WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 982 - Seth MacFarlane

Episode Date: January 3, 2019

Seth MacFarlane can host award shows, create button-pushing animated shows, and sing standards in symphony halls, but nothing changes the fact that he’s an introvert by nature. Seth tells Marc why he’s always enjoyed making trouble through comedy, how that impulse got him into hot water when Family Guy started, and why many of the things he’s doing now - studio recordings, live performances, his show The Orville - are rooted in his respect for the past. He also talks about making Ted, hosting the Oscars, the evolution of offensive comedy, and the influence of The Far Side. This episode is sponsored by Standup Month on Comedy Central and Deadly Class on SYFY. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Death is in our air. This year's most anticipated series, FX's Shogun, only on Disney+. We live and we die. We control nothing beyond that. An epic saga based on the global bestselling novel by James Clavel. To show your true heart is to risk your life. When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun, a new original series, streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply.

Lock the gates! all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fucksters what's happening i'm mark maron it's the new year this is it is it happy happy? Has it worn off? Where are you at? Does it feel different? Do we feel different? What did you do on New Year's? I mean, really, what did you do? One thing I don't do is stand-up comedy on New Year's. I learned that a long time ago. Unless they're paying you a million dollars, what is the fucking point of performing on that night? Especially if you've got to bring in the new year. Nothing but a nightmare. I don't recommend it for anyone.

But look, I don't have to. So it's easy for me to say. But that was one lesson I learned. Why perform on that night? I don't even know if it's expectations. The one thing you can expect on New Year's is that people are going to act like fucking idiots. They're going to get shit-faced. They're going to make a lot of noise no matter what the world could be on fire which it kind of is and that night people would just be like yeah happy new year for that hour for that

five minutes whatever it is leading up to it but man what a clusterfuck what a nightmare and then just a drive to the club to you know hopefully not get plowed into by some drunken idiot not paying attention or texting his buddy, getting directions to the next party so they're in the right place when the clock chimes midnight. That was always the panic. Where are we going to be for New Year's? Where do you want to be for New Year's? Which party do you want to be at? Where do you want to be for New Year's? Which party do you want to be at? Scrambling around, making it just under the wire to a mediocre party, looking around. Ten, nine. Is there anybody I like here? Eight, seven.

God damn it. Why did we come to this one? Six, five, four. Oh, fuck. I don't know anybody here. Three, two. God damn it. That guy just fucking stepped on my foot and fucked up my new shoes happy new year point is i don't go out i don't go do comedy i stay off the roads i was asleep by 11 with sarah the painter and i i don't mind i woke up and it was the new year and I didn't feel

like I missed anything I I got up and I was like well this is it we're in it it's happening what did we miss last night not a fucking thing zero we didn't get to watch you know mid-level celebrities get shit-faced on television by a bunch of people froze their balls off in Times Square waiting for a thing to drop. See, now I sound cynical. I hope you had a good New Year. I hope it was fun. I hope you brought it in the right way. I hope you got your shit and your mind straight.

Today on the show, Seth MacFarlane is here, the creator of Family Guy, his new show, The Orville. He's directed and written movies. He's hosted the Oscars. He's a song and dance man. He's a crooner, jack of all trades, somewhat controversial, extremely talented. And I just wanted to talk to him.

And I got the opportunity to do that. So Seth MacFarlane is on the show today. Also, my friend Christina Pazitsky, Christina P. just texted me. She's on a thing on Netflix now, a special called The Degenerates, which is a bunch of comics. She's the sixth one out of the gate. Very funny. Love Christina. She wanted me to mention that.

And I said I would mention that. So The Degenerates, which is on Netflix, enjoy. As I said on Monday, I've begun. I've begun the disengagement from social media platforms. I deleted my Facebook page. Not the fan page. You can still go to that. I don't have much to do with that.

That's where I post the episodes and whatnot. But my personal page, which I no longer really went to at all, but I did push delete and it's gone. And I feel good. I don't feel as liberated as I would if I completely just dissolved my Twitter, which which i'm processing the problem with me is uh there's many but the the main problem with me and that stuff is that i don't have the i don't have the wiring i don't have the um the organic uh personal boundary technology within my machine that enables me to not be affected on some level by, uh, you know, garbage and bullshit dumped into my Twitter feed. And I did, I'd like to be over it. I'd like to be, uh, able to just like, uh, roll with it, but maybe I wouldn't, maybe I don't need to be numb that way.

Maybe that's it. I'm going to try to figure out what we do with real time time time just time away from that engagement with the speed of uh technology just pummeling our brains all the time this is what i've been thinking about this is some of the stuff i want to do in new year's spend more time with human beings spend more time with my own thoughts process things at a regular pace not at the pace demanded of me by how fast it comes in through my phone or my computer think about shit at my own speed i don't even know if my brain can do that anymore. Yeah, my life is good. Things are okay. But do I have any friends? Where have all my friends gone? Have I talked to anybody recently? Is texting talking? Is seeing somebody on Twitter knowing

what they're up to? Is that talking? Have I sat down with people? I swear to God, most of my social life outside of my very personal life, which only has a couple of people in it, is in here talking to guests. And I'm looking at my phone at my friends. And out of all of them, I just for some reason, I texted Dave Cross. I'm like, dude, how's it going? It's a new year. I'd like to see you sometime if you you're ever out here, love Mark. And then he said, boy, you're such a sucker for the holidays. Yes. Don't know when I'm there next, but let's get Tex-Mex. And I said, okay, pal, not a sucker. Those of us

with no wives or children given too much time, just sit around and look at domestic animals and wonder if we actually have any friends anymore. By those of us, I mean me. Hope you're well. And then I thought about that for a few minutes. And before he texted back, I texted, I am good. Looking at that text could appear suicidal. Not the case.

Just saying hi. He said, I hear you. I'll hit you up next time I'm out and bore you to tears with cliches about having a kid at age 54. And then he wrote thumbs up emoji. And then I wrote panicky gritted teeth emoji. And he wrote, that's known as a Marin. And I wrote, ha. So now that was me, you know, talking to my old friend.

But that might be all I talked to him for maybe six months to a year. And I just started thinking, and this is part of the resolution thing, you know, where, where are they? Who are they? And then it takes effort. Got to start inviting people over for dinner. I just, I want to get back to, you know, flesh and blood relationships with human beings. And now you got to plan that stuff. Get back to flesh and blood relationships with human beings. And you got to plan that stuff.

Not these one-offs. Not these very emotionally cathartic connected one-offs here in the garage. And also, look, the other thing about social media is that I'm just sitting on there. I'm not doing anything. You can see that I'm barely tweeting. And people are like, you have a comment on this? How about this? Look, the guy from Counting Crows and you look exactly like each other to some people.

Are you the same person? Care to comment? No, I don't. I don't care. I don't care. I don't want to comment. No. Okay.

That was someone's clever idea. Fine. But have fun with it. What do you need me? What do you need my input? Of course, we're not the same guy. What's going on? What do you think about, you know, Louis?

What about Louis CK? I don't care. I have not, I have not talked to the guy since that New York Times article. I don't know what he's up to. It seems like he's full of anger and, and, and survival. Survival mechanism has kicked in. That's my take. It's, I don't know his life his life doesn't it doesn't seem good but it's not my fucking responsibility to comment on fucking

everything that happens in the world on twitter i'm talking like that that someone i'm talking as if someone is attacking me right now see what it does to me do you see what it does to me yeah i just i don't know about that that friend thing i guess that's really what it is everybody goes and they do their own life but when you know you make the choices i've made and that's to live alone not have a wife not have children cats you know they you kind of hit a wall with cats i love them i know them they're they're good to have around but uh they don't uh you know there's not a lot of deep conversing going on and there's not a lot of uh not a lot of change in the conversation with cats but you know i'm happy they're around. Here's a cat-related email.

You healed our cat, Mark. Thank you. The other day, our boy wasn't in the driveway when we pulled up. He's an outdoor cat, but he's always there waiting for us when we pull into the driveway. 100% of the time. So we knew something was wrong when he wasn't there. About 15 minutes after we parked and went in the house, we heard a meow. We opened the door and felt so relieved to see him but he was limping so badly we were just trying to decide whether to take him to the vet immediately or in a couple days his collar was also gone scary moment what happened to the kitty the next day we

took him in we had to wait in the room for two hours to be seen he's a stoic little guy but after an hour of waiting for anything especially while while in pain, anybody would get restless, cat or human. He began shaking and shifting his body every 10 or 15 seconds, so I decided to throw on WTF in the background to give us something to focus on. It was the latest episode, your interview with Ronaldo Marcus Green. Great convo, just great. But the monologue was the standout. Our cat Julius immediately lied lied down calmed down and

started meditating with his eyes rolled back all three of us listened intently as you began reviewing movies made your new year's resolution to shut off your connection to social media and become more grounded into your purpose and to spend more time with the people you love in particular your review of the indian pottery documentary left us so chilled out and relaxed. That review was, dare I say, spiritual, but in an everyday people kind of way. We will definitely check that film out. Just your review of it made our cat purr. So even before the vet came in to see him, you had already healed him. Thank you, Mark. You're an inspiring dude on multiple levels. We're waiting to see if our little guy's leg is broken. But while we wait, I figured I'd write to say thank you to your twice

a week service. You give a sense of home to so many people and cats. By the way, our little boy is named Julius because you guessed it, he's orange. With much respect and appreciation, Brian. Glad to help out. Yeah, see see like you people who fast forward through this you're missing the spiritual value of uh of my rambling intros you're missing it you're missing the spiritual value there was another one subject line to kill the loneliness hey mark my name is brooks i am a 20 year. In June, my first love broke my heart where I lost 15 pounds during the heartbreak. I found your show, Marin. It helped me, made me laugh and feel better.

