Zach Galifianakis isn’t afraid to “tell powerful people no,” he declared in a recent interview on Conan O’Brien’s eponymous podcast, remembering specifically that he threatened to cancel then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s 2016 “Between Two Ferns” interview after her team demanded he not ask about her email server scandal.
“I could tell she didn’t want to be there, and I totally get that. I get it. But before we had set that whole thing up, they wrote back, ‘Well, you can’t bring up those emails.’ And I go, ‘Well, we don’t have to do the interview,’” Galifianakis shared of his September 2016 interview. “‘Totally, that’s fine. We won’t do it.’”
“When you tell powerful people, no, it’s crazy. They were like, ‘OK, well, you can ask.’ Because it’s not that important to me to do it the way they want to do it. You have to, if you’re going to get them on a comedy — you’ve got to do it the way we want to do it.”
The anecdote came during Galifianakis’ “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast episode on Monday as the two discussed the modern day celebrity interview, particularly on comedian-hosted programs like “Between Two Ferns.” O’Brien applauded the “Hangover” star for not pulling punches with guests as esteemed as President Barack Obama.
“Well, a lot of the podcasters that have the president on now, they don’t do their court jester,” Galifianakis argued, criticizing today’s comedians for pulling their punches in the presence of celebrities and politicians.
“They just suck up to them,” he continued. “So the comedians that are podcasters that have had Trump on, they’re not doing their job. That’s not the job of a comedian. You are to challenge, you are to make them uncomfortable. You’re not to sit there and fake laugh. That is not the job of the court jester, period. So there is a difference.”
Galifianakis, currently on a press tour for his work on Netflix’s “This Is a Gardening Show” and AMC+’s “The Audacity,” said that he’s been asked about “political influence through comedy and all that stuff” on previous interview stops.
“I’m more interested in the comedy first,” he said. “And whatever their motive is, fine, but the comedy has to come first.”
O’Brien then weighed in, sharing that interview subjects that actually do show they have a sense of humor about themselves — like Obama — are the ones that walk away from those situations looking good.
“I know it reflects well back on the president,” the host said. “And our current president would do well to understand that if he let himself be the butt of the joke, it’s humanizing.”
“It’s impossible,” Galifianakis interjected. “You wouldn’t do it with him. It wouldn’t work.”
“I’m just saying, in an alternate universe … There’s this misconception that the media just wants to go after conservatives, and they don’t understand that everyone benefits when they laugh at themselves, period. Everyone wins. Yes, if you laugh at yourself, it humanizes you. Pheromones are released, and humans think that’s a good human — and when you refuse to let that happen, that’s not projecting strength, it’s projecting weakness.”
“I agree 100%,” Galifianakis concluded.
Watch the full “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” interview in the video below:
