- 1 hour ago
Dan Gregor and Doug Mand are part of the writing teams behind The Naked Gun, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and How I Met Your Mother. These guys know how to make people laugh. But being funny is only half the battle. Over the years, they've also figured out how to walk into a room, read it, and actually get a project sold. In this episode, they share their strategies for selling a pitch and what happens when it all goes wrong.
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00:00Pam Anderson did an incredible job. Were you guys imagining her in that part as you were
00:05writing it? How did that all come about? Again, someone who just totally understood
00:09the assignment in her first interview with Akiva did scatted as she did in the movie because she
00:16scatted in high school. She was in her high school scat club or jazz scat, but she had done it
00:23before. I've never said scat this many times in a series of times, and I can't wait for this to
00:28be
00:28clipped and repurposed somewhere else. Just the super cut of the word scat.
00:38Hey, everyone. Welcome to How Success Happens. I'm Dan Bova, writer and editor at entrepreneur.com.
00:44Today, my guests are the comedy writing team of Dan Greger and Doug Mand. They are longtime partners
00:52who worked on How I Met Your Mother, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and most recently, the Naked Gun
00:57Reboot. Whether they like it or not, we're going to talk about how you turn a hilarious idea into
01:03reality, what makes a great partnership, and which of them is better at typing. Dan and Doug, welcome.
01:12Hey, how are you doing? How's it going? Thanks for having us.
01:15Yeah, well, we'll save that typing question to the end, so keep people on the edge of their seats.
01:20Yeah, we did have this as a competition. At How I Met Your Mother, they did make us have a
01:25competition over typing. Oh, really? Okay, let's save that for the end. Let's save that for the end.
01:32So, The Naked Gun was extremely funny and also extremely successful. It made over $100 million
01:39worldwide, and I read is Liam Neeson's highest grossing movie of the decade so far. How does that make you
01:46feel? I feel great. You know, that guy Liam Neeson finally needed a break.
01:51We put him on the map. He was a struggling actor before us, and then he met Gregor Mann, and
02:00now
02:01he's got a career. Well, you guys are star makers, king makers, so very cool. How did this thing all
02:11happen? How did you guys come together to begin with? Doug and I, we started a sketch comedy group
02:18at New York University called Hammercats. It is still up and running today, proudly. It is like
02:25the longest running sketch group at NYU. A lot of wonderful alum have followed us, you know, Donald
02:33Glover, Bowen Yang, many other very talented people. And we were doing those shows around New York
02:41when the Upright Citizen Brigade Theater kind of saw us, and we were lucky enough to sort of get
02:46moved into that ecosystem at a really auspicious moment in, like, comedy history when there was a
02:53real sort of burgeoning of just tremendous talent taking shape there. And so, you know, we were making
03:01sketch comedy for the stage and short films and online sketches. We were early in the YouTube sort of
03:08days. We were one of the first groups to be on Funny or Die. And so we, you know, I
03:15think we were
03:16just lucky enough to jump in at a good moment when we were able to really make a lot of
03:23stuff for no
03:24money and people were still watching it. That was a big thing. So we got a lot of reps in.
03:28That's excellent. I, too, wow, we have a lot in common. I, too, went to NYU probably a couple of
03:34years or many years before you did. So we were, like, shooting on actual film, which is not cheap.
03:41No.
03:42You weren't making a lot.
03:44That was the difference. It was cheap and easy and quick, and that was the whole name of it.
03:48That's great. So, you know, were you out of the gate, like, this is what we're going to do?
03:55You know, comedy writing isn't exactly, you know, point A to point B kind of career path.
04:02Did you, were you aware of risks? Did you ignore them or did you just go for it?
04:07For me, I didn't, I did not write a lot. I thought I was going to be an actor. I
04:12was going to try to
04:12be an actor. I was always performing. Like Dan said, we were doing sketch comedy.
04:17Um, so that's where my writing kind of started, to write sketch for myself and for the group.
