Chapter 10

Talk is Cheap

Every generation or so, we get a new crop of late night talk show hosts. It’s the proverbial passing of the torch from one King of Late Night to another. At this point, the only female nightly talk show host, Chelsea Handler, has moved on from her Chelsea Lately celebrity chat/comedy panel show that was on E! to newer Netflix pastures. But more on what Chelsea is doing lately a bit later in this chapter.

It seems that even in 2016, female talk show hosts are most welcome into American households during the day. Thank you, Oprah and Rosie for your many years of service, not to mention Ellen, The View, The Talk and more. We had the late, great Joan Rivers in late night for a short spell in her own seminal late night talk show on Fox, but that ended tragically (you can read more on that in Chapter 3). Notably, the late night hosts have been almost exclusively white males—with the exceptions of the syndicated Arsenio Hall Show (1989–1994, with a brief reboot in 2013–2014); and we currently have the excellent The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore on Comedy Central. (I’m not figuring in Jon Stewart’s replacement, Trevor Noah, who’s South African; The Daily Show is a comedic news format/talk show that airs earlier in the evening).

Tons of ink (digital and the old-fashioned kind) has been spilled over the late night talk show wars. The battle for retiring Johnny Carson’s throne between David Letterman and Jay Leno is legendary. The banishment of Joan Rivers from late night due to Carson’s perceived betrayal almost destroyed Rivers emotionally and professionally. The hiring and firing of Conan O’Brien to replace Jay Leno, followed by the hiring of Jimmy Fallon and his ascension to the throne of NBC’s venerable The Tonight Show; the recruitment of The Colbert Report’s Stephen Colbert (playing himself) to replace the now retired Letterman on CBS’s Late Night— toss in Larry Wilmore, Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers, and we’ve got a late night talk show roster as solid as ever.

Yet, the format of the late night talk show remains stale, stodgy, and hasn’t changed in more than half a century: opening monologue lampooning current events: check. The Ed McMahon-esque sidekick as straight man/foil: check. The in-studio band: check. The desk at which to greet celebrity guests: check (Graham Norton’s lounge style sofa and drinks are a welcome alternative). Musical performances and standup comedy from established and emerging artists seeking national exposure: check. Comedy sketches and musical (and dance/lip-synch throw down) segments: check. Interplay and contests with the live studio audience: check. Applause and a shout out for a city, a college, a sports team: check. The late night talk shows are stalwart, dependable and help ease you out of your busy workday and into a late night/pre-bedtime lull. At their best they’re comfort food and laugh-out-loud funny. Think BBC America’s The Graham Norton Show. It’s guaranteed to make you chuckle and, even though there’s a formula, Norton’s brand of humor is sharp and unpredictable.

To me, Jimmy Fallon’s show is the most hip, modern, and clippable of the bunch (just check out the clips on YouTube and Hulu the next day). He’s also got the amazing band, The Roots, backing him up. Those online clips are as revolutionary as the late night talk show gets … until digital TV arrived to infuse new life into an old format.

∙ A Moveable Talkfest: The Time-Shifting Late Night Talk Show ∙

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on Crackle

After he voluntarily retired his mega-hit sitcom, Jerry Seinfeld was rich enough and popular enough to do whatever he pleased. So what did he do? He created a web series: Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee— which combined all of his passions in one reality show: vintage automobiles, clever banter with friends, and coffee.

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, directed and hosted by Seinfeld, is distributed by Sony Crackle. It’s a misnomer to call any streaming network’s talk show a “late night” talk show because all episodes are offered on-demand, so you can choose to watch them at noon for all they care. The show premiered in 2012 and most recently aired its sixth season. Episodes feature Seinfeld introducing a vintage car selected for a guest comedian (including Larry David, Ricky Gervais, Alec Baldwin, Chris Rock, Sarah Silverman, Louis CK, Tina Fey, Fred Armisen, Amy Schumer, along with Seinfeld alums Michael Richards, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Wayne Knight), followed by a drive to a pre-selected cafe or restaurant for cup of joe. Episodes diverge from the format spontaneously when unexpected detours or mechanical failures arise.

