Chris Parnell (2015)

Oh, thanks!

I didn't really create any of it, beyond just doing it onscreen. But I do think the writers wrote it with me in mind. And that helped a lot.

Hahaha! I don't wear sweater vests because I get overheated easily.

But my favorite ARCHER episode is probably the one where I impersonated a -gosh, I don't know what country it was - maybe a Columbian leader? It was one of the first ones I was an agent in the field, and i pulled it off pretty well.

Well, I did some raps on WEEKEND UPDATE on SNL - with Britney Spears, and Kirsten Dunst, and Jennifer Garner, and even Ashton Kutcher.

Wow! I did not know that! That is wildly flattering.

Jesus, that is so cool.

I guess my favorites would be... Mr. Aykroyd (and I would've said that even if he didn't say that about me), Dan and Bill Murray for sure, and I loved Chris Farley and Phil Hartman, and I loved Mr. Ferrell. But there's been so many greats. But those would be my standouts. Also Horatio Sanz.

Well, I think they're pretty slim, at this point.

But that would be pretty cool.

Thank you!

It's gonna be amazing. I think I was even more amazed and dazzled reading the scripts for season 2. I don't remember that many specifics, other than that I know the animators really have their work cut out for them, because there are some really complex things happening with multiple dimensions being depicted onscreen. I'm excited to see it! I forget a lot of what I do after I do it, so that when I watch it, I'm also seeing it for the first time because I've forgotten a lot about it.

But it's gonna be great.

I never got one of those. But you might check eBay.

Oh, that's so nice, thank you!

I guess it would probably be the episode where I ran into the operating room, covered in blood, and proceeded to explain why I was covered in blood - it had to do with killing a dog, as I remember.

The funniest in-person? Oh wow... I guess I'd have to say Jon. I mean, Jon really tickles me. They're all funny. But Jon probably tickles my funny bone the most.

My favorite moment was Bill Murray singing the "love theme to JAWS."

My least favorite moment, I guess, was Eddie Murphy coming out and not doing anything but saying "hi."

As far as I know, the decision was made after the fact? But I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't some... I guess I don't honestly know the answer to that question. I think they might've hoped that it would work, and they could bring Dr. Spaceman back. That wouldn't surprise me. But I don't know that they had any definite plans to do so.

Yeah, sure! You know, as I understand it, both Will and Kattan went to bat for me to Lorne. And I think it certainly helped. And I know one of the writers T. Sean Shannon, he wrote a scathing sketch that was read (at the table, I understand it) that condemned my firing, and took everyone to task about it. Yeah, I never knew exactly why I was fired? I heard from somebody it might have been an NBC executive who didn't care for my stuff? But i think Will and Chris went to bat for me, which definitely helped.

It was crazy. It was a very difficult time. But I was very glad to go back to the show.

Oh, the biggest mistake Cyril has ever made... well, I guess letting Lana go, probably!

You know, I just sort of... it came naturally, I guess? But keep in mind, it's just for comedy. I don't consider myself a real rapper.

But I quite liked the Notorious B.I.G.

chuckles

Gosh, that's a tough one! I guess... I don't think we've heard any of them rap?

I think they would all lose. But if I have to pick one - maybe Jerry? I don't know why, but Jerry.

No, I've never performed down there. I certainly have heard of it, and know about it, and know that it's a big part of Lucky and Amber's lives and they just bought a new place they are renovating and moving into, which is quite exciting, but no, I have not had the pleasure of performing there.

Haha! Well, I would probably just spend time playing with my son and my wife, probably reading some... mostly trying to keep them entertained, probably.

I'm a little hungry, and I could certainly eat an apple, but it wouldn't necessarily be my first choice right now.

