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Of course, in hindsight, breakoutSNLcharacters make sense.
But usually theyre a struggle or a shot in the dark.
So, by the time he finally showed up in Studio 8H, he was a fully formed being.
Listen to the episode and read an excerpt of the discussion below.
Tune in toGood Oneevery Monday onApple Podcasts,Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Ive read the earliest version of Jacob started in your stand-up when you were still in Chicago.
And then I started doing this Bar Mitzvah Boy character.
?Yeah, I was giving a mini speech where I kept making jokes about the presents.
And I liked having the [accented] that in there.
They would all write like half of the show.
And what I said to Simon was, Andy Samberg was in the cast.
Why didnt you just use him as the Bar Mitzvah Boy?
And he was like, There was something about you.
And there was something that we thought would be funnier to have you as the Bar Mitzvah Boy.
Which was so lucky, because it never occurred to me to do that character before that.
It took you a couple of seasons to get him on the air.
What did you gotta figure out?It wasnt written with the same people.
John had left the show.
Simon had left the show.
But Marika was still at the show.
Marika and Zach and I would write it together.
It took such a long time to figure out how to do it.
And its like, you wouldnt wanna see Jacob day to day.
Him being presentational is whats funny because hes like any other 13-year-old boy.
He cant quite figure it out.
Once we did it as an Update, it worked.
Its funny that some stuff, youre like, What am I gonna do?
I cant figure this out.
And then, its just like, just do it as an Update.
How did you decide to peg it to holidays?Hanukkah was coming up.
That was another thing, is once Andy left, I was like, Its my job to represent.
Its not that Im the most religious person in the world, but somebodys gotta represent.
Lorne really loved it.
And when Lorne loves something, its kind of rare.
Lorne told me that Steven Spielberg had texted him about it.
He was like, Steven loves it.
He showed me the text, it was so cool.
And then every time I would do it, Steven Spielberg would text Lorne.
I hope Im not making this up; it seems made up.
It is so cool.
Then one time at the after party, they were sitting together, with Paul McCartney.
And its also his favorite character that I do.
Paul McCartney has told me.
I mean, can you imagine?
Only atSNLcould you meet those people.
And youre like, [grunts].
How was Jacob with the different Weekend Update anchors for you?
Obviously it started with Seth Meyers.We loved that Jacob was so into Seth.
You know what I mean?
Because hes a cool guy.
He was so sad when he knew Seth was leaving.Oh my God.
When I did the thing where I cry?
And did you notice there was a Seth shout-out in his last Update?
There was?My Best Friend Seth.
Because little boys are like that when they meet an older guy: Yeah, thats my best friend.
Its like no, hes an adult.
There was a lot of love between them.
It was part of the joke too that he always felt like he was impressing Seth.
Then it was just you and Cecily.Yeah, he was so scared of Cecily.
I feel like so many boys that age are so scared of girls that are like women.
But to me, a pretty woman is so scary.
I remember people pitching jokes where hed try and act cool and we were like, No.
He would be so scared.
Hes not going to be cool.
Hes not going to be confident around her.
Hes so freaked out.
Then its Jacob and Che.That was so funny to do.
It sort of felt like Jacob just wont be as impressed by him because hes no Seth.
Like, Ive been doing this longer than you have.Yeah, exactly.
Also, Ches so funny, but he obviously has a different style than Seth.
I remember we had to tell him to be nicer to me.
You have to be very sweet to him.
And he did it.
Then we were like, Well, that has to continue with every anchor.
They cant be irritated by the fact that Im constantly interrupting them or ignoring them.
How did it come about that Billy Crystal would play his dad?It was so cool.
Billy Crystal wanted to play my dad.
I saw him at the 40th and he had brought it up.
Then later the producers asked me about it.
They were like, Billy Crystal wants to come on and play your dad, would that be okay?
And I was like, Yeah, that would be great.
He was so nice.
It was crazy because we were emailing him different ideas because he couldnt be there all week.
But I remember being like, Were emailing with Billy Crystal, this is so cool!
By this point youve been doing it for years and it feels like you would know who he is.
Which is very similar to me personally as well.
This is, like, the coolest person in the world.
Other than Derek Jeter.
