SmartLess - "Jonah Hill LIVE"

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

Don’t have a cow, man: it’s Jonah Hill... LIVE at the Avalon. Radio from space, teenagers in Hollywood, cool neighbors, and San Diego. “You couldn’t shake funny if you tried,” on an all-new SmartLess (btw did we say LIVE!?). Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of SmartLess ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of SmartList is brought to you in part by Skinny Popcorn, which, yes, is exactly what we were inhaling backstage at the live show. True story. There is something very satisfying about a snack that actually delivers and doesn't come with a paragraph of ingredients. Skinny Pop keeps it simple. Real ingredients, classic popcorn. Nothing weird.

Nothing you have to Google. The original is light and airy, but still hits the spot. And if you want to mix it up, they got white cheddar, butter, sweet and salty kettle. It's one of those snacks that works for anything. Watching something, traveling, pretending, you're only going to have a hand, Sputty Pop. Deliciously popped, perfectly salted, popular for a reason. This episode of SmartList is sponsored by Ashley,

the brand that helped turn our live event stage into a fully-styled living space. And it's not just about looks. Their stuff is built to hold up to the real life with durable materials and easy to clean fabric. For the live show, we were on their Mod Max sofa. It's modular so you can kind of move it around however you want. you want depending on your space.

Honestly, that setup worked perfectly for the show. I'm not kidding. I would have taken that whole setup home. It looked great. It felt very comfortable. Really did feel like we were just hanging out in someone's living room. Ashley's all about style that's made for real life with white glove delivery right to your room of choice. Visit your local Ashley store or head to ashley.com to find your style. Smartlist Live at the Avalon, Hollywood. Tried to come out last and make some big entrance.

No, no, no, no, no. What happened? I got, I got caught up back there. Anyway, hey, I'm here now. Hey! One more crack at it. Get one more crack at it. Let him have one more crack.

Guys, we're so excited, we're here, and thank you for coming out tonight. This is very exciting for us. I gave Sean a big smack across the face right before we came out, and I'm just waiting for to hit me back. So it's just pardon me if I'm over here. It was so loud, I can't believe you heard it. It's a little bit red over here. It's a little bit red over here. It's become kind of a tradition before...

There we'll do it. We'll do it. No. This is how we'll do. Just keep him in a clinch. It was so fucking hard. Fix your mic. The guy got, it's terrible.

All right, so we're very thrilled to be here. Huh? The rest of the show is going to be less violent. Best violent. Okay, that's good. This is our second time here at the Avalon. Thank you for having us. Let's sit.

Come on, let's sit. Thank you guys for come. I'm going to do a little set. Okay, yeah, go for it. This should be good. Now, thank you guys for coming. Look at these. We got our nice, our nice,

We want to thank her sponsor. We got a nice stuff to sit on from Ashley. Yeah. We got some nice stuff from me. I mean, it's real homey. Right? It's like a little living room set. Who wants to?

Oh, yeah. T-shirts. Got a couple of T-shirts here. Look alive, everybody. No fighting. We're sorry there's no, there's... I don't know. Close.

Very close. I couldn't get it up there. We got more coming. We got more where that came from. That hurt. Jason leaves tomorrow. Jason leaves... I'm going to go work tomorrow.

Because this isn't work. This is fun. I'm going to go. I have to leave my family for a good long stretch. Now you know how my dad feels. Huh? Yeah. This is... It's high-class problems.

I'm not complaining. But it's hard because I've been home for like a year. I know. Now I'm not. going to be home for three weeks. But it's exciting because you're going to direct a film that he's, right? And it's very, to us, it's very thrilling. To you, it's work, but to us it's very thrilling that you're going to get behind the

camera again and wow us with this other talent that you have that not a lot of people have. And it's very exciting. I think everybody's happy that you're going behind the camera again, you know? I think you make, because you're a good director. Yeah. Right. That wasn't a compliment. was it? Did he sneak in an insult?

No. No. But you just got back from working away from home for a long time, but you had Scotty with you, so all you missed was Ricky. What a show! Yes, we were gone for three months, we just got back last week. But Amanda will be with you in New York, right? No, she's going to be here.

Frannie's going to be with me after a little while, and then Amanda and Maple are going to come out for a little bit. You know what, just email me the it itinerary, we're good. Yeah. What did you end up doing with your dog when you were in New York for so long? We left the dog, nobody knows, actually.

The dog is still missing. No, we left put the dog in a, what's it called? When you board them? Prison? No, when you board them? No, I'm just saying what it felt like for the dog. No, we, we, yeah, it's cost of fortune, but he was with other dogs and he could play, and he was good. He seemed happy.

He seemed happy when we talked. to him on the phone. Yeah. No, he's good. Are you guys just meeting for the first time? What's happening? This is the weirdest. I'm so far away. I know.

Well, it's different than the podcast. We are going to have a guest that's going to come out here in a second. So that's why we're all separated. We do have a guess. Sean and I don't know who the guest is. I really don't. That's a true story. Wait, but wait.

We never know. We truly never know who the guest every once in a while somebody who on our... Except for like the presidents of the United States. The presidents we knew. Yeah. But we really don't know, and so it's always a surprise, and we do never talk about what we're going to talk about.

The difference with this, though, is that usually you guys, we guys, I don't do it, but you guys, when I bring on a guest, when we get on the microphone. I see you guys typing on your computer quickly Googling that person as soon as they come on. No, no, not because they don't know it, but like to come up with questions and stuff like, you're not going to have that. That's fucking bullshit. No, it is a bullshit. I don't do that.

I see you typing away. Sean definitely does that. I do it, but if I don't know the person, it's like if a sports person comes on. You just write? I do not do that. How dare you accuse me of that? What are you basing that on? No.

What are you playing with when you're like, I'm messaging people, dude. I'm busy. Yes, you're just going to have to wing it. No, I'm going to have to wing it. No, I don't know who it is. And so you're going to like him. I like him. He's a friend of mine.

Wait, can I, before that, can I tell, I just have a little something I brought with me that I want to show everybody. Oh boy, he loves to prepare. We got to watch Shuns Real. Yes. So, so today, today, only eight hours ago at 11.05 a.m. this morning, Scotty and I chatted with a friend of ours. Did you say shatted? Chatted. Sorry.

You can't hear ourselves up here. I'm so sorry. Howie brought a friend over and we just chat everywhere. 1105, we both happened to chat. No, no, we chatted with a friend of ours and a friend of ours and a friend of the podcast. And it's pretty unbelievable. And we cut together, Scotty cut together this 20-second video to show you what we did only eight hours ago today. This is what happened. Okay.

Are we going to the tape? Yeah. We haven't seen this. Hello to everybody at the Avalon. What? Isn't that crazy? Do you look at her shirt? That is so cool.

Okay, can you see my reflection? Yes. That is wild. Just looking at the shirt. Look at that. Okay, ready? Yep. Ha, ha, ha.

I'm putting into our kitchen right now, so this seems like our kitchen table. This is our, this is how we've worn. up food. We got some garlic and onions and some fresh fruit. That's got to make the place smell real good. Isn't that amazing? Wow. That is so cool. That was this morning.

And she's like, do you want to just chat? I'm like, on the fucking international space station? Yeah. So for 45 minutes, we were just chatting. She showed us around. She showed us the Russian astronauts and the Japanese section and the, I don't know. It was crazy. How cool is that to see your?

are government, you know, tax dollars at work. Wait, do you be smartless? Did you say 45 minutes, you talk? 45 minutes we hung out with her today. Isn't that cool? Was there a phone number? No, she sends us a link to, like, not Zoom, but something else.