Um - Kevin and John Farley, Chris' brothers, were pretending to hump me. Not for real, but just pretend. And they were just being really silly. And also just seeing Prince get up on-stage singing and playing the guitar. He was standing near me for a while, and people were saying Prince is behind you and I was like yes, I know. And I think Bill Murray got up there, and Debbie Harry, just a lot of people singing and performing. But it's when Prince got out there that people got their camera-phones out and were shooting it on their phones. That was pretty cool.

Well, it was me and Andy and Jorma and Akiva writing it together. You know, I wrote maybe... 15% of it? Yeah, probably 15%. I think the rest was split amongst those guys. Andy came up with a lot of the best stuff.

Oh, thanks, yeah. I loved doing SUBURGATORY and getting to work with that cast, especially having Ana Gasteyer play my wife. I would've loved to have seen Victor grow up with the family, and have visits from Ryan, and see how Lisa develops as a young woman, and her relationship with Malik, that would've all been cool to see.

I did not, no. Not even close.

I think Tim Meadows coming in - as I remember, we might have rehearsed it with the host coming in as Tim's part, and I don't remember who the host was, and then in-between dress and air, it changed to Tim, and i don't know if the lines changed or if Tim might have changed them himself or improvised a little bit, and I think that really started the ball rolling, throwing Will off, and then Molly. That's my memory of it, anyway.

Whoa, my all-time favorite? That's tough.

But there's one that Farley did, where he was playing an umpire, and it was about outing people that were gay, and so they would out people, sort of unceremoniously, and they would cut to Farley yelling "YOU'RE OUTTA THERE!" as an umpire. And it was ...it just killed me. There were lots of them that I loved, but that one comes to mind.

Hahaha! No, I did not. I did not. But I did end up being an operations manager at a toy store, later on.

Oh, that's so nice, thank you! It was really fun doing that. John is fantastic, and he was a big contributor to the creative aspect of the film as well. He bought so much to it with the singing. And even though I'd work with Tim Meadows on SNL, it was a brief stint, and I really got to learn a lot more from Tim doing WALK HARD, and I got to know Matt Besser on the set as well, and I got to learn how to play the bass.

Fry Stirday?

Because it was originally on a Saturday. And then he switched it to Friday, and had to change to change the word for it.

Well, my dad is a voiceover guy, back in Memphis, in Germantown. So it's a little bit of a family thing, although he's from the more traditional announcer mold, he was a disc jockey and all that sort of thing. But he had a recording studio with a partner, so when he would need the voice of a little boy, he would use me, and if he needed a little girl, he'd use my sister, but it wasn't until I got on SNL that I was able to use that as a foot-in-the-door for the voiceover world in New York, and got a voiceover agent there.

Oh, I think it would be to get Lana back, and maybe marry Lana, and maybe see Archer in jail, or something, in prison somewhere?

Um, I would love to see myself on a successful, beloved, critically-acclaimed, single-camera sitcom. And doing some movie parts here and there.

One that shoots in Los Angeles!

Life, brother, life.

Oh, haha, thanks about @midnight, I agree!

Cyril's best quality... you know, I don't know if it's a quality, but his ability with logic and numbers, I think, is notable.

And because Cyril has an inner rage, inner fury, that is able to express itself when he has an automatic weapon in his hands.

My favorite drink... it would be a toss-up between Bourbon and Scotch and Rye and Irish Whiskey.

I really just... focused on the scene of it, you know, and was just trying to act it well and hopefully be funny and not be outside of it, because there was some really funny stuff, and there were times when it was hard not to laugh, but I always approached it as an actor (not to sound pretentious, but the idea of breaking character seemed bad to me).

Although I never judged those who did - i know how much the audience enjoys it when people break, and it might've served me well to have broken every now and then. And also I just think I took it so seriously, perhaps too seriously, the whole thing.

I would say "Drink the beer that you love the taste of, and hopefully one that doesn't add too many calories to your diet. Drink what you love, and don't drink what's cool. Like, if it's Bud Light Lime, drink Bud Light Lime."

And then for life, I'd say: "Try to love your neighbor as yourself, and be a loving, forgiving human being."

