Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler Almost Got Into a Fight While at ‘SNL'

Collaboration is such an integral part of film and television. You have to work with people you can jive and riff with, who push you creatively. But you also want to make sure they are a good hang. You aren’t always afforded that luxury, but it can be just as helpful as having someone talented on your crew. You’re working with these people for hours and hours a day for weeks at a time. It shouldn’t be a case where you can’t get through disagreements. You will have them, but you need to work through them.

I’m not saying it won’t be difficult. Any relationship requires work, and creative ones are no exception. It also depends on the circumstances under which you create. Two friends hammering out a script together in their free time for fun won’t have the same kind of stakes as developing something for a studio. Doing work on your own schedule as opposed to, say, having to bang out a bunch of ideas overnight on a Tuesday while most human beings are sleeping, knowing full well that anything you make could be tossed aside moments after it is submitted.

That’s the vibe at SNL. As John Oliver recently pointed out, there is a cult-like approach to developing the show every week. They work late nights for several days, rewrite constantly, and try to make sure they are pleasing the almighty Lorne. This is all while trying to ensure they have a proper showcase for themselves. Standing out among such a talented group as the SNL cast can be difficult. But, if you are paired with someone you work well with, there’s potential to lift each other. Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers are a great example.

Meyers and Poehler worked together on Weekend Update for two years, but their partnership left an impact. It followed Poehler working the Update desk with Tina Fey for two years and then, briefly, with Horatio Sanz, something I completely memory-holed. Before writing this, if you had asked me if Sanz had hosted Update, I would have confidently said no. But I would be wrong! I even found a picture, which was being used by FOX News in 2016 to announce the hiring of Julio Torres as a writer in an insanely titled article.

I’m floored they had the self-restraint not to use the word “spicy.”

Poehler and Meyers chatted recently on Poehler’s podcast about their time together on SNL and were quick to note that things weren’t always cheery. “I feel like the most tense [moments] our chemistry ever had was mornings, Update mornings, bagel times,” Meyers noted to an agreeing Poehler. “Because someone had pre-split the jokes, and then there were a few left over that we both wanted. And I feel like there was a real dance of -” Amy cut him off, noting that she’d hope she “would have hidden” that part of herself. “I think we were like, ‘Are you going to take that joke? Hmm, I wonder who takes the good joke here,’” she happily recalled.

“Here’s how I saw it from you: It was like, ‘Hmm, that feels like an Amy joke,’” Meyers remembered. “‘Do you want it?’ And I’d be like, ‘I mean, I would love it, it would mean a lot to me. As a friend, I’m asking for it.’ And you’re like, ‘It’s a real Amy joke.’”

This is more playful than really tense, but I’m sure there are some moments when it did not feel fun. Regardless, the duo was able to work through any difficulties, no matter how small, and remain friends to this day. That rules.