Heidi Gardner had a parting gift for SNL — well, really, it was just for Mikey Day.

Day, now in his 10th season of Saturday Night Live (as a performer — he started as a writer three years prior) and his fourth or fifth season (depending what you count) of Is It Cake? on Netflix, doesn’t have time to decorate his office at 30 Rock. Or maybe he just doesn’t care. Last season, Gardner, his fellow SNL cast member for eight seasons, decided to do something about it.

Gardner was not especially concerned with Day’s taste so much as she was out to embarrass him. So she hung Christmas lights, random Tiger Beat-type posters of ‘90s stars and one strategically placed, well-worn Kansas City Chiefs hat.

“Anytime my door was open and people would walk by in the hallway, I’d need to explain to them, ‘This is all ironic! This is all ironic!’ Especially last season because there were so many celebrities here all the time (for the 50th),” Day told The Hollywood Reporter. “You had, like, Tom Hanks walk by — I’m like, ‘Let me explain the Tori Spelling poster…’”

SNL season 51 premiered this past weekend with host Bad Bunny; four days later, Netflix debuted (in full) its four-part Is It Cake? Halloween special, featuring guest judges like Kevin Nealon, Pete Holmes, Ron Funches and Whitney Cummings, among others. Is It Cake? has a pretty silly premise — contestants try to guess if something is, indeed, cake — but its following is no joke. All three of the show’s official seasons have made Netflix’s Top 10 list for at least a few weeks.

David S. Pumpkins, the inexplicable Halloween character co-created by Day (and Bobby Moynihan and SNL writer Streeter Seidell) and famously played by Hanks on Saturday Night Live, does not make a crossover appearance for the themed Netflix baking contest. Had he, Pumpkins surely would have went out on his catchphrase, “Any questions?” It’s all good, because I had a lot.

Day, who is currently pitching sketches to Saturday Night Live alum (and this weekend’s host) Amy Poehler, took a break from his, well, day job, to chat with THR about both gigs — as well as the cold open that proved to be the highlight of Emmys night. Read our Q&A below.

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Is It Cake? is the perfect family show. Did you seek out a project with that appeal, or did it just fall into your lap?

I think the latter. I thought it was a funny premise, but I had no clue just how much kids, especially, would respond to it. I thought there would be a fun family dynamic that the show has in terms of the end game, because you’re guessing at the end and that’s just innately fun. Even if you don’t care about cake or anything, if you see six objects and you’re like, “One of them is made out of cake,” I feel like your lizard brain is like, well, “Let me try and suss out the imposter.”

But I was so very pleasantly surprised when — after that first season came out and kids responded to it so much, they were having Is It Cake?-themed birthday parties. I don’t know how much fun I thought it would be for kids to play the game and try and guess. I also had no idea how much they would be engrossed in the baking part of it, where they’re constructing the cakes. And so it was really cool. I guess it’s almost like a magic trick — they’re watching [the bakers] construct an illusion. So, it’s been so much fun — just the amount of people who have told me, “Hey, I see you on SNL. You’re all right, but my kids are gonna freak out when they when I tell them I met you.”

It helps that kids are dumb. What they don’t quite understand about these cakes is how gross the fondant is.

Fondant is very sweet, but it’s like, too much sweet. And then a lot of them have layers of modeling chocolate on the outside.

Does modeling chocolate taste better?

It’s like, just very sweet chocolate. It’s like clay in terms of its sculpt-ability, but made out of chocolate. So you’ve got to get through the outer layers of fondant, and then the cake inside is always delicious. I mean, a little bit is fine, but you have a lot of it.

How much cake do you eat on set?

I’ll eat some of it, like on the show, on-camera and stuff. But since it’s always around, I don’t eat a lot of it. People are like, “Are you just eating cake all day?” I’m like, “Not really.” I always encourage the judges to take some home. There’s so much of it — some of these things are huge. They’re making, like, gym bags out of cake. They’re generating so much cake.

‘Is It Cake? Halloween’ on Netflix

Courtesy of Netflix

What’s the best cake imposter you’ve seen?

There’s been so, so many. I remember season one, Andrew made a suitcase that was pretty cool — with fake clothes. It was wild, because just seeing — like, how do you make clothes? What do they use? I’m still learning a lot. I still know nothing really about this art form, but it’s interesting to start to learn all the tricks they use and all the vocabulary. But I feel like every season I learn something new.

Sounds like you’re not a baker.

I have never been a baker, but I admire the art form endlessly. They’re not only making good cakes — sometimes what decides who the winner will be is how good the cake is, right? But they’re also like artists, sculpting and creating these things, and the painting of it is sometimes incredibly intricate. And they’re also like illusionists in a way, like duplicating reality. It’s so funny. It’s such a fun, silly show, but it really makes you think about an object in space and what defines it, and edges and surface and the dimensions of it when they’re trying to replicate it out of cake. It gets pretty cerebral sometimes.

Let’s talk a bit about the Halloween special specifically.

Halloween is fun because you get to do all the theme stuff. It’s a holiday that lends itself to this show very well, because you can make like guts and hearts and stuff. I know a lot of people do body parts and stuff. Talking to bakers, they’re like, “Oh yeah, I made a open human heart.” There are rites of passage — everyone makes a heart, everyone makes a brain.

For non-bakers, what do you see as the appeal of this show?

There is this strange satisfaction when you guess correctly. You’re like, “I’m smart. I understand our world.”

Especially early.

