Hi, my name is Jordan Peele, and I feel honored, absolutely fucking honored, about being on Conan O'Brien's. Oh, no. So I fucked it up.

It was going so well. Let me just take it back. You should change it.

So, hi, my name is Jordan Peele, and I feel good about being Conan.

Yes. We had it.

So you guys edit and stuff?

Not that particularly as you.

Hear the.

L. Back to school. Ring the bell brand new shoes, walking lose, climb the fence books and pens. Hey, there. Welcome to Conan O'Brien. Needs a friend. And I'm starting with an observation here, sitting with my pal, sonom of session, Matt Gorley. And this is a complete happening that we just realized as we all sat down. I am wearing, uncharacteristically, a green kind of hoodie, olive green sweatshirt that I never wear. And I just put it on. Waltzed in Sona. You are wearing the exact same color in. What is that, like an overcoat?

It's like a trench coat.

Trench coat. And then over here, Gorley just walked off the set of mash, and he's wearing, I guess, thinking the role of radar O'Reilly. And you are wearing the exact same green.

You too.

And then I'm noticing that we're sitting on the exact same green pillows and that the chairs are the exact same color. Olive drab green. Yeah. And it's almost as if. I think if when this airs, it will just be faces floating. Yeah. Zip up your jacket. We're going to look like three floating heads. Three floating heads. Just doing a podcast. I mean, of course, yes, this is an audio medium, but I know that people will look at the clips. So if you want to check out the clip of. Now, what could we do? Don't we have to?

Is anyone actually going to key us out or.

We don't need to.

Stupid.

We look smart. Hold on. I worry that there's probably more technology needed here, that the background also has to be all green and then some kind of. Does anyone here understand the technology? Eduardo, do you understand it or does Blay understand it? What do we need to do to make our heads just float? I understand it. I mean, basically, it would be because there's a black background, we would key out the green. So it would just be your heads on a see through box. So we could key out the green. Is this going to cost us, like, thousands of dollars? No, not at all. I could probably do it on my phone. I'm going to cover up. Yeah, if you cover up your arms. Cover up your arms and your hands. I can't put them under the table.

This jacket is very small on me, so it's already up.

That jacket doesn't fit you. Did you steal that jacket off a corpse?

No.

Did you steal that jacket off a corpse?

No. I steal things from corpses.

I don't steal things from corpses. You know what I love about Sona? She has standards. She has standards. That's the only time she could say, I didn't steal. If they're breathing, then I'm leaving.

Yeah, keep doing whatever that is.

Well, listen, I'm just saying, we're trying to create. We don't have a big budget here, but we're creating a cool, spooky optical image of our heads. Yeah, three days after Halloween. This is great. Yeah, and it'll probably air long after that grim, grinning ghost cabal. Do socialize. The three heads in the haunted mansion. Yeah. Not all of us did time professionally at an amusement park. Do you act like. Come on, guys. You with me? Come on, guys. The song you hear 75,000 times a day when you work at an amusement park.

You gave it your all, too in that performance.

You know what? I bear my soul for you two.

Assholes, and this is what I get?

Well, anyway, we should probably quit doing this. It seems dumb. What do you think? We should move on with the show.

But you know what? Everybody should head over to YouTube.

Oh, for a visual treat. You mean head as in pun? Head over to YouTube because we're floating heads. Grim, grinning ghosts come out to socialize. Yeah, he's the worst. You are the worst. You're the worst. No, you guys haven't heard? I'm a little great guy. All right, well, anyway, I'm saying just go to YouTube.

I'm not saying to watch this.

I'm just saying, go to YouTube. Don't listen to this. Go on YouTube right now. Look up a great olympic skiing fail. Do not look at any of this shit. Of our floating. All right, let's do it.

Okay.

Yeah, one more transition. Because we were all laughing like, okay, my next guest. All right, everybody. Okay, enough of your giggling. Let's get to it. No screwing around. Today, my guest is an Academy award winning writer and director behind such films as get out, us, and. Nope. He also starred in the hit comedy central sketch series Key and Peel. To say I'm excited is just not adequate. I'm thrilled. I'm overjoyed. I admire this gentleman so much. So glad he's here today. Jordan Peele. Welcome. Can I say something to you? I have been dying to have you on the podcast, and this is a huge delight for all of us.

But I didn't know. Sometimes offers come in and they just don't sort of penetrate the wall of advisors.

No, I went to your house and I rang the bell and you answered, and I said, hey, jordan, would you want to do the podcast? Said, and it wasn't convincing. You said, I just had drops for glaucoma surgery, and I can't see who I'm talking to. And then you did that bit every time I came by.

And the truth of the matter was, I want to say this on the record, it is such an honor. It's always an honor because from us comedy people, you are the goat. Do you know what that means?

I can get up hard Rocky mountains easily. I can digest in can.

This one's like, within the last 20 years.

