Seth Meyers was on Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2014, including several years spent as the show's head writer. Now, he has revealed his favourite moment from the show's history.
Speaking on The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast, the talk show host revealed that his favourite moment in SNL history comes from 2007's "Iran So Far," which was the Lonely Island's facetious love song for former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. At the time, Ahmadinejad was in the news for claiming that there weren't any gay people in Iran during an appearance at New York's Columbia University.
Meyers said, "Alright, I'll just say it. I'll try not to get emotional. My favourite shot in the history of SNL is you [Andy Samberg] in Times Square, saying, 'I know you say there's no gays in Iran, but you're in New York now, baby,' and the whole audience applauds. It's literally my favourite moment in the history of the show."
The Lonely Island's Jorma Taccone, responded, "Even you saying it, the hairs on the back of my neck go up, 'cause I do remember feeling genuinely proud. Because we never said anything in any of our shorts ever. They weren't ever about anything."
Meyers said that the moment signified the start of a new "golden era" for the show, and he went on to explain why it felt so emotional to him. He said, "I love it. It fuckin' never doesn't get me. The thing I was thinking about today, what's so wonderful about it, [is] because there's not a patina of meanness in the entire thing, because it never winks. It just is this beautiful song to this man. And if he'd ever seen it, that regressive-minded, dead-eyed motherfucker would have been like, 'What?!' I just think about someone showing it to him, and him being so fucking confused as to what it was."
Taccone pointed out that Meyers had visibly teared up when talking about the short. He added, "That's actually how I feel about this short as well."
Watch "Iran So Far" below. It features a chorus hook from Maroon 5's Adam Levine, and Fred Armisen playing Ahmadinejad.