According to The New York Times’ David Itzkoff, by May 2015 the series had been watched close to 100 million times. And my sources at Crackle tell me the show has been renewed for 3 more seasons, up to its ninth season (or until Seinfeld gets bored, whichever comes first). Each episode costs around $100k; shoots last for around 3.5 hours and guests are paid (in cash). The editing process takes about 2 weeks, resulting in an episode that’s around 12–20 minutes. By comparison, a single episode of Seinfeld cost about $3.5 million when you figured in the stars’ salaries. The simple model of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee means that it be filmed without an audience, have a streamlined crew, minimal interaction with the network and watched on your phone.¹ Starbucks turned down the opportunity to sponsor the show and, when Acura stepped in, Seinfeld was lucky to have creative license on the commercials and product placements.²

In Seinfeld’s words, “Part of what makes the show watchable is that it’s always moving. There’s no narrative [to] drive the story. We know what happens. We know they’re going to get coffee. You need a kinetic energy to move it along,” Seinfeld said. “Moving people around keeps them awake.”³ So does the caffeine. The groundbreaking, simply ingenious show provides us with a glimpse of top celebrities out of their comfort zones and on the unscripted road. Forget about the perfect lighting, hair and makeup; many of the cars are convertibles, so this is a show not about being in the TV talk show spotlight looking perfect to promote your latest project, and more a chance to shoot the breeze and share anecdotes about life on the road—traveling across the country doing standup gigs.

∙ From on the Road to on the … ∙

Park Bench with Steve Buscemi on AOL Originals

Steve Buscemi is such an iconic actor that he requires no introduction. Nevertheless, here is a quick overview of his backstory:

• Born on December 13, 1957, in Brooklyn, New York. His father, John, was a sanitation worker and Korean War veteran; his mother, Dorothy, worked as a host at a Howard Johnson’s. He has 3 brothers.
• Studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute and worked as an FDNY firefighter (at Engine Company #55 in New York’s Little Italy neighborhood) from 1980 to 1984,⁴ before his breakout film role in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (as Mr. Pink) in 1992. Buscemi was also featured in Pulp Fiction as Buddy Holly.
• Worked extensively with directors Martin Scorsese (New York Stories, Boardwalk Empire); Joel and Ethan Coen (Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski); Jim Jarmusch (Mystery Train, Coffee & Cigarettes) and many others. Buscemi wrote the screenplay for his directorial debut, Trees Lounge (1996). He also directed the films Animal Factory (2000) and Lonesome Jim (2005).
• Directed extensively for television, helming episodes of Oz, Homicide: Life on the Street, 30 Rock, Portlandia, Nurse Jackie, among others. He directed several episodes of HBO’s landmark series, The Sopranos, including the Emmy Award nominated episode, “Pine Barrens” from Season 3. He later joined the cast in the fifth season as Tony Soprano’s cousin, Tony Blundetto.
• Provided his iconic voice to several animated blockbusters, including the role of Randall Boggs in Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University.
• Most prominent role: Enoch “Nucky” Thompson on HBO’s renowned drama series, Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014), which earned him 2 Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and 2 Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
• Lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, artist Jo Andres and their son Lucian.

Neil Landau: I figured I’d follow your lead from Park Bench and use the Dick Cavett method and start with a compliment: I’m a huge fan of your incredible body of work, from Parting Glances (1986) to Fargo (1996) to Boardwalk Empire— and everything in between. And now my fandom continues on your delightful, unconventional talk show, Park Bench. It’s not a typical talk show of people promoting stuff. In each short episode, you’re able to go deeper and capture the essence of each guest’s livelihood. Your show is also site specific, providing a greater sense of spontaneity and intimacy. I think you’ve done something really unique and special.

Steve Buscemi: Thank you. That means a lot to me. I really appreciate it.

NL: How did the idea really come about?

SB: A few years ago I was hired to do this concert series that American Express does where they pair bands with directors. The band does a concert and the director directs the concert. But the real directing is the promotional videos that lead up to the concerts. And the ones that I saw from other directors and bands—some of them were different where they sort of had a concept, like Gary Oldman did Jack White and it started with them when they first meet Jack White who sort of attacks Gary Oldman, and they fall on the floor wrestling. And then they were driving around and there was footage of Jack White and his 2 bands rehearsing.

