(upbeat music)
- Yeah, people love it when you're like,
oh, this is a genre I like, let me read it.
I'm gonna nod it all the time.
- I'm a little bit shy.
- Um, what if Saturday Live was like high school,
but it's senior year and everybody loves each other
and you are one of the most popular girls in school.
- Yeah!
- I started it and thought there's no way
in hell I would finish it.
And then I forced myself to keep reading
and then I finished it, so that gets a point.
- I wouldn't say I liked it.
- Okay, okay.
- Sarah, I'd say I loved it.
- Oh!
(laughs)
(upbeat music)
- Hello everyone and welcome to Mean Book Club.
This episode we read Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sitonfeld.
- Woo!
- Ha ha ha!
- Yes!
- Love, love, love!
- Kissy, kissy, kissy, how tall.
- That's exactly what it is.
As always, we are your host.
I'm Sarah.
- What's up?
I'm Clara.
- Hello, this is Jana.
- Hello, Sabrina.
And we also have a very special guest this time.
Clara, would you like to do the honors?
- I would, joining us today is Caroline Codder,
a comedian actress and writer living in Los Angeles.
She has appeared on Conan as a deranged craft expert,
Melody Crafts.
Caroline has also appeared on the break with Michelle Wolfe
and Late Night with Seth Meyers.
She's a frequent guest on Alchemy This
and Improvised podcast on I Heart Radio.
Please welcome to our podcast, Caroline Codder!
- Thank you!
Thank you so much for having me.
What a beautiful introduction that you wrote
about me, Clara.
- I've loved it a lot.
- I know you wrote that about me,
so I'd love for you to read it at my funeral.
(laughing)
- Beautiful.
- I'm happy to do something at your funeral.
I also care about it.
- I think I have everything booked,
but thanks.
I'll let you know if something opens up.
- Okay, thank you so much for considering.
- Mm-hmm.
I feel like we should just say we all know Caroline,
where we know her from way back,
from when we were a friend.
- New York.
- Yeah, even Steven's someone say she's,
- Yeah, she's a friend.
- More than a friend.
(laughing)
- What you would say.
- A companion.
- A lover.
- I think, I think friend is good.
- A friend is nice.
- Probably the extent of the relationship.
Friend is a nice thing.
- It could be more though.
Maybe by the end of this podcast,
I'm hoping you'll all change your answers.
(laughing)
- More.
- Something a little bit more serious.
- Yeah.
- A pet.
- I wanna be a pet by the end of this.
- I would say, if I could be someone's pet,
Sabrina would be, well not Sabrina, sorry,
her fiancee Meg would be high at the top of the list
if she got to be a master.
- As a master?
- As a master.
With Meg is my master, my life would be a heaven.
- You could eat as much as you want.
(laughing)
- That's not a great idea.
- You could destroy the house
and then get a little hug after.
- Yes.
- Okay.
- That's awesome.
- Sounds good.
- That's good for me.
- All right.
So why are we reading this book?
- Oh, this book was recommended to us by a listener
named Ashley C.
She emailed us and you know,
until this she thought that this book was funny
and that we would enjoy it.
She actually had some predictions.
She said, in particular,
I think Clara and Sarah will really like it.
Her official predictions,
Clara will be mad about how many fart jokes there were.
John will be pleased about the diversity
of the characters and feminist overtones.
Sabrina is a wild card,
but Sarah will think the main hunk is very hunky
and will be mad that the romance is a slow burn
and not horny the whole time.
- Do we think that Ashley C is trolling us
with these predictions?
- Yeah.
(laughing)
- I'm like, Ashley,
see you've been fucking know us at all.
- Yeah.
- Right?
- Ashley's not the only recommender.
I got recommended IRL from a friend who thought
I would love this book.
- Oh, and I think we should add,
'cause Caroline?
- Yeah, Caroline, you were so--
- It was me, yeah.
- No, why did you pick up this book, Caroline?
- Friend recommended it to me, same thing.
I have her copy of the book.
She was like, I finished this in three days,
you have to read it and I was like, okay.
- Is she a comedy person, Caroline?
- Yeah.
- Okay, are these people all cut out of our lives now?
- Because I mean, I feel so unseen.
- I feel crazy.
(laughing)
- Okay, also, but we were on a tech start
and the Clara, John, I swear to you all
talking about how you were going through it fast
and I was like, I can't get this back,
I can't get through this book fast at all.
- Oh, I was so fast.
- I was so fast.
- So I was so fast.
- Well, how'd you read it, Sarah?
That might be a problem.
- Oh, I did audio.
- Mm.
- Yeah, me too.
- Yeah.
- It was really boring.
- We got to get you something to do with your hands
while you listen to me.
- Maybe, if I was a little perhaps.
- Yeah, do you like knitting or something?
- I don't, but I've never tried.
- You could, you could be a hobby.
- Paint.
- Oh yeah.
- Paint a portrait of Clara while you.
- Oh, that might work for you.
- Okay, okay.
- Then you could pretend I'm there with you.
- Yeah.
- Feed me.
- Talk to the Clara.
Kiss it.
- Kiss the Clara.
- The Clara.
- I was listening to this in my bedroom just staring.
- Okay, go off.
- Staring at the wall and Matt came in and he said,
"You don't do anything, wait, listen, audio books."
And it's like, no.
And he was like, that's really disturbing.
- It is, it is.
- It is, it is disturbing.
- It's just like an, I have to be moving.
- She said empty gaze at a white wall.
I don't know about anything on the wall, it's just a black wall.
- That's right.
- If I was open.
- If I'm having else to do, I would just read a book.
Like the book itself.
- Yeah, but I already had to pay a lot to get the audio book.
- These are popular and popular and fast turn around.
- Hard to read.
- It's new.
It's not even in the book.
- Oh, library is too new.
- So it was in my library, but not for me.
Many, many hold for someone else.
- John, your friend that recommended it to you didn't
give you a copy, they just were like, you should read this book.
- Yeah, they said, I want you to also support Curtis more.
Make sure you pay for it too.
- I pay like Curtis is doing fine, you know what I mean?
- Yeah, I think so.
- This is a Reese's book club pick.
It says on the cover of my copy.
- Yeah.
- So we're making an enemy of Reese.
If we're not, we're always making an enemy of Reese.
- Offset, we find ourselves.
- Yeah, she's an enemy.
(laughing)
She might be enemy number one of this podcast.
(laughing)
- Clara, do you want to do your summary for those--
- We didn't do it, we read it.
- I feel like we did, but it did.
- We kind of did.
- Do you have a specific story you need to--
- Yeah, we did a very kind story.
- Do you have a funny anecdote Sabrina?
That might be good for a podcast?
- I always do.
- Okay.
- I always do.
- If I all needs to come over.
- There was a really tight turnaround
between our last book and this book
with my Bachelor of Party in between.
And I had given everyone the notification ahead of time
that there was absolutely no way
I would read a single page.
And then I was like, well,
I guess I could get the audio book and listen on my commutes.
And--
- So normal so far.
- How everyone does the book so far?
You read it on your commute.
- Okay, keep going.
- Going down.
- A lot like the funny main character of this book.
(laughing)
- Well, not more than 24 hours after I had said
there was no chance I'd read a page.
I had finished the entire book.
- That's a lot of you.
- You had to commute up to Aldenny?
- No, I didn't.
I just had--
- You kept it going.
- I just kept listening.
Just kept listening.
I couldn't listen fast enough or slow it off.
- So you liked it.
I wouldn't say I liked it.
- Okay.
- Sarah, I'd say I loved it.
- Oh, fuck you.
- Is this real?
It's not real.
- Oh, okay.
- I'm excited.
- Is this shocking?
- I'm excited.
- I love it.
- I'm chilled.
(laughing)
- It's gonna be a fun one, ladies and gentlemen.
- Oh, Claire, good to go into the summary.
- Okay, I have two rules.
I have Sally and I'm Noah who would like to be
a part of the summary today.
- I would love to.
- I feel like--
- Sabrina, what do you be Sally?
- Caroline, would you like to be Noah?
- Yeah, I'll do my best.
- There you go, that's all we ask.
- Professional Conan performer, so.
(laughing)
- I'd like to be a-
- I'd like to be-
- I'd like to be a-
- Hi, I'm Sally, my job is to be funny,
I write for SNL.
Here's proof that I'm funny.
Why do ugly guys get to date hot girls,
but nobody likes me?
I'm fun.
I don't like it when the other writers goof off in the hall,
isn't that fun?
That's an SNL sketch.
What I just said.
(laughs)
- I'm the musical guest and a hot guy who likes you.
- You're kind of a piece of shit.
(laughs)
- Three years later.
- Years later.
- Why do I sabotage everything?
- Because you're insecure and not that pretty,
but that's okay, I'm bald.
We all have faults.
(laughs)
- And they live happily ever after.
- It's pretty accurate.
- It was pretty good.
- That's the book.
- Yeah. - Carole's book.
- I loved that you added like a...
(laughs)
- Just by knowing.
- You don't know what it was like you would have done that.
- That's the kind of performance you get out
of a professional actor that we don't see on this podcast.
And now, oh my god, last week I did a rendition of a donkey
(laughs)
could not be beat.
And it's already slipped your mind.
Unbelievable, John.
- I just want to say this book is so anti-bald
that the author cannot say enough how ugly
and hideous it is to not have as much hair
as you had when you were at your peak hair.
