This episode is brought to you by Airbnb. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much more@airbnb.com. host Jorm here reminding you that this is part two of our hot Rod episode. So if you didn't hear part one, go back to last week and give that a listen, or else you might be really confused. Now back to Seth in progress, who's confirming that he's milking the hot rod convos. Take it away, Sethe. It's the Lonely island and Seth Meyer's podcast.

I'm not picking up the pace at all.

Yeah.

Basically, Kevin figures out he can edit this together, make a full film. You do a screening of the film. Rod thinks it's going to be a kick ass sun man movie. Everybody's going to be in awe of him.

Yeah.

Instead, everybody starts laughing because they're shitty stunts and they all go wrong.

Yes.

There's a really nice move where Rod wants it to stop. Goes up into the projectionist booth, throws basically the. What would you call it?

It's like a video projector.

The video projector out the window.

Yeah.

Comes down, gets in a fight with Kevin. Cops show up. Feel like it's weird that the cops showed up, but what turns out what happened is you've thrown the projector out the window and gone through the window of a guy's car.

Right.

Yeah.

And then you had to give. You raised up to five grand at that point. You have to give that all back now. You got no money.

Right.

Yeah.

Lowest moment. Classic, clean.

Classic.

Dark night of the soul.

Dark night of the soul. Also, you then post stuntman or dork.

Yeah. He decided he's a square now.

You're square now.

It's his idea of being an adult. He gives up on his dream.

Right.

It was really funny because it reminded me how you had to wear a wig in the show when you played a dork. Cause your hair was so unwieldy. Like this was your real hair being dork hair was not. It was something else.

Yeah.

It's somewhere in between.

It's weird, but it's super fun to look at. But it just doesn't quite.

Cause you didn't get a haircut. You just combed it.

Correct. Well.

Cause we were shooting out of order.

Yeah. Like, Andy's hair then was not meant to be parted. And it's very. It's a very good look you're wearing. Also the worst khakis I've ever seen. Yeah, they're perfect. They're perfect because they're like half sweatpants, half khakis. They're exactly what Rod would have.

It was a bad outfit. We were laughing at the fitting.

Yeah.

Like, oh, yeah, this is bad.

Why does it have an elastic waistband?

Yeah, it does. I feel.

Oh, that's really good.

It's also just like this person who is not an actual adult's idea of what being a grown up would be.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He no longer collects bugs.

Perfect. Again. Right into the talents of Danny and Bill. Bill starts crying pretty hard when he gets the news.

Yeah.

Danny says, who am I going to build ramps for?

Yeah, he tastes. He goes to anger twice. Yeah. Riko goes to anger. And, yeah, they're different characters.

And then Bill, in this really nice hater esque acting move, he stops crying and then just gives you a very sweet nod and goes on his way.

Right. Yes. And somehow sells it as, like, natural. Cause he's just a machine.

Yeah.

Wait, can I go back before you.

Yeah.

There was a line that got cut.

Oh, you're gonna talk about this? I was wondering if you were gonna talk about it.

Oh, we have to talk about it, don't you think?

Yes, fully.

There was a line between Rod and Kevin.

We were very sad to lose this.

Line right before the screening starts. And there's still some of it in there where he's like, I can't believe you did it. We're gonna pull it off, you know? And Kevin's like, I know, Rod. It's looking good, or whatever. And Rod's like, ah, how did it go? It was like, I'm so excited. Why don't ya whip out that little baby weed in your ears? Let me suck it.

What?

Yeah. Kevin's like, what?

He's like, I don't know.

I'm just so excited. Don't tell me when I said that.

I don't know.

It's kind of a weird joke, right?

Yeah, exactly.

It's a joke.

I'm just so upset. It's weird.

Oh, yeah, I'm joking around. Yeah. What do you whip out, baby wean of yours? Let me suck it.

What?

I'm joking around.

Did you shoot it?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

You almost put it in.

You could probably YouTube hot rod deleted scenes, and they're beeped.

Bleeped.

Because it would have made the dvd rated r, extra features, unrated.

Yeah.

We were told it was maybe beyond.

R, and we were like, what? That's so fucked up. That's so, like, I can't say that I would suck a dick. And they're like, no. You say baby weaver.

Well, yeah.

And I was like, oh, wait, they're taking that literally. They're like, yeah. Like, they're thinking like, it's the weiner of a baby child. And I was like, but he's clearly an adult.

No. And incest.

Yeah. I still think they were wrong and.

That it's a good judge.

But I will also, there were definitely some people at the test greetings that did not like it.

When I'm showing it to my children, I'm grateful it's not in there just to have a consistent, safe space for the film. But I will say Tim Robinson, I don't know who he was talking about. Skater cool dude. He was skating with this, like, a month or two ago. He's like, I was skating with this dude. He's like a rad skater guy. And he told me he was at a test screening once for hot Rod, and he heard the funniest joke of his whole life. And then he was so sad it wasn't in the movie. And then he said it was something about, like, yorma having a baby wiener or something. And I was like, oh, I know the joke. So to this cool skater dude, he was probably 20 when he saw it, or 15 or something. It was the funniest joke he had ever seen in a movie.

Definitely.

I will say it was at that stage of getting to know your character for that long and then having him say that was pretty much.

He's not, he doesn't really mean, he's just so excited.

It's a figure of speech to him.

Yeah, he gets carried away with enthusiasm. Cause everything is about to go his way. That's why it makes me laugh.

I know I'm joking around. Oh, heads up. And then you move on and the screening starts.

By the way, a guy in his forties explaining how he saw a cut line from a test screening and how mad he was. It wasn't in a movie. Feels like, I think you should leave scene like, the guy at a party who starts talking about it and then realize, and then he starts explaining, like, andy, why it's actually okay.

Tim might have made it up that that happened. Yeah. But by the way, there's one of those in every studio comedy at least. Like, did we talk about this on this already? That we went and saw an early screening of Talladega nights, and they cut out our favorite thing.

What was that?

There's a scene where it's like, it gets to the final race, and before it starts, they're like, the broadcast is happening, the announcers. And they're like, now we're gonna go live to our reporter in the stands. And he's like, you guys, I'm here with country legend Kenny Ross Rogers. And it just pans over and it's this dude who's definitely not Kenny Rogers. And they just talk for a while and it's very casual. And then it just goes back to you guys and they're like, okay, I'm pretty sure that wasn't Kenny Rogers. And I will say at that screening, it was like a friends and family screening. We were laughing uncontrollably loud and the rest of the theater was enough. So I'm not surprised it got cut. But I also am like, sometimes you gotta know you have one for, like, just people who are obsessed with comedy. And do you sacrifice everyone else for that one joke?

Well, but to be fair, Holrod still has maybe, like, five jokes that are strictly just for us.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah. Well, I mean, in that sense, I'm like, we should have kept it.

It's the cost benefit analysis of keeping baby Weiner.

It was just that it would have been a rated r. Yeah, but it's hard to imagine the movie making less money.

That's true.

Well, we'll get there because you were.

Keeping it pg for box office reasons.

But I will say this, longevity wise, there are a lot of kids, as we've said, that do really love hot rod. So in that sense, it is probably good. Like, he said he wouldn't want that in there when he's showing his kids. So it was probably the right call.

But I.

The movie is sweet, and so there's no need to.

I would just argue that that joke is also sweet.

Yeah, I would too. I think it's.

He's just loving on his bro.

Yeah.

His brother just put that little pee on the. Every time you circle back, it's like, sweet.

He loves him. Yeah.