But wait, yeah, Google Meet or whatever. So wait, I wrote down these things. She, they are moving five miles a second. And they rotate. the Earth every 90 minutes. That's how fast they're going. Isn't that crazy? And I said, what experience they're working on? She said, something like astronauts get blood clots, so they're doing some of that. And they're growing crops like Matt Damon and the Martian, and their DNA therapeutics, protein crystals, future propulsion systems. But what's fascinating is that she said,

when you go up there, something happens to the back of your eyes because there's no gravity and it flattened the back of her eyes. So she doesn't need glasses on Earth anymore. Isn't that amazing? She doesn't he glasses? And so she has 20-20 vision. What's that book you're reading? I just saw you. It's my phone.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you because that happened today. How are you? Because I remember when she was on the podcast. Yeah. We must have covered this, but remind me, how are you friends with an astronaut? Because of the podcast.

What's with the look on your face? It's so shitty. But this guy doesn't... Why are you mad at it? Why are you mad at him? He doesn't know anybody. He never leaves his house. He barely knows his dog.

He knows Scotty pretty good. What happens is he meets people, and they want to continue to have a relationship because he's nice. He doesn't have a shitty look on his face. And by the way, you just described yourself, and you were describing me. Yeah, isn't that wild?

Anyway. Isn't that cool? I just can't believe you can actually communicate. So she's currently on the space stage. Till September. Wow. And I'm complaining about going to Jersey for three weeks. Yeah.

Exactly. But we can talk to her again. We can hop on there. I asked her tons of questions. She loves it. They love it. Jamie, were you thinking about, like, how fluid would move differently if you were up there,

like in your face and stuff? You know, you do look puffy when they do those little hits from out of space. I wouldn't be into it. No, no. I just do radio from up there. But it does. It lifts. Radio.

Sorry, guys, cameras not working again. That's what I keep saying. Radio from space. No, I don't care about... This is just a bit. I don't care about that stuff. All right, so there's no vanity. Sean, do you have any more bits?

Any more stuff for us? Any more pre-tape, Sean? Yeah. I always have tons of stuff. I just said that we never do anything planned, and then you went to a video package. Yeah, well, I wanted to make sure, I wanted to make sure I left space

for her, but I didn't know how to plan it. Oh my God, I can't find my intro that I wrote for the freaking guest. This is so real. Michael, bring me those cards down, please. God damn it. So what else is going on? Unreal. You know, I just quit smoking recently.

No, you didn't. Wait, what? You did? Smoky Maple Bateman Yeah, Maple Bateman. Maple Bateman.

All right, this is going to be a disaster tonight. All right. Freestyling now. Intro, the guest. It can be short. This guy I'm an actor.

It's supposed to be written for me and then I see. I can see your sweat. I know. I'm in deep sweat right now. Okay. Okay, so this is a fella who he is extreme. I think he's one of the greatest comedic actors we have.

Full stop. Okay? That's A, that's a good start, right? See me vamping. But he doesn't just make you laugh. He makes you cry sometimes. Look at what else? All the phones are up.

What's going on? I feel like Ariana Grande. He's been nominated. twice for an Oscar for fancy movies, right? Not just the comedy stuff. This guy's a big shot. He's also writes and directs movies. Done a few of those.

What is it, Ryan Reynolds? No, he hasn't written or directed a film yet. And I have found that while he's incredibly talented, his heart's even bigger because we've become friends over the past few years. You know him from. Forgetting Sarah Marshall. You know him from Knocked Up, 40-year-old Virgin.

You know him from Super Bad Moneyball Wolf of Wall Street. Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Jonah Hill. Of course, I'm sweating. I'm like, what is you going to say, dude? How are you? I was already nervous. I'm like, oh, he already fucking... Yeah, what were you thinking...

Jonan, what were you thinking backstage when Bateman blew it with the intro? That it's just a total wipeout. I'm just coming back out here, like, in crowds and stuff. My wife's here. I'm like... And I'm like, okay, Jason's going to hook me up.

And he's like, oh, I don't have an intro. So I'm sitting back there going, like, he's going, like, he's a guy. that I'm friends with that I text with and like I was like oh fuck he probably wrote something nice and now it's going to get like dumb down to you know how to improvise

I'm all right at the improvising but you're you're the Mac dad you and Vince Vaughn no one better brilliant ever brilliant all right so right so you're not in front of crowds all the time you're not up in L.A. You're down in San Diego

for the most part now oh you live in San Diego? Oh yeah so Okay, so real quick, before we go in any further, my wife is here, my best friend and business partner, Matt Dines, is here. Shout out to my beautiful wife, Liv. Where is she? Oh, what's up, baby? And then, so I live in a very small town in San Diego, and it's amazing,

and my neighbors are incredible people. And when we had our first kid, we moved out there three years ago. And my neighbors are so cool. I wanted to leave L.A. and raise a family outside of Los Angeles. and away from entertainment and I could maybe come back and then, you know, go back and forth. And my neighbors are so cool. They never, like, treat me weird or ask me about my job or anything. And my neighbor is one of my great friends, Dr. Sean.

You're welcome. He never asked. He's here tonight. Whoa. But hold on. He never bothered me. It was like, oh, what's this person? And then, like, after like, a year we were in the sauna, just chilling, like, two dads.

and he goes, can I ask you one question? And I was like, yeah, sure, man. And he's like, it's Jason Bateman a cool guy? And that was his one question about show business. And I was like, yeah, he's an amazing guy. And he goes, he's like, it's fucking cool. I'm a big fan of his. So shout out to Dr. Sean and Dr. Bob and Heidi and Laura.

I love you guys. Welcome. You know what? It sounds like J.B. you might be able to get in that sauna with these guys. Yeah, listen, I love a good sauna. What do you think? Dr. John, do you think? J.B. is good in the sauna?

I get super nice in the schvitz. Jonah. Yeah, nice to see you all. Thanks for having you. Jonah, thank you for doing this. This is a very easy no. And you said yes. You know, you could just say,

oh, I'm down in San Diego now. We drove in today. It was awesome. Now, will you stay overnight or will you drive back? Yeah, we're staying at a hotel. We brought both our kids. Oh, that's nice. We have a new little baby who's like,

it was just a new brand-new baby, and then we have almost three-year-old. Both boys. That's so nice. So now, what do you miss about L.A.? When you come up, what do you like to do? Oh, you know nothing. You know, Nussie Walk.

I grew up here. L.A. was such a cool place to grow up in the 90s because you could like, you know, you could go skateboard downtown or you could sneak into a movie premiere, or you could go sneak into a comedy club and see, like, Chris Rock or something. You had access to, like, show business stuff, but you had access to, like, punk and skating and graffiti and all the, like, naughty stuff.

And there was no internet. It was just so awesome. Right. And it was... You were skating, right? Because your first film, mid-90s, which is awesome. That, like, you certainly were at least familiar with the skating culture. Do you know your way around a skate park?

I mean, yeah, I steal skateboard every day. Come on. You do, really? Okay, because my daughter, Maple, I took her to the skate park this morning, pedlo over there in the valley. She's working on Pop Shavitz, Ollie's. She just dropped in last weekend. Amazing.

You're already better than I ever was. When I say a skateboard every day, now with my son, we surf skate, which is like way easier. It's like, I don't do tricks or anything anymore. I'm too old. I'm 42. So surf skate means you're on a long board and you just kind of cruise you.

