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Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon have faced live audiences, last minute rewrites, and the chaos of 'SNL,' but nothing quite like the questions in this episode of “Inquiring Minds.” Watch as ‘The Roses’ co-stars and comedy legends trade stories about the career risks that changed their lives, the sketch ideas that never made it past the writers' room, and the 'SNL' skit that was perfect from start to finish. From the time Kate was screamed at by a fan on the street to Andy’s feud with Seth Meyers’s dog Frisbee (RIP), Andy and Kate go deep and get weird in the way only they can.
Transcript
00:00Called Lorne, but kind of pissed.
00:02I was like, hey.
00:03So, what do you think about rubdowns?
00:06There's like a long pause and he goes,
00:08I can live with rubdowns.
00:12Hi, I'm Andy Samberg.
00:13And I'm Kate McKinnon.
00:15And this is Inquiring Minds with Esquire.
00:18Shall we commence?
00:19Let's do this.
00:20Number one, who was the last person
00:23to make you break character while filming?
00:26I don't often break.
00:27If you don't say me, I swear.
00:29It was you.
00:30How about you?
00:32Probably you.
00:33What about at SNL?
00:34I tried so hard.
00:35Because I remember my first year,
00:37someone was like, Lorne does not like it.
00:40If Lorne doesn't like it,
00:41it doesn't seem like people seem to care.
00:42What?
00:44Okay, jug time.
00:46Kate.
00:49That's all whiskey.
00:51If you wrote a memoir, what would it be called?
00:55Sailing on by, breezing on through,
00:59jogging on down.
01:01And is there a colon in between each of these?
01:04No, this is one run-on.
01:04Or one run-on.
01:05One word.
01:07The Bobby Cannavale story.
01:08Oh.
01:08No, I don't.
01:09Well, you know.
01:11Mine would be spare, too.
01:12Okay, go on.
01:16There, I just broke.
01:17What's something totally mundane that always makes you laugh?
01:21This isn't mundane, but it's like a dad in his tighty-whities coming down in the middle
01:27of a slumber party to yell at everyone.
01:29That's kind of exciting, but that visual always makes me laugh.
01:32Hey!
01:33And everyone's like...
01:34Have you ever done it?
01:36I've never been the yeller yet.
01:38I'm waiting until my kids get a little older and then I'm going to buy some tighty-whities
01:41just so I'm ready.
01:42Yeah.
01:42Okay.
01:43What's the biggest career risk you've ever taken besides this?
01:49Sorry.
01:50Sorry.
01:50I added that last part.
01:52Honestly, was auditioning for Saturday Night Live, I obviously wanted it so bad, but when
02:01I audition and when I am not cast inevitably, then what will my dream be?
02:07What will I do with myself?
02:08Yeah.
02:08Once that golden goose has been removed from my sight, what will I aspire to?
02:16I know what you're saying.
02:17When I got asked to audition, I did the mental trick to myself of, okay, I'm not going to
02:23get it.
02:24So just enjoy that you got to actually go see the stage and everything.
02:29Absolutely.
02:30Because it's the same thing.
02:31It was the only thing I ever wanted.
02:32Yeah.
02:32And I was like, well, clearly I won't get it.
02:34That's stupid.
02:34And maybe that helped me relax.
02:37While either of your auditions were happening, did you guys feel like they were going well?
02:40I was shocked that I did think mine was going well.
02:43I could hear Tina Fey laughing and I was like, uh-oh.
02:47That's the best thing that ever happened.
02:51You must have known yours was going well.
02:53I heard some titters and I was told that it would be a titterless experience.
02:58Exactement.
02:59Exactement.
02:59Wow.
03:00Was that, did my ear hear a titter?
03:03Was it a phantom titter?
03:04Yeah.
03:05I don't know about you.
03:06I practiced harder than I've ever practiced in my life for that.
03:12Because usually I just wing it.
03:14But I thought if this is the most important five minutes of my life to date, I shant wing.
03:20Nary a wing shall be shanted.
03:22Pretty sure that's right.
03:23I did not wing and I received titters instead.
03:26Mm-hmm.
03:27And that is the title of my memoir.
03:29I received titters instead.
03:32Circled back to it.
03:33I couldn't think of anything when the card came up.
03:36Right.
03:36And I hated myself.
03:39What is the pettiest thing you've ever argued about?
03:43Oh my God.
03:44Take your pick.
03:46Probably like the writing of jokes.
