Saturday Night Live Writer Reveals the Childhood Origins of ‘Wells for Boys’ Sketch

Back in December, Saturday Night Live included a sketch in the Emma Stone episode that was so unique, so magical, I instantly knew it was going to be my favorite sketch of the year. I wanted to know everything about it. I also knew instantly — from its gentle tone and minor observation — that it was probably the work of the show’s breakout new writer Julio Torres (he co-wrote it with Jeremy Beiler). I didn’t know any more about its origins until this week.

The Late Night With Seth Meyers podcast, which Seth Meyers recorded before Torres performed stand-up on his show, gets to the bottom of the well. “I had, when I was a little kid, this giant empty, like, pot for a plant that I would sort of run my fingers around and I would pretend it was a well,” Torres told Meyers, remembering his childhood in El Salvador. “And there would always be like rainwater collected at the bottom of it and I just loved it so much.” In that way, the sketch was an act of wish fulfillment. You heard it here … second.

In the podcast, Torres also reveals the sink from his sketch “The Sink” was a real sink he saw one time in an apartment on the Upper West Side; SNL literally shot the sketch in that random apartment. To help her with her performance, Torres told host Emily Blunt to “play it like she’s overdressed and alone at a party.” You heard that here second as well.