Dick in a Box

You guys, are you ready to take a victory lap? Because I'm just going to get it right out at the top. I feel like this week, when this aired, was no less than a coronation.

Really?

This was the completion of a trilogy, began with Lazy Sunday, and then Natalie Rapp, and then today's Digital Short. The three of them, this was your Lord of the Rings, except mercifully shorter, and watchable, and good.

Tread lightly there.

It was such a special thing. Yes, anytime we want to do a full episode, where we just step away from Digital Shorts, and you guys defend Lord of the Rings to me, I'm also down for that.

Akiva's right there with you.

No, no, no, Akiva's. on your side. I will defend it till I D.I.E.

It's two against two? Yeah. Oh, that's wonderful. Thanks, Keeve.

I'd be right in the middle. So yes, it is two against two.

Andy watches it every year. Yeah.

Do you really watch it every year?

Joanna and I, until we had kids, we'd watch it at least once a year, yeah.

And do you start in January and hope so, you'll be done by the summer?

That's a funny joke, because they're very long movies.

They're very long. And you have to keep stopping them because you have life to do and stuff.

No, we used to just stay up all night.

By today's standards, they're not long. Right. We're so conditioned for super long movies now. I don't know that they'd feel crazy long anymore.

Right. Which is why I think everybody should watch the film In Bruges.

We know that's your favorite.

Which is like right around 90 minutes.

Isn't Bruges that short? No way.

I think it might be. Look it up, Keeve. OK. We've gotten a little off track. No way.

But.

I mean, I just think that everybody's going to stick around because they know we're talking about Dick in a Box. And this is a Christmas episode. This is December 16th, 2006.. And I forgot. Lazy.

One hour, 47 minutes.

One hour, 47.

Yeah, that's correct.

So Lazy Sunday was Christmas, but not Christmas themed.

And now it's a year later. And this is a Christmas themed digital short. that, I think, due to the content of it, probably never makes the primetime SNL Christmas. I don't know.

It does. It does. They blur the mouth.

They blur the mouth. Yeah. It's not enough just for a beep. Correct. It's so funny that they blur the mouth because the amount of miming in this digital short makes it very clear what the words are.

Actually, no. There were a lot of people who thought it was cock in a box because of the blur.

Oh, so, they made it worse. By blurring it, they made it worse.

Yes. But just because of the beep.

As with all censorship, it makes it worse.

The blur was not when it first aired. It was just because of the beep. People thought it was C-O-C-K rather than D-I.

Some people thought it was a rooster. Right.

Right. I forgot that. Thank you, Andy.

It's like that famous MASH episode. You think it's a rooster in the box, but it was a baby. Yeah.

And then people were just like, um, this is so random.

And we're like, no, it's a MASH reference.

You guys must have been so high when you wrote this.

It's the Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast.

That's right. Yeah.

Well, this was from 2006,, so.

I have a cough.

We noticed.

I'll be coughing. Yeah. Hopefully, we can cut a lot of it out. So I'll try to only cough when people aren't talking.

It is one of those famously audible coughs. We are down with hearing that you have one.

No, I understand. I'm just letting you guys know, I'm powering through it.

That's brave of you.

Is this Timberlake's first SNL?

No, I know, it's not. Because we were fans of him from afar.

Gotcha.

Pre-SNL at home in LA.

Well, Omeletteville was the first one he was on.

Gotcha.

And Atlanta, Amabelle.

But you weren't there for it?

No. No, no. We watched from home.

As fans of SNL.

But he was quite good on that one.

And we're like, oh, shit, he was good. Yeah. Yeah.

We were very into it.

This guy's an entertainer, we kept saying.

I feel you would call people entertainer. I feel as though people might have forgotten. And if you go back and watch even two minutes of any episode he hosted, you remember that he is really Mount Rushmore SNL host.

He's sharp. Yeah. He's sharp as tack.

Can do it all. And he shows up. And so, based on the fact of what you're telling me, because my first question was, I'm assuming you do a song with Justin Timberlake, you are going to collaborate with Justin Timberlake. You don't just write a song independently, right? Did you have him in the room?

Not right off the bat.

Not as much on this one. Got it. That changed over.

We wrote most of it. And then, when he came in, he helped us actually make it into a song. Yes.

And really helped us record and taught us how to use Pro Tools and, in particular, how to make singing sound good.

Yes. We had no idea how to record singing.

Which we have since mimicked his teaching, for every other thing we've ever done that involves singing.

And was it Above and Beyond Your Wildest Dreams, what he brought to the room the first time he came in and heard it?

The thing about this one was, again, we kind of idolized Timberlake. And he was at the peak of just the coolness and he was so great at it. But we didn't have a short. We didn't have a short on Tuesday, on writing night. We couldn't think of one on Wednesday.

Well, there's a few steps here. First off, I want to clarify. I wouldn't say I idolized him.