That is so nice of you to say. Okay, I'm going to say when I first discovered you, as a lot of people did, watching key and peele sketches, and I would watch these sketches and I would say, okay, these are so well written. These are such great ideas. These are such perfect sketches. I mean, some of the sketches, I've spent years relating them to people like, you know that one? You know that one? There's the burn victim in the insult comic.

A lot of comedians really connect with this one.

Yes.

There'S so many great sketches, but that one comedian, insult comedian going around the audience and then respectfully passes over someone who clearly has been in a.

Horrible situation, burns all over them, but passes over, tries to start heckling, doing crowd work with the next guy. And the guy goes, do me.

And he says, no, sir, I went to uni. I can take it. And you make him do it. And then he does it, and you're like, too far. I thought I could take it, but I can't. I was crying when I first saw that. I've watched it multiple times, and you guys have many sketches like that, but I was like, okay, that's up there. Know, take your favorite SCTV pieces. Take your favorite sketch from SNL ever. Take your favorite. I mean, just the whole pantheon. You guys have a bunch of sketches that slide in there. Thank you. God damn it. They're amazing.

I believe Alex Rubins was the writer on that sketch as well. And we had an amazing team of writers. So if I'm wrong about that, I'm desperately mortified. But look.

But also the commitment. It's the ideas and then the performances. I was raised on Warner Brothers cartoons, and my sense of humor has always been very cartoonish. And when you guys would go into that cartoon world where reality bends in this beautiful way to frustrate the expectation, I was just over the moon.

Thank you. Look, and I have to bounce that right back at you. So much of this is born from your work and your heightening, your sort of textbook the Simpsons. And it was a type of sketch comedy that you see in the best sketches, where it's just kind of an aggressive and ridiculous heightening. And Mr. Show did it. And so we were just like, okay, we have this opportunity to do this.

It's, and then one of the reasons I've chatted with you, we've talked, but I've always thought, okay, if I get you in this format, because I've spoken to Keegan and it's like you're here, and I'm one of, like, I always want to find out, where do these minds come from? At what point do you realize? I think of very strange things, and I really like comedy. Or was your first true love film, or was it comedy or both, or horror? Where does it all start?

I probably fell in love with comedy at the same time. I was getting really scared by shit, and I mean scared as a kid growing up in New York. I grew up next to a building called the Stratford Arms. That was a hotel for transients, is what it said on the side. And it was basically, it was very interesting characters, let's just put it that way. And so I had a very blessed Upper west side upbringing, and I was cultured and that whole privilege, but it was also just like, there's a creepiness to it as well. So those two things, I think, developed side by side, but at some point they collided for me.

Yeah.

And they did in film.

So you start, what are the movies that you're watching that terrify you when you're a kid?

Well, first thing out of my gate, this is a lot of people would say, but nightmare on Elm street was that imagery for my specific generation, that was like, too young when that came out or too young, it was more seeing the posters and the thing that it just evoked such terror. And so that's a formative boogeyman. But then falling in love with cinema and stuff, it's like stuff like the shining.

I know you've referenced Rosemary's baby. What I see in that film that I think the best directors try to harness or a similar feel is slowly turning the dial, because I always loved about Rosemary's baby, and you can relate to this because it filmed takes place in the Dakota, Upper west side, blocks from where you grew up. It starts out, and everything's fine, and it's the slowly turning of the knob where things are less and less fine. But it's hard to identify the exact moment when things. Does that ring true for you?

I love that style, and I love that location. I do have this real nostalgia and connection with that. Of course, that's where John Lennon was shot. And so there's all sorts of connotations, right, with that area that are so dark. But I also think that such a big part of the horror kind of with comedy is the grounding character, the person that ropes us in and reacts with horror. It's the toad in the pot theory, right. If you throw a toad into a boiling pot, then that person's going to leave the scene. That character needs to get out of there.

Right.

And you don't want that as a horror film. You got to keep them in this isolated spot. So you slowly turn up the heat on the character.

Yeah. The idea being the toad gets in. It's like lukewarm. Kind of feels okay, and the temperature is slowly rising. Things are getting more and more uncomfortable.

And you can kind of believe why the character would convince themselves, oh, well, maybe it's just me.

It's so interesting because there's like a. I haven't thought about this at all, but there are their close brothers, or they're related. Comedy and horror, there's a similar thing going on. It's just because you need to acclimate somebody to something that's very normal. My favorite comedies are, let's acclimate to something very normal. And then you slowly start to bend things and twist things. Of course, you get to this insane place, but a lot of comedies that are most effective work that way. They get you to buy into a reality, and then you have to start accepting a few premises here and there along the way, but you get sort of spoon fed them. And I think it's the same thing with probably really good horror or the kind of horror I respond to.

Yeah. And just like the comedy, it's like the heightening, the pushing, the fantastical, and the imagination that becomes a certain type of project and exercise. But the exercise of grounding it is always what makes it work. To me in horror, especially, is the hardest part, because how do you ground this idea that your protagonist would stay in this situation very long? It kind of always comes up, how can they not solve this? And you're putting the audience in this angst of wanting your character to solve it, but you're not giving that to them. And so the only way to make that in any way satisfying is to kind of honor the grounded experience as.