04:25And what we learned early on, and I, Dan, I think Dan's trajectory is a little bit different, um,
04:32in some ways, because he has a much more of a writing background. But we realized early on that,
04:36like, we're not going to make a living as sketch comedians. So we kind of were, like, if we're going
04:42to write and act, we have to write for ourselves. And I, so that's really where I, for me, where
04:48writing was really borne out. If we're going to write, writing was, at first, a means to get,
04:53give myself parts. I love that too. And I've spoken to a number of comedians over the years too. And
04:59I,
04:59I just find it, it's such an entrepreneurial thing. You are creating, you are performing,
05:05you are doing everything. You are the product in the end. Um, yeah, you, you really quickly
05:11realize like that there's nobody's going to care as much as you. And, and that's the, it's, you know,
05:18you can't shirk the responsibility anywhere else. And so, you know, we truly, you learn everything
05:23you learn. You're the, you're the lighting guy, you're the prop master, you're the costumer,
05:27you're the hair, makeup, wardrobe, camera, and then you're also acting and writing and directing.
05:33Right. And you've got to learn it all. Right. Do you, and then you've got to return everything
05:37you can to, to, right, right, right. So you don't get, you don't get charged for late fees.
05:43Uh, do you remember the first time you got paid to be funny? I mean, I remember we want to,
05:49we want to sketch comedy prize and they, they gave us the award in rolling rock beard cases.
05:57And that was really exciting. That's awesome. That really, really felt like we were
06:03rich. And then we also, we got, we got a bunch of Chipotle gift cards and we ate.
06:09That was not from writing, Dan. That wasn't from writing, but that was from being an
06:13entrepreneurial sketch comedy group. No, that was, that was from DC Pearson, who was the
06:17Pete, I was the, who was a, was the dorm, dorm room, whatever. That had nothing to do with
06:24our comedy. The RA. But we thought he was the RA and they gave him, there was a Chipotle
06:29opening. And so the whole group lives off of like 500 Chipotle cards, free.
06:35There was a stack for the whole dorm. That he was supposed to distribute to his floor.
06:38Oh my God. That's awesome. But not paid for comedy in the least. It just came from a friend
06:42of ours who was in comedy. Fair enough. But it was like, it was a real get.
06:45I, I, I, yeah, I vividly remember the first thing we sold and thinking that we were rich and
06:52that we could quit our day jobs. And it was an amazing first sale. We, we created this pilot
06:58and shot, uh, the first four or five minutes of it with again, big borrowing and stealing myself,
07:05Dan and our friend, Adam Pally, who's a successful actor this day who, and, you know, we snuck into
07:12Dan's office at the time, which happened to be, he was a assistant at HBO. And we, we shot a
07:18proof of
07:18concept of this idea we had for a pilot, sent it out and it just kind of blew up and
07:24made the rounds.
07:25And we ended up selling it to ABC. And with that sale, we were in the union immediately. So we
07:32had
07:32health insurance immediately, which I, maybe is my proudest achievement to this day is being able to
07:39be like telling my dad, I had health insurance. Um, and I think probably the biggest relief to him.
07:45Um, and yeah, it was a huge, it was a huge deal. You know, I wanted to ask you about
07:51pitching,
07:51um, because pitching jokes, pitching, uh, ideas, pitching your business. Uh, I wanted to get your
07:58insights in this and what's your process. I mean, the pitch process is, um, you know, I think,
08:04I think coming from a bit of a performance background at, at upright since brigade theater
08:09with improv and being the actors in front of the camera, in addition to our own writing was a
08:15massive, massive, um, addition to our ability to pitch ideas because, uh, we were, we would go into
08:24rooms and we would, we're able to perform the concepts in a, in a, to a level that was like
08:31entertaining and it was intriguing and people were interested in just like, you know, we, we knew how
08:35to get laughs from people in a room. We knew how to modulate based on the room and the tone
08:41and we
08:41could, you know, riff a little bit more on, on our pitches themselves and be like, okay, we're feeling
08:46this is not going as well as we want. Let's do like an in the moment pivot and try to,
08:51try to make
08:52the idea a little bit more towards what they, what they need to hear. Is there anything that you
08:58recognize as a tell, uh, that this is going good or bad and how we're going to pivot in the
09:05moment?
09:05Do you have like set, set plays if the person seems distracted?
09:10Yeah, I think it's something that Dan and I will talk about beforehand. Sometimes it's being like,
09:16we'll know if we're pitching something, that's a bigger swing that if it's something that,
09:21you know, an area that the company that we're pitching to is interested in,
09:25we'll know if this is a big swing, a swing creatively that maybe they won't,
09:30that they might be scared off by. So let's take the swing, but be aware that here are the ways
09:36we
09:36can pivot to a safer version of it if we want to. Or if we go in there knowing like,
09:42this is kind of
09:42the only way we want to do this, that, that offers its own kind of freedom where it's like,
09:47we go in knowing, we know that this is a, this is a pitch that probably won't get bought.
