Feb. 21, 2026

Celebrities Who Dislike Jay Leno and Kenan Thompson Talks Whiskey

Celebrities Who Dislike Jay Leno and Kenan Thompson Talks Whiskey
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The focus is on celebrities who have publicly criticized Jay Leno. Arsenio Hall, Dennis Miller, Jimmy Kimmel, George Lopez, Patton Oswalt, Howard Stern, Conan O'Brien, Rosie O'Donnell, and Joan Rivers have all expressed their disdain for Leno for various reasons, highlighting their personal grievances and industry politics. The episode also features Kenan Thompson discussing his newfound appreciation for whiskey, his favorite fictional bartenders, and his experiences on SNL.
 
00:16 Celebrities Who Can't Stand Jay Leno
00:30 Arsenio Hall's Feud with Jay Leno
01:14 Dennis Miller's Disdain for Jay Leno
01:43 Jimmy Kimmel's Critique of Jay Leno
01:59 George Lopez's Beef with Jay Leno
02:48 Patton Oswalt's Take on Jay Leno
03:50 Howard Stern's Accusations Against Jay Leno
04:15 Conan O'Brien and Rosie O'Donnell on Jay Leno
04:52 Joan Rivers' Return to The Tonight Show
05:09 David Letterman's Joke About Jay Leno

05:27 Kenan Thompson Talks Whiskey and SNL
 

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This is the animal sanctuary mentioned in the February 10 episode.

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Callaroga Shark Media. Hey am Johnny Mack with your daily

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comedy and hews if though we had to start with

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some fun today from Nickyswift dot com. It's celebrities who

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can't stand jay Leno. That's right, jay Leno. That guy's

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the worst. He sometimes comments about late night television and

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takes care of his wife. He's just awful. So let's

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take a look at the celebrities who do not like

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jay Leno. We're told Arsenio Hall threatened to kick jay

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Leno's butt. Arsenio Hall back in nineteen ninety two told

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Entertainment Weekly that Arseniol Hall had little respect for jay

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Leno's talents. Reports at the time claimed he was friends

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with jay Leno or Senio apparently said, I have no

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problem about saying good things about my competitors, but jay

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Leno and I aren't friends. And you know what, I

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wasn't annoyed it, Okay, No one put the late night

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silver spoon in my mouth. I earned every drop of mine,

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and I'm gonna treat him like we treated the kid

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on the high school basketball team. It was the coach's son.

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He was there because he was annointed too. We try

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to kick his button. That's what I'm gonna do, kick

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Jay's butt. How that work out ours anyhow? Haul then

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apparently was a Good Morning America and have said. Something's

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wrong with someone who's always surprised about people being upset

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with him. Dennis Miller apparently hasn't talked to Jay Leno.

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Dennis Miller told Entertainmy and Weekly Jay and I were

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good friends at one point. I don't think I talked

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to him again, nor would he want to talk to

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me about the tonight show. Put it this way, they

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want to win really badly. He may recall, Dennis Miller

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had a late night show. The accusation seemed to be

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that NBC was trying to stop famous people from going

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on other shows. Jay Leno said, we weren't keeping people

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off their show. Do we say to guests, we'll give

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you this in that and we have a bigger audience,

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we'll fly you in, we'll pick you up in a limo. Yeah,

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but please, that's the game. Jimmy Kimmel on the list,

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telling the New York Times, I think he turned comedy

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in a factory work, and it comes across just amazing

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how insecure he is. The people who like Leno are

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largely a stupid group. The people who root for Letterman

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of the smarter group. The people who like me also stupid.

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I figure I cut into the dummies. Lopez. Remember Lopez

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had a late night show, Lopez Tonight. Now. I want

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to see George Lopez in concert in Chicago around that time,

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and George was actually like an a hole. Like we

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were sitting in the audience going, dude, you just sound

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like a more and he was flaming everybody. I think

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he flamed Carson. I remember walking out of the show

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and it kind of changed my opinion on George Lopez.

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Did not enjoy it at all. In two thousand and seven,

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George Lopez apparently was on WMX radio and told Scott

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and Erica that he hoped to start a beef with

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Jay Leno, saying, Leno is the biggest two faced dude

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in TV. When I had my kidney transplant in two

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thousand and five, he called me and was the nice

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guy on the phone, and then he just puts the

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knife in your back. It tells you something about Jay Leno.

