Jim Downey

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

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