09:55But we like it. We believe in it. And there's some power in that as well. There's an energy,
09:59there's an energy to that where you're like, no, this is the way it is. We like this version of
10:04it.
10:05So there is, there is some conversation beforehand of like game plan and like,
10:10how much do we want to bend in the moment?
10:12Sometimes we'll also go in the reverse order where we'll, we'll like, we'll stack our ideas
10:18from like most conservative to most aggressive and like, and just sort of work our way up the
10:24ladder as we're getting sales. And like, if we're like, okay, like, you know, we usually can feel
10:29out, like maybe we're reaching the end of the temperature here and like, we don't need to go
10:32up to the most aggressive, but if they're in and they're like riding our vibe and they're into the
10:37ideas and it's like, okay. And now we're at a point where it's like, you want to hear something
10:40really crazy. Um, you know, like that, that's usually the, the, the, the decision, um, tree that
10:47we're, we're sort of internally playing off of. So how does that translate to, you had, uh, you know,
10:53Liam Neeson pretty, at least on camera, pretty serious guy doing some pretty crazy things. How do
10:59you approach pitching him some of the, the wilder stuff from a naked gun? I mean, they were in the
11:07script and so he would read a script, he'd read a draft of the script and he would just say
11:12what
11:12he liked or didn't like. And if he didn't like something, he would just say, I think this is
11:16shit. And, you know, and, and we'd, you know, we'd basically, you know, he, he, and he very rarely
11:23played that card. So he was so game, he was so excited to do all of it. Um, but like,
11:29you know,
11:30like there's this bit in the movie where, where, uh, he's talking about how much he loves
11:35Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Um, and, um, and you know, and, and, and we just, and that was an,
11:42that was an all, that wasn't the thing that was in the original script. So we just were running to
11:46that, to him on set, like in the moment. And he, I don't think has literally ever seen Buffy the
11:52Vampire Slayer. And so, so like the whole run of it is just, is just these, these complete gibberish
11:59words to him. And, and so he's, you know, and so he's, he, he reasonably is like, what
12:06the fuck does this, what the fuck are you even asking me to say? I don't even know what
12:09these words mean. Um, and you know, and so like there's, he had some trepidation and
12:14then, but then he's, he does it cause he's an amazing actor and he's, and he is a professional
12:19and he says it. And then, and then the crew starts laughing and he's like, okay, all right,
12:23I guess this works. And, um, and so, you know, it, it, it took, it was, took, it definitely
12:29takes some nerves of steel to, to go pitch a dumb idea to Liam Neeson. And that's the
12:34whole business of Naked Gun is pitching dumb ideas.
12:36And I will say that we, we had the advantage of having Akiva Schaffer who, uh, was the director
12:43and we co-wrote with who is, you know, he's the first line and Liam trusted him first and
12:49foremost. And then I think as a result began to trust us, the, you know, the idiot writers
12:55coming in with, uh, with, with different jokes for him. But, but because it starts with Liam
13:01trusting Akiva and if Akiva gives somebody the green light, that means something to Liam.
13:05And it also starts with the fact that Liam understood the assignment too. He really was
13:09like, I know what he did. He understood, he understood, understands Naked Gun, what, what
13:15made Leslie Nielsen so great, why he's so perfect to do his version of it. He got all those things.
13:21And, you know, and, and when we were writing, we, we were often doing his, a terrible version
13:26of his voice. And it, it became an exercise of like, what, what are the stupidest things
13:30we can get Liam Neeson to say?
13:32Would you, would you treat us with a version of, uh, of, of the line from Liam Neeson?
13:38Where are my Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
13:40Or, uh, episode timing. It was just like, yeah, yeah, that's it. Yeah.
13:46Just like, uh.
13:47You lost all the episodes. The episode where Willow meets her doppelganger and Buffy and
13:52Angel hook up for the first time.
13:53Yeah. It's the intensity of Taken, um, about something completely absurd and, and you get
14:01that because of his gravitas and he's just so damn good he could read the phone book and
14:05you were like, this is so gripping.
14:08You know, uh, Pam Anderson did an incredible job. Were you, were you guys imagining her
14:17in that part as you were writing it? How did that all come about?