Much as possible when you did get out. It's very important, as you said, if someone shows up, goes away for a weekend with his girlfriend and goes to a house, meet the family, if things are fucked up right away, they're out the door. So you have all these reasons which I can relate to, which is, no, no, this is okay. This is all right. I'm going to stay here. I'm going to stay in this. Okay. I can handle this. And then things you can, like you say, turn up the heat on the pot. But how you do it and how gradually you do it is really important.

And that's the guess who's coming to dinner. Set up is one that everyone kind of connects to, which is like that anxiety of meeting your in laws for the first time or your potential in laws, and you want to crawl out of your skin and leave, but you can't. You're there for a reason. So we all, I just left.

Like, is it Bradley Webfield who says, oh, man, obama, greatest president, right? And you just think, okay, I would.

Have voted for him a third time.

I was just thinking, like, to me, that's also a funny comedy situation, too, which is this white person is pushing it. Do you know what I mean?

Well, yeah, that was the element of.

And I'm sorry I said that to you when you came in today. Yeah, Obama, man. Right? A little tone deaf. It was a little tone deaf.

There's such a thing as being too colorblind president of the United States.

No, but.

It is in its essence, it's kind of a key and peel sketch. It's an observation of being black in white spaces. And in that time, I don't remember it having sort of been said like that. And so I remember just writing that and feeling like it was the moment I realized I had to direct the film that I was writing because I was like, I don't know anybody who can do that, who can direct that.

And that's a big leap. Yes. Okay. You write this screenplay, obviously, terrific screenplay. And you're a known quantity writer performer. And then you say, I'd like to direct was, what was the know, it.

Was surprisingly to, this is Sean McKitrick to this guy at QC Entertainment I was pitching to. By the way, I pitched it like, no one's ever going to do this movie, but here's the pitch. And pitched this crazy plot and started writing it. About a couple months into writing it, and again, I knew the whole thing. But a couple of months into writing it, I realized, made this call and he said, go for it. And it's just like a $5 million movie. So it was kind of the perfect type of risk. A part of it was, we can't afford anyone else.

You know what I mean?

This is like micro budget.

I'll direct it and you can pay me $6.

I thought it would be more controversial, but he said yes way too quick. Whoa, let's negotiate. Tried to backtrack too late.

Wait a minute, $5 million?

Yeah, that was the budget. Now supposedly it got done for 4.5, but who knows? Way Blumhouse cooks the books, no one knows.

Weirdly, I got a check for $500,000 and I don't even think it was supposed to go to me. No, I'm not affiliated in any way, but I cashed it.

Nothing.

Yeah, I bought a lot of cars and coats.

I signed something when I did promotion on your show.

You did. Remember when you did promotion on the show and you thought it was just a standard. I agree, to be on this show. Yes. You were the inspiration for Bradley Whitford.

Well, that's the other thing, right?

Yeah. His name in the movie is Cronin Orion. Just don't hear it. That's really weird.

I feel like I've produced a film with you.

Let's talk about that.

Do you feel that way?

Well, you and I had an interesting. And I don't know where this is going or what you're doing with this project. Yeah, I don't know, but I'm just going to say that I got this invitation to go to your office and I didn't know anything about what was going to happen. And then it was absolutely fascinating. I think it was over 2 hours. You and I, and I think you've done this with a bunch of other people, but you just presented me with a bunch of decks of cards and I would select different cards that would lead us towards the making of a movie. You'd start out with genres and I would just pick three genres and you and I would talk about them.

We produce it together.

And this is your life. Your life is making films. That is your life now. And you're making these films and you think about it and you're clearly extremely gifted at it. And this is what you've been put here to do. And then there's me, and I'm just firing all these ideas. At you about how we could make this movie. It was really fun. I'll give you a little. Do you think we ever got close to making a movie together that could be made?

Yes. Our premise was solid.

Okay.

And you were a big part of that. Now, wait, can I backtrack for sure, just a second? Because this is something that, these are a bunch of sessions I've been doing with people whom I admire. The Ryan Cooglers, the Paul Thomas Andersons of the world. I don't know what's going to happen of these, but they really are amazing at sort of like, learning about how other creative people think about the filmmaking process. Right. The Daniels, some just incredible filmmakers. And then Conan.

Well done. You got to break it up every now and then. Every now. And it's like this is this amazing french meal, VC Suisse, and just perfectly baked steaks and everything. And then, every now and then you.

Got to just have new perspective.

Yeah. Froot loops with a lot of almond milk.

So the whole thing was, it's kind of like d and d, but making a movie and it's a fake movie. And we ended up making a Christmas movie.

Yeah, we ended up making a Christmas movie that I remember thinking at the time, I absolutely think this could be a Christmas movie.

Yeah, that's the fun.

I think this could be a Christmas movie. And I don't want to get too much into it because we did record it. So you never know. This could be something. I know what you're doing with all this. It could be a movie, but spoil.