I was hired to do the band Vampire Weekend who I saw a few years before but I didn’t really know their music that well. Of course I did research and looked at their YouTube videos and checked out their albums, but I really liked this idea of me not really knowing who they were and running with that. And I met with the band and they liked the idea. So rather than me doing just a straight-up interview with the band, I thought we could come up with a device of why I was hired to direct their concert and we made up that we found out that one of the band members and I were related. It was just a device that gets me in the room with them and then I just thought of all these scenarios that we could have fun with where I don’t realize how popular they are and I’m trying to get the word out by making flyers, going on the subway with them. I take them to a bowling alley and I’m handing out the flyers. And then along the way, getting to know the band. We even had Bill de Blasio before he was mayor; he was in one of the sketches, and the singer Grimes. We had one scenario where I took them to the Easter Day parade. Before the parade we had them painting eggs and then I had my annual—this was made up—my annual Easter dinner. And the reason that we did this is because the weekend we were shooting fell over Easter and I thought, “What production value can I get just by going to the Easter Day parade?” It was pretty crazy.

So then we were doing this scene for the Easter dinner at the Palace Café, this bar in Greenpoint [Brooklyn]. The singer Grimes was supposed to be in that scene but she really couldn’t stay that long so I thought, “Well, let’s not have her in the scene if she has to leave. But maybe let’s go into the park across the street and I’ll just have a scenario where I’m just sitting on a bench and she’s walking by. I see her. We’re old friends and I invite her to the dinner but she can’t make it and I get a little upset.” So that was all that the idea for that scene was. She had a friend with her and I said, “Yeah, your friend could be in the scene.” And then I thought that maybe I shouldn’t be sitting alone on the bench. Maybe I should have a friend too. And then a few minutes before we were about to shoot the scene this guy named Geo came up and started to chat me up and tell me what he does. He was friends with the owner of the Palace and he hangs out at that bar. He was a carpenter and a contractor and I was a little distracted. But I listened to him and then politely excused myself.

But then when I was in the park I said, “I just met this guy who was pretty interesting. Maybe we could find him and get him over here and I’ll be sitting on the bench with him and I’ll be talking to him and when Grimes walks by, I’ll be interrupted.” And that was the basic idea. We shot that and when we looked at the footage later I really loved this guy, Geo—the straight man.

And I had so much fun shooting the videos with them. I have a production company, Olive Productions—Wren Arthur is my producing partner—and American Express, they do the concert series with the production house, Radical Media. It was our first time working with Radical Media and we loved working with them. So after we finished the concert series we were trying to think of something else to do together. We just had this little brainstorming meeting with Radical Media and Wren. I think I just sort of haphazardly said, “You know I think I could create a show where it’s just me and that guy Geo. But it has to be Geo. It has to be him. If we can’t get him I don’t know if I can do this. But I said, “What if it’s a show where I talk to people on park benches, with Geo as my sidekick?” That was the original idea, and then the more we thought about it we didn’t want to be tied to sitting in a park so we thought that maybe we could have our own bench and we could just take it anywhere.

NL: How did you come to integrate your pseudo-competitive brother, and your sweet dad—who comes up with the concept for Park Bench— into the show?

SB: My Dad’s not an actor, but I just loved having him around and he’s really funny. So I wanted to involve my Dad [who sadly passed away since] in the Vampire Weekend: Unstaged shoot. My brother, Michael, was not around when I was doing the Vampire Weekend stuff, but I wanted to include him in Park Bench. The idea for him having his own talk show came up at the last minute. We were going to do that with another guest that we had booked, where I was talking to one person on a bench and I look across and see another actor doing the same thing. But that guest had to cancel out at the last minute. I still wanted to do this idea and I just thought, “I wonder if it would work having my brother do it because it’s the whole brother thing.” And he was into it. So that’s how that started and we were able to have a lot of fun with that. We actually get along really well.

But even the scene in the bar with my Dad and my brother and Anthony Laciura from Boardwalk Empire who I just loved working with him on Boardwalk and I knew that he would be fun to have around and some of the other guys in the bar. But actually what I was saying in the bar is something that I really do believe in about how I always encourage actors to create their own work. And now that there is this digital format, it is a lot easier now to shoot your own things—short films, series, whatever. And then I just thought it would be fun to have my Dad be the one to suggest that I do a web series. That joke sort of came out of when we were doing the “Vampire Weekend” thing and I was telling my Dad about it. He was familiar with the Internet and the computer but he really cracked me up one day when I was telling him about it. I said, “Yeah the ‘Vampire Weekend’ would only be a video and it would be available on the Internet.” I wasn’t sure if he was understanding what I was saying and he looked at me and asked, “Is this going to go viral?” [laughs] And it just sort of shocked me that he knew what that was and so that’s how that idea came about that he would be the one to suggest this web series.

