Question:  Does comedy offer a unique angle on race?

Transcript: I think race is something that comedy can definitely approach in a funny way and you can say, you know, certain things about the racial situation in our country.  I think it's just, like, it's really hard.  You can definitely do it but you can't do it haphazardly, you know?  You really have to, like, think about what you're saying and I think that's just the way audiences are.  I think people are really sensitive to that and whether or not that's right or wrong, I don't know.  I mean, the fact that people are so sensitive to racial issues.  I don't know if that's cool. 

Question: Does Michael Richards’ outburst make it harder?

Transcript:  Yeah.  I mean, if people, like, you know, Michael Richards and the whole, like, Mel Gibson thing and, like, Dog, the Bounty Hunter, that, to me, is, like, hilarious.  What's funny, to me, about that is that then those guys have to do this kind of standard apology routine where they go into, like, rehab and then they go on, like, Larry King and then they start crying and, you know, all that stuff, and then they'll go on, like, Letterman and just-- there will be, like, a stone cold audience reception, you know, and there's just this sort of, like, standard protocol thing of, like, when you fuck up dealing with, like, you know, something racial like that and all of a sudden it comes out that you said something really racist then these guys all do the same thing.  So that, to me, is, you know, hilarious.  We actually did a sketch about that this year where Paul and Aziz, their character is the Illusionators, they do this magic trick and it ends up being really racist and they then do the standard thing that those guys do, you know?  They just go on talk shows and do the standard apology and, in this sketch, they try to apologize to every black person in the country, like, they go down to the capital and they sit there with this huge stack of papers and they just read out every name, starting with the As and the joke is that they only got through to As, you know?  It just took too long so they couldn't do it.  So then what they do is they get another magician to join the group and just to appear that they're not racist, they hire a black guy and it's Michael K. Williams from The Wire, he plays Omar in The Wire, and, you know, of course he realizes that, okay, I'm just being used to be a magician because I'm black and you guys are trying to look like you're not racist.  So, yeah, I mean, that was kind of us trying to, sort of, poke fun at, like, what these guys actually do, you know?  Like Dog, The Bounty Hunter, come on.  Like, you're busted.  You're racist.  Call it what you want but you're busted.

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Question:  Are fake news shows effective?

Transcript:  I mean, those shows, the Daily Show and Colbert, I feel like are just bound for, like, legendary status, I mean, if they're not already.  I'm just always blown away by stuff like that because it's so hard to say something relevant or something serious but, more importantly, to say something critical but to do it in a funny way, I mean, like, the fact that Colbert can do that night after night and, like, really, you know, go after the sort of bullshit, you know, aspect of politics and really sort of, like, you know, he's doing a character, which is really funny, but, at first, like, a lot of republicans didn't get it.  They were, like, oh, this guy's awesome, man.  This guy is talking to me.  I love this guy.  And then, I think, after that thing where he did the toast at the AP News thing, I think people were, like, oh, wait.  Is this guy one of us?  But, you know, they didn't catch onto it for awhile.  But, yeah, I mean, I feel like both those shows, Daily Show, the fact that they are, you know, I think-- there are crazy statistics that, like, more young people get their news and information, like, from the Daily Show than any other news source.  I mean, that's insane but awesome, you know, because they're getting, like, current relevant information but in a hilarious way, you know?  Yeah, I feel like those shows are just doing something that's so hard to do and they do it so well, it always kills me.

Question: Does it make us laugh a little too hard?

