Julio Torres
This week on the SNL Hall of Fame podcast we welcome back one of the SNN's Super-Fans, Sammy Kay! He's visiting the Hall to discuss writer Julio Torres with our very own Thomas Sena.
Transcript:
[0:42] All right. Thank you, Doug DeNance. It is great to be here in the SNL Hall of Fame.
[0:50] Welcome to the SNL Hall of Fame podcast, A Weekly Affair.
Each episode, we take a deep dive into the career of a former cast member, host, musical guest, or writer, and add them to the ballot for your consideration.
Once the nominees have been announced, we turn to you, the listener, to vote Vote for the most deserving and help determine who will be enshrined for perpetuity in the hall.
That's right. That's how we play the game. It's really quite simple.
And we're thrilled to have you here with us.
This has been a great season so far, and it's about to get that much better as we invite S&N correspondent, super fan, Sammy K, into the conversation room with Thomas Senna to todiscuss the career of writer Julio Torres.
This should be a good one. I'm looking very forward to this.
Will Julio be rewarded or will he be punished for being a writer?
We shall see when voting commences.
I'm getting way ahead of myself, though. Before you get into this building, you gotta wipe those feet. That's all there is to it. it.
Let's walk down the hallway to my friend Matt Ardill in his Matt's Minutia Minute corner and get to know a little bit more about Julio.
What do you say? Matt!
Track 3:
[2:13] Matt! Julio Torres! Yeah, JB! I can't wait.
This is another one of my picks from the draft and I am looking forward to this one.
I'm looking forward to all of them, but this one in particular.
No, this is your pick. Yeah, I understand that. That's great. Yeah.
So talk to me, because I know precious little about Julio Torres.
Yeah, he's pretty private, to be honest. Julio Torres, I don't know his height.
One of the few people I've not been able to track that down.
So when I do the chart, he's going to be a big question mark. Oh, man.
He makes me feel very old. He is born February 11th, 1987. Jeez, Louise.
[2:57] He co-created Los Espookys with Fred Armisen and Anna Fabergia, as well as working on The Chris Gethard Show as a writer.
[3:11] Oh, did not know that. Yeah, yeah. So he got his start on Gethard and then went on to SNL and then all sorts of stuff followed.
Um he is born he was born in el salvador to a civil engineer uh who is his father and an architect slash fashion designer mother uh his mother has collaborated uh with him and his sisteruh on comedy projects um they he picked up some skills from his mom um and his mom and his sister actually make a lot of his clothes or have them made his quote i have of him is mymother and sister noah taylor in el salvador who can make anything i sketch with their assistance so when you see him doing shows it's often outfits that he his mom and his sister havemade together oh that's cool yeah so he took literary studies at the new york school or excuse me he took literary studies at the new school in new york okay um even as a student his goalout of the gate was to become a comedy writer which a lot of times you don't start that way you kind of fall into comedy writing yeah but uh yeah it was his goal um he has an hbo specialfrom 2019 called my favorite shapes and is credited with nine writing credits and 25 acting credits as well for producer credits.
[4:39] He starts his Comedy Central stand-up special by introducing himself as Julio and Aquarius.
His favorite color is clear and starts all of his emails well, well, well.
[4:54] Um, his special is named I'm a vegan and I'm so sorry, uh, where he takes the stage with his best friend, crystal, a four foot tall talking crystal.
Uh, so this sort of sets the tone of what to expect.
Um, I think he and Sarah Sherman would get along very well, um, or fight to the death as they both seem to have very similar sentiments around comedy.
Um he appeared on the tonight show eight times as a correspondent and has appeared three times on late night uh appeared on the former snl writing team chris kelly and sarah schneider'sshow the other two in the episode chase turns 14 and has also been in an episode of bob's burgers he deliberately avoids political comedy preferring to focus on his personal experiencesand viewpoints, which, you know, is probably good because those are so surreal and wild and awesome.
[6:01] It's great to hear a unique voice like his. Yeah.
Well, I'm excited to hear a couple other unique voices. Sammy Kaye back in the SNL Hall of Fame talking with our friend Thomas Senna.
You ready to hear that conversation, Matt? I am ready. Can't wait. Let's go downstairs.
Track 5:
[6:50] Alright, Matt Ardill and JD, thank you so much for that introduction.
Yes, today we are talking about a writer, digging into the writer category here on the SNL Hall of Fame.
A very current writer that I'm really excited to talk about.
He's turned in so many recent classics.
It'll be fun digging into Julio Torres and his work as a writer on SNL.
And to join me to break down a lot of Julio's work on SNL is a multi-time guest here on the SNL Hall of Fame, Mr. Sammy K.
Welcome back to the podcast, Sammy. How are you doing?
Thomas, I'm doing well. I'm happy to be back. I think this is my third appearance on the pod.
So this is, I've done a writer before, a writer, sketch performer, and then just with Seth Myers.
And then I did Vanessa Bayer, you know, a cast member, and now I'm doing a pure writer. So, you know, excited to kind of, you know, go through all these different kinds of contributorsto SNL on the pod with you.
Yeah, I'm pumped to have you back. We're still waiting for Vanessa Bear to get the SNL Hall of Fame call.
It's going to happen. I know you and I are like two huge Vanessa Bayer super fans, but I think, I don't know, I think give it a couple of years. I think it might happen.
I think it's closer than anybody thinks, Sammy. You made a great case for Vanessa.
[8:07] I'll always, on any podcast, SNL or otherwise, make a great case for the great Vanessa Bayer.
So yeah, hopefully one of these days, you know, we finally call her number down and give her her praise for the Hall of Fame.
Yeah absolutely y'all should go back and listen to our vanessa bear episode from last season and hear sammy and i kind of fanboy over vanessa bear that's a good way to describe it yeahcomplete fanboys i'm not ashamed to say that uh so yeah sammy thanks for coming back uh before we get the dig into julio torres's work uh can you tell all the listeners what you've beenup to uh over at the saturday night network absolutely yeah so you know we're digging into to season 49.
And obviously we have a ton of different shows that we put out for the new episodes of SNL most recently.
