You know you’ve arrived when Saturday Night Live hall-of-famer Robert Smigel calls your sketch “perfect.” That’s precisely what happened after Smigel caught this weekend’s “Calling Dad.”
Smigel praised the sketch on X/Twitter, calling it “a perfect [SNL] sketch,” and crediting cast members Andrew Dismukes, Devon Walker, and Kenan Thompson with having “brilliantly performed” the skit alongside host Bill Burr.
In the four-minute sketch, Walker and Dismukes play sons attempting to have meaningful conversations with their fathers, only to be met with stilted conversation about the Philadelphia Eagles and car maintenance.
“The Eagles just kinda feel like maybe the Eagles don’t got much time left,” Walker’s dad (Thompson) says, choking up. “It’s just, the Eagles have been going to a lot of funerals lately, for other teams that the Eagles grew up with. Last week, the Eagles fell in the shower.”
Dismukes’ phone call doesn’t go any more smoothly. “I just worry about your car, you know?” Burr tells him. “I think my car just wants to be closer to your car, because my car’s car died around the age your car is now.”
“Last week, the doctor found some polyps in my car’s ass,” Burr tearfully says to cap off the metaphor.
“Calling Dad” has garnered over 1 million views on YouTube since being posted early Sunday morning.
Smigel, of course, is one of late night’s most acclaimed writers. He wrote for SNL from 1985-1993, also serving as a featured player in his last two years at the show. He left to help launch Late Night with Conan O’Brien, where he served as head writer and created some of the show’s most fondly remembered characters—including Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. He continued to contribute sketches to SNL over many years. including his recurring animated segment TV Funhouse, which aired on the show from 1996-2008.
Smigel and Burr recently worked together on Leo, the 2023 animated Netflix film Smigel co-wrote with Adam Sandler and co-directed. (Leo also featured SNL alumni Sandler, Cecily Strong, Rob Schneider, and Heidi Gardner in voice roles.)
Smigel continues to have a presence in late night, most prominently via Triumph, who has served as a political correspondent of sorts on both The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Daily Show .
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the sketch was written by Andrew Dismukes. According to an Instagram story posted by Devon Walker, it was in fact written by Walker, Carl Tart, and Moss Perricone. Thanks to Kian for the heads-up.