I like when you circle back, make a case for it, and then I'm like, yeah. And then you say the line, I'm like, oh.

Oh, no. Yeah. But it's called out too. And Kevin does say, that's kind of weird thing to say.

There's so many weird jokes that, like, ancestors protect me is almost equally weird. Right. Kind of like, I mean, but, you.

Know, are we that square in Europe.

They would have let you do it.

Exactly.

You're a pot rod. It's in. Then we have a quick, I think, if memory serves, I wrote too legit quidd.

Yep, that was yours.

Yeah.

We love that one. Yeah.

That joke cost $35,000.

How much it costs?

35.

Wow. Cause we just stole the lyrics from two legit to quit. Well, Keeve had money to burn, but I forgot after that very earnest line reading, you walk into the street and get hit by a van. And it's really. It's a great stunt. I mean, it's great. Made me laugh really hard.

Oh, my God.

I forgot about a movie I've seen a bunch of times. Love that. Then we meet Chris Parnell.

Yeah.

And just. What a delightful bit of plotting. Chris Parnell runs an AM radio station, and they have bought the rights to the jump because he's trying. It's really funny in this day and age where now tv is, like, up against the same thing. He's trying to keep AM Radio alive.

Right.

And he explains how much he hates. It's tv and FM radio. Right. Like, that's who he's raging against.

Yeah. He's a future FM radio.

Yeah. He's a few steps behind, by the way.

They're cutting AM radio out of cars now, guys.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's a stunt. The only way to enjoy a stunt is to see it.

Yeah, but he has the right. He bought the exclusive rights. I mean, it's really. It's. Chefs kiss good. Then the best is he explains why he hates it, and then he lifts up his. And he's a very sort of Parnelli AM radio host. Pulls up his shirt. He has a. Basically, you did not call it this, but it's very clear. It's a Calvin tattoo, where Calvin, instead of just peeing on a sort of car that maybe someone doesn't like, is peeing on both a radio and a television set. And this is the line that I guess you would have maybe an issue with the kids. Keith, this is your line. Do you want to explain why there are two divergent pea streams of urine?

Oh, well, he doesn't say semen, by the way. It's clean. He says, I like to think he had sex the night before, and a little bit of residue is blocking his urethra, causing or allowing the urine to flow in two separate directions. Something like that. Because it's on the FM radio and on the tv. Right.

I believe a Leiden is implausible. I know. But I like to imagine.

Yes.

That he had sex the night before, also.

Then you see it up here is the AM radio, and the AM radio is floating above the tattoo on a magic carpet.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Safe and sound.

All right. We had a stretch of time where we really loved calling out Calvin pissing on stuff, as I think a lot of people in comedy did.

Yeah, well, I feel like that's fallen out of favor with truck drivers. Yes, it used to be on the back windshield of many a car. Many a truck.

Yeah, Calvin pissing on stuff. We would put that into things.

We wrote Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. For those of you who don't know.

But I remember this being a Kyiv special, I'll say that there was this.

Scene which I could barely keep it together for. And then post riot, I also witty meme laughing with Danny, having sealed the television.

I missed one thing. Before we get to riot, which is one of my favorite scenes, can I just go back?

Yeah, yeah, you should. Go ahead.

I'll just say cool beans is another real lonely island flourish, cool bean scene. And I remember you were editing the movie in New York, Keev, and you and Jorm were there, and you guys had been fighting all afternoon about an edit in cool beans. And you showed me each version, and I laughed so hard because I couldn't tell the difference.

That's right. That sounds right.

And it was just so funny to me because I remember saying, either the audience is in for cool beans or they're out.

Yes, that's correct.

But there's no tiny edit like I.

Would have been in. But you added an extra three frames there. Now I don't.

That was proven by the test screenings because it was both the highest negative and highest positive.

Well, at first though, Yoram, it was just a negative. The original scene was imagined as just us saying it back and forth in.

Different weird ways before there was the music edit. Right.

And originally it was just cool beans. Yeah, cool beans. Just twice, like super earnest. And that was the joke. And then, either during writing or on set, we decided to try to get it a whole bunch of different ways in case we wanted to make it go longer. And then we cut together the really long version, and it was dying at test screenings. And then Keev was like, I think we just need to lose this scene. And I believe it was me. Or me and you, yarm.

I think it was you. I think it was you that said.

Was like, hey, let's take all this footage into the other room. There was another editing bay at where we were cutting, and I asked you to make the beat.

We edited it with the footage in the other room because I feel like we were also down on it.

We were like, let's try this crazy ass move with it, because otherwise we're gonna have to cut it. And we did it and it was making us laugh and we were like, yeah, maybe. And we brought it back in and Keev was like, it's funny, but I don't think it is gonna work. We were like, all right, we have one last test screening, so let's just put it in and see. And if not, we'll just cut it down to the studs. And it destroyed.

Yeah, it did great.

We were like, what the fuck? It was like the highest rated scene in the movie and we thought it was the most lost of causes.

It's a real lesson.

Yeah.

And fun little addendum on the soundtrack, which I think you can now listen to on Spotify. But there is a cool beans remix that has be legit.

Bay area rapper.

Yeah, he crushes it. What's the first line?

Your cool beans in the place? 40 cal in my waist pointed at your face if you really want to take.

Yeah, we just told him. But you told him. The direction was like, just do a hard.

Just like, be as gangster as possible.

Oh, yeah. And he did got that bay in.

We've mentioned this wonderful cast. We've not mentioned Will Arnett, who is perfect and really, really funny as the sleazy boyfriend Jonathan, who is incredibly unlikable from the first time he shows up. And then each successive time we see him, you do not pull off the gas, letting others know how horrible he is.

No, he's truly the worst possible boyfriend.

And at one point, Rod calls him to say the jump's back on and he's reading barely legal, which is also just insane. That. That I can't imagine. Is that still barely legal? Is so horrific. Like, it could be called. You're almost a pedophile.

We wanted him to be a bad option.

You know, he's such a bad option. And it's really funny because it again plays up the trope of, oh, God, they were so close. She has a boyfriend, and you feel like you want to slowly show the audience he's not right for her.

Throughout the entire shoot, we were like, she should not be with either of these guys.

I know.

You're awful.

Too bad options.

I mean, we miss the scene where you're just literally hammering an engine in your garage, and she walks in and says she'll join the crew, and you say there's an initiation, and obviously there isn't. And when she says she's in, you just pour your drink on her foot like you're not good. No, but he sucks.

Yeah.

And it's really funny reading. Barely legal. I forgot. That was awful.

Oh, God. I forgot that, too. By the way, Arnett, that was arrested development time. And we were, like, fucking obsessed with Arnett. We still are. We love him, but, like, we didn't know him yet. And we were like, Jesus Christ, we have to get will for this part. We wrote it, like, for him, towards him. And luckily he was down and he's canadian. Yeah. So we didn't have to get him, like, a work permit.

Yeah, exactly. He was happy to go back to the motherland. He actually was doing us a huge favor by doing it.

Yeah.

Now we have another montage, and this is just a music montage. And there's a really nice moment. You're doing tai chi on the beach. We've established Tai Chi earlier.

Yeah.

And you're very oily, which I think is. Again, we've seen this before.

Yes.

In rocky movies where guys are working out and it seems like they're glistening in a way that body does not naturally glisten.

Yeah.

And then we see as we widen out that just a sort of random guy is applying oil to you while you're doing your tai chi.

Yeah. Like a guy that might be like a. Yeah, a guy that might work on the trains or something. Kind of an elderly fella. Yeah.

