Robert Smigel on Making ‘Leo’ with Adam Sandler and If Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Could Run for Office
variety.comJenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor You wouldn’t expect an animated film about a talking iguana to draw equal inspiration from Andy Kaufman and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” but that just might help explain the wide appeal of Netflix’s smash hit “Leo.” It also makes perfect sense when you consider the creative minds behind Adam Sandler-led project, which includes his longtime collaborator and comedy’s not-so-secret weapon, Robert Smigel.
Though perhaps best known to audiences for his work as Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, the foul-mouthed canine puppet who began life on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” where Smigel was the first head writer.
But Smigel was also behind some of the most memorable comic moments of the last 30 years. On “Saturday Night Live” he created countless indelible sketches and the animated segment “TV Funhouse,” which received its own spin-off series on Comedy Central.
He wrote and performed on the brilliant but short-lived “Dana Carvey Show,” where he first debuted “The Ambiguously Gay Duo” before it found fame on “SNL.” And he’s teamed with Sandler for countless projects over the years, including making his feature directorial debut with “The Week Of,” co-written with and starring Sandler and co-writing the first two “Hotel Transylvania” films.Now Sandler and Smigel, along with co-writer Paul Saito, have penned the charming and heartfelt “Leo,” in which Sandler voices the titular reptile, the cynical class pet in a fifth-grade classroom who begins dispensing wise advice to the kids who take him home on weekends.
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