Seth Meyers had one of the longest tenures in Saturday Night Live history. In the impressive and extensive catalog of sketches he's responsible for writing, one stands out as his all-time favorite.
Meyers joined Saturday Night Live in 2001 as a cast member. However, he made his SNL legacy as a writer, serving as head writer from 2006 to 2014.
Few people seem to have the same appreciation for Saturday Night Live and its history as Meyers. So it's worth paying close attention when he discusses his best sketch and what made it so special.
In an interview with The Ringer, Meyers named "Darrell's House" as the best sketch he'd ever written for the show. It came during a 2013 episode hosted by comedian Zach Galifianakis.
The sketch is a rarity in Saturday Night Live history because it came in two parts. It's not often that a sketch gets a sequel or a follow-up in the same episode.
Part one aired at the beginning of the show. Galifianakis plays a public access show host giving postproduction notes during filming. On its own, it's a funny enough sketch, although the live audience didn't quite know what to make of it.
"I was messing around with the idea of Zach being a talk show host who was just giving notes about postproduction," Meyers recalled. "He was on board really quickly. And obviously, when you watch the first half, that is a fine, albeit pretty undercooked, idea."
Meyers was stuck, but things turned around when he showed the idea to fellow writer John Solomon. It was Solomon who said he wanted to see the notes actually put into practice. From there, Meyers ran with it.
Part two incorporates all of the edits, cuts, and CGI requested by Galifianakis' character in the original. It even delivers a Jon Hamm cameo.
Meyers gives much of the credit to director Oz Rodriguez, known for SNL short films. Rodriguez assured Meyers that he and his team could edit the original live sketch in 15 mintues to have it payoff in part two.
"The team, in that classic SNL way, was so excited by the challenge," Meyers said. "Nobody ever said, 'Well, you can’t do this. This is dumb.' So then the fun in writing it was putting in the fun jokes that would be rewarding for the audience to see, and how to say them in a way that would make it memorable enough to pay off 15 minutes later."
Once the live audience realized what was happening, the sketch reached a new level. It was the sort of experimental and risky sketch that isn't all that common on Saturday Night Live nor from Seth Meyers.
"I needed to have a real base coat of competence before I had the balls to risk a sketch like this," Meyers admitted. "And also, I think, to have Lorne [Michaels] put his confidence in me to execute it."
Meyers compared the sketch to a magic trick and called it the best payoff he'd ever written. It's hard to argue with the man himself.