Transcript:  No.  I think, like, what the Daily Show does and what Colbert does is completely justifiable in the news world because, first and foremost, it's supposed to be a comedy show.  It's not supposed to be a news show.  I mean, yeah, there are real stories that are presented or, you know, bullet points of actual facts that are going on but that's supposed to be, more than anything, a comedy show.  What's retarded to me is what's going on on, like, CNN where you watch that, and it's, like, and they're trying to be funny now?  Like, they're doing shows that are kind of funny?  You know, in their reporting, it's more about, like, celebrities and entertainment and shit like that than-- where is their real news?  Like, they're literally, in our country, there isn't any real news any more, like, there's not, you know?  The Nightly News at 6:00 or 6:30, that's for old people. I mean, that's to sell advertising time for sleeping pills and adult diapers and stuff like that, you know?  I mean, look at those commercials.  So I feel like those stories are geared towards that.  Like, other than, like, Frontline and, like, 60 Minutes, you know, CNN is a joke.  It's a joke.  You know, you really have to watch, like, BBC to know, like, if you watch BBC News, it's, like, oh, here's where the news is.  This is real news.  And it's totally solid and it's coming from another country.  We don't do that, like, we can't, for some reason, do that.  It doesn't sell commercials.

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Transcript:  Yeah.  Well, I mean, when I worked for Michael, I really got lucky in that because I had done a bunch of work on other shows that, you know, when you're working on shows, there aren't that many great shows out there when you're, like, a writer or a producer so sometimes, to pay the bills, you have to work on crappy shows.  Martha Stewart.  So when I got to work for Michael Moore, I was, like, really psyched just because I was a huge fan and he kind of has this, you know, insulated group of people that he works with and, when I worked for him, I was kind of, like, the new guy on staff and I just remember he kind of, like, took me in and kind of, like, he just really liked a lot of my ideas, I felt like, and so that was really cool.  Like, that was kind of the first time in my comedy career where I felt like, oh, my ideas are kind of appreciated here, you know?  So it was a really cool experience for me.  I feel like people say, you can say whatever you want about Michael Moore.  I always feel like his voice is completely relevant and, like, necessary.  I'm always confused why there aren't more people doing what he's doing, you know?  Like, when you look at what he's doing, you know, really commenting on the current social political situation in our country and criticizing that but doing it in a funny way where people will actually pay attention to it and be entertained by it and laugh at it, I'm always amazed, like, why isn't anyone else doing this?  He's the only-- he's really the only person that does stuff like that so, yeah, I always feel like you can really get your message across better if you're being funny.  I'm not being funny in this interview but, yeah, I always feel like what he's doing is so unique and the comedy aspect of that I always feel like is really necessary to-- because you can't just sit there and lecture people and tell people, oh, this is what's wrong with the country.  This is how I think we should fix it.  You can't just criticize, you know, like, you have to show people how it could be and also, like, do it in a funny way, which is really hard to do.  I think he does a great job at it.

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Transcript: Well, man, there are so many people that you see and you just, like, are blown away by, like, I mean, today, like, there are just so many, like, amazing stand-ups that I'm blown away by, like, Pat Noswald[ph?], Louis Seekay[ph?] and, you know, like Zack Macus[ph?] and Brian Jose, all those guys I think are just so amazing but I used to, you know, just growing up, I was just hooked on, like, I love, like, Steve Martin.  I just thought Steve Martin was awesome.  I still think he's, like, you know, super cool dude but he was definitely one of the guys that, you know, I was in love with and then also, like, Chevy Chase was just, to me, like the most awesome dude in the world and actually just had a really weird encounter with him and he slapped me in the face when I met him.  It was totally bizarre.  We were getting ready to do this show at UCB, at Upright Citizens Brigade, and he was going to do monologues, he was going to tell stories for the show that we were going to improvise about.  So I went up to him and this was right back stage, like, right before we go on and I was, like, "Hey, Chevy, you know, I'm a big fan, my name's Rob," dah, dah, dah, and I shook his hand and I started talking to my friend and he interrupted me.  He goes, "I'm sorry, what's your name again?"  I go, "Oh, my name's Rob," and he slapped me in the face and he goes, "Don't ever say that to me again."  I was, like, it was so weird because I was, like, I didn't get whatever he was trying to do.  He was trying to be funny and I don't think he's-- you know, he wasn't trying to be a jerk or anything but it was just a weird thing that, like, I didn't get what the joke was and I don't like being slapped in the face and it wasn't like that.  It was kind of, like, pretty hard and I was, like, for a second, I almost punched Chevy Chase in the mouth and then I was, like, no, no, you're Chevy Chase.  That's hilarious.