- But then also how embarrassing it is to wear a wig,
you know what I mean?
There's no kind of like middle ground.
- Like even if you admit it, then pull the one
when you admit it to, better be generous about it.
(laughs)
- But like it also was like set up, I thought
like that was gonna play into the plot.
Because Wigs can fall off.
It's like a check-off's gun or a comedy wig or a come out.
And they would think she's the one who told somehow
when it'd be a misunderstanding.
Check-out today.
Oh no, it's just a homo for the story,
something that would actually,
you would wonder how it's going to resolve.
That would be a really cool thing to add for next chapter.
- I did wonder, you know what?
It threw me when I heard it.
Okay.
- Yeah, what?
- What?
- What do you wore a wig?
- I wore you into wondering what would happen next?
- Well at moments I thought maybe under that wig
is just a brunette head of hair.
(laughs)
- As a blonde, that's the only,
that's as far as Sabrina could say.
- Yeah, yeah.
- It's just so disgusting to imagine not being blonde.
- What's worse?
- All right, we are getting a little ahead of ourselves.
So John, do you have a John as jugs for us?
- Yes.
So the pairing for today is Elysian Night Owl,
which is a really delicious beer that I've had many a time.
And the reason for that pick is twofold.
Because number one, normally I do a wine pairing,
but this book is called Romantic Comedy
and it is neither a romance nor a comedy.
So I thought it was appropriate
that my wine pairing not be wine at all.
- No more a pairing.
- Nor a pairing.
(laughs)
It is a pairing though because the show
that this Liz Lemon character writes for this unfunny,
what I'm just,
- Huckley Liz Lemon writes for is called The Night Owl.
- Tieno.
And it airs every Saturday night.
So I thought an owl beverage would fit for us.
- Yeah, that works.
Night Owl.
- Cute, that works very good.
- And it's a good beer, legitimately.
It's fun.
- Oh, if you ever see it in a bar,
it's spooky, it's a little owl on the top.
- What kind of beer is it?
- Good question.
- What kind of beer is it?
- It isn't have it right now.
- No, it's a pumpkin beer.
- Oh, no.
- Yes, so you got some chanada.
- Oh, that's a bit of surprise.
- Yeah, it's a really great.
- Coming from Johnna.
- Oh yeah, but I mean, usually when people
recommend a beer is not like a specialty.
Pumpkin is kind of a specialty.
- Okay, okay.
- But yeah, Johnna loves pumpkin.
- Usually people recommend Clara Bud Light.
- Well, they know that I'm gonna agree
and people are desperate to have me
give them any kind of positive for enforcement.
(laughing)
- I brought Bud Light to your bachelor at party Sabrina
because I wanted to make sure I was supporting the cause.
- That is the, we had a lot of Bud Light.
- Left, I did notice that.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, there was a lot.
- It didn't seem like it really went
and I felt like that was really a homophobic.
No one was talking about.
- Yeah, homophobic? - Yeah.
- The homophobic?
- Yeah, heterophobic. - Yeah, heterophobic.
- Bud Light. - And heterophobic.
- Interesting. - heterophobic.
- Bud Light is the brand of that. - Oh, okay.
- But, but, but, - Tranny, transphobic.
- Bud Light did not reach out to Dylan Mulvaney
after all of that went down.
And so she released a video
that she was like upset with Bud Light.
- Oh my God.
- So, I also have to cancel Bud Light for a different reason
than everyone else is trying to get.
- Really?
We're about to go into the commercial break
and we're talking far too much about Bud Light
if we're about, if we need to cancel 'em.
Okay, we know the truth. - That's true.
- Is some of our actual.
- This is, this is going into an ad for Bud Light.
We're gonna come around.
You'll see.
- All right, we'll, we'll be right back
with some background on the book of the author
that we're gonna dive into this discussion
right after this commercial break.
(upbeat music)
- We're back.
- Hi. - Claire.
- So, Bud Light, they just can't wait.
- No, they don't.
- It's just if you do.
- All right, I'm gonna give you some information
about the author.
So, we actually have done this author before
on the podcast, she wrote "Rotum,"
which was the fictionalization of Hillary Clinton's sex line.
- She didn't, she didn't marry Bill Clinton.
What if Hillary Clinton didn't marry this?
- Oh yes.
- But still was in love with him.
- Oh, and in that, she was like,
all into how Hillary Clinton was so ugly,
just like she's out, she's so ugly.
- Yeah, you're right.
- This one being ugly.
- I didn't realize that.
- She's probably, she probably,
throughout her life, felt not attractive.
And so, I think that's why she portrays things that way.
If I had to get, not-- - You're talking about the author.
- Oh, wow, she didn't think they like this.
- I think you're 100% right,
'cause also this whole book is about like,
an ugly writer who's with like,
you don't even mean I'm like,
this is, you think this is you.
- But there's not much of a description of her.
So, I was like,
- Yeah, she's every ugly woman.
- Yeah, I'm all too close to imagine ourselves as her.
- Our worst qualities,
like, she insecurities, yeah.
- All we know is that one time she puts her brown hair in a bun.
- Yeah, that is, well, it's a very end.
- The best stays there for the rest of the book.
- Yeah, the rest of the book.
- And her washes are up in that moment.
- At the very end,
the tabloids call her "mousey" or something,
but I like,
those are the end is like,
I had no idea she was "mousey" ugly.
- I didn't know.
- She was too lazy.
- And then she's also like,
the way my leggings fit on my thighs was lumpy
and you're like, what?
- What the fuck?
- I was like, what are you talking about?
Are you 65?
- Yeah, I will say leggings are typically fine on anybody,
so lumpy was a weird, she needed new leggings.
I think she had to wear this dress out really hyper thin leggings,
which had a bunch of hot wheels in there.
(laughing)
- She didn't eat food in the leggings.
- But I think her sit and felt is pretty, as a person,
I just think she probably felt.
- Oh, do we need to giggle her?
- Yeah, I'm gonna look at her.
- Okay, let's comment on her.
- She's fine.
This is an all-female podcast after all.
- Let's comment on her look.
- We do this on me.
- I hate men, so that's true.
- Let me, let me, if you think about her.
- She seems tall.
- She does seem tall.
- Even though she's sitting on the big screen.
- Yeah, she does seem tall.
- She's like cute.
- Yeah, she's fine.
- Yeah, she gets, yeah.
- She has a nice, mild face.
- Yeah.
- I Googled you.
- She's young, Curtis, it didn't felt,
but I'm not getting any of the young, as young as I want.
So.
- She seems kind of young, which doesn't seem old.
- Right, but I'm saying this because sometimes
we've old male authors and we look
to try to look at their young girls.
(buzzer)
- She looks like she could have been a politician
if that's the way she wanted to go.
- Yes.
- Oh, she smiles like my husband does in fake smiles,
where it's supposed to be a smile,
but instead the whole mouth is turned the wrong direction.
- But it's indicating, this is a smile.
- Yeah, I do that, but it's not a fake smile.
- Smile, Clara.
- Sometimes, I can't do it on, no, it's just coming normal.
- We do it.
- It's the most normal smile.
- But there's pictures of me
where I have a frown smile.
- Like a grimace.
- A pain like remanse.
- A pain like something's really cute.
- Yeah.
- She also looks smart to me.
- Yes.
- The brow here.
- I agree with that.
- She looks pramense.
- It's not the brown hair that makes her look smart.
(laughing)
- All right.
All right, well, I'll go ahead and talk a bit about her.
So I'm not gonna get into all the details
'cause of her global blog,
upbringing or whatever, because we did that on Rotom.
I'll talk about how she wrote this book.
So she was interviewed and was like,
it must have been a lot of pressure
to be like, here's a funny book,
here I come to be funny.
And her response was,
I'm essentially writing a drama in a comedic setting.
I'm not writing a comedy.
I'm not trying to prove with this book
that I'm hilarious.
- Incredible.
And, - No one's fucking her about.
- No one's fucking her about.
(laughing)
I just think it's a cop-out.
It's like she obviously tried very hard to prove
that she's funny, but now she's saying this
so that no one can be like, you're not funny.
- She's, I wasn't trying.
- 100%.
- It's like, I wanna say that sketches on paper
often when pitched are gonna be hard.
I'm probably not gonna laugh out loud
if you're like, it's a sketch about Doc's farting, okay?
But in all honesty, maybe Doc's farting is really funny.
I don't know.
That said, I can tell you--
- Lay that clavaca.
- So maybe.
(laughing)
That said, I can tell you absolutely fundamentally.
I already know where these sketches go wrong
that this author is supposedly writing for us
and now that are making air.
They're bad.
And they're bad.
They're bad from cons up down.
- Well, it's also hard because she talks about
the bad sketches that other people pitch
and it's like, well, they're all bad.
There's no, you know what I mean?
She's like, mine are good, but these are the bad ones
and I'm like, these are all the exact same level of bad.
- Yeah, yeah.
Me and her mom have ideas.
- Come on.
- You have, you have,
- What did you, Claire, what does she say
that when she,
- How she came up with the sketch ideas
that she has the caretaker's-
- Oh my God, it's her way to find out.
- She said, you know, maybe like once or twice,
maybe once a week, once or twice a month, something like that,
she'll be in a situation
or she'll hear about a situation and say,
that sounds like a Saturday night live sketch
and she just started writing those down.
- So she's my aunt.
- Yeah.
- She's all the life.