[8:56] I've kind of been all over the place. I've been on, I was on the I.O.
Debris hot take show and was recently on By the Numbers with Mike Murray.
And then I'm also the host of our Superfan Takeovers, which is, you know, basically the number one destination you want to go to if you're a diehard SNL fan of all the seasons.
We go in and we talk about the whole history of the show uh we've recently recently did a a one-time host draft which was a lot of fun you know drafting hosts that only hosted the showone time seeing who we'd want to bring back and have them host your second time my top pick for that i believe was conan o'brien was my number one pick and you know that is one thati thought you know we kind of closed the book on but now that he made that appearance in the five-timer sketch for millennia a couple years back and we're looking ahead to snl 50 youknow you never know what could happen but so that that one's a lot of fun so you know you guys should definitely check that out yeah the that's always a great you know sammy uh billkenny is also on that pod of course uh you got the andrews haskell and hands tend to make appearances right we got both we got both andrews yep yep yeah so listen to uh Sammy and allof his work across the Saturday Night Network podcast universe.
[10:17] So yes, Sammy. So today we're talking about a writer. I know you were with me for Seth Meyers.
You helped get him into the SNL Hall of Fame. Now we're talking about Julio Torres.
So an interesting one today, a very recent writer.
And I'm curious, Sammy, from your perspective as an SNL superfan, for you, what qualities go into making a great SNL writer?
[10:42] Yeah, I mean, that's an interesting question, because I think, unlike, you know, most comedy shows, or, you know, I mean, you know, SNL is a weekly variety show, a sketch showthat, you know, needs to churn out content, you know, on a, you know, weekly basis, or whenever there's a show, you know, be consistent.
So you need a writer that's able to obviously handle that sort of workload.
But I think ultimately, if you want to get your stuff on the show, you need to have a a unique voice, a unique point of view.
That's something that I would definitely ascribe to Julio Torres as someone who used their experience and kind of interesting tones of comedy and was able to put that into sketches whereyou 100% would watch a sketch and be like, I for sure knew Julio Torres wrote this sketch.
But then also could have something that you maybe didn't necessarily see his fingerprints totally on, but kind of just worked as, I don't want to say a cog in the machine, but was able to dothe SNL formula of a sketch as well.
So having that balance of putting out stuff with your own voice, but also being able to put out stuff on the consistent basis that you need with a show like SNL, if that makes sense.
[11:59] Oh, it makes total sense. I think you're absolutely right. I think you hit it right on the head as far as I really enjoy as a viewer were being able to spot a certain writer's voice andsketches that's why growing up i was a big jack handy fan because you would watch a jack handy sketch and know jack handy was behind that unfrozen caveman lawyer kind of weirdsketches like that you knew it was a jack handy uh yeah so so i think julio is kind of in the same vein and you're right about not just doing not just Just getting put in your own littlesandbox over there in the corner as a writer.
I think Julio showed, too, that he can play within SNL's confines. And we'll see that here.
I mean, he wrote from 2016 to 2019, obviously, a very heated political time in the country and in SNL.
Julio did political sketches. Yes.
[12:55] But he put his own little twist on them, too. So I think you're absolutely right about he was able to play within SNL's confines.
But his personality and his background still came out.
His background being an immigrant from El Salvador and also a gay man.
He had those viewpoints, the things that make him him.
And of course, he's just a very clever person, too. So he had a clever touch on a lot of his sketches.
This will be an interesting one, man. like relatively recent only a writer for three seasons yeah so let's let's get going i'm curious what what sketch do you want to bring to the table as far asjulio torres yeah there there are definitely a lot and as you know you sent over a list just to kind of refresh my memory on some of these i'm like oh my god he has like a murderer's row oflike classic modern day sketches so i don't know if i want to start with like the heavy hitters first or whatnot but you know i think I think because you mentioned the political stuff, I think agreat one to bring up would be Through Donald's Eyes.
[13:59] And this is one that I honestly didn't realize until doing the research for this episode that he wrote.
But this is one that when I'm looking back at the Trump era of SNL, totally sticks out to me as a memorable sketch.
[14:13] And, you know, watching this one live, I'm just like, oh, man, like, this is such an amazing concept. You know, this is the one that people don't remember where John Cena isplaying Donald Trump.
And it's, I think, right around the time after the 2016 election.
And you're kind of doing like a day in the life of Trump and seeing it all through his point of view.
So for the most part, unless you're looking at a reflection or something, you're not seeing John Cena, but you're seeing everybody else.
And honestly, it kind of reminded me of the, I think it was the Reagan sketches from like the early 80s that they would do, like from his point of view.
Like, I don't, I, you know, I'm sure like they maybe thought that there was some parallel there when they're coming up with this concept.
But it's so surrealist and being able to take that feeling after the 2016 election of like, this is, this is the president now.
And like, what is kind of like, you know, what is it like to look at through the world through Donald Trump? It was such a great sketch, so memorable.
And I just when I look back at that time frame and think about sketches that really, you know, broke through and, you know, last because a lot of those political sketches don't necessarilyhold up. That one certainly does.
Yeah, I love how it explores the delusion of Donald Trump.
[15:33] You're right, he looks in the mirror and he looks like John Cena.
So that's how Trump sees himself.
He's watching TV and it's an announcement that huge suits and long ties are in fashion.
And I love the little detail of Trump processing things in small bits and fragmented sentences.
Huge, huge success. Fantastic. Fantastic. Victory.
Landslide. Fox News. In fashion.
Big news. So he doesn't have like complex thoughts and even the way he processes the world is not complex.
[16:13] So this was just like little touch after little touch by Julio Torres.
And I should say too, along with his writing partner Jeremy Beiler has contributed to a lot of these sketches too.
So Julio and Jeremy were definitely a really good team on SNL.
But just the way Julio was so adept at political satire, Sammy, in such a smart way, like you and I mean, we a lot of us were remember vividly because it wasn't that long ago.
At this point in SNL, a lot of it was just ripped from the headlines and verbatim of what somebody would say.
But these were a breath of fresh air, in my opinion, Sammy.
