Those sketches are some of my favorite sketches of all time, and Rachel Dratch is so funny.
BEN MARSHALL: I agree.
MARTIN HERLIHY: Unfrozen caveman lawyer.
HIGGINS: Unfrozen caveman lawyer!
MARSHALL: John and I were on the NYU sketch group Hammerkatz together.
And I think we just realized that we had similar sensibilities and started really making each other laugh.
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MARSHALL: So we just kind of naturally became friends and started writing stuff together.
And it was just me and Martin at first, but then we asked John to join.
Which we like to remind him of.
Image via NBC
You just remember that, bud.
How much of it changed?
Was that fun or more challenging?
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HIGGINS: It was both, it was challenging and fun.
Its like whiplash comedy.
The audience thinks they know what you are doing, but then are wonderfully surprised by something absurd.
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MARSHALL: I have an answer.
HIGGINS: Yeah, they cheered!
[Laughs] That was my answer, too.
Image via NBC
Yeah, screw her, man.
HIGGINS: What would she say?
You want to play a game?
[Laughs] She was amazing.
That was a very fun one.
HIGGINS: Nobody brings that up!
We do stuntsall the time.
That’s all I think about!
I’m like, How did they pull that off?
I thought of Paul Dano under the couch.
HIGGINS: Oh, yeah.
We raised the couch, I think, and then snuck him in there and shot.
HIGGINS: I love her.
She’s one of my favorites, and I was so excited to see her.
I’m excited to see her in whatever she’s doing.
But one thing that I really liked was the tent scene.
HIGGINS: Those songs were improvised, definitely.
As you could probably tell.
[Laughs] I don’t think you could write that and be like, That’s good!
There were definitely versions of it where it was extremely raunchy, probably.
Just with each other, that felt like that wasn’t the funniest or realist thing.
Going the sweeter route was, yeah, just better, I think.
I’m glad we did that.
I like it when you first meet and she was like, Am I in love with him!?
That was so Stalter and it was just so good.
HIGGINS: I mean, she’s amazing.
You didn’t have to give her much for her to make it funny and real.
I love how you each got your chance to shine.
The gift bags alone… that was fantastic.
I hope you all have one.
HIGGINS: Gift bags [Laughs] I forgot about that.
That was always Martin’s lane.
HERLIHY: I think so, yeah.
MARSHALL: I just want to shout out Nichole Sakura for making that storyline so funny.
HIGGINS: She’s so awesome.
HERLIHY: Shes so funny and just likable.
That character was kind of like a weird balancing act.
How did you get through that?
The throat punch scene I think took four days to shoot or something.
We just would keep starting and stopping.
And we would be stepping on wasps.
MARSHALL: Hottest day.
I was up in a crane in the wingsuit which traps all the heat in.
I can’t hear anybody with the big fans going.
They would have to lower me down and it was crazy.
HIGGINS: Everything in the woods was a lot harder than I thought it would be.
Its so true, I feel like no one goes outside anymore.
HIGGINS: I know!
Seeing so much nature, I’m like, So this counts as me being outside, cool.
Have you ever banked a bunch of sketches over the summer or is it usually just pretty last-minute stuff?
HERLIHY: We always do and it never works.
HIGGINS: We try.
MARSHALL: Some kind of weird voodoo curse where you might’t work ahead of time atSNL.
HIGGINS: For sure.
HERLIHY: I think that role will swap around.
MARSHALL: We all have our moments.
HIGGINS: Grandma and Travis Kelce, we were like, I don’t know, man.
[Laughs]
MARSHALL: I think that was Gary’s idea.
HIGGINS: Gary and Tucker.
HERLIHY: Oh, yeah, Bryan Tucker.
MARSHALL: It trades off.
HIGGINS: Yeah, it trades off.
When you first got toSNL, what was your first week like?
Was there anything you didn’t anticipate?
Because we spend all of our time hereactually.
And then our videos in here, so then it becomes a lot.
But then you’ll have something like that Travis Kelce idea.
That’s so fun to get out and do something different.
MARSHALL: That makes it so fun and feel kind of like DIY and scrappy.
So there’s benefits to both.
HERLIHY: It is also so easy shooting in here.
HIGGINS: There’s only so many places we can sit.
With the movie, you could do callbacks, which I really appreciated.
Did you like that challenge of getting to tell a longer story?
MARSHALL: It was really fun.
So it was really fun to be able to do a contained stand-alone, longer story.
A lot of times we’ll just say a joke where the reality changes in our videos.
You know what I mean?
Whereas in this, it was like, Oh, that might have consequences for a later scene.
What are some of your favorite lines that you’ve come up with?
Are they usually at like 2 a.m. that the craziest stuff comes out?
HIGGINS: I think, yeah, it’s probably a mixture of both.
But a lot of our sketches are written at two o’clock in the morning.
And Im like, Thats not how the saying goes.
And hes like, Well, your generation has to shorten everything so it makes no fucking sense.
What Do the just Don’t Destroy Guys Want to Accomplish on ‘SNL’?
What’s something you hope to do this season onSNLthat you haven’t done yet?
HIGGINS: Host the show, which is probably…
MARSHALL: Just you or all of us?
HIGGINS: Well, just me.
No [Laughs] I don’t know.
HIGGINS: Yeah, a lot of the times you’re just going for, not ashamed.
But to feel actually, like, Wow, Ireallylike that, is really fun.
MARSHALL: Something that I’ve been thinking about is writing a live sketch where people break.
MARSHALL: Not on purpose, but I just want it to happen naturally.
HIGGINS: That’s a really good goal.
MARSHALL: Because that’s always such a fun live thing that is actively discouraged here.
I feel like Lisa from Temecula would be a good spot.
MARSHALL: So, so funny.
HIGGINS: Its just so fun.
Yeah that’s a great goal.
Thank you guys again for talking!
MARSHALL: Thank you so much, this was awesome!
HIGGINS: Yeah, thank you, Emily!