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Transcript:  Oh, man, Curb Your Enthusiasm is, like, the best show to work on because just everybody's super cool, like, I mean, Larry and Cheryl and Jeff Garland, like, all those guys, they're just, like, so nice and just really, really funny.  What they do is there is not a script, you know?  You just sort of have-- they kind of tell you what your deal is, you know, like, okay, well, so, like in my case, I was this doctor, a plastic surgeon, that lived next door to Larry and Larry thought that I was stealing his newspaper every day but he wasn't sure so he wanted to kind of, like, figure it out.  It's just really fun because you don't have to worry about being funny on that show because he is so funny, you know?  So kind of all you have to do is just react to him.  So that's really what you do, you know, and, for me, it was so fun because he is just, like, you know, a hero of mine and to get, like, to do a scene with him where I yell at him and, like, get pissed off at Larry David, I was so psyched.   I mean, it was really fun and then he gave me one of those stare-downs, you know, that he does on the show where he's, like, trying to, like, figure it out.  I was just really pumped about it but, yeah, those guys are hilarious and it's just so cool the way they do it because they just shoot with a couple cameras and you just kind of say whatever you want and then the director is, like, yeah, that's really funny.  Why don't you try something like this, you know?  And then you it that way and, you know, you just do a few takes.  The cool thing is just, like, no one's freaking out at that show.  Everyone's just, like, really relaxed and there's cool people walking around serving plates of food.  It was great. 

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Transcript:  Well, I mean, it's really hard to make a living doing comedy so I feel like a lot of people, myself included, you just have to do whatever and, I mean, I've done a lot of stuff.  I used to, like, before I started doing stuff on camera, I used to produce, you know, behind the camera so I used to produce shows and stuff.  Man, I've done everything like I worked on a Martha Stewart Show for six months. Not cool.  That was on a Christmas special.  Yeah, that was not fun.  I used to work at this channel that was all outdoor stuff and, like, hiking and, you know, backpacking and stuff like that and that was really fun but part of that job was also I had to sit there and edit down fishing shows so, you know, a show comes in that has to be whatever, 22 minutes, but these fishing shows, you know, these guys that were shooting fishing, they just fucking make them 45 minutes and then-- so how's that going to fit into 22 minutes?  I'll edit it down.  I'll take out all the stuff that's not action packed.  So that's really hard.  It's really hard to watch a fishing show and go, well, they're not catching anything here, we could take this out.  Oh, here they catch one.  Put that in.  So I did that.  And then a kind of cool thing that happened for me was I started doing commercials here in New York and that's a really fun way to make money if you can do it.  The trick is to do ones that don't steal your soul and that's hard.  Like, I actually got kind of lucky and I was doing some ones that I thought were pretty funny for awhile and, like, I did one that played a lot at the movie theaters called Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man, like, that run for a couple years and it was really fun and they just let me improvise.  The director was cool and so that was fun.  I did a bunch of ones that I kind of thought were funny and then I got totally burned and so I kind of, like, quit doing them because I did this fucking Olive Garden commercial.  Don't tell anybody about this.  But it was basically the worst experience of my life.  It was really humiliating.  I went in and auditioned for this thing because they specifically told me that they wanted comedians, they were changing their whole campaign, they were going to make it really funny and they were just going to let me improvise.  So I went in there and I was, like, all right, because Olive Garden has terrible commercials.  It's always, like, people in that restaurant, like, oh, this is delicious bread stick or whatever.  So I go in there and they were, like, yeah, just improvise, do whatever you want.  So I got this part.  You shoot it and all day long they're just letting me improvise.  I'm being really sarcastic, like, the waitress would come over and she'd be, like, "Hey, welcome to Olive Garden" and I would go, "Excuse me, adults are talking."  You know, and they'd be, like, "Oh, that was hilarious.  That was really great."  So I did that all day long.  At the end of the day, they go, "Oh, by the way, can you just say, like, these two lines just, like, really, you know, normal and straight?"  And I go, "Oh, yeah, sure, whatever."  So I do, like two lines totally straight and, of course, those are the lines they use.  So this commercial started airing of me, like, "Oh, honey, this is great pasta..." you know, whatever, I think it was, seriously, let me think about it-- because people gave me so much shit about this.  It was, like, "Hey, we're..."  I wish I could do it.  I've actually tried so hard to block this out of my mind.  The waitress comes over and she's, like, "Oh, is it a wedding or an anniversary?" and I go, "No, we're treating ourselves."  And she goes, "Oh," and she goes, you know, "Is it a special occasion?" and I go, "No, it's just Monday."  And then that's what aired and it was, like, straight and sincere.  So that started airing on TV and I was, like, oh, oh, no.  Oh, no.  And I got really upset about it because it was the first one where I felt like I'd kind of been tricked, like, I was trying to do something funny and then I got kind of swindled.  So people started giving me, like, so much shit about it and so my agent called and Olive Garden wanted to re-up the contract for, like, you know, a long period of time and I told them that I wanted a million dollars and they were, like, "A what?"  And I go, "Yeah, tell them that I want a million dollars” just to be a dick and so they pulled the commercial.  Now it's running with another guy who's saying the exact same lines.  And they're great in it.  Those actors are great.  So enjoy all that money.

