This Is Important - Ep 310: The First Ever Guest? With Danny McBride

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

Today, this is what's important:  The guys have their first ever guest. It's Danny McBride. You can purchase his new book "Thrilling Tales Of Modern Men" here.  Get your tickets NOW to our live show in Ontario, Canada on Sept. 25th, 2026! Or go to TIITour.com for more info. Check out Sam Jay and Alex English's new show Look Back At It now! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Well, I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. A.A.O. Rewatch on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports.

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a production of IHart Radio, the show where we talk about what's obviously most critically, crucially important. Today on this is important. The last thing you want to say when you send a dick pick is zoom in. Suck our dicks, R. L. Stein. I'm tattooed on a man's ass in North Carolina. I need cock more than air. Let's go.

Ha, ha, ha. Yes! Oh, boy. Yes. Whoa, we got a spicy one today. Yes. Oh, I can't wait for them to listen to what we're about to say because I bet it's going to be a spicy one today. I know it's going to be a spicy one.

Oops, winning. You guys good? Real quick, before we get into the spice, just so you know we're going to Catalina. Let's cool it now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was getting too spicy. the three of us are going to Catalina tomorrow. The boat is ready.

The fins are wrong. The coolers are being filled. They're packed. Okay. I'm bringing Doritos. Cool ranch. Yon. Regular.

Some kettle chips. My wife was like, you guys are three actors. You're not going to eat all them chips. I'm like, bitch. I was like, bitch. Maybe just you wait. Did she really? She did.

She did say that. And I was a little offended. That is a... Yeah. That was a little offended. That's probably a... wake call. Is that a wake-up call? Yeah. You guys are actors. You shouldn't do that. You shouldn't eat all those chips. But just so you know, guys,

I've been working very hard on getting ready for the Grand Voyage all the way over to Catalina. Catalina, I'm okay tomorrow because it's open ocean, baby. It's open ocean. Anything can happen. It's international waters. It's kind of dangerous. Anything could happen. What? Blake is only thinking about triple kissing. Yeah. I'm a dude. Blake's like so... Sorry. Sorry. So we could fuck out there?

He's like, anything? After all these years. Adam's thinking fireworks. Yeah. I'm thinking murder. After all these years, I'm still thinking about triple kissing y'all. This might be my time. You know, what we could do is we could, and if you guys have a shotgun, bring it.

We could go skeet shooting. Okay. You can go skeet shooting out there. These clays, they dissolve. I don't have a shotgun. I wish I would have some heads up. I didn't. I don't have my shotgun with me.

What? Do I have to get one? illegally now? Like, where am I going to get a shotgun in a day? You can get illegally. You can go right downtown. Go to gunwold. Yeah, just go to gunwold. I thought it takes a while. And that's why I'm leaving L.A. You can't just go get a shotgun on a whim. Yeah, that's some bullshit. Thanks, Gavin. Yep, come down here in the orange country. You can get a, you can get a shotgun like that. But, okay, so I just wanted to preface. I'm very excited about that. But you know what I'm more excited about, boys? You know what I'm more excited about? I do. I do. Our first

real guess, and that's not to take away from my father. Cumbaya. It doesn't count. Hit us with the button. That shit's important. Or all the people that we interviewed at the Super Bowl. At the Super Bowl, sure, of course. It doesn't take it away from Doug Flutie.

It's not taking away from Doug Flutie. Never. The hot dog, man. The hot dog eater dude. Joey Chestnut. Yeah, Joey Chestnut. It's not taken away from them. And of course, it doesn't take away from Will Forte,

who was our first kind of live show. guess. Unfortunately, we didn't get to him because we ended up fist fighting. Yeah. He didn't really speak up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is on him. Maybe next time. But this, this guy, he's a, he's a true comedy hero. I know for the three of us and we're, God damn, are we excited? Oh, we're ready to break the mold here. Mm-hmm. Our first ever legitimate guests, not taking away from any other guests that we've had. Not that they're illegitimate. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Danny McBride. Danny McBride, everybody. Hit us with an applause button, Blake. Hit us with a...

Yes. This is what it feels like to be the first guest, huh? I like it. And all this glory, dude. Oh, my gosh, one of our best freaking comedy heroes on the pod. Thank you. Thank you for joining. Thank you for coming on.

Thanks for having me. Thanks for saying that I'm the first real guest, even above your dad, Adam. That's really, really kind of you. Yeah. Well, he didn't really say much. He came on. He was battling cancer, so he was being all laxadaisal. We're like, speak up.

Energy, energy up. Energy. Fucking, come on, man. Yeah, I understand that. He talked about fucking your mom or eating, something. When my dad gets nervous, we brought him up, we did the cruise, right? I think I told you a little bit about we did this insane cruise with all of our fans. It was very fun.

It was a lot, though, but it was very fun. And there was this one girl that kept saying, that she wanted to fuck Blake and she would wear the base of her strap on. She would wear her strap on around... Around the cruise. Around the cruise.

And then would constantly be like, Blake, I want to fuck you. I will fuck you. Like, penetrate me. Penetrate Blake. She kept... And we don't know what happened behind closed doors.

Honestly, I would be surprised that that didn't work. That seems like a good strategy. Yeah. Kind of outside the box. Usually it works all the time, but yeah. Kind of outside the box.

We were inside the ass. Inside the ass, inside Blake's ass box. But yeah, he got into some risque territory your dad. Yeah, but you handled it well. Yeah, so we brought him up on the cruise ship, and then, you know, he gets nervous, and then he tries to joke, and then immediately he started talking about fucking my mom, which, uh... Pretty funny.

He went blue. Which is, yeah, it hit. It worked with the crowd. He went blue. This is where we get it from. We are our father's son. Going blue. He talked about sending dick pics or something?

I'm like, you never. I don't know. If he was trying to relate to the youth, I don't know. We're going digital, baby. He looked out at our 40-year-old crowd and it's like, these kids like to send dick pics. Forever young. Forever young.

Yeah. Not a lot of dick picks being sent over here. You guys never sent dick picks, right? You guys, were you big dick senders? I would have been. Big dick, pick sender. I can't say I had the confidence nor like the proper lighting to send any dick pit. Yeah, I feel like lighting's a huge part of it.

I do feel like Blake would have drawn like a smiley face on the end of it or something. Yeah, he would have put a little hat on his guy. You got to have fun. He would have called his dick his guy a lot. Yeah, you've got to have fun with it. I just, I think technology saved me. I just had a Nokia for any time where I could have sent dick pics, the megapixels weren't great enough.

It was just four pixels. And then once that clarity got in, I was married. There was no reason to send it. Bro, it was right there. You're like, hey, have you seen the new snake game? Have you seen the new snake game? Let's play Mime Sweeper. Yeah.

What would your wives, all of us, what would your wives do if you, out of the blue right now, just sent a dick pick? Oh. Would that go over at all? I should do it. There's so many questions. You know what I'm going to.

It's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. Let's really surprise them. Everyone under the table right now, under the table. I think the first question would be like, was this meant for me? It might get you into some trouble. Yeah, that would.

Absolutely. That's what I'm saying. It's like, this is out of norm. This is the new move. What's happening? It's like, is this for DERS? No, but really tiny on the shaft, you have to write four and then your wife's name. So then I'm like, zoom in.

Honey, zoom in. Yes. with the date on it so you know what happened now. That's for you, baby. Zoom in. Good call. The last thing you want to say when you send a dick pick is zoom in. Yeah.