He looks sort of like maybe a local fisherman or something who just wandered over. It's very funny, but it was a nod to Roadhouse.

Right. Like a neighbor who, like, basically dressed like that.

There's a shot in roadhouse when he doing his tai chi, where a neighbor sees him. Or is that our movie?

I don't know if he sees him.

Got it.

But in our minds, he saw him. And then we added the oiling him up.

The oiling up. Anyway.

And now Roadhouse Yorma, you later direct a film called McGruber, which borrows a great deal from Roadhouse.

Yeah, we'd love to. Roadhouse.

That's interesting.

And depending when this comes out, we're talking about the original roadhouse, not the gyllenhaal.

Right. Because there's gonna be a new roadhouse.

Yeah.

Which better be funny so we can.

Steal more from it.

Better inspire the next generation of hot rod tours.

He better be ripping throats.

So you. Then again, really fun trope. You guys are off. You're like walking down the street. Rods walking down the street, one by one, getting joined by the crew. Now it's the four of you.

Yeah, it's the morning of the big jump, so morning of the big. They're on their way.

Big John Farnham song starts.

Neighbors at first noticing, then kids join up behind you has a very sort of inspirational. But now more people are joining. You guys seem a little. This isn't what you expected strangers to be joining behind you.

Yeah.

Now strangers are also singing along with the song.

Right.

That's weird.

That's playing. So now it's very weird. And we keep, again, none of them think it's weird, but we see on the faces of the four of you.

Yeah, we're confused, but you're happily confused. You're like, whoa, whoa. Wow. I guess the town is.

The town is rallying behind magical as afoot.

Yeah, but you were hinting to the audience, this is not what we expected when we were walking down the street for a big jump. Then a dude just picks up a trash can, throws it through the window of a storefront, and everybody just starts looting.

Yeah, yeah. Let's tear this place apart.

And it becomes like a car gets flipped. Dude sets one on fire.

Music continues music continues. Same positive.

Two people dump a dude out of a wheelchair. It's just incredibly gnarly.

Yeah.

You guys take off running.

That's Lauren's child, Henry Michaels.

Is it really?

He's the kid who runs up and steals, like, hey, free wheelchair runs off.

Yeah. Two people dump a guy out just for the purposes of dumping him out. But then another kid's like, hey, free wheelchair. The best, though. And I think this is what you were alluding to, Jorm is then the four of you sort of run off to safety, and you're now at the location of the jump, and you talk about how crazy it was. And it's the best because Danny McBride's Rico is holding a tv. He's definitely just stolen.

Also, he runs up not holding it.

You guys notice it, and he just keeps talking about how crazy it was. And, no, it's never mentioned.

It's like there was no time to do anything but just try to make sure you're safe and get out of there.

And it really is. Again, I know I keep saying it. It's such a wonderful, really nice Danny McBride thing of his characters. They're so good at not having any shame about their shitholedness.

Yeah.

Credit to Jorm and Andy on that one, as well as cool beans. There came a moment I remember in prep where all my time as the official director start getting eaten up with location scouts, talking to department heads, just all the stuff that starts happening. But the script was still ready for more inspiration. And that's when you guys came to that one. We would listen to John Farnham. He's australian, very popular in Australia, but not an american, and very well known. But he had a song on the rad soundtrack that we would listen to. He had multiple songs on the Rad soundtrack. So then, you know, we would just peruse his other library and found that song. That's a big hit down under.

Yeah.

You know, just inspired. You were just breathing in that crocodile Dundee air.

Yeah, yeah.

It was just in that office.

And you have Isla. There's a lot of Australia stuff going on.

That's right. We were like, this should be the song. Before we came up with the idea for it to turn into a riot, we were like, this should be like. This song starts playing. This is like the day of the jump, and then people start joining in.

Yeah, yeah.

I would bet big money yorm that you were the one who said, and.

Then a dude just throws the trash.

And then we just wrote it from there.

But this one I did not have have doubts in, like, cool beans.

It is the best, I think, depiction of how looting starts I've ever seen on television.

Yeah, you're like, yeah, that seems real.

Cause everybody's behind one idea, and then as soon as it becomes a new idea, everybody now has sort of just a collective thrust behind them.

It's also great. Cause when you watch it, when you see the dude, you're like, oh, wait. Oh, no. Oh, you know where it's going? But you're like, oh, God, no, no, don't do that.

Yes. He's like the giant orc in the second lord of the rings with the big torch.

Yeah.

I see him running through the crowd.

And you're like, oh, no, no. Stop that guy.

When we shot that, it was maybe the end of the second week. It was somewhere pretty early on, or it might have been Friday of week one, even, because I remember Lorne being in a typical kind of Lorne, like Bird's eye view. He was like, now the crew really knows what movie we're making. Like, I can feel there's a different energy now because everybody's kind of galvanized and they know that we're having fun and doing something big. And it was also because everybody, you know, we had a technocrane and we got big shots, and a car was on fire, so. So it felt big. And he was, like, pontificating about how now we're really doing it.

Also, I feel like everyone, as we were shooting thought it was funny, which helped.

Yeah, no, but it is such a weird tone that I think that you're right. Like, when Lauren said that, it did feel like, oh, now people get it right.

It was both not a thing I'd seen before, and it would have been funny in any comedy. It was such a funny idea.

Well, thanks, Seth.

That I think anybody working on it would be like, oh, okay, great. These guys are doing a new thing, and I don't have to know anything about it to know that this is a very funny idea.

I tell you what, it was fun to do.

Yeah. The Lonely island podcast is supported by Airbnb.

Seth, I don't know if you know this, but when I was out in Los Angeles, when we were making popstar, I had to stay at seven different places.

Get out of town.

Yeah.

Because we kept editing for seven and a half months, and five of those places were Airbnbs. And I gotta say, my experience was lovely in each one of them. I stayed in every kind of location around Los Angeles, and the whole time I was thinking I should be doing this same thing because these houses are just making moolah for people and I never did. And you know what? I don't know if you know this about me, but I hate leaving money on the table. Did you know that?

I hate leaving money on the table. You'll go back and you'll take the tip. We've left the waitstaff, and we have to say that money is supposed to be on the table.

I've done that many times, and you've told me not to so many times. But you know what? I hated leaving on the table, so I gotta go back.

Well, I'm glad you finally came to that realization, Jorn, because a lot of people don't realize they might have an Airbnb of their own right under their noses. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much@airbnb.com. host support for the Lonely island and Seth Meyer's podcast comes from Viori. Hey, Yoram.

Hi.

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There's a really funny scene where the news. Right? We've seen this move in films before where all of a sudden a newscaster's on tv giving us some information, right? The newscaster says, and then the dog came home, ate a pizza, and took a nap. So that's the story. We've seen the tail end of the first story.

Yeah, I believe that's Akiva bubble trousers vibes.

Yeah, for sure.

Then she gets the information at hand where there's gonna be a big jump. Everybody's there.

But unfortunately, you can't watch it there. Cause an AM radio station has exclusive writing.

The second piece of news. Is that so?

Then we kind of have mentioned that the amazing sissy space egg plays your mom, which is hilarious every time I see it.

Both pieces of those casting was us just not even understanding exactly how big a deal a studio movie being made is. Just in general, I remember multiple times. I remember our main executive, our day to day executive, this woman, Allie Shermer, coming up to us one day when we were greenlit in pre production, but still in LA and going, this is a big deal, guys. This doesn't just happen. This is a very big deal. Cause she could tell our anxiety and worry because the script wasn't where we wanted it to be, was way superseding any enjoyment we were really getting. About. Like, hell, yeah, we're doing it. There was no, as we call it, Vinny chasing it, where you're just like, medi and where are we gonna shoot it? Those are. We call it.