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Transcript:  Well, I mean, you would think that MTV being MTV you could just get any band that you wanted and use any music in the world.  I think the music industry has changed a lot and we sort of quickly found out that that's not the case any more.  Back in the day, I think there was some sort of rule where, if MTV played a video of theirs, then they could just use whatever they wanted so they used to have all this cool music in shows and stuff like that and, of course, when we come along, all that has changed.  The music angle and stuff is actually really expensive and I get it.  I mean, you know, everybody wants to get paid but, you know, it's frustrating.  Like, you know, we did this 24 hour marathon and we had some really cool bands on there, you know, we had, like, the National and Ted Leo and Mastodon and we know these bands and, like, they're really cool guys.  When it came time to, like, do the DVD and, you know, all the bands were, like, yeah, put it on the DVD, man, like, they're all really cool guys but, you know, they don't control it.  It's the record companies.  So we found out that it's all going to be, like, super expensive to put on there so we couldn't put everything that we wanted on the DVD.  So, you know, we ended up, you know, you just have to talk about money with the record companies and we're not good at talking about money.  We always get beat up.  I mean, it's really cool to have your own show and try to incorporate music that you like, especially on MTV because, for us, we've always kind of felt like, you know, we don't really fit in on MTV very well.  We're not, like, young good looking dudes that live in the Hills, you know?  We're just these kind of jerks that try to be funny.  So it's fun to sort of, like, try to subvert, you know, that sort of machine a little bit and just kind of insert music that we like that their audience wouldn't normally listen to, you know?

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Transcript:  I don't know.  I don't really think so.  I mean, I think it becomes really hard if you have, like, you know, stringent rules about what you will and won't do before you even hear the idea, you know?  Like, a lot of stuff comes to us and we'll start writing it.  Usually what we do is we just-- anything that cracks us up, you know, like, we're talking about something and we all start laughing at it, that's a really good thing and so we try to, like, oh, why are we all laughing?  This seems like something that could be good.  But, you know, sometimes you start laughing at stuff and then you start writing it up and you're, like, oh, do I really want to do that, you know?  Like, do I really want to go and shoot that because that's going to be embarrassing.  We did a sketch this year where I'm a gay porn star and I get into a car accident with Aziz and I die, you know, he caused the accident so my ghost haunts him so, everywhere he goes, there's this gay porn star, you know, like, harassing him and doing really sexual horrible things to him.  You know, we wrote that and we were, like, this is hilarious, this is going to be really funny and then, when it comes time to shoot that, and then you're, like, oh, great, now I got to do this so I had to, like, shave my entire body and oil up my body and then just be in all these really awkward sexual positions with Aziz for long periods of time and so, you know, sometimes you write stuff and then, later on, you look at it and you're, like, ah, we shouldn't have written that.  It's going to be difficult.