OK, that's the wrong one. But what would you say? How would you put it, though?

We thought he was cool and we knew he could sing his ass off. And then we met with him and he said he was down to do a song. And we sort of all talked about how we loved early 90s R&B. And we were like, oh, we should do something like that. So then we got the beat going right first before we had the idea.

That might be true.

Yeah, but I remember going into Lorne's office and saying we'd failed. We didn't come up with one. It's Wednesday at like three in the morning. So you have to call it now because there's no way to get a short done. And he was like, there's still three more days.

Sure. One hundred percent. That definitely happened. We absolutely were saying we couldn't do it. And do you guys remember Seth's pitch?

Yeah, that was the other thing I was going to mention, is that Seth asked us to do an idea.

And I believe that Seth pitched that it should be two guys in line waiting to buy a Nintendo Wii that had just come out.

Is that correct? Yes. Yes. I'm glad you brought it up. Although, no, I'm heartbroken, you brought it up.

It's a little bit of a burn.

I had hoped you had forgotten.

That was clearly a Lorne assignment of him being like, go help those guys. They really need to. We needed them to do a song.

It was a part of that.

And I should know we were right by the Nintendo store. So I had walked by a bunch of dudes waiting outside for a Nintendo Wii and I'd gone to you guys and told you maybe that is a good area. And then I also remember going to Lorne's office and him complaining that you guys didn't have an idea and me saying, well, it ain't on me because I just dropped some gold at their door.

I did feel like you were just helping Lorne out, like we were being shitty and we're like bailing on an opportunity. And Lorne was like, no, fucking, do it. You have just like do a fucking song. And you were trying to help.

But I will say, Seth, you, coming in and pitching the idea, did help us be like, no, not that.

I mean, it should be.

And then I think probably came up with something.

Hmm. What about the fact that we are kind of shaped a little bit like dicks? Do you think that maybe very possibly could have been it?

I don't know what your dick shape.

Well, there was a Wii. There was an Alec Baldwin.

It was later a Wii dick scene.

Yeah, there's an Alec Baldwin. We jerk off scene, really wasn't. Yeah, that's true. So that observation made it on the show. It just wasn't through us.

Isn't it more about what you do with it than how it's shaped, though? I mean, do you guys have like super rectangular shaped wings?

That's for a different podcast.

All right. So you mentioned early 90s R&B. This is really maybe the most hyper specific you guys are able to be about music, would you say?

Yes. And Catrice Barnes, who is the music people, who is a genius and wonderful, was also a fan of R&B. And she banged out the general ideas for this song. And then my brother later helped out and also made the beat to this song. But I can't remember, Andy, if that's what happened first.

We might have asked her to just start working on one, just because we knew that was the genre, even though we didn't have an idea yet.

We were talking with Justin, I believe, on Tuesday. He came into our office and he was like, yo, let's do a song. And we were like, oh, shit. And then we started talking about what kind of song it could be. And we all started laughing, talking about all the R&B we grew up listening to and realized we had common ground.

Jodeci, R. Kelly, H-Town. I'm trying to think of the main ones that we probably and definitely did talk about.

Was the look inspired by one of those more than the other? Because the look is so wonderful and specific.

Well, everyone said it was Color Me Bad because we're white. Gotcha. Yeah. And I'm. I'm inclined to just go with that.

Yeah. That works for the look.

That's what you pulled off. Right.

But the sounds are more ones I just mentioned.

It was a little interesting to me, because Color Me Bad is not all white.

Yeah, but it was the white guy from Color Me Bad.

Yeah. We were all being the white guy. Both being the white guy from Color Me Bad.

That cool hairstyle.

Yep. I think that's the safest way to put it.

So it seems like timeline then is Thursday is when Yorma cracks the premise here.

Yes. Yeah, it must be. I think it was late Thursday. Exactly. That.

What'd you just say? So, a shout out to the movie Diner, which Mickey Rourke popcorn box. Yeah, correct. Movie theater. It's an assault.

Hey, girl, I got something real important to give you. So just sit down and listen.

Well, you know, it's Christmas and my heart is open.

Why? Why?

Going to give you something, so you know what's on my mind.

What's on my mind?

A gift for your special city of good time.

Take a look inside. It's not in a box.

Did they get arrested at the end, Seth? It's pretty clearly assault in this video as well.

They do get arrested.

Everyone forgets that part of it.

I always thought that was because they were in public, but we'll get to the arrest. OK, which I have a lot of questions about. But I do wonder, once you had this very funny idea, your arm did it right fast, once you had it.

As I recall, yes, I think by our standards, kind of. Yes, the ideas did start flowing.

I can answer decidedly. Yes. And I can also say, while we all contributed, I remember it was one of the ones where Akiva had a lot of killer things that he came up with, like the steps. I remember him just saying the entire steps and I was going like, oh, fuck. Yeah, that's in.

