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Saturday Night Liveis at its most timeless when it gets really, really weird.
Chevy Chases Gerald Ford impression fell into obscurity when Carter was inaugurated, but people still remember Land Shark.
One house has a completely vertical floor.
Another only has pictures of windows.
One is just a packet of Ranch dressing.
I had written a bunch of stuff Tuesday night, and I was trying to get one more thing.
Id done a couple sketches likeThanksgiving Food,one that was a surreal list.
Or like the Easter Candy one with Michael Keaton.
Oh, I love those!Theyre just weird, and get crazier as they go.
Theyre fun to write.
I did those with Rob Klein and John Solomon.
Pros and cons, in one scene.
And I thought,Oh, I kind of like that as a setup.Its simple.
And I started writing it for Liev and Leslie as a live scene.
I thought wed see Photoshopped pictures of the crazy things.
And he liked it, so I turned it in.
That was basically it.
Lorne suggested, Why dont you tape that?
And I was like, Oh … okay.
I just couldnt [see it].
It seems like such a small idea to spend a ton of money doing a pretape of.
At least you could get all those visuals.
So I said, Lets do it.
We did a rewrite on Thursday and then shot it Friday.
So were you around for the shoot?Yeah, I was there Friday.
We did that part on green screen, obviously.
He was sitting normally and they flipped it.
So his instinct was to play it very real, like a real conversation.
I had to tell him, No, this is fake.
Make it as fake as you’re free to.
Because youre nonactors, youre not used to it.
Youve already bought the house.Its all bullshit.
And Leslie, whos a big fan of the show, didnt know that.
She was like, Youre kidding!
Are you shitting me?
I didnt know that.
You had a peek behind the curtain.Exactly.
How much HGTV would you say you watch, on average?I watch a fair amount.
Im more of a Food online grid person, if Im going to do that kind of thing.
But I will watchHouse Hunters.
I dont watch the whole thing anymore, but I will watch it.
I do like that fake acting.
I used to produce reality TV, before I ever did this.
I know how awkward it can be, so theyre kind of fun to watch in that way.
Do you fall into one of those camps?Im less into the houses.
Its very easily digested.
But sometimes the people are interesting, and you wonder if that one is gay, things like that.
You attempt to guess little aspects of their relationship that youre not told about.
Do you have any insight into the house-hunting couple you wrote?
What their day-to-day life is like?They seem pretty happy.
I feel like they were pretty 50/50 when it came to the decision-making.
I felt like they took each others needs into consideration.
Honestly, thats rare enough that Im willing to overlook the whole kidnapping thing.Right?
So Ive always been drawn to a list of jokes that gets weirder and weirder.
I wanted to get more shots of Leslie and Liev interacting in the spaces.
We were only able to do that a couple of times, like with the invisible house.
The Australian vampires, is that aWhat We Do in the Shadowsreference?Not intentionally.
Its just two random words I put together.
They were from New Zealand anyway.
But theres something so funny about an Australian vampire.
It was almost that, but I wanted there to be khaki capes.
It was halfway there.
But I thought of that too late to change the costumes.