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If Conan O'Brien is coming to the Tonight show, when

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Jay Leno is still young enough to be the host.

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The dudes like the worst interview were on TV. Patton

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Oswalt on Comedy Death Ray apparently said, you almost want

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to take Leno aside and go, why do you want

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this so badly that this being the tonight show? Because

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you don't do anything with it? Listen, Patton Oswald, Dude, bro,

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Patton Oswald, you ruined Star Trek and I've been meeting

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all week to get to this time out. Johnny Max

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got a beef with Patton Oswald, who ruined Star Trek

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is dug the Vulcan. Patton, did you not put out

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a really famous bit called at midnight, I will kill

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George Lucas with a shovel? And is that not complaining

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about the Star Wars prequels? So you're going to kill

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George Lucas with a shovel for ruining a sci fi

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franchise that you love, So you, Dug the Vulcan can

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understand how I am outraged at you. Tig Nataro, Genius Sheer,

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Stephen Colbert, and any other comedian who is currently ruining

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Star Trek. I digress. Let's go back to j leto.

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Patton said comedians that don't like j leto now and

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I'm one of them. We're not like, oh my god,

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Jay Leno sucks. It's that we were hurt and so

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disappointed that one of the best comedians of our generation

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wilfully like threw that switch off. Howard Stern back in

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the day, the old Howard Stern told Peters Morgan, Jasonsane,

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and Jason Crook, he steals a tremendous amount of material.

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Why don't we all pause the podcast right now and

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google fart Man. And I don't mean the Howard Stern version,

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I mean the National Lampoon version. And then we'll unpause

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and we'll come back and listen to what Howard Stern

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was saying, which includes, he steals a tremendous amount of material.

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Fart Man, he's not fit to scrub but David Letterman's feet.

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Conan O'Brien told The Hollywood Reporter in twenty twelve Jay

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Leno hadn't built any bridges. Conan said, he certainly isn't

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calling me. It's not like he's going to sneak up

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on me and traffic the odds that will both leave

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this earth without speaking to each other. It's fine. There's

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really nothing to say. We both know the deal. He knows,

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I know. I'd rather just forget Rosie O'Donnell said, I've

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been a big fan of ConA O'Brien and The Tonight

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Show's a franchise that has been sixty years with NBC.

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And if you're privileged enough to be asked to drive

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the bus, you just say thank you and drive it

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to the best of your ability. And when it's time

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for them to hire a new driver, you should say

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thank you for allowing me to drive this for as

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long as I did, and pass the keys to the

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new guy with the red hair, not try to flatten

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his tires before he even gets going. In twenty fourteen,

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Jimmy Fallon rescinded the ban on Joan Rivers from The

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Tonight Show. Joan Rivers returned to The Tonight Show and

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fl up to Jay Lenno the Bird. She told Inside Edition,

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the curse is gone to Jay. Well, Jay, twenty three years,

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I'm still here and you're gonna be selling cars. And

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then there's the joke from David Letterman, who had a

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joke about a Law and Order spin off which would

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have been called Leno Victims Unit, which would follow two

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kinds of hosts, Jay Leno and those who have been

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victimized by Jay Leno. I had so many things I

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was going to do today. I didn't expect the jay

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little thing to take up half the show. Let's do

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this one. Keenan Thompson caught up with Men's Journal and

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Keenan started talking about whiskey, and I thought to myself, Now,

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if Jim Gaffigan did this, you would rip it to shreds,

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would you not? Johnny Mack, Yes, you would, so, Keenan,

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it's your turn. They were somehow tying all this whiskey

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drinking back to the NFL. Keenan Roots of the Falcons

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when eight and nine and Keenan Thompson told Men's Journal,

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if you've had a lemon of a season, turn those

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lemons into Jim Beam, turn it negative into a positive,

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and what do you know. Keenan Thompson teamed up with

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Jim Beam for an ad campaign promoting this simple yet

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tasty combination. Boy, if Gaffigan did this, Men's Journal asked

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him before this ad campaign, were you a huge lemon fan?

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Keenan Thompsons said, weirdly enough, I do have an affinity

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towards lemons, like I even wear a citrusy kind of cologne.

