Mike O'Brien has been one of the dominant voices on Saturday Night Live for half a decade now. Along with directors Matt & Oz, he is responsible for the most distinctive and reliably funny moments on the show since the Lonely Island was singing about Jack Sparrow and cupcakes.

Between sketches like Bird Bible, Dragon Babies, Monster Pals, Grow A Guy and The Jay Z Story, he's developed a signature blend of surreal humor, thoughtful storytelling, and deep-rooted sadness that always stands-out above the regular SNL fray. The only thing connecting the veteran with PTSD from Puppet Class with the investigative reporter in Bugs and the lonely costumed character in Sad Mouse is O'Brien's goofy, warmhearted appreciation for even the saddest sacks (and his characters' predilections for questionable facial hair).

Even with his considerable talents, he's had a strange career there: O'Brien started writing for SNL in 2009, was promoted to a featured player in 2013, then bounced back to the writer's room this season. Despite that, he's developed his own imprint ("A Mike O'Brien Picture") for several pre-taped segments this season, appearing on air every two or three episodes.

His style has always been diametrically opposed to many of his costars—he's not an 'impressions' guy, there's a sincerity and headiness to his humor that adds depth (but often avoids the easy laugh), and he seems to get lost in other people's sketches, flourishing onscreen with his own very specific comic rhythms. Who knows how many more seasons he'll remain in the writer's room—like so many other SNL alums, he's getting to the point where his ambitions are begging for their own venture. He deserves his own project, and I have no doubt he'll get it at some point.

And I have no doubt that beyond his commitment to deconstructing romantic comedies in charmingly surreal ways, his next project will also showcase his sweetly awkward side, the personable-but-out-of-step screen presence which he incubated and perfected in his glorious web series from a few years back, 7 Minutes In Heaven with Mike O'Brien. Because even with all the amazing sketches he's starred in and written on SNL, 7 Minutes remain the most endearing videos O'Brien has produced.

7 Minutes was a pretty big web success around 2012, with O'Brien becoming the subject of a succinct profile in the Times Magazine and a fly-on-the-wall dispatch in The New Yorker (and of course, he was promoted on SNL, which was no doubted influenced by the success of the web show). In case you're not familiar with the basics, it's a very simple premise: O'Brien gets into a walk-in closet with a famous person (lots of comedians, but also random musicians and actors), they have a few drinks, they call his mother, they play some improv games (like Closet Theater), and then O'Brien goes in for a closing kiss. Although it's called 7 Minutes, all the videos come out between three and five minutes long.

He told the Times about the genesis for the project:

The original plan had him mainly interviewing (and then kissing) his own friends in a friend of a friend’s closet. But after financing from the production company of Lorne Michaels, executive producer of “S.N.L.,” gave the show a modest budget, “7 Minutes” started booking celebrity guests. “I was very surprised and thrilled,” O’Brien recalls, “that a couple months later, I was in a closet with Ellen DeGeneres.”

The guest list was a who's who of television stars: John Oliver, Andy Samberg, Amy Poehler, Jack McBrayer, Ellen DeGeneres, Ty Burrell, Tracy Morgan, Andy Cohen, Fred Armisen, Rashida Jones, and Joanna Newsom. There were old friends who immediately were in sync with the humor (Jason Sudekis, Seth Meyers, Paul Rudd, Tina Fey), people who seemed to bristle at O'Brien's awkwardness (Insane Clown Posse, Selita Ebanks, Connie Britton), people who giggled their way through the interview (Christina Ricci, Hoda Kotb), and the people who really embraced the concept (Patricia Clarkson, Jon Hamm, Jeff Goldblum). Reggie Watts wrote a song on the spot; Elijah Wood wore a tie on his forehead; Kristen Wiig recoiled from the kiss; and Olivia Wilde prank-called a spa.

All the episodes are move along briskly—the ones with his SNL pals are infectious, a master class in improv—but the best part is the intimacy of those closets, that physical space. O'Brien's genuineness and enthusiasm is, remarkably, reflected right back by the celebs, regardless of how famous they might be.

It's hard to tell how much the celebrities were told before the filming; some, like DeGeneres or Ebanks, seemingly go through a moment of horror trying to figure out what O'Brien's deal is. Many of them seem genuinely shocked (or horrified) when O'Brien gently tries to kiss them at the end. Ricci snorts adorably and slinks down, Jones trades cheek pecks, Poehler wants to get it over with, and Clarkson...well, Clarkson goes to town on him. With "Cherries In The Snow" lipstick ("Goddamn," O'Brien responds red-faced).

O'Brien told the Chicago Tribune that the series coalesced when he realized it was a kind of reality show:

One of the things that immediately became obvious to us was that this is what a reality show should be like. There is a moment in each of (the episodes) that I think, 'That is what that person is actually like' — as far as I know them. Though sometimes it's the whole episode. Elijah Wood is very much himself the whole time. I also like when I get someone to laugh who is very put-together. Some of them are being funny, but Christina Ricci, for instance, wasn't putting on a show. When she snorted (twice), it was her. The first seven, because we hadn't posted any videos yet, didn't know I would try to kiss them. That's Patricia, Hoda, Kristen Wiig. Their reaction is their genuine reaction to someone kind of breaking their trust. Amy Poehler didn't know.

O'Brien stopped making the series in 2012 (The New Yorker piece commemorated the last one). But last year, he told Splitsider he's still toying with doing more webisodes: "Lately I’ve been thinking about getting back to it, yeah," he said. "I’ve just had a lot of other projects and I wanted to focus on those for the past year. The short answer is yes, I’d like to do a couple “7 Minutes in Heaven” episodes every year. I don’t know if I’ll do any burst of, like, 18 of them in two months, like when I first started doing them. I might not go back with that intensity ever again, but it’s something I’ll probably do every once in a while forever."

You can see all the 7 Minutes episodes at Above Average.