Simon Rich, From SNL to Pixar and Beyond
The Last Laugh
The Daily Beast
4.6 • 661 Ratings
🗓️ 31 August 2021
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As the youngest writer ever hired at ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Simon Rich achieved his biggest dreams ridiculously early in life. Everything that’s followed, including a stint at Pixar writing ‘Inside Out,’ running his own shows—‘Man Seeking Woman’ and ‘Miracle Workers’—and turning his multi-part ‘New Yorker’ story ‘Sell Out’ into the movie ‘An American Pickle’ starring two Seth Rogens, has been beyond his wildest imagination. And for him, that’s really saying something. On this episode, Rich reads an excerpt from his latest short story collection ‘New Teeth’ and reflects on his incredibly prolific career as the most ambitious comedy writer in the game. Plus, hear stories about what it was like to guest-write an episode of ‘The Simpsons,’ the rejected sketch he pitched to LeBron James on his first-ever SNL episode and tackling Willy Wonka’s origin story in the upcoming prequel starring Timothée Chalamet.
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Buy ‘New Teeth’ on Amazon
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This week, we are joined by the brilliant writer who put these words in Seth Rogen's mouth. |
| 0:06.8 | In old country of Schlopsk, I am ditch digger. |
| 0:12.0 | As far as jobs in Shlipsko, it's pretty good. |
| 0:17.2 | We are the Green Bounds, and we have American dream. |
| 0:22.6 | I find good job in Kiko factory. |
| 0:25.6 | Sarah, I make this vow. |
| 0:27.6 | In 100 years, our family will prosper. |
| 0:31.6 | And then one day, everything changed. |
| 0:43.1 | This is the Last Lap. |
| 0:50.7 | I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast, and today we have something a little bit different for this late summer episode of the podcast. |
| 0:56.6 | Since I first started reading his short stories in The New Yorker nearly 15 years ago, |
| 1:03.7 | I have just been such a big fan of my guest on today's show, Simon Rich. In addition to being the youngest writer ever hired on Saturday Night Live, Simon has brought his totally unique |
| 1:09.2 | comedic sensibility to shows like man-seeking woman, |
| 1:12.4 | miracle workers, and last summer's HBO Max movie, an American pickle, |
| 1:17.0 | starring Seth Rogan as both a Brooklyn hipster and his own Eastern European immigrant great-grandfather, |
| 1:23.5 | who got preserved in a vat of pickle juice and comes back to life a century later. |
| 1:28.1 | Like all of Simon's work, it's very high concept and very funny. |
| 1:33.7 | Now, since he's out with a new collection called New Teeth, |
| 1:37.4 | I asked Simon to come on the Last Laft to read us an excerpt from one of those stories |
| 1:41.8 | and talk about his prolific career as a comedy writer. |
| 1:45.8 | So I really hope you enjoy this very special episode, as much as I did. |
| 1:50.5 | Here's me with the hilarious Simon Rich. |
... |
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