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But you know, it wasn't anything that I was intending on,

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Like it's not necessarily my go to because I don't

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even mix anymore but on a nice little health cake

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these days. So I'm just kind of straight up for

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the low carbs or whatever. But I do remember lemonade

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always kind of going hand in hand with great things,

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Jim Beam being one of them. Jim Beam says, thank

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you for the mention there, So I was happy to

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spearhead this new movement for them. They asked Keenan Thompson,

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was there someone who introduced you to whiskey your family

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or perhaps Lord Michaels or I'll throw it, maybe it

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was Jim Gaffigan. Keenan said, no, I don't have a

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whiskey mentor. Are we supposed to have whiskey mentors? Like

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I've got a little here in the basement that sometimes

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on a hot day, I'll pour a little over ice

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with my son. I don't have a mentor, Keenan said,

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I've always been much more casual, but as I've gotten older,

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I like to get into the history of things and

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also the quality of things by doing a little research,

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like we have the Brandy Library here in New York.

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Having gone there and seen so many varieties of things,

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it's easy to kind of get immersed in it a

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little bit. So anytime I'm drinking whiskey, it's nice to

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know the good ones, well, Keenan, other than lemonade. And

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how do you drink your whiskey? Keenan said, I need

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a rock. I need something to soothe it a little bit.

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You know, a nice big rock or even a few

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smaller ones. It doesn't really matter. Sometimes I do want

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several rocks to get a little water in there. Good

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follow up by Men's Journal. Whiskey drinkers tend to be

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very specific about ice. Are you picky? Keenan said, No,

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at home, it could be whatever. It's always nice to

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see when people have curated cubes, like any sort of

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Star Wars themed cubes, Death Stars, anything like. That's always fun,

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is it? And you're talking to somebody who has about

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five Star Wars posters here in the basement, and I'm

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not kidding. We're just a traditional round ball or big

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square cube kind of thing. But at a restaurant, I

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expect some fanciness. Oh this is fun. Who's your all

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time favorite fictional bartender? Keenan said, who did it better

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than Tom? I've seen lots of movies and that was

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a lot of training for him. He really wanted to

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take it seriously. So between that and maybe Coyote Ugly,

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I guess how do you not pick Isaac the bartender?

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I mean, come on, love boat anybody. The only thing

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that would make this better for me was if this

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was actually with Jim Gavigan. Keenan was asked what's the

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perfect snack food to have with bourbon while watching sports?

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Is it popcorn? Perhaps peanuts? Keenan said, I think we

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need to level up. We're in the connected world where

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you could experience so many different flavors. I think you've

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got to get into some charcoutery or something like that

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where you get off a bunch of different tastes on

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a plate, especially in the Master Chef days we're living in.

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I like putting together display then feast on it. Keenan Thomson.

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Do you have a favorite all time guest host of

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SNL that you've enjoyed drinking with? Keenan said. Dave Chappelle

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is great because he enjoys the night as well. He

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doesn't get introverted or anything. It's kind of like he's

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just waking up after the show. He's a great one

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to have a moment with him to pick his brain.

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He's a praiser, so he'll always be giving you props

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while you're trying to give him props. If you could

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have a drink with anyone who's been in the cast

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of SNL, who would it be? Phil Harmon. I'd love

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to be able to really sit down just be around

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with him more than once. I'd love to have been

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able to build an alumni brotherhood with him. We met

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on a plane once and he was so generous. It

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almost seemed like a dream because it was happening in

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the sky. He was so nice and it was just

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kiss met. They were put together on this flight, and

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I say we because it was me and kel Mitchell.

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He got up during the you can unbuckle your seat

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belts now and walk around the cap and time, and

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he just came over to us. We just had a

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conversation for a while. Was fantastic. Interesting tag here Keenan

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talked about SNL Ben Journal was like it seems like

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a party all week long? Is it like that? And

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Keenan said, it's a lot more corporate these days. Everybody

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just kind of comes in and focuses. We're all aware

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of our HR meetings and stuff like that. I think

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we keep it more so for after the show's done,

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kind of like decompression and that is your comedy news

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as it was for today fun show. I like to

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mix it up, especially on the weekends. All right back

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in the morning with a normal episode and then at

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neewon Eastern on Monday the results of Comedy Survivor. We'll

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see who was voted off Comedy Island this week, So

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regular at three oh five am Eastern and Comedy Survivor

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at noon. Easter and enjoy your Sunday Sea tomorrow