I also work at a grocery where at times I have to work in a one-man kiosk gas station where I have to stand alone and wait for people to come to the window. WTF helps kill the loneliness. And the interviews fill the white wall kiosk. Thank you for the laughter during my first real heartbreak. Happy New Year, Brooks. I'm a loneliness killer. WTF. Loneliness killer. Dig it.

Yeah, so I'm watching shit. Somehow or another, there's some weird old Sam Kenison set on Netflix. It's a disaster. It's a Las Vegas set. A year or so before he died. And that kind of got me watching the original HBO special,

which I hadn't seen in years now this is a guy if some of you know my story and this has been sitting with me for a while because i did i did a interview for a documentary about the comedy store that mike binder is directing and he asked me to talk about my experience there and a lot of it had to do with that guy and my sort of my my position has always been that he doesn't you know really get the respect he should as one of the great comics. And Mike was like, I don't know if he was that great. And I'm like, but he had this momentum. He had this pace, this intensity.

He really owned the stage like nobody had ever seen before. He had this fury and this force. This kind of like the air changed when the guy went on i'd never seen anybody really do that and mike was like yeah but i don't know i think it was the time i think if you really look at that material it might just be those bits i mean anyone could have good bits so i just don't think he was that great and i you know it just stuck with me and this is a couple months ago that we had this conversation i watched the h HBO special, half of it, and I watched that Vegas thing, and I was like, God damn it.

He wasn't, he was not a right-minded dude, man. He was not a righteous cat. And I don't know how I got so sucked into that looking back on it. It could have been the Coke. It could have been just the excitement of the time, the late 80s, or just the sheer brute force of that guy's personality and that guy's charisma sucked me in.

The brute force of charisma. Charisma with a punch. That's why we're at with the, you know, politically. You've got to watch your brain man you get sucker punched by uh some uh forceful wrong-minded charisma and you get all lit up got to watch that all right so i've reassessed it and uh i do not think he was as good as i thought he was but stylistically there was nothing like it and i think that was the primary lesson there how do you own the stage i think that was really more of what i was learning i also watched a bit of watched a little hicks i just flipping

around the comedy there's a lot of new comedies that uh were dumped onto netflix old comedy specials watched a little of the hicks stuff uh were dumped onto netflix old comedy specials watched a little of the hick stuff from the vic where i did a special it's always good to see bill bouncing around yeah sleep tight so seth mcfarland is here and i i've never met him i've seen some of his stuff uh i've always wondered about him. And he's got this, the second season of this space show that he's got, The Orville,

is on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. Eastern on Fox. I think Fox is, by and large, the Seth MacFarlane station. Outside of the propaganda operation,

the rest, I think, is Seth MacFarlane. But I was excited to talk to him. And this is me talking to Seth here in the garage. Are you self-employed? Don't think you need business insurance? Think again.

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Death is in our air. This year's most anticipated series, FX's Shogun, only on Disney+. We live and we die. We control nothing beyond that. An epic saga based on the global best-selling novel by James Clavel. To show your true heart is to risk your life.

When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun, a new original series streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. It's weird where my research takes me because I'm like,

I'm looking up Kent where you come from. Yeah. Because I have like, I'm looking up Kent, where you come from. Yeah. Because I have like, I've had things happen to me in Connecticut. Really? Yeah. That's a vague, kind of dark thing.

What? Is everything all right? Yeah. No, when I started, not too traumatic, but like when I started my comedy career, it was one-nighters, and there were ones like, there was one in like New London.

You'd go drive to a bar in New London, and there was a, you know, i saw a guy that i was opening for lose his mind on stage oh really it was great oh i bet that was that was something to see it was just one of these things where you know you drive for two hours from boston i was living in boston and you'd be taking a headliner who you didn't really know yeah and this guy bob batch the whole way down he's going like i don't know why i can't get on fucking letterman why can't I get on fucking Letterman for two hours? That's his act. No, this is in the car.

Oh, this is in the car. But that's what happens. We get to this shitty fucking bar by the sub base. There's like nine people in there. And I go on and do my half hour. And he just gets up. And within minutes, he's like, why can't I be on fucking Letterman? He's yelling at the people. Oh, God. And it's like, why can't I be a fucking letter? He's yelling at the people.

Oh, God. And it's like uncomfortable. And for the first time in my life, and I was younger, I went into the middle of the room because there were so few people there. I go, let's just take a break. Bob, just relax a minute. That's like finding a four-leaf clover when you catch a stand-up who's angry with the audience. It's the best.

It doesn't happen anymore. No, it doesn't. Because they're afraid of the phones. But yeah, man, in Boston, I'd see guys snap all the audience. It's the best. It doesn't happen anymore. No, it doesn't. Because they're afraid of the phones. But yeah, man, in Boston, I'd see guys snap all the time. There were guys that you could sort of count on it. Yeah. Well, doesn't Chappelle

makes his audience put their phones in like steel cases or something before he does a show? Some clubs have bags now. The club in Denver has these bags. You have to. It's like part of me hears these stories and just thinks, you know what, America, you don't deserve comedy anymore. No more comedy for you.

Because this is how the acts are honed. That's how you know where the line is. They don't understand it. They don't get it. And I don't understand. They don't gain anything by putting the thing up. Fortunately, I'm at a level of celebrity where no one has tried to tape me or put my shit up. Yeah.

There's been times where I'm like, could one of you tape this? Because I'd like to remember what I did, but no. But it's not that they, it's like they need to have it explained to them.

Look, you get to the point where you go to an arena with thousands of people and you're seeing a honed, polished stand-up act. You don't get to that point unless that act is tested and retested and some of the jokes work and some of them don't and then go some yeah some of them are offensive yeah you pull those jokes out but you have to the only way

you know is by testing it in front of an audience you pull them out only if you can't shoulder the possible reaction yes there's a lot of gauging that has to go they don't get it they don't get it and the press doesn't even get it. No, I don't think anyone... And they should. I'm surprised how little people understand about anything. Like during the writer's strike, it was sort of amazing to me that most,

you know, somewhat intelligent people were like, oh, they don't just make it up. You know, like, you mean John Stewart's not making it up every day? The one I like is, now does each writer write for an individual character? Like, yes, I write for an individual character? Yes, I write all the Stewie lines.

He writes all the Peter lines. And he can't do anything else. No. That's all he does. And we have to hope that it all comes together in a cohesive fashion. Well, the other thing about Connecticut, I went to the P.T. Barnum Museum in Bridgeport and had a very uncomfortable- It's a beautiful town, Bridgeport. Yeah, uncomfortable moment at the P.T. Barnum Museum.

and had a very uncomfortable- It's a beautiful town, Bridgeport. Yeah, uncomfortable moment at the P.T. Barnum Museum. We were taking the ferry over to Port Jeff in college, and the guy who worked at the P.T. Barnum Museum, he had one eye, and he was just there. He must have been with the circus at some point. And he grabbed my hand, and he said, let me see your hand.

And he looked at my palm, and he said, you're going to get in a very bad accident. Oh, my God. Wow. For about four years. I admire that kind of honesty. But wait, so Kent, Connecticut, because I talked to Ted Danson. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Specifically about the Kent school where you went. And it seems like you two were it. Yeah. And he gets credit for going there. I think Lana Del Rey also went to Kent. I think it's the three of us. But you grew up there? Yes.

And what is that? It's a very small town? Really small town. Very idyllic. Very Beaver Cleaver kind of. Really? Yeah. I mean, it was like you hear people say,

but that was a great place to grow up. This is like the cookie cutter, gorgeous, peaceful, calm, wholesome place to grow up. Was it a great place to grow up? It was actually. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I loved it.

I mean, I, I, I go back there every, you know, whenever I can. You do? Yeah. It's, it's, it's. You have family there still? I have a grade school friends that I still talk to. Grade school? Yeah.

Yeah. You check in with them like yearly or? Yeah. Bi, bi-annually. Isn't it kind of weird? It's kind of weird. Cause you, like, you don't have kids kind of weird because you like in like you don't have kids right and you don't have uh me neither so you kind of need to check in with those people

to see that you're aging yeah yeah it is it is it is that is a a really it is yeah it's a good barometer because you look at you look at everyone else you're like my god everyone looks so fucking old yeah well i don't look like that and then you know the odds are you're not the only one in the room right who is retained yeah how can you know like i can't i took a picture of myself this morning for a thing and i'm like it's happening okay i just you know it's like there's there's some moment like i'm 55 and it's right around this time where it's like you turn into the old man because you see it with presidents you know they start out like oh look he's young and then like within four years it's like oh and it's around in the 50s yeah feel it happening yeah you yeah yeah i i've i'm

you seem pretty i'm starting to see things that you know there's like what's that bump those kind of things boy the the weenus is a little flappier than it used to be who was that one of those guys uh i can't remember he's been on the show writer fuck he tweeted once he said i had a bad case of dad dick this morning i thought that was genius i think it was like one of the best just this morning yeah not every day today i noticed it dad dick's. It's a problem. But I have a friend of a friend who says that there are people in that town. This guy, I think he's in Kent. He runs an excavating business.

And I've heard his name is Bill. And he's got a caricature you did of him when you were like 10 or something. Wow. Probably. I've heard that there are many people in town that have found these caricatures that you did of people. Yeah. And now they're on the wall because of who you are. Did you have a caricature business?

I did. When I was really, really young, my father was a butcher at the local grocery store. Is that true? Yeah. I don't know why you make that up. Why do I say it like that? Come on. He was a teacher and he worked part-time as a butcher,

and I would go into the grocery store and draw on the grocery bags before the groceries were bagged, and then eventually graduated to doing sidewalk caricatures on the street during the summer fair days. Yes, there were summer fair days. It was an idyllic time. Sure, yeah. And, yeah, I did a bunch of them.