Like, what do you what do you say these compared to like a lot of other political sketches from around this time?
Oh, yeah, for sure. Sure. Like, like a breath of fresh air is a great way to kind of describe it.
Um, because, you know, you, you have, you are kind of bringing in all the characters that we've seen throughout those sketches where they're playing off of the Alec Baldwin, you know,Kate McKinnon as, you know, Kellyanne Conway, um, and, you know, Cecily Strong as Melania, you know, we've seen these characters before, but the way that he's kind of using thesepieces within the world that he's building, um, it just kind of elevates it. And it.
[17:27] Obviously going for something that's different from, you know, something you'd show in a cold open.
Like, I don't know, I don't remember exactly where this aired in the night, but, um, you know, it allowed, um, the show to get a little bit weirder and a little bit more surreal with, um,everything going on.
Cause it was a kind of surreal time, like, especially right after the aftermath.
So, you know, kind of matching it with this real sketch, um, was, was a great kind of pairing.
[17:53] Yeah. From around this time, if it was, if it was genuinely like of really smart political satire there's a decent chance that that julio torres and jeremy byler were uh were behind it soit's like sticking with the uh the political sketches too i like the way that he made um he developed a character in melania trump he developed this character he's behind those melaniamoments that aired in season 42 which is kind of uh showing things from from from maybe her perspective, he got a chance to develop Cecily Strong as Melania.
And it was a really like, and we will see a theme throughout Julio's sketches, it was very like a dramatic presentation, almost a soap opera-like quality to a lot of these.
So he really developed Melania and her character, obviously, with the help of Cecily Strong.
There's one in particular, Sammy, I don't know if you remember this, it was during Kumail Nanjiani's episode. It was customer service where Kumail played a customer service agent, andhe ended up bonding with Melania.
She was obviously starving for a connection with somebody, so ended up being with this customer service agent.
That was in season 43, That's a Julio piece. Last name, please.
[19:09] Melania Trumps. Excuse me? Trump, like towers in the sky. She asked me a little bit of a question.
[19:40] I want to talk to him about things that are not solid, you know, things that are abstract.
Right. She ordered over four. Yeah, that one is definitely one that I remember around.
Yeah, the Melania moments were such a good, like a cool way to, I don't know if cool is the right word, but just being able to build out the Melania character.
Like, I think Cecily Strong played that so well. So it makes a ton of sense in hindsight to kind of learn that Coolio was the voice behind that and, you know, was able to make that suchkind of like a lived in character that wasn't one dimensional or anything like that.
And almost like you can easily see that being a one dimensional character.
But he kind of added additional layers to her, which, you know, I don't think a ton of other writers would maybe do.
[20:27] No, no, I don't think so. So maybe from around that time, if they're tasked to do something political, I don't think a ton of other writers would have done it with as much precisionand wit as Julio did.
I love the detail you'd mentioned that there were layers to Melania, this Melania character.
And in the customer service sketch, I love when Julio doesn't let Melania off the hook and just paint her as the victim.
Because she was introspective and everything, talking to this customer service agent.
But she even pondered like she said if donald is bully and i am married to donald am i helping bully so that was like something that a lot of people talked about like she had this anti-bullying campaign and everybody's like well you're married to like the biggest bully in in the world essentially biggest bully in the country so isn't that kind of your something that you'reat odds with so julio addressed that in in this sketch what i thought was great so that's like the layers to this Melania character that could have been very one-note.
So where do you want to go from here? I know he just has such wonderful recent sketches.
I think another one to kind of...
[21:40] I don't know if stay on this theme is the right word, but Diego calls his mom comes to mind going back to his experience as an immigrant and being able to blend kind of hisbackground into his sketches.
Like this is with Lin-Manuel Miranda, for people who don't remember, where he is an immigrant who, you know, just got a job in America and is, you know, kind of calling his mom inthis pay phone that's like in the middle of this cornfield.
Like everything that I, when I think of like a Julio Torres sketch.
[22:14] The visuals of it, you know, I know that he's not necessarily directing these pieces, but he writes these sketches in a way where he kind of, it paints a very vivid picture.
[22:25] And, you know, the SNL, you know, directors behind these pre-tapes was able to really bring it to life.
So that small detail I really like. But I mean, this is like a very almost kind of heartwarming sketch. You're not expecting it to be like heartwarming, but he's just able to like imbue somany funny observations about America, like that are obviously heightened.
But like from, you know, an outsider or immigrant experience is super funny.
My favorite element of that is saying how we put carpet on everything, just like carpet everywhere is is a very funny detail.
Tale um and you know we saw this earlier in the bad bunny episode of this season season 49 you know being able to have a sketch you know with a different language involved you knowand you know kind of using the language barrier within the element of the sketch to add to the humor so like in this sketch in particular he's only saying so many words in english but itadds to like the the whole, you know, the humor of it all.
So yeah, this one definitely stands out.
This was one of his first real things to pop on SNL for Julio.
I love the bits of using Spanglish, especially at the beginning.
[23:53] Landlocked.
Los americanos comen algo que se llama marshmallow salad.
Marshmallow salad. No vegetales, marshmallows.
Los americanos son grande y toda su comida es grande.
Le gusta comer macs with cheese, little debbies, twinkies de hostes, caceroles, stews, big mounds of yellow and orange food.
[24:18] So he's describing the food. That was a really kind of funny thread in the sketch.
Is Diego describing the food, the different sayings that Diego has heard in North Dakota, like these immigrants are coming to steal our jobs, and he says it like so matter-of-factly.
There was his, he seemingly had a romance, Diego did, with Preston, the star quarterback.
And Preston was obviously like, yeah, this closeted high school athlete who was really bonding with Diego.
So there was that there was that uh implication in the sketch Preston had like a jealous girlfriend I think that was Vanessa Bear who played the the jealous girlfriend of Preston so therewas a lot that Julio packed in to this sketch and Sammy it was like touching and you said heartwarming it was so heartwarming but not but there was that perfect balance betweenheartwarming and the But the jokes were still there. It wasn't just sentimentality.
