-You do such a great job
on your show and everyone up there at "Late Night."
But I was -- what is -- what is harder for you --
to cover the election on your show,
or is it harder on "Saturday Night Live,"
like when you would have to play someone?
-Well, I think the nice thing now is, you know,
I've just been in the business a little bit longer,
I sort of know maybe how to say the things I want to say better,
so I'm making the choices on my own,
whereas, at "SNL," you get assigned, you know,
a politician to play. -I remember.
-And that was very stressful. For me --
-Really? -Yeah.
You know, the most famous politician, my ceiling,
I got all the way up to John Kerry.
-I remember this. -That was in 2004.
Yeah. -I was there.
-And I single-handedly tanked that campaign.
[ Laughter ] -You did not.
That was great. -It was not a bad John Kerry.
-That's a great John Kerry. Yeah.
-And I ran into him this summer, John Kerry,
the actual John Kerry, which is kind of exciting.
Right? You know -- I don't know.
You did more impressions than me but when you run into people
you played... -It's amazing.
-...it's a big deal, right? -Sure.
-And here's the thing -- I was with my kids earlier in the day.
And I was wearing a straw hat,
and my youngest son was wearing a straw hat,
but he didn't want to wear his straw hat.
And I had forgotten right before I went over to say hi
to John Kerry, 'cause I was carrying my little one,
that I had put his straw hat on top of my straw hat.
[ Laughter ]
And so I went over, and I talked to John Kerry.
And I was feeling good about myself
'cause we had a nice interaction.
-He was laughing? -He was -- it was like,
"Oh, it's good." You know, it was nice.
And then I walked over, and my wife said,
"I took a picture of you talking to John Kerry."
[ Laughter ]
"Don't be mad, but I think you forgot you're wearing two hats."
[ Laughter ]
-This is why -- [ Laughter ]
[ Wah wah! ]
-Just a dude... -This is why...
[ Cheers and applause ]
This is why -- [ Both laugh ]
We gave you a little "wah wah." -Yeah.
-Yeah. -He must have been like,
"This is the dickhead who played me?"
[ Laughter ]
"Could've been in the White House
if it wasn't 'Two-Hat' Meyers." [ Laughter ]
-It all works out the way -- It all works out for a reason.
-Yeah, yeah. I guess so. Yeah.
-You know, the next Democratic debate is just over a week away.
-Yeah. -And a lot of the --
There's a big surge online, a lot of people want you
to be... -Oh, I would hate it.
-...the moderator. -I would hate it.
I think there's no -- there's no winning to be a moderator
in these -- -What are you talking about?
I think you'd be -- you'd be great.
-I don't know if you feel this way.
Sometimes when I have people who are running for president
on my show... -Yeah.
-...I get nervous.
I don't want to interrupt them because I feel like,
"Oh, they're -- they're out to get the most important job
in the world." And I'm doing them a disservice
because a lot of them can be super boring.
[ Light laughter ] And my respecting them --
I don't know if you had this thing, because, again,
at one point, there were 24 people
running for the Democratic nomination.
-Yeah. -And it was interesting
'cause you would say, "Hey, our next guest
is running for the Democratic nomination for president."
And the audience would go crazy because they would think,
"Oh, my God. I might be seeing
the next president of the United States."
And then about two or three minutes into the interview,
you can hear them all sort of feeling like,
"You're not gonna be president." -Yeah, yeah.
[ Laughter ] Yeah.
-"This person's not gonna be --
I didn't know who you were, but you did know who you were."
[ Laughter ]
-"You actually did know who you were."
-"You know and you thought president?
-What? All right.
[ Laughter ] Wow!
"Okay. All right.
You're feeling pretty good about yourself."
-"Shooting for the Moon there. Okay.
Shooting for the Moon."
Yeah, so you would never do that.
-No, I don't think it would be a lot of fun.
And people, you know -- you know, I think some of
the criticisms are fair for the people
who moderate those debates, but it's really hard,
I think, to -- you know.
-Yeah, it's almost like a no-win job.
-It's a no-win job. -Everyone's just -- yeah.
-"What Does Karen Know?" Is that the bit that I'm...
-Oh, yeah, yeah. "What Does Karen Know?"
We have a writer, Karen Chee. -I love this bit.
-The youngest writer on our staff.
She's 24, I believe. And we realized pretty quickly
that 24-year-olds don't know the same things as 40-year-olds.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
I know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-And it's not because it's, like, too smart for them.
-Yeah. -They're more like,
"That's a dumb thing that I don't care about."
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And so we would make references,
like pop-culture references, and Karen comes to me, like,
"I don't know who that is." So one of the writers
on our show, who's far closer to me in age,
Matt Goldich, came up with this idea
where basically I would hold up art cards,
and Karen would have to guess who they are.
[ Laughter ]
And it makes you feel great shame for your era of life.
When you show a picture of Jean-Claude Van Damme...
-No. -...and not only does she
not know who he is, but then when you try
to explain why he was so awesome, you realize,
"Maybe he wasn't." You know?
[ Laughter ]
You know what I mean? -Yeah.
-You're like, "Well, we watched his movies."
And they were like, "What were they about?"
-"His legs would split out on two trucks."
-They're like, "What was he good at?"
You were like, "Kicking!" [ Laughter ]
"Kicking. That was the only way to stop that guy."
-"He just needs to kick people."
-"In the '90s, it was just kicking."
[ Laughter ] "It was a simpler time."
-Who did the Cabbage Patch doll? -Oh, yeah.
Well, Garbage -- we showed her Garbage Pail Kids.
-That's what I meant. Garbage Pail Kids.
-Yeah, which was another hard sell.
But then, it was really lovely.
The people from Topps, who make Garbage Pail --
they made one -- -Baseball cards. Yeah.
-They made one for me and Karen.
So we have our own Garbage Pail Kid.
-No way. -Pretty big deal. Yeah.
-Who did the actual -- Remember, there was like --
Somebody was dressed -- I think it was "The Bachelors"?
-Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We did the Cabbage Patchler.
Which was -- it was "The Bachelor," but...
-Dude, whoever did that... -It was two people who have --
-...deserves an award. -Two people who had
reconstructive surgery to make themself look like...
-...a Cabbage Patch doll. -Yeah.
-And then it was about them finding love
on "The Cabbage Patchelor" [ Laughter ]
-The makeup -- The makeup was... -The makeup was incredible.
-...incredible. -By the way,
I think we did that a year ago.
You're literally the first person who's mentioned it to me.
[ Laughter ] -I loved it.
I thought it was so great.
Props to whoever did that. -Yeah.
-Who do you have on the show tonight?
-We have AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
-Oh! -And we have James Taylor.
How about that? -Wow! I love that.
-Yeah. Big show. Big show.
-Are you excited for that? -I'm very excited.
You know who's the most excited is our friend Mike Shoemaker.
-Shoemaker must be... -Because AOC from the Bronx.
-Yep. -Our producer, Mike Shoemaker,
from the Bronx, and James Taylor,
who he claims is the only person he listened to
when he grew up in the Bronx. [ Laughter ]
So this is a show perfectly for him.
-He must be doing cartwheels right now.
-He's very, very, very happy.
-Well, tell him I love him. All right?
-I will, I will. -I love you, buddy.
Seth Meyers, everyone. [ Cheers and applause ]
Stay tuned after "The Tonight Show"
for "Late Night with Seth Meyers."