For money? For money, yeah. So when does this start? Like, because it seems like this was an obsession that, you know, obviously turned into a billion dollar a year industry. But I mean, at what point do you sort of retreat into paper?

You know, I tend to be, those are the parts of the process that I actually enjoy the most. I'm, I'm a little bit of an introvert by, by nature. You must've been just sitting there drawing all the time. Yeah. Yeah. So like, like why do you ever think about that? Uh, why, why am I an introvert? Yeah. I think it's that that was that was you know the the craft that I gravitated to when I was young was something that that was a solitary craft and and that's just what I got comfortable with because

I mean I used to draw when I was a kid and you know you can get lost for hours and hours and but you sort of stuck with it and there's a relief to it but you seem to like I guess it's better when you have a true knack for something where you can look at things and go like no i'm pretty good at this yeah yeah it's it's uh you know i i at the time uh thought okay i think i have a pretty good handle on this um but it is you know it the result is you know i enjoy writing i enjoy post-production you know the most stressful part of a of a film or a television show for me is is the is the production where there's tons of people around yeah it's a big crowd it's very bustling like that's the part where i'm the most kind of uptight but were you always like that like as a kid oh yeah yeah i hated i hated uh and i got better as i got into college right but i got you know it's a long time i just hated going to

parties like the whole idea was just so because of the noise and just because of the noise the noise the loudness the energy the intensity is just too much really yeah so you got you so you just and then i discovered alcohol and i was like oh that's the that's what was that's the key ingredient this is what i need to feel whole to this day man i tell you it's like you go to a party sober and it's just it's parties are terrible but did you i did you quit drinking? The only reason we think they're so great is because we're drunk.

Right, and then you have to deal with the repercussions of that. Like, you know, I don't love parties. I find myself, like if I have to, if I get invited to something,

there's a long month or two of like, no, I gotta, fuck, I'm just gonna be there, what am I gonna do? Once I get there, I'm all right,

but then you gotta worry about what people say afterwards. Yeah, yeah,'s all did you stop drinking big mess no god no no no no no rather the reverse sir oh really but do you don't when did you start no i i uh uh college oh really yeah waited yeah i waited i waited i i i probably would have enjoyed high school more of uh but if i had uh no i I probably would have enjoyed high school more if I had. No, actually, I had a good high school experience. But in college, it was like, oh, okay, this is what. But in high school, so you're this guy who's drawn pictures.

Yeah. Was that the key to your sort of like, because I know being a funny guy in high school, you could just kind of move through all groups because you were the funny guy. So did you walk around- There was a little bit of that. Showing your pictures to people? There was a little bit of that. Look, like me.

I drew you. Exactly. You're not too far off. Yeah. It is. I mean, people give you a little bit of a, as I recall, I was given a little bit of a respectful birth. Right.

Because you were the weird kid drawing, but the drawings were cool. B-E-R-T-H, not B-I. Yeah. But, you know, they kind of figured, all right, this guy seems to know, he seems to be on a trajectory to something, and we're just going to kind of let him do his thing and not beat the shit out of him. So thank you, classmates. Leave the kid with the pencil alone. Yes. Thank you for not beating the shit out of him. But were you, classmates. Leave the kid with the pencil alone. Yes, thank you for not beating the shit out of me.

But were you like, would you, because you seem like you're pretty, I mean, do you think you were like a nerdy kid? Yeah, I think so. Yeah? Yeah. And what was it like? Not in the traditional sense, but yes.

Because I saw some of this stuff, like when he started doing actual cartoons for the paper. Like, you know, when I was a kid, like who were the guys that you were, because I liked, what's that guy's name, Gahan Wilson? Gahan Wilson. The guy from the Playboy.

He did, like, oh, he's a great cartoonist. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, like, the single panel stuff. Yeah, yeah. Like, were you reading Mad Magazine? Were you looking at? I liked Mad. The far side was the thing that really was,

like, groundbreaking for me. Yeah, that's your generation, I guess. Yeah, that just altered my whole perception of... And God, you look at those panels now. Yeah. And they're so great and they're so classic. But you remember at the time, if there had been bloggers then, if there had been think pieces, they would have torn them to shreds.

People were like, this is horrific. This is offensive. And, and, but they were brilliant. Yeah. Oh, they're great. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, that's just sort of a problem because like, even in some of those old panels, I could see you were drawing from a grownup world that, you know, there was an edge to them and you already had a cynicism, but it might not have been yours.

Was it yours? Did you think? I, I don't, you think i i don't uh you know i don't a lot of it came from my family my family was like you know it was a happy family but there was like a healthy cynicism there was like a really certain on my mother's side of the family there was a very they were big laughers yeah really dark sense of humor like a lot of stuff that just wouldn't fly now that That's great. But that, yeah,

but that was, but that was very, Were they progressive people? They were, yeah. Yeah? Yeah. Like we're,

like we're, like what did you, your dad was a butcher and a teacher? Yeah. And your mom? Yeah, she was,

she was in college guidance at the Kent School actually. Really? Yeah. So there was a premium put on education. Yes. Creativity.

Yeah. Let the kid do what he wants and then bring him in if you need to. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And you got what? One sister? One sister.

Yeah. Now, were they like, were your folks like, were they waspy people? They weren't. They were actually, they were both kind of ex hippies. My dad was at Woodstock and- You know, had his share of LSD stories. Really? Like the good stuff.

The good stuff, yeah. So he told you about Woodstock? Yeah. Did he live on a commune? Did he do the whole thing? He didn't go that far, but he was a folk singer. Really? And that's how my parents met.

My mother went to a pub in Massachusetts and my dad was up on stage playing the guitar. And my mother found out where he lived and it's not the healthiest story. Stalked him? Yeah, stalked him, banged on his door, asked for guitar lessons

and basically just, you know, went at him like a praying mantis. And so he's a folk singer. Yeah. There's guitars around the house. Oh yeah.

Did you like your dad's music? I was, it was kind of weird because I was- It feels like you're pushing back a little now. Yeah. I guess he was in- This was the counterculture music, so I guess my way of rebelling was gravitating towards the Sinatra. Yeah, exactly.

I'll show him. Yeah, what was good. These kids, they don't know what's good. Show him. Yeah, what was good. These kids, they don't know what's good. But yeah, you know, I wasn't, you know, they were the Simon and Garfunkel, Peter, Paul, and Mary, you know, Rita Coolidge.

Ooh, Rita Coolidge. Yeah. There's some sadness there. Yeah. Yeah. So that was what was in the house? That was what was in the house, yeah. And you didn't like it then? I can, I can, I didn't, you know, I was fine with it.

It just, I was, I gravitated a bit more towards Fuller. You know, I loved orchestra. I loved film scores. I was like a big John Williams fan. At nine? Yeah. Really? Yeah.

Loved John Williams. It actually connected with you at that age? Oh, yeah. Where you could hear like that music is doing something? Yeah. Yeah. Because usually when you're nine, you're like, I like the movie. I was, you know, it was a very musical town.

We had a choir director that would put on these Gilbert and Sullivan shows. So we were all doing like fucking Gilbert and Sullivan at eight and nine. Oh, you're in the show. Yeah. So you're doing musicals. Yeah. Because I noticed like when you hosted the Oscar, I was like, this is a song and dance man. This guy's not a cartoon guy.

Look at him. He just wants to dance. He just wants to dance. That's all he wants to do. He kind of is, right? I mean, who doesn't enjoy that? It scares me. Wasn't that, what's the, what did somebody say,

what's the reason you become a DJ so you don't have to dance? Or be seen. I think when you, I remember going to the, or be seen i think i think when you i remember going to the door at all i remember going to the derby yeah at one point when i was still around and i was like and i'm not with the swing thing yeah i'm not a good dancer and there's a guy on stage singing and i'm like that's yeah i want to be that guy he doesn't have to deal with any of this shit he never has to get on the dance floor and he can still be cool and yet he's still cool yeah yeah he's driving the whole thing exactly exactly well likeavreau was a big swing guy, right?

And you work with him a lot, right? Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you don't see yourself as part of that thing? Because that was sort of a trendy thing. It seems that, like there were a lot of guys wearing zoot suits and jumping around.

Yeah, it's, there's lounge swing and then there's true, you know, I mean, to me me the best sinatra recordings are his ballad albums uh-huh are you know only the lonely and where are you and and no one cares you know that this the stuff that's like that's where there's the the minute-long orchestral intro before he even starts singing the big bill yeah the strings yeah yeah yeah did you read dino by nick toshis no oh dude that's all amazon right now it's a it's this poetic dark investigation into the soul of dean martin really oh my god when did it when

when did it come out it's a classic uh geez it's got to be maybe the early 80s dino nick toshis he's a very dark guy and a very dark writer and it's a biography of dean martin that you know just it it's you know whether it is yeah whether you uh whether i don't know how much of it is poetic speculation but there's a lot of history in there and it's very well researched what a title dino living high in the dirty business of dreams yeah dude you gotta he's written a couple of great books toshis but but like i i it was i didn't realize that that dean mart written a couple of great books, Tosh. But like I didn't realize that Dean Martin, a couple of things, that there was these guys that set these precedents like being Crosby, that like Dean Martin got into the racket to just be sort of a Crosby knockoff.

I mean, so did Sinatra. They both idolized Crosby. Yeah. And it's like the phrasing and everything. But who knows about that shit now? Is there part of what you're doing now? Because it seems to be a real focus for you. I mean, did Grammy nominated swing records?

I mean, is there some part of you that's sort of like, you got to respect these guys? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, it was an era of high musicality where every part of the equation was its own deal. I mean, if you take a song that everybody knows, like I've Got You Under My Skin, Cole Porter wrote the song. He was revered for his craft. Nelson Riddle did the arrangement.

