In 1997, Robert Smigel put a dog puppet on his hand, started making poop jokes in a thick Russian accent and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was born. 23 years later, he’s still going strong. In this rare longform conversation, Smigel talks about how he pulls off his epic confrontations of politicians like Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham. He also opens up about his time writing for Conan O’Brien, ‘The Dana Carvey Show’ and SNL, where he created ‘TV Funhouse’ and ‘The Ambiguously Gay Duo’—an animated sketch he readily admits would not work in 2020. Robert explains why his eventual exit from SNL was “not pretty” and weighs in on Alec Baldwin’s “easy” satirical take on Donald Trump.Watch Triumph’s ‘Quarantine Squares’ game show on YouTube. Twitter: @TriumphICDHQ and @mattwilstein | Instagram: @triumphicdhq and @lastlaughpodHighlights from this episode and others at The Daily Beast.Go to ratethispodcast.com/laugh to leave us a rating and review. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.