Well, thanks!

Oh, oh, I do not. But thank you so much. I'm very lucky I get to be paid for using my voice like i do.

I had...a strawberry-banana-blueberry smoothie, a piece of gluten-free toast with crunchy almond butter, and a special egg dish that my wife made, and some coffee.

I mean, Will Ferrell was always super-nice. And really fun, because we all knew him, and he's also, of course, really funny. I also really loved Julianna Margulies too, she was really sweet and game and so funny I thought, and lovely.

Oh goodness.

I have no idea. I always get asked this question, and I should probably come up with answers. There are so many, over the years, but the recurring line is probably "Suppressing fire!"

Gosh, I don't know! He's a tough one to replace, obviously. I don't think Tina would do it, but I think Tina would make a great replacement. And Amy Poehler, for that matter!

I just try to do little vocal warmups before I record something - both singing warmups (even though I'm not usually singing) and then also do some articulation exercises, I do a piece called "The Sailor's Hornpipe" which I go through very quickly to work through all the different sounds and shapes of the mouth and tongue.

I started when I was a kid, so I don't know if I ever really had an misconceptions about it? I guess in terms of doing animation specifically, I didn't realize the extent to which you really just are acting, you know? And the need to remember to be in the moment as that character, the same way you would if you were on-camera as that character.

chuckles

Thanks. My voice "sounding smart" is completely an illusion. But thank you.

And sure, of course! I would be happy to play Cyril. And I think the answer most people give for Archer is a pretty good one, which is Jon Hamm. He, I think, would be pretty good in that role. But it also might work with Michael Fassbender.

From ANCHORMAN 2...

I guess the moment when we were all standing on the beach, watching Ron fighting the shark. People were throwing out a lot of ad-libs, a lot of improvised lines. Sadly I'm not going to remember much in terms of specifics. But they were really funny, unscripted stuff that people were throwing around.

My heritage I don't know, because I'm adopted, but based on information that the adoption agency got from my birth parents, they seem to think I was Irish, English and German. And the best BBQ? I tend to be more of a wet BBQ kind of guy, as opposed to the dry rub. I'm a big fan of the Germantown Commissary BBQ, just outside of Memphis.

1.) Um... I support the Grizzlies, but I have to confess I don't really keep up with the sporting world. But I'm always happy when the Grizzlies win.

2.) Yeah, you know, I do podcasts almost whenever I'm asked to, whenever it works out schedule-wise, if I can, you know? They're easy to do, and generally pretty fun. I just did one for The Chive recently.

chuckles

It was when I was in high school, doing plays. Of course, I got inducted into the International Thespian Society, which made it official...

And you know, when I decided when I was 17 that I really wanted to pursue it as a career, my parents felt the need to make sure I understood the difficulties involved with choosing such a career - when they realized I was serious about it, though, they were very supportive and always have been.

Well, I did a character named Terrye Funke, I think, and although I did get to do it, I didn't get to do it nearly as much as I wanted. It was a character who went to dress rehearsal about 3 times as much as it did on air. I only did it on air twice -once with Jeff Gordon the race-car driver, and then once with Horatio and Will Ferrell. Terrye was an effeminate southern man who lived in his mom's basement, and I don't think quite realized he was gay. He loved little dogs, he loved yorkies, and he's just a very silly, flamboyant character.

We do not record together. We all do it separately, from whatever city we're in. But I'm on the phone line with some of the guys back in Atlanta, who make the show, reading it with them, and taking their direction over the phone line, but it's fun. Usually pretty quick. And unfortunately we don't get to see each other, but we do get to see each other when we do functions, and Comic-Con, and Archer Live, and things like that.

Oh, you're very welcome!

I guess just my acting ability, whatever it is? That would probably be my main skill.

Gosh, I don't know. I don't know that people overlooked it, but I always liked the sketches where Will Ferrell was playing Robert Goulet.