SNL Alums Rachel Dratch and Ana Gasteyer reunite for the ultimate Christmas Parody

For three years, they overlap in the cast Saturday night live, Rachel Dratch and Ana Gasteyer don’t have “some big sketches together.” But they’ve always made each other laugh and haven’t stopped looking for new ways to collaborate since leaving the show. Now they’ve reunited wonderfully, co-writing and co-writing A Clüsterfünke Christmas, their new parody of the Hallmark and Lifetime films Sinful Merry Christmas for Comedy Central.

In this week’s episode of The last laugh audio file, Dratch and Gasteyer analyze how they made spot deposits and reminisce about the highs and lows of their time in SNL—From backstage antics to after-party antics to the struggles they face in the entertainment industry as each decides to move on.

When I let the comedian pair know that their new movie really got me into the early holiday spirit, Gasteyer exclaimed, “How exciting! That is the goal. If not, that’s sad.”

It’s still there SNL’popular Christmas episodes — usually the last show of each year — where Gasteyer in particular first caught the eye with sketches like “Martha Stewart’s Topless Christmas” and the “Schweddy” edition. Balls” of NPR’s “The Delicious Dish” with host Alec Baldwin. “It’s always been a beautiful time of year for me creatively,” she said. “Christmas shows are always of a great kind, so I have fond memories of all of that.”

For Dratch, “the idea that anyone can drop by and anything can happen” is what makes those big year-end episodes so exciting. She remembers returning to the show for the final episode of Kristen Wiig in 2012 when host Mick Jagger and the Foo Fighters played outside under the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree until three in the morning. “I imagine anyone just happened to be walking by and looking over, like, ‘Hey…that…is that Mick Jagger?’” she recalls.

Dratch and Gasteyer just started writing A Clüsterfünke Christmas when the COVID-19 pandemic began, this turned out to be a stroke of luck that is hard to fake. “Lockdown was a lucky break for us because it created a time and space where we could really write a movie together,” Gasteyer said.

It also allows them to invite producers and writers who have worked on actual Hallmark Christmas movies to perfect the look and feel of those movies. “The idea was to bring the comedians and the Hallmark minds together to create the best parodies we could possibly have,” she continued. “And it was really important to Rachel and to me that it really felt like a Hallmark Christmas movie or a Lifetime Christmas movie, because the more the number, the more fun we had with it.”

According to Dratch, the big story they want to deal with is that “big city, bad operator has no time for love or Christmas is sent to a small town to buy up a local business and Meet a fascinating local.”

“And give up her ordinary life for the Christmas magic,” Gasteyer added, ending his comedian’s thoughts. “It’s a movie for comedy fans and it’s a movie for Hallmark fans and it’s a movie for Hallmark haters.”

As for the decision to appear in a supporting role in the film instead of taking the center role, Dratch said, “We knew we weren’t going to be the romantic leads in any way, shape or form. . So, of course, we’ll be playing the spinning gray-haired aunts who run the inn. “

“And there’s also a gimmick there that we’re trying to get attention,” explains Gasteyer, “in these movies, you tend to have a young teenage girl coming in looking for a lumberjack or a friend. there was 350- a longtime family caretaker woman who gave sage advice. “

Of course, for A Clüsterfünke Christmas, they need two. “Oh yeah, that’s a given,” said Dratch. “There’s not a lot of talk about that.”

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