Andy Samberg Ranks Super Bowl Snacks & LA Deli Sandwiches

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0:19Andy Samberg:Your cabana's ready. Would you like fresh towels? It matters where you stay. Book now at Hilton.com. Hilton. For this day. Hi, you're listening to Snacks, the podcast where we talk to your favorite stars about their favorite treats. Today, our guest is an actual comedy icon. He's an actor, comedian, writer, producer, rapper, and now he's starring as Neil Diamond for a bunch of Super Bowl ads for Hellman's Mayonnaise. But we're super excited to welcome the hilariously funny Andy Samberg.

0:59hi andy how are you i mean let's just say it tgif tgif indeed also i really i'm laughing because the notes i have for our interview is like must talk about mayo as much as possible i just is this just like a writer that you have going forward in life like oh yeah no matter what i'm promoting that's all i want to talk about all you want to talk about mayonnaise yeah i mean i just watched the spot though and now I'm like sweet sandwich time is gonna be infecting my dreams I was uh it's the the source material is the earworm of all earworms I mean it's true it actually is true um are you a big mayo fan uh yes yes and I'm a big Neil Diamond fan and I'm a big Sweet Caroline fan as well so it was sort of a confluence of many interests are you a big Super bowl fan like are you a like oh super bowl eater yeah absolutely you kidding what's your what's your super bowl food of choice if i'm being fully real yeah please wings wings yeah okay wait so let's do this too because i was gonna wait until the end but delish just did a huge we just did a bracket and everybody on my team is kind of devastated with the way things shook out so So we did a social media bracket.

2:21And so I'm going to do it rapid fire and you're going to tell me what you think of the answers or you're going to answer truly. But then I'm going to tell you what they're what the answer is actually what the audience voted on. OK. Wings or sliders? Wings. OK. Wings or chili? Wings. Wings or nachos? Oof. That one is that's closer for me. okay which one give it to me i have to answer one way or the other you have to answer yes it's a bracket what's the context watching the super bowl or just anytime yes super bowl super bowl wings all of life nachos okay let's stick with super bowl okay wings or pizza oh i know this is like choosing it's sophie's choice i mean once again though in life pizza by a mile during the super bowl yeah okay all right well i need you to know that pizza nacho is actually one yeah i'm not surprised which to be honest surprised me because i thought we sort of thought pizza was gonna win but nachos took everybody pizza is not what i imagine when i'm watching football really I don't know why.

3:40Yeah. So you're a wings person. I am, but I also have eaten a lot of nachos during football. You know what? I guess I'm tripping. I've eaten plenty of pizza during watching sports. Because I was going to say, to me, pizza feels like a good constant. I get what you're saying that when you're thinking about going to a Super Bowl party, it's more about the other stuff, the wings, the nachos, sliders. Make no mistake. Watching somebody go to town on some wings is gross. like like hands like communal hands in wings to me is not the thing i want no no no right if we're talking well by the way that's another way of looking at it is like communal i'm like it's nachos or pizza it's nachos or pizza yeah like messy fingers buffalo sauce in a communal setting is not a thing yeah watching someone like look at their fingers eating buffalo wings disgusting no that's not when it's you it's it's beautiful when it's alone when it's you alone with some wings no one else is around alone in the dark watching the super bowl on mute i don't even need the super bowl on like just be alone with some wings let's be honest your helman's commercial on a loop eating on a loop that's listening to that song over and over and over again with wings is the thing um wait i actually have some real snacking questions for you though because i i you know i've interviewed a lot of um comedians actually on this podcast And I've actually a lot of standup comedians specifically.

5:07And I've been really interested to hear about how fastidious they have to be about eating well on the road because it's so exhausting. You know, they're like kind of almost training for a marathon. I want to know what your food universe was like when you were on SNL because it was super late nights. Like, how were you as an eater when you were pulling those late nights? Like, did you have to be good or were you guys bad? Were you eating a lot late at the studio? What was that like? First off, I love the stand-ups being fastidious about eating and then drinking alcohol every night. I mean, drugs, alcohol.

