CollegeHumor Interview

Whether you remember him as Iago the parrot or the man for whom no joke is too tasteless, you definitely remember his voice. Gilbert Gottfried’s new book, Rubber Balls and Liquor, is currently in stores. (WARNING: Interview contains some very NSFW jokes.)

You started stand-up at 15 in New York City. Do you remember any of your first jokes?Â

They’re probably the same ones I’m doing now. ÂI’m lazy when it comes to writing. Â

How long did it take you to find your style as a comedian? What came first: The jokes or the actual, physical voice?Â

I don’t know how long it took me to find my style of comedian. ÂNot quite sure what that style is. ÂMaybe irritating, annoying and unfunny, but it’s just constantly working at it early on and then eventually hopefully you develop something. Â

Well, in my case, I’m still waiting for the jokes to show up. ÂI’ll let you know when I say something funny.

There’s a whole younger generation now that knows you mostly as a voice actor. How did you get into voice acting?

Well, most people in the business thought I had a face for voice-overs. Â

Paul, previously best known for his part in the remake of Fame, now stars as the titular role in The Hard Times of RJ Berger. The second season of MTV’s hit high school comedy airs Mondays at 10pm.

The Hard Times of RJ Berger was originally a short film. Were you involved with that?

I was not. I was probably the last piece of the puzzle. Fun trivia: McLovin played RJ in the short film.

Did you know that going into the audition?

I knew nothing about that. Right before they showed the pilot for the cast and crew, they were like, “First, we’re going to show you the short we made.” I remember watching the short and going, “Oh my God! I have to go against McLovin? Please, please let me be funny!”

The show starts with a very specific reveal: That RJ has a giant penis. Will that always be an integral part of the show?

I think the penis will always be the hook. The penis, in a metaphorical sense, is always the hook in any kind of teen sex comedy, but our show is an interesting, uniquely vocabularized discussion about the awkwardness of teenage sex. And what’s more awkward than an awkward kid with a huge penis?

He just doesn’t know what to do with it, or maybe he does. I think that’s what the second season is about. After having kissed Jenny at the dance and lost his virginity to Lily in the hospital, he has to deal with the consequences of both those actions. He has to make the ultimate decision: Jenny or Lilly?

Actress and comedian Rachael Harris, who will be guest-starring in an upcoming episode of Childrens’ Hospital, has been everywhere. She was a correspondent for the Daily Show, she appeared in The Hangover last summer, she has even been in a CollegeHumor short. She is Ben Joseph’s secret comedy crush. 

Were you familiar with Childrens’ Hospital before it became an Adult Show?

Hell yes. I was very familiar and I was actively campaigning to do something in it. I actually didn’t know about the web show until after they shot it, but when I heard they were doing it as a series I was like, “Oh my God, please find me something to do.” And I love what I get do in the series. [Ed. note: We’re not allowed to post exactly what she does, but it is very funny.] And Ken Marino was directing, which was great.

Sounds like a good time.

It was really just the atmosphere. It was so fun. Everybody is just trying everything, and there’s no ego. All day, it was, “OK, that doesn’t work let’s try something else.”

So it’s a pretty improv-friendly set?

Very, yes.

Do you prefer that loose improvisational feel to some of the more scripted things you’ve done?

I like them both. Honestly. One is really great because you have to bring yourself to what is already written, and make that work. And the other one, there’s just a little more pressure when you’re improvising, because you have to come up with funny, and if it doesn’t work it’s your fault.

Ken Marino has been a constant presence in film and television since his acclaimed comedy group, The State, first appeared on MTV. He’s appeared in such diverse projects as Wet Hot American Summer, Reaper, Veronica Mars, Dawson’s Creek, and Reno 911. Most recently, Marino was seen in the Starz series Party Down. He is Sarah Schneider’s secret comedy crush.

In Childrens’ Hospital, you’re reprising your character from the movie The Ten, incompetent surgeon Dr. Glenn Richie. When was that decision made?

I think it was pretty late in the process. We thought it would be funny to the five people who picked up on it. Thank you for being one of the five.

In an absurdist satire like Childrens’ Hospital, do you think the characters are sometimes secondary to the comedy of each scene?

