- I've known Adam Sandler a long time.
We both started out in New York.
I think we first met around 1989.
That was also the year a miracle happened for me.
I was hired by "Saturday Night Live".
I got the job because my blood, sweat
and tears finally paid off
when my father called Lorne Michaels
and asked him to hire me.
(audience laughs)
Actually, that's not true.
Leading up to that job, I was working very hard
developing and directing my own short films.
Adam was on an MTV game show
playing a character named Stud Boy.
(audience laughs)
I would fine tune my scripts, go over my shot lists,
rehearse with the actors, work into the late hours
considering every aspect of my comedic vision.
Adam would put on a silk robe and ask contestants
and guests what celebrity woman he recently had sex with.
(audience laughs)
Both of our early creations are currently up on YouTube
and it's really not important
which one of them has fewer than 15,000 views.
(audience laughs)
There's something about him, you know, his work,
it just, it all, it all feels effortless.
It almost seems, I mean, I don't wanna say lazy
because that's not the right word, and,
I don't have a better word.
So for now, let's go with lazy.
(audience laughs)
But under the surface, there's just,
there's just so much more to it.
I mean, there has to be.
(audience laughs)
I mean, how else can you explain a crazy Hanukkah song?
That's really, (audience cheers) yeah.
That's incredible.
(audience applauds)
And it's really just a list of rhyming celebrity names
and yet it goes multi-platinum and has become a holiday
radio staple that my daughter forces us all to listen to
after we light the handles every year.
It's that Adam Magic.
I bet if a different famous, Jewish comedic actor
wrote away edgier song about, let's say Yom Kippur,
his representatives would call it embarrassing
and beg him not to release it.
Even if, if they heard
that killer opening line,
♪ It's time to atone ♪
♪ So let's get in the zone ♪
♪ Got my dick caught in my zipper ♪
♪ And now it is Yom Kippur ♪
(audience laughs)
(audience cheers)
Yeah.
But you know, when it's Adam,
you can't let it bother you, right?
I mean, the same way I'm never bothered when people come
up to me on the street and go, "Sandler, I love you.
"Click" saved my marriage".
(audience laughs)
I love it.
I mean, you see him and you love him.
You wanna be his friend.
That's the truth.
My own son is a huge fan.
He's constantly asking me,
"Is there any chance Adam would be
in this with you so that people will like it?"
(audience laughs)
He's a kid, you know, it's cute.
Whatever.
He doesn't understand how this business actually works.
It's not like I can just, you know,
corner Adam at some huge event
and try to pressure him to commit to doing a movie with me.
(audience laughs)
Right?
I'd like to conclude by disguising my real feelings
under a silly fake accent, so I won't seem too vulnerable.
Oh, Adam Sandler, I love you so very, very much.
At moments when I'm feeling sad and overwhelmed,
wondering if I have any value as a person,
or I'm feeling insecure
about my talent or lack of it, I know I can always call you
and share my feelings in a way I can with no one else.
It makes me feel better the same way I feel when
I have a chocolate chip cookie
(audience laughs)
or a big bowl of fettuccine alfredo.
Congratulations on getting
this very special Mark Twain Prize.
(audience cheers)
(audience drowns out speaker)
Hey everybody.
(audience cheers)