You guys have never. And I mean, this is a compliment. You've never. Vinny chased anything.

No.

You are always worried about it.

Balls of anxiety and worry. And she would have to, like, stop us and go, this is a huge deal. But also, it had come relatively easy to us in that moment. Not like we didn't work hard, but it was Lauren just going, how about a movie now? And us going, are we ready? I don't even know that we're ready. And it was like, just start working on the script. We'll worry about it later. And then, all right, well, just go up to Vancouver and start scouting. We'll worry about later. Like, so we were the ones trying to put the brakes and go, hey, let's make it cheaper. Hey, are we sure we were ready to shoot yet? Like, because once those trains are leaving the traffic, it's scary. You're just going. Or as somebody else said, like, the boulder's behind you and you're just running as fast as you can.

I mean, yeah. I mean, a train leaving the tracks certainly would be scary.

Yeah, that's what I mean. Jumping off the tracks and derailing. But anyways, just to say the point. But then we would say things like, what if his dad was Ian McShane? They were like, give us a list of people. And we were like, what if it's that? Of course, that would never happen. And then Lauren would be like, no, that sounds about right. And he would call Ian machine. Like, okay, Ian's in. And we would be like, what are you talking about?

Yeah, I just remember Sissy, them being like, what about sissy space act? And us literally going, yeah, sure. Why don't you ask Sissy Spacek if she'll do our movie? And then they're like, she's in. And we were like, what the f. Oh, no. And then was the greatest person we've ever met.

Yeah, she runs when she hears it's on AM radio. She turns off the tv. But you do hear right before the tv goes off. Also, a riot broke out downtown. And I really, also really funny to think that the way the news structured the stories that week.

Yeah, Tom story was about a dog who had maybe been lost or something.

Then it was the jump, but that they didn't have rights to so they wouldn't be able to show you. And then this crazy riot broke.

And there's also a riot, by the.

Way, it's maybe not a good news show.

I remember with the recording of that news anchor woman is a real one of a local news up in Vancouver. And they kind of showed us a few different local anchors who were allowed to do things like that and could do it at their station with their equipment so it'll look perfect. And they just said, you don't even have to go down there. They'll just read it like it's news, because they just know how to do that. Just give a script. And I remember the joy of being like, oh, my God. Anything we type here, this predates anchorman, but it was very anchorman in the feeling of, like, anything that goes on a teleprompter, she's gonna say, right, right. And then when we got that footage back and we're watching her talk about the dog, walked itself home, ate a pizza, and took a nap, we were, like, in heaven.

Oh, my God. What were some of the other ones? And that's why whales are stupid.

Just for the record, Anchorman came out in 2000.

Oh, it was post anchorman. Never mind. It was Anchorman irl.

There's a moment I wanted to ask. It's jump day. You're signing autographs for some kids, and you basically write. You say you are cool. Don't be like Frank. But then what you're writing is, I hate Frank. It seems like you're dictating a different thing.

Yes. I just watched this. It's so confusing.

It's very confusing.

It's great. I still like that joke, and I don't even remember it in the movie.

I don't remember it at all. But that is.

It's the exact kind of choice we would make.

And also, like, the handwriting. I have no sense of what we're trying to. It's like, this is another reminder. Like, a lot of these movies, like, a lot of Sandler movies, there was, like, a 20 year stretch where late in the movie, you're like, oh, there's something super wrong with this. Yeah, like, he's got.

Yeah, yeah, you're definitely, like, he should not be with a grown woman.

Yeah.

Like, no one should be with him.

It's crazy when you see how he wrote it, and it's like. Like you didn't know how much paper you had. You barely fit. I hate Frank on it.

Tell us Andy's actual handwriting, though. Cause you're like, well, why would they use this? This is crazy.

I have no recollection of any of it.

Your handwriting is so bad in it, it's unbelievable.

We then revisit Jonathan, Denise. Jonathan has not told Denise about the big jump. And they're driving down the street, and again, because the audience is a little on the fence about Jonathan, you hear a bump, and she goes, what was that? He's super psyched because they hit a raccoon just cackling. And then she's a little taken aback, and he says some version of that raccoon. Would have hit us if it had the chance.

Not have stopped for us again.

It's really funny. Cause this is our last scene with Jonathan. He's just really pouring it on. His last moment with us. Cause we don't want the audience to feel like she's making the wrong choice. He goes in to buy vitamin waters. And then also, I can't even remember what he calls condoms. The worst thing you've ever.

Dong bags.

Donk.

Maybe I should pick up some dong bags so we can knock boots later, is what. He's awful.

Yeah.

Makes a lot of sense that his character is like a stockbroker would say, knock boots.

Then a really funny thing happens, which is he goes in the convenience store. So, of course, what would she do if your bad boyfriend left you in a car? You'd switch over to AM radio, back.

To what she likes.

Now she gets the news.

Perfect plotting.

And so she takes off, and he yells, babe, wait. It's very funny. Diana leans over the car and screams, babe, wait. It's much like the fall in the woods. It's more babe waits than you think they're gonna be.

Yeah, it's funny because it's actually in the script, too, which you wouldn't think.

If he switches it up each time. It's really nice.

Babe weight, I believe. Also yorm. Yeah.

Yeah, that was a me because we wrote no babe weight. And then I had the great idea to make it longer.

What if he kept saying that over and over? I don't remember which one of us decided to chop it off in edit. But whoever did was great, because the fact that he's mid babe and it chops and cuts off, the implication being this one of the better edits we've ever made.

There's a Parnell line. I don't know who wrote it.

It was you.

I know I wrote it. Okay.

Had to have been you.

If you like stunts or terminally ill stepfathers.

Yeah, definitely that was you.

If your answer to either of both of those is yes, yeah.

And then you're in the right place. The reason so many of these are you, Seth, is that, like, the day before or a couple days before we realize, okay, so we're gonna have Parnell. We're gonna have him sitting there at a mic in the script. Of course, a script will be way too long if you put everywhere he could narrate. And then there's always that moment when you're like, oh, wait, he's gonna be sitting there. We should get him talking about everything that happens. From the moment the day starts to it ends. So we can cut to it whenever. But it's not in the script. There's only a few choice lines in the script, and we're all super busy, and you're there to do exactly that. So you wrote us a ton of stuff. And once you have two cameras and he's sitting there, he can just run through them. So you give us tons of gold. And it helps, of course, in editing, so much.

And we should note that I share something with the three of you. Nothing's more fun than writing for Chris Parnell.

Yeah.

Just knowing an absolute technician of dryness.

So funny.

Yeah.

Diction and dryness will just perfectly enunciate any nonsense you put in front of him. A joke. I forgot. Denise shows up, kisses you, and Bill says, why is rod kissing his sister? He saw the whole movie.

Yeah, he was confused on Denise, the relationship, the whole movie.

Really quiet. A very quiet moment.

We were so happy to have that, too. Cause the whole time, we were like, it's a studio movie, so they have to have that in it.

Yeah.

Like, they were just like, oh, and then she has to show up, and you guys have to guess. And we were like, does it seem honest? And they were like, don't ask that question.