Away, I don't care.

Okay. Well, it was really fun. It was a lot of fun. And it was really fascinating because my thing is to just pitch, pitch, pitch, pitch, pitch. And I threw so many bad ideas at you. And my favorite part was watching the light go out of your eyes when I'd be going down a really bad road and I'd see you. Conan, maybe. And we really had to act like we're going to pitch this in a meeting with executives. So sometimes you'd say, just don't do that whole run.

Yeah, that's right.

That was really.

Well, yeah. And you had to talk some actors off of some ledges because that's part.

Of the game, is every now and then you'd say, okay, now it's time to pick a disaster. Like there's a kerfuffle, there's a problem. So you'd splay out other cards because there are all these different decks of cards. And I'd pick one out and it would know, your actor has lost his mind and run off set.

Who was the bad egg? Woody.

Woody Harrelson was causing us some problems. Yeah. Anyway, which just, I think the minute you draw the Woody Harrelson card, you know he's going to be causing problems. I mean, we're shooting on location, but you sent me in to deal with Woody. A bunch of.

To deal with Woody.

And then also Jen Aniston was part of our. Because that was one of the cards we drew and I was not allowed to speak to her.

Well, wise choice.

As a producer. We made some early decisions.

That was really funny. I remembered I was just not allowed to.

It's very real.

You were so good. I could see why you're very good at what you did because you were very gentle with me. But you were like, Jordan, Jordan, I was legitimately honored.

I just knew if I could know that gold.

Yeah.

In this way it's like, okay.

And I think also Charlize Theron is in there and you were saying like, yeah, lala, I'll talk to them now. Why don't you go talk to Woody? Woody's in the trailer. Go hang out with Woody and I'll deal with the ladies. And I'm like, all right. Okay. I still don't understand why I can't have dinner with.

From, in the context of all of these sessions. I mean, that one is just going to live forever for me. It's like, holy shit, I just got to movie improv with Conan, basically.

It was really fun. We had a very good time.

Try to kill momentum with another compliment.

That's okay. We play those. He always fast forwards them or takes them out. I take them right out. It's funny because I think you asked me about the movie Halloween while we were there. And I know that this is one of your all time favorites, is the movie Halloween. And I remembered you asked me a question about it, trying to think if it was about. Was it about Mike Myers on out live?

Mike Myers and Michael Myers and the connection between the two. Yeah, that probably doesn't exist.

But I just asked you about the rumor about him having a Halloween poster up in his remembered. We mentioned Halloween at one point, so I don't remember.

But I do love Halloween.

We can clean that up. You love the movie Halloween. That is one of your favorites. And what I love is it's so specific. But I've heard you talk about, there's a way that Mike Myers, there's something about his physicality and the way he kills that you find really mean.

You know, the thing about Michael Myers is I think of him as a truly minimalist villain, which I just love know. I think that's always the scariest. I mean, the masterclass with him. You know, the story about the mask, that it was a William Shatner mask. I've heard that that was painted. The pop guy just went to the store, was like, fuck, it could be this whatever, this clown mask or check this out. And it all clicked. And Carpenter is a genius. So what I love about that film is how Carpenter tailored this monster in all of the choices. The mask, the way he moves, the stillness shot from across the street. And you can kind of the where's Waldo? Aspect, it's just all very elegant for what's ultimately meant to be a brutal kind of killing tale. And that's why I think horror is such elevated cinema when done right.

I've noticed something that I was watching the movie that came out a number of years ago, the witch. And is it Eggers who made that film? And I noticed that there was one thing that to me, I love a movie that creates such an eerie environment. Things that aren't otherwise scary are frightening to me. So there's one shot early in the witch which just shows a bunch of, it's a tree line. It's just a tree line. And the wind's moving through it. It's a New England tree line. And the wind's moving through it and the leaves are rustling and it stays on that shot. And there's the music. And I remembered feeling like the hair on the back of my neck standing up. And I thought, that's to me, I like films. I don't necessarily need blood flying everywhere constantly. I love this idea of something's amiss and otherwise normal sort of harmless looking objects or environments suddenly scare the shit out of me. And I can't tell you why.

I mean, so much is the music, right? The same moment can go so many different ways. And if the music is scary, then it'll be scary. If the music is too happy, it's even scarier. I'm all about tone as well. What is your all time favorite? If you had to do, wow. Horror.

Horror. God, it's so hard. Because I don't think I'm qualified to say because I don't know the genre as well.

Sure you do. Come on.

I mean, I see three men and a baby as a horror film. It has that ghost in the window. No, a comedy that hits me the wrong way is, to me, the ultimate horror film. If it's a comedy, then I think I feel like, no, I didn't like that. That's more horrifying to me than anything. It's like, really? You guys were going for comedy? That's horrible.

Well, you know that ghost behind the curtains in that one scene of three men and a baby? You know about that?

No, I don't. I mean, I know of it, but I don't know what the.