There are so many nice moves in it. The steps is one that's great. The other holidays is another three beat that might have been written.

with Timberlake in the room. That might be his real. Besides, making the whole thing way better, that might have been also a joke contribution of his and backstage.

at the CMAs? is him. Yeah, exactly.

Because we hadn't gotten to the end of the song yet and we were kind of writing as he was recording. And yeah, he definitely wrote that. one. Another big thing I want to give him credit for is we were tentative on the idea. We were like, oh, yeah.

I remember thinking when he was talking to us, that I was like, I don't think I've ever been confident before. I remember being nervous because I had put him on a pedestal so much and looked up to him so much.

Yeah, he was my idol. Like, I would dress like him. I had my hair cut like him.

Just for our listeners, because I remember how you guys looked when the three of you would walk down a hallway nervous. But could you just how you sounded? Can you, just for our listeners, how the three of you sounded when you were nervous?

It was. it's a little bit like when Huey, Dewey and Louie sleep, like, you know, how they go.

Oh, it did sound like that.

But each person makes a different, slightly nervous sound. But it's the three of us, you know.

And you also walk down the hallway head to toe to head. That's right. It's hard to explain exactly how that looks.

So it's hard, but it's worth it.

You did go back to one of your favorite venues to shoot this, which is the side of the Hudson River.

Yeah, finally paid off.

And you guys did more to clean up the Hudson River than RFK. That's why I always say you guys are my RFK juniors.

That's right. You do say that. We did go to so many of the same places over and over again.

There's a moment. I think you do. it is the basketball hoop where you, we later shoot United Way with Peyton Manning.

Yes, it is exactly the same place.

Good call. It is very funny because it is a lot of the same locations. But I also think, based on early R&B music videos, probably working with the same kind of budget, they had to do one of these. For sure. Which makes it really fun.

Did we record the song Friday morning or really late Thursday night? Does anyone remember that?

Really late Thursday night. Because we weren't. we weren't into that yet. Yeah, like it got later and later as we made shorts. But this one was Thursday night.

You can't pull permits from the city of New York at like three in the morning, Thursday night for a nine in the morning, Friday morning shoot. So that's also partially why it's just like the Hudson River and stuff, because you just have to go outside and start filming.

You also would have shot any other day, because the weather is so bad. Not bad, but it's just so flat and gray.

Yeah. Which also, I would say, looked like a lot of early 90s R&B videos. Right. There's like, well, this is where we're shooting. And also a lot of them are in Philly.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

There you go. Very Philly weather.

Yeah. They're part of Motown Philly, these guys.

Very, I would say, pleasant to watch, yet underwhelming dance moves.

Oh, you thought so. Very deliberate.

There is a choreography, but it seems to be a very simple choreography. And yet thought went into it.

Justin, to his credit again, was like, we should have super shitty little moves. And we pretty much just made them up as we were shooting.

Yeah. Watching two people have the same shitty move is pleasant.

Oh, yeah. Agreed.

It's actually funny thinking about Justin and how complicated his dance moves can be. And seeing him dumb it down.

I also remember being out shooting and no one was recognizing him. Wow. Like people would walk by and be like, oh, look at those guys. But no one was like, oh, my gosh, Justin Timberlake. Because he was so unrecognizable in that outfit.

But that also is a benefit of how low fi the shooting is at that point. Right. Because at some point, if there's enough people standing around, you think it's a real movie. But you guys were still smash and grab at that point.

So nobody would think we didn't have lights. Yeah. There was one security guard for him. That was his like personal bodyguard following us. And then the camera guy and then, like three assistants, just hanging out.

We look like NYU students, basically, which we would tell people occasionally.

Shout out to the wardrobe that they can get the call. We probably called them Thursday night. being like, this is the area we're thinking, told them, and hair and makeup like this is the looks. We're still working on it. And the fact that we could start shooting on Friday morning means that they had to pull that stuff, you know, in the 12 hours leading up.

They came so correct. Yes, truly. The only thing they couldn't get were starter jackets. So, of course, again, yeah, those are hard to find. But I think in the end, maybe better off for it.

I think, better off for it. Yeah.

And they built us a couple sets, or just the ones of the the fireplace kind of living room set by that night. Right. Yeah.

Which were both great. And again, I mean, the glasses you had, Andy, your beard. That was all deliciously perfect.

Sometimes at SNL, it just comes together. And that was one of those times where everyone just saw it and it just went.

Yeah. There's some shots I want to talk about that. I really like there was an insert of just Justin's feet dancing. And that really made me laugh because it's already a bad dance move.

They have to show it off.

And then I like that in this world, the director thought we got to show them.

even more the fancy footwork.

That's a pretty classic Lonely Island move right there.

Yeah, I was going to say, it's kind of just you guys. Yes, it is.

Andy sliding down the banister and then making him slide back up again,

showing it late edition. We were like, this is a boring moment.

Yeah, this is going to suck even more.