Well, we undercut it twice. One with Bill and one with your reaction to the kiss. Right. Where at least at first, you're, like, confused by a kiss. Cause you probably never really tongue kissed a girl. And you're like, whoa. I just wasn't ready, like, in your tongue. And she's like, oh, God, sorry. And then you do kiss her again to make it okay.

Yeah.

But at first, you are confused by, like, an adult, passionate film kiss. Cause you're a child.

But the bill one for me is gold, obviously.

Then Parnell does add, if the boner police are here, I demand the lawyer.

Oh, there you go.

Really good line.

I think we've now undercut it plenty.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe even too much.

I demand a lawyer.

And then the jump. I forgot this joke about the jump. You go off the jump.

Wait, wait, wait.

Can we back it up, though, real quick, please? Because my favorite line of my lines in the movie is when we're giving Rod presents for the jump, and he gets the cool leather evil Knievel jumpsuit. And I say, you're gonna look like a champion, Rod. And it's so whack and earnest. Nothing's funny about it. It's just so whack.

You just love him so much.

You're gonna look like a champion, Rod. Nothing's funny about it.

I feel like on set, we would constantly make fun of you. You would make fun of your own character. Like, what else, Rod? What can I do for you today, Rod?

Like, are you sure you didn't try to convince us to cut that line a bunch of times before the movie?

I probably did. And now it's my fucking favorite. You look like a champion, Rod.

I just don't think it plays as a joke.

I think you're right.

I think you're totally right. That's even funnier than. I was, like, uncomfortable about not being cool.

It's a great scene. You jump off, you're in the air. Slow motion cuts as you like, sort of nod to each your teammates. Again, it's really thumbs up, heroic music. And then we cut to the wide, and we realize you've long separated from the bike.

Yes.

It's great.

I want to say that was Pam Brady, and it was always in there.

Yeah. I don't know if all the nods and stuff, but the separating from the bike, hers was Snake River Canyon, much like the real evil Knievel did. There was a bunch of other details that were different, but that's what I mean, all the big points of it. Of like, that he doesn't nail the main jump, but it doesn't matter because he earned the money, so he succeeded. Even if he failed, that was definitely in. And the separation.

Did Pams go to Vegas at the end? Yeah, it did, right?

I thought Pam's went to Vegas.

Oh, we didn't do Snake River Canyon.

I don't think so. It was like. That was his reference of, like, I gotta do something bigger than evil Knievel.

Maybe that is. I don't know.

Well, anyway, you take a very hard fall, slide across the ground. It's a really good fall, by the.

Way, another fucking incredible stunt.

Really good stuff.

Yeah.

Also to the not spending money. I remember sometimes producers going, you know, you can use some of the, like, steadicams, or you could ask for a technocrane. It's a studio movie. You don't have to make everything feel like handheld and small. And then I remember us being like, yeah, well, we will in the third act. Like, we throw away the cheapness in the third act as a way to be like, no, his world is expanding. I remember us talking about, like, it'll turn into a big movie as it goes. So when it got to the riot, we're like, okay, the riot can feel like a big riot. And then when it gets there. All of a sudden you really notice when, like, it gets that shot where you're on the top of the jump and the camera is on a big crane and goes up and meets him up at the top of the jump. It's like a really heroic big movie shot.

Yeah.

And all of a sudden, we really have 2000 extras and we have the bleachers and we have all the busses.

It'd be so funny if that's how Tom Cruise felt about the mission impossible movies. Like, in the beginning, it should be just, like, a totally small thing.

Yeah. It should feel like an indie film.

Like, you should stop. Like a purse snatcher.

Yeah. That's the first part of the impossible mission.

Early on, the mission should be, like, really possible.

Yes. The odds are constantly building.

And you're like, what? Why is this called this?

It's like he's got, like, 99 to one.

Like, wait for it.

It's gonna be fine.

Yeah, yeah, it'll be fine.

By the end, it's one to 99.

It's a really, like, portly gentleman, purse snatches. And you're like, oh, he's gonna catch him.

Yeah, he's gonna get him.

He's like, don't worry. This is easy. Very possible.

He's fast.

Parnell says, when you crash, I hope none of his teammates had a fight with him this morning because he's more than likely dead. I do enjoy that. And then it's a wonderful callback to an earlier question you asked Denise when you. You were obviously gonna ask her out. And then you realize she's dating Jonathan, and she asks you, what were you gonna ask me earlier? And you said, who would win the fight between a grilled cheese and a taco? And it turns out that when you're basically dead, that's what you have a vision of.

Right?

Yeah.

And we see your third haircut of the movie, which is the dumbest one now it's part of dead in the middle heaven. Your heaven hair is my favorite hair. And I forgot that you had a different. A third hair, middle part, third style.

Having a part down the middle is definitely heaven head.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's like how all those Hummels look. It's like hummel hair.

I don't know what that is.

You know those, like, little porcelain figures that, like, old people have?

Oh, yeah, I like that. You know the name of that?

Oh, I know what Hummels are. I googled it. Okay, go on, Seth.

A lot of people are celebrating when you get up, including a screen. Yeah.

Well, first of all that originally made more sense, because when we get to $50,000 and big, triumphant music starts, it was gonna turn to Christmas, and so it was gonna start snowing, and the bells were gonna ring out, and then Scrooge was gonna appear and say, a cook grooves. So it all made sense. And then we were told we couldn't do that.

So then we kept Scrooge, and Scrooge leans out the window of one of the busses. You've jumped. With a Christmas turkey.

Yeah. With a cooked goose.

A goose. Of course. Apologies.

We're goose guys.

Yeah. Cook goose for everyone.

It's a success. And then you think, you know, you would think, well, that's obviously the last big set piece of the film. But for those of you who might have forgotten, the whole purpose of this was to successfully do the jump to make the money to save Frank. It's six months later, and we have our final fight scene. Now, we should note deadwood has the greatest fight scene I've ever seen in a show. The street fight between Dan Doherty and Captain Turner. It's like the gnarliest fight. This gives it a run for its money. This is a very good fight.

It's like Deadwood. They live in this well.

And to back it up, it's set to Europe's the Final countdown album, which many, many of the tracks on the soundtrack of this were from that album.

Yeah. While we were writing, we were listening to Europe's album and then eventually said, can this album just be? Has a movie ever been made where a pre existing album becomes the soundtrack? Where we don't even need to make a soundtrack because someone can just go buy an album? And we were at one point going to challenge ourselves to license every song.

On the album, put their album out as our soundtrack.

I think, like, six of the songs made it in.

Yeah, you crash through multiple walls, fences. You sort of roll into a barbecue in the back. But there is a really jarring, very funny moment where Frank just throws a throwing star at you.

Oh, yeah. Right at the top. He's been expecting you.

Do you think Rod's ready now that he feels he's a true man? But then he gets hit with that throwing star and thinks twice, and he.

Lands the ultimate punch.

Yeah, he lands the ultimate punch. And that's the last moment, is we see that Frank shits himself.

Yes, exactly.

Which is also a callback. That happens earlier when Denise does it to you.

Right. Denise teaches him the tai chi move that makes you shit your pants.

Seamless callbacks all the threads are knotted. Perfect.

I'm going to just say a compliment to our friend Akiva. When I first saw an edit of that fight scene, I remember vividly being like, oh, shit. He directed this hell of. Well, like, the action looked good and painful, and it moved really smoothly. And there was, like, the really cool shot where the camera on Dolly goes, like, to the side with the action. And then especially the moment when they go through the wall back out into the yard. Looks really cool. And it was innovative and cool in ways that I was not expecting from what we had shot.

