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The internet has ASMR.
Thank you so much for talking with us about the new season of the show.
I had the salt and pepper shakers out while cooking dinner last night.
I want to return them to the right cabinet.
You weresigningyourBathroom Bookin Prospect Park recently.
How was that?Really nice.
I didnt know if anyone would come out.
I signed some other stuff, too, that people brought.
It was a nice afternoon.
What sort of stuff did you sign?Someone brought me seed packets to sign.
I thought that was pretty fun.
People brought other books too.
I said Id sign anything.
After the last period of time, it was nice to do a live thing for the book.
I wanted to do a winter season for a long time.
I like running the show by the seasons.
The show doesnt shy away from sadness, but that sadness is usually more melancholy than bleak.
Its kind of tricky.
In the edit, we have a lot of conversations about it.
What do you like about working with older performers?
Why wouldnt you want to watch somebody who has a full life of experience and character be on camera?
I guess its what I want to see.
Kids and older people are more uninhibited in their personalities.
And also that older generation of people werent brought up with cameras.
She didnt want to do another take.
On the flip side, so much of the show is set in middle school.
So much middle-school content out right now likePEN15andBig Mouth are about how brutal that environment is.
And you have these great young performers like in the Second Fridge episode this season.
What motivated you to make Joe and Sarah middle-school teachers?I guess same as the older people.
Theyre more likely to say whats on their mind.
I really wish we could have done more scenes.
It was difficult this year not being able to do a lot of classroom scenes.
One of my favorite things weve done for the show was at the end of season one.
But the way that they answered so sincerely and intelligently was a really wonderful thing.
Maybe well do it again some time.
That came out around the same time as asimilar segmentinJohn Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch.
I cant remember if yours came first.I think ours was a bit before.
We were working on season two when that came out.
We had a beautiful edit of a 45-minute version of that scene.
We had to get it down to four minutes, but I love letting them talk.
It was a memorable afternoon.
I want to ask about your creative relationship with Dan Licata and Conner OMalley.
The show couldnt be more tonally different from OMalleys video work, which is jarring and frenetic.
Dan Licatas stand-up, too, is often about this bang out ofJoker-pilled, very online guy.
I immediately respected Conner from his work.
And he showed up to the coffee shop and brought his own in a thermos.
And I was like [deadpan], I really admire that.
I think were all drawing from people in our life that make us laugh.
Conners family is actually in the show.
His brothers play his own brothers.
Its a very nice thing to be able to work with them.
And thats their dad too.
You cant find better actors than that.
Maybe theyll get upset if I say this, but theyre both very nice and caring guys.
It makes sense thats a real family in the Melsky house.That was a dream.
We were like, We cant possibly come up with better set design.
Canada comes up a bunch on the show.
Tell me about your fascination with Canada.Im from Buffalo, so were 30 minutes from the border.
Id been to Toronto every couple of years.
That was the big city.
I didnt realize that the rest of the country didnt get CBC.
And I grew up by Lake Erie, so I shared a lake with them too.
I really loved Mr. OMalley saying that line about Justin Trudeau.
He just exclaims, Im sick of Just-crap Trash-deau.
Hes all talk and no action.
He gave every possible variation of Justin Trash-Crap Trudeau.
Justin Just Trash Trudeau.
A thousand different weird deliveries that made me laugh.
Was that an improv?No, no, Dan wrote that.
Its on that border of the most realistic line but also something thats really funny when you hear it.
you know, abbreviated.
That bothers me because I dont want to be responsible for anybodys actions.
It weirds me out.
I dont think theyre appealing enough for anybody to purchase.
How about people planting bean arches?
Those are kind of fan art.Thats the best.
So I made a montage of them on YouTube, and it really cheered me up.
And knowing that people were eating beans because of the show was really fun to think about.
