HAMPTONS INSTITUTE: SNL—50 YEARS OF AMERICAN SATIRE

Susan Morrison is the articles editor of The New Yorker and the author of the New York Times-bestselling biography "Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live."  She is the former editor-in-chief of the New York Observer and an original editor of SPY magazine. She lives in New York City.

Photo: Taylor Jewell

Mikey Day recently completed his ninth season as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” after joining the show as a writer in the 39th season.

During his first season as a cast member, Day gained recognition for his wildly popular “Haunted Elevator (ft. David S. Pumpkins)” sketch with Tom Hanks as well as his Donald Trump Jr. impression. Day also co-wrote and starred in the viral sketches “Beavis and Butthead” and “Washington’s Dream.”

Day has appeared in Netflix’s “Unfrosted” and “Hubie Halloween,” Universal’s “Little” opposite Issa Rae, and the Amazon comedy “Brittany Runs a Marathon” opposite Jillian Bell. Additionally, Day and his writing partner Streeter Seidell co-wrote the 2021 comedy “Home Sweet Home Alone” for 20th Century, starring Ellie Kemper, Rob Delaney, Pete Holmes, and Kenan Thompson. The duo is currently writing the Disney reboots of “Inspector Gadget” and “Space Camp,” as well as “The Rugrats Movie” for Nickelodeon/Paramount.

Previously, Day was a member of the Groundlings comedy troupe in Los Angeles and Nick Cannon’s MTV comedy series “Wild ‘N Out” for seven seasons. He was also a head writer on Cartoon Network’s “Incredible Crew,” co-head writer and cast member on NBC’s “Maya & Marty” and co-writer for the 2016 comedy “Brother Nature.” 

His notable voiceover work includes numerous characters in DC’s Mad Animated Series that brought the classic humor magazine to life, and he can currently be seen hosting the Netflix hit “Is It Cake?”

Adam Green began his career right out of college, where he was an editor of The Harvard Lampoon, as a staff writer for Saturday Night Live. He went on to write numerous screenplays and sitcom pilots (none of which you will have seen because none got made), as well as several TV comedy specials (some of which you might have seen). Since leaving the entertainment world for the lucrative field of print journalism, he has been Vogue magazine’s longtime theater critic and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. He is currently at work on a long-overdue memoir for the very patient folks at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He and his wife Katie live in Watermill with their almost-four-year-old daughter Helen and terrier mix Grace.

Robert Smigel is a writer, producer, actor and director known best for his Saturday Night Live “TV Funhouse” cartoon shorts, including The Ambiguously Gay Duo, Fun With Real Audio, and the X-Presidents, and as the creator and voice of Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, the foul-mouthed puppet who has mercilessly mocked everyone from Star Wars and Bon Jovi fans to Eminem and Ted Cruz. Triumph continues to appear on The Daily Show and Hollywood Squares, but did the bulk of his poopery on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, for which Robert served as the first Head Writer/Producer, creating numerous bits including “In the Year 2000” as well as providing the mouth/voices for Conan’s celebrity “Clutch Cargo” interviews of Bill Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Donald Trump and many more.

Robert met Conan at SNL, where they collaborated on many sketches including the  infamous Nude Beach and the Girlwatchers (with Tom Hanks). They also wrote and produced the legendary unsold pilot Lookwell starring Adam West. Robert’s own best-known sketches at SNL included the Chicago Super Fans,  Schmitt’s Gay Beer, William Shatner and the Trekkies, Mastermind Reagan, The Sinatra Group, Seinfeld’s Stand Up & Win and Steve Martin’s Holiday Wish and “Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight” song.

Most recently, Robert co-wrote, co-directed, wrote songs for and voices characters in the animated Netflix movie, LEO, starring Adam Sandler, Bill Burr and Cecily Strong, which is the service’s most successful animated film ever. He also co-wrote and produced Sandler’s Hotel Transylvania, Hotel Transylvania 2 and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.  His film debut as a writer/director was The Week Of (2018) starring Sandler and Chris Rock.

Robert has had roles in many Sandler films as well as This is 40, Punch Drunk Love, Marriage Story and the recent Sundance hit Between the Temples with Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane, as well as featured roles on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Portlandia and What We Do in the Shadows.  

Robert has won three Emmys for his work on SNL and for Night of Too Many Stars, a biannual benefit he and his wife Michelle created that has raised over $32 million for autism programs nationwide, hosted by Jon Stewart. Robert’s Triumph Election Special ’16 earned Hulu its first-ever primetime Emmy nomination. His Grammy-nominated comedy album for Triumph, Come Poop With Me, somehow lost despite classics like “Underage Bichon” and “Cats Are C***s”.