Robert Smigel on Jim Downey as a writer on Saturday Night Live which Smigel joined in 1985; on Jim Downey being an inspiration for him when they were both staff writers at SNL; on the importance of the first read-through at SNL for a writer; on Jim Downey coming out of the comedy school at The Harvard Lampoon and how that impacted his humor
09:59
Robert Smigel on the writing duo of Jim Downey and Al Franken on Saturday Night Live and their different political points of view; on Downey not wanting to focus on skewering the laughs towards one side of the political spectrum, but wanting to focus just on the comedy and not political satire; on Downey's return to the show in 2000; on his later sketches becoming more counterpoint to the left-leaning sketches that predominant on the show
09:29