-Kenan Thompson, you look good, man.
How's -- Where are you? Is everyone safe?
How you doing? -I feel good. I'm home.
Yeah, everybody's safe, thank goodness.
You know what I mean? Crazy times.
-How long have you been out there?
-I've been out here for like a month
and a week and a half or so.
So since the show pretty much took a hiatus.
-Well, yeah. I loved the show last week.
I mean, dude, that was -- How did that show come together?
-I mean, through, you know, a bunch of brilliant minds
and the same thing that we're doing, you know,
everybody kind of took it upon themselves,
especially Kate and Chloe.
They had, like, amazing pre-taped things that they did
around their house and stuff like that.
And Kate and Aidy did, you know, some awesome things.
And then, the rest of the cast did their, you know,
versions of Zoom sketches and stuff like that.
And, you know, wonderful tribute to Hal, you know?
-Aww. Isn't that sad? It was awful, wasn't it?
To hear about Hal. -Yeah. So crazy.
You just -- I don't know.
You never expect anything like that, so...
-Do you have any Hal stories?
-Yeah, man. I mean, anytime he would come up to you,
he was always like, "Hey, man.
You heard of this person and that person?"
and I should have heard of but I never have.
And then, you know, I think the first thing he shared with me,
he gave me like, you know,
a Lenny Bruce 45 or something like that.
-Yeah! Because he did that big Lenny Bruce box set.
Yeah, I got a vinyl from him, too.
A Lenny Bruce thing. -Yeah. Yeah.
-Or a CD compilation or something.
He was always -- he's just one of those guys,
I was trying to describe him to my friend the other day.
I said he's kind of just so worldly,
and he knows about everybody.
I go, "But then..." "Worldly" is the wrong word.
I want to say he was so New York.
-Yeah, absolutely. I was just about to say.
It's, like, not worldly, he's, like, New Yorky.
-Yes! -Almost just the village, even.
-Yes. He might be the last New Yorker that I've ever --
-Yeah. -Like, he's legit, like --
Just the whole vibe of cool of him.
And he was just so cool and, like --
Every time I went to the show,
I would always love to run into Hal Willner.
-Yeah. -Because he would always
come up and be like, "Jimmy, I just got this cool
Harry Nilsson thing that's --" And he's just --
And then he would play me a clip or something --
I just loved, loved --
Everyone loved running into him and seeing him
and just -- I just -- I was truly shocked.
-Yeah. -I was so -- so sad.
-I can't even imagine having that much of an encyclopedia
of cool things -- You what I mean? --
to, like, pull from. And those pictures of him
in his, like, house with just, like,
vinyl and books and everything, and toys and puppets.
Just, like, a guy immersed in very interesting things, man.
He was awesome. -When you did your sketches
for the show, were you wearing a blanket, or what was it?
-Yeah, I was wearing a blanket,
and somebody hit me on the Instagram.
Like, "Yo, we got the same blanket."
[ Both laugh ]
-You got to make do, man.
-Yeah, I mean, I got to do what I got to --
I'm not used to performing in the house much, I guess.
So I had to, like, pull it together.
-Was your wife the director?
-Yeah, she shot my tribute video and my montage,
my opening montage where I'm, like, taking out the trash.
-How was she as a director?
-She was great. She was great.
She was a little strict.
She would cut me off in the middle of takes
and stuff like that and just be like, "Okay..."
I was like, "All right. I guess I'll just start over."
Supposed to be, like, a note after a take type of thing,
but, no, she's wonderful, man.
-Yeah, my wife's been --
my wife's been directing me in all these ones.
And the other day, she's, you know, holding the camera up,
and she -- she was --
You know, I'm doing some story about something, and she goes --
I go -- "What was that? What, am I boring or what?
-"You know, I'm sorry. Am I boring you?"
-She goes, "No, what? What are you talking --"
So she cut the scene.
She's like, "I was just stretching my neck, that's all."
I go, "You're the camera person.