- She's my aunt that is like, what,
or any actual relative I have that is like,
you know what's really funny in my workplace?
- You should write, I get about this
and then you should submit to SNL.
Why don't you do that?
- She turned that into a fucking book.
- Yes.
(laughing)
- And I love it for it.
- Let's see, let's see.
Oh, all right, but she does admit
she had some help with the,
what would dogs Google sketch?
Her children helped her with that.
- Okay.
- That lines up.
- Really funny stuff.
- For, yeah.
- I feel like we're gonna have to list some of the sketches
that are in this when we get to the--
- We need to list some of the what would dogs Google
'cause it was like, is my tail too long?
- It was good, that was one.
- I was crying.
- I was actually throwing up, it was laughing so hard.
(laughing)
- Another one was, am I a good girl,
which is like a New Yorker cartoon,
like a literal New Yorker cartoon?
- Uh-huh.
- They were like, she's so funny.
- She's a stole.
Then they were in the book, they were like,
then the dog, Google's mortgage?
- Yeah, yeah.
- And that's such a height name, that's it.
- And that's when they lost their minds.
- It's good.
- They had never laughed that hard in their lives.
- That was a lot in this book too, where it's like,
we were laughing so hard, you know what I mean?
Like writing out how hard everyone was laughing
'cause you know what funny, something is, and you're like, okay.
- Something's hard.
- Wait, it was probably that.
But it was like, their room was laughing
and then all the other writers rooms up and down the hall
that laughter was spilling out
because that's what the writing process is.
- It's like, it gots to it.
- First laughter non-stop from 12 midnight until 7 a.m.
- Oh, so, Clara, when did this book come out
and is it in New York times the best seller?
- Oh yeah, okay.
I guess I can switch to the book information.
I just have one more tidbit about the author,
which is she thinks the best period of SNL
is Kate McKinnon, 80 Bryant, era.
And she thinks that that's because it's a gender thing
because the women are more featured
and she loves women so much.
So it seems like a pretty piece.
- She's probably saying that's her first one.
- Yeah.
- She's like, research, she's a book.
- She said she watched.
- Yeah.
- Like she's watched all the seasons.
- I'll get to it.
- Um, the book came out more thing to say.
- She says she watched all the seasons,
but I guarantee, guarantee,
fucking T, she calls them skets instead of skates.
- Yes.
- I'm positive.
- Okay, so this book came out,
not that long ago, April 2023.
It spent a total of one week on the New York Times
best seller list, the week that it came out.
- Oh, another one.
- Mm-hmm.
- Critic did a ton of research for this book
and she loved doing the research.
So like Sabrina said, and I don't know why
I was jumping all over it.
Like Sabrina said, she,
(laughs)
watched a bunch of SNL Apologies, Sabrina.
She also read so many books that big, thick SNL
live from New York book, Tina FaZe book,
Amy Polar's book, Jay Moore's book,
like Amy Polar's book is so bad by the way.
- Yeah, it's like,
it's like, so I'm gonna have to go into her head.
- She actually has someone else write a chapter.
- Oh, she's like writing.
- I'm like, you're a one chapter.
- Yeah, it was, yeah.
- Yeah, maybe,
definitely the thesis of the book is her being,
like writing a book's hard and I don't want to do it.
(laughs)
- No one asked me to.
- So basically anyone who's been on SNL
and has written a memoir, she claims to have read it,
which just seems like such a bad way to do,
like, aren't you, don't you have an agent?
Like, why don't you interview people?
- You're an author, like, why are you doing the same?
- It didn't make any sense.
- That a kid would do writing a poster board project.
- 'Cause the main character's background is,
is not like, she has no background.
- Comment, comment.
- It was, yeah.
- It was like, out of college,
she worked like, as a writer at a medical supply place
and then she just wrote it as a note.
- And then she just wrote it as a note.
- That was her husband read.
- And she submitted the first year she submitted,
she got a call from them being like,
"Congrat, that was so good."
It's like, what are you talking about?
Like, what are you talking about?
(laughing)
- And she's like, are you that that was good?
- We can't, yeah.
She was like, I feel so conscious
'cause I don't have any background
in comedy, improv or stand-up.
- This is why are you here?
- What is your, but the SNL, I'm sorry, T-N-O.
- Thank you.
- Like, to hire writers at the beginning of their career,
I make this their first TV writing job.
So that's why it was important
that the character in the book hadn't done comedy
before this.
- Any kind of comedy.
- She never heard of it.
- Not even in her personal life,
like making a friend laugh.
- Yes.
(laughing)
- But she doesn't think it is.
- That's so frustrating.
- She doesn't need to be funny.
She just needs to be neurotic.
And that is all that a writer needs
and she'll have her little neuroses
and comment on them and then she got the job.
- I think this is just another very good way
to make this an every man book.
- I think it's frustrating because I think a young person
is gonna pick it up and be like,
"I'm interested in SNL.
Let me see what it's like a little bit."
And then they're gonna get to the part
where it's, I lived in North Carolina and submitted sketches
and they're gonna say, "How did she get to do that?
I guess it's possible, but I just don't know how."
Like, I don't like it.
- And then maybe the whole comedian
- You're out of your mouth.
- How to do it and then work harder.
So there'll be more people.
- How do you do it Sabrina?
- You do stand up.
- You do.
- You do comedy on a stage.
- You do improv.
You don't do it with this lady.
- You put things up in front of audiences
and see if they're funny or not.
You know, the first sketch I ever, it's like,
I imagine these are the first sketches she ever wrote
and just put them in her little packet.
- Do you know how bad the third guy on the college
just make her on a college sketch team?
- Or don't make her a saturday at live writer.
Like make her a writer for like CNN or
- Or make Gutenberg or whatever that's got anything else.
I don't know if this is part of the structure of this podcast
but I will say one of my least favorite genres of anything
and would say realize this is what it was.
I almost jumped out a window is things that like
pretend that SNL doesn't exist
and they do all this fucking work to make just another SNL.
You know what I mean?
Like it's just like just have it either BSNL
or B something completely different
but when it like does, like Studio 60 does that.
- Yes, that's bad.
- And I guess 30 Rock is like fine but it's like,
it's so, it like drives me insane.
- The drama behind it is.
- Yeah.
- It didn't realize how big of a genre that was.
- It's not, I think it's not.
- I think it's just something that I'm like,
- But it is done.
- It is done, you know?
- Just like stop it.
- You have to do your own imagination.
- Yeah, just do your own imagination.
- I'm different from the late night show.
It could also be like a late night talk show
which there are a million of them and you can take more liberties with it.
If it's SNL, like people know what SNL is like.
I'm not the author but I think sometimes
there are a few people that do not mind it.
- Well, in fairness, I do think like this group of people
has more knowledge about what SNL is like
than the general reader base.
- I feel like, probably the same.
- The Curtis show them talk shows.
It's just not this group of people.
- But Curtis, in my opinion, Curtis,
and the author wants to write about this topic,
she should have researched it.
She should maybe know more than us.
- Yeah, I think she should, I think the bigger thing is,
she should have like talked to some comedian
or like gotten some of the stuff in there be funny.
Like that was not a really help for me.
- Yes. - Okay.
Oh, okay, that's a clever example.
- Yeah, have like a co-writer punch it up
or something or like write a joke.
- Yes, write one joke in the whole book
and then one, single one.
(laughing)
- Well, what about, she took live from New York,
stripped it of names and copy replaced names
and then took out anything remotely interesting
and instead was like, what if Saturday Live was like high school
but it's senior year and everybody loves each other
and you are one of the most popular girls in school.
- Yeah, you're actually having your dream experience
and it's really nice and it's like,
hard to believe this is a job.
- I was also so annoyed here talking about her dream job
all the time.
Every anytime she brought it up, I was like,
I don't, this, for this Sabrina,
you say this supposed to be like an every man character,
it's like, she's living a charmed life.
Like, that's not an every man character.
- Well, no, no, no, but it's like any person could fear,
not any person but a lot of people could put themselves
in those shoes.
Like, well, I don't have comedy background
but maybe I could make it in comedy.
- No, you can't, but I could, yeah.
I don't think that people should get to think of that.
- I'm not pretty, but I could be a model.
Maybe in 20, 30 when Gen Z has full control then, probably.
But at this time, no, no, things are still generally
based on inherent talent at this time.
- Well, I don't know about all that.
- We should talk about the characters quick though,
which is quick rundown, right?
Or Claire, are you done with the back?
- Yeah, yeah, I'm done.
- We're working on character.
- Sure, okay.
- Sally Mills, which is funny to me because my sister
is a Mally Mills, so really got me with the,
- With the Z?
- No, not with the Z, not quite that cool.
What the fuck with the Z, right?
- That, that, I'll give you is weird.
- Wait, her life's name is Sally Mills with the Z?
- Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah.
- Stupid.
(laughing)
- Also, I don't have a problem with the name Sally,
but I have a problem with this woman being named Sally.
- You know what I mean?
- It's not like, it's right era.
- First of all, it's crazy.
- It's not the right era.
You're 60 if your name is Sally.
It doesn't make sense.
- Has there ever been a writer hired by SNL,
whose name was Sally?
- No.
- I'm sorry, but Sally's aren't funny.
(laughing)
- Hey, I haven't answered.
- What about Sally Field?
- Oh, okay.
- Yeah, it's just an older woman, it doesn't match,
it doesn't make sense at all.