Here's a real question I have that I can't remember. How did we get you up on the basketball ladder? That was a lot. So why did we have a ladder? We planned ahead being like, let's do a quintessential basketball court.

I can't remember what video it's in, but we were mimicking something.

Yeah, but we had some sort of plan. We must have planned that ahead of time.

I know I'm saying it's a reference to DVD or something or another bad creation.

Yeah, there is also a very nice. I don't know if this was planning, but the first time we see Andy sitting on the backboard is early in the song, just singing. And then, the second time we see it, Timberlake is then hanging on the rim with the box on his crotch. And it is, I think, the second time you hit the dick in a box. So it's an incredible heighten from the first time.

Thank you for calling it singing.

You're very welcome. And there is so much nice structuring in this, because you could have sailed by on the premise and the fact that Timberlake and Andy have beautiful voices, and it was a catchy song, but there are all these really nice visual heightens that get really big laughs.

Yes, agreed. It came together. Once we had recorded the song, I think we all got super excited because it's Justin at the height of his power, pouring all his creative energy into it and sounding so dope that you just can't like we were like, this song is very catchy. Just the stack he did in Pro Tools. A stack, for those who don't know, is like many vocals stacked on top of each other.

Yeah, my 12 to 16.

I want to say 16.

In addition to just learning from him, like I was running the Pro Tools at the time. I was like, holy shit, was also that when he would do another take, I've never seen this before, but his lyrics were exactly on top of each other, like the waveforms are exact, but like when we make music, we would have to shuffle things around like always. Oh, like sometimes, split them apart and put fades in. Like his are perfect. He was just perfect at singing.

This might be a dumb question, too. But, layman here, when you say stacked, does that mean when you're hearing the song, we're hearing 16 different versions?

of Justin saying, yes, yes, at different volumes, and some of the left speaker, some in the right speaker. But you're hearing them all at once. And that's what gives it that crazy sound that when you try to sing along in the shower, you never can sound like somebody on a song. There's all this production behind it,

but also knew how to mix it down so that it just sounds like something from the radio.

He literally was like mixing for us in the room as well. It was crazy. It was a very educational experience.

There's that really nice. I can't remember. I guess it's the bridge where it's a shot of two of you singing together. But I did notice when I was watching it today. Oh, I don't know if I can hear Andy at all right now.

There's many times where he did that.

He got lowered a little bit.

When we were making our album and we like, went back to Dick in a box because we were like, well, we got to put Dick in a box on it. And we started to go into the mix. It was so fucking funny, Seth, because we were like, all right, here's Timberlake. And it was like, just perfect. And I was like, all right, here's Andy.

Do you want to talk about Madison Square Garden?

Yeah, well, not to put you on French street, Andy, but will you talk about Madison Square Garden real quick?

That's what that just reminded me of. I totally forgot about it.

Oh, Madison Square Garden was really funny.

It was really great.

So this was a long time later, but I guess we should do it on this one.

Yes. Talk about it now.

It was not that long. It was probably three months later, three months later.

So it had gone through its whole, like got big and press and everyone like Dick in a box. And Justin was like, hit me up. He's like, yo, I'm coming to New York. I'm doing Madison Square Garden. We're going to do it as the last encore.

Yeah, but not that often. But just for our listeners. So that's you hearing yourself or you hearing the director?

To hear the track because the audience sound. He's like, dude, just so you know, like it gets really loud. Got it. So you have to have the in-ears. I was like, I'll be fine.

Also, they're not real in-ears. Real in-ears are molded to your ear with wax so that they fit you perfect and make a complete seal like you're underwater.

Yeah, they're very expensive.

So you can hear the music. Yours were like temp ones.

They were loners. But at rehearsal, it was like super calm and chill. We're just in a big old, empty Madison Square Garden. We come up through the middle. I can hear him perfectly.

And I go, oh, no.

And I can sort of hear it. And it's like,

I'm like, oh, it's Christmas time or something. Now, this is a good time to know you sing first.

I'm supposed to sing first. Yes. And I cannot hear the beat. So I'm just like, I think I know where we are in the song and I can't hear myself. And I start like five octaves higher than what I'm supposed to do.

It was trash. Oh, my God.

I was like, all right, don't sugarcoat it.

But I still think, if you go on YouTube, there's like fan phone videos of it.

It might be our videos of it. Like, honestly, while we were recording it on our like iPhones, our early iPhones, like it was one of those things of like while it was happening, you can hear us.

being like, oh, oh,

Keeve and Jorma, did you know that something had gone wrong?

Not like that. As soon as you just mentioned that, I was like, oh, shit, I didn't know. it was that bad. I thought you were right.

And I swear to you, I sounded good at rehearsal.

Yeah. Yeah.

I was just so green that I didn't even know to be like, I have to find those in ears and put them back in. You know what I mean? I was just like, well, I guess this is what's happening.

Yeah. The show goes on.