5:37I mean, but I really appreciate, though, that they were like, well, we like a salad. That's what everybody can tell. I mean, chicken salad. And then, like, live bourbons after the set. Exactly. Yes. A hundred percent. SNL, the dietary stuff was not good. No. You eat basically anything you can get put in front of you while you're trying desperately to figure out a way to get on the show. You're drinking coffee nonstop. You're dehydrated. Then the show ends at 1 a.m. You go out to the party and have dinner, which means you're having dinner at like 2 a.m. And the number of steaks I've eaten at 2 a.m.

6:19on a Saturday night is so psychotic. I can't. In the moment, you're so starving and you're like, I need this. I need protein. Yeah. And then you drink a lot and then wake up at like 4 or 5 p.m. the next day. Wild. So it's not like – so it's sustenance at some level. It's power. It's desperate. But I'll say this. Living in New York, as we all know, the restaurants in New York are so spectacular. When you have downtime, you're off weeks and stuff. Yeah. That's when you're getting it in and you're eating like, you know, royalty. Was the food good at SNL? Did you guys have good craft services? It's fine.

7:01It's fine. It's fine. It's not, it's not terrible and it's not outstanding would be. Right. I heard it used to, they used to have a lot more money. There was so much money in network television before we got there. even we got there the very tail end where like certain writing nights the food they would bring in for the writers and cast was spectacular but then pretty quickly they were like hey we can't be doing this yeah okay yeah i work in magazines i know that i work i remember that i remember the glory days of car services and food oh yeah those were the lunchbox yeah exactly who's your dream SNL dinner date of like a cast member I mean top living or dead living oh not like anyone I mean I've had some pretty great dinners with Seth Meyers that's nice but like someone that I wish I could have met yeah maybe like Gilda oh the best best um all right well we're talking nostalgia I want to talk about you and any food memories you have growing up what was what were some of your what are some of your biggest food memories like what were your some of your nostalgic hits i was into those wwf wrestling bars from the ice cream truck whoa i don't know what this is okay so one side is a cookie with one of the wrestlers like drawn on it in chocolate and then the other side i think is just like a chocolate side and then there's like vanilla ice cream in the middle wow they were pretty bomb that's pretty amazing and were you were those like Like you had an ice cream truck delivering those?

8:42Yeah, it was, yes. No, it was just like Eddie Murphy would describe. Like the ice cream truck, you'd hear it jingling coming down the road and everyone starts screaming and chasing it. And you beg your parents, please. Yeah. Did you grow up in a good food house? Like, did you have good snacks around? Yes, but healthy. like my mom was like very intent on not giving us too much junk food she would there's this place in i grew up in berkeley yeah area yep there's this place there called the berkeley bowl which was sort of like the precursor to all your you know whole foods and air ones and everything yeah down home in a co-op vibe so she'd come with like carob clusters carob sick carob why carob like just why i get it but as we got older she eased off it a lot and even some sometimes she would give me like special special treats i was obsessed with like the movie gremlins oh yeah and they put out a gremlin cereal like limited edition i remember that yeah um and it was i mean i don't know if it was even food no i'm sure not i'm sure not but like what a joy that they remember all those times that they would just make an a special something to go along with every like movie or star wars thing like the fact that there's a wwf thing that like an ice cream bar is amazing and they got me because i watched i watched wrestling at that age i mean yeah you're like whoa this one has the million dollar man on it it's all like is it was it all like smooshed to like a little bit wonky like drawn wonky and weird it's amazing they varied some of them were like the machine did a good job and other ones you could tell like there was it was shaking because a little jammed that's so funny so wait so now you're a dad are you could you feel like you have a good snack house yeah i think i think we give our kids more sugar than i even would would have okayed but we grow up but we now have a house where there's a lot of treats yeah um and it's dangerous because you end up eating them oh yeah and also you know you don't want to set that precedent where like every meal you get dessert i feel like that's that's too much no but it is really a delight when you make somebody something and it delights them so much like kids get so delighted by food and snacks it's too hard as a parent i'm a parent i get it yeah yeah it's like it's hard when you're like oh they just are so happy with dairy queen happy some of my favorite memories with my daughter are around donuts uh really do some donutting together god bless tell me about let's talk about sandwiches because we are here to talk what's your favorite sandwich what's the sandwich that you like really crave um i love like an old school deli sandwich like a cracked pepper turkey with Swiss.