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Transcript:  There have been a lot of things we haven't been able to do but some of that was just due to, like, time and money, you know?  We'll have these big ideas and then we sometimes can't do it because it's too expensive, you know?  And we don't ever think about that when we're writing it, you know?  We'll just write stuff and think, like, oh, this will be great, you know?  And then we find out, oh, it's going to be $8 million.  What?  For a two-minute sketch?  No, it's not.  So sometimes that's really frustrating.  In terms of, like, the standards people at MTV and stuff like that, it's hard to complain about that, really.  They've actually, I mean, if you watch our show, you'll see that they let us pretty much do whatever we wanted to do.  I mean, they-- you know, even, like, swearing and stuff, we just bleep it and, you know, there are some specific things that you can't do, like, you know, just because kids watch that show, you can't, like, light someone on fire or shoot someone in the face, you know, with a gun so what you have to do is do it in pieces, you know?  You show a shot of the gun, you show someone getting hit with the gun but they have this weird rule that you can't show, you know, a gun bullet connecting because then kids think, oh, I'll go do that.  So the weird way around that is we just show, you know, we show it in pieces and stuff like that.  So violence is a weird thing.  They are pretty specific about what you can and can't do and we definitely found out exactly where that line is.  But, in terms of, like, you know, other stuff, like, we just kind of do it and sort it out later.  There hasn't been too much stuff that we haven't been able to do.  We've had celebrities that we haven't been able to get on the show, which we were, you know, really disappointed by.  We were doing a sketch that we wanted to cast Vin Diesel in and so I sent an email to Vin Diesel's agent and I was, like, you know, please forward this to Vin Diesel, dah, dah, dah, and so I wrote this really effusive email to Vin Diesel.  I was, like, hey, bro, you know, we are such fans, you know, we loved you in, you know, Chronicles of Riddick, we loved you in The Pacifier and we're just, you know, we would love it if you would do this sketch.  And so we sent him the script and then we heard back, seriously, like, three minutes later from his agent, he goes-- his agent wrote this, he goes, "Sorry, bro, this one's not for the Dies."  So I don't know about that.  I love that his agent calls him the Dies. And then we also went out to Tom Selleck for a sketch and we wanted Tom Selleck to do this bit on this show and it was kind of, like, making fun of Magnum and we found out that he doesn't like to make fun of Magnum at all.  In fact, he really doesn't like to talk about Magnum, supposedly.  And then we found out his email address is, like, magnum101@aol.com, you know?  Like, really, the guy that doesn't like to talk about Magnum has Magnum in his email address?  I think he likes it.