Well, there's, like you think, the monitors on stage, but now, having done concerts ourselves, we know that, like the monitors on stage do not work when you're with a huge audience. Correct. And the sound you hear is bouncing off the back wall and you'll be fully off beat if you try to go with the sound in the room. Yes. If you can even hear any of it.

Yeah. After hearing this story again, Andy, I'm impressed. you did as well as you did.

Because now we've done shows and you know how crazy.

Yeah. It's fucking impossible.

In that moment, Andy, did you actually think, God, I'm so happy. none of our songs are longer than two minutes and ten seconds?

No, but I did think I'm so happy that everyone is still fine with this, because they just want to hear Justin.

Yeah. And seeing two people together like that,

they knew it was a gift and every time he's saying it was perfect. So they were still getting their like version of what it was supposed to be.

I do want to say real quick, just to make Andy feel better, about bombing at Madison Square Garden. I think I've told you guys this story, but there was a Hurricane Sandy benefit and they reached out to Lauren because they wanted me and Bill to do. Stefan, and Bill correctly realized that was going to be a bad idea at a giant concert at Madison Square Garden for Hurricane Sandy. But then Lauren talked me and Bobby Moynihan into doing it as me and Drunk Uncle. And we were standing backstage.

And and he wasn't wrong.

He wasn't wrong. I think. weirdly, it was seeing the faces of 14,000 people and then watching them all collectively decide. now would be a good time to get concessions or go to the bathroom.

There's certain shows that comedy just cannot happen. I feel personally like any music awards show. is that. Because, Seth, I'm sure you've been asked, I've been asked sometimes to do stuff, to host, to present. And I'm always like, I mean, I think the Grammys are awesome.

No, they're not.

No one's listening. They just want to hear their song.

And they are wired to scream. That's what they came to do in a very good way for music. Tonight is a night where I'm going to scream when I hear a thing I know, not. I'm going to listen and judge wry observations. I think there are some other really funny moments.

a shout out to Wig and Maya, which we haven't even mentioned as the two receivers.

It's one of the great nonverbal performances in SNL history.

Both of them smoldering.

First of all, the fact that they are both very touched by the gift. Yeah, they find it both thoughtful and sensuous.

It definitely helps our cause. Definitely helped your cause.

Then there are two moments that I wrote down, that I want to talk about. One, I believe Andy is putting a rose in Maya's face and he's getting a little too clumsy with it, just sort of pushing it around her face in a way that does not seem enjoyable anymore. But she maintains that she's into it.

You can see her struggling to a little bit,

struggling, but still kind of makes it work near the end of the song. I apologize to both you and Justin, Andy, but I think maybe my favorite moment in the whole video is he has a feather on Wig's face and she takes her hand up and pushes the feather away to say, OK, that's enough. And it's been a million years of watching music videos. You've never seen Layton in the song. Like a lady, a lady who's being rude, have that reaction of, OK,

that's good. We're good.

That's enough. Have I not given you enough for the dick in a box?

Yeah, that's Timberlake, too.

You put your hands up and say dick in a box. And we've talked about this a lot, leaving room for people to laugh. That is one of the great moments in a digital short, because it leaves room for people to think it's over. And there's applause as if they were rewarding it for being done. and then there's more.

But, by the way, also, if it wasn't doing good, that'd be the worst. If they were like, OK, it's over. And then you're like, oh, no, there's more. So we got lucky on that. But musically is so cool.

It's also one of the exceptional things about watching these. And obviously these are different than real music videos because they were always built for comedy. But it's so fun to go back and listen to not just the short, but listening to how it was received in real time the first time it aired, and having those laughs and reactions, because, you know, again, in just the course of two minutes, you kind of hear it becoming a hit to everybody who is seeing it in real time. By the end of it, they're so appreciative of what you've just given them. And it is just a blast to watch.

Yeah, I will not pretend like. we didn't feel like it was going insanely great and we were gassed as fuck.

Yeah, it might be like our happiest moment ever on the show, for me personally, at least.

Yeah, honestly.

And there's a photo that was taken of the three of us.

I'm glad we're talking about the famous photo. I think about it all the time.

It's so nice and crazy to have a photo of the exact moment. It's us and we're watching the monitors and the audience while it's playing live. So it's capturing kind of one of our happiest moments on the show. And there it is in that photo.

And who else is there with us? Mike Shoemaker.

I want to say Shoemaker, Higgins, Will Forte, PTA, Paul Thomas Anderson.

Paul Thomas Anderson, my Rudolph's partner, is there and he came to the show. And it's really you kind of couldn't ask for a better photo, because you have one of our greatest living directors.

Just cracking up with us.

Just cracking up. He's the buddy. And I've always said there's about if you're lucky, take however many years you were on the show. divided by that number of years. That's how many moments you have where you just know it's crushing.

Yes. And I don't know if I've talked about this on our cast before, but for me, and I think still to this day, going out of that into Barry Gibb talk show, where they realized Jimmy was there and it was Barry Gibb talk show, which was, by all accounts, his best or one of the best sketches he ever did. And everyone knew it from last time, Justin Houston and it fucking kills. also the cheer, the discovery cheer of Dick in a box, ending into the realization that they were getting Jimmy and Barry Gibb talk show. It felt like the rafters were shaking in the studio.

Yes. They felt like the Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip version of what they would hope SNL would be, where it's like a rock show and everything's just destroying.

Support comes from Shopify.

I don't stop saying that, Seth.

And that's why Shopify is for you, Jorm, because it helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launch, your online shop stage to the first real life store stage, all the way to the did. we just hit a million orders stage. Shopify is there to help you grow. Shopify helps turn browsers into buyers with the Internet's best converting checkout, up to 36 percent better compared to other leading commerce platforms.

Like, I'm so short, Seth. When I cracked five feet, I was thrilled. I wish I was taller.

And that's it. Jorm's in the growth business. And unfortunately, while Shopify couldn't help him get taller, they can help your business. Shopify powers 10 percent of all e-commerce in the U.S. and Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's and Brooklyn.

Don't forget.

So, Andy, you talked about going into Barry Gibb talk show. I mean, this is, as episodes go, it's a banger. Yes, it's a Christmas show. So people, I think, again, Christmas show audiences are in general better. just because it's Christmas season, everybody's in a good mood, saw the giant Christmas tree on their way in.

Seth, should we talk about the one thing that we talked about after the show? What was that? I was a huge fan. Colin Jost wrote a sketch called Michael McDonald's McDonald's.

Oh, yeah.

It was a commercial for McDonald's, but a fake McDonald's, owned and run by Michael McDonald, with Timberlake doing a really good Michael McDonald impression. Yeah. And it got cut on air. And there was a downy piece that aired late in the show. It was a Nancy Grace about the Duke Lacrosse team.

That's interesting. Having no memory of that. as you set up that story. I was surprised that I would land there.

Got it. Got it. I mean, I'm sure that it was a choice made.

You know? Yes.

Were you just being a corporate guy, like toeing the line, being like, yeah, you know, we made that call and it was the right call.

I don't know. I mean, I certainly share all of our take on Downey's legendary status. He did write things that were almost never in service of a live audience's reaction. He wrote what his head had to say that day.

Yes. I mean, he's perfectly capable and did thousands of times of writing things that crush.

Yeah. He wrote things that played red hot. Yeah. It was like that was not the week to have an anti grace piece of the Duke lacrosse.

That was my point, where I was like I was so high on the buzz and I was still very new to the show, obviously, but I was just like, man, the audience. I was just thinking about the audience in the studio, and I was like, they fucking loved everything except that one that made them think about the Duke lacrosse team thing, you know?

Yeah, they could have heard Timberlake singing more.

Yes, exactly. And I also just loved that just piece.

That sketch was so funny.

Well, now I should say Michael McDonald's.

did air eventually.

Did it eventually air?

It eventually aired the next time he hosted, I believe.

No, I do not think it aired. Kevin, I think that you've seen Dress, because it became sort of a Dead Sea Scroll sketch. you passed around.

No, it aired. It had to have aired.

Didn't they do it again?

I will tell you that rewriting it, all we did was it was the most fun SNL rewrite day I've ever had, because it was just writers who couldn't sing, sitting around pitching to line. It was a terrible McDonald's. Yes, that was the gist of the sketch.

It was that he didn't know that McDonald's existed. Right. He didn't know that there was another McDonald's. So he was being sued. And so there was a lot of talk about lawyers and how he had to charge.

Yes. And the music was what a fool believes. So everything was to that. Yes.

And the line that's forever stuck in my head is my life is a nightmare.

We also have chicken McNuggets. Yes. So we just sang those couplets over and over again. And Emily Spivey, who was pregnant at the time, thought she was going to have the baby. She was laughing so hard and just wrote down every single thing we pitched.

Is this a good second chance? theater, Seth? Feels like a good one.

It's a really good second. It only went to dress again, so it never aired.

Oh, man. I can't believe it.

It's a perfect second chance theater.

That should go top of the list.

You just have to get Justin to come on. Yeah. Hasn't he done Michael McDonald's somewhere at some point? I feel like he's done it. Definitely.

Probably on Tonight Show or something.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't know, man. I also think that it's pretty. It was weird that we were allowed to do it, because so, by the way, this is the change they made between dress and air.

Oh, wow. Yeah, that's not OK.

That might have been why I got cut right there.

No, no. That was Forte coming in.

No, they added that between dress and air. They were like, oh, this would be better.

No, no. That was Forte's character, right? He was Donald. Oh, you're right. I'm sorry.

Oh, his name is Donald McDonald.

Yes. And Forte comes in to say I'm required by law to tell you I'm a sex offender. So he has a very bad spokesperson.