Let's not go crazy. I'm not on a long board, Jason. I'm on a short, shorter board, but yeah. You were part of that skate culture just a little bit. I loved it. Yeah, it was amazing. Like anything skating, hip-hop, and comedy when I was a kid, I was like anything about any of it,

all I could. Did you cross paths with Spike Jones at all back in the day? Well, I did a ton of. and Spike is my biggest mentor and one of my best friends. Incredible director. What a nice guy, too. He's, like, one of the most amazing people. And before I directed mid-90,

I wrote mid-90s at his apartment. Oh, really? And New York, we were both living in New York, and I basically spent, like, five years, you know, after kind of, what was it, like, I've been gone for a while, so I'm kind of coming back, and I'm, like, excited. Because I got all, like, serious for a while, and I wasn't that happy.

I wasn't that happy. And then I met, I had my family, and I got happy, and now all I want to do is be funny again, you know? So, like, it's a- You were always funny. It's a freaking bust. It's just like, that's why I said yes, because I'm like, I want to go fucking be funny in front of a crowd,

and that'd be awesome, you know? But the humor, do you find that the humor's coming from a more substantial place now? That it's, I mean, you're still, you couldn't shake funny if you try, but now you've got a whole deeper well of reflection and knowing yourself more, and you've peeled the onion, and now you've got a bunch of other stuff

to draw upon to feed your humor, yes? Yeah, I think, I mean, speak for me, that's fine. That's my special. Hey, guys, I don't need to be here. There's no intro, and I just drive back to San Diego and go fuck myself. I put the question and the answer in it, and then I say, yeah, it's deep and cool.

He could have zoomed in. Yeah. Totally. No, that is a good, that's a good... Thank you. Next question. No, but it's more like, like, if you're bummed,

you don't feel like being that funny, right? And if you're happy, the first thing I thought about when I got, like, had my kids and was so stoked, it was like, uh, I connected to back when I was just like 12 and I was just being funny for fun.

Right. And I was like, that's the thing I fell in love with. my whole life, like I dedicated my whole life to learning everything about The Simpsons and comedy, history. Who did you, when you were growing up in the 90s, who were your influences? Who were you like, God, that guy is so funny? Or that show is so funny?

Everybody. Everything. Like, anything good, bad, or in between? But like you're so, like Jason said, you're such a genius at improvisation. The first time I saw you was on a show called Campus Ladies. Yes. And one of my best friends, Carrie Aisley is he. She's right there.

Carrie! Yeah. And you were on the show with her. Oh my God, hey, Carrie. And you met Dr. Sean? Dude, Carrie, Carrie gave me... Sean couldn't get them seats. Carrie gave me a huge break.

Thank you, Carrie. He gave me a huge fucking break when I was like 18. Yeah. But I watched you on that show, and I'm like, oh my, of course you skyrocketed. You were a brilliant performer, actor, improviser, all of it.

And I was just like, who is this person? So you must have... I mean, mostly the same. I think The Simpsons is like the number one thing in the entire world. Like, if anything's left in impact on my life, it'd be The Simpsons over there. It's some of the greatest comedy writing of all time. It's pretty, it's like such a heavy weight. But that was, obviously, there's no acting in that, except for the voices, obviously.

So were you following, like, the writing of that? Was writing the first poll for you? Yeah. Not performing. So if you, like, shook me in the middle of the night and, like, what do you do? I'd be like, I'm a comedy writer. That's what I do. Like, I write jokes every day.

Like, I go and write scripts. and write scripts. Like, you don't know this because you just see the front side of it. But most of my job is writing comedy movies. That's, like, mostly what I do. And when I was young, I would VHS record The Simpsons

and then pause it on the writers and write them all letters. Wow. And to this day, one of my biggest mentors and friends is David Merkin, who's like an iconic Simpsons writer. And every time, like,

you've been to a screening of early cuts in my movies for notes. like David Merkin comes to every single screening, every table read, and he was like my childhood hero. So I wrote them all letters when I was like seven, eight years old. And that was my dream.

Like, like, if I had written for The Simpsons, that's like, would have been more than enough for... Did you write a speck Simpson script? Yeah, I've written a ton of Speck. Oh, you did? Did they ever buy one or pick, no. No, I never like sent them to them like... Oh, yeah.

As like an eight-year-old. Yeah, they can't receive... Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Well, then when did the performance part of it start to take hold? Like, when did you think that you could be in front of the camera? Well, I got to think all three of you were like hams, comedic hands, right? What happened?

Like, did you just drift off? He's narcoleptic. He said, he said we're all hams. Yeah, we're all hands. Must have been hams when you were little kids. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, if there was, like, a party at my parents' house, I'd do, like, a... Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, for sure. Comedy show. Absolutely. I feel like everyone here can relate to that. Absolutely. So it was just always like people were like, oh, you're funny. And then when I got to middle school, people's parents were like, you should pull them out of school to my parents and like make them a comedian. Oh, wow.

Yeah, people would like say that to. You were going to schools where there were some people that were in the business, like the center and cross-rose. People think I'm a Nepo baby, by the way. My wife and I were just laughing about this, that I'm a nepo baby. My dad's a fucking accountant. If you think, ask these guys, he directs a lot of shit. Do you ever hire your business manager's son for a fucking black rabbit or whatever?

Yeah, huh? Yeah. No. You hire Jeffrey Goldstein to play like the heavy and, um, but like, but Jonah, how old were you when we met? We met when you were, you were like a, you were young. Will, should we take a snack break? Yeah. Yeah, you were like hanging out at my school, like, um, no, no, no, no.

We were like a trench coat on. Yeah. No, that was a different. Newly sober. You had something different. Okay, all right, right, right. No, it was that like, I'm leading by example. You had this, like, van.

It was at the Wistler's. No, so I went to the school called Crossroads, which is a, like, full leg up because if you grow up here and go to this school, everybody's parents are in entertainment. So, to be fair, it wasn't an abstract job. That was, like, my big leg up where I was, like, everybody's parents here

works in entertainment. So if you want to, like, write for the Simpsons, that's not the craziest idea in the entire world, right? So that was a huge leg up for me to just not be like show business as abstract and far away, right? Right.

We were literally, it was Henry Winkler we were doing the first season of Rest Development and I went over there for breakfast one Saturday and you and Max were poutousy. So Max was like my best friend in high school was Henry's son and he's an amazing guy and a great director. Great director. He just...

He directs a lot of the Ryan Murphy stuff. A ton of amazing stuff. The Charlie Hunnam show he just did was incredible. Freak, monsters. He's great. He's great.

And he's an amazing dude, yeah. And so I met Will, and I remember meeting Will. You were a kid. I was so hyped because I was interning for his brother and Arrested Development and just come out. And Jake Hoffman, it was another buddy of yours. He interned on Arrested Development, didn't he? Yeah.

Dustin Hoffman's on. Is that a TV show? Oh. Yeah. Wrested Development. It's very funny. Jonah. Sean's never seen.

It's never seen it. Is that real? Not a bit. It's real. I saw the first episode. You guys have the best job in show business. I'm so jealous of you guys because... You're on it. This is you're joining us. We're looking to replace one of us. But like, you guys have like, it's like being in a writer's room, like you're just

bullshitting with your friends, but you don't have to make the thing at the end. You just get paid like $100 billion to just show up to the writer's room and never have to like make the good jokes in or edit out the bad ones. You're just like, man, let's just sit on the couch and order food. And I'm like, shit. So wait. So you want to be a writer. You start doing it at eight.

You're in a school, schools where the pathway to entertainment industry is not unreasonable. But at what age do you get the first sort of on-camera idea and then it actually happens? Are you still, you're still in high school? I was 18. So like fresh out of high school, I started working. And so what's that first job? Do you get an agent? No, no, no. So it wasn't like that. I went to New School. I went to Boulder for one semester and got kicked out. My mom calls it her $40,000 sweatshirt.