[25:17] Yeah, no, definitely. I would say a running theme in a lot of his sketches is like I'm not saying like all of his sketches are heartwarming, but like a lot of them have heart or they havesort of an extra element to it that, you know, the characters are very sincere.
But the situations or the concept they're going about are just absolutely ridiculous.
So, you know, he was able to thread that needle really well in this sketch in particular.
[25:49] Yeah, I want to stick with something that I think has heart, too, and is definitely from Julio's perspective and probably how he was as a little boy and how he felt growing up as aboy. And this is I know this is a fan favorite.
And this is Julio and again, his writing partner, Jeremy Beiler.
This was a sketch from season 42 with Emma Stone, Bobby Moynihan, Cecily Strong voiced it. It was the Wells for Boys.
[26:17] Introducing Wells for Sensitive Little Boys from Fisher-Price.
[26:21] Wells for sensitive boys to wish upon, confide in, and reflect by.
Some boys live unexamined lives, but this one's heart is full of questions.
Just hear how much... Yeah, this is such a great piece.
I feel like, like a lot of his sketches, they almost have a cult following to them.
I feel like if you meet somebody who says, like, oh, one of my favorite SNL sketches is Wells for Boys, you're like, all right, this is like a true kind of modern day, you know, diehard SNLfan. But this one's really great.
Emma Stone's kind of like the perfect host to pair for this material.
And he obviously collaborates with her again on the actress.
But this sketch is so interesting because it's the whole idea that we're gonna get a kid like this toy well and it's something that like as you're watching the sketch you're like i don't really atfirst get like what they're going for but then like throughout as it continues and it's not a long piece i think it's only like a minute and a half or two minutes you like totally like it kind ofclicks you're like oh yeah there are those kind of kids that you see or you remember remember seeing growing up or maybe you were that kid or maybe you see on the maybe you see likenowadays where you're like that kid's just like kind of waiting to to grow up you know he's he's not like like other kids and uh i i thought that that is just so funny and i and i love i love itwhen snl and i feel like julio did this a lot like you know it's taking.
[27:50] Like this concept and it's it's feeling like so real like it's feeling like an actual kind of fisher price commercial um so i like that element to it as well and kind of like the the button atthe end where emma stone is kind of yelling at the other i i assume it's her other son like it's not entirely clear um if it's like a friend but like a classmate or something yeah maybe aclassmate i almost think it's funnier if you think it's like her other son it's like yeah you know because you you have everything everything is for you and this is his one thing um you knowso thinking about it as like their siblings is you know makes it like a little funnier but regardless um yeah it's just like it's it's so unique like i feel like that's something i'm going to continueto say as we talk through sketches but it's um so unique just and just super funny but it does kind of have that sort of this one's not maybe not as heartwarming and just more like you'rekind of feeling for this kid you know you kind of feel bad for him um but uh just just super super funny.
[28:49] Yeah kind of yeah you're right like feeling for this kid or you just want to like tell this kid it's gonna be okay and i think julio maybe has said this about this sketch like just the likeyou know it's gonna be okay for this kid not just not at that moment so he's just kind of like waiting for adulthood like this sketch julio wrote some like great taglines for this sketch Itstarts off with Cecily saying, some boys live unexamined lives, but this one's heart is full of questions.
You know, this kid's like a deep thinker and very introspective.
She also says some boys like to play, others just sort of wait around for adulthood, which perfectly encapsulates what this sketch is about.
I think one of my favorite threads in this sketch, in this ad parody, is that Bobby, as the dad, is struggling to make a connection with his son.
So what is he putting in there? A secret.
[29:48] He'll grow up to have a wildly passionate and successful creative life, but not just yet. Hey, Spencer!
Spencer! Spencer! Spencer! Spencer?
Yes, sir. And then the befuddled look on Bobby's face, like how he just wants to connect with his sensitive little boy, but he just doesn't know how.
He's confused by the secret that Spencer's putting into the well.
There's just so many little details about what the boy does with the well, running his fingers along the side, pondering his reflection.
There's just like you mentioned it's a relatively short sketch but it's just like but hits you one right after the other with like clever line clever they add there's escalation in it too like this isjust one of the better pieces over the last few years on SNL honestly.
[30:47] Yeah and i think like a trend in a lot of his sketches is like he he knows how to end the sketch you know i feel like that could be a that could be a problem um you know with snl it'salways been a problem with snl because you know just the the fact that you're putting out so much material like you're not always going to have the perfect ending but i feel like you knowin this sketch and and honestly like most of the ones that i revisited if not all of them they they let they they land that final joke and they land that final beat and um you know i think yougot to commend them for that yeah yeah the i i tend not to hold snl sketches to the responsibility of ending right so to me it's bonus points like julio you're right he knows how to end asketch and that's bonus points if you ever watch old episodes of kids in the hall they never ended a sketch like like the sketch was over because they just ended it and then they went on tothe next one there was no like great button if you watch a lot of great sketch comedy shows like the sketch is over when they just kind of abruptly end it so ending a sketch is is really hardso julio gets bonus points for being able to like concisely and and appropriately wrap a sketch up in a nice little bow like this this sketch they also added i love the um the the little thing ofthem adding the the other toys.
[32:10] So like a balcony when he's ready to make an announcement, a broken mirror to contemplate his reflection.
[32:19] Just those two little elements too. So Wells for Boys, I just showed my wife like a half hour ago before we started recording.
I'm like, do you remember this one? I know she was watching the episode with me, but she had to be reminded. And she's like, oh, that was brilliant.
That was brilliant. Thanks for showing me. So everybody who sees this.
[32:36] This is one of those where even if it's not an SNL fan, they might say, oh, I don't like SNL. But that Wells for Boys sketch was hilarious.
It's a great way to put it. Should we throw in another sketch here? Absolutely.
Yeah, I think the next one that I want to talk about is, let's go with The Sink.
The Sink is another one kind of from early on in his first season.
