The Man Behind Adam Sandler's Movies on 20 Years of Adam Sandler Movies

Tim Herlihy never dreamed of writing comedy, never considered it a profession, even as he fell face-first into it, and today, isn't quite sure how comedy works. But he made Adam Sandler laugh. That's all it took. The future comedic partners met on their first days at New York University in 1984, roommates by chance. They went out for Chinese food (it was Sandler's birthday). Herlihy studied business. Sandler wanted to be the next Eddie Murphy. The two struck up a friendship. They drank beer in their penthouse dorm room (Budweiser, if they splurged). They bonded overAnimal House, Bill Murray, Scooby-Doo impressions, and Rodney Dangerfield. They traded dumb jokes. When Herlihy decided to write them down, Sandler suddenly had a stand-up act. At night, they drifted from the Paper Moon in Greenwich Village ($1.50 vodka tonics after 11 p.m.) to Folk City, around the corner. Sandler hit the stage. Herlihy wrote. The laughs kept coming. Sandler blew up. After graduation, Herlihy went to law school and Sandler moved on to television, movies, and Saturday Night Live. He kept calling his college buddy for jokes. Because Herlihy wasn't going to be a lawyer. He was a comedy writer, whether he knew it or not.

Little has changed since that first day at NYU, save for over one billion dollars worth of blockbuster comedies. Herlihy became Sandler's go-to writer and producer, joining him on SNL (becoming head writer for two years after his partner's departure) and together they formed their own Hollywood comedy factory, Happy Madison Productions. But for Herlihy, understanding what made it work remains difficult. "I used to do this thing for my kids' school where I talk to third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders about comedy," he says. "I hated it. I'm just so intimidated by these kids. They ask questions and I'm spouting my theories on comedy. I don't really have any great theories on comedy." So what does he tell the kids? What does he tell himself when he sits down to write a new Adam Sandler movie? "I just do what they did in Bugs Bunny."