To get the full throttle. You're going to want to zoom. You're going to want to hit the zoom. Pension zoom. Danny's like, what did I sign up for? We're sorry, man. We're not getting good ideas here. I was like, this is fantastic.

I would do it when I can see my wife so I can see the look on her face. Okay. And to make sure that my daughter is not. using her phone when I send it to. That's probably... It's not connected to the iPad when they're trying to play Roblox or whatever. Why do I feel like if I sent it, the only thing I would get back would be like, just don't forget to pick up the kids at camp.

Yeah. Like, it would just... It'd be like, no, just get to your God. Just pick up the Greek yogurt from the store. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God. Are you in the aisle right now?

Danny, we're about to go to Catalina. Have you ever been to Catalina? Or Dogelina? You know, I have been to Catalina. Yeah. Yep, I've been there. Catalina is fantastic. Adam, I was spying and listening.

You are, you're commanding the ship that's going over there? Yes, I am. Oh, are you scared about that? I mean, it's his boat. It's his boat. Would you trust me to command a ship with your life? I think so. I think so.

It's a straight shot. It should be pretty easy, guys. It's pretty easy. You kind of just said it in the computer and forget it, right? No, that is not true. you don't set it and forget it. You have to be vigilant. Adam's going to be doing a lot of just feeling the wind.

Yeah, don't be oversteering the motherfucker the whole time. Like, oh, I'm not oversteering. There is an auto pilot that I will set it to, but you don't set it and forget it. You set it and you sit there and you watch. You remember it. There could be ships, you know, crossing. You follow the dolphins, right? Isn't that what you do to get to Camelina?

You just follow the dolphins, the pods that are out there. Absolutely. Yeah, that's where they go to really fuck, dude. I remember one time we were coming back and it was a, it was like really foggy and you couldn't see and I didn't on, I don't know how to really work my like radar that well. So I'm just sort of going slow as shit

and which is good. And then we came through a clearing and the fog had lifted just in this one like spot about the size of a football field. And there were, this was a dolphin breeding ground or something. There was a thousand dolphins just, just on the water, splishing and splashing. It was.

is sick, dude. So we might see cool stuff like that. That's what I'm saying. I mean, I hate to say it. I think dolphins are really cool, man. That's a cool animal right there. You hate to say that? It's a controversial opinion. Yeah. And is that it? You're just going to let that lie there? It's not the

most manly, badass, that animal to like, you know? Dolphins are pretty damn cool, dude. I'm on board. I do wonder if there is like a hardcore dolphin out there. You know what I mean? With like one eye that just a fuck up shark.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, why do dolphins have such like a sweet reputation over sharks? Well, they don't. They're rapists. They are trying to do know this. We all know this, that they are rapists. Reputation.

Well, yes, they have a reputation. Yeah, they are trying to rewrite their history for sure. Yeah, because if a female is menstruating and they get in the water and they... Human woman. A human woman. And they get in the water. They smell the blood. And then they get all horned up, these dolphins.

And they will fuck. It's science. They're not just nice dudes. Well, that sounds like that's you as Adam as well. You could have just described you. I feel like, you know, I've heard. You've been most major several seasons together. You've heard the tales.

I do think on the call sheet at righteous gemstones at the top, it would be like, if you're menstruating, don't come to set. Adam will be there today. Stay away from Adam. Yeah, stay away from Adam's trailer. Like, yeah. It's happening again. It's that time of the month.

His thing is coming out. It's that time of the mind. The wardrobe girls are like, I can't deliver, I cannot deliver Adams. They're throwing your clothes at the trailer. Danny, you take him his pants. Whatever insane $8,000 poncho Adam has to wear today or... Somebody else has to deliver it.

Yeah. Oh, man, I was... I, you know, I was preparing for this interview to be. I don't believe that. I don't either. No, I've seen you on set. I know you don't prepare. And I was looking at some old photos of us shooting gemstones and the wardrobes and the things that you had us wear.

And you really had us in some funny costume comedy. And thank you for that. Because, you know, it makes it a lot easier when they're gigging from the beginning. 100%. Well, we always, I've always felt that like in a good comedy show, you should create characters that people can dress up as for Halloween. Yes. You got to push it. You. So that was the thought process.

You got to, you have to be potential Halloween costumes with every episode. Right. Dude, that is cute. Yeah. And I feel like there were a lot of gemstones there for a while. You know, out and about. I love to see it. What would you say is your number one out of all of your characters because you have some iconic, iconic, iconic, you know.

characters, is the number one Halloween, probably Kenny Powers, right? Is that number one? Kenny Powers, you get a lot. You still get a lot. But I think the effort that people put into dressing up like Kenny Powers has gotten less and less now. It would just be somebody with just like a fucking rug on their head, just like, oh, you. I'm you.

Dude. This is a mullet and wraparound shades and then in like a baseball jersey and you're going to go. You're still in your work uniform. Also, like, mullets are kind of back. So it's just like a guy now. A guy who's just like... You say back? They're back.

Oh, yeah. No, they're having a run. I feel like they're prominent for the first time. Yeah. Okay, sure, sure. I think they've made like mainstream prominence for the first time. They're actually cool. Everything comes back around.

This is what I want to say. If a rat, if people start wearing rat tails, right? Mm-hmm. I would never say those are back because they were never like prominent, prominent pop, like, of culture. We've never had a, like, we've never had a president with a rat tail, is what you're saying. honors, I'm a little older than you, and I got to disagree. Thank you. Thank you, Danny.

People were rocking those rat tails and taking you very seriously. Thank you, Danny. By and large. And also, we differ with Ders a lot when it comes to this because we were middle, you know, Ders comes from a country club culture, and they just didn't, he was popping collars. He had a collared, he wore a collared shirt, and he popped collars. They both blocked the sun off the neck. The mullet and the pop collar.

It's one and the same. Same beast here. It does the same. We're outside. Some of us are working. Some of us are golfing. It's just different. I learned something just a few months ago that took me years to figure out.

But a lot of times of a celebrity goes in public, what you do is you put a hat on to disguise yourself. And I was at Jazz Fest and I was getting popped everywhere. I went. I'm like, I got my hat on. I got everything. And then I looked at the mirror and realized the first time, like, when I put the hat on, I look more like the character. Like people think I'm dressing up like I'm 10.

Dude, he's in cosplay. And I literally just took it away, and then no one recognized it. That's amazing. That was tipping people off. Yeah. You've got to be careful with that. That is so funny. Get Bell, Pure Fiber Internet with Crave, Netflix, and Disney Plus from $94 a month.

Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. I thought about the same thing the other day. Like, before, like, you're an actor and you're, like, really getting noticed and recognized places, you think other actors are wearing sunglasses so that they're not recognized, like indoors, right?

But now I'm realizing actors wear sunglasses indoors so they can look around and not make eye contact with people. Because as soon as you make eye contact with somebody, it invites them to go, hey, like, but da-da-da-da-blah-blah. But if you can just look around, scan a room and not make eye contact with anybody, people are a little less, they're like not. They might be like, that guy's sleeping. Maybe that guy's blind.

I don't know if that's who I think it is. One thing about Durs is he hates the fans. And he does not want them to come over. He doesn't want them to come over. Doesn't want them to say hi. Absolutely. Listen to me. I'll go on the record.

Fans, you've all had a pretty good experience with me. I've said hi. I've been nice, I've been cool. Do I like it? That's not what we're talking about. Shut up, bitch. It's two different. That's true.