Oh, yeah. From the jump you’re just like, [confidently], “It’s number one. Just look at it. Look at the corner.” Sometimes it’s difficult, though. Certain times, I’ll be standing next to the cake — they tell me which one it is — and then I’ll be next to it, ready to cut it, and I’m like, “Wait, remind me which one it is?”

I sometimes worry for you that if you cut into [a prop] and it’s a certain kind of plastic that is cut-able, but not cake.

Right? And then I cut myself. Before we present it to the judges, the baker will take me through how best to cut it. Like, “There’s a lot of modeling chocolate here, so you want to go at this angle.” I mean, I’m still not amazing at cutting cakes, which is also fantastic that I’m hosting it. But usually if I’m about to cut into something crazy, I’ll double check. And also, if I’m about to do something wrong, like 50 people from behind the cameras will start screaming. There was one time I almost cut a cake too early.

And you only get one first cut.

Exactly. It sounded like there was a fire in terms of the chaos: “No, no, no, no, no, no! Stop!”

It’s a serious operation.

I know! There are several moments where I’m, like, cutting into a typewriter or something, being like, “What is happening? How is this a job?”

On most baking shows, the bakers get like two hours…

(Laughs) Yeah, this is, “You have eight hours!”

What do you do that whole time? What do the bakers who aren’t baking do?

They will just watch and hangout and comment. I will hangout for a lot of it, and give them time calls. I do get a long break. Sometimes they’ll break for the day and then start baking the next day, and I’ll have some time off. But then for a lot of it I’m there. And then they cut in this stuff where I’m just kind of messing around with the bakers who aren’t baking. So we’ll do some bits. I always feel bad for the bakers not baking, because a lot of times [producers] give me a dumb prop — like a megaphone — and I’m this idiot screaming while [the bakers are] doing very, very precise painting details. But everyone’s always been a good sport.

It is funny going, “Are you ready? You have 12 hours!” I didn’t realize just how long it takes for the actual baking of the inside the cake itself. And the bigger it is, the longer it takes. It seems like a lot of time, but usually the bakers will be like, “For a cake like this, this takes up at least three days” or “two days.” So they’re really working under the gun, whereas for me, I’m like, “Oh, you have half a day.”

(L-R) Bowen Yang, Nate Bargatze and Mikey Day speak onstage during the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

Monica Schipper/WireImage

Is there much crossover between your two jobs? Do you find yourself pitching endless cake sketches at SNL?

You know what? Not so much. By then, the cake is out of my system. Every once in a while someone will write an Is It Cake? joke into the monologue or something, and it’s been in a couple promos. But I definitely feel like it’s covered.

The Emmys cold open, a version of the “Washington’s Dream” SNL sketches, was the best part of the show. Was that [written by] you and Streeter Seidell again?

Yeah, and we had Mike DiCenzo, who’s a writer at SNL, who helped us on the second George Washington sketch. We conscripted him to help us.

That was a lot of fun. [Emmys host] Nate [Bargatze] was like, “I want to do a Washington-type thing at the Emmys.” We were just trying to think of a setup that would give it that gravitas. Washington works because what he’s talking about is so stupid. He’s talking to the soldier, they’re literally fighting for their freedom as a nation. So we were like, “OK, maybe the invention of television.” We were happy with it. It was a lot of fun, but it was just overwhelming because you could talk about anything from the history of television, which is so much. You just start talking about stuff, and then you’re like, “Well, wait, do we hit reality [TV]?” There’s so many different different elements you can hit. So we just tried to keep it fun. I’m just glad we got a nice dig in at the History Channel: “There is no history on the History Channel, just as there is no learning on The Learning Channel.”

That’s a great joke.

There was a whole run. We also at one point had: “There is no music on Music Television?”

“For a time, and then all of a sudden none.” Stuff like that.

But it’s nice to hear that you liked it because it was fun to do. It was interesting doing a sketch in that kind of environment. I mean, in terms of the cue cards and the cameras, it felt the same. But then you kind of look out and there’s a stage and just this massive theater. We had a lot of fun.

SNL had a lot of turnover this summer, solidifying your position as one of the show’s veterans. Does that come with a certain level of responsibility for you? Are you giving the new kids advice?

I mean, it is wild to think of myself as a veteran on this show — it still doesn’t compute. Like, how am I that lucky to not only be here, but to have been here for a while? I definitely will talk to the new kids in any— sometimes they’ll ask questions and I’ll offer up information, just usually stuff that I would have liked to know [as a rookie]. I also kind of — I’ll go up behind him and be like, “It’s your first goodnights!” I’ll play up the fun of it. It is so special. And a lot of it is so surreal. I distinctly remember my first episode on the cast — Margot Robbie was the host — like, it’s very, very clear in my mind. You know those memories that are just very — you remember them very well. So I just try to do anything to make it fun for them, but it’s great. It’s always fun.

There’s a lot of change [this year], but the first week always feels like the first week of school. There’s new students, there’s new classes. Things look different. People’s offices change around, you know? So it’s like I’m in a new class. But then, you know, week two, week three, it starts to feel like, “OK, we’re back. This is the same.” It’s funny how quickly the show bonds you with the new kids. I had never met any of our new cast members. And then, you know, a week later and you start to feel like, “Oh, I have some new brothers and sisters now.”

Sleep deprivation will do that.

Yeah, it’s crazy. It’s like you’re all going on a tour of duty together. “Alright, suit up, we’re going in!”

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.