Even piggybacking on that, even you talking about the cranes and everything, Keith, because I wasn't really privy to it. That's a real learning experience that you kind of had separately for me being around you.

I mean, the real learning experience was when you guys got to go to the Pirates of the Caribbean premiere at Disneyland, and I was already in Vancouver location scouting, and I didn't get to go.

That's the hard way, is what you call that.

So you learned that directing is really tough because when you're up there learning things, everybody else is having a closed down Disneyland where you get to ride the rides and then watch the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Do you guys want to talk about how that was?

It was great. I didn't even remember you weren't there, dude.

Who went for me? Who took my spot?

Somebody took my spot, I think I hope did.

Chester.

Chester or Matt?

Matt Batinelli.

Matt from who does the screen movies now? Maybe was with you guys.

I'm sorry.

It was fun.

It was so fun.

I'm sorry, Keev.

Yeah, but I was up in chili, Vancouver, in that sad office.

By the way, we got invited to that premiere because lazy Sunday was about the chronicles of Narnia.

Yeah, it was. Not Jack Sparrow related yet. We hadn't made that yet.

No.

Oh, that's right. But it worked. They invited you to the premiere, and then you came back and helped brand their franchise.

Yeah, we did some of that. What do we call it? Narc advertising.

Yeah, whatever you were talking about, narc vertizing. You've come full circle.

Native advertising. Is it that that seems like maybe something you're not allowed to say anymore?

You always know you're in good shape when you have to say that after a joke.

Can't say that anymore.

Don't worry. No one can hear this.

I will say, though, if it hasn't been thought of yet, I do like narcvertizing.

Support for the lonely island and Seth Meyers podcast comes from liquid death. You know what I love to do? Yorm?

Drink water.

Yeah. But I like to keep it in a giant, tall boy. So when I crack it open at a 09:00 a.m. business meeting, everybody looks at me like I'm the coolest dude they've ever seen.

Well, yeah, because you're not, like, such a tough guy. But with that, that description made me think, wow, tough guy.

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Well, there's been some incidences, but I.

Like being at a barbecue, not filling up on heavy alcohols, but rather, I still like that crack of a fresh water in a can with a skull on it, because, again, look, I got three kids, but I used to rock and roll. You did.

I remember that, yeah.

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I'm gonna go right now.

Support for the Lonely island and Seth Meyers podcast comes from LinkedIn. Hey, Yoram. Hi. You know, a lot of times in comedy, the people you hire are gonna be degenerates. But there's also businesses where you try to find the best possible candidates, and that's when you turn to LinkedIn. LinkedIn isn't just a job bore you. LinkedIn isn't just a job board, yorm, and I'd love you to stop saying it is. LinkedIn helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else, even those who aren't actively searching for a new job, but might be open to the perfect role in a given month. Over 70% of LinkedIn users don't visit other leading job sites. So if you're not looking on LinkedIn, you're looking in the wrong place. Where's a bad place? You've once looked for a job just.

Walking by a store that said help wanted. And then I went in and they were like, oh, no, thank you. So, I mean, you know, I prefer LinkedIn. And actually I just looked up different jobs on LinkedIn, and you can find a smoothie maker on there. It's not just for CEO's, Seth, which I know you think that I think that about LinkedIn, but it's not. You can get a dog walker or a smoothie maker.

What I said was, you only respect CEO's. That's what I said. Post your job for free@LinkedIn.com. resource. That's LinkedIn.com resource to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Yeah. Boy, guys, this is the hard part. Now you make this film. I watched it, like I said, in the last 24 hours, really enjoyed it. Holds up really well. It's tight. It's right. Great actors. The movie does not work the way the studio wanted to, the way you guys wanted to. Can you talk a little bit about when that became clear?

Let's talk about editing for 1 second. We were right back at SNL.

Oh, yeah.

And we only could edit on off weeks of SNL, which was really difficult emotionally. Cause we were all like, we have a feature film that's gonna come out. And for better or worse, Lauren's attitude is always that SNL is real work and movies are like fun summer break vacations. So it wasn't like I would be like, can I not be at work this week and edit? And it'd be like, no, no, no, the editor's working right now.

We have a show.

Yeah, we have a show. So, I mean, and God bless him, he could talk to Paramount. He's one of the few people that could. And just get us a really long post schedule. I have no idea how long it was, but, you know, it's really expensive to have editors in an editing room. And he must have just been calling paramount going, they have to be at SNL this week, so give them more weeks. Because ultimately, I bet you we did have the right amount of time to some degree. But it was always very stressful because our minds were in two places at once. That whole. Oh, yeah, that whole time. Right. And I remember also we did have money left over. And they were like, if you want to reshoot something or find something, and we were. I don't know what I would do in hindsight site, but we were so young and so, like, not equipped for that. We were kind of like, I don't know how. Like, we were still also just being like, we're just trying to get what we have edited the best it can be to see the forest for the trees.

And then maybe once it's edited perfect, we'll be able to look at it and go, what else could it use? But until you get what you have correct that we couldn't even think about what else we might need.

I will just say this. I don't think there's a reshoot that would have made that movie make more money.

I agree.

What it is is what it was, and that's what we wanted it to be. We just didn't know that that was not something people didn't want to go to the theater to watch.

But there's a little bit of a push and pull like you're talking about when you're mentioning what the studio would allow or not. Beyond baby wiener. There really was that script. We had a game plan. We were like, all right, we're going to take this script here that has all these great ideas and really good jokes, but doesn't make a lot of sense and doesn't have a beginning, middle, and end in the version we were handed and our first draft was like, let's just make it make sense. We turned that in, and to us, it was like, yeah, that's like, the bare minimum. And to the studio, they're like, holy crap, you turned in a movie. That was the quote. I remember they say a movie meaning, like, this is a whole movie, because so often writers don't turn in something that's a movie, honestly. And we were like, right, right now for our next round, where we're gonna, like, give it more emotional stakes. And we kept referencing welcome to the Dollhouse, being like, we're gonna give it some of the sadness of that so that you actually care about these characters.

Oh, he's a good reference for studio executives.

We knew we were making a different movie, but we were like, the weirdest that this character feels like, let's put some of that into this so you actually might care.

I would have loved to have seen that version of this movie. But thinking about us name checking. Welcome to the doll.

Well, that's coming up in the second part of the story, which is that. So we write the first. Here's what I'll say, though. We wrote the first 50 pages, maybe, of that version, just starting to eke it out. That had him, like, moving out of the house into a tent because he's so upset about the dad. And the dad doesn't love him as much as the brother, but the brother's nothing. Jorm is coming out there to give him food and is worried about him, and it has these different elements. And I remember Allyson Jones, our casting person, the legendary casting, the number one comedy casting person of all time. Probably reading those 50 and going, oh, I really like where you guys are going with this. And she was the only person that read it besides Lorne and Goldwyn and the studio. And I don't even know if Lauren and Goldwyn even read it because it was in the middle, and the studio read it and was like, what are you guys doing?

They called an intervention yet an active.

Intervention of, like, don't do this.

They came over and said, you have.

To start, and spent 2 hours with us going page by page. But halfway through, we went, you're just reverting everything.

Yes.

It was like, let's just go page by page. And every scene would be like, see, what you used to have was this, and that was good, and what you have now is bad. And at some point, we were like, yeah, we get it. You thought we nailed it the first time.

Essentially, it was a real talking to. We got dressed down.

We were like, okay, fine. And I remember Lauren also getting really mad at them for doing that. Like, how dare you? Because it was a little bit behind his back.

