Episodes › Ep. 92 2025-12-30 · 54:37
The Criterion Episode (2024 Re-release)
Seth Meyers joins Mike Schur and Jake Tapper to judge which of the first 34 Digital Shorts belong in a listener-voted Criterion Collection of the podcast, sorting them into Criterion, syllabus/additional reading, and Kim's Videos tiers. The conversation digs into SNL history and the early writing days of Meyers and Schur, including Hot Air Mystery Balloon Theater and Schur's move to The Office. Lazy Sunday, Natalie's Rap, Close Talkers and Laser Cats draw the most discussion, and the memorable takeaway is that Lazy Sunday felt like landing on the moon for SNL comedy. The revisit continues with Seth, Jake Tapper, Mike Schur and Alan Sepinwall running through the remaining shorts, including Dick in a Box, Dear Sister, Laser Cats, Roy Rules, Talking Dog, Hero Song, Jonah Hill and Downey's Andy's Dad, and the Japanese Office. Seth closes with the listener-vote tally: five shorts in (Lazy Sunday, Natalie's Rap, Dick in a Box, Dear Sister, I Ran So Far) and several maybes.
Heard here, not in the AlmaNick yet
- additional reading “my name for it was additional reading great which is basically what you're saying”
- Harpoon “criterion collection named their better one harpoon after harpoon man”
Shorts discussed: Lazy Sunday, Close Talkers, Natalie's Rap, Laser Cats, Hot Air Mystery Balloon Theater, Harpoon Man, Dick in a Box, United Way ad, Peyton Manning ESPN Classic sketch (Payton uses football...), Dear Sister, Roy Rules, Talking Dog, Hero Song, Andy's dad (Jonah Hill / Downey), Daiquiri Girl / Best look in the world, Japanese Office (Rain Wilson host), Laser Cats 3D, The Tangent, Captain Jack Sparrow
Guests: Mike Schur (SNL writer turned creator of The Office, Parks and Rec,…), Jake Tapper (Journalist and co-judge who reached out to Seth about…), Jake Tapper (Guest judge in the Criterion revisit; debates the shorts…), Mike Schur (Guest judge and Parks and Rec/The Office writer;…), Alan Sepinwall (TV critic (Rolling Stone) brought in as final guest to…)
← Ep. 91 Listener Q&A Episode 9 · Ep. 93 The 2025 Criterion Episode →
Pop-ups (23)
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Hot Air Mystery Balloon Theater aired with Ian McKellen
8:36Schur wrote this SNL sketch and submitted it several times before it finally aired with Ian McKellen hosting.
Hot Air Balloon Mystery Theater was a old-timey, like Agatha Christie kind of era mystery story
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Syllabus and additional reading tiers
15:23The judges create a middle tier for shorts that are essential to understanding the body of work but not top-tier Criterion. 'Syllabus' is the term Seth suggests and 'additional reading' is Jake's name for the same idea.
I suggested a second category, and my name for it was additional reading.
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Lazy Sunday felt like landing on the moon
17:00Schur recalls watching Lazy Sunday with Will Arnett while Amy Poehler's dressing room was nearby, and says it was pivotal because it spread online through YouTube and College Humor.
But I remember it's like landing on the moon for SNL comedy.
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Schur's Office hiring story
20:57Schur was leaving SNL to join the American Office, after a British Christmas special sparked a move for him and his then-girlfriend JJ Philbin.
I was leaving to my then girlfriend now wife JJ Philbin had moved out to LA.
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Kim's Videos named for a New York video store
23:30Kim's Video was a New York video store that cinephiles frequented. The group borrows the name for a tier of shorts that are worth a deeper dive but are not Criterion.
Yeah, like Tim's Videos was a video store in New York that like the cinephiles would go to.
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Natalie's Rap as a host takeover
27:02The judges argue Natalie Portman's rap showed hosts could take over a digital short, prompting later hosts to ask for similar raps.
Obviously, like, proving that for the first time... the host can also explode out of one of these digital shorts.
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Laser Cats debated for Criterion
30:12Jake argues Laser Cats belongs in the Criterion collection while the others push it down to Kim's Videos or additional reading.
I think laser cats is criterion. Really?
Goes back to Kim's Video, Ep. 39, 23:35:
Kim's videos. Ooh, like cool underground. Yeah. Like all Tim's videos was a video store in New York that like the cine files would go to.
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Harpoon: the top Criterion tier
31:20The group jokes that a super-Criterion tier exists and is called 'Harpoon,' named after the Harpoon Man short. Seth quips that Citizen Kane would be in Harpoon.
Criterion Collection named their better one Harpoon after Harpoon Man. So Citizen Kane is Harpoon.