I think that’s absolutely true. Depending on what comedy we are playing, we adjust our characters accordingly. There’s a very slight paper-thin character background for my guy, but it’s basically whatever the scene dictates.

Do you think that kind of tone is sustainable at twelve minutes in a way that it might not be at a half hour?

If you had a longer show, you would have to infuse it with more, for lack of a better word, heart. You need characters you can grab on to. But because it is such a short burst of show, I think the audience can enjoy just for the humor and the comedy, and not worry about things like, “What’s the arc of that character?-

That’s what I found so interesting about this fifteen-minute format. You can get away with just focusing on the silly. Everybody involved cared about the show and wanted it to be the best it could be, but it’s pure silliness, as opposed to really going deep into the issues of being a doctor.

As fictional producer Pete Hornberger on the massively hilarious 30 Rock, Scott Adsit plays one of the few regularly-sane characters. But for his new comedy Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole, the performer, director, and co-executive producer is delving into territory that’s slightly more bizarre: the world of of Dr. Frankenstein. Check out Frankenhole’s premiere on Sunday, June 27 at 12:30 a.m. on Adult Swim.

For Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole, you’re reuniting with many of the people who worked on Moral Orel, which was also a stop motion series on Adult Swim. What is it like writing for and directing stop motion?

It’s interesting for me since a lot of the time I’m in New York while they’re filming in LA. Generally, the writer and director are on hand to guide and give direction to the animators as they animate so, when I’m not there to direct, I have to put myself on tape acting out the whole episode in my apartment or wherever. And there are several directors on hand ready to help, including Dino, if I’m unreachable for some clarification. The animators are so talented and our rapport with them is so easy after all this time that there’s a shorthand between us. The nerve-wracking part is when we haven’t communicated well enough and the shot, which might have taken a few days to complete, needs to be started again from the beginning. And it’s not like, “Okay, Take Two…Action!”. One little shot is hours upon hours of work.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole centers on the time travel of Dr. Frankenstein and his run-ins with monsters and various historical figures. How was a concept like this pitched?

Well, it was the brainchild of my partner, Dino Stamatopoulos. We thought since Moral Orel was such a success on Adult Swim, we should prepare another idea to capitalize on our growing cult status. That status never grew past “I think I’ve heard of that,” as it turned out. Adult Swim canceled Moral Orel, despite respectable ratings, for the reason that it became too “depressing” and “dramatic” and “well written.” But, funnily enough, at the same meeting that they canceled us, they greenlit whatever Dino wanted to do next. His idea was to explore the classical movie monsters in stop motion and make a really silly and, design-wise, beautiful little show. He’s always been a big fan of the Universal monsters and he knew I had a slightly smaller obsession with them, so he asked me to assist him in creating it. It started as an homage to those monster films in the form of a bizarre, character-driven, filthy, twisty plot, stop-motion comedy about Frankenstein’s castle.

One of the most sucessful stand-ups working today, Jim Norton is most well known for his role on the HBO sitcom Lucky Louie and as the explicit, brutally honest “third mic” on The Opie and Anthony Show. He’s also one of my favorite comics. Download a free track from his Yellow Discipline album here.

When some comedians write books, they simply transcribe their sets. For “Happy Endings-, you opted to write entirely new stories. How did this process differ from writing jokes for a live performance?

First of all, comedians who transcribe their acts and sell it as a book are lazy and should be shot in the face with a sh*t gun. They’re looking to milk a few more dollars out of material instead of coming up with new ideas. It’s a different writing process because you can go back and correct it fifty times before anyone sees it. A rule of thumb when writing is that whenever you’re stuck searching for the proper way to phrase something, ‘c*nt’ is a fantastic go-to word.

Now that the third season of The Sarah Silverman Program is well underway (Thursdays at midnight on Comedy Central, y’all), the eponymous star was gracious enough to sit down and answer some of our most thought-provoking questions.

CollegeHumor: What was the first movie you remember thinking, damn, this is funny? What was the last?

Sarah Silverman: The Jerk or Sleeper were the first. The last… hmmm… maybe Observe and Report? Or – Alec Baldwin in It’s Complicated was kind of genius.