Oh, got it.

And he was like, you don't give my guy notes like you give them through me kind of thing. And he's right. But we were all so naive. Us, not Lauren. We were so naive. We were like, oh. And then we always kind of grieved that version of the movie because we never got to know what it could be because we never went back to it or anything. It just went away. So somewhere I remember, even in editing, we got the movie the best we can be. And we were like, hey, fingers crossed. People like this. But we knew it was a little uneven. Test screenings would laugh a lot, and people would like it and do it. Didn't test. Now that I know more about test screen, it didn't test terrible. It tested okay. Yeah.

And Rod was most liked a character.

Go on.

Yes, it tested okay.

How did they feel about Jonathan, the other boyfriend?

They didn't like him.

They didn't like him, they hated. They hated him.

Cause he was a bad guy.

But Rod, they wanted to see smooch.

Oh, but she did. Namecheck, welcome to dolls. In that meeting, that long meeting, she was like, you can't make it. Welcome to the Dollhouse. She, like, threw it back at us, and we're like, we know. We were just using it like underdog sad, guys, sad.

But truthfully, we did kind of want it to be more artsy and quote unquote indie with what we were doing. And they were like, that's not what we are paying for here. We want a big studio comedy that's slapstick.

And that went into the actual trailer, though, too. Like, they got a beastie boys song that they got approved that it was gonna be like, so what you want? Or something like that.

Exactly.

And we were like, no, we want to do this test icicles, which is this, like, indie band from England.

Yeah. Looking back, I mean, no regrets. And I love testicles, obviously, but it would have been totally fine. We were way in our heads about beastie boys. We were like, why do they want to put a rap song on it? Just cause we have made a rap? Like. Cause we made lazy Sunday. That's not the tone of the movie at all.

Yeah. And in hindsight, it totally is.

Yeah. It would have been dope.

Now, you guys did make dollhouse box office.

We did.

I remember very clearly, I don't remember the guy's name, but we cut a trailer, our own trailer. That was even another trailer that we actually put some wolf parade on.

We did wolf parade.

That, in my mind, was a really cool trailer that we really thought was awesome, but I will say would probably have led people to believe they're about to see some version of Garden State meets stunt stuff. You know what I mean? Like, it seemed like an emotionally interesting indie. And I remember the marketing guy going like, this might play for your friends in Soho, but I'm trying to get the kids in Kansas. And then he made his trailer, and he did not get get the kids in Kansas. And then the third part is, I remember them marketing it as if Andy was a star, not somebody that had just done one season of SNL.

Yeah.

So if you had missed three sketches, if you had missed the Natalie rap and Lazy Sunday, you didn't know who he was. And it was being marketed like he was Will Ferrell, someone that had done seven years of SNL.

Yeah.

We were saying, give us less money. Don't market it on Andy.

Like we were saying, just imagine Keev in the room with me sitting there looking so sad, yelling this exact stuff.

This guy's a nobody.

Nobody.

Not only that, he's a piece of shit.

You were actually the biggest against it. You felt embarrassed by the billboards.

It was the wrong.

Have you seen testicles? He couldn't carry that.

Exactly.

To answer your question, though, sev. The first real moment, because I think we were getting numbers on Thursday of, like, it's gonna make this. Like, there were projections of, like, it.

Was gonna do kind of better.

So I do think for people who don't know this, you do sort of find out even before it's official, right. And they know so soon, once it actually opens.

We were still on our press tour.

Yes. The moment it happens, it's like an algorithm of just, like, if it makes this on Friday, then it'll make this on Saturday. It'll make this on Sunday. And I was also going to the theater, though, to see it, because I went to theaters and was like, oh, no. Just. Just seeing, like, how few people were in the theater was like, oh, God. And it was the closest. It felt like getting broken up with. Of just, like, this is shattering. Genuine heartbreak.

Genuine heartbreak. Yes. You feel it?

Really?

Genuine heartbreak.

Also, the week leading up, we did a big press tour for it, which was new for us, of course. Cause every part of this was new, but we, like, flew state to state, and we're doing events and this and that, and the tracking hadn't, like, become superficial yet. They were still pushing the movie credit to Paramount. They put money into the advertising, and we were still being told by people, like, hey, I think it could do somewhere between this and this, you know, like, teens and, like, maybe even low twenties kind of a thing. And we were like, shit, that'd be cool. Like, just naivel dudes.

But we knew in our heart of hearts, we're like, no, I don't think so. But then they'd say it, and it's exactly what your biggest hope is. So there's this part of you, it's like buying a lottery ticket where you're like, I know I won't win the lottery. But part of you starts fantasizing, and no matter what, you're disappointed. When they call the numbers. You're like, well, I knew it wasn't a gonna win because we sometimes I would think, like, are they crazy? Like. Cause I remember them calling with those kind of calls, and I'd be like, are they in the real world? Like, I can feel that it doesn't have momentum, right?

Yeah.

But then you can't help but go, like, maybe.

Maybe we'll do twelve.

I don't know. Yeah, you know?

And what did it do?

Four and a half? Maybe five?

I'm gonna say 5.6.

Oh, I'm thinking of Magruber. Which, by the way, was identical. They were, like, 14. It's gonna be 14 for eight.

It made 5.35.3 was the answer for the weekend.

That was 300 grand, too. Hi.

And so do you remember, like, how was Lorne with you guys on it? I'm going to just predict this is kind of Lorne at his best. I would imagine Lorne is very good at a time like this.

Oh, so supportive.

Yes. He told us a story about. That was one of the sadder Chris Farley stories I ever heard. But anybody can relate to it, which was when Tommy Boy was coming out, or maybe it was black sheep, but I think it was Tommy boy. And this is pre email. So to see the reviews, the studio would have people in every city across America whose job was to, like, honestly just cut out clippings from local newspapers and fax them in, and they would put together a binder that you could get sent to you Friday afternoon that had, like, the reviews of every local paper in America, the equivalent of going on Rotten Tomatoes. But only people with studio access would have this access. Otherwise you would just read your local paper. And so it was just him, like, sadly flipping through, just getting ripped, you know? But we love that movie. So it was a story he was telling to more. I know you're gonna beat yourself up. That's what he did. He was torturing himself the way you guys are torturing yourselves. But think about how you think of that movie. He had the long sight to go.

We just need patience. Cause he's able to watch the movie and go, I know there's gonna be kids out there that watch it and see what you wanted them to see.

And I remember looking up old reviews for, like, Billy Madison and stuff.

Yeah, our favorite movies. And reading bad reviews. Cause it makes you feel better. Cause you're like, God, they didn't understand that and they didn't get this.

Yes. And I feel like some of the bad reviews of hot Rod were saying, is Seth just gone?

Yeah. Yeah, he left.

What? Doesn't matter. I mean, we can still talk about it.

Fucking Frisbee.

I'm starting to think he just blames the dog.

Can you even hear me, Seth?

Is there even a frisbee?

You think I want to be talking about hot rod and how it failed. You just walked away where, like, you're.

Like, he was about to roll a tear.

He's like, this is going to be tough. You're going to have to go back to a painful, painful place, but start talking. And then I'm going to walk away to pick up the dog you had.

Look, the door opens. My wife's standing in there with the dog. Yeah, the dog goes to the bathroom through my podcast area.

Yeah. So you're trying to convince me how the dog is good.

Sorry. And I also, I will be honest, I tuned out about ten minutes before that. How did it do?

We made a million dollars.

I will say this. I remember Keith and Liz, your wife. You guys were in Copenhagen that summer.