He was revered for his craft. Sinatra sang the song. He was revered for his craft. It was this amazing collaboration of talent. And also, back in the day, if you wanted to go to a dance, there were 30 guys on stage. Yeah, sure, yeah. And that was just normal.

They had to have room for that shit. Yeah, it cost you. You watch the Grammys, what, 40 years ago or whatever it was, and there's Henry Mancini playing the Pink Panther theme with a 40-piece orchestra behind him. It is really something that that's all gone away.

It's gone away. And I don't think it's just an evolution I think it's a it's a cheapening I think it's it's less expensive to not do it yeah it's less expensive and also like in and they've somehow not unlike with movies and stuff they've over time just hypnotized people into believing that this was good exactly yeah yeah and but I don't know that there's any coming back to that and it's no there I mean I don't it's I mean, that's why we do these records, is to just kind of say, look, this can still be done.

You can still make music that has a real, that has a lot of different, and I'm just talking from a technical standpoint, layers to it. It's just a hard thing. It's just kind of vanished and the first time that you sort of got like uh engaged with this was when you did the family guy episode the vegas episode was that the first time where you realize like wow i can i i have freedom i can put together

as many musicians as i want oh yeah well i mean the simpsons did it for a number of years yeah they were they were one of the few shows left on the air that used a live orchestra. And so we decided to, you know, God, if they can get away with it, maybe we can too. And we were able to pull it off. And it just makes a huge difference. I do think that even if an audience doesn't know that what they're hearing on a show like Family Guy is live music, is a live orchestra, is live music, is a live orchestra. On a subconscious level, it just makes the show a little bit more resonant.

Resonant, yeah, and authentic somehow. And what's interesting to that, like I'm not a huge animation guy, you should know. Yeah, you know, believe it or not, neither am I. But I think that's true. There's like things I've learned over time but like the interesting thing about uh about orchestras is each one of those guys has a story you know you read about like big bands and the ones that kind of spun off onto heroin and then became bebop guys and just drove their lives into a ditch you know it's it's to me that the the, the biggest problem is the source of the creative impetus has fallen out of the hands of the composer and into the hands of the producer.

And it's an oversimplification, but it's true. I mean, a producer cannot give you what George Gershwin could have given you. It almost makes you cry. Yeah. Oh, yeah. To feel the, you can feel all the instruments in the right room. Yep.

And it's such a beautiful, life-embracing thing that's just gone. Yeah. And it's an interesting point. It's hard to think of anything in recent years that has evoked, that I've listened to, that's gotten me to that point where it's like oh i could i'm listening to this music i could i could cry but yeah

but it's it for the right reasons for the right reasons absolutely yeah yeah but when you do it though you're very meticulous about it i mean i don't know how much you go through i was just my buddy my producer said he was listening to a christ record, you know, and you did a Christmas record. And he said, it's very clear that Seth wants to do the best version of these songs. He just felt it, that like, you know, you're out to kill this thing. Well, you know, there was a secret to, my theory is Sinatra was a vocalist

who surpassed any of his contemporaries. Yeah. But beyond that, I think part of that is the fact that he, his secret weapon is he understood better than anybody what an orchestration, what an arrangement, what an orchestra can do for you, and the cushion it can give you can just make you sound better. And his orchestrations are just light years beyond

anything else that was being written. You know, that's, with the records that we do, it's the same thing. It's not just about singing the songs. It's a showcase for the orchestra. Right. And you got nominated for a Grammy for the one you wrote for, oh, an Academy Award for the, Oh, yeah, yeah. Was it from Ted?

From Ted, yeah. Yeah, for that song. Yeah. Do you, like, do you see yourself as a you know having a is that a new is that going to be a thing you do are you going to be randy newman are people gonna i mean i i can't you know i i would love to be able to write for orchestra i don't i i'd have to go back to school for years and so now you just you write the things and you say to the guys like can you throw put something together you know what it's it's it's the one part

for me that's retained this kind of mystery because I work with composers that I love, but I'm not able to orchestrate myself. You can't say, can we take it to the nine after that? Yeah. I mean, my communication skills have gotten better. Like I can say,

you know, can we make that a little more rubato, which I didn't used to be able to do. But I, you know good before it was like longer yeah um but uh but it's it's it is the one part of the process for me that i i kind of like the fact that it's still sort of this magical thing that i don't completely understand right right right and you got guys that know what they're, and you can be sort of like enchanted by it. Yeah. As opposed to sort of like, no, you've got to bring up the oboe. Exactly. You want to be that guy, then I'll love this guy.

I think I have been that guy once or twice. Well, thanks for copping to it. That's biggie. You shit on the oboe guy. I know, there's so few of them too. I know. It's hard for those guys. Tough being a...

Yeah, man. of them too i know it's hard for those guys tough being yeah man uh so when did you think you started um enjoying uh you know you know pissing people off like when did that because it must have happened with the comics yeah it did actually it was it was um i was uh i i used to do a weekly comic strip for our local paper in Kent. And I did one when I was, God, nine or 10. Yeah. And it was a guy taking communion. Yeah. And he says, can I have fries with that? Right.

And I was like, when I was, I was, we, you know, we went to church because I was in a choir. We weren't a religious family, but we went, I was always kind of- Catholic? Episcopalian. Okay. but we went I was always Catholic we Episcopalian okay I was always just weirdly confused and fascinated by communion the whole process was just so creepy and like the whole thing is witchcraft yeah it's just it's just it was just but it was just such a strange weird thing like I just don't

I didn't get it I still don't get it um ritual magic it's like they're putting these little wafers on the tongue and you know i kind of want to know what they taste like but but these look at these adults healing while other adults put things in their mouths like it's you know which better than i guess that's all over the internet but right but it's but it's uh but but i so i did this comic strip and and i got an angry letter from the local priest. Yeah. Who said, shame on you for insulting the almighty God and those who love him. And you're like, yeah.

Yeah. And down below he had written, do you like me? Check yes, no, or maybe. No, but it was- Meet me in the rectory. Yeah. It was a very interesting thing to kind of process at that age. How old were you?

I was like nine or ten. And can you remember how you processed it? Was it a good feeling or did you feel horrible? I didn't because my parents helped me. They said, look, this is, you made, I don't think they particularly liked the guy anyway. So I think they were like, yeah, fuck this guy. is you made so i don't think they particularly like the guy anyway so i think they were like yeah fuck this guy yeah but i but they they they kind of said look this is you got it you got a reaction from something you did artistically and and and that's that's neither good nor bad it's

just it's just what you want out of it and so they had a very kind of really sophisticated attitude about it it's diplomatic yeah i mean they didn't say like sometimes when you do satire yeah the object of it is actually to piss these guys off exactly this is exactly what you need to be doing with your life yeah i mean that that would have been yeah yeah i mean they were there again their sense of humor was so like i mean it was it was just dark yeah it was dark so but so that was normal to you yeah yeah that was probably like on the on the lighter side of the spectrum yeah i remember like there was a moment like i for some reason what whatever this is triggering in me that there was a moment when i was with my parents on a ski trip with another couple and their kids and one of the other couple said like if if you

were on the mountain and and you and one of you died uh and you were stuck up there which part of them which part of them would you eat first and i must be like eight and my mother goes the penis at least i'm used to that and i'm like that's where i get it that is that is that is my mother was exactly the same way that is exactly the kind of thing that would have come out of her mouth, yeah. And so that gets normalized, and that's a fucking gift, really.

Yeah. So like, you know. My mother, there was a line in Wayne's World that my mother thought was the funniest thing, and she would butcher it when she would retell it, but it was the scene where Wayne's on the phone to the Chinese restaurant, and he goes, yes, I'll have the cream of some young guy.

And my mother would tell this at parts. Have you seen the movie? It's hilarious. He's on the phone with his Chinese restaurant and he says, I'll have the cream of some young guy. Delivery's her own. Delivery is her own. There was a handful of jokes, and now they're all coming back to me,

that my mother would tell in all kinds of company. There was a joke that she told over and over and over where a male grocery bagger walks out to the car with a bag of groceries for this woman, and the woman says, you you know in a flirtatious way i have an itchy pussy and the guy goes you know i get all those japanese cars mixed up and my mother would tell this joke to everyone she met it's like you you instantly know what you were like she liked the asian themed joke my god that may God, that may be it. That may be it. Something about the language makes up.

What a breakthrough. Yeah, it's just weird. Like that moment where, I don't know, man. I, like, I haven't, I just, something just happened on this set of glow the other day. Like I'm like, I'm in that show glow, you know? So it's me and it's just like all women. And I don't know why. You're always waiting. I keep my mouth shut.

I behave. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And it's not a chore for me. It's fine. I'm just working in a cast and I love them all and everything. But there was a moment the other day where I'm on set and we start a take and I go into it and I fuck the lines up. And for no reason, just because I do it sometimes on the mic when I'm doing my monologues, I just went, ah, fucking cunt.

And I'm like, why? Did it go over well? No. But it was like I walked up to the AD and I said, do I need to apologize for that? It wasn't directed at anybody. It was really just a moment of frustration. She's like, no, no, no, it's fine. But I had like a whole day of like, why that word?

There's probably like a hundred of those in the script, I would imagine. No, no cunts. Oh, really? No cunts's fine. But I had like a whole day of like, why that word? There's probably like a hundred of those in the script, I would imagine. No, no cunts. Oh, really? No cunts, no. It's like an HBO show, right? No, it's on Netflix. But no, it's not that kind of show. It's about women wrestlers in the 80s.

But it wasn't completely out of character. But it's just one of those things like sometimes I'll do it here. Like if I'm doing an ad read. And it's not for my producer it's just what i do i've got fucking balls you know just say it because it feels i think i i think most people uh you know most most reasonable people with all sexes are just gonna you're gonna see that for what it is it's like he's just it's it's an expletive yeah it just it feels good yeah there was a moment of like haha wait wait, that word? Yeah.