03:49Yes.
03:49Oh gosh.
03:50Me too.
03:51Where you get hung up on like one word.
03:52Oh my God.
03:53With who you're working with.
03:54And you're like, no, it has to be fart, not toot.
03:57Whatever.
03:58During my time with the show, we did a digital short called Roy Rules, which was about my
04:02actual brother-in-law, Roy, and how I wanted to sleep with him.
04:04There was a line in it, I've got this theory, he was put on earth by God to give men
04:11succulent
04:12hand jobs.
04:13Mm-hmm.
04:14Lorne and everyone were like, you can't do that.
04:16So we were like toiling over what to replace hand jobs with.
04:21Mm-hmm.
04:21And we're like, rub downs, rub downs, it's got the right music to it.
04:25It's still funny.
04:26And so I was like called Lorne, but kind of pissed.
04:30I was like, hey.
04:32Okay, so hand jobs is out.
04:37What do you think about rub downs?
04:40There's like a long pause and he goes, I can live with rub downs.
04:47I was like, okay, we'll change it.
04:50And I hung up the phone and I was like, he's fine with rub downs.
04:54And then like a week later, I'm like, I'm crazy.
04:59I was so intense about that and so mad.
05:03And then I was like, yeah, it's probably better.
05:05Which SNL skit was perfect from start to finish?
05:07The first of the alien abduction character that I have done sketches.
05:14Yeah.
05:14And I had nothing to do with that.
05:15That was Streeter Seidel, Mikey Day just wrote it.
05:18Yeah.
05:19And handed it to me on the morning of the read through.
05:21Oh, wow.
05:22And we're like, we wrote this.
05:23I don't know.
05:24I didn't know you didn't have any of the writing on that.
05:26So your voice.
05:27I think I've pitched the word Kahooters and that was it.
05:30So I had to just chill up there with my damn coot coot and prune shoe hair until the place
05:36opened up.
05:36And it barely changed all week and it was just flawless from start to finish.
05:42Love that.
05:43My only addition was that I made that I was smoking and that the folds of my vagina were visible
05:49in my jeans because they were pulled so tight.
05:51Say more about that.
05:55You know, inspired by the great Molly Shannon Camel Toe characters, of which there were several, I believe.
06:03Oh, yes.
06:03The higher you can pull, the more they will laugh.
06:07And that is my second memoir.
06:11Got to do a follow up.
06:12Is this going well?
06:13What's the harshest note you've ever received on set?
06:17Hey, that was great.
06:18Let's do another one and maybe just try like bringing it way down.
06:24Yeah.
06:27Me too.
06:28You're like, oh, I thought I was.
06:30Just smaller.
06:31Let's do it again.
06:32Smaller.
06:32But like way, way smaller.
06:35Just throw it away.
06:35Throw it away.
06:36Just smaller.
06:37Smaller?
06:37Like you don't even care.
06:38You almost aren't even saying it.
06:39It's almost like you're just thinking it.
06:41Just say the words.
06:41Just say the words.
06:42The words that were written.
06:44Just smaller.
06:45Just bring it down.
06:46What's the strangest fan interaction you've ever had?
06:48There's a clear answer.
06:50I just, in 2015, I was walking on the sidewalk and can I just get up and demonstrate this?
06:56Here, you be me.
06:57Just stand up.
06:58Do I have to also stand?
06:59We don't have to do this.
07:01Is this enough?
07:02Yeah, that's good.
07:03That's good.
07:03You're me.
07:05I was like this.
07:06A guy walked by and was like, Hillary!
07:13In right there in his head.
07:19God damn.
07:20I went, Jesus Christ!
07:24That was just the reaction that came out of my mouth.
07:27Why did he think that was okay?
07:28And then everyone looked at me screaming, Jesus Christ.
07:31Yeah.
07:32Involuntarily.
07:33Okay, cool.
07:33You had a famous feud with Seth Meyers' dog, Frisbee.
07:37Had.
07:38Currently have.
07:39R.I.P.
07:40Now that she is actually gone, how are you coping?
07:44Uh, it's been a real mix of emotions.
07:46It's been sort of like, worry for my friend and his family.
07:51And also like, jubilation.
07:52Obviously the whole thing is very funny.
07:54This is the worst Greyhound since the bus!
07:58Did you meet her?
07:59Yeah.
08:00You'd spent time with her?
08:02I met her halfway.