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Transcript: I always have, like, the utmost respect for SNL, like, you know, people will sometimes take shots at them but, I mean, I think that's a great show and I feel like the cast right now, they have, like, a smaller, tighter cast and it's actually, like, I really feel like one of the strongest casts that they've had in a long time.  You know, I always feel like, if people aren't catching that show every week, it's only because there might be a perception that, like, oh, this is this legendary show and people may feel like, oh, they'll catch it whenever.  I feel like some of that is due to, like, what we were talking about, the changing nature of how people are finding stuff, you know?  People watch stuff on the internet and stuff like that but I feel like, right now, that cast is totally strong and solid and, like, pound for pound, that show, like always, makes me laugh.  I mean, there's always something funny every week on that show. I think the challenge of doing some stuff on that show is just the fact that it's a live show every week.  I mean, that's really hard to do, a live show every week, and people, I think people kind of think, like, that that's not impossible.  It is, I'm sure, probably impossible to pull that off.  It must be exhausting.  So, yeah, I always feel like, you know, but the thing about comedy is that, like, not everything ever hits, you know?  I mean, comedy is completely subjective, you know?  No one likes every single thing that we do.  A lot of people don't like any of the stuff we do, like my mom.  My mom hates our show.  My mom told me, over Christmas, that she was, like, we were talking and she goes, I said something about our show coming on and my mom was, like, "Uhm... I am thoroughly embarrassed by your show."  I was, like, what?  She was, like, "I think it's crude and it's vulgar" and it is, I guess it is crude and vulgar but, you know, it's purely subjective.  That's the thing with SNL, too, like, you know, people watch that some people will be, like, oh, I didn't get it.  It's, like, well, comedy is subjective, like, not everything is going to hit with you but, yeah, that show-- I always feel like that show's got some funny stuff.

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Question: How did the group come together?

Transcript: Well, I wish there was something really funny.  There is-- I don't know if how we met is that funny or amusing but we were all just performing at UCB Theater, Upright Citizens Brigade here in New York and Paul and I had known each other for about 10 years and had done a lot of improvising and sketch shows together and Aziz was doing standup.  So we were all kind of-- he knew who we were and we knew who he was and it was just sort of this mutual admiration society.  Aziz started doing this show ever week called Crash Test and it was, like, a standup show and he kind of wanted people to co-host it with him so the first week he asked me and we did a sketch on stage called Shutter Bugs, which was about-- we basically had-- I had all these kids' head shots, don't ask why, I had all these head shots of little kids and we did this bit on stage where we were, like, headshot photographers and we basically just criticized these head shots of these adorable little kids and just, like, ripped these kids apart.  Then that sort of created this sketch that we eventually did called Shutter Bugs where we sort of changed it so we became talent agents for little kids.  So that's how kind of we met, just doing bits on stage and doing videos and then he and Paul co-hosted in subsequent weeks and they did a video and a bit on stage about kind of making fun of shitty magicians and stuff and they did this bit called Illusionators, which is vaguely inspired by Chris Angel and so that's sort of where, you know, two kind of popular sketches of ours came from, just kind of doing bits on stage at UCB really.

Question: Do you compare yourselves to “Kids in the Hall” or “Strangers With Candy”?

Transcript:  I mean, when people even talk about, like, those other groups, we're actually super flattered to even be compared to any of them.  I mean, we have a lot of fun doing what we're doing and try to do really funny stuff but, yeah, I mean, they're amazing sketch groups in the pantheon of sketch history and, yeah, I mean, that's always, like, really flattering to be compared to any of those guys.  We just want to, like, we just want to keep doing our thing and we really don't care about anything else but just, like, making funny stuff, you know?  Like, we don't worry about what's coming up down the road or anything like that.  We try, you know, the great thing about, like, the comedy world right now is that there's just, like, a really good-- I feel like it's a really good time for comedy, you know?  There's just a lot of cool stuff going on that people are doing, you know, especially in New York for sure.  People are just doing, like, really smart, different, funny stuff and, you know, we're glad to be in the mix.  What's cool about it is that there's also, like, this sort of really supportive community and, like, no one ever shits on anybody else.  I mean, you don't ever hear of people, like, just attacking other people.  It's all, like, it seems like there's a lot of, like, there's a bug in here, man.  What the fuck?  It's just kind of a cool community right now and there seems to be, like, a lot of just admiration for different people doing different stuff, whether it's standup or sketch or improv or whatever, like, there just seems to be like a really supportive, cool thing.  I mean, for example, you know, we were able to get some guys from SNL to do some bits on our show, like Andy Samberg, Fred Armisen, and Bill Hader and, you know, we've known those guys for awhile but they just really like the show and we were, like, but you guys are already on a really great show.  It's a very famous sketch comedy show, you know?  And they were just, like, yeah, but it'd be fun to do your show, you know?  So that's just kind of cool.  There's no, like, you know, no one fights or whatever.  It's just kind of cool to pop up on other people's projects.