CH: You were 22 when you were hired on SNL. Any insight to explain your fairly precocious ability to write comedy?

SS: I officially can’t explain my ability to write comedy back then because I recently looked at my old sketches from that year (1993/94) and they were ALL extremely terrible.

CH: Former writers of SNL seem to either love or hate their time there. Where do you stand? Who did you connect with while you were there?

SS: I actually liked it. It was very overwhelming and scary, but also amazing and I beamed with pride that I was there. I would find ways to manipulate conversations with cab drivers so they’d ask me where I worked. I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world. I’m still very close with Kevin Nealon. I’d be super tickled to bump into anyone from that time — Adam Sandler was always so kind and warm to me — but I’m probably closer now with the people in the present cast.

CH: You’ve made appearances on some classic comedy programs, including SNL, Seinfeld, Crank Yankers, The Larry Sanders Show, and of course Mr. Show. Which was your favorite to do?

SS: They all represent such different places in time. Larry Sanders and Mr.Show were the most special to me I’d say.

In addition to enjoying international sucess as a stand-up, Arj Barker appeared on Flight of the Conchords as Brett and Jermaine’s American friend Dave. His newest album, LYAO, is currently in stores. For information about shows and to sign up for his mailing list, visit ArjBarker.com.

Your new album is called LYAO (Laugh Your Ass Off), and all the tracks have Internet acronyms for titles. Have you used the Internet to grow your fan base?

I actually didn’t instigate a lot of my Internet presence. The only clip I’ve ever put up is just a video of me trying to teach people how to putt. That only has, like, 4700 views. Nearly every video of me on YouTube I didn’t put up.

So you aren’t constantly blogging or tweeting.

I don’t always have something to say to Twitter. I’d rather say nothing than share something I don’t care about. I’m lazy, too.  Sometimes these things are a little like homework after a while. A voice in your head going, “Have you written on your blog today?” But thankfully I think my work does its own self-promotion. I try to just be a good comedian.

Some people should probably just focus on that instead of Twitter.

I would never comment on other comedians, but I definitely think that most of the good things that happen to me came because I worked hard as a comedian as opposed to promoting myself.

How did you become involved with Flight of the Conchords?

I was over in Australia working with those guys. We became friends, and I guess they liked my comedy because they had a show and they really wanted me to be on it. It was quite lucky and fortunate. Television is really the most powerful way for people to remember you and know you. The Internet can be awesome too, obviously, if something goes viral.

Amir, Jeff, and I are Simpsons nerds. Many times at parties we’ve sequestered ourselves and just started quoting Simpsons lines back and forth until everyone else is annoyed with us. So when we heard author John Ortved had written a comprehensive oral history of the show, The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History, we invited him over to talk about the’s show’s 20-year history, how Springfield has changed over the decaded, and of course our favorite characters. —Pat Cassels

JEFF RUBIN: Favorite Simpsons secondary character?

JOHN ORTVED: I’m cheating a little bit cause he’s not around anymore, but Lionel Hutz.

JR: Mine too.

JO: I think that’s as perfect as a secondary character can get. And I think part of the reason is they never had the opportunity to ruin him. In the early years they’d take a secondary character like Apu or Burns — Apu has the immigration episode, Burns has the Burns bear episode — where they’d get a little back story in there and give that character a little more residence and you’d love it. You’d fall more in love with that character, or they would make a little more sense to you. In later years they take their secondary characters and they try to fill them with back-story, Comic Book Guy, et cetra. And they try to make these fully rounded characters and falls completely flat.

Seth Green and Matt Senreich started producing their Emmy-nominated stop-motion sketch series in 2005. Robot Chicken’s fourth season comes out on DVD December 15th. Additionally, many thanks to the lovely Miss Sarah Schneider for conducting this interview with me.

Robot Chicken is famous for its pop culture parodies. Do you feel that being on Adult Swim or working with action figures lets you get away with more risque material?

Seth: Absolutely, both of those things. Adult Swim gives you a lot of creative leeway because of the time slot and the targeted demo. And [the toys] are so relatable, it’s something you physically held in your hand as a kid and that makes what it’s doing inherently funny. There is no sexualization of a toy unless you apply it.