But it wasn't, no. I could be right. I'm Mr. Straight White Male here saying, I think it's fine. I can't see the problem. No, no, I think you're right. And it was clearly just a, you know, a thing that, you know,

it was just, yeah, an expletive. But like, but talking about offending people, when, because like in your hometown, and I know you've probably talked about this a lot, but like the pushback from that one like in your hometown and i know you've probably talked about this a lot but like the pushback from that one guy in your own town that almost sunk fucking family guy what's right did you have you gone into the history of that guy uh you know the griffin guy the griffin the griffin was his secretary and he was the headmaster of the school yeah that was that was an interesting that was an

interesting uh experience because it was it's it's it's like your high school principal calling you as an adult yeah and and you know asking you to do something and it's like well that doesn't really work anymore but it was just the name right so how long how long had the show been on yeah the show the show hadn't premiered yet. So how did he know? The show had, I think there was a lot of press. Okay. There was a lot of press about it.

And, you know, it's something that just never occurred to me. Like writers take, you know, writers take names of people that they know, or their last names, first names. You just drop from wherever. And you've got to check those through. And if there's a resemblance, there's a team of lawyers, the studio and the network, is there one Chuck Emmerich in this town or are there 50?

If there are 50, you're fine. Right. If there's one, then he's got a potential case. Plenty of Griffins in the world. Yeah. So the issue was that there was there was i think a panic about you know is this about us and it wasn't it was it was it was a name that i you know i was like this is going to be a show about an irish family and that was a name that i

chose and but it wasn't even him right it was someone who worked for him it was it was a yeah it was it was a it was sort of a murky kind of thing. Oh, yeah? It went down. I never really got the full. You don't know the backstory? Never really got the full, you know, all the details. Really? Yeah. But it caused you trouble. It caused a little bit of a flap.

Yeah, because he aligned himself with the parents' whatever council. The parents' television council, yeah. It's interesting. whatever council the parents television council yeah it's that's which it's interesting that's an organization that you know it's it's historically been a contentious relationship with family guy i i what's the guy's name brent bozell he's gone he's gone that guy was a nut it's it's uh the fellow running it now is you know i actually had drinks with him a couple times and and uh is is a is a terrific guy you know know, like he has his job. That organization is, they do what they do.

Their job is to police the networks. But, you know, you can have a- In the name of kids. Yeah, supposedly. Yeah, it's in the name of decency and taste. But it's nice. It was interesting to find, oh, I can, we can actually have a conversation in a friendly way. And it was interesting to find oh i can we can actually have a conversation in a friendly way and and uh and and and it was a nice it was a nice surprise and it came about i think that i think we had written a letter to the parents television council saying listen we invite you guys to write

an episode if you think you can do this better than we can okay that's a good way to end and the letter we we got back was you know and it was it was sort of a way of trying to make a point. The letter we got back was very kind and respectful. And so I reached out to the guy and said, hey, thanks a lot, and ended up becoming friendly with him. So it's not. So do I keep your enemies closer? I guess. Do I keep your enemies closer?

Is that the... I guess. I guess. Well, I mean, it just... I guess when you... Like, the whole genre of animation that, you know, at some point, I think, before you, you know, there was grown-up animation always, kind of, you know, Betty Boop, Wizards, whatever the stuff I saw when I was a kid. But there was a point on television where it had,

it appealed to both kids and, and, and adults. And then, you know what the freedom there was, you know, how much are you filling a kid's head with, I guess was a real predicament for the moralizers.

Yeah. Right. So like, who's this for? Is this like, you know, how, how did they,

you know, look at, at cartoons? There was always a subtext, but by the time The Simpsons came on, certainly by Family Guy, it was like, it's not a subtext. Yeah, yeah.

And that was part of the conflict is that that was still a period where cartoons were for kids. You know, it's interesting. This is sort of the first generation of adults that I guess that has held on to the practice of watching cartoons and reading comic books. And it used to be something you left behind, but now it's a... I didn't do a joke about that.

Really? Yeah, like I said, I read some comics when I was nine, but at 11 I decided I'm not going to make this my life. I think it's some sort of belief system. I think it's beyond entertainment. Yeah, there's a passion there that is... It's something that I probably should be able to lock into with what I do for a living.

It's hard for me. I've seen maybe two superhero movies in the past 10 years. Yeah. It's just like it's a choice. I'm not sort of like fuck that but i don't think to do it yeah no i don't either and i think there's also a fear that like what if i become one you know i've made it this far but what what do you think like in terms of offending people because i know it's it's on you know my mind is a comic it's on your mind because it's

come up a couple times already just, you know, in passing, but like even the Oscars. So they didn't ask you to host, right? No, not this year. Not this year. It hasn't come up yet. You're the last guy on the list, right? Yeah.

Do you want to go back to him? Would you do it again? I, you know, I don't know. Actually, I got asked back the year after I hosted um I guess because the numbers had gone up and so so they they asked me back and I was making the the western comedy that I made in Santa Fe and I was I was so wrapped up in that and I thought you know I there's no way I'm going to be able to finish this and stay alive if I try to do the Oscars as well and you know part of me wanted wanted to say yes and I realized god you know, part of me wanted, wanted to say yes. And I realized, God, you know, the only reason I'm, I'd be saying yes is to kind of, you

know, show up the detractors. And it's just not a good enough reason. It's not, is that a new shift for you? No, no, no. Even at the time it was, it was, but I mean, it just was not to put in that kind of work. It was, I love having done it. It was a, it was a thrill, you know, to put in that kind of work. I love having done it. Yeah. It was a thrill to do it.

It was a great experience, and it was, I think, what it did for, it opened up a lot of doors for me for other things. It did? Yeah. Like what? Well, just the visibility you get from the Oscars is... But mostly as a live performer, you think? Yeah, I think it's sort of a real boost in that regard.

But it's something that, I don't know, maybe. I don't know what the upside is of doing it at this point in time. Right, right. But I think that's what everybody's realizing. But I think that, just looking back and how the culture has changed over, you know, since you've done it, which was what, five years ago? How long ago?

Yeah, about five years ago. So like, do you think you could do, we saw your boobs again? I mean, like, would it even accommodate your personality at all? I, what's interesting is that, that thing came about, and I, you know,

I've never mentioned this, but like that, that gag came about because I read the, you know i've never mentioned this but like that that that gag came about because i i read the the you know a lot of the pro which you should never do i know this now you should never read any of your own press but you know i read a lot of press away from the computer altogether yes completely but i read a lot of press leading up to the oscars and it was a lot of like really angry foaming at the mouth um uh kind of stuff that was just like oh i i bet i know what he's gonna do and i hate him for it you know from right from uh from a lot of these outlets and from the left and the right uh no you know i i think mostly

from like the hollywood press okay more more from the left not a political oh yeah um but it's and it got to the point where like god i have to i have to sort of comment on this in some way from like the Hollywood press. Oh, okay. More from the left. Not a political, oh yeah, okay. But it's, and it got to the point where like, God, I have to sort of comment on this in some way. I mean, I can't just go up

and, you know, because my original idea was very kind of tame and very kind of old style song and dance. And I thought, God,

this is like, I gotta, it's, you know, in a way it's like you helped create what you despise. But I, you know, in a way it's like you helped create what you despise. But I, you know, it's always this idea of. You felt challenged.

Yeah, in a way. Yeah. And it was the idea of creating this alternate Oscars that was exactly what they were afraid would happen. Right. And that's the part that gets a little forgotten. Yeah, that there was a context. Yeah, there was a context.

They always forget context. They always forget context. Quickbait is essentially lack of lack of content yeah it's like taken out of context it's the only way that industry works yeah it's it's is but that was the that was the the thing and and and you know i've i've i it's it's it's it's it's hard to know how I would approach it if I post it again. Yeah? It's hard to, because there's just,

there is no upside, because it's a very, you know, look, it's a very visible, high profile thing. Not according to all eyes on it. I mean, isn't that the big problem? True, yeah.

It's a maybe press visibility. But it's an easy thing to shit on yeah like it's so easy to shit on the oscars because it's it's it's all you got to do is you don't have to know you don't have to read the news you don't have to know history yeah you don't have to do any work yeah all you have to do is sit down watch and tweet or write yeah that's all you got to do yeah and just and also because it takes it takes a lot. You see a lot more outrage about about its impetuous Oscars than you do about a piece of harmful legislation. There's no winning either side. Yeah. Because I would imagine most people who are who think Hollywood is some sort of bastion of evil. They don't watch it. You know, you know, they don't watch it it i used to like watching it just because i like i like seeing movie stars but but i think a lot of that is is an example

it's it's the loudest voices controlling the conversation i think most people you know look i can sit down so before i can sit down and have a conversation with with the head of the parents television council i'll go even further than that i can sit i i've sat down i've had conversations civil conversations with rush limbaugh yeah i mean it's i it you can't it can you can disagree with with someone and and no that's true and have a civil discourse it's a lot and i think i think a lot more people are able to do it than than we think now. No, I agree with that. But the problem is, and you know from show business, is that, yeah, you can have those conversations, but then he'll go like, I got to get back on the mic.

This guy, Seth MacFarlane, came in here. And so there's a public, those guys who have control of the public narrative and their humanity can be very different things. Yeah, well, yeah's it's it's true but i mean it's but once you once you have you know that i'm not claiming he has humanity once once there's a face-to-face interaction it gets it gets a lot harder and so it's so it's and that's look i mean that's where the internet is so destructive is that yeah because you could do it in ominous way but i can't tell you how many comics i know they're like i knew trump when he was you know on mean you listen to i'm stern and jeff

ross has been on his plane it's like well you you know i think that that was that was before the deification i think whoever you are you have to be made of the strongest stuff um to survive deification to survive that kind of lionization when you're standing in front of a crowd of thousands of people who are treating you like a god yeah unless you are made and trump is not is not strong enough to to to handle and in some ways you know you saw little inklings at the last debate where you know bernie might have been getting into a little bit that he was maybe feeling a little bit you know lionized yeah and and not you know he Bernie might have been getting into it a little bit. That he was maybe feeling a little bit, you know, lionized. Elevated, yeah.