14:20You know, we were imagining, uh, this sort of, um, Zucker Brothers spoof, uh, female lead
14:30type, which is a very particular thing when you think of like Julie Haggerty and Anna Faris
14:37and Priscilla Presley, um, you know, as like this lineage of, of these really sweet, doe-eyed,
14:45like, uh, beautiful women who are not like stupid. That's the important thing is they're
14:53innocent. Um, but if they're too stupid, then they can't say the stupid thing that it's a,
14:59it's a, it's a subtle distinction, but they have to be, they have to be like innocent without being
15:04stupid. And, um, and, and Pam is on a very short list of actresses who in like just our modern
15:12world
15:13are like, just nail that. And so, um, she was always someone we were really, uh, she was, she was
15:19one of the first names we came up with. And, and the fact that she was interested, we were immediately
15:23like, Oh, Oh yes, go get her again. Someone who just totally understood the assignment. One did
15:28a play in the sandbox and, um, just got it. And, you know, like in her first interview with,
15:35like with Akiba did scatted as she was in the movie. Cause she's like, she scatted in, in,
15:41in high school. She was in like her high school, like scat club or like jazz scat, like, but she
15:46had
15:47done it before. And just the fact that she was willing to kind of make herself that vulnerable
15:52on a zoom, uh, and do something as ridiculous as scatting, uh, scatting cold, uh, is, is
16:02nothing worse than scat. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Uh, I have never said scat this many times in a
16:08serious times and I, I can't wait for this to be clipped and repurposed somewhere else, but
16:13just the super cut of the word scat. She was just the best. We, like we, we got so lucky
16:18with those
16:19two and just their willingness and talent, the combination of the willingness and their talent
16:24and just was, was, you know, you don't get that. There's, there's, and then their immediate
16:29chemistry is something that you just get lucky with. You cannot predict that. And, um, yeah,
16:36very grateful for it. It was, it was fantastic. Um, can we geek out on process a little bit? Uh,
16:43your, your chemistry, I'm curious, like when you're writing together, set the scene, what's
16:49that like? Are you in the same room together? I'm in a bathtub. Doug's, uh, you know, watching
16:56me through the window in the background. I've got my camouflage on and, um, um, the toilet
17:07cam is on, everything is on really. And, uh, and I'm just kind of taking it all in and
17:13then editing it and, uh, and then, you know, uh, no, look, well, we have, uh, yeah, we have
17:22a process. If we're, if we're just writing a naked gun was different. Naked gun was more
17:27like we wrote, like we were in a, in a TV writer's room. It was me and Dan and Akiva.
17:33And we even
17:34hired a writer's assistant, which is not common for a, for a movie. And every day we showed
17:39up to work and we basically clocked in and we outlined the movie and then went off and
17:43wrote version, uh, scenes and then came back. Uh, that's not how we usually write movies.
17:51Um, but that was a far more, this, this, this, that was a different experience. Um, and it
17:56was wonderful. Um, but what's your typical, uh, way you do it?
18:01Uh, typically we will, if we're TV and movie, we're, we'll, we will outline hopefully together
18:10in the same room. We'll like, what's called breaking a story. And we will, which is basically
18:14outlining it, brainstorming what the beginning, middle and end is, and then writing out like
18:21slug lines for each scene, um, in each act, uh, and kind of trying to get a good idea, a
18:29rough
18:29idea of what the each scene is and what, and what's happening plot wise. We're not, we try
18:35not to get bogged down in what the jokes are in the beginning. Um, and then we'll usually
18:41go off, uh, and write what we call a vomit draft, which is, and we may just, that might
18:45be one person taking the first act and the other person taking the second and third or
18:49vice versa. And that's just writing as it's just writing everything out basically as not
18:57precious at all. And it could be as if you, you don't have ideas for actual lines of dialogue,
19:02you can just write this in this scene. I feel this way. And, and I, I, you know, I'm feeling
19:08hurt because my dad didn't play catch with me like anything. And you're basically just getting
19:12out a vomit skeleton of, of it. And then from there, we're going off and writing, whether
19:21it's scene by scene or act by act, sending it to one another, honing it. And then we like
19:29to come together after we feel like it's gone through a couple of those couple times through
19:34that. Um, and we'd like to turn the key together at the end, which, which is punching it, you
19:40know, put, we'll put it up on wherever we are, maybe on a, on, on the big screen and
19:44we'll just kind of go through it line by line.
19:47What about when, uh, you really like something and Dan really doesn't, how do you, or does
19:54that ever happen?