One of the many sex offender characters he played.

Yes. Justin says, bring your kids down. They can meet my special friend Donald McDonald. Will enters dressed as Ronald McDonald, but with Michael McDonald, bright red hair and beard. I'm required by law to tell you I'm a sex offender.

Everything's going bad for his restaurant.

That's his lead.

Or is it where else can you get fries for sixteen ninety nine?

Yeah, it's all that he didn't know. He opened a restaurant because he thought a burger and fry restaurant be a good idea and he had no idea. there was an actual McDonald's and he was getting sued a lot and is very short. I think that's the other thing. Downey probably wrote a 30 page sketch about the Duke Lacrosse case and this came in at like four and a half pages.

Well, look, Seth Lee, I don't want to put you on the spot. I was just remembering an interesting moment.

Oh, I like it. I love the interesting moments.

Do you kind of feel bad about ruining the show now, Seth?

No, because I want to talk about this episode, because I would say this might be certainly a top five episode that I ever worked on. Cold Open was Poehler, Rudolph and Wig singing, right? Yeah. Santa's my boyfriend. Is that what the song was?

Oh, close. Oh, yeah.

New York is so beautiful this time of year. I myself grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. But no matter where you are, Christmas is about family, good cheer and, of course, Christmas songs. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to sing my favorite, the Christmas song. Oh, no, no, no, not, not that Christmas song.

Thanks, guys.

Whatever, dude.

All right, you chipmunks, ready to sing your song?

OK, Simon.

OK, Theodore. OK.

OK, Alvin.

Just good times. Fun. Everything's rocking. And then bring it on down to Homelessville.

Destroyed. Just destroyed.

And again, that's Paula Pell understanding exactly what sort of Swiss Army knife of talent she had with Justin Timberlake. Any extra change you have can bring comfort. Even a dollar is helpful to those in need.

Did someone say those in need?

There's a body over there, body over there, with your hands in the air, shake your derriere. Soup, here it is. Soup, here it is. Soup, here it is.

Give it on up to Homelessville.

Now we're into Target. Target Lady, where Timberlake was super funny in a Target Lady.

Still early. Might have been Target Lady number two.

Right. Akiva, you do a good Target, Lady, right?

Oh, yeah. Condor, I told you, condor. Really good. Thank you.

Approved.

I will say approved is something my wife and I will still yell when we swipe.

Yeah, 100%.

Approved is really, really good. It's so funny. Target Lady is such a wonderful character. She's just so happy. I feel like it was an era where a lot of people wrote comedy as angry or sad.

That your card was approved.

Yeah. She just wants you to get your shit.

And she was always going to get deals. Where did you get this? And then leaving to go get the item. She just loves working at Target.

But this is the second, I mean, second act of the show. Target into Digging a Box into Barry Gibb Talk Show. Yeah. I mean, come on. Find me a better act in the last 25 years of SNL.

Oh, that's a good challenge.

Yeah. We're going to go looking for a better act than that act right there. Now, can we take a quick stop into Seth's Corner?

Seth's Corner, you're all invited. Seth's Corner, it's happening right now. Take it away, Seth.

Dry Eyes, a game show sketch I wrote for originally Matthew Fox. Steve Higgins said, you know who, I bet, can do that thing of almost crying and not crying? Justin Timberlake. And he was right. This is a game show where, if you cried, you lost, and they would say very painful or emotional things to you.

That's a good point. That's fair.

You don't know how hard it is. Yeah, that's an interesting point.

You don't know how hard it is.

Flawless argument. Week in and week out. Then we have a Timberlake song and we have a YouTube update, and again, Seth's Corner was not well-remembered. No, it's not well-remembered. It just was, you know, other things happen.

It's kind of like a Nickelodeon show.

Yeah, they're in the caverns or something. They're like spelunking. They got stuck in the cave.

Yeah. Nickelodeon show about a group of hip hop kids and they're stuck in a cave, a mineshaft. But they're positive and a very Nickelodeon style kid. show way. They dance their way out of trouble.

So it was educational, too, in some ways.

Is Sudeikis doing his What Up With That dance?

It's pre. What Up With That. Yeah. I mean, I called both the Wii sketch and What Up With That. Yeah, not bad.

Put it in the ether.

Thanks for visiting Seth's Corner, everybody.

That was Seth's Corner. Until next time, Seth.

Oh, I have a couple more questions about Dickenabox.

We would always be very, you know, whiny and tired. But the fact that we didn't come up with Dickenabox till Thursday, cursed to the rest of our time at SNL, to Lauren thinking it was never too late for us to think of not just an idea, but maybe the best idea we've ever had. And so it'd be Friday mornings and we'd go to him being like, I'm sorry, Lauren, we didn't think of a good one this week. And he'd be like, you still have 36 hours. And then it'd be Friday night at midnight.