The show also taps into some pretty dark territory. Having a guy get jerked off through a video game stands out.

Matt: I would like to point out that that is a puppet of our co-head writer Doug Goldstein. Maybe it’s a true story, maybe it’s not.

The production process is so intense, too. You have to be pretty specific about what you want the animators to do.

Seth: It’s really long and you don’t have the opportunity for retakes. You start making concrete decisions very early on and then you have to live with them for the next 11 months.

After starting as a stand-up and one third of sketch group Human Giant, Aziz Ansari is kiling it. He turned his small role as the comedian Raaaaaaandy (eight “A’s”, FYI) in Funny People into a viral sensation, and he currently stars in NBC’s hit sitcom, Parks and Recreation. On January 17, Comedy Central will air his stand-up special, Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening.

The web shorts you made about your Funny People character, Randy, became viral hits in their own right. Was that unexpected?  

I sound like I’m saying this because we’re plugging the DVD, but the Randy documentaries that [Human Giant director] Jason Woliner and I wrote and he directed, I think they’re are some of the best stuff I’ve done. We were really happy with how they turned out and they were so fun to make. I asked Judd, “Hey man, I had a really fun time doing this Randy character. What if me and this guy Jason did little documentaries about him, and put it on the DVD?” And he said, “Yeah, go for it.”

Those were great. I was actually a little disappointed that there wasn’t more Randy in the movie.

People would say, “Man there’s so much Randy online, you must be in the movie as much as Adam Sandler.” But there are some cool Randy deleted scenes.

Randy, one could almost argue, started off as a parody of hack comedians, but he’s actually pretty funny all on his own.

Yeah, it is kind of fun in a weird way. I could never talk about the stuff Randy talks about, but it’s fun to act like that. I think those jokes do work, there’s a lot of jumping and yelling and stuff, but they’re funny jokes. People just wouldn’t laugh if I just jumped up and was like, “I’m holding my dick.” Although though that does sound like it would be hilarious.

Weird Al has adapted to the Internet better than any other artist from the 80’s. His Chamillionaire parody “White and Nerdy” has over 50 million views on YouTube, and is currently one of the site’s most popular videos of all-time. The song was his career peak, going all the way to#9 on the Billboard Hot 100 (his previous best – “Eat It” at #12 in1984). Since then he’s explored digital distribution which, for the first time in his three decade career, has allowed him to parody current events and songs that are popular right now. Really, it’s hard to believe Weird Al survived at all – much less thrived – before iTunes and YouTube. He recently released The Essential Weird Al collects 38 of Al’s best songs into two discs.

CollegeHumor: How did you decide which were the greatest hits from your distinguished career?

Weird Al: It was tough. I’ve got twelve studio albums of material and I did have to leave off a lot of stuff that some fans think should have been on the essentials collection. There’s some historically important ones missing. “My Bologna,” isn’t even on there, which was my first pseudo-hit. Even though My Bologna was historically important, it wasn’t so brilliant I would consider it among my best work. So I had to weigh fan favorites with what I thought were songs that actually merited being on a best-of compilation.

CH: So you hand picked the songs yourself?

WA: I did, yeah.

CH: When you were going through your earlier albums, did you rediscover any material that you’d forgotten about?

WA: I don’t think I’d actually literally forgotten about any of it but it was kinda nice to listen to some of the old tracks again that I hadn’t heard in a while. It also was an opportunity to clean up a couple things. This new collection is completely remastered. It’s not remixed, but we cleaned it up. I won’t mention where exactly because I don’t want people to obsess over it the way I did, but there were a couple songs that had a few little pops and ticks and just little things that probably most people have never heard before in their life but they’d been bugging me for 25 years.

After working with partners Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright to create a successful British sitcom (Spaced) and two hit feature films

(Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), Nick Frost now appears as ’60s DJ Doctor Dave in the upcoming Pirate Radio. He’s also a charming, soft-spoken Brit, and I encourage you to read this interview with his voice in your head.

Your character in this film, Dave, could be quite the sexual role model for full-figured men.

