-16th. You just had your 16th season premiere at "SNL."
-It's unbelievable, man.
Like, I'm the record holder... -You are the record holder.
-...of "Saturday Night Live"... [ Speaks indistinctly ]
-When -- Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
Deservedly so. -Thank you. Thank you.
-Did you enjoy the first show back?
Season premieres are always exciting.
-I enjoyed watching it. I sure did.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
I was not in it much, so... -Yeah.
-Yeah. It was all good, though. I did my part in the monologue
and I got to watch the circus unfold.
-There was a circus on Saturday. -Yeah.
-A Kanye West-led circus. -Yeah.
-Particularly at the end of the show, now he --
For those who didn't watch,
he did a song at the end of the show.
Then the show ended. -Yeah.
-But then it turned out that he brought a bunch of people on --
He brought the cast back on stage...
-Yeah, yeah.
-While he gave a very political speech.
-Yeah, he voiced his opinion very loudly. Yeah.
-Yeah. -For a long time.
-Not a guy who's scared of his opinion and voicing it.
-No, no, not at all.
And, you know, we're all entitled to our opinion.
-Sure. -I don't know if that's
the moment necessarily to hold people hostage like that.
[ Laughter ] But, hey, you know...
-Well, the thing about what -- I, you know, when I share
my opinion, one thing I try not to do is say,
"Come on, everyone. Come on up."
-Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. -"Come join me."
-Yeah. "Come into the wolf's den, and then I'll --"
-"You guys, you all disagree with me, right? Come up here."
-"Yeah. Yeah, come up here." -"Join me while I do this."
-"I'll be nice, I promise."
-"I promise I'll be nice." -"Get up here." Yeah, and then--
-"I'm lying." -Proceeds to caca on people.
Yeah, that's what he did. -You were not --
Because people, again, it was not...it was not on broadcast.
Some people filmed it. -Right.
-You were not on stage, I noticed.
-Yeah, I had departed. -Okay.
-Yes. -Now, was that a choice?
Did you chose to depart or you just departed by --
-I mean, I was just, you know, thinking that, you know,
I would rather, like,
watch the, you know, performance on TV.
Sometimes I like watching the musical performance...
-Of course. -...how everyone would see it,
like, on TV as a viewer.
And so then, when you saw what happened,
were you so happy with the choice you'd made?
[ Laughter ]
-For sure. Yes. -[ Laughs ]
-As soon as he said, "Hey, join me up on stage, everybody,"
I was like, "Oh, there goes the little cheese
in the mouse trap." [ Laughter ]
"It's going down."
I felt so bad for those guys, because it's hard to stand there
and not be able to, you know,
debate somebody who's going to so far
against, you know, your personal opinion as well,
and just stand there and take it. Just, you know...
-And, you know, the other thing is, I think that --
and you and I can both speak to this, at "SNL,"
you try make the people that are the musical guests, the hosts,
you try to make them comfortable.
-We're fair. Yeah, we're fair.
We're in the service business. You know what I mean?
We try to cater to the host, make sure they have a good show
and whatnot. And then, you know,
when musical guests come in, and they're a little bit crazy,
maybe they're a little bit crazy.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-We let 'em have that. -Yeah.
-I mean, but we don't judge. -Absolutely.
-We're not there to judge.
-I had one of the most delightful things happen to me
on the street the other day. I was walking down the street.
I bumped into you and your baby girl Gianna.
-Yeah. On Super Daddy duty. That's right.
-Super Daddy duty. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Yeah, that's right.
-Oh! -There she is. Look at her.
[ Audience "Awws" ]
-[ Babbles ]
-So first of all, it's not 'cause you are --
you turned 40 this year. -Yes.
-You had your second little girl.
-Greatest summer of my entire life.
My second little girl was born. She's healthy. She's happy.
My wife is healthy and happy.
My big girl, Georgia, is healthy and happy.
She's 4. She's obsessed with her sister.
We got nominated and won an Emmy.
-You won an Emmy. -The show won an Emmy.