19:55Oh yeah. All the time. Um, yeah, this is a long-term marriage we're in and, you know, we
20:01fight like a couple at some times. And that's, I, I, uh, uh, uh, creativity does not necessarily
20:10happen in agreement. Like the friction is part of the process. Um, sometimes, um, you
20:17know, I think we try to, uh, listen to each other as much as possible. I think that's the
20:23biggest thing, which is like, even if you have, even if we have disagreeing points of
20:28view on a scene or a moment or a joke or whatever, the, we, the, the goal is to talk
20:35about why you think, why you think you're right. Right. You need to be able to argue
20:42the actual logic behind it. It can't just be, I want it this way. And so, and, and in,
20:48in having that, and honestly, what happens a lot of the time when we have these arguments
20:52is by having to articulate the reason that I think this thing is better this way. And
20:57he says, I think it's better this way. We actually realize we're both kind of missing
21:00some element that would make us both happy. And we usually often come to a third new
21:05thing. And, and that, and that, and that again is why the friction is important. Sometimes
21:10it's purely subjective. Sometimes it's just taste. And it's just like, I want a Froot
21:14Loops joke here. I just want a fucking Froot Loops joke. And, uh, and Doug's like, I hate
21:19Froot Loops. And, uh, and then, and then there's just some, a little internal gauge of
21:25like, Dan seems like pretty obsessed with these fucking Froot Loops. I'm going to give
21:30it to him. Um, this is not worth a fight. And that's just, and that's just like couples
21:35EQ, right? Where you're like, yeah, I'm going to let him have this one. Do you want to be
21:40right or do you want to be happy? Yeah. It's a, it's a, yeah, it's a marriage. I agree with
21:47everything Dan's saying. It's, it's, it's a push and pull. It's compromise. And I'll say
21:51even still at the end of the day, I still want to make Dan laugh. Like I do, it means
21:57a lot to me when he laughs at something. So aside from breaking a story and making sure
22:01the plot makes sense and the machinations of how a story can be told, if it's about
22:06a joke, if it's the Froot Loops joke or whatever, and, and he's not laughing at it, you know,
22:12a lot of times I'll be like, well, that's the answer. Uh, even though sometimes I'll be
22:15like, no, this is, I think this is funny. And we both have a list of probably times when
22:22we were proved right or we were proved wrong, let people like ended up liking the joke that
22:26we didn't believe in or didn't like it. And it's just, it all kind of comes out in the wash.
22:31I did want to ask you about that. Uh, do you have any, um, memories of any Epic, like thinking
22:39you're walking into the room and you're going to blow the lights out and just crickets? Any,
22:44any good bombing stories? So many, so many, I mean, one, one with one with someone who's too
22:52powerful to name now. Um, with, with many powerful and many powerful, but truly the most powerful route,
23:02most powerful zoom we'd ever been on. And we ate so much shit, uh, in such a spectacular way that
23:13we
23:13were, when you asked about like, can you tell when it's not going well, we were up here singing
23:18and dancing and from minute, probably literally we, we've worked musical numbers into the pitch.
23:24There were, we, we had fake backgrounds in our zoom. They hated it from the minute it started.
23:31And we had, we, and we were like, Oh God, we still have 40 more minutes to go.
23:36Yeah. And then, and then they, and then they really proceeded to, to not be generous at all.
23:44And they did rip us new assholes. Yeah. It was, uh, so we can't really say much other than
23:50it was very, very big people. Got it. But, but having, but, but, you know, doing performing
23:59for audiences is wonderful training because you will eat shit when you do enough shows
24:05live. Right. So you get okay with it mostly. We're fine. We survived and we still work in
24:12the business. But as you were thinking about it, your eyebrows started twitching a little
24:18bit. I, I, my chest is so tight right now. I had to, I will, I will give the one
24:25detail
24:25that we worked in the song ants marching by Dave Matthews, uh, into the pitch where we
24:32sang it for some fucking reason. And now I literally can't hear that song without breaking
24:37into cold sweat.