- Sally Strothers, that's another.
- But Sally is like, yeah, she's,
written here, she's a fucking buzzkill.
She's insufferable, I would say,
and I hated that I was supposed to relate to her,
and it was supposed to make me question
if I too was this insufferable,
and I didn't like that.
- Never.
- Here's some examples of how Sally likes to write her sketches.
Most people hang out and play in the hallway
and write their sketches at night.
Sally likes to put on headphones
and listen to classical music and writers sit down
and write her sketches without speaking
or talking or looking to anyone.
She's like, why don't you have fun,
you're fucking buzzkill.
(laughing)
- Classical music.
- The cheek was capable of getting all of her work done
during the actual work day, and she only stayed late
to help others.
I didn't like that part of her.
- Yeah, that's stupid.
- Yeah.
- No one wants your help.
Guess what?
- No one wants your help.
- Who else we got? - Sally Ride.
- Who else we got?
- I don't think she's particularly known for being funny.
- Hilarious.
- No, he's the guest.
He's the, he's a 30s something, he's been a heart throb musician.
I don't know who's he supposed to be like.
- I couldn't, who's?
- I couldn't tell.
- 'Cause he also didn't have a lot of physical,
an actual physical description.
- Yeah, and like his golden body and like,
- Yeah, she's always talking about gold
and it was like, is his tan what you're attracted?
- I was in love with people or tan.
- It was a lot of guitar, so I was going John Mayer in my head,
but that's what I was thinking.
- But I was, John had to be like a heart to picture.
- When she talked about the hair,
which we find out later is a wig,
so maybe that's why she's emphasizing it so much,
but she was like, tucked it behind his ears,
so it was like, okay is it long?
Is it bushy?
Like it was really not,
not described in a wig. - Maybe it could picture.
- Maybe it was a series of wigs,
so it was changing a lot.
Like sometimes he could talk it behind his ear
because he was wearing the special long hair wig.
- She didn't pick up that the hair was changing.
- Everyone else.
- Yeah, everyone else.
It was very clear, different colors.
- Clown wig.
- It's funny that she goes surfing a lot.
It's like with a wig.
- You go surfing a wig?
- It seems like it's gonna pop right on.
- It did make me think that I didn't fully understand
the quality of wigs that exist.
But I don't think you can really be getting wigs super wet,
like surf-style, they're gonna fly off your damn head.
- Yeah, the women, I know a lot about wigs from love Island,
and those women do not, they certainly do not jump in the water
and get their wigs wet.
- I mean, I've heard that Harry Styles wears a hair piece
or a wig, and I've looked at many a photo,
and the hairs look real to me.
It's unclear if that's because of the hair.
- You zoom in in.
- The hairs, you zoom in.
- The hairs.
- I've seen those two.
I saw that one video where like a piece of his skin flap
was flopped.
- Yes, yes.
- That hooked me, I go, "I gotta see more."
- I'm totally good.
(laughing)
- Nicole Kidman, wig.
- Oh yeah, I've heard of the Joan,
what's her name from Mad Men, where's a wig?
- The red hair one.
- Oh, Christina Hendrix?
- Yes.
- I mean, get me a good wig, I'll wear it.
Why the fuck?
- I know, now I'm like, "Should I get into wigs?"
- I think we all should get into wigs.
- I know that you can surf with them.
Maybe he has a little chin strap that goes underneath.
- Oh no, no.
- No, no.
- And that's what you like about it, Jonna.
You're like, "Oh, I wanna chin strap."
- I really just want something.
- Oh, 'cause it's inches.
- Yeah, I see that.
I see that I could buy.
- Oh, I see.
- Do you love me rhyming?
- And just like, just, yeah, like that.
- Really tight Jonna.
- Very often.
- I have TMJ.
- So anyway, other than that, no as a flawless human being.
- Essentially, I--
- Yeah, his emotional intelligence is really through the roof.
He really serves as a sort of therapist
who's able to call out Sally/heal her.
- He's holding one statement.
- He's her emotional support celebrity.
- That's what I'm saying.
- There is something wrong with him though.
- But also like, no reason for--
- The wrong thing is supposed to be what's wrong
with my shaking hands.
- Right.
- His main flaw.
- Curtis is like, is this too disgusting?
Okay, I have to make him perfect in every other way.
- I do think it's really funny
that the conceit of the book was like,
"Hock, guys, won't fall in love with me.
I'm too ugly."
And then it's like, "Well, he's not actually hot."
- And then he fell in love with you.
- So anyway, he likes her for some reason that is.
- It's not true.
- No one could ever be--
- Wait, are you saying she's smart?
I don't know, whatever it is.
- Yeah, he's a tricodor brain.
- There's Danny Horses.
- Horses?
- Yeah, Danny Horses or something.
- And he is supposed to be like,
"He's like a Pete Davidson type character."
- He's exactly Pete Davidson.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, and that's the--
- I would again say his physical description
was pretty lacking for me.
You know, again, the conceit of the book is supposed to be,
she's all up in arms that ugly guys can get with hot girls.
It was like, mainly against what people look like, Clara.
- You gotta put it in a book.
- It's a book, it's a book.
- It's about just a book.
- It's the book where she's obsessed with what people look like
in the book.
That is a driving factor.
- What we know about this man is that he has a very white pale
stomach that she sees sometimes that has hair on it
and that she is also balding.
- Burp and farting.
- Oh, is he also balding?
- Yeah, she talks about like,
I had to rope in on his head.
- Yeah, it's like, that's not a,
so you helped him with a human thing.
Like, I don't know, it's really mean and unfair to be like,
he should have a girlfriend.
- Also, also, Danny horse her, his girlfriend,
I don't remember her name, the pop star, whatever,
and a bal.
- And a bal.
- And he called her bal.
- Is made to be like the dumbest of all.
- Yeah, this is not a book that supports women.
This is not a feminist book.
The celebrity woman who falls for him,
it's like Curtis thinks she's being funny
trying to like make fun of a ditty girl.
But she's missing, like, why don't you show why she likes Danny?
Why can't she like comedy or something?
But she's just like a fucking idiot who's like,
our signs don't match.
- Yeah, she's like fresh out of a lobotomy.
(laughing)
It's really, but they just have her as like,
this top tier woman who is so charming
and it's like, then have her be charming.
- Yeah.
- And impress her.
- For a serritor.
- I really think it was Curtis being like,
unsullefony.
- I think so.
- She's telling those flowers.
I don't know if your audiobook reader
read her exactly like Ariana Grande,
but my audiobook reader
read her exactly like Ariana Grande.
That's interesting.
- No more cheese.
- Sounds like.
- I guess, yeah, maybe I don't.
- My, Annabella, my belly, she sounded very soft.
Like her voice was, she would hurt, yes.
- A little, yeah, don't.
- Don't hurt.
- Yeah.
- Perfect.
- That's not a good answer.
- You guys have different audiobook readers, isn't there?
Just one audio book.
- I really like everyone.
- You getting like this special.
- Well, you used to ask that, Caroline,
but sometimes Sabrina does weird shit
where she finds robots reading books on YouTube
and listens to that version.
- She doesn't have to pay for it.
- It was not a robot impersonating.
- Wow.
- But, all right.
But it was definitely targeted at being her.
And then Sally's friends are Viv and Henrietta.
And I don't remember.
- Who?
- I mean, she's interchangeable.
- We're only there to be like,
there's diversity in our book.
- I think there was one here.
- Talk about diversity, yes.
- One was black and one was a little.
- Which Ashley C. thought I would love.
(laughing)
- It was so, Ashley did not save the book for me.
I'm so sorry to say that.
- Well, what about the one non-binary cast member
that she talked about for about five lines?
(laughing)
- They were sitting near me.
- Yeah, no.
- My non-binary friend.
- Yeah.
- They're actually good at comedy.
Like that was her way of being like,
see, I'm on the right side of this group.
- They said something funny.
(laughing)
- The host laughed at the thing that they said.
Anyway, back to being how fucking ugly I am.
- But Viv and Sally and whatever the other one's name is,
they're girlfriends so they text each other
and they say funny things like,
miss you bitch and then other women's is same
and then the other woman's is same.
And that's how you're like, well, they are so fun.
I wish I was in that friend circle.
- They're best friends. - Those are best friends.
- That is best friends.
That's exactly how I talk to my friends.
- I wanna say something calling myself in, you know,
in a way, there was one moment in this book
where I felt seen.
And it was about the friendship thing that they did
where she texted her friends.
They were both giving birth or something.
They had a group text and then after the group text,
both of them individually texted her separate things
about the other person. - Oh yeah, I agree with that.
- And I was like, okay, I was like, this is one,
I was like, sometimes, so that one page
and however 300 pages of this, I go, okay, Curtis,
I'll give you that.
- That happens, that happens.
- Curtis knows other women.
(laughing)
- Maybe, maybe, or she just did so much research
that that was in the reader.
- That was in Jay Moore's books.
- Yeah, that was, I forgot that's a whole chapter
in Jay Moore's books.
- I feel like we've covered the characters pretty well.
I just wanna hear from Sabrina's perspective,
as I know someone, I wanna hear your perspective
of the setup of the book just because I think you'll say
it in a more positive way, right?
- Okay. - Okay.
So how's the book start for you?
- Okay, the book starts in April of 2018.
And there's more positive than I am.
- Nobody can say a month.
- Like Sabrina.
