-Our next guest tonight is an Emmy Award-winning comedian,
director, and writer you know from his work on
"Saturday Night Live" and as one-third of The Lonely Island.
He is the author of the new children's book
"Little Fox and the Wild Imagination,"
which is available today.
Please welcome back to the show
our very good friend Jorma Taccone.
How are you, Jorm?
-Hi. I'm so glad you mentioned the Emmy because,
you know, it's right here! -[ Laughs ] Oh, you have it!
You put the Emmy in the background.
I think it'd be very nice if people who are thinking about
buying a children's book you wrote know what song
the Emmy is for.
-Uh, it was called "Dick in a Box."
-[ Laughs ]
So, Jorm -- -It is a heartwarming tale.
It's a heartwarming tale. -I want to start by
congratulating you on the fact
that you just became a father again.
-I did. I did. Mere weeks ago.
-And your new baby girl, correct?
-Yeah, Zany Quinn.
I wanted to name her Quinn Elizabeth,
but Mari said that I couldn't name our child a joke name.
-[ Laughs ]
I want to ask about Wylie, your 5-year-old.
Is not only the inspiration for this book, but he actually --
There's actual dialogue of Wylie's in the book, correct?
-Yes. Sort of the impetus of this book was --
It's obviously the wild imagination
of my 5-year-old, Wylie,
but there was a quote when he was 3 years old.
He would constantly say, "Now, I will put you in a mail truck
and throw you in the ocean, and a shark will eat you all gone,"
which was I think his way of telling me
that he loved me very much.
-It is a very nice thing.
And I will say
you've got a fantastic illustrator for this book.
There is Mail Truck and Shark.
And it must be so exciting to see the art
come back for words like that, especially words of your child.
-Well, you know this, because I'm doing the comic-book thing.
I mean, like, when you write something
and then have it visually come to life, it's just incredible.
And this guy, Dan Santat,
the fact that he even agreed to do this --
like, he's a Caldecott winner.
I couldn't believe that he was
even willing to be involved with me.
I mean, you know, but "Dick in a Box" I guess goes a long way
to certain people. -[ Laughs ]
Something else that goes a long way
with a lot of people is "MacGruber."
You are one of the co-creators of "MacGruber" as well,
with Will Forte and John Solomon.
And you are very kind because you are now working on
an eight-episode series for Peacock
for fans of "MacGruber," of which there are legion.
And I believe I am the front of that fan line.
We are very excited about this.
Where are you in the process?
-We've been writing Monday, Wednesday, Friday every week.
And quite often we'll start about a half an hour late
because Will's off doing Sea Captain lines.
-Yes. -So I'm pretty glad
that that's over. -[ Laughs ]
-He would just be in the background, like, you know,
this little -- "Arggh, weird transition."
But you would actually get to hear, like,
the five different takes that he would do.
-Yes, I think we both know from our lucky collaborations
with Will that he is a perfectionist.
And every day I would text him and say,
"Look, if you don't have time,
you don't have to do Sea Captain lines."
And, of course, he's also very amenable to helping.
But I forget that he, of course, was taking huge chunks of time
out of your day, so I'm very sorry.
-And I'm being kind when I say it was a half an hour.
It was usually more like an hour.
-[ Laughs ]
Hey, I also owe you thanks for this.
A few years ago your wife Mari
was directing a film in Pittsburgh,
and my family goes to Pittsburgh once a year,
and I told you it was for my mother's birthday.
And so you came to my mother's birthday party.
And you made her an airbrushed picture with her face on it,
which is just genuinely great.
Also, it's very rare when the person holding the shirt
is making the same expression.
[ Laughs ] But there it is.
And we tell everyone, because you can't quite read it,
what the tagline that you put on the shirt was.
-Oh, I believe the tagline was "Real G's move in silence."
-[ Laughs ]
-Which, to me, said grandmas. Real grandmas move in silence.
-I would love for you to have seen the full conversation
with my mom when I tried to explain to her
what "Real G's move in silence" meant.
-[ Laughs ]
-One of the fans of "MacGruber" --
and I was joking earlier --
the people who have watched "MacGruber"
or are a fan of "MacGruber" is one of our finest directors,
Christopher Nolan, who directed "Batman,"
"Inception," among other things.
And he -- How did you find out that Christopher Nolan was a fan
and did you ever get a chance to talk to him about it?
-That was when Anne Hathaway was on "Jimmy Fallon,"
and I got a call at the time from the producer.
I believe it was Michael Shoemaker, your producer,
who called and told me that I had to watch
when Anne Hathaway was on the show that night.
I watched, and she told a story that was
when they were shooting "Batman," she knew things
were going really well when Christopher Nolan
started to quote "MacGruber," which was shocking to me
that he was a fan at all.
And then I went to a directors dinner.
The DGA hosts these directors dinners,
and me and my wife went because she is a filmmaker,
a much better filmmaker than me.
And she was like, "Oh, Christopher Nolan's here.
You got to go talk to him."
And so I ran up to him and was like,
"Chris, I'm a director.
I did this movie 'MacGruber.'"
He's, like, "Oh, hi," and I was like,
"Yeah, we're thinking about doing this sequel pretty soon,
and what do you think about me putting,
when the director title comes up,
it just says 'Christopher Nolan' with an asterisk?
And then after the movie another asterisk,
like a footnote comes up
and says who really directed the movie."
And he was, like, "Well, you know, I'll have to ask my wife."
[ Laughs ]
So we're still hoping.
I'm asking him if he wants to --
-I'm so confident that question was never asked
to Christopher Nolan's wife.
"Honey, sit down. There's a huge opportunity for us."
Hey, buddy, congratulations again.
The book is really wonderful.
Not in jest at all. Both my kids really loved it.
I'm so excited for "MacGruber."
And congratulations to you and Mari on the new baby.
-Oh, thanks so much, and congratulations for being back.
-It's nice to be back, and we did make Forte
do a line tonight, so I'm very sorry.
[ Laughs ] -Ugh!
-"Little Fox and the Wild Imagination" available today.
We will be right back.