That's true. You've done one. Do you have any, because we've had some fans that have had some like pretty crazy tattoos of us on different parts of their bodies. Have you had any, you know, inner thigh, you know, characters of yourself? I've seen, I saw, I'm tattooed on a man's ass in North Carolina. I was at a brewery and he showed it to me.

Right on the left cheek. Yep. Okay. I've seen my, I've seen an image of Kenny on a calf before. Sure. Not a, not a young cow, but on a man's calf. Yeah. Yeah.

Come look at my farm animal, dude. That kind of lets me down. I was picturing a cow and now I'm like, bummer. Yeah, we were all pretty confused there for a second. Thanks for clarified. Yeah, that's the first place our mind goes. Livestock. Actually, that would be, I mean, is there like some weirdo farmer tattoo artist that's just

like tatted up their cows just to practice? Why not? That's illegal, baby. They practice on dead pigs. They do it on dead pigs. That's how you learn how to tat. What? That's a good place to practice.

No, it's not. Yes, it is. That is a new practice is on dead pigs. Tattoo artists. You can tattoo them and then you serve them up for lunch. Yeah, that's right. You have the most badass hot dog out of that, dude, drug. The only person I know who's done, who's become or thought about becoming a tattoo artist,

they just did it on their own legs, like, above the shorts. If they had a friend in the butcher business, they would know you can buy a pig and you can tattoo dead pig skin. Now, you used to work in a butchery, Blake. So is this firsthand knowledge you had, like, no, these guys were fucking the pigs. Oh, thank you. Adam, Adam, thank you, Adam, thank you. You're selling these whole dead pigs of these guys, just like, I'm just going to tattoo them. It could be a- You can fuck them, you can tattoo them, you can do whatever you want.

It could be a louis. There's a lot of things you could do with a whole dead pig besides fuck the thing, dude. By the way, there's not a lot of things. You can eat them. You can cook them and eat them. You can eat them, and you can tattoo them. You can take pictures laying with them. You know what else? You can use them as Halloween decorations.

My uncle used to put pig heads outside of his house during Halloween. He was a butcher and he would take the head. So, Danny, where'd you grow up? Where'd you grow up? With Blake's uncle, we used to sell. Yeah. I was raised in a butcher. Those are cool uncles right there.

Hell yeah. I kind of have like a little short story to tee up something that I think is very cool. Okay. I had no internet for like four days. It was a total fucking nightmare, right? I'm so sorry. Oh, my God. We are so sorry.

So the kids are like, how can we do anything? I'm like, we're going to break out the DVDs. We're going to watch some DVDs. So I go into my like DVD closet, and I'm super excited. And you know what I find in there? What did you find? What is this? Hang on, ready?

Foot fist way. Foot fist way. Whoa. A burnt copy? You're under arrest. The original distribution company. This is from a friend who got it from an agent at C.A. ICM.

ICM, maybe, I don't know what it was. 20 years ago when it just had come out and was just getting passed around L.A. And I watched it and I laughed so hard. And I went straight to the guy's house the next day at like 9 or 10 a.m. early. And I put it in the DVD player and I said, we're all watching this now.

And I think I stood up for the first half hour. We're like, you watched it standing up. He watched it like this. You watched half watching it, half watching us. No, it was a very impactful film for us. That was a formative moment for the three of us. That was like a North Star for us seeing that and being like, wow, there's people out here doing this.

And that you guys made it for nothing and you just fucking did it and you did your comedy. We had writing sessions every Wednesday, I think. And we would write something on Wednesday and then we'd try to shoot it that weekend. And that's when we were first starting out. And it was our writing session Wednesday. And I'm a little butt hurt at Durs because instead of writing, we're like just going to watch this movie. And I'm like, well, dude, shouldn't we like be. Yeah, Adam loves writing.

I love. Well, no, I mean, I was like, well, let's let's work so we can shoot something this weekend. But he's like, now we're going to watch this movie. And I'm like, all right. And then it was, we were fucking floored. And it, you know, you didn't make it for a lot of money. and it felt fresh and it felt original and very specific voice. Yeah.

Yeah. And it also made it, and I think I've told you before, if you haven't seen Footfast Way, people at home watch it immediately. Absolutely. Watch it now. It's a true banger. And we watched it and it so close to home for us in a way that we were like, oh, we can make comedies ourselves in the way that it felt like you guys, felt like the same kind of friend group that we were.

Unlike, like Will Ferrell, who we love and idolized, but he does these big characters. And we didn't, even though it's obviously a character that you're doing, but his characters are so like wacky and SNL-type characters that we were like, oh, we can't do that. But this feels something like we could do something in this world. That's awesome. That's so cool that you guys found it and you liked it.

I mean, you know, we were taking a complete. obvious risk like doing it. We didn't have any idea if it would work or not. We had just been out in L.A. for enough time that it was, you know, we wanted to just do something. And, you know, we went to South North Carolina and made this thing. And, you know, it's funny because even at that time, like you were saying how it wasn't like, Will, we were, you know, even when we made that, we were imagining just making

some dark, strange, fucked up comedy. And I think even though it got passed around town, I don't think the distributors didn't really have any idea what to do with it. They started testing the movie and they would get the audience to come in based on like, if you like dodge ball, you'll like this. And I like dodgeball, but I don't necessarily know if you like dodge ball, you will like the foot this way. Might be checking off different boxes. But I think it tested at like, it may be like a 26 or something. Like he completely like the audience, yeah, out of 10, sure. The audience in Burbank was not sure what to do with it. And because of that, it sat around for several years. They waited until

like Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder came out before they released it for real. Yeah. Right. Yeah, I know. I think like it was almost like we felt like we were like on the inside because like, you know, when you started to get like more major success and like Kenny Powers appears and he's bounding down and people are like, oh my God, it's like, no, bro, we've been on this train. We've been on this train. We knew this was going to be good. Yeah. It was, it was. You. Like foo fighters, you should check out this band Nirvana. Yeah, a pretty deep cut. Heard of it?

Yeah, it was awesome. But I think even speaking to what Adam was saying about, like, the way you, your characters, you know, even though they are, in some ways larger to life, they are also so real and so flawed. And, like, the comedy doesn't just come from, like, these, you know, really gigantic swings. it comes from like the, oh shit, like I have a friend just like that or like, you know, it's just like the humanism of it, if that's a word. I have a real piece of shit friend like Kenny Powers.

That's what I love so much about specifically Kenny is like he was such a piece of shit. And even when you're like, oh, here's a moment, he's going to redeem himself. And then he just didn't. I mean, and never. And if we can, can we say, you know, we know you as an actor. a director, but now you have entered a whole new realm of smartness. We can now call you an author. New level of smartness.

Yeah, you have to actually call me a New York Times bestselling. Get them, bitch. Get them. Get them. Suck our dicks, R. L. Stein. Danny McBride has released a new book. That's wild. Congratulations.

Yes. That is fucking cool, dude. But I think even in, you know, this book is a collection of, you know, like tales, short stories, like anthology. You got this book. Yeah. And even in reading them, all those like characters. It's a collection of words together. All those characters that you put on the screen, like when you read these stories, those characters are in this book as well.

Yeah, it does. It really comes to life. And every one of them, every one of the short stories that you're like, it's, it's. Is this, do you have any plans on making this into an anthology series or, because you could see this on HBO? Ladies and gentlemen. Thrilling tales of modern men, let's name the book for those who are listening. Thrilling tales of modern men, yeah. For those that are listening and any plans for that or not?

You know, I don't, I don't, as of now, I didn't, I didn't, when I wrote it, I didn't have any specific plans. Like, I wanted the book to feel exactly how you all describing it, where, if there was a fan of mine who've watched any of the shows I've made, that they could pick this up and it would feel like it was an extension of that stuff, that it was those sort of characters, that sort of comedy, that sort of, you know, that kind of genre bending of like being silly and then trying to find some kind of pathos or some kind of like weird or deeper energy to it, that you would find that in just a different format.

And so I think in order to do it, I did have to not think of these things as like, oh, I'm going to make this into a movie or this a TV show. I really just wanted to try to make them survive as this. Now, since it's done, I mean, honestly, it's like, Adam, you came in and read the audiobook that we did the audio book for it, which was a blast. I mean, Adam came in and crushed and Eric Andre and Edie Patterson, Goodman, a bunch of people recording. Dude, the cast is crazy.

It was awesome to hear the stories read and performed. It did that for the first time was like, maybe we should do something with this. Yeah, yeah. Adam, which one did you do? Fun Run, I believe. I did Fun Run. Oh, that's the one. I read Fun Run.

Yeah. Yeah. No, it's, oh, man, it's, it's, it's really cool. Like, and even in like, you know, because I've read some pages and then I've been listening to the audio book too, because how could you not? The cast is amazing and all that, but like. Yeah, it's, it truly was the, I like to listen to audiobooks. And actually, you got me into that quite a bit on this set of gemstones because sometimes

you'd be driving it. It's like an hour. drive some mornings. Danny Big Brother, dude. He totally. And he's like, maybe listen to an audio book. I was like, stop listening to this pop music, dude. Educate yourself. Put your books on. You have to get smarter. Yes, you've been listening to too much Sabrina Carpenter.

You're stumbling at table reads. Like, it's not good, dude. Let me help you. Luckily, we didn't have table reads. We didn't do that. We didn't do that shit. We didn't do that shit. So, thank God. How do you say this word? Yeah, and I would listen to a lot on the way in. But this was, it's so fun because every, every story, there's a new, someone new is narrating it.

And, I mean, it's fucking Sturgle Simpson, I think is in here. Shea Wiggum, is he in here? Did I hear Shay's voice as well? Yeah, she's in there. There's some stunners. Eadie's great. And then John is like, obviously, I was, I was driving back. I went to the Colorado River this past weekend with my friend.

My friend has a house up there and we took our family up there. And on the way back, I was like, oh, I should listen to the audiobook. And my son is watching on the back, in the back seat, he's watching Monsters Inc, which is John Goodman's voice. And then I'm listening to the robo-robocare. Is that the name of the? Robocare. Yeah, Robocare. That one's awesome.

I'm listening to RoboCare, and it was just dueling John Goodman's in my car, just going toe to toe. He cusses more in Monsters, Inc, probably. Yeah, he swears more in that. Yeah, he goes off on Mike Wachowski. Yeah, dude, it's really cool, especially, like, right out the gate, because you are in the audio book. We're going to reference that because we don't read that much. But, like, I was like, oh, boy, here we go. Right out the gate, the illusionist one, it's just like when you are reading it, it's like,

I felt like almost I was harkening back to like when I would listen into like Adam Sandler's, like they're all going to laugh at you because they almost, it almost is so visual, it becomes so real in your mind and you're laughing along with it. And it's just like, I don't know, it just felt like it really unlocked like this new thing to me. Like, Danny, thank you. I'm going to start getting into books as well. He's going to dust off those goosebumps books that he has on the shells. Hey, I already took Turs' recommendation.

I read the Weston game. I don't know if you're familiar. It's a YA novel. It's pretty good, man. Wonderful. That's good. That's a big one, too. Probably a lot of big words in it.

That's good. Wow. Harkening was the big word. No, that's circled right here. You was going to drop that. Yeah, that's your word of the day. with Crave Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month.

Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up y'all?

It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from Together and I heart women's sports. Because let's be real. Women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days. So Kelsey Finler, she became the first. female solo rower to go from California to Hawaii. My first thought is like, what's up with the snacks?

Like, what are we eating? The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments to take over your entire timeline. And the conversations that start during the game and somehow keep going all week. Every week, we're breaking down the biggest stories across women's sports. Naomi Osaka showing out, she beat Sabalinka.

Shout out to you, Naomi. You get the palm, Naomi. You get the palm for that. Because we're not just interested in what happened, We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to everyone watches women's sports. On the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. You know us, or rather, you know them. Tony and Candace, Nina and Lance, Spike, and yes, the chicken. We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia, AEO, rewatch, our brand new podcast. Each week we'll revisit an episode.

episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process. How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guestrars, collaborators and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysle, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song. I thought he was going to write. I thought you were all going to write a song.

I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. Ayo, rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast, Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show's famous.

super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stiller. The definition of what is a movie has kind of changed anywhere too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves it. Oh, that's fantastic.

And you make it on, you make your own. That's great. I call him Terro Reed. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobieski. Yeah, I don't think she was an American Pie, but I still like that.

Haven't looked it up. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Yeah. Then Mary Steenbergin. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried. I'm worried.

Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play, play game? I just really. I get it. I'm trying to set you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood. handbook on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What were your kind of like influences growing up, like books that you enjoyed as like a youth or even like influenced dude, would you say?

You know, when I was a kid, I really liked Stephen King. I was like Clyde Bark. I was really into horror when I was a kid. I felt like that, you know, you would get assigned things to read at school and I just felt like reading was boring. But those horror stories would just keep me wanting to find out what happened. and I just liked horror as a genre. So that was like an easy way in for me.

But it's funny, it's like, it's reading is something that I'll constantly come back to. Like, there'll be times where I'm very prolific and reading a ton, and then there's other times where, like, a year goes by and I've read, like, one thing. But I try to just keep up with it. And every time I am in the middle of, like, you know, being on a binge or just reading one book after the next,

I always tend to be happier. Like, it always feels like I'm not as antsy. I'm not as stressed out. There's something cool about being able to just get lost in a story. I think that was happening for me enough that I was like, this is a art form that I would like to be able to crack into. And even like what you guys said, it's like to appeal to people who maybe not normally would pick up a book and do this.

It felt like that was also part of what could be fun about this. And whether it's the audiobook or the written book, I think all of it, just to find a different art form, a way to kind of convey your comedy or tell a story that, You know, that's what was fun about doing it is there were zero gatekeepers with it. You know, I remember I was so used to us working with HBO and not that HBO is bad with notes, but just anyone who's investing money in what you're doing has thoughts on what your choices are, you know.

And it just becomes a part of creating where you're constantly like, I love this. What are they going to hate about it? You know, you're constantly are ready to have someone, you know, tell you to change the parts you like the most. And with this, I realize that that does not exist. Like, they'll give you suggestions, but ultimately your names on it, you just do whatever you want to do at the end of the day. And that was cool. I was like that's, you know, especially for comedy to know at the end of the day that it's just you,

and you can tell anyone to fuck off at the end of the day is great power. And you did that a lot with the people at the penguin. Yeah, fuck off. Well, because the people working on books, they're nerds. Yeah, you could beat their ass. Whenever they didn't like stuff, I got real internal. I was like, oh, God. No. And they read a lot of books.