- I'm confused as to why I'm saying
how the book is set up in a positive way.
It starts in April of 2018,
and the whole premise is that Noah is going to be
the host and musical guest of TNO.
And he is at the table read,
and he wants to write his own sketch,
and then you're following them throughout the week,
and it's kind of like they're having these romantic moments
and interactions, and he gives her his real email address,
and then there's like an awkward, she ruins things,
which we can go more into,
but just to talk more about the structure of the book,
which was my assignment.
- That's the first chapter.
- That's chapter one, which is very long,
and then we cut to July of 2021.
No, 2020, which is COVID.
- Such a funny, so funny.
- Which I,
I will say I personally hate when things reference COVID,
because it makes it feel like historical fiction to me,
and I hate historical fiction.
And so, anyway, but then it jumps to then,
they start pen-pallowing with one another,
and they rekindle something through that.
And then there is like an email back and forth.
I thought the audio book reader did a good job of staying,
things like from me, from Noah,
instead of a lot of audio books,
where you get like, it's like Sally.
- Colin, blah, blah, blah, blah, and it's weird.
- Singable, at gmail.com.
- Right, exactly.
So I liked that a lot, and-
- We can put a pin, I don't need you to-
- That's the structure of the book.
- Yeah, yeah, I didn't need you to,
I just wanted you to kind of set up
that what the first chapter was.
And I think you did it, you did it, you did.
- Yeah, yeah.
- You did it.
- I think, yeah.
If I made the first chapter is a history of SNL,
the second chapter is emails in COVID,
the third chapter is, we're together now,
with no one.
- And we're taking care of your COVID-ready step-father.
- I like to talk about that.
Her stepfather, who's like her parent, gets COVID,
and they sort of haven't decided
if they're boyfriend, girlfriend yet,
but Noah flies them there
and their private jet and bathes him and shit.
It's like, - Bathed him and shit.
- Sorry.
- Well, he did shit himself.
I feel like Sally should have been the one to bath
- Yes. - Yes.
- I think that was a crime against the stepfather.
I do not think he can send it to that.
- Yeah.
- He'd have a stranger, he thought it was a dinner.
- Just 'cause they're boys.
- Yeah.
- And also, Noah was like, we're, had COVID
and said it was upsetting because his voice,
you know, is so important to him and his livelihood.
Yet he'll go, "Beautiful, bathed the stranger."
- Who asked COVID.
- Currently has COVID.
- I don't think he should have done it.
- Also, one thing he should have gone on.
- Left the man's eye.
- When Noah got COVID,
he lost too much weight
and he needed to start eating bread again.
(laughing)
- He was really, yeah.
- And it was one of his struggles.
- Yeah, it'd be so, it's so scary.
- Mm-hmm.
- So remarkable.
- Now he's gained 13 pounds.
(laughing)
- So maybe it's coming on a little fast, no?
- Yeah.
- I think you're good to stop eating bread
or whatever you need to do again.
Noah.
- Probably all muscle.
- Probably all bread muscle.
- But really scary stuff.
You know, it's bad if you have to start eating bread again.
You know what I mean?
- That's like yikes.
- It's death story.
- But having never had bread in your-
- I haven't had bread in your-
- Have you ever had bread in your-
- Having them list their COVID routine stuff was so,
it already feels past time when we're doing that.
It's not novel and it's boring
and it has nothing to do with the pl-
like, (laughing)
- Yeah, I hate that.
- And she'd like forget, he'd be wearing a mask
and she'd talk about a smile.
So, you're not even doing it, right?
(laughing)
- I didn't notice that.
- People smile with their eyes, Clara.
- Mm-hmm.
- I just love the book and I have to have a refute everything.
- Now, I wanna hear more.
I wanna hear more, but let's take a quick commercial break
and then I wanna go back to like the incident
at the end of chapter one that like, why?
It doesn't work out for them.
- Mm-hmm.
- Okay.
- All right, where are you right back?
(upbeat music)
- And we're back.
Okay, so this book was, as it is in the title,
a romantic comedy, supposedly.
So like, there's supposed to be a big,
you know, end of act one misunderstanding,
something that drives the couple away from each other.
And in this, what was that in this book?
Do you guys know like, why was it?
- What are you asking?
- It was that Sally says to Noah at a cast at an after party,
didn't you date a lot of models?
- Yeah.
- Noah, understandably, flips out
and casts a leave the party no more than 10 minutes later
because that is such a disgusting thing to say.
- It's really hard to think,
it's really hard to be a man these days,
especially like a very famous man.
When ugly women accuse you of dating models,
it's like, it's a really hard thing.
- It's so fun.
- It's a little more nuanced than that, listeners.
They were having a tender genuine moment,
they were connecting.
It was so much so that she thought he was about to kiss her
and she then was like, "Ugh, uh, you suck basically
and you only date vapid little whores."
And that's why he was upset.
- Yeah, but is that enough for them to never speak again
for years?
- I think, well, I think it wouldn't be enough
if they like knew each other and had a developed relationship,
like they've known each other for months,
but in reality, they'd known each other for four days.
And he was like, "I'm catching a vibe."
And then he was like, "Okay, honestly,
maybe I was totally wrong about this entire interaction.
Why would I continue this pursuing this?"
- It's crazy.
- Which made me neither of them would say anything.
- I think it's crazy that he reached out to her again after that.
You know what I mean?
That's what I think is crazy where I'm like,
"Okay, the book is done."
I'm like, "Awesome."
You know what I mean?
Then he was like, "I can't stop thinking about you."
- He did it on its later.
- What?
- Years later.
- What are you talking about?
- Either you like her, nothing that moment to be like,
you know what?
I'm gonna follow up on that, and baby, that was jealousy.
Maybe that was like her jabbing at me,
and it was like, you know, a flirt.
Instead of falling up on that, it was,
I'm so upset, I'm not saying anything about it.
And then two years later, and COVID,
it didn't make any sense to me.
- He was having some sort of emotional breakdown, I think.
- Yeah, he's the only person.
- During COVID.
- Yeah, because he doesn't, like the only people
who checked on him during COVID were his hired help,
because I didn't really understand what his problem
with his parents was.
It was like, they were not that nice.
So I shut them up, I'm like, to the extent that I'm in.
Yeah, they're wasps.
So they're out, I don't, they can't,
to the extent that they don't check on me
when I'm dying from COVID.
Like, I don't really get that.
- I don't know.
- They're also only kids, only children, I think.
Right?
Yeah, I think so. - I think so, yeah.
- Wait, Sabrina needs to defend the parents.
- Okay, defend the parents.
- Oh no, it wasn't so much about the parents,
it was to defend against the like,
unbelievable ability of him reaching out during COVID.
I will say, like, during COVID,
I remember being like,
what about this person's doing?
And I like, you know, zoomed with someone
who I genuinely haven't talked to in eight years
and haven't sensed COVID either.
Like it was, you're not married?
You're not married.
(laughing)
The brain was just like, you know,
not romantically zoomed with the person,
but it was just like, I don't know,
I felt the need to like text people
that I hadn't spoken to in a decade.
- Did you tell them about the podcast?
- All of them.
- That's actually why I was reaching out.
- I also, I was like, do you know about me in bookload?
- So you guys have anybody you write long emails
like that back and forth, back and forth too?
Is that something that anybody's ever done?
Because--
- I used to do it in like college,
and when I was younger.
- Yeah, yeah, Sarah, I think we wrote a couple emails
in college when you were like in Ireland.
- Yeah, yeah, I just, it just doesn't seem like something
full, full-ass adults do.
- No.
- As an adult, you wouldn't do it.
- You would call maybe if you have somebody,
maybe you text a little Joe.
- Maybe comment.
- It would like immediately go to texts.
- Yeah, comment on Instagram story.
- Yeah, it just, yeah.
- Oh, that reminds me of something funny
that Curtis didn't know about Google Docs.
Kills remember when they were doing sketches,
and she'd always be like, okay, so you email it to me
and I'll make the changes.
- Yes.
- Oh my god.
- And everything was like--
- You can't edit it out like all of my bosses at the law firm
always needed things to be printed because--
- You can't edit a lot.
- This was like, are you all watching in just like that?
- No.
- No, that's the--
- Oh, the sex in the city.
- Sex in the city, it's so bad, but basically,
they have like an analogous moment to this in that
where she has to rewrite and add for the podcast
that she does, and she like pulls out,
she's still cooking up with this guy,
and he's like, all right, I downloaded final draft
on your laptop, time to work on your podcast promo,
and it's like, what are you talking about?
(laughing)
- The same thing, it's like, what are you talking about?
(laughing)
- Is she saying, does anyone know how anything works?
Like she knows about email and COVID,
but yeah, she's never heard of like Google Docs
or like, how collaboration works and like writing?
- Yeah.
- It's like, we have some evidence
that no one helped her with this.
- Yeah, he's like, I'm like, I'm like,
I did listen to an interview with Curtis,
and she said she had both a British and American editor,
and the section that they were both like,
are you sure?
Was the second, was the middle chunk,
the second chapter that was just emails back and forth,
and they were like, no kidding, because,
can I just share, I wrote down some lines
from the emails that we are subjected to hearing,
and I just wanna, like, just so that the audience
gets a sense of like, what were we reading
when we are hearing the emails, fly back and forth,
the moments they were falling in love?
And this is not like, I didn't cherry pick.
This is a true sample.
Sprig Center was recently renamed T-Mobile Center.