NL: How do you choose your guests? Are they all personal friends and professional colleagues?

SB: A lot of people I knew, certainly like Chris Rock, Janeane Garofalo and Colin Quinn and people like that. But then there were other people like Method Man, whom I had only met once before when we were both cast in Tom McCarthy’s film The Cobbler, and I just thought he’d be fun to talk to. Same thing with RZA; I met him briefly years ago at the premiere for Coffee and Cigarettes but I was interested in what he was doing. And also I had gone to a benefit for the Lower East Side Girls Club and we ended up making an episode out of it. That was a really fortuitous thing because it was from that night that I was able to get the band that I use, “Main Squeeze Orchestra” the all-female accordion band.

NL: The music is awesome, so catchy and idiosyncratic. How did you find them?

SB: They were performing at that benefit. It was at that benefit that I met them and wanted to continue to have them on the show and Miwa Gemini, who’s in the band; she has her own band and she’s a songwriter and she just came up with that title song and we use a lot of her music throughout. And it was at the Girls Club that night that I learned that they had a planetarium in their building. And when we were researching RZA we found out that he was really into science. So that’s how we got the idea to bring RZA to the Girls Club so he could see the planetarium. So a lot of these things just kind of worked out. There wasn’t a lot of planning throughout the season. It was just sort of a let’s see who of my friends are available and can come do it. We made a list of who I wanted to talk to and put the word out. And as we were getting confirmation then we just thought about if there was anyone we could pair up or take to a certain location and it just sort of worked itself out like that.

Some people liked the thought of me talking to them on a bench, and then there were people like Michael Shannon. He didn’t want to do the straight interview. And I said we could do whatever he wanted. And he said, “Well, how about if I just show up and you find me on a bender asleep on a bench?” And I said, “That’s perfect.” And then we folded that into the idea that he is supposed to be a guest on the show where we had Van Cash but he doesn’t show up and then we discover him later.

NL: Lying in the gutter with a bag of booze.

SB: Yeah. And so that just worked out. With Jessica Williams [from The Daily Show]. I was more interested in showing off her comedic abilities and so I really pushed the “clueless interviewer” shtick and she ran with it. I just knew that she would be able to do that. And then to have her teach an improv class—we just got a lot of mileage out of that. So it depends on the guest as to whether I’ll do a straight-up interview or more of a comedic bit. This season we had Kenan Thompson [from Saturday Night Live] on and again, he wasn’t that interested in being interviewed but he was interested in doing a bit so we just worked him into the interview that we were doing with Debi Mazar [from Entourage] where we asked him to be a co-host. We came up with this whole comedic device where Geo was getting frustrated with being my sidekick and he starts to work more on my brother’s show, Bench Talk. And so for a little while I am sort of looking for a new co-host so we had fun with Kenan with that idea.

NL: What about the wise and inspirational Buddhist nun, Ani Trime, and your amazing interview with Julian Schnabel?

SB: I had met Ani Trime before and just knew she would be a great guest, and I thought we could bring the bench into the Rubin museum—which is a place that I’ve gotten to know in the past couple of years; Ani had never been there and she was interested in going, so that was a good match. Julian is always very busy, so I said, “Look we’ll come to your house,” so that’s how that happened. And then the whole thing on the show where we start off in the bar, we use the Palace Café because that was the bar that we used in the Vampire Weekend shoot.

NL: How did Park Bench end up on AOL?

SB: Funnily enough, when I was doing the first little Vampire Weekend episode, they were busting my chops about being on AOL because I actually do have an AOL account; so in the Vampire Weekend scene when I was saying that I really could help them and get the word out with an email blast, one of them said, “Really? We heard you have an AOL account.” Anyway, AOL loved the reference, so when we pitched the show to them, they were really excited and supportive—more than anyplace else.

And they are still good sports because in the second season we continue the joke. In the first episode, we have Triumph the Insult Comic on and he really goes on with the joke about how there are only 5 old farts still on AOL. So they are good sports about it and I am of course grateful to them.

NL: Yeah it looks like you’re having a lot of fun and you’re getting to spend time with your Dad and your brother. I’d presumed Geo was one of your childhood best friends. It’s great to learn that you just met him.