Fuck. I was thinking that a lot, actually, because I listened to the one that Gillis, Shane read, the hair one. Institute of Men. Institute of Men. Yes. And that one was such a trip. And I'm like, oh, you couldn't have, or it would have been very difficult and time-consuming and costly to shoot that. if it were a, if it were filmed.

Right. And, and I'm like, it's so cool that you can read it. And you could just let your imagination fly. And, you know, you can create something in your head in imagination without having to see it. And it made me go, man, I got to, I got to read more. Yeah. But Danny truly, you're such an inspiration for me. You're the best boss I've ever had.

and I've, uh, I'm not, I'm not sucking anything. I'm not sucking anything. I need air. I need cock more than air. I'm not sucking anything. Now, being a nice person isn't sucking. I can live off his comments. No, I'm not sucking nothing.

As men, we can compliment each other, dude. You can compliment each other. You don't need to, you don't need to get it uncomfortable because I'm complimenting. But, and I mean, you're the best boss I've had, and we were our own bosses, and you were much better. than we were. But it was such inspiration because he would come in to set in the morning and it's like 5, 6 o'clock in the morning,

and he would sometimes be reading a book, he'd be talking about a book he'd just read, or he'd be like passing a book to someone that was like, oh, here's this book we talked about, you know, read this. He gave me Clifford, what the fuck? This whole book revelation thing is so sad. Yeah, it really is.

I read a book, it changed everything. I used to see you with books, and I thought, those are books. Dude. I need books. However it happens. You're not wrong. You're not wrong. It is sad.

But this goes for all of us, because I know the three of us, we're not reading books. Danny, I was just going to say, I'm on the same track as you as far as, like, school as a kid. They were like, we need to read this. And I was like, I'll read Stephen King or I'm not going to do it. And the teachers are like, Jesus Christ, fine. Now, I don't know how much of the Stephen King, I, absorbed, but I think

that you might be thrilled to hear. This is the kind of thing that, like, a kid who was you will be reading now. That's what I hope. They're going to tell a teacher, I'm not reading around the world in 80 days or whatever the fuck it is. I'll read this and they'll go, you know what,

whatever it takes. And then when they grow up and they're in their 40s, they won't be talking about books. Dude, well, you know, what's genius about it being a collection of, like, short stories is as a super dumb, bro. Like, I look at that and I go, oh, shit, this is a, this a big one. I don't know if I'm going to do that.

There's a lot of pigs in there. I don't know if I'm finished. No, dude, you can, you can just chip off one short story. Just that big. That's it. It's easy. In any order you want. You don't even have to read them in order.

You can skip around. Wild man. Dude, it's, it's a brilliant move by you, man. I think you really hook the dumb guys on this one. I like that. So beyond, beyond, like, your inspirations as far as books and stuff go, what, do you have inspiration? Because I know you didn't come at comedy in the way that we did,

where we were like, we're comedians, this is kind of what we want to do. We want to be in the comedy lane. You sort of came at it as you wanted to be a director first. And did you want to be a director of comedy? Or did you want to do horror? Or did you kind of always know you wanted to do comedy? You know, it's funny because when I was, I went to film school, that's where I met Jody Hill and David Green and John Gaturing, all these guys that I work with now. John.

John wrote for us on workaholics for a season. He did. He came back singing y'all's praises, too. We had to, like, treat them better after he came back working with you guys in the writers room. They bet me. You're racing go-carts in the fucking warehouse? We got to get go-carts. Yeah, there was a lot of non-working doing at art.

You guys might have worked a little more. We're like, yeah. Should we play three hours of ping pong instead of finishing this? Yeah. But we never, you know, what's funny is that I never really looked at stories like just in terms of like genre of like, is it horror, is it comedy? We were just wanting to tell stories and make shit that we hadn't seen before. And then I think because we like, what bonds, a lot of us, you know, is that, you know,

we joke around a lot and we make each other laugh. laugh, and I think that that inevitably just, like, got into the stuff we do together because we're constantly just trying to make each other laugh, probably not undifferent from how you guys work. But we were always approaching them, even the dumbest ones, as if it was a drama, you know, like, when we were approaching foot this way, we're approaching it like, this is a serious, you know, this guy. Right.

There's a taxi driver. It's not as important to this guy as what's going on. Yeah. And it felt like once we started doing that, it made all of the shit funnier. because it was like, oh, if the tone of this is like trying to take this guy's, like, stupid stuff that's happening in his karate school, like this seriously, you know, that it's like his whole life is falling apart. It just made the stakes of it really funny to us. And so then we just kind of started, you know, that was, we kind of were learning it as we went along that that was our tone was just to sort of take the absurd and make it completely serious, play it straight. And you could make, you could have, I don't know, some pretty strange moments by doing it. that way. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what that's what keeps I think all of us as your audience members like super engaged. Like even in the book like all the stories, the stakes are fucking high, dude. But they do have those those moments that that's what makes you laugh. It's almost a nervous

laughter. Like what the fuck? Like how is that his response to such a serious situation? That's like, I don't know. I think that's what you've really, really mastered, man. I commend you. Oh, thank you. Do you think the, uh, the comedy. boom of the 2000s kind of steered you? You know, it felt like, you know, I remember when we were shooting the foot this way, it was the same, like, we saw wedding crashes, I think, while we were shooting, you know. And I remember seeing like, oh, this is working. That's amazing that, like, people are going to see R-rated comedies again.

Because, you know, the 80s, obviously, they had lots of R-rated comedy. And then going to film school in the 90s, I remember us, like, looking to each other saying, like, man, they just don't really make comedies for adults anymore. Like everything is really like young based. And so I think that was for a while. So I think once we got there and it was seeing that like, oh, this stuff is actually working. It's like right at our stuff. I think we were just really grateful that we were coming out with something that was in that same genre.

And then of course, like you guys know that time period in Hollywood was so much fun. I mean, it was the idea of like you're going, you know, there's all these different camps of people doing comedy. And I remember going to like the, the boys. Warat premiere, and it was just like Will Ferrell's there with a fucking cowboy hat on. I mean, it was, it was awesome. It was kind of what you had hoped Hollywood was going to be when you were a kid. And it was like several years of it just, it was just legitimately fun. And it was fun to meet all of you guys and all these different characters that all were doing their own stuff.

And, yeah, it was a pretty awesome time in Hollywood, I think. I feel like we were, we got in right at the last gasp of that. And we was like, we were like right on the outside just sort of looking in. And we got a whiff. We got a whiff. Yeah, we got a little until Hollywood goes, nah, we're not doing that no more. But it is nice to hear like, yeah, in the 80s they did it a lot. In the 90s, you know, the R-rated comedies sort of cooled off.

And then it picked back up in the early 2000s. And then now we've been in a 15-year drought. Now the news is the funniest thing on the air. I tell you. Tell you what. You can't make this stuff up. Well, it was. It was cool because there were all these camps,

but we were really trying to, like, push it to the limit, like come up with the craziest set pieces and, like, you know, like have the craziest, like, evil main characters and all that. It was really fun to be like, what is the wildest thing you can think of? And sometimes it was extremely offensive and now looking back on some of it, you're like, well, okay, maybe we pushed a little too far, but you're right. Yeah. All that blackface that you used to do.

Yeah. I can only think of one thing that I remember on the show. Well, Blake is all that black face, is that one? Right. Release the tape. Todd, release the tape. My solo project. My solo project.