My favorite color is yellow.
What's your relationship with drugs and alcohol?
(laughing)
- Classic, that was good.
- After Viv got pregnant, she stopped ordering wine,
so I did too.
Do you work out?
I work out from 10 a.m. to 1115 a.m.
(laughing)
- Just kind of stuff it.
- It's like, whoa, we could,
have we honestly been talking for hours
'cause it feels like seconds.
(laughing)
- The alcohol thing was really crazy too,
where it was like, just the, you know what I mean?
Like, yes, that was like the wig thing where I'm like,
oh, is this gonna be leading to something deeper,
some sort of more like realization she has or something,
but it was just like, no, you know what I mean?
It was just kind of like, okay.
- Like, does he have an addictive personality?
- So, like, I think he gave him depth of character
because you find out why he sober,
he had a problem with alcohol and his friend died
because of it.
Doesn't seem like he's currently with you.
- Didn't just fall off a trolley or something?
- No, he really was a great, really, really, really, really,
I think it was a bridge or something, they were all hot.
- Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily blame alcohol.
I would blame the fall.
- Well, I think he, for sure, but I think it was
because the engineer, also, like, he's like a pop star,
like, alcohol, like, we're not gonna try you to say
he had a harder drug addiction than that.
- That's what I'm saying, and like, with that SNL of it all,
where it's for sure, and I think, yeah, he was like sober,
but also like, with it just being alcohol
and then for the TNO, like, no talk of drugs or alcohol with that,
you know what I mean?
It was just kind of like, right?
The worst thing is alcohol.
- Yeah, everyone at TNO in this era just meditates
and stays up all night and rejoices.
- And they're nice to each other.
It's definitely not any sort of bullying culture
that is difficult to get ahead in.
It's just a really nice supportive workplace, actually.
- Well, there's a bit of boys versus girls.
- She's in it.
(laughs)
- I love it also. - It's true.
It was interesting that she made the alcoholism a thing
because it wasn't like, I know it would be like,
oh, you're coming to my house.
I don't keep alcohol in the house,
and she'd be like, no problem.
Next paragraph.
- She kind of was like, well, I might have a drink if that's okay.
You know what I mean?
It was kind of like her response was kind of shitty.
I'm like, this bitch sucks.
I don't keep alcohol and she's like, well, I might have a drink
if it's not weird for you.
And he's like, I kind of just said it was.
(laughs)
They don't talk about it ever again though,
but then it's like never anything, you know?
- That is a book two problem, I guess.
- Yeah, but that's serious.
- But I can't wait for the sequel.
- Yes.
- I looked it up and Curtis didn't felt herself is sober,
so I do think we know why this is making it.
I mean, here in some of them.
Okay, so she didn't draw one thing from life.
- It was like that stupid book we read where the author was
just like paddling out on the river,
and it was the only part of the book we were like,
okay, this person actually didn't know about this.
- Listen to Kimmy's story.
- Oh, I hate that book.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, that was bad.
- I don't know what to do.
- Oh, one of the hardships that Sally faces at SNL,
aside from not being funny, which I imagine is,
(laughs)
- It seems to hurt her.
- Yeah, that's true.
But one of the things that's hard is she didn't go to Harvard,
like a lot of the other writers,
and you find out later actually that,
yeah, she wanted to do, and that was really hard,
because she's so sad.
- So sad.
- Harvard, she said, you know, Duke is,
it's just such an embarrassing school to do.
- I'm the other Sally.
- And Kim Perison, yeah.
- Ew.
- Mm-hmm.
- And don't worry, she didn't fit in a dude for eternity culture.
It's like then why did you ever go there?
Just to ever go to a state school,
she's supposed to be such an every man, Sabrina.
- Well, I will say, in the circles that I run in,
it's like if you went to Harvard or Yale,
absolutely, you're great.
If you went to Penn?
- Yeah, oh, your specific circles.
- What are these circles?
- I would have made circles.
- Okay.
- What are these circles?
- I wanna hear more.
- I wanna tell Penn State,
where do I fit in in your circles?
- Well, right, I also went to Penn State,
as you know, I'm humiliated.
I've been shoved down as just a peasant class.
- Yeah.
- I was around these people this weekend.
What did they think of me?
They must have been disgusted.
- No, no, not them.
- Different circles?
- How many circles do you have?
- A lot.
- I think a lot of professions, Harvard and Yale's a good thing to have.
- No, no, but it's specifically like Harvard and Yale,
the other IVs aren't nearly as good.
- I did know that about Cornell,
'cause I had an interview with Cornell.
(laughs)
I was 18.
I would an interview with an alumni,
and she was like, "Why do you wanna go to Cornell?"
And I said, "I understand it's the easiest I've even done it."
(laughs)
And then I, I didn't get in.
Can you, you should have that crazy?
- You should have just, that's, so.
- My, you know, John,
that might make you feel better.
My brother-in-law went transferred from Penn State to Cornell,
and he did not get into the Honors College at Penn State,
but he still was able to transfer.
- Okay, well, yeah.
- Well, he's here.
- Well, he didn't have the biggest red flag interview in history.
(laughs)
Which, it's like the time I tried to get a job
at the Museum of Natural History,
and I brought up, but I had to be really cool to work around that whale all the time.
(laughs)
- He just stopped.
- Stop talking.
- This is just, I love that.
- I love that.
- Small anecdote, I interviewed for, did interview for Penn,
and they just, the person interviewed me just made fun of the other high school in my town,
which was like essentially the poor part of town.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Did you get in on that?
- I just kept teaching.
- It was so fucking disturbing.
- It was so disturbing.
- That's crazy.
- I just imagined Sarah being like, "Yeah, the kids at that school."
- Poor.
- You are.
(laughs)
- Just trying to like make conversation like, "Yeah, they suck."
Totally.
- Buy something.
- What a stupid tax bracket there are families like that.
- I hate poor people too.
(laughs)
- Sarah's laughing too hard for what we said to not be true.
(laughs)
- Didn't work.
- Or is it because she is used to the comedy of Romantic Comedy,
so anything,
the little funny is really hitting hard.
(laughs)
- How do people work?
- You're laughing this much.
No time.
- Have we like listed what some of the schedule are?
- You know, I don't even understand.
- Let's talk about some of the stuff.
- We need to.
One of the worst stuff we've got.
- Okay, one was about, it was Noah,
but he was, and he was coming in to say cheeses
in a funny way, different kinds of cheeses.
And they were debating whether Gouda
or Provene's a funnier cheese.
And I just wanna say
that cheese is the number one thing
that unfunny people think is fun.
- Yes, cheese is fun.
- If it's number one followed second by pineapple.
- Yes, really.
- Cheese and pineapple.
If you are writing a sketch about that,
you are wrong, probably.
And you are probably writing something for Mad TV
about like a little silly boy talking in a silly boy voice,
which is also a number one pick of unfunny people.
What if a kid just talked?
- He sketched them.
- Her reoccurring is the one I didn't really understand.
- The cheese monger was called.
- There's no real premise to it other than,
it was like he describes cheeses like they're wine,
but he's singing.
- Yeah, 'cause he's cheesy.
- Yes, it is.
- It didn't make anything.
- Well, what's the saying?
- It's also confusing because cheese can be described
in many ways like wine can be described.
Like it has the depth of flavor.
It has notes of XYZ.
So it's not like she was saying like you're describing
M&M's like you're describing wine.
- It didn't make sense.
- Oh, maybe that was the end.
- I get it more when you say the M&M's thing.
- But also another part of that is he was like
deeply offended by it.
(laughing)
He was like so offended.
That like it almost didn't get in the show.
- And he doesn't get it, he's an idiot.
- It's gold.
- I'm right.
- I'm like what is he offended?
Like what is going on?
- Yeah.
- Oh, all the sketches were nine to 10 pages.
- Oh yeah, that was so much fun.
- Oh my god, yes.
- 10 minutes long.
- Which is maybe a little inside baseball.
- 10 minutes long.
- But basically sketches are like two,
it's like a page a minute is what they tell you.
So maybe it's like sketches are like two or three pages
in real life.
- But she's doing 10 minutes sketches.
- But it is, that is.
- Where like I feel like if she talked to like an actual
human being, she would be able to get some of that.
But that's where it's like oh she's like,
I'll just fill in the holes with all the books I've read.
And it's like a sketch.
I don't know like 50 pages.
- Like a book is.
- One tenth of the book.
- Right.
- One of our other sketches, the one that was like
reoccurring was blabbermouth, which I think just like
the voice and then they yell at the Kelly Clarkson character
for talking too much.
- I think that was the problem.
- Yeah, it's like the men talk a lot and the girls don't.
And that's and they should get to.
That's a sketch.
- Another classic was that kind of made her career.
I might really viral was women don't fart.
And it's just really funny commentary on how women do fart.
(laughing)
It was pretty wild stuff.
That's when she really felt her voice.
- We don't get much many details of that except that
she apparently like repitches it.
And it's like a woman gets down on all fours to force out of fart.
And is that because like women really don't fart?
So she's just to try really hard.
Like what the fuck is a unique poop situation?
What the fuck is going on?
- What's the next?
- It doesn't matter because it has fart in it Clara.
It's funny.
It's just funny.
- I don't know.
(laughing)
- One way you know that Sally's funny is that behind her
computer she's a picture of her and her mom, her dead mom.