And she's really funny. My parents are really funny people and awesome people. But they, they said I went to new school and in New York City and I started just performing in like in theater school, but then performing at bar. and doing like kind of stand-up. Yeah, like stand-up and then like short plays. And like they would let me perform at this bar called Black and White, which was an awesome bar. Did you do Black and White, Willie? No.

It was so fun. It was like the most fun time. And then I started getting like a crowd of people. And I was already like, it's on, dude. I was like, it's so going to be on. You're comfortable in front of an audience. So going to a camera then is not that much of a leap. No.

And then I got my first job in a movie called I Heart Huckabee's, which was like my first. And Jake's dad, Dustin was like, you should be a comedic actor. So how did that come to be? How did you get in front of Dustin? It wasn't like a performance thing or anything. We were just, I was just friends with his son and he would see me do stuff and was like, and I make prank call CDs.

I make prank call CDs. I was like a ham. I was just like trying to be funny all the time. But you were just making Dustin laugh around the house and he says, you should read. Maybe like if Mabel had a friend over it and you are like, you know, Rob Reiner, rest in peace to the legend. I fucking love that dude so much.

But, you know, Rob would bring Albert Brooks around, and Rob would tell me that, like, his dad was like, Albert is the funniest fucking guy, but Albert was just Rob's friend. Right, right, right. You know, and Albert's Albert Brooks, right? So, like, Dustin was like, I'm doing this movie.

I got you an audition. And so he got me an audition. And so you read for the casting director. She passed it on to David. David said, yeah, great. And then you get on that set. And what's that like being on a set? You're just looking around.

Well, David O was fucking nuts at that time, dude. He was buck wild. And I'm like, homies with him. He's awesome. Super nice guy. But at that moment in life, and I've had my own, trust me, he was buck wild, dude. There's like, you know, he was like screaming at Lily Tomlin and stuff.

It's online. It's online and shit. And he'll talk about it. Like, you know, he's really cool. He's one of the best directors ever. I mean, flirting with disaster and three kings. I mean, he's so goaded. It's insane.

And I got on the set, I was like, everyone's screaming at each other. The first time I walked on set, him and K.K. Barrett, the production designer, were joking around wrestling, and then it turned into a real fight. And it was, like, joking that, like, turned into a fight. And these guys were, like, fighting. And they were setting up my first scene to act in music. Welcome to Hollywood. And I was like, Hollywood is so tight.

This is so cool. I saw a fist fight on set once, too. Really? was crazy. It was so crazy. Can you say the name of the movie? I don't remember. But yeah, it was this weird thing I did, but it was out in the desert. Listen, guys.

Was everyone wearing clothes? The point is, but I saw these two dudes, these two big dudes, like a grip and a gaffer get into it. They end up they were arguing, and they ended up getting into a fucking fist fight. Oh, wow. Well, full circle moment, real quick as I want to give KK. some shout out right now, but he, if I was like, if I ever get to direct movies, I'm going to hire

KK. Barrett, and he did my movie outcome. He did. He was the production designer. So full circle, like 20 years later, he was the greatest production designer ever, one of them for sure. So that was like a full circle moment. It was like a dream of mine. So from there, you do a great job in that movie. You have to wait until the movie comes out until the industry starts to see it, or does word get out from like dailies and early cuts and stuff like that and gets you to... My part was so small that like it didn't make a dent. It wasn't like people were like, you know, trying to give me jobs and shit. And then

I met a guy named Peter Principato Incredible Manager, who is my former manager, awesome dude. And he introduced He was my former two. That's why I was looking at Will, sorry. He was legend and he got me an audition for campus ladies and that was my second job. Was

campus ladies and I got like three or four episodes on that and it was all groundings people and on that show because it was like Will Forte and Meyer Rudolph and like every dope person I was like in love with came on to the show. And then my life really kicked off

when I met Judd Apatow. Right. You know, so. So did those people kind of get in Judd's ear and say, hey, you got to check this guy out? I think I was just starting to do like table reads. I mean, this is like inside baseball, so this might be so boring.

Is this boring as shit? Okay. Right, so like when somebody's going to like has a script and they're thinking about making a movie, they'll get a bunch of really talented people around a table and they'll read it out loud and see if it makes everybody laugh. And that was like the funny, like 18-year-old. There wasn't a lot of like 18,

me and Michael Sarah would be at like all of them together, you know? So, and like Seth and Jason Siegel, like all the young dudes would be at them. And then when Judd started blowing up, I auditioned for a four-year-old virgin. I met him and Seth. And then my life, from then on that day, I shot 40-year-old Virgin. It's one scene in an eBay store. And it was raining that day. So we were only supposed to shoot that scene for like an hour, but it was raining.

So they didn't have a cover. set. So we shot it a whole day and I just improvised a whole day in front of Judd and Seth and Sean Robertson, one of my best friends. And Judd was like, what do you want to write? And I was like, you don't understand all I want to do is right. And so, but what about the, so he gave me, I had a, I pitched him two movies and he bought them. And my parents are like, who is this guy who's molesting you? I was living at home and I was 19. They're like, who is Jud Abbotown? Is he like touching your weiner because like you're like a fucking weird. Spitting a lot of time over that. Stoner who like doesn't have a job and like why do you have a two-picture deal at like

universal and you're like it made no sense. What were the films? One was called Middle Child which a lot of those jokes I won't say but the movie maybe got swallowed into another movie. And then one called one was about an imaginary friend which is really clever script and then neither of them got made. But it like ingratiated me with those guys and then we went on this whole crazy, awesome journey. I hear this all the time, like, just those two, like the title middle child and something with imaginary friend with you writing it, where did those scripts go? Like, why don't we resurrect them?

They're around. I mean, like, I could probably try and clean one up and get it made, but I have new new stuff. What's that? You want to take a look at it? I'll just want to take a look. I'll do the table read. There's great hard for you. Are you accepting notes still?

Because Sean, we'll be right back. This episode of Smart List is sponsored by Ashley. the brand that helped turn our live event stage into a fully styled living space. Ashley's whole thing is making your home feel like you with styles that balance timeless design and modern trends. Slower, Sean. And it's not just about looks.

Their stuff is built to hold up to the real life with durable materials and easy to clean fabric. For the live show, we were on their Mod Max sofa. It's modular so you can kind of move it around however you want depending on your space. And it's got that Super Soft Performance Fabriced. which sounds fancy, but really just means if you spill something, you're not immediately into panic, Sean.

Yeah. So the accent chairs were great, too. Big, they're comfortable. The kind of chair where you sit down and you go, all right, I'm here for a while. And the coffee and accent tables tied everything together. Clean, simple, but somehow made everything feel finished. It's just a beautiful setup.

Honestly, that setup worked perfectly for the show. The modular couch made it easy for us to fit however many people ended up on stage. Yeah, I mean, good luck with you, man. Thanks. I'm not kidding, I would have taken that whole setup home. It looked great. Felt very comfortable, you know?

Really did feel like we were just hanging out in someone's living room. Yeah, and for Jason, this is the farthest he's been from his couch in weeks. It's hurtful. Ashley is all about style that's made for real life with white glove delivery right to your room of choice. Visit your local Ashley store or head to ashley.com to find your style. This episode of SmartList is brought to you in part by Skinny Pop Popp. Which, yes, is exactly what we were inhaling backstage at the live show. True story.

There is something very satisfying about a snack that actually delivers and doesn't come with a paragraph of ingredients. Yeah, and Skinny Pop keeps it simple. Real ingredients, classic popcorn. Nothing weird. Nothing you have to Google. Yeah, the original is light and airy, but still hits the spot. And if you want to mix it up, they got white cheddar, butter, sweet and salty kettle. It's one of those snacks that works for anything.