Yeah, and not, you know, he's made of much stronger stuff than Trump is. But, you know, you have to be superhuman to be a really special kind of person to avoid that. To maintain at least a false sense of humility. Yeah, yeah. You have to maintain a healthy amount of self-loathing. Yeah, something to stay humble. Well, I mean, I've been trying to sell this joke on stage. I can't quite do it yet about how, you know, in the world of narcissists, you know, Trump

is tremendous success because he's actually achieved in making it everything about him. Yeah. Yeah. He's a hero to narcissists. It's actually all about him. Literally. He did it. And you know, you, you wonder how much of it is, is, you know, he's very, he's obsessed

with brand. He's mentally ill. He's meant. Well, yes, yes. At this point he's mentally ill, but, but you know, he's obsessed with brand and, and he's probably thinking to himself, you know, when, when I'm done with this, I'll be able to start the, the conservative news outlet to rival Fox News and... Only if he can do it from prison.

Yeah. But, you know, that's what I think is going on in his head. He's thinking, all I got to do is hang on to this base. So I can, yeah. No, I think that's true. So I can make money off it when it's done. That's right. Which is probably all he wanted to do in the first place.

I mean, that's the rumor, is that he just never really wanted the gig. Well, now we're here. Yeah. Yeah. So I can't find any. I don't have any sympathy for his plight. No, I don't either.

But but let me ask you on the other thing, like, you know, in most of the shows, certainly in Family Guy, that there was, you know, the the idea was the Rick Rickles and the Rickles like, you know, equal opportunity offender thing. Rickles and the Rickles like, you know, equal opportunity offender thing. But now that, you know, there's there's there are people that that specifically put Trump in office so they could, you know, shamelessly say those words and have those ideas that, you know, what place does it what how what is the conversation for you now in your head about what it means to to to still do that or i know i know you're a little distance from it now yeah it's a and by the way that's that's one of the reasons that that i that i am distanced from it is that it's it's it's a it's a tightrope that uh it's almost impossible yeah it's not it's not enjoyable anymore because you know comedy used to be this kind of feel pardon the term safe space that that you could could kind of it could kind of exist in its own little bubble and you know it's it's it's i mean you know when you have your your uh sensitivity seminars that

you know that every corporation does nowadays it's an interesting little asterisk that because the one thing they say is you know in the context of that writer's room of that creative space yeah it's it's it's sort of a different set of rules because you have to have the creative freedom to just spitball whatever, particularly in comedy. And that is still protected. It's not like that's gone out the window. For the most part, within reason, it's still protected,

at least in my experience. Well, yeah, I mean, comedy, writing rooms, it must have been like your family. I mean, it's sort of dark. Just a way to get loose. It's exactly, it's the way to put it. You know? Yeah.

I mean, it has to be this, this, and you have to respect people and you have to treat people well, but, but you also have to have a, have the freedom to, to push the envelope and figure out where that line is. Yeah. And sometimes you cross it. Right. So, so that, that part of it is, you know, it's when it gets out into the public, that's the part that's, that's just too, it's too stressful gets out into the public that's the part that's that's just too it's too

stressful now for a lot of people and i you know i i love what i'm doing now because i just don't have to really deal with that as much i am distanced from family guy but as far as the you know what it does to the conversation and and what it does to the the medium i mean animation is strangely in its own sector you know these aren't real these aren't faces it's different than sending a tweet you have a freedom no but also like what happens if we just in in a in a broad sense become afraid of of even trying to find that line that's that and i think that's that's the problem and again i don't think that i don't think that reasonable people you know i i i don't buy that this i i don't know anyone who who would be offended by and i've you know i've worked with you know i've been in this

business for 20 years i don't know anyone who would be actively offended by you know anything that that is i don't know maybe there are people who would have been offended by what you said on the set. Right. But I don't know. I think everyone that I know would have said, yeah, this is, you know, even people who are maybe uncomfortable. It's like, yeah, you know, he's pissed. He had a moment. Yeah.

So I don't think it's this, there's this kind of sense that there's a witch hunt. It's not a, you're saying that. I don't think that's true. It's not most people. It's a few people in a sense that put their life into a, you're saying that. I don't think that's true. It's not most people. It's, it's a few people in, in a sense that, that put their life into being, you know,

over-sensitive. To being angry about comedy. Yeah. Yeah. And I, and I, and I don't think that, I don't think that that's,

I like, you know, things, things that get, things that get me mad, things, things that, that get me angry,

you know, it's, it's science denial. It's, it's social injustice. It's's it's social injustice it's it's you know reading read a an article about mass incarceration these things piss me off right um i don't ever remember feeling any rage at anything i heard in a fictional setting yeah in a in a television show or a film or or or a or a uh a stand-up but it's a form of storytelling right but isn't it

interesting though because you know just professionally and also personally as people that that sort of you know broker and funny that you may not be offended but when you watch it now you're sort of like no that's gonna offend somebody yeah well yeah and you know again it's like as i say it's it's easy for me as you know again straight white male it's easy for me to say that so i i i'm coming at this from a place where i'm not entirely you know i don't have all the the the tools of course right for a proper perception of of well i think that's that's probably the most important uh you know outcome in terms of women uh you know ethnic groups is that that that finally there is a sensitivity and an empathy that probably wasn't there and i think that's healthy absolutely but

then how do you shit on them well you know i i think i think that's i mean i should reframe that a little bit there there was the the idea of using stereotypes or being an equal opportunity offender or investigating the differences between people. There was something humanizing about it, and it was not in its best form meant to be isolating or hateful. I think we'll find that balance again. I think, you know, was it Ronan Farrow pointed out that, that, that when, when you have this kind of a sudden release of, of, uh, of oppression, you're going to, it's going to be like opening a floodgate. I mean, it's, it's going to be big and loud and forceful and, and that's, you know, that's justified at the outset. And I think, you know, at a certain point, it's just going to be a matter

of, okay, once, once we've, we've acknowledged the problems and we've, we, we, we actively seek to correct them, then I think we'll be able to find some equilibrium. Right. That's right. I think that's true. But, but I also think that in terms of, uh, uh, clickbait, the internet in general, that, that, and I, i you know and that's an industry i mean clickbait is clickbait is not a productive part of no no that i know that's my point is that and i don't talk about it too much is that the idea that everybody you know has a voice that can be heard and exploited you know is uh you know it might be at some other juncture in history a a a democratic uh ideal but now it's just become like a malignancy.

Well, now you can't get anything done. Right. You can't have a discussion with 50 million people. I mean, you have to, the whole thing of, there's a reason we elect representatives. Right. To go and have these discussions in smaller groups and arrive at... And it's not some guy named AtSlingBlade.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I mean, no, it's... There are good and bad elements of... I think most of Twitter is immensely destructive. I think you can point to something like... And I remember when Bruce uh bruce jenner became caitlin jenner and the the the internet um you know this this was it was all over twitter the next day and she was accepted in a way that that i think would not have happened

10 years prior i think i think 10 years, you would have had people at the water cooler going, my God, did you see that interview? Holy shit, what a nut. But because suddenly you have this smaller community because of Twitter, because of the internet, it happened like that. It was an amazing giant leap forward. So you have these little glimmers of positivity from from that but most

of it is just is just right and i think that's cancer i think that's important because i think what's happening culturally in terms of you know uh white male perspective and also the administration we have and what that's empowered is that the one thing it seems that whoever is still on board with this shit the one part of democracy they couldn't seem to manage or handle was tolerance. Yeah. Yeah. And, and just the license to be like,

I don't have to put up with this shit anymore. Yeah. Great. Yeah. And it, and that's enough to crush the whole thing. Yeah. So I think that push in terms of culture and in terms of what you're saying,

the benefit of Twitter is, is that there's this kind of, you know, constant push for, you know, you have to tolerate. Yeah. Yeah. for, you know, you have to tolerate. Yeah. Yeah.

And you start to realize, too, how much it really matters. You know, a lot of Trump's base does not, you know, they're not bothered by his crudeness, by his lack of civil discourse. Or by the fact that he's a fucking grifter right right they're not bothered by that but is it but but even just in how you present it it's amazing how that can alter the whole like it really does matter how the president conducts themselves because it it was just a different country under obama and and i think i think a lot of that had to do with the fact that you were getting a different message from the from the top down it's like and it's stability one of my yeah one of one of my cast mates uh on the orville pointed out that it it's it's

it's shocking how quickly um after trump took office yeah a large portion of the country goes oh my god, whoo, I can say this shit now. Oh man, it's like it was just right under the surface. Right there, man. It's like pulling the,

it's like pulling the bandaid off a wound that will never heal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that thing's not going to get better. Yeah,

it's, but now we can see it. Yeah, exactly. That's the thing, if we make it through this, we're going to know who they all are. It's true.