Yeah.

The movie come out.

Yeah, we got out of town.

Yeah, smarteendez of town. I was going to Amsterdam with my brother. Oh, no, I was actually going to Finland because I was going to run the Helsinki marathon. And then I remember I called you up, Andy, and I was like, get out of the country. You should come with me. Just book a ticket. Get out of the country. We got Joe's to come.

Yep.

So we flew overseas. You met us, I think, in Copenhagen, hung out with Keev and Liz.

Yeah, we went to Tivoli Gardens. I have great photos of us at Tivoli Gardens.

Julian Casablanca's from the strokes.

Julian and Juliet. Because Juliet's family's from out there, so they go out there. Yeah. All of a sudden we have this great crew out. Copenhagen.

We had an amazing vacation. One of the best vacations of my life.

Tivoli, I just wanna say, has my favorite carnival thing I've ever seen, which was you just give them a dollar and you throw baseballs and break plates. Yeah, there's no prize. It's just you get to break plates.

Someone just told me, though, Andy, that it is still very charming and lovely. And that thing is gone.

Why?

I don't know. Juliet, I think, told me that last summer.

Heartbreaking.

I gotta say, you guys reminiscing me on this vacation makes me very sad because I was in New York City just eating shit, just stewing. Just so sad.

Just sitting in it.

We were just in bicycles, weaving our hair.

Do you think there was a plate shortage or.

Yeah. I don't know why it's not there.

You're back at that. You don't care at all about Yoram's tough summer.

This is a cool game.

You should have came.

Jorm.

I know I blew it.

But I will say this is a photo for show notes, if I can find it. We then went to Amsterdam. I used to work there. I had friends there. And we didn't go to see hot Rod Andy. We went to see a movie, though, with my friend Andrew and his son Finn, who was probably about eight at that time.

Yes.

And we went into the dutch movie theater, and there was a hot rodental poster, and I was not doing a bid. I said to Finn, I'm like, finn, do you want to get a picture with Andy in front of the hot rod poster? And he was like, no, I'm okay. I do not need that. And you were like, Finn, you just met this kid. You're like, I need this buddy. And we took the picture, and Finn really is like an eight year old dutch kid who was like, what is? But he's a nobody, but he's a no money.

For some reason. That just reminded me, because were you guys going to see the Bourne ultimatum? Born whatever the second Bourne movie was.

With an eight year old?

Could have been a born movie.

Well, what I remember, guys, is us at the press junket at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills for hot Rod getting in the elevator, and Matt Damon was in it.

Oh, really?

But we didn't know him. I still don't know him. But we didn't even feel cool enough to introduce ourselves. And then what I also remember is when they were telling us what date we were going to be on for the movie to come out, they chose this weekend where the second Bourne identity movie was coming out, which is a huge deal. And we were all like our movies for people that like Bourne identity movies, they're not similar, but we love those movies. We would go see that and we would never go see a rod. And they were like, no, it's r rated. Don't worry, it's a different audience. And then, like, two weeks before our movie was coming out, we just, like, saw an ad on tv or billboard went, it's pg 13, just like ours.

Oh, my God. As soon as you said that, I was like, oh, my God. I remember just how crushed I was seeing that. Just like, oh, no.

You're like, no, the one reason you gave wasn't true. And you just fully blew it, even in that way.

Yeah, but they're like, yeah, but you guys got stunts in your movie.

Yeah, that's true.

I mean, the truth is, if we had wanted the movie to make more money, we should not have been us.

Lauren said as much to me at the premiere when we were walking up the aisle, and Lauren was like, well, you know, in a normal movie, you would have been a 14 year old boy. I was like, that's a good point.

Point in case.

And then he was like, but you know, if you're a 14 year old boy, we would have had to cut baby wiener. And you were like, we did cut.

He's like, oh, fuck off. His rated r. So you're fine.

Reshoots.

Lorne kept mumbling reshoots during the premiere, pretty loudly.

He did not seth recast recast that.

So then, though, let's just wrap up by saying this movie has, again, doesn't make up for the fact that, you know, it was tough to get through the initial reception that's found its audience over the years and people really like it.

Yeah, I would say within. Not that long.

Yeah, there was a couple years, though, where it was not a big punchline, but where if it came up, you had to disavow it. Like even on talk shows, you'd have to, like, really make sure you made fun of it before they did kind of a thing.

You'd have to talk about that. It made no money. We always stood by it creatively, though.

No, so, so, yeah, I think there were some rough times where we, I.

Also think there's a very lazy thing where people love it. When a movie that feels like an snl movie doesn't work, people love it.

Oh, yeah, exactly. What happened with MacGreber was the exact same thing.

You know, also there was a lot of comparisons to Napoleon Dynamite. If you go back and read the reviews.

Yes.

Yeah.

A lot of people being like, it wants to be like Napoleon Dynamite, but it's not. And we were like, we weren't trying to do that. We were trying to do those other movies.

Yeah. And jackass, which is funny because the stunts, even though we like them all, stunts are not our thing. Like, we would never think to make a movie with stunts like stuntman stunts, meaning like a movie about evil Knievel types. And so the jackass and the Napoleon dynamite, you needed a bunch of years to where nobody would think about that stuff because it has nothing to do with them.

It is interesting, though, and this is speaking to what I was saying a second ago, which is when I looked up old Billy Madison reviews, they were all nothing it for not being as good as Ace Ventura.

Wow, super interesting.

And I was like, oh, right. Cause they came out around the same year and Ace Ventura was a hit. And they were like, this is two different movies where the lead character is crazy and it's a dude and it's like high concept, but when, for me, those two movies are like, they're both comedies, but stylistically, they're so different. But that was the knock on Billy Madison in a lot of them.

Yeah.

Sometimes people do just look back.

One thing, Hobrod really gained steam when it went on Netflix, and I think that was four or five years after it came out. Cause it was on HBO or whatever and Comedy Central for a while. And then when it got on Netflix, that's when I noticed it shift in a bigger way.

But I will say also, it was so nice to come back to SNL and have a digital short air and work and sort of, for us, not make it that we were, like, hot in movies, but clear the slate for us in terms of feeling like we still had momentum in our careers and we were still making stuff that people liked.

That'll be a whole season away from this podcast.

Right. You will have done a second season before the movie comes out.

Yeah. Cause it comes out the next summer. Cause this is the summer of 2006 is when we're filming.

Yes.

Then we edit it during.

Anecdotally, I believe the first one back was. I ran so far just for context.

So Dick in a box was while we were editing.

Yes. And then they tried to market hot rod on Dick in a box because it had come out before the movie came out, even though we shot the movie first. That's. That movie's right.

That was the Christmas 2006 one.

Yep, exactly.

Well, I do think it was a triumph. To this day. I'm so happy that I got to work on it in a very small way. But just, again, just getting to spend more time with you guys. You know, this was before podcast, so we would hang out in person.

That's right. And so let me just say, on behalf of all of us, thank you for helping us. You wrote a ton of really funny jokes that are in the movie and make it way better.

It is.

I hate your dog.

Yeah, I wanted to leave a little breath there. Well, I tried to think of something thing to wrap this up. I did leave too much air.

You've made it so much worse today.

All right, guys, so next up, we're going to get into your second season of digital shorts at SNL. It's pretty amazing to me to this day that after one season of doing the show, you went out and you made a wonderful film. Love talking to you guys.

It was a total joy, Seth. And it was honestly one of the highlights of our lives to make this film.

Are you guys do this again? Soon.

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