And then, 'cause we needed to make the character have a little bit of.
- A little bit of, yeah.
- And then next to it was this really so funny.
I was like fucking dying.
List of words that are funny.
And on the left side were boy words that are funny
and the right side are girl words that are funny.
So the left side was like cock sucker, shit, balls.
And then on the right side, tits, bitch.
Just like, height was crying.
Reading these words and thinking like she's probably gonna put these words in a sketch.
And then that's good.
- What, do you think that?
- What the fuck?
- So, I thought that they're not allowed to put on air?
- Yeah, it was censoring.
- I think so.
- Oh my god, it's so right.
- Words so funny, they've been censored.
- But I think that the women's words were like the whatever those words they couldn't say
in the male words it could say.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you're right.
- I think you're right.
- I thought that.
- But it was very unclear.
Like it wasn't like, it wasn't, that's like what a funny person would do is maybe have funny
words above their desk.
- What?
- It's just have this band words above their desk.
That's probably what it's confusing because why would someone do that as confused?
The Danny horse rule?
- Yeah, really funny stuff.
- Do you wanna explain the Danny horse rule?
- Do I want you?
I would love to.
- Oh wait, I put like little tabs in my thing of, I just have a line, I wanna say later also.
But the Danny horse rule is just basically who an ugly guy's date hot women and how it's
so unfair that like women can't date, ugly women can't date hot guys, which it's like okay
fine.
- I don't know what the sketch is, but yeah, it's like what's the funny, what's funny about
that?
- That's a good setup, like a real line setup, okay.
- That's a real line setup.
And then the turn is, it's a sketch because, and then Susan B. Anthony is in it and you're
like what?
It's not, it never explains the premise, it's just like oh and then I pitch this thing and
then the pitch has nothing to do with anything.
- It was paying for the last.
- Curtis is so, she's like hyper aware of being thought of or called like, gun woke or like
out of the zeitgeist or something.
So even when she wants to put Susan B. Anthony in this thing for some reason, she has to
have like someone be like, wait, isn't Susan B. Anthony racist?
- Oh my god.
- We can include that in the sketch.
It's like, I don't know, it's just like, just pick someone else or relax.
- It's like, read to me as an insecurity on the author, it didn't read to me like people
talking about.
- Yeah, well even her, she has to talk about the like BLM protests during the email section.
- Oh yeah.
- There are other emails about people.
- I think they made it feel like the historical picture to me.
- Yes.
- And it's not like, they talked about it.
- And the way, Flip it, did you go to any BLM protests?
- Yeah.
- And it's like, of course I did.
- Yes.
- And but both of them were like, I was a little insecure as a white person making it seem
opportunistic.
Like, just don't fucking talk about it.
- Yeah.
- When you couch it in so many, like, but I am right in the way that I went to BLM protests.
- And you felt that way, why would you write it?
- I don't know, it's so weird.
- Yeah, just leave it out.
- Yeah.
- Well that's also, it's just like something that deserves, I guess like an entire book.
It's just like, this is a weird little detail that's so, I don't know.
- It's supposed to be about SNL.
(laughs)
- The COVID, that was so funny.
It just cracked me up because it was like, I mean, I know it's just two years of a time jump,
but it just felt like they could have just like also time jumped to the Holocaust or something.
(laughs)
- Yeah.
- It's like maybe it was so hard.
- All right, I think we should take another break and maybe after that we'll do like an
act out and find the thoughts, etc.
- I'm sure it is.
- Sounds good.
- All right, be right back.
(upbeat music)
- And we're back.
All right, we're gonna do a quick little act out.
It's the section of the book where they're deciding that they want to meet up for real
in person.
- They're done emailing with each other.
They want to get together face to face, flesh to flesh.
How are they gonna do it though?
She's in Missouri, he's in Los Angeles.
Okay, who wants to play Noah and who wants to play Sally?
- I can play Noah.
I think Caroline should do Sally.
- Okay.
And we're just making it up, right?
Or based off the book.
- Yeah, based off the book, but we say it's true that book is possible.
- All right.
- Slash from memory.
- Noa superstar, last name, don't remember.
Dear Sally, hi, it's Noah contacting you again via email.
Just wanted to follow up on our last communication and let you know that I'm still exercising
from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and also that you should come out to LA.
- This is the sound of dial-up.
(laughing)
- You could have Sally connect to her internet.
- From Sally, Mills with a Z to Noah, you're only working out for an hour now.
You used to work out for an hour and 15 minutes.
Sorry, I'm a little bit funny.
So when you read my emails, you might laugh a little bit.
I can't be genuine.
I have to put in zingers 24/7.
I hope my email is coming through my ugly poor person's internet.
I have, I told you I'm drinking grapefruit now.
Anyway, I would love to come and visit.
Are we friends?
Is this more?
Oh, should I drive?
(whistling)
- That's a send.
- Ding!
- That was the internet.
- From Noah.
Sorry about all those mashed keys you see at the beginning of our email exchange.
I was laughing so hard I lost my mind.
I just smashed my hands on the keyboard and made all those shapes.
But you cracked me up.
You're so funny.
One quick anecdote.
I recently set my thermostat a degree higher than I had been.
Things are so crazy here.
Why don't you take my private jet to LA or do you still fly commercial?
LOL, get it?
It's not a joke.
LOL, you have to give yourself more credit.
You're so funny.
I think you saw where you told me the thermostat story.
It's so nice to know intimate details like this with you.
Do you have this kind of relationship with anyone else?
Before we go any further, I used to be divorced.
Delete, delete, delete, delete.
Never mind.
I was gonna write something crazy, but I just deleted it.
Have I told you I'm ugly?
I would love to fly to you, but I cannot possibly get into a problem.
I'm a private jet.
I can't believe you know the word commercial, like me, a regular.
I'll just drive.
I think my, my, bitch ass dad has a car somewhere.
Love, delete, delete, delete, delete, best, Sally send.
Okay, great.
Yes, I think that's really good.
Really good.
That was the last one.
We were reading from the book.
So what?
We were reading.
That was really good.
Oh my god.
And then she drove.
16 hundred miles.
And then she drove, even though we offer to private jet.
And then they do do F-sex.
Well, but they, but she gets there first and she almost ruins it.
Because she calls, she's like in a truck stop brushing her hair and cleaning her armpits.
And she's like, hey, I'm almost done with this 1600 mile drive.
Would you prefer that I stay at a hotel?
And he's like, would you be more comfortable there?
And she was like, we'll just figure it out when I get there.
And then she gets there and she's like, she's like beating herself up.
She's like, why did I say that?
I obviously want this to be more.
She gets there and she's like, so what do the guest rooms look like?
And then he's like, this is where my sister stays.
Would you want to stay here or in the pool house?
And she's like, I don't need to stay in the pool house.
And then they see his bedroom and she is like, okay, let's fuck.
He comes, he comes on her chest.
He uses no condom.
The first time I've had sex.
Because then afterwards she's like, oh, it's okay.
I'm on a good journey.
After one all, so I've been to that.
And, and I don't have any STDs.
Oh, and also when she arrived, they were both.
They go from wearing masks to greet each other to him shoving his naked penis inside.
Yeah.
And then she was like, with very little conversation.
She was like, you came on me, but like, you can come inside me.
Yeah, that was, that was my favorite part of the book.
Also, in case you were worried, she did come first.
Absolutely.
She thought she wouldn't, she thought she wouldn't because he was bald, but she was being
in his head.