Watching something, traveling, pretending, you're only going to have a handful. Jason? Jason, that's you. We had Skinny Pop backstage at the live show, and it disappeared fast. Families, friends, zero restrained. Yeah, it's kind of our go-to, movie night road trip before we record during the record. White cheddar, butter, sweet and salty kettle. Sean, do you put Skinny Pop on your pasta marinar?

Oh, absolutely. It adds texture. It's upsetting. Look, the stuff we want to snack on and the stuff we should snack on, usually not the same thing. Skinny Pop bridges that gap. Creates a bridge in between the... Skinny Pop. Deliciously popped, perfectly salted, popular for a reason.

I'll say. And now, back to the show. Well, what about the stroke of genius luck that you landed in front of Judd Apatel, like one of the greatest sort of finders of talent and nurturers of talent? Yeah, he's amazing. And giving people chances and championing them. Like, look what he's done just, you alone. I mean, and there's what?

100, 100 people. He's probably named 25 people right now that are household names that Judd has championed. He's incredible. He's so... He's up there with Lauren Michaels as far as launching people into the comedy world. Yeah, there was like me and my friends,

but then there's like Lena Dunham and it went on like Amy Schumer. You know, like he really just like saw see something in these people and he's so great at like mining what you're going through and helping you find your voice. And what he really did was he put me through Harvard

education of directing comedy movies. So, like, now that I'm 42 and we have our own company, shout out Strong Baby. Shout out Matt Dynes, my bestie up there. And we produce the movies we make now. I like know what to do because of Judd. You know, so I'd go, he was blowing up. So my favorite thing was going to the table reads

because you'd have writers at the table reads and you dissect and give notes on the scripts. And that's what I love to this day. I love like the Rubik's Cube of Crack. and making better and making a comedy script better. You're not burdened by the idea of writing. I love it.

It's my favorite part of the process. But I mean, do you love the part where you're sitting in a room by yourself and you're staring at a blank wall and you're just trying to like, trying to fill a blank page? Like to me, that's the hardest thing in the business. As dick-headish and insane as I was when I got famous at like 22, like, I don't take for granted a day that I get paid to write. jokes. I actually

think, and I've grown way past that part when I was 21 or 22, but like, I cannot believe I get to write jokes for my job. I say it to myself every day. I'm like, dude, structure and like character development and you know, all is lost

on page 75 and like all of this like stuff you've got to like there's like... It's the best job in the world. By the way, Tony of you noticed, everything exhausts them. Yeah. Everything. Dude, if I was on smart list, I wouldn't fucking write screws. No, it's so hard.

Don't you guys have like a mobile company? Like, dude, if I was you guys, I wouldn't touch a computer the rest of my goddamn life. I live in Tahiti and fucking phone this in on Zoom, dude. All right. I'm out here. I got to work in Hollywood who's like, doesn't exist anymore. I'm like, I'm basically a cobbler. I make comedy movies with like me and two other people.

Well, John, talk to talk. me about that. I know you're half joking about Hollywood being whatever you just said, like, it's over, you know, because that's the feeling out there right now is that, you know, where is this going? And everybody's scared and everybody's like, what's going to happen with AI? And especially in comedy, not especially

in comedy, but like... Oh, thank God a conversation about AI. Oh, finally. Finally, we can hear some points. You can put in a prompt that says, write me a joke that Jonah Hill might say on a stage with three other dudes. Like, you'll get, like, six jokes.

So, like, does that kind of, like, affect the whole writing stuff? No, because you can't replace... Comedy ultimately is human pain and time. And then you're just plusing it, perhaps. It'd be like having some Grom writers in the writer's room. They'll write, I'll write, like, 50 shitty jokes that you could rewrite or something. But they won't be... They won't have the human experience that allows comedy to be funny,

because you got to get dumped to write a funny movie about getting dumped, right? A computer hasn't been dumped. They know, maybe they have, I don't know, I shouldn't say that. I'm sorry to all the computers in the crowd and, but like, I don't worry at all.

I also live in, I'm like, I just go until they fire me. Like, I'm so motivated by what I do and my family that, like, I just have two things. I have my family and, writing comedy. Yeah, yeah. So, like... Well, where do I fit in in that?

Yeah. Well, I'm here tonight. All right, so how close are we to Superbad now at this point in... It'll be 20 years... Oh, you mean, like, at that point in this... Yeah, in this story here where you're... Oh, dude, so is 40-year-old Virgin, and then a year later we made Knocked Up, and then two months after knocked up, we made Super Bad.

So, like, a year after I met Judd, we made Super Bad. So who... I'm embarrassed. I should know this. And you guys were working with Michael, right around them, too. Who wrote Superbad? Super Bad. Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg

wrote the most brilliant script of all the time. Yeah. And it read, we all improvised and everyone comes up with great jokes on those movies, but their script that they wrote

was, like, flawless. Yeah. But like, do you remember Michael Sarah going away to do that movie that was done during the hiatus? No, but I tell you something, this is a true story.

So years ago, right before, like the year before Super Bad, there was a script that we were going to do at a place. I won't say, because then you'll be able to know who is in charge. And it was about, it's this crazy, great script

that Mitch Hurwitz and I worked on with Jim Valli. Really, really, really funny. It turned out great. And I said to the guy who ran this particular studio, so this is, Superbad was 2007, right? Jesus. I mean, pause for a second. You with the dates.

He knows dates like Mary Lee Leonard. That is crazy. It's great. Yeah. And he'll tell you what month was the film released in? Which one? Super bad. 2007.

Oh, that I don't know. I don't know. It was 2007. Yeah, no. It's probably a summer release, right? Yeah, probably. It might have been. But I remember going in, and this thing that we were working on called for this dude, this character I was playing, and then these two teenage sons.

And it was two teenage boys who were best friends. It was basically like a three-hander. And I said to the guy, this is before all that, before 40-year-old virgin, I go, It should be Michael Sarah and this kid, Jonah Hill. No way. And he goes, what? No, man. What are you talking about?

And I swear to God, and a fucking year later or whatever it was, 18 months later, Super Bad comes out. And it's like a huge hit. And I'm like, this dumb fuck. This fucking guy blew it. And he got fired. Did he? You should have.

That's crazy. I'll tell you after. Thank you. I'll tell you after. And then you're going to be like, yeah. Because when I met Will, like when I was 18, I met him at my friend's house, and I was bugging out, dude, because he was Job from Arrested Development. I was like, holy shit, dude.

So good. Couldn't believe it. These guys. Anyway. All right, so Superbad happens. That's very, very cool, very exciting, yes, but I would imagine. He was game changing, too. That movie.

That's my question. Was it disruptive? Or did you flow with it pretty good? because I know Michael Sarah was, because Arrested Development was... Just finished, right? We were just done, Arrested Development.

We had finished the three seasons at Fox? Yeah, because we finished in December of 2005. Okay, so then that... Are you allowed to say Rain Man? I remember... He is, Mary Lou Hennar. Are we okay, okay, no. I remember Michael was just...

Even though he'd already had some fame, some notoriety from... and Rested Development. Superbad was a whole other level. And there was a level of adjustment for him, I know, for sure. For you as well? Was it comfortable for a bit? I mean, it was exciting as

hell, but it was crazy. It was just bizarre, you know, it was like... Can't walk down the street anymore. Yeah, and Michael and I hung out every day still. So we would go to Cantors. I lived behind Cantors in Cecil Department, and Michael and I would just walk to Canters and people would be talking

about the shit, like our lives, were like that movie, and people would see us, and they'd freak out because it's like we walked off the screen into the deli. You know, like... People think you're shooting a sequel.

Yeah, it was just so bizarre, you know, it was trippy. But are you thinking, because you're, how old are you at that point? 20? 22. 22. So you're at an age... I'm not Will, 22 or 23.