Well, so it turns out the whole urban legend was that there's a moment where you can see a ghost behind the curtain in this loft downtown. Three men and baby. And the reveal was that or reveal the truth, supposedly, is that Ted Danson's character was an actor. And then it was a cardboard cutout of Ted Danson that if you look and look up YouTube, it looks like a child's ghost behind a thing. But I've always wanted to make a horror film where someone's being hunted by a cardboard cut out of Ted Danson. He's not in his. I probably need his permission.

You probably need the know we can get a photograph of. Oh, there's another movie I really liked. It follows, which masterpiece I thought was so terrific. And it's just this concept of someone slowly walking towards you from like 800 yards away. And I watched that and I thought, I think walking, a zombie walking is scarier than a zombie running.

Yes. I mean, obviously I had a scene in my film where there's a guy.

Running towards you, which is also very scary. I'm just saying it depends on the situation. But zombie running, to me is less frightening than zombie walking. What do you say?

Are you talking about something that gets to you later?

It gets to me later.

You're talking about something that gets to you later is scarier than something that gets.

It makes an appointment. Yes. I like my zombies that call the day before, and they say it's for good. And by the way, I hope you have a ramp because I can't use stairs.

Well, to be fair, I had seen it follows, I think, by the time I had shot get out. And part of that scene where Walter is running straight out, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, I was thinking, well, what I love about the energy of it follows is anything in any movie that comes from the back of the house towards you is doing the ultimate in film illusion. It's the train robbery, right? A train coming through, people will dodge out of the way.

Exactly.

Anyway, so I took a little bit of what it follows had done and north by northwest before it and sped Walter at it so kudos to that film.

Well, it's terrifying when he's running right at. When Walter's running right at the lens. It's absolutely terrifying. I also find it scary when they're all sitting around in it follows. And a character from way far away is just slowly walking now. Yes. I like the idea that I have time to call an Uber and then debate which one is closest. Wait nine minutes.

And all that time you're watching and experience more and more fear as it gets closer.

Yes. And also fear about, should I have gone? I don't know if I picked the right ride. Maybe I just should have gone. Comfort. Do you know what I mean?

Done an uber pool.

Uber pool would have come faster, but straight up lift. Comfort.

It's just not what most horror protagonists have on their mind.

Well, again, agree to disagree. I'm opening you to a new kind of horror and I want you to. You're free to use this in any of your films where something terrifying is happening, but then the character is worried about what this is going to cost them financially.

Yeah. It feels like the horrors in your life. When I put something into my movie, I'm putting real horror something I'm really afraid of. Like if I saw like a doppelganger or racism. But you're talking about things like what's the right ride?

Sharing this. Amazon prime. Is it the free delivery? Do I really need this in a day? Am I willing to pay more for it? So the guy get out really was based on. And by the way, I'd have voted for Obama.

Okay, I'm sorry.

Really?

Yeah. We'll work on a horror premise.

This is why I don't get invited to any of these cool horror discussions. All right, you know what I found? There was a movie, I think it was the vanishing, the original vanishing Dutch. I loved that movie. It's harrowing. I love moments of let the right one in the original again. They always keep remaking these movies. But I like the originals. And I do love, I mean, things like movies like Midsommar freaked me out. Okay.

So this tells me you are in fact a horror fan. And you have very good tastes. These are good movies. The vanishing is fucked up. Yeah, that's dark stuff.

It's really dark stuff. A dark movie in all daylight. That's the crazy thing. It's so well lit.

I honestly, I didn't see that as being your cup of tea.

Oh, you know what's funny too? I love those movies. And I was talking about this with my wife the other day. I said, you never watch these movies with me. And she said, because I don't like that stuff. And she said, when we got married, I had no idea that this is. And it's something that's been growing. But I really do love these films. But no one in my house, my kids don't like horror as a genre. And so I have to go and watch these things alone. And then that feels so. So maybe I'll get you to come over. Hey, you can watch.

I'll bring the cards.

Bring your cardboard, Ted Danson. But I love that sense of eeriness. Hereditary. Goes so crazily off the rails. It's insane.

Just an iconic film. I love this movie. And so scary too. And I don't know if you've met Ari. He did this same. I played the same game with him. And he's very nice, very funny, very warm dude. And as you would imagine, our film just creeped into this eerie, dark place that I couldn't even wrangle it back. And so, again, from a horror perspective, in many ways, he's the champ.

Well, I was going to say. And I thought, because this is something sort of what we're talking about. But just as in the witch, I was just looking at all these trees undulating, but in. Nope. Taking. When you're taking what is a very friendly looking sky. It's a friendly sky and it's not even a menacing cloud, but it becomes menacing. It's. For me, it's all about difficulty of the dive, which is how can you take something that really wouldn't frighten you in any other situation? You don't have this dark thundercloud or whatever. It's this very calm, beautiful sky. And then you learn that if you stare at it in the distance, you can identify that it's different from the other, but it takes a while. And I loved all that. I love the way you just kept really slowly, but just notching it up and notching it up. I love that.