That was just at Blake's private parties. On Epstein Island. No, it was only when you fucked that woman off of the high dive forcefully. That'll do it. I think I remember pitching saying it happens by accident. I did do that in an episode. It was like a flashback episode of us in. college and I'm having sex with some girl.

You're a virgin, right? I'm a virgin. I'm losing my virginity on a high die. On a high die. And I thrust her off the top of the, and she belly flops. And I'm like, sorry. Yeah, we might not have done that. I don't think you say sorry.

I think you go, that's what you get. I think I was trying to pitch that you do say sorry, and I don't know if it's in the cut. Oh, yeah. You're the good guy. Come on. Whoopsie. Yeah, we might not run that exactly back, but it was cool because there were all those comedy

camps and I feel like we were all just trying to almost like make each other laugh or be like, oh man, I can't believe they did that over there. Totally. Yeah, it was a really special time for sure. It also kind of felt, too, that, you know, with television, you know, obviously I find the stuff that's so specific to be the funniest. You know, like I tend to last less at broader things. Not to say that that shit's not funny too.

but I really get tickled when I see something that's really specific and even wondering. Hey, we get it. You hate Dodgeball, dude. Come on. Leave them alone. I love Dodgeball. I love it so much. But it felt that like that kind of stuff, if you were trying to navigate that in the studio world, it was more difficult because like how our movie tested out at 26. Like you can have people who have good taste who respond to it, but it might not be what the masses respond to. And I think that like when TV came around, it became popular.

and was willing to invest to those people, I think that became like a safer ground for if you wanted to make strange comedy, everything didn't matter if like everyone showed up the first 24 hours it came out. Like, you can be weird,

you can come on every week and fucking people can wait to the second season to even figure out what you're doing. And then it just kind of, you know, I don't know, it felt like you could take more chances. And I love that that happened with TV, but you do kind of hope that people will get some backbone to do it theatrical again.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, hopefully it loops back around. I remember being like, why, and you were just so smart in doing it, like, why didn't you, after Footfist Way, just start churning out R-rated comedies, theatrically. But then you went and did, I'm sure everyone was like, why aren't you doing another movie? And then you went and did Eastbound and down at HBO. What was that like?

were your agents like, yo, dude, come out with an R-rated comedy. Like, we're in the middle of boom times, baby. Even Will and Adam were kind of curious of why we wanted to do it as a TV show and not as a movie. And, you know, for us, it was kind of the experience we went through with Footfist. We were like, well, we know if we're going to make something, it's going to get put into this meat grinder. And if it doesn't, like, hit these benchmarks with the test audience in Burbank, the studio is going to lose interest in promoting it.

And plus, at that time, too, it's like, I don't know, especially with comedies, it's easy for comedies that have to fit into an hour and a half to become really formulaic, you know. This is where you meet the guy. This is where something goes wrong. This is where he thinks he's going to lose. This is where he wins. This is where he gets the bat. Like, you know, write that down. It's all there.

But it's weirdly felt. That's up to you. It felt better like with TV, that first season of Eastbound was three hours. And we're like, listen, we could make this different by even just not trying to feel. fill the story in an hour and a half. If we can just fill it in three hours, we could do way weirder shit and we can have it be a little bit more unexpected, but obviously nobody was going to let us make a three-hour theatrical movie. And so that was just our mindset with that first season. We never knew if that show was going to work, if anyone would ever do it again. It was just our

way of making a follow-up to foot-fist. That would be as like epic as the godfather, but just take place in Shelby, North Carolina. And so that was our idea of why I went to go into that was just, and that was even for doing the short seasons. You know, at that point, there was nobody in the States that was making shows that were only six episodes. Like, that was still, like, HBO was still, I think, 13 episodes or 12 at the lowest. And then obviously, network was bigger than that. So even when we got picked up, they wanted us to do, like, 13 episodes. And we said, no, that we just wanted to do six. We were tripping off of, like, the British office and seeing how, like, that stuff was so short and there was no waste. It was all just,

storytelling and and I also have this idea I'm like I want the the season to be something that theoretically someone could watch in one sitting like I don't I want this it could be digested like on one night like I don't want it to be something that people have to take multiple days to get through this one season and so that was sort of our way of riding like it's making it feel like it's a movie even though it was a TV show was just not making the seasons too long where you couldn't theoretically knock it out on one like hungover Saturday morning Well, fucking good for you, dude, because, I mean, at that point, you probably, you didn't have any money. So the six episodes, to be like, I want to make less money.

Yeah, your age and do it this way is bold. Because the second they were like, we'll give you more money if you do more episodes, we were like, we will do 20 episodes season three. Absolutely. And we did, and we almost fucking killed ourselves. That was the worst year. How brutal. Get Bell, Pure Fiber Internet with Crave, Netflix, and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on Internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit.

Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from Together and I heart women's sports. Because let's be real. Women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days. So Kelsey Finler, she became the first female solo rower to go from California to Hawaii. My first thought is like, what's up with the snacks?

Like, what are we eating? The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments that take over your entire timeline. And the conversations that start during the game and somehow keep going all week. Every week, we're breaking down the biggest stories across women sports. Naomi Osaka showing out, she beat Sabalinka. Shout out to you, Naomi. You get the palm, Naomi. Calm for that.

Because we're not just interested in what happened. We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports. Listen to everyone watches women's sports. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. You know us, or rather you know them.

Tony and Candace, Nina and Lance, Spike, and yes, the chicken. We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia, A.O. our brand new podcast. Each week, we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process.

How did any of this get made? Why do we think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Chrysall, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann and many more. Kyle is going for it here.

You fully improvised, not just words, but a song. I thought he was going to write. I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia. Ayo, rewatch on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clemens.

We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook. Every episode we're trying to help our guests improve their careers by mainly focusing on how they can help us improve our careers. The show is famously super accessible so you can easily jump into any of our 650 episodes and understand what's going on. We recommend some of our recent episodes with Ben Stillard. The definition of what is a movie

has kind of changed anywhere too, right? What do you think it is now? It's images and words being spoken, captured by some sort of technology. Danny McBride. He loves over. Oh, that's fantastic. And you make it on, you make your own.

That's great. I call him tarot read. It's a good name. They're all named after cast members of American Pie. Yeah. Oh, gotcha. I call, I don't, I never looked up if she was in this, but I call him Leachie Sobieski. Yeah.

I don't think she was an American Pie, but I still like that. Haven't looked it up. She was prominent around the same time. Yeah. Then Mary Steenbergin. Why are you guys talking to me? I'm worried. I'm worried.

Why are you talking so down to me that you think I don't understand your little play, play game? I just really. I get it. I'm trying to set. you up for success here. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. TV is hard though, isn't it? I mean, you guys know, it's like, you know, the more episodes you do, like it is, and you get paid well, but it is, you know, there's nothing harder than writing a TV show, I think. It's like, you know, you write a movie, and even like this

book, you write something and you get to go to the next step once it's finished. Like, this book gets published once the book's done, a movie gets made once the script is done and everyone signs off on it. TV, the fucking train is coming. You know, like, you're sitting here answering questions while you're trying to figure out what the hell you're going to still do with it and a production office is opening. It just adds this whole layer of stress that can be exhilarating and fun, but it also is a totally different experience writing than writing in other formats.