So you're at an age where you're thinking about, okay, I need to have a job, a career, I need to be starting thinking five years, ten years in the future. I got to provide. So this is, are you thinking now this is, I've got some

momentum, this can be my career. Does it align with what your plans were, what your dreams were, what your goals were? I was obviously stoked because I loved the movie. I didn't know if I'd get to work on shit I loved. I knew I'd work in comedy

in some capacity. Like I had the confidence enough to know like, I I am professionally funny, even at, like, 18 or 19, whatever. But I didn't, like, Superbad was, like, my dream. I was, like, what I wanted to see. Yeah, right. You know, so I was so stoked that Judd was in the position

to make the kind of movie. Those films are being made. Superbad comes out. You've got a pretty good idea that shit's working out. It's a huge head. It was crazy. I'm going to watch that. Comedy features were a huge business.

Huh? I'm going to watch it tonight. I mean, I've seen it, but I'm going to watch it again. Right after arrested. Yeah. Now that I have kids, now that I have kids, I'm like, oh my God, imagine when my son, like, who's three, like imagine him watching that movie.

Oh my God. I never thought about that shit. Maple loved it. Maple, dude, does your cool kids still watch it and stuff? She loved it. That's right. She was very excited to be here tonight. Yeah.

What I kind of want to know is, John, but it was psycho. It was psycho. Like, we couldn't walk around. And it was, like, so exciting and kind of scary. and then like you just cannot not become obsessed with yourself when something like that happens. It just is like it's impossible not to become like a weird dude for like a year.

Everybody's telling you you're great, right? So everybody's going, you're the greatest. You just have all your friends that you're still friends with from high school, but all of a sudden one of you people like respect and pay attention to. So like you just are kind of a self-centered person because it's about you a lot of the time. Yeah. And thank God that time is over and it's not about me anymore.

Yeah. But you're skipping over a very interesting part where you're like, you're kind of, you're munching on all the junk food of all that fame and all of that access and relevance and whatnot. And then you start to think, this is a question, what should I do about dramatic work to make sure that I... Oh, so I'll tell you the smartest thing I did was, like, Michael,

Michael had Juno come out like two months later. What a movie. He was like Michael Jackson, dude. Have you seen Juno? But for real. Michael Sarah had Super Bad and Juno come out in like six months. And it was like, he really, he was more famous than I was. And he retreated inward.

And I was like, I'm going to watch Juno tonight too. The best movie about the last video we'll ever see. Michael Sarah went to inward? Soft spoken and inward? But he is still, I will say to this, he is top three best friends in the world to this day. A great man. We still talk like once a week.

Just finish directing a movie. Yeah, he's imposed on his movie. It's going to be amazing. He's so fucking brilliant and cool and a great human being. And, but what I did was I got offered a bunch of movies for the first time. All in the comedy space? All the comedies, yeah. I was like, I can't make a, none of these are as good as super bad.

Right. So I said, to my agent, what writing jobs are available? And Sasha Baron Cohen was looking for writers for the Bruno movie. And I auditioned for the writer's room. How does that go? What's the writer audition like? It's like you get like a day sit-in in the writer's room. But I had been in the writer's rooms with Judd in those guys.

So I got the job and I was like super, I was like arguably more famous than Sasha. it was at that time. And I was like a pimply writer in his writer's room for like six months. I would ride my bike to the lot over here on Formosa from my apartment on Fairfax. And people would be like, yo! And I would just go and write jokes

because I didn't want to think about like the outside world. I didn't want to think about the pressure of like, what do I do next? That's such a funny move to do that. To go from that to then all of a sudden just to be a staff writer on the Bruno movie. It was the best time, though, man. Because it was like,

I was like, I just got to work with one of my heroes and pitched like, I loved Bruno. Like when the Allie G show came out, it was like, it was like when Arrested Development came out. I was like obsessed with Bruno. So like all of a sudden I was writing jokes and like Mickey Mouse was saying my jokes. Like, you know, it wasn't just like someone cool. It was like a character that I already loved. He was an incredible talent. Yeah, he's an awesome guy.

He was an awesome boss. I kind of want to get to. I think you were trying to get to. but man, you take a long time. No, I do. You're allowed to. You're supposed to be speaking. We want to hear from you.

Dave, am I being boring or no? No, no. No. No, this is this fascinating? We love Jonah. Sean, is this one of your favorite episodes? We love. Do we flip over to like Dax's podcast, Sean?

Or no, do we keep listening to this? Fast forward. I want to, Joan, I want to get into it, because then you go and you start doing interesting things like Wolf of Wall Street, in which you're amazing. Thank you. You're so, dude. Don't skip over Moneyball.

Well, I'll tell you this. By the way, Moneyball. Oh, dude. Moneyball, first of all, really hard film to make from that book is a great book. And I remember thinking, like, they'll never do it.

So far, that movie's so great. You are so great in that movie. So you do Moneyball. Well, can I say one thing before that? Yes, please. I don't want to jump straight to there. Did we miss the credit? Let the guest talk, Will?

I know the question. I'm trying to get to it, dude. The question you're trying to ask is this, in my opinion, is this, is that I got, I was working for Sasha and got off. offered all the big comedies. And I got offered the hangover and Cyrus at the same time. And I did Cyrus.

Wow. And this is why we need agents. I wish I did both. Because the hangover rifts and is an amazing movie and I love Todd. But like, I was like. Cyrus didn't suck. The two classes know what they're doing. No, no, no.

But it changed my life because I wanted to do dramatic movies and comedic movies. And that script and that part was incredibly and very deep in a moment. and a lot like my work today. And guess what? Bennett Miller probably saw Cyrus and he probably did not see hangover. So he saw Cyrus and he cast me in Moneyball. That's amazing. Let him

speak, dude. Sorry, I get so excited. Now we're caught up. I'm just bridging the just doing a little bridge. A little bridge work. So then you work Benet Miller and then you work with Martin Scorsese on Wolf of Wall Street and with Leo DiCaprio. That must have been just a mind blow

with the first day. Well, Moneyball was unbelievable, man. Moneyball was such a trip because, like, I remember my dad was a fan of that book, and he's like, how are they going to make this? Michael Lewis. Yeah, how are you going to make this a movie? Didn't Aaron Sorkin write that script? And Steve Zalien.

I mean, Bennett Miller is not like a household name, but if you make films, he is. He is such a brilliant director, the director of that film. He's a movie. That dude hasn't made a movie in years, right? Since Foxcatcher, I think, right? Yeah, since Foxcatcher. And he's an amazing guy on top of me so much. But didn't you want to direct early, early on?

So all these guys, I would just work for them and sponge for them and write for them. And, like, Spike, at that time, I would just write for him for free for, like, five years, whatever commercial, whatever, like short film he was doing or whatever I'd help on because I was just an intern for all these great directors that I'd get the chance to work with as an actor.

And then also the comedy writers, I was, like, such a nerd where I'd meet someone who wrote on a rest of development. and geek out over them at the mall and they'd be like, what? You know? So it was, I'm so privileged because I just love

the actual work of what I do. Right. You know? So then talk about that. That's a rare-ass thing, you know? Yeah, I mean, you're so incredibly lucky to have been on the sets of all these incredible directors. You find yourself cherry-picking from them.

But then Marty's like another level. He's another level than everybody ever. I feel like there's a bit of a paternal element there between the two. You guys seem so close and it's warm, it's genuine. He did a great cameo in the last film. Yeah, he was in Outcome, which is on Apple, if you want to watch it.