24:39Oh my God. That is incredible. Um, so you've dispensed some pretty, I think, great advice
24:46and great, uh, about working together and all this stuff. And I'm wondering, is this
24:54all just like hard earned lessons that you learn or did you have any mentors or anyone
24:59along the way who said something that really like changed the way you approach what you're
25:04doing? Um, I'll say, you know, we've, we've, we've been grinding this, this business for
25:12a long time, but certainly, um, our, when we got our first sort of what I would say
25:17like big foot into like mainstream Hollywood at the show, how I met your mother, we were,
25:24we were, you know, really baby writers there. And we were lucky enough to come in under some
25:31truly amazing, like TV veterans, writers from Frasier and Saturday Night Live, Arrested Development,
25:36true mentors, people who really walked us through stuff that, you know, we, we just like, we
25:44didn't understand how much we didn't know until we were there. And, uh, once you're like
25:48in, in the thick of it, really making a thing every week, um, with, with those high stakes
25:54and the real process, this train moving forward, you know, you, you start learning, you just start
26:00learning from these people in ways that like, you know, it takes, uh, it takes a certain
26:05amount of generosity of, of people, older people, uh, to be kind and generous with the new
26:11people. And it's not always the case. It's deeply not the case in a TV writers room.
26:15Yeah, totally agree. I mean, that, that, that experience shaped, shaped us a lot and it was
26:19their generosity. And it's, it is something that I, now writers rooms have shifted a little
26:24bit, but they still exist in comedy. And it is something I say, tell writers all the time.
26:28I was like, ask, ask the older writers, like, Hey, how am I doing in there? Like we, we did
26:33that. And I feel like I'm always blown away by how like, you know, sometimes people won't
26:39be invited back to a show and I'll be like, did you have any sense that it wasn't going
26:42well? And you know, like the thing I noticed too, is that people like to be treated as if
26:50they are, uh, the elder statesman is if they know things people want to talk as you'll notice
26:57from podcasts, like you can get people to come and talk. They want to feel smart. They
27:02want to know that, that, you know, and that the thing they've been working at so long that
27:06people recognize that in them there, people are more times than not gracious with that.
27:12I, I, you know, I have, you know, there's, you know, there's always assholes out there
27:16and there's people who are more close off, but reaching out and having, you know, the humility
27:21to be like, I don't know everything. I don't know a lot. Um, and what can I do better?
27:28I'm just always amazed at how little that happens, but really do it. And you'll be amazed
27:32at how people will respond and give you really valuable information. Um, and we did that and
27:39I'm grateful for it. Um, and so, yeah, that, that's definitely something that I would look
27:44at. This is not the, I, it does feel like right now, especially, but it's always can feel
27:51this industry can always feel like a industry of scarcity that where, you know, there's just
27:56not enough to go around, but I don't think that that helps you. I think treating it as
28:01if like raise all voices. These are people that, and you don't know the, the younger writer
28:07you're helping out, you will be hopefully working for in five years or whatever. You
28:12just, you never know. So it's all the lessons you've given any industry too. You never know
28:18who you're going to be across the table from ever. You never know, you know, and that's something
28:22that we've now gotten to see someone who was at Fox while we were, you know, developing
28:27a pilot suddenly is let go. And we're like, Oh, that's great. We're never going to see that
28:32guy again. And then a year later, we're pitching to that person at, you know, Hulu, which is
28:39also owned by Fox, which is owned by Disney. So who cares? It doesn't matter. Uh, there are
28:43only three companies left. Um, but so yes, very much. So everyone's, you're going to run into
28:48the same people. So let's, uh, I've taken a lot of your time, but we can, I'm going to
28:53continue to take more of your time because I want to hear more about your fondness for
28:56scat, but also, um, uh, we'll move into, to the speed round. Um, so, uh, the first question
29:06is what is a bit from a movie or TV show that you wish you wrote? Uh, I, I don't,
29:14uh, my
29:15favorite, I'll just say this. I was just thinking about the other day, but the, the, the big
29:21Lebowski joke where he's in Jackie tree horns house and, and he's trying to get the, get
29:29information off the notepad next to the phone. And he does the pencil scraping where he's
29:33like, uh, he's scraping the pencil over the next piece. And the only thing that comes up
29:37is a picture of a dick. It's really good. It's really good. There's so many, the first
29:46one that comes to mind just cause I'm rewatching it right now is, and I know is rest of development,
29:51uh, where, um, uh, Tobias, uh, joins blue man group and he blew himself and the amount of,
30:01the amount of jokes they get out of, I blew myself. Um, or just, it's just so stupid and
30:07so wonderful. Uh, I probably quote arrested jokes more than any other thing. I was just
30:13cool talking with my wife about the, the, the joke where, where, uh, where, uh, uh, he names
30:21his boat, the C word. And then, and then his mother is like, do not call me that. Yeah.
