This premise came from one of my all-time heroes, Paula Pell, who is responsible for some of the funniest sketches ever written on SNL. This is embarrassing, but Marika, who is a producer on Man Seeking Woman, Mulaney, and I constantly text each other failed jokes and sketches we wrote years ago.
They are the funniest writers I’ve ever met in my life. Most of these sketches I wrote with Marika Sawyer and John Mulaney.
#Simon rich movie
The premise: Kristen Wiig interviews Tracy Morgan about his children’s movie Rocket Dog, which featured a disturbing amount of on-set canine fatalities and repeated use of Tom Cochrane’s “Life Is a Highway.” We cranked out the sketch pretty quickly. Colin Jost is one of the funniest writers in the world - before SNL, I got to work with him at the Harvard Lampoon - and I remember coming to him with this idea. When he was arrested again, it got me thinking about which types of people would have somehow not heard about O.J.’s crimes at this point in American history.
#Simon rich trial
trial, which I was in middle school for, there were jokes about how hard it would be to pick the jury given that it was the trial of the century. Simpson is arrested for kidnapping and robbery, it’s really hard to find a juror who doesn’t know about him.ĭuring the original O.J. “These are sketches I unfortunately loved writing.” “It’s very important to note that none of these sketches were popular or particularly successful,” he says. He obligingly chose nine, with one caveat: “All of my SNL sketches were obscure, so I went for my favorites.” With constant praise for the cast, the hosts, and his co-writers John Mulaney, Marika Sawyer, Mike O’Brien, Colin Jost, and Heather Anne Campbell, and a ton of self-deprecation reserved for himself, Rich took us through the thought process of creating one-joke premises, making dog death funny, adding in ass humor, and much more. With FXX’s Man Seeking Woman returning for its second season last Wednesday, we asked the show’s mastermind Simon Rich to look back on his years as a Saturday Night Live writer and pick the most obscure sketches he penned. Photo: Maya Robinson and Photos by SNL/NBC