You can't be the camera person and go like..."
-Yeah, yeah. You just -- you wreck the tape.
-I mean, imagine if any of the camera operators
on "SNL" were like... -Yeah, oh, God.
-...rolling their eyes? -...shooting the floor.
[ Both laugh ]
-But then -- Then, you know, I'm like --
-"I'm sorry. What -- What was that?
-That's what I got. -What was that?
Oh, God, that's hilarious.
Did she shoot quarantine remix, too?
-Yeah. Yes.
-That was brilliant. -Aww, dude.
-Shout-out to you and Justin, my Trolls, homey.
Shout-out to Trolls. -That's right.
Hey, by the way, congrats -- it's number one on iTunes.
It's number one on Amazon Prime Video right now.
I think it was a really good move on Universal
and Dreamworks' part to let everyone be able
to see the movie now because we need content.
We got kids. -Absolutely.
-I already download -- I already rented it already like twice.
-Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that was, like,
the total smart move, 'cause, yeah,
everybody's in the house as substitute teachers.
How's your substitute-teaching going?
-Oh, my God. I really, honestly -- I --
The fun thing is that I'm learning.
[ Both laugh ] -Yeah.
-Like, dude, what am I doing? I can't be teaching.
I'm trying so hard, I'm like -- I have all the printouts,
and, you know, the kids -- knock on wood --
they go to a great school, but, man, we said it last week,
but I mean it -- teachers should make a billion dollars.
-Man, that was one thing that I was hoping that would be up for,
like, vote as soon as this, like, opens back up,
because I think everybody will finally be in the mood to, like,
vote for teachers getting a pay increase, hands-down.
-Please. Oh, my goodness.
-I was with it beforehand, but now it's just like, "Come on.
These people do amazing things." -Oh, man.
It's, like, all day. I mean, yeah.
It's an all-day-long thing,
and then I'm already prepping for tomorrow.
I'm like, respect, respect, respect.
Did you actually -- That's you rapping, right?
As Tiny Diamond?
-♪ Tiny Diamond is my name ♪
As you can see, I wear tiny diamonds in real life.
[ Both laugh ]
-It's just gone to your head now.
-You know what I'm saying? -You're becoming the dude.
You know? -Yeah.
Yeah, I'm becoming that character.
"Where's my glitter?" [ Both laugh ]
-But, yeah, no, I wrote that rap.
That was my first time writing a rap for something.
So that was fun.
-For real? -Yeah.
-Dude, that's so hard to write a rap.
How'd you do it? -Not easy.
I mean, I've seen my buddies in the studio,
so they just let the beat play, and they just, you know,
get inspired and, you know, go round and round and round.
And I was just sitting in there by myself, like,
"I feel like this beat is kind of like this,"
and, you know, comedy raps have to be a little bit different
so you can get information out and stuff like that so...
-Right, exactly. -Felt like the pace should be
kind of slow, thank God,
'cause I can't write a complicated rap.
-You know, Lil' Wayne doesn't write his raps down.
-Jay Z, either. They're blessed individuals.
-Dang. -That's unbelievable.
-I mean -- -I mean, what other profession
can you not write anything down?
Like, that doesn't even work for stand-up, really.
Like, you can go out unprepared, but it's not great.
-We asked everyone who's coming on my show --
and thank you so much for coming on the show.
-My pleasure. -Any charity they want
to shout-out, we'll work with, and you chose No Kid Hungry.
-That's right.
-Why did you want to highlight that charity?
-I mean, I worked with them in the past.
I think they do amazing things.
They provide meals for kids who don't know where their meals
are coming from, especially, you know,
school meals now that schools are closed.
So kids are still able to eat and stuff like that.
And, you know, even throughout the summer,
when schools aren't even in, you know,
they make sure that kids are still getting their
proper, like, three meals a day type situations.
So I just think they're a great organization.
-Kenan Thompson, you're the best, man.
I can't wait to see you in person, man. I miss you.