And I think I was reading an interview on this one where that may or may not have been like the actual sink in julio torres's apartment i i hope i'm not misquoting this interview or maybea friend's apartment or something like that where like you know there there was this real sink like snl like didn't have to like make make this like so i i think that kind of adds to, i don'tknow just i feel like he is just a writer that just like you know takes from his experiences and finds ways to like take things from his life or things he sees and turn them into a sketchbecause, you know, I'd love to see how he pitched this because the concept of it is, there's just like this kind of ridiculous sink, like this kind of very glass, kind of fancy looking, wide,huge sink.
And it's kind of given like a personality Personality and like a voice and the.
[33:58] Voice is Emily Blunt Am I too much?
Oh my god simply too much I'm gigantic, Feel overdressed and like I'm in everyone's way, Why do I have to be such a statement Look at that toilet It's just a toilet, It's the perfect voicefor the sink who feels like, you know, they're just like worthless and they're taking up too much space.
And, you know, they don't, they don't feel like they, like there's a utility to them that the toilet next to them has, but the toilet just looks like a normal toilet.
And the sink looks like a ridiculous, huge thing.
And it kind of makes me think like, oh yeah, there are just sometimes you just go to like like a bathroom and there's just like an insane kind of setup and you're like you know we don'tneed all this and yeah um it just uh yeah just uh another kind of example of him being able to combine his sort of bizarre sense of humor with like a bit of a sincere tone like because thethe sink like has like doubts like the sink like has like all these human emotions and the juxt The juxtaposition of it is just so funny and clever.
[35:22] Yeah, this was a great one. This makes me think that Julio was definitely that little boy from Wells for Boys.
The way he thinks, the very deep thoughts.
This is a very Julio piece in its existentialism.
[35:37] This sink is having these thoughts about its own existence and its own utility.
And that's a very like that then some writing like this can only come from someone who has those thoughts on a daily basis and you could tell that julio thinks like that like on a daily basisprobably since he was a child so this is like a perfect julio piece i think julio too i've heard him cite this as possibly his favorite sketch that he wrote for snl so it seems like like it'ssomething personal for him too yeah well that would add on to the theory that this is his uh his actual sink you know very very personal sketch yeah yeah.
[36:20] We'll definitely go with that i think it is now the sink season 42 episode 3 uh again another very short piece like it doesn't overstay its welcome it's what i love about a lot of thesepieces is you're into it it delivers joke after joke it's funny heartwarming and then it gets out so that's a lot of mark from Julio as well yeah no that definitely and that kind of throw it's a bitof a throwback to older SNL I feel like older SNL was more fast and loose with you know a sketch could be 30 seconds it could be like a very short commercial parody or something likethat and I feel like we've maybe gotten away from that a little bit so you know obviously this was only a couple years ago now but um you know I would love to see that kind of return toshorter pieces uh on the show he has so so many more like classic ones.
I have three that stick out above the rest.
[37:12] I'm going to ask you, Sammy, to pick a number one, two or three.
And then that's what we'll talk about next. Okay, let's go with two.
[37:19] All right. So season 43, episode one, Ryan Gosling, Julio was behind Papyrus, which I didn't know this was Julio for a few seasons for the longest time.
And then once I I started digging into his work a couple years back.
I'm like, are you kidding me? Julio Torres wrote Papyrus.
This was such like a wonderful and another Julio theme, like an over the top dramatic look at something seemingly mundane.
Like, what do you remember about Papyrus, Sammy?
Oh, I mean, this, again, we keep saying it just a modern classic.
[37:56] I think it says a lot about his thought process and sense of humor that, you know, this sketch, I mean, they call it out in the the sketch like, is this came out so many years afteravatar came out you know avatar came out in 2009 i think the sketches were maybe like 2017 or 2018 so i imagine that he is almost like you know the the ryan gosling character is almostlike a surrogate for him to where like he was probably thinking about this for years like the avatar font using the papyrus logo is like insane because it's like like the highest grossing filmof all time with the biggest movie ever.
And, you know, it's almost like they could have picked Times New Roman or like any like basic font.
And, you know, I could see why that could like drive you crazy.
And it's such like a specific detail to pick up on.
And he just totally milks this concept for everything you can out of it and totally takes it to the level you want it to go to make it sort of a classic sketch.
Oh, Stephen, not this again. I forgot about it for years, but then I remembered that Avatar, the giant international blockbuster, used the papyrus font as its logo.
[39:13] Avatar. Him talking to his therapist and everything, and I know we're talking about him as a writer, but Ryan Gosling, like, I wonder if you have another actor in this sketch, youknow, that doesn't live up to the material.
Maybe it doesn't become the classic that it is, but he absolutely murders it in this sketch.
And it is one that I definitely, when I'm thinking back at like modern day SNL, is just a classic sketch.
Well, I think that's part of being a good SNL writer is picking your spots as far as who the host is and what you pitch.
And I don't think it's a coincidence that he had a lot of really great sketches and material for like Ryan Gosling, who honestly, excellent SNL host.
Ryan Gosling is an awesome SNL host.
Emma Stone was in at least two classic sketches that Julio wrote.
I don't think that's much of a coincidence.
I think writers want to save a lot of their best material for the host they think who can really...
[40:16] Do it justice and elevate it so the fact that gosling was in this i still kind of credit julio for that a little bit and third in this one too you you did such a great job of describing, a lot ofwhat i love about papyrus there's also escalation to like gosling describing other places where you might see the papyrus font okay where else do you even see this font hookah barsShakira merch.
[40:44] Off-brand teas.
[40:47] Just such specific places and I couldn't I can't be the only SNL fan who opened up Microsoft Word and typed avatar and put the papyrus font on it just to kind of like double checkand see I'm like oh my gosh that's hilarious so yeah I can't be the only nerd who did that Sammy me yeah and i i think another great detail again like talking about like the time frame ofwhen this sketch came out like it almost feels like if this came out right when avatar came out and it was like a more topical sketch you know they wouldn't have been able to make it thissort of manic thing like you know like if it was like a coming right off of the success of it it might maybe would have been lost in the shuffle but having those kind of years to kind of buildon this idea of this character and then while he's in his therapy session you know the therapist is like oh is this because like the sequels are coming out and he's like they're making more ofthem like please tell me they changed the font it's just and again like kind of like you said like amazing that julio torres was was the the guy behind it because you know he's uh but itmakes sense when you learn that he did that's just a theme that that you talked about when we opened in the podcasts.