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Transcript: :  If I could have any superpower, I would like to instantly be able to grow facial hair, like, different designs of facial hair just to sort of obscure your appearance, you know?  Like, so if you fuck up and do something wrong, poof, full beard.  People are, like, oh, where'd that asshole go?  I don't know.  He's gone.  There's a guy with a beard.  It's not him.

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Transcript:  If I had a billion dollars?  Oh, man.  Whores.  No.  I actually don't need a billion dollars so what I would do is, like, give it away to charities and some-- I would try to knock out, like, one problem, like, I don't even know.  That's not enough to feed the world but maybe, like, clothes for everybody in the world.  I would buy clothes.  Just knock that out.  So now everyone has clothes.  That problem is solved.  And then, just to be a jerk about it, I would, like, tell everyone that I did that, like, look what I just solved.  That problem is non-existent any more thanks to me.  I'd be one of those assholes that, like, tries to get a lot of publicity for, like, doing good things like Richard Branson. 

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Transcript:  I'm not sure what the grossest thing I've ever Googled.  I, like a lot of people, Googled my own name and I was Googling my own name a few months ago and this kid somewhere had written some blog post about me just ripping me apart.  He hated, like, some commercials that I did.  I used to do a fair amount of commercials and so this kid was, like, really slamming me and he was talking about much he hated me and how much he wanted to kill me.  The last line of the thing said, "I hate him so much I want to kill him.  I want to kill him with my hard dick."  So I was, like, I don't even know what that means but I'll take it. 

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Question:  What do you blog about?

Transcript:  I do have a blog.  Well, we became friendly with some of the people over at Tumbler and they sort of turned us on to their sort of blog template, which is a really cool-- basically a lazy man's way to blog.  It's just a really cool, easy setup where you can instantly upload, you know, pictures and videos and you can kind of, like, steal and borrow stuff from other people and re-blog it, like, super easy.  It's not-- I'm so lazy that I wouldn't just do, like, a text blog where I had to write something funny all the time.  I'm just too fucking lazy so this is an easy way to just, like, steal a picture and throw that up there and be, like, that's funny.  I didn't even take that picture.  But, yeah, the guys at Tumbler sort of came up with this really cool sort of format for blogging and just kind of turned us on to it and it was basically just easy to do so you can just blog a million posts in one day, you know?  So it's-- you know, we all have, like, our own individual blogs, which is our name, robhuebel.com or paulsheer.com and then our website is thehumangiant.com and we try to, like, what we were trying to do is just sort of post a lot of behind the scene stuff for fans of the show and kind of just tell dumb stories about what we were going through when we were shooting the show and, you know, just sort of fuck with each other a lot. 

Question: How does your My Space show work?

Transcript: Well, we used to do it here.  We perform a lot at Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater and they have one here in New York and they have one in L.A. where Paul and I live and so we started doing this show, Paul and I.  Aziz doesn't perform in it.  Paul and I do this improvise show about My Space and it's basically just an easy way to, like, just get comedy from people by looking at their My Space pages so what we do is we, you know, we look at the audience and we just ask people who has a My Space page?  They come up on stage, a couple people, during the course of the show.  Paul interviews them and then me and a group of other guys and Paul, we all just improvise for, like, an hour based off their My Space pages.  So we all just-- back up.  So we interview these people, take a look at their My Space, figure out, like, what's funny about them and what's different about them and then we just improvise off of that.  It's just a really funny show because people that are on My Space and then willing to get on stage and talk about and, like, brag about their page, they're inherently hilarious, whether or not they know it or not because there's just so much dumb crap on people's My Space pages and the audience thinks it's something, like, really personal and that they're getting a sort of look into someone's personal life so it's an easy way to get really personal information and then just be funny with it, you know?