08:03And what about, was her personality also objectionable?
08:09I would, I mean, not like an asshole dog.
08:13Yeah.
08:13Not like, hey, your hat fell off, you know?
08:16Uh-huh.
08:16But like, tough to be around, for sure, yeah.
08:19Not a schoolyard bully, but an anxious gal?
08:23Yeah, she was like, it just kind of felt like
08:26there was a rat in the room that wasn't supposed to be there.
08:30You know like, when you're in your apartment and you're like barefoot?
08:32Yeah.
08:33And then she's like, oh fuck, oh fuck, it's a fucking rat!
08:35Like that.
08:35Yeah.
08:36That's kind of how she made me feel in my soul.
08:38And my mother always said, if you can step on a dog and kill it,
08:40it's not a dog, it's a rat.
08:43What's a sketch idea you loved that got completely shut down?
08:48Oh.
08:49There was a stretch of time when I was trying to come up with things
08:52that could recur on an update.
08:54Of course.
08:55We all do go through it.
08:57And I tried to do a thing where I was playing the lead singer
09:02from that group, Fine Young Cannibals.
09:04Okay.
09:04And the segment was called Good Things.
09:06Okay.
09:07Because he sings, good thing, where have you gone?
09:10That song?
09:11Uh-huh.
09:11So it would be like talking about current events of the week
09:14and then going, and that's a good thing.
09:17Like when something good happened in the world.
09:20And I was like, Seth, it's topical.
09:23It's what you're always asking for.
09:24You're always like, it should be topical.
09:25That's why we don't pick your stuff, because it's just silly and random.
09:28But this is like, it could recur.
09:29And he's like, what the fuck are you talking about?
09:33They came in base, shut it down so hard.
09:35It was like, I got whiplash.
09:37Anyway.
09:38Can I say about something I did one year?
09:41Yes.
09:41Which was that I was obsessed with playing a Scottish person in any context.
09:46And so I wrote a sketch where I was a Scottish woman who had never been kissed,
09:52who wanted a kiss, who was giving a tour.
09:56She would say, I like a kiss, please.
09:59I need a case.
10:01So obviously a brilliant idea.
10:04Yes.
10:05And then it didn't make it.
10:06And then every three weeks for the entire year.
10:11Put it back up.
10:12I did some, I did like, Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Prime Minister, being like,
10:17I want a kiss, please.
10:21And finally, Seth did call me in and he was like, you have to stop.
10:25Gotta stop it.
10:27Gotta stop.
10:27I need a kiss.
10:28You're chilling, people.
10:30And I only am remembering because we just talked about it on our podcast,
10:33but I played Scrooge McDuck on Update.
10:35I wrote it with Simon Rich and the joke they reminded me of that really made me laugh was,
10:39I wasn't born a duck, Seth.
10:41Because he has a disease from swimming in his gold.
10:46That turned him into a duck man.
10:51Anyway.
10:51Well, you know what?
10:53Speed round.
10:53Can we get the speed round in here?
10:55This is an idea we just had.
10:57Come on.
10:57Dick in a box or jizz in my pants.
10:59Dick in a box.
10:59Barbara De Drew, Whiskers Are We, or Colleen Rafferty, Close Encounters?
11:04I have to go with Barbara De Drew, Whiskers Are We, because I like doing a lateral.
11:09This is called a lateral lisp.
11:12Line from a movie or sketch you quote too much.
11:15Easy phone home.
11:17Who would narrate your inner voice?
11:20David Attenborough.
11:21Richard Attenborough.
11:23Which one is which?
11:24I'm not touching this one.
11:26Quaid Army?
11:28Righteous Kill.
11:28Walkout Song.
11:30If you were a pro wrestler.
11:32Probably Hallelujah.
11:38Weirdest Irrational Fear.
11:40Who?
11:41Oh, do I have any irrational fears?
11:43They all seem rational to us.
11:44I think all of my fears are extremely rational.
11:47No, I'm a hypochondriac to the max, and I'm always, whenever I go out of the country or even just
11:53to a new town, I end up at a walk-in medical clinic for something.
11:58Well, you were great.
12:00As were you.
12:01Hey, thanks for watching.
12:04Appreciate the watch.
12:05And look.
12:06Speaking of watching.
12:07You're going to want to go see the roses in theaters.
12:10And don't forget to check out all our other work.
12:14I think it's a hoot.
12:15You're going to have a bunch of little laughs.
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