thanks for having me. I Love the podcast. I've listened to em all. I'll probably skip this one and it's my Monday morning dog walk walk thing I look forward to. So thanks for doing it.

[Seth Meyers]

Do you feel like there's anything that belongs in the Criterion Collection that has not received enough love?

[Jorma Taccone]

Ooh, yeah. It's your opinion.

[Seth Meyers]

Like, if you could save a friend.

[Mike O'Brien]

I'd have to look again at what is in. But the one that hit me the hardest because I wasn't really watching SNL when I was making art around the clock in Chicago. Art just was taking it out of me.

[Seth Meyers]

And yeah, you do really lean into it being art.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah. It was truly. What? No. But there wasn't even DVR then, so I just wasn't home watching it. And I obviously saw like Dick in a Box and on a boat. Got through to me. But getting there to SNL and then going back to things was really fun. And sharing an office with Sudeikis, he'd be like, watch this one, watch that one. And Hero Song was my favorite for like a year. And I just didn't see the turn coming and then loved it so much and then would rewatch and rewatch. So. So I assume that one was on everybody's list, wasn't it?

[Seth Meyers]

It did not get the love that you would have thought.

[Jorma Taccone]

I'm surprised that that one like that mirror for those guys. Yeah, I'm surprised that that one.

[Seth Meyers]

That one's great. But Hero Song for me still the comedy on the turn is my favorite.

[Mike O'Brien]

It's so funny too to compare those two because mirror is like ringing sponge out. It's amazing how many moves happened for the fact that it's like sometimes they love this move where people close a cabinet and Hero Song is one move and they're like tied. It's just two different ways to do it. But yeah, one long move. One. Yeah. Kind of two moves. What if we watch Andy in a tuxedo singing might be called its own move, but then kind of one move after that and it's great.

[Seth Meyers]

It is fun. Like, I do think the secret sleight of hand of Hero Song is if you have Andy singing with that wig and he is sort of letting you know he's got money, you're all rooting for him to get punched in the face. Much time.

[Mike O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, it's perfect. I mean, I was going to say also briefly about you guys not being at the table, is that when I was at the show overlapping with you, it made it for a very fun. What are they up to buzz around the writers. So, like, my first week, it was through it on the ground, and I experienced that for the first time. I remember talking to Hannibal Buress, and. And he's like, I heard the song, and I'm like, oh, it's a song. And, you know, people were like, talking about that. It was very fun.

[Jorma Taccone]

Yeah. I've never heard it talked about from that perspective like that. Yeah, that's kind of cool.

[Seth Meyers]

Every time I walked in and you guys played me a song that really made me laugh, it never quite rose to that. I always think that, like, I was a real jinx.

[Jorma Taccone]

It's fine. It's fine.

[Seth Meyers]

Well, no, I'll just say, I mean, the first time I heard I wish it would rain, which we're going to get to. And I keep foreshadowing. I just remember thinking, you've done it. It's the best thing I've ever heard in my life.

[Jorma Taccone]

Another good Andy singing song. Oh, the best.

[Seth Meyers]

All right, Mike, we love you, buddy. Thank you so much for doing this.

[Mike O'Brien]

Love you guys. Thanks for having me. This was great.

[Jorma Taccone]

Love you, too. It was great seeing you, man.

[Mike O'Brien]

Awesome.

[Seth Meyers]

All right, bye, buddy.

[Mike O'Brien]

Bye, guys.

[Jorma Taccone]

Bye.