It's true. It's true, but it's, thing if we make it through this we're gonna know who they all are it's true it's true it's true but it's but but it is we on the left have to figure out a way to you can't sit down at thanksgiving with your racist uncle and call him a fucking idiot and expect to get anywhere and maybe you do think he's an idiot maybe he is but it's like but but you can't you can't go into it with that out if You have to go in with, with, with a little piece of information. What'd you think of that thing? That thing. What'd you think of that? Yeah. Just, just, just a, just a calm, constructive, and it may not be, it may be frustrating,

but it's, it's just the only way to, to let things progress. My dad, who's not not who was never really a political guy who voted democrat his whole life and you know and now you know he's got whatever he he somehow just he watches fox news like it's the real news he's not politically sophisticated in any way but he did vote for trump and you know because of whatever he felt because he got he got bamboozled he got brainwashed yeah so like you know he you know he he like he'll say about hannity what he'll say like he seems to know what he's talking about it's like well what what that's just a dumb bullshit skill but like it was weird after the last two days he calls me up my old man he's like i think you were right about

trump yeah i guess you never know until you know i'm like no more than half the country knew yeah but it's a problem you can't you you know as as hard as it is to you know. I'm like, no, more than half the country knew. Yeah. But it's a problem. You can't, you know, as hard as it is to, you know, we all want to blame the voters. We want to blame the Trump voters for this. But you can't, it's not that simple. You can't expect, you know, look, a lot of us have the advantage of being armed with a certain skill set that allows us to detect bullshit. I couldn't fix a car if you paid me.

Yeah. And yet, you know, we all need each other. You have to look at it in terms of, are these people to blame or is Fox News to blame? Are these people to blame or is it Harold Hill selling the boys band? Is it his fault or is it the people who get suckered into it? Well, yeah, and also my fear is that the real problem

is that once you are able to sort of disassemble people's ability to assess or believe facts or truth, there's a good chance that those brains are broken forever. You know, it's a good question. I don't know. That'd be a question for psychologists. Because like, you know, with all this antagonism of the sort of, you know,

people who consider themselves practical and working class and they're feeling that they're being condescended to by scientists and that they can be presented with scientific fact and go like, I don't know, jury's still out. it not out it's not out that's that's and that's where that's where it gets dicey because then it starts to affect the rest of us in a in a in a big way um and you know when when those kinds of issues come into play and scary that's it is it is but if somebody like you like you know in sense of of like you know, you're clearly positioned as culturally and politically left, but you take a lot of shit from the left. Yeah. I mean, like, how do you handle being, you know, accused of being a misogynist or being homophobic? And I mean, well, you know, I've I've I've never had an interaction with anyone who's written anything like that about me, which I think is conspicuous.

It all happens from the safety of a tweet or a blog. It's never presented to me in a way that is where it can be a conversation. So that's conspicuous. And that allows me to sort of dismiss a lot of it as clickbait. I mean, you have to, like, outrage makes money. So you've never had somebody sit down with you on a panel or have a debate with you and your political points of view? Because, I mean, you do do a lot of activism work

for the LGBT community and whatnot. But that is not in some way, you know, you do do a lot of activism work for the LGBT community and whatnot. So, but that is not in some way, you know, some kind of like, you're not doing that out of guilt. No, no,

I'm doing is that, that's, that's what my parents, my parents, that's right. They, they raised me to, right.

To, to believe that those things are important. But, but it's, it's also, I think the, the inability to separate, you know, what I run into a lot is, is people watch family guy and then assume that that is, is a microcosm of my personality. Right.

And it's, it all goes part and parcel with this inability to separate fact from fiction that is infecting the whole country. fiction that is infecting the whole country and i think i think you know like reality shows were kind of the first sort of uh cancer yeah and then and then social media instagram you know what's what's real and what's fake and it's and you know it i look back at a show like all in the family and it's it's almost like you know you you wouldn't you wouldn't blame Norman Lear for Archie Bunker's racism. Right. He was showing a, he was parodying a certain type of personality. Oh, yes. Everything happens at the same frequency.

Yeah. Right? That's what's happening. And I'm not saying, you know, saying we're all in the family, but I'm saying that there is. But they can't discern. They can't distinguish. It's a statement. They track it to a person.

Yeah. That person's a fuck. Exactly. Exactly. And it's this oversimplification. It's an inability to make that separation. And you see it on both sides. And then the problem is that-

I think it's more destructive on the right, but you see it on both sides. No, I think that's probably true. So how did you go to R risdy and not become some sort of fucked up artist um i i was uh they must have been surrounded by them yeah i i you know there were there were a handful most of the school when i was there most of the student body was very gravitated towards towards fine art yeah there was a handful of us that were a little more uh towards fine art. Yeah.

There was a handful of us that were a little more, we gravitated toward the commercial end of things. Practical minded. Yeah. I did a student film and I had phenomenal professors at RISD.

Like I had, you know, they struck just the right balance between instruction and freedom of tone. Yeah. And I made a student film that was sort of a rough version of a family guy in a lot of tone. Yeah. And I made a student film that was sort of a rough version

of Family Guy in a lot of ways. Is that what started it? Yeah. Yeah. I remember one of my professors saying to me, you know, this is your one chance

to do that self-expressionistic project that you may never get to do again in your whole life and I'm just worried you're wasting it on a lot of bathroom humor. And, you know,

God, God bless him. They supported the hell out of me. And, uh, have you written that? And, and,

you know, they, they, I, I, I love them because they, they were, they,

they basically taught me all the skills I needed to, to, to make that, that project. But you seem like, but then I got a few laughs at the screening and they're like, all right, maybe this guy, maybe this is his comedian yeah but i mean but there's

but i mean you must have been like because you seem like a pretty well-managed uh individual personally and i don't know how much you were drinking or whatever but like were there different camps i mean there must have been you know people going you know on state or painting with blood or you know or doing performance art pieces and all yeah and you were coexisting with these people did you have peers that were you know out there oh yeah yeah there was yeah there was some out there there were some out there people there were there were there were uh i god i wish i i i racking my brain to think of specifics but nothing's coming to mind um but but there there were a lot of of did you appreciate that yeah i mean you know they they're they're people that you interact with and for the for

most of the time they're there you can converse and and you're all kind of after the same goal um you know a few a few people who are kind of out there on the fringe yeah yeah but uh but you know for the most part the guy paint with his own feces would have a beer with you an hour later. And go, what do you think? And then you'd be diplomatic. Sure. Hey, interesting. Doing interesting stuff.

No one's going to go to the show because it smells bad. It's a great education in the art of bullshit, too, in a lot of ways, because you had to have these sessions where you critique each other's work. Oh, yeah. And there was some really good stuff and there was some stuff that was not good. And it really taught you the politics of- Diplomacy. Yeah. And criticism.

Yes. I think, yeah, find the good thing. The compliment sandwich. Yeah, that corner is interesting. criticism yes i think you know yeah find the good thing you know like i like what you did compliment sandwich yeah that that corner is interesting the rest of it the grain of the paper is just really man you must have gone to the right drug store but uh so but you never tried stand-up i did actually i did when I was in college and I did a little bit of it when I came out to LA and I didn't do a whole lot. Didn't stick? No, I liked it. I enjoyed it and I never had a horrific experience, but it was just a lot of, it wasn't where my heart was i was i was i was drawing the film and and well i

like that that you know even in the single panel stuff you did when you were nine that that's joke writing and that you know somehow or another that is joke writing founded in in in human experience or at least some of that but i mean how are you getting informed like you know because you're it's also really hard where you like It's really hard to write jokes. Yeah. You know. Yeah, I'd stay away from it. I just talk until something funny happens and I make note of it.

I mean, you know, when I left Family Guy and The Orville, writing The Orville is interestingly the happiest I think I've been. Dude, I think there's some really good jokes in there because like I was watching it. the happiest I think I've been. Dude, I think there's some really good jokes in there because I was watching it. I mean, because I think the trick to it is, you seem to, I don't know if you like inhabiting nostalgia somehow, whether it's a singing or Star Trek or whatever. It must be.

There's something about kind of rethinking these things that we're all very familiar with. But I mean, but humanizing the sort of crew, the angle of that, it's just a job, I think is very funny. But there's also like, there's, and you're not doing with a laugh track, which is always tricky, you know, and you wouldn't do it with it, but you know, there are definitely jokes there. And I kind of like the responsibility being on me to laugh alone if I'm going to laugh.

You know what I mean? But even something as simple as like can I have one of these mints it's a marble and you're like even that like like it's just so funny and then like to set up you know this isn't the pilot though in the first episode but just to have that guy go can we still drink soda like they're like it's a very human question but you know like towards the end of the show he's got a soda so like it pays off but that stuff is i i you know i like it and i like it that it's not the thrust of the show it's not all joke no joke and it got and it settled into what it what it eventually became when we found that balance you know initially there was there was a a sense that all right this this is

we're gonna have to and it was it was self-imposed it was this it was this pressure to to kind of do what i've been doing lest i deviate and piss off my audience and it was john favreau who you know directed the pilot and read the script and essentially said i mean you know what this this is i like this is this is good stuff i like this i i this is a breezy read don't be some of these jokes seem like you may be scared of the of the story that you've written and don't be it works and so i kind of i took that to heart as the show went along and it really settled into something that was as you say more about just kind of regular people working in space as opposed to a sitcom that takes

place on a spaceship no yeah i yeah, I kind of feel that. And also because it's space, you know, the suspension of disbelief is necessary, but because it's such a familiar terrain in that it is on some level a reflection of Star Trek. Yeah. Right. So, so you're kind of, you're cool with that. And there is definitely a lot of space in space, you know, in a work environment. Like it's very tricky to create

something that is so clearly a stage and and just have people you know you know having these brief interactions and that guy who plays your friend is very funny yeah scott grimes he's fantastic he's very funny yeah he's great but yeah you know it is it is a the nice thing about that you know the bridge of a spaceship and look look even, even Star Trek, you know, adopted that from sci-fi that had come before. Like it's, it's a trope that's so familiar at this point that it almost, it's all,

you almost get away with it. Like it's an office. Yeah. Because people just are just used to it. Right. And they'll take it. Yeah. So that part of,

you don't have to worry about explaining. Right. And, and you don't have to worry about explaining, you know, just weird aliens around. Right. With regular jobs. around right with regular jobs right you're kind of used to it you know it's like it's not like i'm not a sci-fi guy but you're obviously a star trek guy yeah i i was a fan you know i'm not i'm not a huge sci-fi guy but i you know i loved the twilight

zone well yeah i loved i loved uh i loved star trek anything anything that was that humanized the genre do you have a like an opinion on the captain pike episode and whatnot uh i i i i i remember um i remember them all very well yeah i think i i think i may have enjoyed it but what it about this? Like you seem to have a sense of, of a strange sense of nostalgia of, for things that were around long before you like, and I don't know whether it was, you know, coming up through Hanna-Barbera or what like sort of made you want to

integrate yourself into this particular, these different histories of show business. Can you identify it? I mean, look, you come out to hollywood and what's the thing everybody wants to do make a western it's it's just is it it's got such i i talked to other filmmakers who just who are drawn to that they feel like they have to well it's it's it's something that's so it's such a classic part of the the where where we work and where we live and and but no but it's like but the weird thing is it's like it's rare i've part of where we work and where we live and the industry that we're in.