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Transcript:  Yeah.  I don't know if YouTube has done that.  I wouldn't credit YouTube with changing people's taste in comedy.  I mean, I think that, like, we always laugh because we feel like we work pretty hard on, you know, writing and shooting stuff and then we'll put stuff out there and then, sure enough, you know, there'll be a 30-second clip of a cat farting and that'll get 50 billion hits, you know?  It's, like, why don't we just shoot cats farting, you know, that's easier?  We don't have to write it.  So I don't know if YouTube is raising the bar for comedy.  I feel like that's a lot of, you know, just people liking to see that they're on the internet and just sort of fishing, trolling for anything but, specifically, I do feel like, you know, some of these other sites like Funny or Die and College Humor, I think, are really creating a forum for people and creating, like, an audience for people, more importantly.  I mean, I think what the internet is also doing is it's just definitely obviously shortening people's attention span.  For us, that's always, like, something to keep in mind, you know, because no one's going to-- I got news for you, too, on this interview.  No one's going to watch this fucking long answer that I just gave you.  Everything has to be, like, really short.

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Transcript:  Well, for us, you know, internet websites like College Humor, Funny or Die, and stuff like that have been huge for us because those have already sort of developed brands, you know?  Those are both really strong brands, like, when people think of comedy, they think of Funny or Die so, for us, it's really valuable to be-- to just have a presence on those sites and so, you know, we're lucky that we can sort of, like, before the show comes out every week, we'll try to leak something a few days before so people will see it.  The goal is to hopefully get one that'll blow up and get passed around but it's a weird sort of thing.  You can't plan it, you know?  Like, people think that, like, oh, well, we'll just-- no one really understands exactly how to, like, maximize the internet or how to really take advantage of it because you don't know for sure what's going to be popular.  Like, for us, for example, it doesn't behoove us to put all of our sketches online right away because it's just overload, you know?  It's like, why would you do that?  So you just pick one strong one that you think people will connect with and you hope they'll connect with and then we try to put that out there and, hopefully, that'll, you know, blow up and become popular but not every one does.  It's hard to-- you can't predict it,really.  We put a couple sketches out this year that got passed around a lot. There was one at the beginning of the season that was about viral videos and, in it, I cut my dick off and, you know, I was this guy on YouTube.  I cut my dick off and then I got, like, 25 million hits or something like that and then Aziz comes on and all he does on his video is he just makes, like, funny faces and he gets 80 million hits and so it was just, like, why is that guy getting more hits than me?  So we're on this talk show sort of arguing and stuff and that actually came out of, like, just two real situations that we saw.  We saw a guy on the internet cut his dick off and I said something to the other guy so I was, like, "That's so stupid.  That guy's gonna be famous for a week and then the rest of his life, he's not gonna have a dick."  You know, what an idiot.  And then there's this other guy that just makes funny faces and Aziz was amused by that so we were, like, what if those two guys got together and they just hated each other?  So I think-- so we put that out there and that kind of, like, that got pretty popular and, you know, it's hard to predict why I think because it was about the internet and because it's about something that people have seen, you know?

Recorded on: 4/1/08

Question: How is technology changing comedy?

Question: Is the Internet the new stand-up circuit?
 

Transcript:  I don't really do too much standup.  One of the other guys in the group, Aziz, does a lot of standup and I think that-- but, I mean, as far as we're concerned, like, the internet is always great for marketing purposes like we don't really do, like, standup stuff and put that out there but, you know, we will put as many sketches as we can, you know, we'll leak that and put that online and try to get that on different comedy-related websites and stuff like that. It's a great way to market the show, you know?

Recorded on: 4/1/08