I think I’m going to be asked to appear on the cover of “All American Bear”.  It’s pretty brave of Richard (Curtis, the director) to cast a 20 stone man in a romantic role. It’s not everyday you get to just wander around naked and people don’t give a sh*t.

Tom Sturridge (the film’s lead) said the one scene he’d always remember was being naked with you in a tiny boat bathroom.

If you had to show an alien race how different the human form can be I think Tom would be at one end and I’d be at the other. If you get the Blu-Ray version and pause, you will see a sliver of nut. Two hands couldn’t contain my range.

This film is a love letter to 1960s rock. Were you familiar with the era’s music?

Growing up, my big love was house music. I was 15 or 16, going to raves and not going to school like naughty boy. In the first week of the film, I said to Richard, “I’ve never listened to a Rolling Stones record, don’t tell anyone.” And he immediately told Bill Nighy – he’s a massive Stones nut – and Bill told me off for 5 minutes.

I like Zombieland. A lot. It’s funny, it’s bloody, it’s got the celebrity cameo of the century and I’d love to make a movie just as awesome someday. It was obvious I had to interview the director, Ruben Fleischer. Not just because our “Rubens” are spelled the same.

OH. In case you haven’t seen the movie yet (big mistake), don’t read the last question. DON’T WORRY. If that’s too confusing, just stay away from anything labeled: **SPOILER ALERT**. 

In the event of an actual zombie invasion, who would you risk you life to save? Woody Harrelson, Abigail Breslin, Jesse Eisenberg, or Emma Stone? In other words, who do you like more?

I don’t think Woody would need my help, I think he’d be alright on his own. I’d probably go after Abby. I couldn’t let the 12 year old get eaten. Morally I would feel wrong about that. I’d probably have to help out the 12 year old. The rest of them can fend for themselves.

There were so many graphic deaths in Zombieland, like the seatbelt scene with the mom crashing out the window (which you mentioned was one of your favorites), Woody bashing a zombie’s brains in with a bat… HOW DID YOU DO IT?

The seatbelt one was a composite where we did the car accident in one shot and the woman being ratcheted against the green screen and landing on her face on a pad. Then we composited her on the car accident and put in some CG glass and some CG beanie babies. As far as the baseball bat to the face, it’s a pretty clever trick where you’d have like a half of a baseball bat, so Woody’s holding (just) the handle. We used it for the toilet seat lid. Jesse just had half of (it). That way they can swing it that much closer to the person’s head and then you extend the end of it with CG. It lets the actors hold onto something that’s real.

In these bleak modern times, even a book devoted to comedy isn’t without it’s dark side. Mike Sacks’s And Here’s the Kicker, in which the Vanity Fair writer interviews 21 humorists (including Bob Odenkirk, Harold Ramis and David Sedaris) is decidedly serious, dissecting not only comedians’ work and lives as pro joke-tellers, but their fears and anxieties, too. Mr. Sacks spoke with CollegeHumor about these grimmer aspects of comedy, including serial killers, chronic loneliness, and how telling a joke can be a lot like a diagnosing a disease.

Even though you talked to dozens of funny writers in researching this book, it aggressively favors analysis over jokes. Was there a lot of goofing around on either end of the interviews?
Definitely not. They were all serious. And they appreciated the fact that I didn’t want them to be clowns. You know, just because you can write funny doesn’t mean you’re “on.” In fact, usually it means just the opposite.

What determined the kinds of questions you did wind up asking?
It was just basically avoiding the questions they’d been asked a million times. In a lot of cases I’d come across one reference to something [in my research] and it was never mentioned again, but it was fascinating. When I interviewed Marshall Brickman, who co-wrote Annie Hall and Manhattan, I read close to 30 interviews, and in this one interview he mentioned that he almost attended Sharon Tate’s house the night of the Manson Murders.

After a sucessful stand-up career and finishing the first season of Important Things With Demetri Martin, his highly rated Comedy Central series, Demitri Martin is making his foray into feature films with Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock.

This is new territory for you. Was there a personal decision to seek out more dramatic film roles?

No, this was just lucky. I was contacted because James Schamus (the producer) had seen a clip of me on YouTube, thanks to his daughter. I guess the wheels started turning in his head and he thought, “We might be able to use this guy.”