SB: You know he’s a really familiar guy to me. Of course I know lots of people like him, growing up in Brooklyn and Long Island. Yeah, he just has this very familiar way about him because you can’t always put non-actors in something and assume that it will work. But he just has something about him. He is a very smart guy and he’s curious. He’s got a curious mind and he’s just so down to earth and a good sport—again. And that was important too, and we just really hit it off.

NL: There’s a running joke on the show that you don’t do any research. How much prep do you actually do?

SB: We try to do as much research as we possibly can. But my problem is that I don’t retain a lot of it when I’m doing the actual interview. I don’t like to use notes so I try to keep it in my head. I truly just forget things. So I am running with this idea that I’m not very good at what I do. Sometimes I am and sometimes I’m not. Sometimes I will purposely pretend that I’m clueless, but other times I’m truly making mistakes. We had John Oliver on our show for the second season and I did this whole bit where I’m only asking him questions that I read on Wikipedia—just facts and we made a joke about that. Then later on in the interview I asked him—I don’t know why—but I was convinced that he and his wife had a baby—and he doesn’t. So there are things that I do like that we leave in. I don’t edit that stuff out because it’s just part of my persona that I really do get things wrong. So we just try to have as much fun with that as we can.

NL: How much time do you shoot? Most of the episodes are 10 to 12 minutes, some a little longer.

SB: We shoot a lot. And that’s the talent: to whittle it down. I usually try to spend at least a half an hour or more in the interview.

NL: You don’t have cursing on your show, even though you don’t have Standards and Practices at AOL.

SB: We do have a little bit. I was fine to delete or bleep it. But what we’ve learned is that there is a show on AOL now, it’s called Connected and there is cursing on it. We don’t have that much. The way Triumph says it is very funny. The conceit in the first episode is that Triumph is going to teach me how to be a better talk show host so I say, “All right, let’s do this.” And he says, “Let’s fucking do this!” So we left it in for AOL. First they were saying that we should bleep it. But we said, “Hey, they curse on Connected.” It still remains to be seen. In any case, it really isn’t a potty-mouth show, but this season you may see it a couple times.

If you look at Comedy Central, they always bleep out the cursing, but you always know what they’re saying. And the material is so risqué, like if you watch Inside Amy Schumer— it’s like, “OK, you can bleep the words but you’re not bleeping the content.” In general, I was pretty conscious of not cursing myself. It’s just something that I know that there might be kids watching. I know kids curse. I know it’s not that big of a deal but there is something that’s sort of built in me, not exactly a self-censorship thing; it’s just—you know, if I don’t have to curse, then don’t.

NL: It’s your Roman Catholic background.

SB: [laughs] It is, it really is.

NL: But you know. I really respect that. Seinfeld is the same way. He doesn’t curse in any of his standup and that’s sort of his thing. He’s like, “I don’t need to go there,” and then there are others that are just filthy. Certainly from all your movies and TV series and the characters you play that is not the case. But Park Bench is more personal and a reflection on you.

The thing that really stands out about you that makes you a great interviewer is you’re such an intent listener. You are so tuned in, full of curiosity, and genuinely interested in what your guests have to say. Is this a trait you developed as an actor, and does doing Park Bench fuel your acting? If not, what does it give you since you are at the point in your career where you can choose to go off and do other things? What are you getting out of it?

SB: When I did the Vampire Weekend videos, I actually had scripts. I met with the band and we had this meeting about different scenarios. I went home that night and I wrote 6 little episodes in 1 night. I had this creative burst. I was just very excited to be writing and also directing, and to be in it as well. So a lot of what I get out of it is to be able to do something different because I don’t get to direct that much and I don’t really consider myself a writer.

For the AOL series, it’s an unscripted show and I don’t write any scripts, but I definitely come up with these bits that are mostly improvised. But as we are doing it I do feed lines to Geo and my brother and say, “Look, I’ll say this and you can come back with this.” I give them some basic lines and then they’ll run with it. But it is a way for me to continue to write and direct and also act, even though I am playing myself but it’s fun when I can play this exaggerated version of myself.