I think I like it because there's no like pondering on the script and wondering like, it's like we got to move we got to film this like well can we beat this it's like we did it we said we thought about it we let's go make it we'll get on set we'll make it funny i don't know i think sometimes when there's like a movie there's like this there's this time that they preciousness yeah where they're like i don't know and you're like well then we'll never know we'll never know yeah yeah i guess like dany like you i mean especially like upon reading the book and having all these like different stories do you find joy in like creating a whole whole new environment, a whole new character, a whole new thing to dive into? Like, where do you start?

Do you start with your characters or do you have like an idea like, oh, like RoboCare? Like, I want a robot that comes over and takes care of an old man. Like, where do you get your inspiration for all your stories? Sometimes it will be like an idea for a character, you know, or a situation like that, you know, like, oh, a robot, you know, nurse or a robot, you know, caretaker. Or sometimes it might just even be like just a scene or an image of like, oh, what would be the story around that? With these stories, you know, it was pretty fun because again, there was no pressure on any of it. The book ultimately was just going to be whatever I wanted it to be. So I would be very selfish in the writing of it where, I mean,

I wrote a lot of stuff that I didn't put in here, but I would just follow whatever was making me laugh or whatever was making me want to come back and keep working on it. And I got down the road on a lot of stories that I, you know, some of my complete it, but really far into them. And I just kind of lost the spark for him and just, you know, shelved them. And that was kind of nice to be able to do that, to kind of know that you just could follow the ones that you really liked. And that if there was something that was becoming too much of a puzzle, you could just throw it out, throw it out.

Yeah, that was cool. So you would, I mean, did you write this, like, over the course of the last few years, and you would just sort of tinker with it in your off time and then come back to it when you had a little more time in between shooting gemstones? Yeah, a few of them, a few of the stories in there were things I had kind of, like I had kind of like worked on between seasons of gemstones.

But then once gemstones wrapped, it's what I went into sort of full time. So it's what I worked on all last year. And then once I got into it that way, a lot of the earlier stuff I wrote, I just felt like it wasn't up to stuff. So I kind of ended up going through and writing the bulk of that book, like last year after we wrapped gemstones, which ended up being kind of therapeutic because gemstones was so much fun to work on. I loved it, Adam, as you know.

We had a blast on it. But, you know, I worked on it for seven years. And so even when you write and you're writing something that involves the same characters, the same world, your brain just gets trained to look at stories through those characters' eyes. And so it becomes hard to commit to another big story without it feeling like it's just like a replicate or something of what you just worked on. So these short stories ended up being a really awesome way to do that because you could just jump from short, short to short story and just sort of. of like follow what was new and not feel like you were having to commit suddenly to a new TV show that you're going to have to love the characters as much as the ones you just finished writing for.

You could, you know, you can fuck around a little bit. Like you're getting over a, you know, a long-term relationship. Okay. All right. You're sending dickpicks. We got it. Yeah, yeah. This is the, this was your dick pick right here.

This was, yeah. This is your industry dick pick. Zoom in. Yeah. Thrilling tales of modern men is Danny McGrite. Dick pick. Beautiful. It's beautiful.

Wait, so you jumped into this right after seven seasons of a show. So I guess my question is like... Four seasons, seven years. Seven years? Yeah. We had strikes. We had COVID. We had a lot of, there was a lot of natural calamities happen.

We had a lot of ups and downs. Right. And we don't need to get into how COVID started. And whether you should be vaccinated. Adam knows how it started in Shem Creek here in Charleston, South Carolina, right? Oh, well, fuck. Yeah. In a bar mat.

Fuck. Yeah, in a bar mat, a big red. What's your like work-life balance? Do you have, do you have shit you like to do to just chill? Yeah, I do. Or does your mind always go and you're like, well, I'm all right, or I'll go be on a movie and act a little bit or produce something? Or do you just like to go fucking row a boat?

Yeah, do you want to come on to Catalina with us? You know, that was something that I felt like when I moved to Charleston, that's what I was looking for a little bit. In L.A. I really had a hard time finding what my fucking hobbies were. Like, I feel like everything is so work-oriented. Well, you drive down the street and there's just billboards of everyone's movies and TV shows, and you're like, oh, shit, I should do. Everything is telling you to get to work.

There's a FOMOS. Yeah. Yeah, why am I not doing something? And Charleston just felt like, I don't know, I mean, Adam, you spent a considerable amount of time here. I mean, you can just sit out on your back porch and look at the water. You can get on a bike and ride around. and not that you can't do that stuff in L.A., but I don't know, it just became easier to shut things off

and to kind of find other ways to occupy your time. I mean, I like working. I like doing what we do. So there is a sense of me that I always kind of am working on something, but not because I feel like I have to. I just like it. I enjoy doing it. Well, dude, I think we could talk about it because I saw it.

I read the trades. And I saw it just came out that you, wrote and are going to direct the new GI Joe, dude. Whoa. Yeah. Yo, Joe. Dude. Which, okay.

So, yeah, are you, are you, are you, because I, G.I. Joe is mentioned in the book. I remember that, like, you're talking about all their knees then. Ister. Are you, are you pretty entrenched in, uh, G.I. Joe lore or like, how, how are we feeling about that? You know, I grew up playing G. It was, you know, that shit was massive when we were kids. And, you know, the comic books were obviously awesome. The cartoon show was awesome.

There's a channel on YouTube that is just 24 hours G.I. Joe episodes. Streaming or like you can just? Just streaming. Yeah, it's just streaming. I like that because you don't have to make the choices. It's just turn it on. Oh, that's cool. There's an episode playing.

But it takes you back. It does. The soundtrack, those voices, the colors, it's all that is, It's so cool. The voices. The voices are crazy, right? Yeah, crazy. Destro's voice is crazy.

Cobra Commander sounds insane. Oh, dude, there's some of the best voice actors for sure. It's also just cool to see, like, the character creation or like, so what makes roadblock different? It's like, well, everything he says he rhymes. It's like, okay, we're going with that. Okay, we like that. That's enough.

So for something like this, is it going to be funny? Are you going to put that, the comedy spirit into this? Or is it going to be a straight ahead action film? Or what are we thinking now? I think it'll be about as funny as maybe Predator is. You know, like, I think that there will, there's no way that we can turn it off totally. These characters, I think, will, you know, some of them will make you laugh.

But the movie itself is not handled like it's a comedy. You know, we're not, we're not like making fun of G. Joe, we're not like, you know, winking to the audience or, you know, just even playing into nostalgia. Like, you know, John Contruri and Jeff Radley, who, uh, wrote on Gemstones with me and helped run that show, um, I wrote, this is what we all worked on together after Gemstones. And, uh, we really just wanted to write, like, something that, uh, kind of grounds that concept of G.I. Joe as much as you can without, like, taking out what's fun about it,

uh, without getting rid of, like, uh, how incredible. incredible cobra is and, you know, and all of these different characters. And, you know, just utilizing what we liked about it, but trying to figure out a way to, like, introduce it to a new generation of people and to introduce it in a way where you could root for these people and you can be invested in it. And I think by us kind of making it like a kind of a thriller, action, you know, movie set in suburbia, it just, I don't know, everything about it just started to work for us conceptually.

And we've had a blast writing it. And it was one of those experiences where we, we sold, I sold the pitch to it. And, you know, I talked to Fradley and John and I said, listen, there's going to be a lot of hoops to jump through with doing something like this. Like, we're going to have to get through Paramount. We're going to have to get through Hasbro. We have no experience doing something of this magnitude. So I was like, I just want to skip outlines and all of it.