Thank you. My sort of philosophy of the genre is I'm confrontational with my audience, but I'm based on a comedic sensibility. So I want to get the entire audience on board. And so one of the challenges with the genre of horror and nightmarish shit is that you're asking people to come take time out of their lives and come to a worse world and a scarier world for a while. And so some people are just, hey, I'm in. Let's go. But for most people, you kind of need a sort of special set of circumstances. And so what I found, and what I love in horror movies is when the esthetic and the vibe, and I love daytime horror, where everything about the viewing experience is soothing and warm to the audience.

Yeah.

What you're sort of noticing, of course, is in so many of the best movies, that births the creepiest sensibility, because anything that's sort of trying to be scary through trying to be scary kind of ends up in a Halloween store.

Yeah. Again, we're jumping back the similarity to comedy, but my favorite comedy is there is absolutely nothing funny going on here. Nothing funny is going on here. Like, nothing funny happening here. And that was something that the Zucker brothers stumbled on, which is, no, let's just get these great straight men actors to be an airplane, and let's have them. Do you know what I mean? Surely you don't think I do. And don't call me Shirley, but they say it like, I'm sorry, but your son is dead. And it's just horrifying. But they're saying this absolutely hilarious stuff, but in the same way that they did on 1970s detective shows. So when you're nothing funny happening here is my favorite kind of comedy, and nothing scary is happening here might be my favorite kind of horror, which is not the castle and nighttime and shrieking and howling in the night. It is something you can make ranch country that otherwise is quite beautiful, or you can take a beautiful weekend home and someone's visiting his girlfriend and make it absolutely terrifying.

Absolutely.

And to me, that's scarier, and it.

Is so much with the music. It's like, for our interview here, for our discussion, there was a camera slowly moving around, and as you were talking, it was just more of a bump.

Bump, dong, dong, dong, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

You know, you would be like, what the fuck is Conan about to do to Jordan? What's about to happen?

Lots of you talking and me just staring at you. Yeah, exactly.

That's it. Right. But to your point, you being friendly and nice, the nicer you are with that music, the scarier the scene even becomes and the more sort of joyous. So this is the reason smiles are big in horror. It's that instant visual, visceral, primal contradiction of your terror. And this is part of why I find if I can unlock the right horror engine and world, I can get more glee out of trying to tell that story, know, even doing sketch or any other thing. But it's not like I can just go, okay, I'm going to make a movie about I'm just going to make my Michael Myers movie where I make a movie about a killer with a knife and necessarily have that be fun for me. That's not going to be my thing. So I'm respect. That's why Carpenter is the goat in horror. But I'm going to be looking for some way to subvert it in my own way.

Yeah. Do you miss performing? Do you miss it at all? Or is it like, no, that was fun. Done with that?

Yeah, I think it does feel like it's hard to say. I guess maybe a little bit, but it's just kind of starting. I mean, that run with key and Peele really was getting to do everything.

And that came at the end of like, you've been out there for a while, you've been doing improv. You're on mad tv. So you had been working it for a while before people really got to know you in KMP.

Yeah, I was slinging rock in a sketch comedy form on Mad TV. And then, of course, my entire sort of what was meant to be a collegiate career was dedicated to improv and sketch in Chicago and Amsterdam. So I feel like I know you scratch that itch. What I get to do now is just more fun. Just more fun.

Yeah. Well, also, you're creating worlds, which is just what could be more fun, greater than that.

To be fair and clear. It's like there's something that's possible when you have this, as you know, this privilege of working with this enormous team of people who are like, okay, I'm on board with your vision. Let's go. And there's something that you feel like, okay, it's not about me anymore. It's about this thing we've built and we're building and these things that we're going to build. It's hard to look back at all that time, especially because 300 short films, short comedy films, if I wanted to do one again, I got to do it again. And then ultimately, I'm sick of watching myself.

I don't know what you're talking about.

Yeah, you get it.

Hi. I know. It is really funny. All of these cameras on here are just on him. We don't even have your mic on. We're going to later try and remember what it is you said. I'm going to read over. We have a transcript of what you said, and I'm going to read it back.

Right.

That's the creepiest idea. A guy has lost his mind to that degree.

That's Alex Jones.

Right. We're working our way towards that format. We'll get there. Don't you worry, guys. Corporate move came from up top. I'm curious, what's it like now you're in this position where you are getting to meet these directors, these people that made your childhood help form your sensibility? Do you have an easy time walking in and going, hey, how are you? Or do you get a little self conscious around people like that?

It depends who.

Yeah.

And it's not necessarily a one to one. Who is you'd think would be easy to talk to. I remember meeting Michael Mann and you always hear he's kind of gruff and there were all kinds of stories can predate meeting somebody. I just felt he was so kind of cool. I had no nerves talking to the guy. Paul Thomas Anderson. He's a good friend of mine. I've spent a lot of time with him and I'm still very nervous around him. So it's weird because he's just that fucking cool.