11:46That's great. On like a hoagie. Mayo, obviously. Of course. Of course. And I do like spicy mustard as well. Oh, okay. And pepperoncinis. I know that's very like... No, delish. So good. They make me so happy. Yeah, that's a good one. I love a like hot pastrami from like a good quality Jewish deli. Bless, that's great. You know, like a Langer's in LA or a cat's dessert that can have you um i love a cheesesteak cheesesteak is great and actually we were just we just did a poll too and i feel like people love to put mayo on cheesesteaks hot mayo on hot dogs has is weirdly popular with our audience oh i know and that's a very that that is a latin american thing i have seen as something that is popular um i was gonna ask if is it regional yeah no and then mayo on cheesesteak which also can't be bad we love a mayo on a on a grilled cheese here we do a lot of grilled cheese with mayos here yeah as well i love a grilled cheese too sandwiches are i mean there's honestly they're so good why are they i mean yeah i ride for a panini i go i go for you know like a classic italian where it's like like the perfect you know buffalo mozzarella like that kind of situation yeah i'll do the i'll do the new fangled kind of like farm to table style with like fresh arugula a little fresh arugula i'll do all that

13:27are you a good eater do you feel like you eat well in life yes i eat well in life and it is one of my favorite things to do do you cook i cook a little but not a lot and not well what's your better at eating than cooking i think most people would say that what's your go-to what do you cook uh i cook eggs for my daughter okay what kind of scrambled what's your what's the ride actually she likes some fried and i do them with the crispy edges just how she likes nice um a lot of breakfasty stuff i feel like it's kind of classic dad stuff sadly yeah you know i grew up my dad made great breakfast to do like scrambled eggs with locks and stuff so you did grow up jewish right yeah like like because i'm also jewish like yeah like real jewish like like halava jewish or like matzo ball soup jewish like like i i didn't really get in a matzo ball soup until i was a teenager honestly yeah that's a late in life thing yeah i do love matzo ball soup i had some last night oh nice yeah but like would you is is jewish food part of your personal identity food identity you said pastrami too i was curious yeah i don't i wouldn't say it's part of my personal identity but it's definitely something that i eat often yeah well do you live in New York?

14:54I live in LA, but I have lived in New York. Is there good Jewish food in LA? Yeah. My favorite deli in LA is Langer's, but you know, we got Nate and Al's. We shot this commercial at Cantor's. There's Daughter's Deli now, which is connected to Langer's. There's Brent's Arts. There's, there's a lot of good Jewish deli out here. That's amazing. I do You actually, I have an appreciation for that because I feel like Jewish food done really well is like a really special experience, honestly. Completely agree. Yeah. Yeah. And also like very like it's the kind of touchstone food that you get in your life.

15:34Okay. I've got one more question. Wildest thing you put mayo on? I mean, a hat.

15:47All my answers were like sandwiches. that's a good one i would say that wins that's definitely a good one um i'm really excited for this ad to air i'm really excited that um that you joined us today and i'm also i really think it's fascinating you've given me a lot to think about about food that we eat at super bowl versus other times because i think you make a pretty fair point that super bowl is a special experience can't be. It feels split out from all other reality. I don't. Yeah, I don't disagree with that. Thank you so much. And we really, really appreciate having you here today. Likewise.

16:30Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us, Andy. We are so happy to have you. This has been an absolute blast. Please make sure you follow Snacks Podcast wherever you get your podcasts and make sure you like and subscribe everywhere you get your social media at snack podcast. See you next time.

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