Great movie. Keanu Reeves. American Treasure. Yep. But yeah, the fact that I call Marty and don't have to stop and like apologize is psychotic to me, you know? Like, Simpsons and Goodfellas, I guess, would just be the two things that I think are like,

if you had to like take my brain and freeze it, you'd cut it open. It'd probably be those two things. And so like, so, you know, I got to direct him. This was the first movie he gave. Did you give him a note? Huh? Did you give him a note? At any point? Get your shit together, Mark. You guys like, get your shit together. Time is money, man. No, I mean, like, he came in so prepared. It was honestly, the whole thing was so psychedelic, like, him coming to set and me directing him. It was so psychedelic. It was like childbirth. It was like, you see like colors and you're like, this is so trippy. And, um, but

Then he interviewed me for Interview Magazine, and he had to talk to me about the movie. And he loved the movie. And I'm directed to two other movies, which he liked, but he didn't love. And he was like, I love, he's like, this is a giant leap forward, and I love this movie. And that meant a lot to me. That was fucking so powerful. The critics did not agree. But, you know, I am introduced on the toilet for the first four minutes of the movie, so there's that.

But, you know, to have him love the movie was fucking rad. It was fucking cool and meant a lot. And he's just the best guy. You go through withdrawal after you work with him because the poor unfortunate other directors you have to work with after cannot compare it. No matter how wonderful, prepared, and amazing they are. Is there one thing that is louder to you

about the experience of working with him that is different than other directors? Is it just ease on set? Nothing comes within a billion. miles. A billion with a B. What is the one main thing do you think that he does different?

The most obvious thing to him. Present company excluded, right? So you know how he's everyone's favorite director? Yeah. So his ideology and taste in life and everything is like your favorite person. So it's like, he doesn't just, director's work is like their worldview.

So the reason you love Marty's work is because you love him. Right. You love his. lens as he sees the world through and like his taste his taste his humor his fucking realness as you know like you see someone in life here's i know i know i'll be friends with somebody when you're like at the mall and you see someone and the person's being a fucking weirdo and you look to like the person you're with and you both see it without saying anything yeah marty sees the fucking weirdo that you see he gets it right he sees it all even though he's and he's martin scorzi at the same time right you know like he's as human and real

is like, the fuck is that guy doing? And he's also the biggest genius you've ever met. You're so... We're all so lucky to be immersed into the thing that we chose to do because we love to do it, right? And you've been... enjoyed tremendous success, both writing and acting and now directing and everything.

Is there something... And that really stimulates your mind. Like you said, there's my family and there's work, right? And that's all you care about. It's all you love. Is there anything else... I mean, I have friends. Swear to God.

Jason is my actual friend. Great friend. Yeah, yeah. He is an amazing friend. For sure. Say more. And I look up to him very much. He's a, I would call him a mentor because I admire his relationship with his amazing wife, Amanda,

and the father he is to his children. And he's great at his job. And they don't have to be mutually exclusive. Let's hear it for Jason. Yeah, it's true. He's a wonderful human being. It is, is very true. He's got to go to New York tomorrow.

I don't know if you heard of what he's up against. Yeah. It's just, he's going to be humping it in 36J. Do you send me the intro you wrote? Yeah. I'd love to read it. I kind of remembered it. It was pretty close to that.

I interrupted you. What was your question, Sean? No idea. I'm sorry. No, no, no. Oh, no, no, I mean, being immersed so deeply immersed in what we'd love to do, there's got to be other things that interest you. Like, I'm obsessed with space.

Yes. And sci-fi and all that. What are the other things that when we think of Jonah Hill, instead of work and family, what is the thing that's like, oh, you know what? It's skateboarding. What is the other thing that we're like, what? I didn't know that. You absolutely love.

Super great question, because hobbies are a huge part of my life and happiness as well. So, like, I love Brazilian jihitsu. I love, except my body is begging me to not love it. 42 isn't, my wife is often like, you're not going to become like a professional fighter. You know that, right? Like, you're a comedian. But let me ask you something. If we got into it, I would fuck you up.

You'd fuck me up, right? I would fuck all three of you us. And that's the best part. My favorite thing is people are like, oh, Jonah Hill, fucking fat guy from Superbath, whatever. And I'm like, I would fucking annihilate you, dude. I'm not kidding, dude. Because every fight ends up.

If you see me, try it, dude. Every fight ends up on the ground. Fucking bring it. Who's got it? I will, unless you are with. bigger than me. I have like a... Fucking fuck around and find out.

And also, um, surfing. Surfing. But then your kids take all that, you know, it was all that stuff like, like pandemic, no life, selfish, have no family, no wife. But then, you know, kids, it's your life, dude. You know, like it's, um, there is not a free moment. Like I ask permission now to go do my hobbies. You know?

Because like if the kid needs, the kids need me. Right. You know, but then you've got to fill your own cup. That's why I call guys with Jason, like Jason, to be like, how do you balance this shit, you know? I have a secret fantasy of wanting to get into a fight. And, because I've never been into it. It's not a fantasy.

I feel really bad for the other guy. Sean just likes the ground and pound situation. By the way, I'm being funny, by the way. I would fuck you up, but I am being funny also. You started, you like Jiu-Jitsu. I'm going to start a new one called Ground and Pound. Yeah, I'm going to teach it. Groundupound.com is not what you think it is.

Get it now. Yeah, no, I've never been in a fight, and I've always been like that. It has to feel like... But, dude, acting, and, like, I hadn't acted in a long time, and now I'm out there maybe going to take a role and, like, start acting for other people.

I'm so excited to act. Like, almost like I'm excited about to serve for jujitsu. Because you've been away for it a while, or because of the directing, and now you're going to bring that perspective to the acting? Yeah, like I haven't done a movie where I acted for another director. I did McKay's movie, Don't Look Up. And then you people with Kenya, which was such a fun experience.

I saw Lauren London today. Shout out Lauren London. I fucking love you. Shout out Kenya. Shout out McKay. Shout out all the homies. And then what am I talking about? And then so.

Your hobbies. Acting. Yeah, like, I was like, I might take the job. And I'm like, dude, I'm so excited to like just put on the t-shirt you tell me to put on and go be funny. Like, I want to do, like, I'm so excited like I was when I was young. And so that's a fun feeling, you know? Yeah, I do know. What about Daddy stuff?

What's your favorite part about? You were amazing, I called you, but you got to see, is this thing on? Will was so incredible. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. And Bradley's just an amazing thing, too. So incredible. Yeah.

Who don't you like? I'm kidding. I'm just kidding. It's more like who doesn't like me, unfortunately. What is your favorite part about Daddy stuff? What have you found is your favorite thing to do with your? kids that you didn't think, that you didn't know you were going to love. I knew I was going to love it.

I just prayed that I'd be able to do it in the right way. You know, so I'm so proud of what I get to do. Every second of it is so sick. Because even when he's like three and crazy, because one of the one of the one's a little baby, you can only yell at him, scream yourself, horse at him so much. But how's your swaddle game? That was a joke.

How's your swaddle game? Are you a good swaddler? No, he's out of, yeah, no, I'm not a good swaddler. I'm a good diaper change. What's a good diaper change? Nope, nope. Yeah. But there's a whole, swallower.

Swaddling is when you take and you wrap up. Well, they're probably past, the young ones probably past the swaddling now. Yeah. I thought you said swallower. No. Swaddler. That's on ground and pound.com. It's, um.

Amanda, was Jason, did he get in the swaddle? He did. For real. A great swaddler. And a great diaper. change your rougher. Making your kid, like seeing your kid come up with something that he thinks

is funny to make you laugh. Like knowing that that's, like he wants, he thinks of something that is funny in his three-year-old mind and then tries to be like dada, and then says, which is usually, oh, fuck or weiner, because he's my son.