But the weird thing is, it's rare. I've seen a few. I just bought a big book on the making of The Wild Bunch. I started watching that again. Yeah. And, you know, it's very specific, and it is a thing, so you just wanted to take a crack at it.

Yeah, I mean, I was a fan of the shot. Like, I had seen a lot of Westerns. What's your Western? You know, Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is probably my favorite. I've got to watch that. Because that's like, you know, it's one of the ones, you know, I've seen Shane, The Searchers. Shane's great. Yeah, and The Searchers is great, too.

And you know what is like a genius Western is that, is like Clint Eastwood has made some great Westerns. Oh, yeah. It's weird. Hang them high, I remember being very good. But even like The Pale Rider, like it's weird yeah hang them high i remember being very good but even like the pale rider yeah like it's such a classic structure but the unforgiven it's like i'm gonna put it all in here yeah it's all going yeah and like the the at the end where it says he went on to own a haberdashery in san francisco is the best part of that movie like people with histories yeah

you know yeah yeah so so that so you just wanted to take credit. Well, it was also a, you know, when I would watch these things, my co-writers, Alex Sulkin and Wellesley Wilde, had had the same reaction, because we were all fans of the genre, but we'd all independently had the same reaction, that, God, they're so cool, and they're so epic in the scope,

but at the same time, God, it would have been horrible to live there yeah like how it's this odd combination of of magnetic romanticism and just you know disease and death yeah everywhere and no ability to stop it like in the opening shootout in the wild bunch they kill literally most of the town yeah trying to kill the outlaw which is probably barely a town. And it's never even spoken of.

Everyone's laughing literally on the way away from it. Yeah. Both sides. What do you do? Particularly if you weren't an alpha,

what do you do? The sun goes down, you go home, what do you do? You sit there and wait for death? That's kind of all there is to do.

I don't know. It's a good question. I guess that's what we're all doing anyway. Yeah, we just have a lot more things to distract us. That's what it's all about. And like what drove, like I know anthropomorphizing is part and parcel to the line of work you're in,

but like what, you know, it's one of the great gifts of animation, can make anything talk. But like what compelled you to do Ted? I liked that there was something that was, but look, I mean, you know, that goes back to the far side too.

Like one of the fundamental tropes the far side was this this conventionalizing of of uh of talking animals yeah there's a there's a there's one that i remember this there's there are two cows that are like sitting in their living room and the and the the wife cow has like all these pearls and like this this you, you know, wearing this beautiful dress is like just clearly living a very good life. And the caption is just Wendell. I'm not content. And it was just such an awesome non joke. That's just like, why did this, why this needs to be two cows?

Yeah. And, and so that was the idea. I just hadn't seen anything. Uh, I hadn't seen anything uh i hadn't seen anything like ted i hadn't seen that that part of the story told where okay after the after the the fairy tale is done yeah you know show me the show me the toy that you know look there's always the trope of only the pets can hear each other talk or only the toys can hear each other talk and the humans can't. And, and, and, and I was always kind of partial to the Muppets. Like the fact that the Muppets were just kind of walking around Kermit and Fozzie worked for a

newspaper in one of the, one of the movies. And, and, uh, and it, you know, it wasn't, oh my God, that frog can talk. It was like, man, that, that frog was just really passive aggressive with me. So, you know, in the age of CGI, I thought, man, that frog was just really passive-aggressive with me. So, you know, in the age of CGI, I thought, God, you know, I haven't seen this done yet. And where just everything about this character is treated as human and casual and normal and just mundane and boring, except for the fact that he's a talking bear.

Yeah. So it's sort of like, it's a human story. Yeah. Right, right. You it's sort of like it's a human story. Yeah. Right, right. You're just sort of like, and I think that's sort of the thing about space too. And the thing about your humor in general is that you're going to humanize these environments that are really kind of sterile in a way or over the top. And in a dramatic way, that that's that's i mean look that's that's that's what the best sci-fi has done that that's my uh i think i he's gonna kill me if

he didn't but one of my co-writers brandon braga i can't remember if this was his episode or not wrote an episode of uh star trek where yeah there were two characters beaming up at the same time yeah and they accidentally got merged into one guy oh yeah yeah completely fictitious absurd premise but it was presented as in this very human kind of civil rights sort of way because the guy was now saying i want to stay this guy i don't want to be these other two guys i want to be this guy and they're saying well if if if we if if these two guys still existed they would probably want to be themselves. So do we make this decision for you?

Do we force you back into two guys or do we let you stay one guy? So it's ridiculous. But it was so like... Philosophical conversation. And it was presented as real. So that's... A lot of what I do does... I am fascinated by the impossible,

the fictitious, the absurd presented in a very accessible, normal way. Yeah. Yeah. In that first episode when the blue guy's eyes blow up for no reason, just squirts blue. It's not explained or anything, but it's just the reaction. It's just, was he afraid or what? He's, yeah, I think that's the, you know, we, we, we keep that vague.

It's network television. You'd have to ask Rob Lowe. So now, so now you're, so now you're, you're safely flying around in space and, and doing swing music. That's, that's, that's what's happening. That's. So as, as you gotten all the fuck you out of your system? Yeah.

You know, I don't know i i i um i i as i said like i'm i'm enjoying myself more than i have at any point in my career with with the orville probably because as i said it's so hard to write jokes and you know when you're doing an hour-long show that kind of focuses on story and character, you don't have to worry about ending a scene with a gag. You can end a scene with a thought. Right. And it's like being at boot camp for years and suddenly being stationed someplace tropical.

And now do you feel like Family Guy is behind you? The idea of doing a Family Guy movie is still very much in my head. I think that's, that's still, um, that's still a possibility. Yeah. Uh, I, I don't know, you know, that, that'll, that would be a challenge at this point because to go back in and, and, and it'd be a fun challenge to figure out how that franchise translates for me after having been away for so long. If I came back, would I write it the same way?

And I don't know. It's interesting. I look forward to exploring it at some point. Right. So you're willing to try. Yeah. And so your mom's passed, but your dad's around? He's around, yeah.

And he's out here? He's out here. So you see him a lot? I do, yeah. Yeah. He shows up at my house sometimes when I don't even know he's there. Yeah? You guys get along good?

Yeah. No, he's great. He's great. Oh, well, that's good. So from what I understand, you seem to have been stricken from the books at Kent. You know, I don't know, because I haven't looked into it in a while.

I think there was a third-party attempt to reach out recently, but it was kind of an odd... To reconcile? Yeah, yeah, I think so and and it was i gotta i gotta dig it up because i don't know what was the approach it was just hey you know there's there's a desire to may you know make amends and and really bury the hatchet and over the griffin thing yeah over the over the i mean mainly over over the over the headmaster parents

television council thing i just i just didn't know what to make of it because I didn't know who... What they wanted from you? I didn't recognize the name and who it was from. So, but yeah, I think there's absolutely room for that to be patched up. Do you give a shit? I do only because when I go back to visit my hometown, I kind of like to you know, I am a very

nostalgic person and it's nice to kind of walk around campus and see where you once spent am a very nostalgic person and it's nice to kind of walk around campus and and yeah you know see where you you once spent so much of your time and you know i i it's like going to visit your childhood home it's just there's there's a it's it's yeah it's it's a it's a nice thing to be your childhood home still there it is yeah and do you still like at some point when i go back to albuquerque where i grew up and i drive by the like, at some point when I'd go back to Albuquerque where I grew up and I'd drive by the first house, at some point it stopped doing the thing. Oh, really? A little bit.

A little bit. Yeah. Like, you know, just like I have memories of it, but it becomes. It becomes very distant. A little bit. Yeah. It's kind of weird. And the second house I lived in, it was, it's no longer there.

So that's kind of weird. Yeah. And the city changes around it. And I don't know what i'm looking for but there is you know you but you do when you do go back it's just even just the sky or a tree it's sort of like it takes you yeah to something yeah and it smells it's like you know you walk into the walk into the old bookstore and it's like oh my god it's it's it's it's uh but this this is a town that doesn't it's changed but it hasn't changed that much yeah so it's, it's a, but this, this is a town that doesn't, it's changed, but it hasn't changed that much.

Yeah. So it's, so a lot of that's still. And do people see you walking down the street and they go like, um, no, it's, I mean, it's a small enough town that, that, that, and also, you know, I, I don't, I don't have that kind of contrary to popular belief. I don't, I don't have that kind of visibility. Yeah. Yeah.

I can, I can, I can disappear. Yeah. I can, I can walk around Manhattan and nobody gives a shit.'s it's a gift it it's it's nice they don't care yeah it is good all right buddy well i think that's good you feel good yeah all good thanks man cool seth mcfarland folks enjoyed that. I hope you did. New season, the second season of The Orville is on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. Eastern on Fox. Oh, my God. I'm going to play an echoey old blues riff

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