I got personally nominated. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Right. You, um...
You won a, uh... -Crazy.
-We won an Emmy. -You won an Emmy for this song?
-Yes. Thank you. Shout-out.
We shout-out K-Ci and JoJo all the time
because they were heavy inspirations for that.
-And that is -- You wrote a song with Chance the Rapper.
-Yeah, man. Shout-out to Chance the Rapper, man.
Once again, I got nominated the first time with Chance, so...
-Yeah. -...the dude is brilliant.
-Well, I -- you and I came by our Emmys in very similar ways,
which is, I won an Emmy
for writing a song with Justin Timberlake.
And I think the key is -- -Gotta pick a good horse.
-Yeah, exactly. -Gotta pick a good horse.
-No one, I feel like, is looking at
the ballot, being like, "Oh, I like Kenan Thompson's song."
-Yeah, exactly. No.
I picked two good horses -- Chance and Chris Redd.
-Chris Redd, absolutely. -Chris Redd is dynamite.
-He's fantastic. And what is it? Is it Chris' second season now?
-Yeah, man. The boy's blowing up. He's already got an Emmy.
-Very excited. Yeah. He's doing a great job.
-Unbelievable. -You -- you're very --
It was both -- it was bittersweet,
'cause you were nominated for supporting actor, you lost.
With that said, Henry Winkler won.
-That's what I'm saying, like... -Yeah.
-If there's anybody to lose to...
-It's Henry Winkler. -...it's Henry.
I mean, he was sitting right across the aisle from me. Yeah.
-Yeah, give it up for Henry Winkler.
-Seriously, like... [ Cheers and applause ]
His story is incredible.
He waited 42 years for that Emmy.
-Yeah. -You know what I mean?
He was nominated. -In the theater the whole time.
-Yeah. Right. Just sitting there that entire --
just ready. Speech written, getting dusty.
-Changing it, as it was. -Rewrites.
-He has new kids. Has to like -- -Oh, my God. But, yeah.
I mean, he sat right across the aisle from me.
And when I saw him, you know, I gave him, you know,
like, a nice across the aisle squeeze...
-Yeah. -...because he's a dear friend.
We worked on a show, an animated show called "Sit Down, Shut Up,"
and we were, like, faculty members or whatever.
And when I first met him, he was the sweetest,
little old Jewish man that I've ever seen in my life.
He was like a sweet little Jewish gumdrop.
You just want to, like, eat him up.
And he, like, just gave me a hug. And he's so warm.
And we talked. And I was just like,
"I can't believe I'm talking to Fonzarelli right now."
You know what I mean? -Yeah.
-He's talking to me like he knows me.
He's like, "We watch you all the time.
We love you in the Winkler house."
And then we were nominated in the same category.
And, like, that's just a flattery in its own right.
You know what I mean?
Just to be in the same sentence as that guy.
And he won. And it stung. You know?
-Yeah. [ Laughs ] -But, um... [ Laughs ]
I was so happy for him because I know how great he is.
And then I found out about, you know, the 42-year thing.
And I was like, "Well, yeah, of course he should have won."
-Yeah. -You know what I mean?
And then I said something nice to him
when I presented the award myself at the end of the night,
just because it came from the heart.
And I saw him sitting there. I congratulated him.
And he wrote me a letter. -That's so amazing.
-He sent me a letter.
Like, wrote me, like, a thank you letter.
-He's truly the nicest. -He's a sweet, sweet man.
It's one of those people, it would be so devastating
if you met Henry Winkler, and he wasn't the nicest person.
And he just -- -Ohh. It would suck so hard.
-It would suck so hard. [ Laughter ]
-Because, like, I could get it, like, if he was just The Fonz.
I was like, "Yeah, okay, he's kind of a tough guy."
But he also played, like, you know,
a lot of really sweet teachers. -Yeah, absolutely.
-And, like, a lot of good dads and stuff like that.
Especially in "Click." You know, Adam Sandler's dad.
Oh, my God. So sweet.