And he'll be like, dad, da, oh, fuck. And I'm like, family business. baby, get out there. Are you enjoying, well, he's still a little bit to you, but like, I'll bet you're going to enjoy starting to feather in, like, your sense of humor to him, and, like, you know,

he'll start to, like, pick up on that from you, and it'll start to maybe become kind of his sense of humor, too. Like, I remember, I think it was, I think it was Maple, was it you, or was it Franny? I remember, I'll never forget what time, what of them said to be like, Daddy, how come you never smile after you say something funny? And it was like, you know, just kind of like, well, because if you smile, then you know it's a joke. But if you don't smile, then it's kind of dry and that's like sarcasm.

Like, it was like so weird that I was trying to formulate what the answer would be to that. But like you don't know what the answer is that. It's just like... Your kids have never seen you smile. Think about that. That's what it is. Think about how fucking traumatized there. Comedy is not supposed to be fun in our house.

Stop laughing. I mean, you don't have to teach them shit. They just watch you. They just watch you. Right, that's what I mean. It's like, you start to just like, I don't know. I just, I don't want to go tomorrow. You're going to be brilliant.

I would be having a nervous breakdown if my kids were going to college. Because I think about, I start crying sometimes. I'm like a little baby myself because I'll look at them and be like, if you're a teenager and don't want to hang out with me, I'll cry every night. You know, like I can't imagine. Imagine them out in the world and shit. Somebody said to me that sort of like got me off the ledge, when your kids go to college, you've got a long time to go.

They're not going to college, let's be honest. Maple's got another four or five years, so the tears are still pretty low. But when Frannie, my eldest, left, I was like, I'm not going to do well with this. She goes to school in town, so I'm okay. But somebody said to me a few years before she left, she said, you're not losing your four-year-old.

like it's not your four-year-old is not leaving it's an 18-year-old that's probably been spending a lot of weekends out at friends house and stuff like so it gets feathered in and it's not like boom your your four-year-old your 10-year-old is like leaving the house it's it's you're actually excited for them to you know leave the nest start flapping the wings and it's it's and you've like knowing you relationship with your daughters you've seen them blossom into these incredible people so you're like go shred yeah yeah you're excited to watch them play the guitar you know Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you'll love it. It's radical. It's all a blessing. Yeah. All right, we're about done here. These people, they probably want to pee or do something or get the hell out of here. In closing, though. We're done? Oh, my gosh. We don't take a lot of time. I was so boring. What?

Oh. Talk to us about the film that's out right now and the film that's coming out. I saw that one too. That one's fucking great. You guys are going to have to wait a little bit longer on that. You're still in post on that. Jason also gives the best notes because he's such a great director and friends. So, but tell us about... It's here for Jason.

Incredible. And Will and I are friends, but it's like a newer friendship and then Shannon and I are going to become friends. That's right, right after this. You're sleeping over tonight. Yeah, we're going to watch Superbad tonight. Yes, great.

Beat him up. Yeah. If you'd like the shit beating out of you, please let me know. Sean's got a sing way. Come on down to San Diego. We'll treat you right. You look in your rearview mirror.

I went to San Diego so Jonah could beat me up. Traffic was a nightmare. Scotty, let's go. So tell us about these two films. The new movie's called Outcome, and you can stream it on Apple. It's Keanu Reeves and myself and Cameron Diaz and the great Matt Bowmer, who's incredible. And a bunch of amazing people, David Spade, Laverne Cox,

really amazing cast. And it's a really funny movie. And if you want to enjoy yourself at home and then pause it and take a piss and get snacks and stuff, you can totally go do that. But it's also got filmmaker stuff in it. Like you shot it beautifully and it's scored beautifully. And it's like you're doing it.

Thank you. And then this next one... This next one is just pure stupidity. So it is just dumb. Tell them what the concept is. It's dumb. I'm about to go on a run of just the dumbest shit you've ever seen in your entire life.

So I hope you left your brains at home. So it's called Cutoff. And Kristen Wigg and I play two dumbass, rich kids in their mid-40s who get cut off by their rich parents, played by Bet Midler and Nathan Lane. Oh, that's great. It is like stepbrothers, clueless trading places. It's so great.

Classic comedy, and Kristen Wigg is the American treasure. I've been so lucky. My last two movies, Keanu Reeves and Cameron Diaz and Kristen Wigg and Bett Midler and Nathan Lane. I'm the luckiest guy, but it's going to be in theaters. Shout out Mike and Pam and Jesse at Warner Brothers. and we are trying to bring comedy movies back to the movie. Yeah, man, it's about time.

It's about time. There haven't been enough comedy movies getting made, and I think it's about time, and I hope that you're, like, I'm glad you're leaving. I'm glad you're leaving my talk. To just making people laugh. We want more of you, more often, higher frequency, your brakes over,

move back up from San Diego, or at least get a little kid-a-terre. I promise to try and make a movie every year That's funny. Please do. Critics, do your best, you cock suckers. And then I'm going to make people laugh, so fuck y'all. That's great.

I love that. We love you, buddy. We love you, John. We love you. Jonah Hill, God. Jonah Hill. Thank you. I hope that's okay.

I love you, dude. I'm sorry I was like that. No, that's okay. We got to do the wrap-ups. We got to do the wrap-up. Sean, I find, is the most genuine, warmest, sincere, attentive friend I could ever ask to have. That's a true story.

That's very nice. Will has all of that and just happens to make me laugh more than anybody I've ever met in my life. Yes. Oh, thank you. You're pretty funny too. Jason. Take your time. It's going to take a minute.

To think of something? you are, you're so Jason, you know? Which is what we love about you. You're just, you're the, no, Jason is such a sweet boy. This is awkward. No, it's true. And he's, and he's, you've made such a great thing of yourself. You've really turned around, I mean, you kind of grew up in the woods and you just, you got out and you're a beautiful person.

And he's, and I give him shit, we give him shit for being so, you know, grumpy and stuff. But he's so squishy on the inside. Yeah, yeah. He is such a sweet. Yes, I love you because you also are a genuinely kind person and you really think of other people. And I, you are one of the, you're grabbing my ass right now. Yeah. And you're one of the smartest people I've ever known in my entire life.

And, and yes, you're squishy inside. This fella is also super squishy. The funniest person on the face of the planet, both of them are. and I love you guys both. I love you too. And I said, Sean and I were texting last night about something. And I, you know, you have those moments. One of the great things is about our friendship,

and I don't know why we're doing this, but is we love each other. And I think it's the age that we've gotten to where we can tell each other that we love each other. And it feels really great to be able to do that. And I said, Sean sent me a text last, we talked on the phone, and then he sent me a really lovely text afterwards.

And like Jason said, you cannot meet a person who is more consistently supportive and kind than Sean Hayes. You can try. No. And constantly, he checks in on everybody he loves. He's always so selfless and it's unbelievable. And J.B.'s the same. I feel very, very honored that we get to do that you guys listen to us. Yeah.

Fuck around. I don't know if you guys get to work with your best friend. They are truly my two best friends. you guys let me work with them and have the greatest time of my life and talk to some of the most interesting people in the world so we cannot thank you enough. Yeah, we really, really appreciate it.

Yeah, we do. I also want to say sorry, thank you to Bennett and to Rob and to Michael Granite. There's Rob, Rob, Rob, put your hand up. There's Bennett over there. Yeah, John. And where's Michael Terry? Michael Terry somewhere.

Michael Terry is somewhere. It is six of us. And our great partners is serious, but it is the six of us that make this thing happen. And so without them, we wouldn't have it. And we didn't want to let another moment go. Bye! Bye, guys.

Smartless is 100% organic and artisanly handcrafted by Bennett Barbico, Michael Grant Terry, and Rob Armjurf. Smartless.