Do you get to call him PTA, Pete?

Pt, yeah, PTA. No. Yeah. I think I have called him because.

Sandler was friends with him. He's always saying things like, hey, Coney. Calls me Coney hey, since SNL days. But he sticks with that. And he goes like, hey, Coney. Yeah. I just know I'm having a sandwich with PTA. And I'm always remembering, like, wait, you're meeting a parent teacher? I'm like, oh, I forgot. I'm not cool. But, yeah, another.

You forgot for a second.

I'm sorry. I forgot. I was. Because you actually have lunch with the parent teacher. Yeah. And I'm disappointed when Paul Thomas Anderson shows up.

No, no one says Paul Thomas Anderson anymore. No one says that anymore. People say PTA.

Okay, well, I guess I didn't get the memo. My whole life, if I ever write an autobiography, it's like, I didn't get the memo.

By the way, he would disagree with me, by the way, on the record, I think he. No, please call me Paul. Probably.

Yeah, probably.

I'll stop speaking for him. He does a pretty good job.

Now, where are you? In the midst of working on your next film. You probably can't say anything about it, but I don't even understand how your process works. Does an idea come to you and then it just percolates for a while? How does it happen?

Yeah, I mean, this has been obviously an interesting year because the writer strike has had me sort of in a state of listening, and that's kind of where I've needed to be. And I do feel like my next project is clear to me, and I'm psyched that I have another film that could be my favorite movie if I make it right.

That's awesome. Can't wait. Yeah, that's very cool.

I could be totally bullshitting you guys right now. And you guys, I can't wait.

Yeah, I'm guessing. Well, I'll be comped. You'll have to pay.

Yeah, well.

Pay.

Why don't you just pay for us?

Because I'd like to go for free with PTA as my plus one.

No, that's on offer. I don't know that that's on offer.

Thank you.

Have you talked?

This was going so well. I love this discussion. And then you pushed it too far. I pushed it too far? That's on me. I'm going to look at the tape later and go like, yeah, that's the part.

That was the moment.

That's the moment I ruined it.

Alex Jones came out. Yeah.

No, I still think we should move in that direction. There's a lot of money in that. Sir, it's a serious crazy honor to have you just. I think of all the boxes of what makes an artist someone that I really like, and you've just checked all of them. Damn it. At such a young age frustrates me. I'm just very cool to have you here and to get to talk to you and to getting to hang out with you the other day and have that crazy experience where we thought of a movie, which I'm convinced is going to make a billion dollars. It's the next Barbie. Maybe that's his next project that he's not talking. Yeah, and I'll be conveniently cut out of it.

There was no agreement that there would be any actual financial.

I wouldn't need it. It would just be the joy of seeing my name above yours.

Is that what you think?

Do you know how many films I've made? Have you seen my films? Anybody?

You haven't made any?

Oh, right. Forgot again. Way over my skis. Jordan, thank you so much.

Thank you guys for having me.

So cool to have you here. And we got to do this again sometime.

Wonderful. Yeah, I would love it.

All right.

All right, man.

And work me in a cameo somehow.

Well, hey, if you're serious.

I am serious. So we're doing a slender, manful. Things have happened on this podcast over the last five years. But I maintain that my favorite audio moment, and this is really saying something, because I think we've had some great audio moments. But for me personally, was recently we had Werner Herzog, great filmmaker, director, documentarian. Werner Herzog was on the show, and we're chatting with him, and it was an amazing. I loved the conversation, and I think we got a lot of terrific response about it. I think you guys know where I'm going with this. At one point, he was talking, I think, about pop culture and how. Yes, he tries to stay somewhat familiar with it. And then inadvertently, out of nowhere, he mentioned a reality show. And I think he qualified it by saying, I'm not sure this is still on any longer. But then he mentioned the reality show, and the name of the show, combined with Werner Herzog's unique delivery, delighted me. Didn't just delight me, but it stayed in my head for days afterwards. It's just this lozenge that just keeps on giving. It doesn't lose its power. It was 100% the last thing I expected to come out of his mouth.

Exactly. And he got the full title. Nobody calls it that. Everyone just calls it by the name. Yeah, but he got the full title. He said it in his voice and then the way he says it. So, Eduardo, if you would do the honors. This is Werner Herzog saying something that really makes me happy. In three, two, one.

Here comes honey poopoo.

I'm sorry. It's the honey again. Yeah.

Here comes honey poopoo.

How does that not cure cancer, end all wars? How does that not reduce carbon emissions worldwide? Immediately close the ozone layer. Maybe it will. Yeah.

I feel seen. Because. I want to say, because I think he's just on such a high pedestal. But then there's something he and I have in common, which is shitty reality shows.

Yes.

And so we're the same person.

Yeah, there's that. But the best part is more about the sound. Yeah, to me. Yes. That's nice. That's nice. I get what you're saying. But to me, it's about this.

Here comes honey boo boo listen to the boo boo.