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Dick in a Box's 3,072 yes votes
31:41Listener voting gave Dick in a Box the most yeses of the revisit (3,072). The hosts compare it to Lazy Sunday, with Mozart standing in for Pardell.
Dick in the Box holds, based on the 3,072 votes we had, the most yeses.
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Flenderson: Mike Schur's SNL name
33:22Mike Schur says the name Toby Flenderson on The Office came from an SNL sketch he wrote, which aired. The sketch riffed on Lexus car ads with giant red bows.
Toby Flenderson on The Office. Flenderson. That's a great one. Yeah, which came from an SNL sketch I wrote.
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United Way ad judged not Criterion
34:55The United Way ad was a hard call; Mike Schur ultimately says no, while Seth says it is unique on its own.
I ultimately said no, but I love this sketch so much.
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ESPN Classic as a new category
35:03The group proposes an 'ESPN Classic' category for sports comedy, a new tier tied to Seth's sketch work.
I think it's ESPN Classic. Oh, new category. New category. ESPN Classic.
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Best athlete acting ever
35:41Tapper argues the Peyton Manning sketch is the best athlete performance in a sketch, since athletes perform live constantly but rarely act well.
I think this is the best performance in a sketch ever given by an athlete that I can think of.
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Hero Song: one great joke, no third act
39:51Hero Song is judged well-executed but one-joke; Act 1 is great, Act 2 hilarious, and there is no Act 3.
I think the issue is Act 1 is great, Act 2 is hilarious, and there isn't an Act 3.
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Andy's dad: the Jonah Hill kiss
42:17Schur passes on Andy's dad, arguing the Jonah Hill kiss reaction edges into gay-panic-adjacent comedy, while Tapper argues it's a consistent laugh.
And I just can't quite bring myself to say this is a Criterion Collection thing when it's not quite gay panic
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Best look in the world
43:19Daiquiri Girl is a hardcore Kim's Videos pick, valued for the 'best look in the world' and 'cool breeze tickling your knee pits' lines.
Best look in the world. No. No. A hardcore Kim's video for me.
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Rain Wilson's Japanese Office sketch
45:07Schur explains his rankled reaction to Rain Wilson hosting SNL with a Japanese Office parody, after the first Office homage with Sudeikis and Wiig landed better.
And when he did the Japanese office, I remember being a little bit rankled.
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Laser Cats 3D's Chrises
49:06Sepinwall picks Laser Cats 3D for Walken, Chris Dodd, Kenan and Andy's bionic eye, noting it's the one with both Chrises.
So it's got Walken, it's got Chris Dodd, it's got Kenan, it's got Andy getting his bionic eye.
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Dear Sister: the OC parody
49:49Dear Sister is an obvious yes. Alan Sepinwall explains that its parody of The OC became funnier the more the group returned to it, reaching the repeating-song joke at the end.
The more they did it, the funnier it got until you get to the moment where the song just sort of keeps restarting over and over
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The OC nostalgia and JJ Philbin
50:32Sepinwall's wife JJ Philbin wrote for The OC and reacted to the parody when the episode aired, marking the Lonely Island as next-gen comedy.
One detail here is not in the transcript.
my wife, JJ Philbin, wrote for the OC and was there for that episode. And her head exploded when we watched it
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The Tangent as a Mona Lisa sketch
52:18Sepinwall says The Tangent was hard to find for years; he compares it to early pencil sketches of the Mona Lisa, showing future genius.
they're like pencil sketches, where you can see the future genius, but it doesn't quite fully realized on the page.
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Final tally of Criterion picks
53:04Seth recaps the vote: six unanimous picks from the first 34, with Mike and Jake diverging on two. The five certain entries are Lazy Sunday, Natalie's Rap, Dick in a Box, Dear Sister and I Ran So Far.
So we decided on the 34 that we went through, we decided six unanimously, and then we diverged on two.
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Maybes after the listener tally
57:35The Mirror, Andy's dad, People Getting Punched and Laser Cats remain maybes after the listener vote, with Seth asking the guests to break ties.
We have three maybes, and I also want to run down with the trio how they feel about our Kim's videos.
People and sketches mentioned (21)
Ian McKellen Natalie Portman Will Arnett Franco Harris Frank O'Harris Toby Flenderson Chris Dodd Chris Walken Rain Wilson JJ Philbin Peyton Manning Tom Brady Derek Jeter Nick Fane
Hot Air Mystery Balloon Theater The Office (British) Seinfeld Lazy Sunday The Office (SNL parody) The OC (Dear Sister parody) The Tangent
Source: whisperx-v2+speakers transcript, read by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 on 2026-10-21; audio timestamps mapped to the YouTube cut by word alignment. Timestamps shown are YouTube time. Report a bad pop-up.