To be fair, once you're told to do something and then you do it, like you have to do it, he did prove himself right every time by forcing us to do them every time. Well, not every time.

Sometimes they were bad.

That was the issue.

Got to wish it would rain episode.

Would he actually cite Dickenabox by name, Keith, would he say Dickenabox?

No, no. But it was a very clear thing that every time before this, we had it by Wednesday and it was very controlled, like the rest of the show. And then, because of this one, it was just like we can never say anything.

Well, we also. we also sort of felt that, too. I was like, oh, my God, we almost blew it. I mean, this was great. This was a great experience.

Yes. If we had been allowed to just be like, well, we didn't think of one, it wouldn't exist. And we were so happy it existed. So then we knew we were wrong as well.

This is a question. When did it start being a thing? And it did start being a thing where, after PIX came out, it would say digital, short, as in like, and they will do one.

That's a good one for you, Kev.

Like TBA, TBD, I should say.

Yes, TBD, where there was just slotted in. It was the time also when we went into his office, where famously there's all the cards up on a bulletin board that say the sketches. But there's a few permanent cards for people that don't work. there. There's a card that says monologue, update.

It's just like, oh, no, no matter what we say,

no matter how bad we were going to embarrass ourselves.

Right. At that point, it would have been like me going to Lauren's office and saying, I don't think we have an update. Not going to be an update this week. And I will say I remember Lauren saying about Dick in a Box, you know, you have to give a lot of credit to the Lonely Island and Justin and the film crew and Catrice and hair and makeup and wardrobe. But don't forget the fact that I told them they had to do one.

I'll be honest, he would be partly right to say it.

Did you also fall a little victim to that, Keeve, where you guys realized you had pulled up Dick in a Box so late that you started having a little bit more confidence as the week got later?

Yes. But the reason it would never get better is because everyone else just stays up all night on Tuesday and has the rest of the week to recover, to be back at full strength by the show kind of. And if we didn't come up with a Tuesday, then we'd stay up again all night Wednesday and then by Thursday, when it's like, all right, now, it's time to go, start shooting or get to work. We were crazy people because we hadn't slept, sometimes three nights in a row. Like, imagine having to do writing night three times in a row, because we were holding ourselves to that standard where we just wouldn't accept a doable answer.

Everybody's under pressure at SNL. But certainly when you're a writer on a Tuesday night, you can know that if you don't have it, your A-list idea, you can write a B or a C-list idea, and in a perfect world, the show will not need it that week and you will have given your best effort. But no one will actually see it if it doesn't rise to your high standard. And you guys obviously wrote your way into a problem where we were going to see your best effort, no matter what it was.

Also, even if you write your B-level material, but it has a good idea, you know, it becomes everyone's problem after it gets picked. Sure. You're going to have people like yourself at a table being like, how am I going to fix this? And the actors are all going to be on stage, blocking it, being like, is this funny, like it goes into the machine for better or worse. And ours, gratefully, was not in the machine, but also we would get all the credit and all the blame.

So it's great. This was also to the exhaustion point. This was also a time before there was infrastructure to do this. Exactly. So everything was edited by us as well.

Yeah. Which, once again, is fine for the editors that come in to do that. They know, OK, on Friday and Saturday, I'm going to have a crazy thing, but we're coming off the whole week of it. And so the easiest weeks for us were the ones where we had a good idea right at the start of the week, because then you could plan your week. Because it's not hard to shoot a short in a week if you know what you're doing.

Yeah, it was when it was 48 hours that it was difficult.

We didn't make it easy on ourselves.

I have two more questions about it. One, the cop car planned?

No, those cops saw a shooting and then realized who we were and just were like, hey, we'll hang out, we'll make sure no one messes with you.

Wait, is that right? I believe so.

Seriously? Yes.

We didn't think of that, except for when we saw them.

They were just real on duty NYPD officers that just kind of saw we were doing a thing and just came and hung out. And then we were like, can we do a shot? And they were like, yeah, sure. And they acted in it.

Oh, my God, it's such a perfect end.

It's such a perfect end.

We were like, hey, will you arrest us? Pretend to arrest us.

They were like, OK, yeah, holy fuck, that is perfect.

Well, I was watching it because it is so perfect, and then, to foreshadow, Mother Lover starts with you guys getting out of jail. So it does feel like this perfect connective tissue. But then I thought, based on how late in the week it broke, there was no way they got a cop car, there was no way they got the permits to use a New York City cop car. That had to be dumb luck. So whose idea was it?

For lack of a better term, it sounds like the type of thing that we would. I'm sure we all were thinking that was a really needed it.

And I love that they get arrested. It's what they deserve. I don't know whose idea it was. It was just, again, the same way. everything else just came together.

And it is the perfect coda to it, because you can tell the audience, because it's so triumphant and everyone's so enjoying the triumph. And when the two sort of heroes of it get arrested, it's this wonderful turn at the end.

They still seem kind of stoked getting arrested, though.