Brianna um and make fun of it even if it's amazing um he asked her he asked her to move out there
And she's like what do the thing I said I wanted to do which was quit livin LA
I'm a writer for rom coms no how dare you and then her stepfather gets sick
And they both fly out take care of him and then she's like, okay, I'll quit T&O
And now we're married the end and then that's the end of the book it ends with her
them literally cleaning up this guy's poopy and then being like, okay now it's not you know
you know what I mean it's like okay now quit and I'm done it's like they spent like 10 so many pages
a sketch is worth of pages
on them like caring for her sick uncle and then it was just like I hate when books do this too
then the end it's like okay everything is actually good I really wanted them to not end up
together but they did they did and it ended with marriage and as we all know your life ends at
marriage and that's why the book ends it was just like marriage and story anything interesting is done
goodbye that's why I only have a month left to live one month and a couple of your ghosts on
here right yeah some of us are kids were we're very yeah that's like very yeah double ghost
double ghost all right guys do you want to hear some good reads five star reviews I want to say one
thing before we do I did appreciate sometimes I don't really understand the title of a book
it doesn't always come into play it sounds like something where the author thought of a title that
they wanted their book to be and then they wrote the book and they didn't really line up but they
didn't change it this one I felt like really fit it's a romance interesting based in a comedy setting
it's a hard hard disagree from yeah romance based in a comedy setting her dream is to write romantic
comedies and it is one and so you do you you are admitting though that this is not a romantic comedy
in the book the actual book the book is the actual experience of the story it's not funny nor particularly
romantic uh sort of just like did you not hear about him coming on a comic was laryse that was
what yeah was that the romance from the comedy part it was what I like about the title is that
it's just a genre of literature so it makes it easy to market and really easy to find people love
it and that's a smart choice when you're like oh this is a genre I like let me read it and then
it's not at all that but it's it's really cool it's like calling a book book or biography it's just
like wow I'm gonna be able to find that for years to come there'll be no problem god damn it well
hey right hey right quick let me get to me good read five star reviews so these are people that
really liked it lily says you never know what you're gonna get with a Curtis sit and fell novel she's
always in vena then interesting but sometimes the execution doesn't quite come together i still
did she spot that weird i still i still haven't forgiven her for making us read about Bill Clinton
Scrodom in rotum however romantic comedy puts it all together and showcases sit and fell
at her best it's fascinating in three distinct sections it's charming explicitly written in witty
her banter sparkles and i love the larger existential questions around what it means to meet your
soulmate down the line and how to feel deserving of love brava Curtis what was the name of that
review lily lily all right that's all that's all that's all i want to do wow it makes me feel better
about being so mean to Curtis because she's being fluffed up over people like she's got her fans
let's do our hate rates ladies and gents
okay although two out of five it's getting a lot of points for speed readability
a lot as in two yeah i think so i guess it sort of made me feel kind of superior you like i know more
than that i know more than that sketch isn't supposed to be 10 pages so that made me feel superior
so i guess it's getting a point for that as well as it's sort of yeah the the quick readability
it loses points for all of the reasons i said in the previously in the podcast two out of five
clara morris alcoe i'll give it a three out of five because um and i'm gonna go the same way kind of
clara was doing i'll give it one point for i started it and thought there's no way in hell i would
finish it and then i forced myself to keep reading and then i finished it so that gets a point
it gets another point for um i don't know and then the third point it gets for because i like the text
exchange that felt real to me so we'll stick with a three to five even though i don't remember what
one of the things is i like that thank you wow i will go five out of five okay well i would go higher
except that every time hilly reeklinton or the 2016 election was mentioned i had genuine trauma
and thought is bill clinton's penis going and so i can't go higher than a five out of five but uh
i ate it up i loved their story i wanted them to get together i couldn't wait for it to happen
i thought it was cute it was like fan fiction of s and l and i like i'm a fan of s and l and i also
like fiction so i don't usually like fiction but i liked this one and yeah i just i just love to
you guys i got all the time i do remember during the cast you did have some make fun i did i did
and you know what that's great yeah i like i like that you were able to still do the make fun i
thought it might lead to a point or half point deduction well i mean again i would have gone higher
we did have this secret level we're just we're noting that this is secret level yeah absolutely
ridiculous i'm gonna give it a four point nine nine nine nine it's not the secret
all right there we go there we go
um i'm gonna give it a two point five out of five which is just perfectly in the middle in a
non-offensive way which is exactly what i think Curtis was striving for with this book sort of
no content but hard to imagine it offending although i actually from reading some reviews it did
offend a lot of people because they felt that the politics of the book was really forced on the jokes
my god i am disappointed slash relief that bill clinton's um i undercarriage didn't make an appearance in
this book although hiller has mentioned many times i felt like we were just so close um i would have
scored a little higher if i'd seen it again just because i'd be so psychotic um but at the end of
the day this book to me is the book version of the board game apples to apples which is a game where
you put two random words together and it is for unfunny people to briefly experience a phenomenon
of being funny for a moment and to imagine what would be like if they said something funny and i
think that's what Curtis was kind of doing with this book imagining what would be like to be funny
maybe mean cards against humanity i mean card game because apples apples originally i think that's
a little harsh on apples apples is fun i'm so sorry i mean cards against humanity which is a game
where you're given um kind of two crazy things and you mash them together usually one of them's
a little bit offensive and then you're like yeah i said it i came up with this crazy it'll be like
sisters like but plugs yes and those are two separate cards for example and a mom might say that
and then the mom's like oh my god let's be not so for me this book like gets a point because
like there was come in it um and maybe i give another point because there was raw dogging but
i did not like afterwards the discussion like about the raw dogging and being like like walk kind
of like walking it back being like oh but we're both like clean wall boss that's gonna go lose a point
for that you're referring to that as walking back raw dog yeah i felt like let's have the raw dog
experience don't be like afterwards like oh no we did that just like let it be let's be safe yeah i agree
um i really really hated the fucking sketches and jokes
um that's minus one and i really also was so pissed off because like if this is a random comedy
i was expecting a little bit of drama something really to break them up something i was waiting
you know like we kept saying once the wig gonna come back like how's that there's she said things up
nothing happened so minus a point for that which means i'm at negative negative one so let's see
what we can do um the writing was fine so that gets it back to zero but i fucking hated the emails
so that's not gonna come again um wow i guess it's a negative one for me i can't think of anything
else so negative one that's fair that's his math science yeah i think that's a very fair review Sarah
generous even um okay so we do have to pick a little fucker of the episode unfortunately we are
tied to that so um look around the room no i think i might find out though yeah i don't want to see
you're about to find out um unfortunately it will be one of us five and it will be for something we
probably did on the episode that maybe just made you a little mad um i already have my picked
perfect perfect great so you know i knew you would know exactly what to do does anyone want to start
i don't really have anyone off the top so wow carolina did so you know i'll go ahead i'll go ahead
and start um i'm gonna say Clara for me for the episode she knows what she did
why are you nodding because before the episode started she was running late and would not
personally disclose why to me and for that reason she's a little fucker is that that little yeah
yep yep yeah yeah that's exactly right yeah carolina okay well it's just little fucker so easy
not the way i said it i guess i should have texted you thank you i was in the back
yeah i'd love to jump on that as well um yeah i think Clara was running late um
you we were talking then she came on and really didn't kind of set up with a text that
she would tell us more about why she was late but then she hopped on and really didn't tell us
very much at all um and i felt like we sat in silence for about 30 seconds after Clara hopped on
and just changed the energy we a little bit of some energy and it might have been because we were
about to start recording and sarah was checking some levels but i'm gonna pin it on Clara you just
reminded me i do at the beginning Clara Clara we were doing the sound level jack Clara and
Clara like she just missed the pattern like she just got she missed it up so oh my god sarah you
never gotten the pattern in your tire you gotta be Clara little fucker ridiculous ridiculous i'm
ready to go Clara okay and it's not Clara it's because for me well i might be counted like
three out of five voters but no no no no no no it it's going to be Clara because three out of five
voted for Clara but my vote is not for Clara my vote is for sarah first first first for
referring to belated sexual responsibility as quote walking back raw dogging and being upset about it
you're gonna be confident about it listen i thought i thought they should have had the conversation
beforehand not that they never should have had it at all and it was a little disappointing that
they had it afterward only because of when it came chronologically not because it was had
and then number two is because of what she just said to Clara which was full full blown gas
lighting because sarah has never ever once followed the pattern of the sound check and it's
her little thing that she does to drive us nuts because i know she knows the pattern every time
and that's the sound check is something we do before we start recording so it's a secret thing that
sarah could just do nicely to make us happy but yeah what this is people might be confused
people clearly give up we have animosity towards you sarah and that's really all i'm trying to convey
yes sarah i guess i'm a little bit upset with the carol line is fine you picked who it was a
little bit of ridiculous reason but you picked two at once i don't think it was ridiculous i think
it was actually a good reason so i don't know um well i mean i i'm not gonna agree with that but uh
well yeah well i'm sorry sarah just jumping on bandwagon john i barely even said anything new just
sort of repeated carol lines desperate to have an ally i wanted to be more than that with carol
yeah i love thank you seem like she just jott was just so scared it would be her again
that she would have doubled up on anyone um uh and then sarah i don't you don't have a reason for it to be
i had it i said it i don't know what you i don't know what you're so mad at you and that's why you're
lashing out i feel like you know i'm not you know kind of giving a rebuttal to everyone who voted
for you is kind of proving the point you know what i mean it's really yep solidifying the little
fucker mm-hmm well you've actually already voted so it's easy to have you voted yet because i've
just been talking for a long time no i haven't yeah i have and uh well i'm doing my vote right now
guess what sarah it's you okay yes and um it could have been you or john it was you because i felt
like you were sort of rushing me during the um research time um okay i felt that too oh really
but you didn't think of over john i wow desperate to jump on any pin wow
wow i love one oh wagon comes by oh i got it so bad
caroline it is usually john so that's perhaps what's the difference
but i guess what's i just feel like we need to put a pin in and say though that it is clara
clara you have been officially voted i can we read it um
um gradually sarah two votes like that's but too bad that doesn't matter since everyone
understands three is a larger number than two um so congratulations yes our audience is a really
smart audience caroline you're so funny it's upsetting it makes me mad but if people want more of you
and like do you have anything to promote what is your socials whatever let's go and yeah don't
really nothing going on i'm just trying to become the Kurdish sit and felt of comedy so one day
seems like that position's already been filled but i can i can pray and hope um yeah i'm not
doing anything yep i'm looking to get a head injury if anyone has any tips let me know you can
follow me on instagram at caudder poop thank you for having me this was so fun you're also funny
thank you and well read incredibly thank you we are mean book club you can find us at mean book club
on all the socials you can become a patreon patreon patreon yes that's what it's called um and give
us some money so we can keep buying these books because you're here and us we can't get them
to the library anymore they're all checked out um guys what are we doing next episode next episode
run rose run by dolly partner in james paterson hot damn did i get that right
i think it's what's on the book i think ultimately we're writing we're reading what two ghost writers
wrote but i'm excited to see what that is actually i feel like there's got to be music with it i'm guessing
there's a song released i'm guessing we'll find out but i mean you'll find out next episode a lot
of copies available john at the Brooklyn Public Library i've had it for months all right save it
for next episode let's save it all right thank you guys see you next step bye
Bye!