‘Now I Know How Much You Hate the Guests’: Andy Samberg Reflects on Guest Hosting ‘Kimmel,’ A Job He Despised And Will Never Do Again

As The Daily Show continues its extended tryouts for late-night’s next big star, one thing is clear — Andy Samberg is not in the running.

Last May, Jimmy Kimmel went down with a surprise case of COVID that left Jimmy Kimmel Live! without a host. In his absence, Saturday Night Live veterans Samberg and John Mulaney stepped up to be the show’s substitute teachers for the night, and Samberg’s time behind the desk taught him just how miserable late-night comedy can be.

Samberg appeared on the most recent episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! where he promoted his upcoming Indiana Jones/Nicolas Cage cartoon mashup series Digman!. The Brooklyn Nine-Nine star took the time to thank Kimmel for making one spring night an un-magical evening that he’ll never forget for the rest of that interview.

“I thought it was just great,” a chipper Kimmel told Samberg of his time hosting the show. “Did you have fun doing that?”

“Thank you! Yeah, no, it was not fun,” Samberg plainly replied, “Super stressful. I found that I did not like the job.” Samberg has sat on countless couches and armchairs on late-night sound stages since he first got his big break on Saturday Night Live in 2005, but his experience conducting the interview himself gave him some perspective on the late-night racket that he’d never had before. “It’s weird for me now, being back, because now I know, having hosted, how much you hate the guests,” Samberg commented, before mocking the dumb answers celebrities give to questions like, “What made you want to do a Nic Cage impression for the entirety of Digman?”

To Kimmel’s point, Samberg and Mulaney’s second-string hosting job was well-received at the time, which speaks to Samberg’s ability to appear anything but miserable while his soul is being destroyed. Maybe that’s why he was cast in That’s My Boy.