30:29I mean, that joke, that show is just, you can go to anyone. You're like, that's the
30:33best joke I've ever heard. Yeah. And it's just, you know, blew myself is probably doesn't
30:38even, if I really think about it, reach the top 50, but it's just, I just saw, and then
30:43it's just, so when you guys, this isn't a speed round, but when you're writing, uh, you
30:52know, the scenes for, for naked gun, for example, they're just so packed. There's just, you
30:57know, beep, but everything's a joke and everything is hilarious. Like, when do you
31:02know, okay, we've got enough or when do you feel, or is there ever enough, you
31:08know, the gun is a special beast because unlike even, even other comedies we've
31:15written, it has a, it necessarily needs a volume and a pace of jokes that are, that
31:21is just higher than a normal comedy. And so we, we trusted the process, which was
31:27like, we're going to write the story first. We're going to write the like
31:30situational specific comedy things off of that from there. We're still in a place
31:37where it's like, let's keep trying to find places for more jokes. So we'll do a
31:40punch round and we'll keep finding more little places. But even then, you know, we
31:44were on set and that was a big part of our job on set was just being ready because
31:48Liam Neeson was kind of perfect every first take. He's such a good actor that
31:52we had the time and space to do alts, which was like alternative jokes, second
31:57options. And, and we, and so we had a, like, without exaggeration, an 800 page
32:04alt packet and like a script for, for references, like 120 pages. It's, you know,
32:10you keep finding new little things and then you get on set and you're like, oh, I
32:14didn't know that we have a champagne glass there. Let's make a joke about
32:18champagne. What's a joke about champagne? Oh, Bill Cosby's champagne. And like, and
32:24you're like, great. And so like that, that's the kind of stuff where it's like,
32:28this is the, this is the unique movie that demands you have constantly be
32:33layering as many jokes as possible.
32:35I think, I think that's right. I think the other thing is, and we did notice
32:38early on when we, the, the flip side of that coin is knowing when to not have a
32:43joke. And when, when, when you just need some straight lines. So this, the plot
32:49moves forward and it's a, you know, it's a fine line and it's, and it's a taste
32:53thing because your impulse is just to, you know, open the fire hydrant and just
32:57spray everywhere. And, and, but there's also times, you know, and we, we went back
33:03and we watched, we all had seen Naked Gun hundreds of times and, but we went back
33:08and watched Naked Gun and watched Airplane and we're like, oh my God,
33:11they're here. This is, there's a good 45 seconds here, a minute and a half where
33:15there's no joke and like when, and when to do that. And so, you know, and, and
33:21that's important too, is knowing when to not have it. And then like dance. So we
33:25wanted to make sure we had the best jokes possible and that's why we had the
33:28alts, but we also had to be able to be like, you've got to let this moment
33:33breathe. This is just a, this is just a plot moment that has nothing else to it.
33:37This is just a, this is just a genre moment where we're just going to play the
33:41genre for, for what it is. This is a noir, this is a detective noir, like, but
33:47yeah.
33:48Do you, you know, we're not always in the best moods every day. And when you go
33:54into work and you have to like be professionally funny, I'm wondering, do you
33:58guys have any go-to things to get you in a good mood, a video, a song, anything
34:03you do?
34:04I, uh, I try to do some like just happy pump up music just to, to move my mental
34:11state away from whatever is going on at the house, but in a good way, in a good
34:17way, like I lean into the depression to maybe to my own detriment, but I think
34:24there's a big comment.
34:26Yes, we're aware.
34:27Yes, yeah.
34:30That's fantastic.
34:31Yeah.
34:32I appreciate so much of your time and this has been amazing. And what, what can
34:37people, uh, look for your names on in the future? What can we be excited about?
34:43Well, um, I'm going to be working at Applebee's pretty soon. Uh, this business is falling apart.
34:49Uh, so, so the, you know, the happy hour, my name will be on your bill at the end of
34:56the night, endless sliders. Um, look, go, go. If you haven't watched Naked Gun, go watch
35:02it, go buy it. Uh, check out Rescue Rangers. Uh, Dan has got a pilot that we're, we're hoping
35:09get goes to series at, uh, at ABC. Um, and it's called, do you want kids? Yeah. And Doug and
35:15I just
35:15signed on for another movie with Akiva that we're hoping comes out with Disney called
35:19Stepsisters. Um, but like I said, the odds of for any one thing to succeed are a nightmare
35:24in this business. So yeah, get a second job.
35:27Yeah.
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