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Listen to the episode and read a short excerpt of the discussion below.
Tune in toGood Oneevery Monday onApple Podcasts,Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
So it is Monday before the Super Bowl.
J.K. Simmons in the host.
Sarah Schneider: Vanessa is so specific.
She was like, In those commercials, theres always someone being like, My hungry guys!
That was the piece.
TheDove commercial, that was also just based on her being, like, Mmmmm.
I … dont know what to do with that.
But sometimes it will just hit you perfectly.
Vanessa doing this woman, it just made our brains go to places.
SS: You said two words, and I can picture this womans entire life.
SS: With this first one, we definitely took her character to a darker place.
CK: Vanessa is so funny when shes sad.
When shes …
SS: Smiling through pain.
CK: Yeah, smiling through pain is Vanessa Bayers sweet spot.
If theres a woman, she comes in to bring beers and then disappears.
That was the impetus just being like,Where does she go?
CK: She delivers the treats and then stands absolutely still in the kitchen until someone calls her.
SS: And that she had to be the one to sell it.
Let her do this forced smile, like, This is my favorite thing.
CK: Shes the spokesperson
SS: For her own rude product.
SS: They sent us a full fridge of Totinos.
A year passes, the Super Bowl is coming up once again.
Larry David is the host.
We would want it to have a different tone.
CK: My memory of the second one was resistance, because you dont really do sequels to videos.
you could do different music videos …
But not commercial parodies.
So what was the process?CK: Sitting down to come up with a second one was stressful.
Chris kept saying the same thing over and over again, where we were like, This is robotic!
We all know thats like, I get it.
Theyre watching the game.
But we started talking about how stupid that was.
SS: But then blew it out to a really creepy level.
It ends up being anX-Filescommercial.
The next year, youre co-head writers.
It is your last season on the show.
We talked about the idea of this lesbian love affair, and this indie movie.
SS: This was Vanessas last year.
CK: As stupid as that sounds, we wanted her to find happiness at the end of it.
We can do this!
SS: Its also not jokes in the traditional sense.
Its tonally committing to this being a Totinos love story.
It was like such a no-brainer.
SS: Thats what Im really good at.
CK: I remember feeling embarrassed that that hadnt occurred to me.
I volunteered to quit writing, and she would not accept my resignation.
SS: Whenever I add to one of Chriss ideas, he has to quit.
What do you remember from shooting?SS: We didThe Beygencywith Andrew Garfield when he came.
Hes a fantastic actor, so this feels like a real movie with real stakes.
It was the same thing with Kristen Stewart.
She came in and we were like,Oh, now this is a real trailer.
CK: Theres no one who could have been better at that.
SS: While we shot this, I developed a crush on Kristen Stewart.
SS: She was super personable.
Sometimes hosts are very separate, and thats fine.
And I was like,Im gonna leave my boyfriend.
So the husband at some point goes, Whats taking so long with these Totinos?
You guys making out back there?
You guys making out?
SS: If only you would look at your wife once during this big game.
Its embarrassing we like the happy ending that this character has.
I think its indicative of our tone.
It starts a little mean with this straight male football vibe, and then its not even about that.
Its just a woman finding happiness.
SS: Wow, thats beautiful.
