Jim Downey Remembers The First Time He Heard A John Mulaney Joke | Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend

Lauren Michaels this is a quote from. Lauren Michaels he called uh you Jim. Downey the best political humorist. alive um well that was before the birth. three years ago of a hilarious. child ogy. Johnson um well just but I've seen the. kid. stuff uh I uh yeah you're so principled. and you're right now um there's so much.

there's so much political comedy now. which is Wailing one way or the other. and I find that it's just a uh I don't. know it doesn't feel to me like a. satisfying time to be a comedy writer if. you're trying to do politics because. there's there's so much that's. just there's a temptation to enrage the. audience I mean you know I mean I don't. I mean personally I you know I'm I just. Lo Trump as a human being and.

and but it doesn't mean. that every just just attacking him is. funny there are interesting ways to. attack him you know I always like John. meany's thing about there's a horse. loose in the hospital that I mean just a. sort of an interesting melany had a. great run about Trump as president was. like there's a horse loose in a hospital. and just how odd that was and uh it was.

a metaphor was a great metaphor for for. Trump being president and what I loved. about it was it captured the absurdity. of it all but it did it in this way that. there was no bile it was and and it's. very hard you need to sometimes it was. purely comedic which I loved so let's. just end this by saying that John meany. is better than anyone we know is that. the point you were trying to make he's. very good very funny man MH uh he when.

when melany first came to the show as a. writer um you were talking about like my. you know I like to sort of identify. people and I didn't I didn't find meryon. but I was walking. through and this is really about melenia. not me but I was walking through the. studio and it by the end of my career I. was you know I was like you know 60. years old and I I um you know I I. just you know I was aware of of the age.

gap between me and the and having once. been the very youngest writer I was now. massively the oldest writer and um so I. didn't I didn't hang out I didn't do the. late night things I wrote from home like. you know I I live in Upstate New York. near Cooperstown and so I I would be at. home Sunday Monday Tuesday and then I'd. write my piece and i' I dictate I always. dictate my pieces because I they're you. know they have to be spoken and they.

have to be speakable and they have to be. they're going to be heard and not read. and so you need to in in when I'm. dictating them I'm changing them go wait. a minute hang on I'm changing you know. and anyway so they they have it a read. through and then I'm I'm told if it's in. or not and if it's in I drive down to. New York and anyway so I was in the. studio on Saturday and I don't even I'm. not even sure i' met melan it was like. the second show and I'm walking through. the studio and I'm and they're.

rehearsing one of his P he had a piece. on I think it was like. his his second show and he had a this. this this hilarious piece on and there's. a great sort of it was a um the host was. um uh Tim McGraw and and he who is a. really good actor very funny guy and he. it was like a a country kind of um it. was like a a a show where he does like. practical jokes but he's such a a.

soft-hearted s he keeps like apologizing. for it's hard to explain you have to see. the but and I heard it and I know this. makes me sound like an arrogant. but it reminded me of that there was a. story about Ted. Williams um when Hank Aaron was a rookie. Ted Williams is playing uh he was. somehow involved in the I didn't know. they had inter league games or anything. but but um Hank Aaron is is is warming.

up and Ted Williams is sitting in the. Dugout and here's from the way the ball. is coming off Hank Aaron's bat that he's. never heard that before and he storms. out there go who's who was just taking. batting practice and it was Hank Aon and. and Ted Williams like and I sort of had. that it was akin to that I'm not. comparing myself to Ted Williams no I am. comparing John mean to Hank Aaron though. he's a lot like hanar but I I'm saying. that I walk into the studio and I hear. this and I.

go that's a new writer that's a new we. don't that's not a writer I know yeah. yeah that's we have a new writer or a. guest writer because. that that wasn't that's not and I'm. listening to the piece and I go that was. not written by a writer who's work on so. and I was right I was right it turned. out it was it was um John and he went on. to write a lot of great. stuff and then he's trying stand up. but whatever he's Young he's young he'll.

get it he'll get it he will get it hang. in there. sir.