It's just like, when you see a list of the sketches that Julio did.
[42:07] You're just like marveling, like, Oh my God, he did that. He was behind that. He wrote that.
Like there, that happened to me a bunch. Like, like when I, when I started digging into what he wrote. So, uh, yeah, this is just another example.
Uh, I know, I know, uh, you probably have more on your list, Sammy. Why don't you hit me with the next one?
Uh, I think we got to talk about, um, the the actress.
[42:51] Is that my content yeah fascinating you'll put on whatever you want from the woman ben you'll get your meal voucher after we wrap thank you you know we got we gotta get to ityou know um because i i i think this might be it's either papyrus or the actress i feel like are the two that i feel like um are like his his biggest sketches um another collaboration with emmaof stone clearly.
And, you know, these are from separate episodes. Like this is when she came back to host a couple of years later, I believe after welfare boys.
So, um, you know, I'd like to think that they like, she likes his sense of humor.
I mean, obviously, you know, she's recently worked with Nathan Fielder.
So she has like a very eclectic taste in comedy.
[43:36] And, um, again, this This is taking such a silly idea and presenting it in like the most dramatic possible way.
The idea that this person is trying to make it as an actress and is, you know, maybe thinking about her performance from like a method perspective and trying to be like, you know, theDaniel Day-Lewis of her generation.
Generation but you find out quickly and beck bennett in this sketch like this is like the perfect casting choice for uh what you learn is the porn director of of this and you know she'splaying you know a wife but she's playing the wife of two uh gay or the wife of a like you know a gay man or seemingly gay um and is you know they're having an affair with uh i thinkthe godson right which is again such a silly funny detail and she's just trying to find this character and Emma Stone I think, Obviously, she just came back to host SNL this season. One ofthe best modern-day SNL hosts.
Honestly, maybe my favorite actress in general.
[44:47] Having her be the person in the sketch anchoring it totally makes it a slam-dunk home run.
Her just trying to crack the character. While you keep being reminded that this is for a gay porno, it's just such a funny concept.
And they totally continued to escalate it to the end where she has this epiphany on, you know, finally unlocking the character and Beck Bennett's like, yeah, we're just going to cut that out.
Like, just, again, going back to him being able to end sketches, just like a perfect way to kind of wrap that up.
Yeah, at the end when she's in her car.
Deirdre, how do I get you out of me? I can't take you with me.
I'm sorry. This is it. Goodbye.
She's this method actress who just summoned this character for this very inconsequential, silly part.
And again, like a dramatic rendition of something very silly.
That's like a Julio Torres hallmark, is this pomp and circumstance and all this drama and passion.
And it's like just this really silly thing. the sequence of her finding the backstory and the props being pigeonholed into Deirdre's backstory like she looks at the it was like the 2007.
[46:13] New Year's Eve 2017 New Year's Eve sunglasses the Ugg boot the one random Ugg boot the pack of batteries and Emma Stone's characters like trying to find like, her charactersbackstory as far as like what do these props mean and it was just like so so much fun, so many little details packed in.
Like, these are the types of sketches that I can't take my eyes off of.
And Emma's delivery of when she flatly says, Jared, why is Godson sleeping over?
I felt the bruises and stuff. I wrote that down as well.
Yeah, yeah, she has her delivery and Julio's writing.
So her delivery of Julio's writing.
[46:58] Cracks me up she is such a good actress and she's good at playing this like very bland sort of mediocre actress and right uh you know julio julio's writing just being able to createthis character and you know finding like the right host to kind of pitch it to like um you know it makes sense why he was able to get so much on during his time in the show yeah he wasthree seasons seasons but he packed so much into those three seasons gosh there was uh another one i don't know if you have anything more about the actress i think well one last thing isbow and yang helped julio write this too so i gotta shout out bow and yang for this yeah no definitely shout out bow and yang and i think um he had a quote this year where they weresaying how because obviously emma stone came back the host how you know they weren't going to do a sequel to it and And I think, you know, as far as I can tell, for the most part, youknow, Julio did a lot of, I mean, most of his sketches were kind of one and done and they were so original.
So the fact that, you know, they didn't want to do that and kind of bring that back kind of goes to show like they weren't going to, you know, put something out there that they didn't thinkwas going to, you know, live up to the original.
[48:18] So I think you got to commend them for that. Yeah, it's a great call.
I think those Melania moments were the only things that I really noted that were recurring things, but everything else was just...
[48:29] Brilliant one and done there was there was a an example of something that i that i love about julio like just just very julio torres observations about like for instance like thegrandiose nature of sectional couches something so mundane but julio has just such specific observations about it so this was in the louis ck episode from season 42 it was the sectionalsofa emporium.
[48:57] When I was a little boy, my grandmother bought me a new couch and I looked at it and I said, where's the rest of it?
That is the first of many stories you're going to hear. This is going to be long.
What if I told you that where most people's couches end, yours can bend and keep going?
Sammy, I loved this one as it aired, and I was so thrilled to find out that this was a Julio Torres and Jeremy Byler piece.
Yeah honestly this is one that during the research is one that i completely forgot existed and immediately kind of shot up my rankings on a rewatch of like oh wow this is super funny andthis is you know kind of different from a lot of the other sketches we've talked about because i don't think this this isn't a pre-tape right this is more of a live sketch or there's maybe maybepre-tape elements, pre-recorded elements.
Yeah, it seems like it's a little mixed.
Yeah, but regardless, this is an example of him being able to accomplish his tone and his humor in a live sketch, even if there is kind of a mix of live and pre-recorded elements.
It's something that, for the most part, everyone has experience with, with sectional couches, or having them, sitting on them, whatever.
And he's just making, just trying to find every single aspect of how to make it.