And it’s fun to have conversations with people. I remember years ago growing up I used to watch a lot of those shows, besides Johnny Carson: Tom Snyder, Joe Franklin, Dick Cavett, and Merv Griffin, all the ones that were popular. I really liked the obscure shows, too. And then I remember in the early ‘90s Whoopi Goldberg had her own talk show. It was just her talking to people and back then it was like, “Oh, an actor can do this.” And that makes total sense. And I have to say; Jerry Seinfeld was a huge influence as well because around the time that I was doing the Vampire Weekend thing was when he started to do Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. And I thought, “Yeah, there you go. You actually can make a show and it doesn’t have to be that structured.” If you just get the talent together you can trust that there is something interesting there. And with my friends, this year we have Jim Jarmusch; Elvis Costello is on the show I’ve had these conversations with them over the years and sometimes the conversations that I’ve had with guests on the show isn’t stuff that we talked about as friends. So it’s a way for me to get to know my friends better and ask them questions about their careers that I wouldn’t normally do in private conversation if that makes sense.

NL: Yeah.

SB: So it’s just all those things. On this show I am really forced to think on my feet a lot because things change and I often don’t know where we’re going.

NL: You shoot more than 1 episode at a time?

SB: Oh yeah, we’re shooting several a day and sometimes I don’t always know what it is that I’m going to do. Is it just going to be on the bench or am I going to think of something that just gets us into it, like the thing that we just did with John Oliver. He came that day and I was just finishing up doing something else and I said, “John, I’m just going to ask you the most mundane questions about your background that I saw on Wikipedia and then I’m going to let you go. That’s it for the interview, and then you walk away.” And then Geo says “Don’t you want to rethink that?” And then I chase him down and talk to him again and we have more of a real conversation. But he just went with it and that was something I just made up on the spot. I try to be aware that visually sometimes it’s OK to be on the bench the whole time, but what I learned in the first season too is that sometimes it’s good to get up off the bench. In our conversation with Fred Armisen, it starts with Geo and me on the bench, but then we get up to talk with Fred. We did the same thing with Tom McCarthy. That morning Bobby Cannavale showed up on a city bike.

NL: Yes, that’s great.

SB: And it fits right in with that. Sometimes just standing up or changing it up changes the energy. So I try to be aware of that too. But yeah, so we shoot them all in 5 days and sometimes that’s why at the end of the day it’s really hard for me to retain what I was going to ask them. And I thank you for saying that I am a good listener. Sometimes I am just so grateful that people will talk as much as they do because I feel like, “Oh my God, I’ve got nothing. Oh good they’re telling a great story.” And why interrupt? Just let them go places that you didn’t expect and that’s the thing that I love most—when something surprising comes out of it and that really is the fun in doing this show. Anything can happen.

As for Chelsea Handler’s latest plans for her trailblazing new talk show on Netflix? Handler was unavailable to interview but at the Forbes Women’s Summit in San Francisco in June 2015, she told the audience that she had taped 4 shows so far, each with its own theme: marriage, racism, Silicon Valley and drugs—where she literally takes drugs under medical supervision “to see what happens.” Handler said she hopes this will “show people how irresponsible some are.” The bestselling author/host/comedian admitted that leaving the still-popular Chelsea Lately was a no-brainer. “I looked at my life and I thought I’m bored … I’m not being as smart as I am. This show isn’t as smart as me. I want to learn. I want to make my mother proud. I want to take chances. I want to set an example.” Au contraire to the heading of this chapter, Handler explained she could have made $5 million a year for the next 5 years if she’d remained at E!; hardly cheap talk. But, “that was never a reason to make a decision.”

See also: the micro-budget Between Two Ferns, the Emmy Award winning, tongue-in-cheek web talk show hosted by an intentionally irreverent, awkward, clueless, and often antagonistic Zach Galifianakis, who sits on a deliberately cheapo set and interviews celebrity guests between 2 potted ferns. Premiering in 2008, each 4-minute mock interview (episodes can be accessed online via Funny or Die) features 1 or more guest stars, including Brad Pitt, Steve Carell, Will Ferrell, Charlize Theron, Jon Hamm, Justin Bieber, Natalie Portman and James Franco, who trade insults with host Galifianakis—our modern court jester. Between Two Ferns’ most watched interview featured guest President Barack Obama—which had over 30 million views as of April 2015. In addition to the online series, an episode was filmed for Comedy Central as a television special.

P.S.: If you want to hear a real interview with POTUS Barack Obama, check out talk show host Marc Maron’s low-budget, high quality bi-weekly podcast entitled WTF with Marc Maron, usually shot from Maron’s home garage/studio (nicknamed “the Cat Ranch”) in East Los Angeles. Each episode ranges from 1–2 hours; each podcast averages over 230,000 downloads.