-You know our first guest tonight from his work
on "Saturday Night Live," where he serves as a head writer,
as well as co-anchor of "Weekend Update."
He stars in "Tom & Jerry: The Movie,"
which premieres in theaters and on HBO Max on Friday.
Please welcome back to the show our very good friend Colin Jost.
How are you, buddy?
-Great. How are you? -Good.
It's so wonderful to see you.
I cannot believe -- -I started waving --
When you introduced Raghav, I started waving.
Just I was like,
"Maybe he thinks I'm pretty good at drumming."
I was like, "See where this goes."
-Yeah, a lot of people have said you're a 16-year-old drummer
who's taken the world by storm.
-Yeah. I was like, "Well, I mean, I'll take it."
I know I read as late teens, but...
-You guys are doing your fifth show in a row.
I believe your last run was six shows in a row.
That is a very punishing schedule.
Obviously, a lot of it is necessitated
by the times we're living through,
but are you -- you must be exhausted.
-Yeah, mentally, I think a lot of us
are hitting a breaking point.
But it's very hard -- it's extremely hard to complain
when you work at a comedy show.
Be like, "We worked five weeks in a row!"
You know, to any -- You understand,
but to any sort of, you know, normal functioning human,
they're like, "Uh-huh."
You know, you can't, like, complain.
With my parents, I'm like, "Yeah, Mom, you know,
you can't believe I'm working five weeks in a row."
And she's like, "Yeah, I worked just in, like, hospitals
for like six years straight without a week off.
So, yeah, no, that must be tough."
You're like, "Yeah, okay, that's harder."
-That does make sense, 'cause I've been trying to get people
to bang pots and pans at the end of each "SNL"
just to, like, reward you guys.
-And it hasn't taken off in the same way?
-No, nobody wants to engage that, but I will say --
-I think if you were thinking of it as booing
and they're booing along, you might get some people to join.
Certain weeks, you might get some people to join in.
-Some people said they would like
to come out on their balconies
and just scream how it was better in the '70s.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah, that's right.
They didn't do enough with the host.
Cast is great. Writers are terrible.
They just yell that.
-But, I mean, a very real cost of this --
and obviously, again,
this is the right choice based on safety --
but, you know, whether the "SNL" was good or bad,
the nicest part of the way the week was structured
is at the end of the show, you went out with everybody.
And it could either lift your mood
or, if your mood was great, it would elevate it.
So how weird is it when the shows are over
that everybody just kind of dissipates?
-It's very strange.
I mean, the first part is, there's no energy backstage.
So when you get off, if you felt like things went great
or you felt they went horribly, either way, there's nothing.
You walk into, like, a wall of silence.
Normally, you'd see, you know, whatever.
Adam Levine's there, and he's like, "Hey, what's up, man?
Good job."
Or, you know, there's a llama
and Abraham Lincoln from the costume before.
And, you know, the Abraham Lincoln's,
like, got a couple notes for you --
"Maybe hold your head this way,"
or whatever, you know, things like that.
You're getting energy.
And this is --
You have no --
You have nothing. And then there's no --
Normally, you would sort of decompress
with your friends after the show,
you know, like, your fellow castmates, the writers.
You'd talk about how things went.
And then you're operating in this weird vacuum
and you have none of the release
and none of the social part of the show.
And there's no -- It must be so weird to start this year,
like, new people that started, because there's no, like,
going out for a drink after the table read
and learning about why things aren't getting in the show
or not getting in the show.
Everyone's living in their own weird vacuum.
And when you see people with masks on,
you never want to talk to anyone with a mask on.
You're just like, "Yeah, alright, whatever."
It feels like you're greeting someone in a hospital.
-It's so true about new people,
because I remember when I started,
one of my first reactions was,
"Huh, so there's no cocaine anymore."
And now for them, it must be, "So there's not even beer!"
-Yeah, you're allowed one soft drink after the show.
But you really do.
Like, truly, like, we'll have a drink --
We'll have, like, one beer in a hallway
where you're shouting down the hallway to a fellow cast member.
And that's, like, the closest we've had to a party.
-Sounds great.
-So this is the year to sign up, guys!
If you're looking to join, sign up.
I'm really selling it.
And it's a dream job.
Everyone's on the verge of a mental breakdown,
and you can't drink anymore at work.
Sorry.
-We did -- You know, we obviously --
To be in the building, you know, you and I get tested every day.
And we took advantage of that.
I'm happy to say that two weeks ago,
after my show, I just hung out in my office,
and then you came down to my office,
and we got super hammered and watched YouTube videos together.
-Yeah, it was pretty fun. You ordered us cheeseburgers.
And we ate cheeseburgers on your desk like it was a table.
-Yep.
-Great. One of the greatest nights out of my life.
-Yeah.
That's the new Rainbow Room. -Oh, yeah.
-The new Rainbow Room is office burgers and YouTube.
And then we both -- At the end of the night,
we both spun around and we went, "New York City!"
-I mean, that was probably my wildest night out in New York
in the last six months.
-100%.
-And I didn't leave the building.
-Yeah. You did --
Since the last time you were on the show -- obviously,
as established, I've seen you -- you did get married.
"Jost married." And this is --
For people who couldn't tell by Colin's gold chain,
he is from Staten Island.
[ Both laugh ]
-That's where we did the wedding and the reception.
Cans are real.
My brother did some great Photoshop work.
I know it looks real, but they didn't actually tie
a bunch of 100-foot-long cans
on the back of the Staten Island Ferry.
I mean, they probably -- Someone would have used it as an excuse
to get bodies in the can that they needed to get rid of.
Someone I grew up with would have put bodies in the cans
and been like, "Oh."
Yeah, it's also very strange to get married,
because part of marriage is, obviously,
sort of entering society as a couple, you know.
That's, like, the traditional idea of marriage.
So instead, it's like, just, again,
everything happening in a vacuum,
and some of our closest friends we haven't seen in a year,
you know, couldn't come to the wedding.
And we actually went through --
We got engaged and then immediately went to London
to film -- I went to film "Tom & Jerry,"
and Scarlett went to film "Black Widow."
We'll see which one ends up being the bigger hit.
[ Both laugh ]
The jury's out!
-Colin, Colin, do not put money on this.
-[ Laughs ]
-We left -- We got engaged, then basically fled town,
so I didn't see anyone that summer.
Then I went right back into "SNL," and then COVID hit.
So there's been basically these two years
that have been a huge moment in our lives
where we haven't seen most of our friends.
-Wait, am I finding out now for the first time
that Tom and Jerry are also British actors
who were doing American accents this whole time?
-Yes. That's the big scoop.
Yeah.
We just had Regé on, and hopefully we'll see,
fingers crossed, Tom and Jerry join Nick Jonas this week.