[50:26] So ridiculous um and having this kind of salesman of it pitching it like it's kind of like a late night infomercial um it is really funny um i think uh you know cecily in the sketch isgreat uh the they keep you know cutting the shots to her and and ad bryant especially as well demanding you know bigger and bigger couches uh it's a sketch that when you like try todescribe Like unlike some of these other sketches, they feel like they're almost like mini movies.
This is one that's like completely absurdist and leans way more on that sort of surrealist, absurd comedy that Julio would kind of embed in his sketches.
It reminds me of like something Jack Handy would have written in the 90s.
And that's such a huge compliment to Julio.
I think Julio and his writing partners cite like Phil Hartman as a cast member that they really love. And I could tell like there's Jack Handy, Phil Hartman kind of bizarre elements to a lotof the way they think.
And some of the some of the specific wording is just so like poetic and literary about something so mundane.
Like when Louis C.K. is sitting in like the middle seat.
This seat is called the Nexus.
[51:45] It is the eye of the storm. The rest of the sectional is born from this point.
And that is how they are made periods that's such like a funny literary way to put something that i just never really thought about like what is that seat in a sectional like apparently it's thenexus right right yeah and um just asking like why people don't have sectional couches and saying like you know these are all made on earth and like that's just like his whole point as towhy why you would have a sectional couch.
[52:21] And then you do get a little bit of the kind of emotional sort of pathos you get from a Julio Torres sketch towards the end where the Louis C.K.
Character breaks K-fab a little bit and like kind of goes on about how he used to have a family.
But now he that's kind of like the backstories like he used to have a family, but he kind of gave it all up for this business to be like a sectional couch.
Couch um salesman kind of like that that is uh yeah really really funny but then he wasn't a salesperson he just like he he just has a warehouse because he didn't know what to do with allof his sectional couches but he wanted to show them off so they specifically say like the couches aren't for sale that he just wanted to do an information to show off the couches yeah yeahexactly that Yeah, that makes it even sort of like more unexpected the way they kind of take that towards the end there. Yeah.
And to your point, I mean, that's another example of Julio and Jeremy just like ending a sketch really well.
And that's kind of like that's a running thread. And I totally I didn't totally think of that when I was watching all these until you put it that way, Sammy.
But yeah, bonus points for Julio for being like a rare sketch comedy writer just in general who seems to know how to end sketches.
[53:43] So yeah, and I like your way of putting that.
I'm going to like as far as the bonus points go, like I'm going to take that away from this podcast as I continue my career as an SNL podcaster where it's like, you know what?
Like it should be extra like an extra pat on the back if you're able to excel kind of like julio is uh in that regard yeah definitely i want to urge a lot of listeners of that like if if you justwatch old kids in the hall old mr show even like tim robinson everybody loves tim robinson sketch show as do i he doesn't end sketches he just sort of like fades to black and then on to thenext one And so, so I always have to remember that and remind people, like, don't hold SNL to ending sketches.
Just give people like Julio Torres bonus points if they happen to, uh, to be able to do it.
So is there anything that if we were running like, uh, um, and at Julio's by, by his bust at the SNL hall of fame, and we were running video of sketches there, is there anything else that,that maybe, um, should go into, into that highlight reel?
[54:49] Ooh, okay. This one may be a bit of a deep cut, but as I was doing my research on it, you know, today for this pod, I was like, oh man, like if I have time, I will shout out.
I won't, we don't have to go super in depth on it.
But New Wife, which is from the Larry David episode.
This was also written by, written with James Anderson.
[55:11] I think, I mean, so this one is Larry Larry David is, I think, a lawyer, and he's bringing his new wife to some get-together with other lawyers.
I think Kate McKinnon's in this, and Beck Bennett, and Chris Redd.
And this new wife is played by Cecily Strong, and she, I think, if I'm remembering the details of the sketch correctly, works at this gay bar establishment called Bottoms.
And it's just like this whole sketch um imbues so much sort of like gay culture and satirize that satirizes that in the sketch like you know she um you know sings a song and and brings outthese dancers and you have larry david in this like ridiculous suit with a big cigar and he absolutely breaks towards the end of the sketch and it is amazing to see and i think it is acompliment to Julio's writing and James Anderson that you have somebody who's such like a legend, you know, especially who's a performer and writer in Larry David, that you havewritten a piece that is so funny that he is unable to keep it together.
That's how funny it is. Oh, look at the time.
[56:29] We gotta go now if we want to, if we want to be at Power Buttons for her.
You know, 3.30 a.m. performance.
Okay, but we do have a meeting at 6 a.m. Yeah, we got that 6 a.m. meeting.
[56:52] Oh, that's a great one. I like that. Julio likes to weave in gay lingo into some of his sketches.
He came back in season 45 and along with Bo and Yang helped write that Sarah Lee sketch with Harry Styles in it. And so you see a lot of that, a lot of gay lingo in that.
But with New Wife, I think my favorite quote from this sketch is, the gay world isn't just one thing. It's a complex tapestry of cultures.
Like that's such a, definitely in Julio's voice, like that's so well-worded.
You know, that's what Julio, when he was pitching this sketch, he's like, that's kind of what this sketch is about.
So Larry David saying that just cracked me up.
That's a really great shout out, Sammy. And yeah, Julio just did so many through like if we're doing a lightning round of other stuff that he did There was a really cool in season 42 was aUS customs welcome video and it addressed it actually addressed the Muslim band and.
[57:49] So there was a questionnaire that just said, are you Muslim, yes or no?
It said you'll be required to eat a hot dog in front of us. One of the customs guys said that. So that was a Julio piece.
The Game of Life DACA edition that he did with Anna Dresden, that was really, at the time, probably very personal to Julio, I'm sure, as an immigrant.
That was just wonderful political satire. drag brunch was is actually kind of was like a guilty kind of pleasure of mine in the john mulaney hosted episode do you remember that onesammy i don't know how well it was like that large but but i actually really enjoyed the concept do you remember this that that one uh i very vaguely i may need you to give me a a bitmore of the concept of this one so these group of this group of friends uh it was like alex moffitt ad bryant a couple of other people they went to this to go have lunch or a brunch at thisdrag brunch so John Mulaney was Justin dressed in drag and the concept is that the drag the people the waitresses dressed in drag say these sassy things to the customers so so JohnMulaney and drag saying these like playful sassy things but then he stares Alex Moffat right in the face and loses the character and and says like really mean personal things to AlexMoffat in his real voice.