What was the biggest adjustment, working on a film of this size?

I quickly learned I wasn’t going to be improvising in this role. They had a script, and they wanted me to do things a certain way. In my own show, I’m free to improvise, and if it’s sh*tty, I’m free to edit it.  In the movie, after a scene, the script supervisor would come over and say “You forgot to say and.”

Those that have seen Wet Hot American Summer need no intro to this interviewee, who both wrote and starred in the decade-old cult favorite. Michael Showalter is also a founding member of sketch groups Stella and The State, the latter of which is now amazingly available on DVD after much network nagging from persistent fans. You’d also recognize him from his recent comedy album Sandwiches & Cats as well as his very own original online series on this site.

Showalter, whose comedic style is as soft-spoken as it is dry, pairs up with sidekick Michael Ian Black in the new series Michael and Michael Have Issues. I recently talked to him about his new show (which airs Wednesday), what he doesn’t like about his job, and his cats.

After becoming one of the original columnists on this very site, Steve Hofstetter went on to write online for Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, and the NHL (that’s hockey). Now he is one of the most requested standup comedians on the college circuit and is most likely performing on a campus near you sometime within the next fifteen minutes.

His fourth comedy album comes out on March 17th. I talked to him about that, playing small towns, how CollegeHumor shaped his career, and the recession. Okay, I lied about the last one so read ahead with no fear of learning anything except what and who comedians do when they’re off stage.

What do you think you would be doing if you weren’t traveling the country telling jokes on stage?

I’d probably have an office job – maybe I’d be a consultant or work in development. I’d have a wife and kids by now, live in a gorgeous house, and spend all my time looking out the window and wishing I were a comedian.

What’s the worst city to perform in?

This question sucks. Anywhere I say, I’ll upset someone. I may as well tell people I hate babies or I beat the shit out of Rihanna. What, too soon? And by the way, Paterson, New Jersey.

Jeff Richards, best known as Drunk Girl from Saturday Night Live, is the only person to have ever been a cast member on both MADtv and SNL. His comedy album comes out March 3rd, where part of the revenue will go to help relieve world hunger. Here I asked him about his famous character on SNL and the motivation behind his new album.

How did you get started in comedy?
When I came out of my mommy, I peed in her face. She laughed and I think I giggled a little bit too. Cut to 17 years later, I hurt my knee in my senior year of high school playing football. I was in the hospital on morphine drip listening to Radiohead’s epic The Bends album and thought about interviewing my football coach. I was also at the time very much into The Kids in the Hall, so I decided to create a show on public access and after I healed up I did that. The whole thing turned into a freak show interspersed with random weirdoes and community folk. That was the beginning.

Drunk Girl was a pretty legendary character in the later era of SNL. What was the back-story behind her creation?
I was doing stand-up in La Jolla at the Comedy Store and a drunk girl in the audience kept blurting out things right before I would get to the punch lines. I stopped and basically impersonated her to her and that was it. I made it a bit for the next night and kept doing it ever since.

Like many other successful sketch comedy troupes, Whitest Kids U’Know built up their audience from popular online videos and live performances. After two successful seasons of their Whitest Kids TV show, two members from the group are making their own movie.

Trevor Moore and Zach Cregger wrote, directed, and starred in the new film, which I didn’t even know was possible to do without your brain exploding. I got to talk to the pair a few days ago about Miss March, the future of WKUK, and what’s cool about the Playboy Mansion besides the scantily clad women.

So for people who haven’t seen the trailer yet, can you explain the premise of your new movie?

Trevor: Basically it’s about two guys who are best friends. One of them is really conservative and terrified of sex, and the other is completely obsessed with Playboy and pornography and what he assumes to be the Playboy code of life. The conservative guy’s girlfriend was pressuring him to have sex with her on prom night but he doesn’t want to. But he reluctantly decides to and gets really drunk so he can work up the courage to do the deed. And he falls down some stairs and goes into a coma for four years and when he wakes up, his girlfriend has left town and his now Playboy Playmate. So he’s distraught and he and his friend take a road trip across the country to confront her.

How did you guys write, direct, and star in this without turning your back on your TV show?