Like, let's just quietly write this entire script while they're taking forever to get our contracts together. And the day that we signed the contracts and we have our first meeting, let's just drop. a script on them that day. And that's exactly what we did. We just, we were like, let's just, because we, we know from TV, it's such a waste of time to do outlines. I mean, we'll sit there and just fucking give notes about an outline. And then we start writing the script and the outline goes completely out the door because you start realizing what really does work the moment you start writing it. So that's what we did. We wrote the script and just threw it through the window. We're like, yo, Joe, just fucking chucked it. We airlifted it in. And it, you know,

afterwards it was sort of like oh that was a bold move because if they if they were like totally not into it it had been like these fucking nerds like no you got to give us you're going you're going to tell us what you're doing you can't just do it like this but their response was awesome i think that like we felt really confident in what we sent in and then their response was was met with equal enthusiasm and so i think between paramount and us we just really saw the potential for what this could be and it doesn't mean that that first draft is like you know set in stone we've been like working and working on it to just make it better. But we felt like it was a better place to start the conversation

with something that's this ambitious to just be like, this is what we're trying to do instead of giving some 15-page document where we're like summarizing all this shit. And it's so hard to convey tone with that too. And I think something like this, the tone is everything. You know, there's good tones and bad tones. And, you know, these people don't know us. They're not necessarily to give us the benefit of the doubt

that all of our ideas are going to be executed in the most palatable way. Like they can be reading our ideas and be like these guys are going to blow this. And so we just felt like we just wanted to put our money where our mouth was. That bad ass. That's fucking awesome, dude. And this is PG-13? It has to be PG-13.

But it's okay. We're running within those lines. I think we got this. I like that. I like that challenge. I feel like also PG-13 used to be pretty gnarly. It's kind of edgy. I remember, I forget, was it like Doc Holliday or something?

Doc Hollywood, dude. Doc Hollywood. I went with my mom. There titty's in it? Yeah, there's titties. She comes out of the water fully naked. What? Bush.

Fully naked. It was PG-13. I made my parents rent me that movie every weekend. I was like, I mean we run Doc Hollywood back. You're like, Adam's going to grow up and be a doctor. Yeah. I'll be in the basement watching Doc Hollywood again. All right.

So just throwing that your way, Danny. There could be some. Lady J could be full bush. One tit. Flopping out. Please make it bareness. Please make it bareness. Oh, God.

She's so hot, bro. With the glasses on. But naked with the glasses on. Not Roblock tinnies again. Yeah. Just be really zoomed in. He's going to dress up his dick as a G.I. Joe character. Snake eye.

Snake. Who was the guy, R.I.P. But the guy who was in the famous photo that went around that was like sitting on the edge of the bed with like the giant cock hanging over. Oh, the big black guy? I can't recall. If he was. alive, he's my roadblock. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. I think his name was roadblood. He could block a lot. I'll tell you that. But his greatest asset would just go to waste in a PG-13 movie. Yeah, that's true. You could see some outlines.

Yeah, but everyone would know. Everyone would know. You'd watch it and you go. He's always just sitting on the edge of the bed with just his arm hanging right there. With the bazooka? He's gone. He's gone.

Dude, please have tons of bazookas in it. Wasn't that a character name? Blake has a lot of fun of pitches. Oh, I love GI Joe's. The fact you're doing that gets me so freaking excited, dude. I, like, lived for GI Joe's. Yeah, me too. I'm going to ask you, do not have to answer.

Can you say who the lead character will be? You know, Duke plays a big role in it, but it's an ensemble, so there's a lot of, there's a lot of Joe's in it. Yeah. Got it. Got it. There's a lot of Joe's. Cool. A lot of Joe's.

This is a D. Ders, roundabout way of asking to be cast. Yeah, there's a lot. Duke's like 45 and kind of like soft, past his prime. Yeah. Does Duke? He hasn't worked out in years. Duke has a little gobble bag.

Duke is currently wearing a roughhouse t-shirt with a backwards, Dodger cap. Can we get some kind of discount code for the roughhouse pictures like? gift shop. I've got a couple T's I have my eye on. We gave it to Adam to give to you guys a long time ago. He never... He never did it. You know you have like the Concord Taekwondo shirt? I'm from

Concord, dude. I need the shirt. You need that. You need that. We got it. We got it. Thank you. Any, any... At the end of the show, we do takebacks, apologies, any epic slams that you might want to do on any of us. Feel free to do it right now.

No way I would do that to you three. I guess I'll take back bringing up the dead gentleman who's nude photos went viral and said he should be in a movie. I don't know if that's going to help or... Don't take that. All right, yeah, fuck it. I thought you were going to take back when you kept making the dick-sucking noises

when I was just complimenting my friend, Danny. I'll give a double down. I'll give a double down. Oh, you're doubling down on that. Just like you were gobbling down, I'm going to double down. I wasn't gobbling. It was not gobbling. You know what? I'll apologize for gassing up the audio version of the book. This is a sick-ass book to have a physical copy of.

You're going to want it. It harkens back to the days. When you would see, like, cool dudes walking around with, like, remember when you'd see, like, a dude walking around with, like, Howard Stern's private parts? And you're like, that guy fucking reads. But he's also. Jerry Seinfeld's book, Sign Language. Like, are you talking about one thing that happened once to you?

Oh, yeah. That cool dude. That dude reads, but he fucks too. He's cool. He's not a bookworm. This is a cool-ass book. You could do both. This is a cool book to have on your person.

When you walk on a flight and this is in your hand, dude, you're going to look at you and be like, salute, dude. I see the name. Hell yeah. Can I quickly, before we really sign off, can I quickly show just a few other DVDs that I discovered? Please. Yes.

This one, I don't know if you can see what this says. song is his south it just says Adam Devine This is Adam Devine's real Eddie October Wow that's a very That's very vintage That's like 2004 or five

Well that was that was that was my real This is JetSet Hudson's like comedy DVD Who was one of the stars of workaholics Comedy and more We cast a lot of extras as extras And then ended up giving them lines throughout the show. Basically, our entire office were just extras

who we gave acting work to. And they were great. And Jetset was a legend who left us too soon. And then finally, this is a birthday gift that Blake gave me. I'm a huge Ghostbusters fan. So, of course, this is Hustlers. This ain't Ghostbusters. Okay.

Where I don't think I've seen a better... Was that Blu-ray? That was Blu-ray. That's great. This is Blu-ray. You can see all the... You're going to want to see it all. I don't skip out on my boy.

It's a nice gift, Blake. It's a nice gift. Yeah. Come on. I'm getting my boy some 4K. Blake has never given me a gift, but that's cool. Wait for the boat. I got a gift for you on the boat.

Oh, shit. You worry. Okay. Evan Stone gives like the one and only, like, it's, no one gives a better Bill Marie impression than Evanstone in this movie, and I'm not joking. He's a true talent. It's really good. It's crazy. Evanstone, the porn stars, is truly talented.

I love that. All right. Thank you so much for being our first real guest, Danny. Yeah. You know, you're a legend. And we appreciate, we appreciate you. Thank you guys. Thanks for having me on here.

I appreciate it. Honestly. Great book. We love it, man. Yes, pick it up. It's fucking great. Thank you guys. Keep crushing it and everything you do.

We're such fans. Gouni. Yeah. Appreciate it, you guys. Danny McBride, everybody. Danny McBride. Gunia. Cunei.

Thanks for getting us to read, man. We appreciate it. All right. And that's another episode of... This is! Gungne! Gungne! Kungne!

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