[59:12] Somebody best be calling the fire department about this one, because that smoky-eye situation has become a stop, drop, and roll one. Oh, she got me.
Do you have it? Do you have it? You've never worked for anything in your life.
You got everything handed to you. The one thing you haven't been able to purchase is a personality...
And a soul.
All right, bitches, I'm going to sashay away and grab you.
[59:45] Funny little play on that there's like funny lines in that too when they said this must have taken you forever to at least two hours to get into this costume and he's like oh it took mefour hours and he says contouring takes a while if you're new to it like there's just these little like little lines like that that like like julio will put into his sketches that cracked me up so thatwas a john mulaney thing i think julio worked with james anderson on that too uh yeah no not Now that you've described it, I definitely remember that one, and I'll have to revisit it.
Yeah, revisit that. There's one more that I'm surprised I just didn't totally highlight that I thought it was funny.
It was an idea of, again, something that's really mundane but presented in a dramatic way.
It's a sketch called Checks.
So the concept is just like how fun is it? I know we all use check cards and this and that.
But how fun is it to just write a check and rip it off the checkbook dramatically?
[1:00:46] And so it describes like situations where somebody would write a check and just do it dramatically like that.
So like making him leave your daughter, buying poison and all these stuff.
And you can get them in different styles like baseball, Daffy Duck or Michigan State. So, so the way Julio like this is just a such a funny, funny sketch from season 44.
So that's another one in Julio's voice that I remember.
And it was one where I didn't know Julio did it at the time, but finding out I'm like, Oh, that makes complete sense.
[1:01:18] Yeah, I feel like that that's another running theme is like, you know, going back to like the qualities that make an SNL writer being able to pick up on like their fingerprints andtheir voice, you know, so being able to revisit a lot of these and realizing that Julio Torres, you know, wrote these sketches, then it kind of all, you know, clicks into place.
You're like, yes, like I definitely see his his touch on here.
And you're not going to get that with every SNL writer. You are going to have the ones that, you know, are not as I mean, obviously he's surreal, but, you know, you know, having more ofa, you know, an SNL sketch type of writer and is able to put out SNL sketches.
But Julio, you know, like we said earlier, was able to kind of walk that line in a really great way.
[1:02:01] Yeah, exactly. And I think it bears repeating that he was on staff for three seasons and that's it. That's a relatively short period of time to be on an SNL rider and to put forth asmuch quality material as he did.
So, Sammy, do you think it may impact Julio's candidacy that he was only a rider for such a short period of time?
I think at face value, you could say that.
And I feel like that is always when you're looking into what makes somebody worthy of the Hall of Fame.
I'm sure longevity is something that people consider. I definitely consider it.
But if you're looking at quality, you know, we've talked about so many sketches today that are really all time kind of modern classics.
[1:02:49] And if we look back at like the beginning of the show, you know, like when SNL first started in 1975, you know, the original cast was only on for five years.
And, you know, some of those writers were only a part of the show for five years.
So the fact that Julio, you know, obviously he's not an OG by any means, but he was able to make an impact in that short amount of time.
And I think, you know, that definitely helps his case for sure.
Like he has some slam dunk sketches that deserve the praise.
What do you think of Julio's character?
Legacy is on SNL, especially given like his short period of time there.
[1:03:25] Yeah, I mean, I think he, in a way, was able to bring bring his experience both from being an, you know, an immigrant and, you know, having that background, as well as, youknow.
[1:03:39] Providing like a much needed gay sort of voice on the show to, you know, open those doors and And bring that kind of humor to SNL, which especially if you're looking at likethe early 2000s, you know, the way that those kind of minority groups were portrayed is a total different time.
And, you know, a lot of the sketches don't hold up well.
And he was able to really bring that humor and make it work in the SNL environment in such a great way.
You know, made so many classic sketches, as absolutely we've discussed today.
And I really think that SNL today in 2024 is still looking for somebody kind of like Julio Torres that can put out these pieces.
You know, obviously, you know, if we're looking at pre-tapes, you know, this was such a great era for pre-tapes and Julio was such a huge part of that.
And, you know, I think we're still kind of, you know, waiting for somebody like him to be a part of like the current iteration of SNL.
And I think that just adds to his legacy for sure.
Track 2:
[1:05:04] So there's that. Thank you so much, Thomas Senna and Sammy Kay.
A well-reasoned argument as to why Julio Torres belongs in the SNL Hall of Fame.
But it all comes down to you when voting opens.
It's all about the listener. When voting opens, you'll get your choice to cast 15 ballots and we'll tabulate them.
I'll make matt and thomas take off their shoes and socks so we have some extra, toes to count with and if you hit 66.7 percent well like we say in the p business you're in so there's that let'snow go to a sketch that features uh the writing of julio torres this is a pre-tape and it's called well it's called papyrus and you may know it it's a modern-day classic. Let's go to that now.
[1:08:58] Oh man that is so good get uh get on youtube and give it a watch as well because there is you know there are some visuals to these sketches and um that is a damn good onegosling is great in his role and man i just love that sketch i'm a i'm a bit of a font meister actually if you're a a fontmeister you should call it typeface meister because uh well that's justwhat they call it at any rate i want to thank sammy k once again for joining us you can follow his work at the snn, uh they often do super fan takeovers and there's lots of good stuff therenext week however i'm very excited as well as we're discussing an original cast member in lorraine newman, We've also got special guests from the Not Ready for Primetime podcast.Give that one a listen.
It's a twofer as we welcome Gary Seeth and Brad Robinson to the podcast.
So that should be a good one. Will Lorraine make it?
Well, you'll have to tune in and listen to the argument and make that decision yourself.
[1:10:13] Now, if you would do me a favor, and as you're leaving, walk on past the weekend update exhibit. There's a light switch on the wall. Turn it off.
Because the SNL Hall of Fame is now closed.
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