I know. Listen to the belabored honey boo boo. In fact, Eduardo, as we talk. Just pepper it in as we talk, whenever you like. Don't even wait for us. Yeah.

Here comes honey poopoo yeah, it's the.

Boo boo here comes honey boo boo. Yeah. That's very good. But not as good as this.

Here comes honey poopoo.

Yeah. I don't know. I think when it's my time to go, which is who knows when? But people always talk about what is it they want. And I'm thinking, I want to have a really good pinot noir. I want to eat a really good sicilian thin crust pizza. And then I want them to start turning up the dials on various things that will take me to the next plane. And then I just want to hear this over and over and over comes honey poopoo over and over just.

Here comes honey poopoo over and over.

As I leave this earth.

Here comes honey poopoo. Here comes honey poopoo. Here comes honey poopoo.

I mean, I just want to. I think that would make me happy. The ods of that happening in our lifetimes are just astronomical, and we got to be.

Here comes honey poopoo.

Yes. The fact that. Has he ever said that? Maybe he has, but he said it to us, and there were microphones around, and we captured. We are living in a time where Werner Herzog existed and here comes Honey Boo boo. Existed, and they. You're saying it wrong. Oh, sorry.

Here comes honey Boo boo.

Here comes honey Boo.

Here comes honey Boo Boo.

I want someone to do a dance song and just have that loop and loop that. Yeah, we have really creative fans. Maybe someone can do it.

The question is, is there somewhere out there is Honey Boo Boo herself going, I watched little Dieter learns to fly. I watched what? Little Dieter learns to fly. No, what? It's the accent. What is that accent? Honey boo Boo's accent.

It's really funny coming from you.

Do it again. I want to see it.

I watch little Dieter learn to fly.

Oh, say that she also likes grizzly Man.

I like grizzly Man.

I like Agira Rasagal.

That's the best one. Yeah, I like Agira. Do that again.

I like.

Here comes honey Boo Boo.

Now let's do. He's announcing that she's coming with her favorite. To say her favorite movie, and then you come in, honey Boo boo, and say your favorite movie and go, here.

Comes Honey Boo boo.

I like a gear, a wrath of God.

Perfect. That's really good. Do me a favor. This is what I want. I want Werner Herzog to say that he hears footsteps, okay? And so he says, here comes honey boo boo. And then I want to hear a door open, and then I want to hear Gorli, are we all set? So here we go.

Here comes honey Boo Boo.

I watched a Geary wrath of God.

Now, I think my door opening was okay, but then I did. Yeah, that was like a monster coming. But also, you know what? I think I had her on a pogo stick. Oh, that's good. Yeah, you do the foot. Let's try it, and let's try it again. Let's try it again. Yes, you can. You're going to do it. Here we go. Just so we have the order. It's got to go. Footsteps here comes Honey Boo Boo. Door opens a Geary rathaga.

Here we go.

Yes, here we go. And go. What did you do? What was that? Pippy pit. Pissy pit. Pithy pit. What was Pippy? What was pithy pit? I say keep it. Just do it, do it. Try it again. Try it again.

Here comes honey boo boo.

Then the door. I watch a Gary wrath go. All right, let's try it one more time. We'll tighten it up. Sona go pip pit.

Tip pit. Deep pip.

Here comes honey boo boo.

I washed the Gary wrath of God.

I think we almost got it. Except what is Piffy?

Piffy?

Piff. Why is she wearing a weird slipper that's made of like.

Well, how would you guys do the footsteps? That's a horse.

Yeah, she's coming in on a horse or she's been shot.

What are you doing?

She's tap dancing in.

Come on. No, you guys aren't better.

Why does she heartbeat walk? She has afib. She has afib, a rare form of afib that travels down and it vibrates the it band.

You guys know I can't do footsteps.

Yeah, except you. Pithy. Pithy, pithy, pithy pith. Oh, I'd love to hear her do all the sound effects. It was a cold night. Wishy washy, wishy washy when the old man came. Pithy, pithy, pithy pith. Why joke when you can get her to do it with his faithful horse? Let's do the faith. And his faithful horse was with him.

Clack, click clack.

No, because I didn't speak. But why don't you do clickety clackity?

I was walking and the horse was.

Walking in, and just then an alien ship landed, and then they made all made smoothies in a blender.

That was a good blender.

All right, listen, let's agree that as great as Sona was right now, and as fantastic, much fun as we had good times, we had nothing beats.

Here comes honey boo boo.

Mr. Herzog, you're our hero.

Conan O'Brien needs a friend. With Conan O'Brien, Sonom of session and Matt Gorley, produced by me, Matt Gorely, executive produced by Adam Sachs, Nick Liao and Jeff Ross at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson and Cody Fisher at your wolf. Theme song by the White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair, and our associate talent producer is Jennifer samples. Engineering by Eduardo Perez additional production support by Mars Melnick Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Britt Khan. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and you might find your review read on. A future episode got a question for Conan? Call the team Cocoa hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message. It too, could be featured on a future episode. And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O'Brien needs a friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.