Posted on 05/06/2026 2:38:10 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The “This Is a Gardening Show” host criticizes today’s comedy podcast hosts for pandering to big-name guests: “That’s not the job of a court jester”
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:
Zach Galifianakis | Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend
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He says that "if you laugh at yourself it humanizes you." But remember when Jimmy Fallon was attacked for have an un-antagonistic interview with Trump, because it humanized Trump.
they handled her with kid gloves. It wasn’t even funny. They would never attack their hero
Nobody has a thicker hide than Trump. These people are retards.
They cannot go one day or eveb one interview without bringing up Trump.
For a couple of years, Zach Galifiankis was a very popular media figure. This was back when he made movies such as ‘The Hangover” 2009.
Nice Story I Didn’t Know About”
**Who was Zach’s best friend in real life?
Zach G. best friend in real life was arguably Mimi Haist, an elderly woman he met at a Santa Monica laundromat in the 1990’s, long before he became famous.
Their close, enduring friendship led him to support her for decades, paying her rent and bringing her as his date to several movie premieres. She never had to live at a laundromat again. Their heartwarming, unconventional relationship was highlighted in the 2015 documentary;
Queen Mimi.
Mimi passed away in 2021, age 95, with Galifiankis remaining a dedicated friend until the end.
————————-
Well, there is that Arkancide thing to be concerned about.
That’s sweet.
(I don't know we should call it Arkancide. Hillary is from Chicago. I think Al Capone was the leader of her Girl Scout troop.)
Jack Black on The D Train and His Deep Love for Hillary Clinton
They weren’t simply “emails”, at issue were unsecured computer servers used to conduct official State business - failure to safeguard State Secrets, top secret and higher classification, satellite imagery, which of course is a Federal Felony, for each count. Somehow a lot of stuff jumped the “air gap” - classified information or imagery so top secret it isn’t even stored on the internet, rather kept in secure vaults with restricted access.
It’s also laughable to claim Obama was a good sport about all this. That era pretty much single handedly destroyed Comedy, because he was “off limits” to the customary lampooning.
It wasn’t THAT long ago, shows like Saturday Night Live and others poked fun at both Democrats and Republicans. Sure the writers and performers were almost all Democrats, but sometimes the jokes just write themselves. Can’t leave that stuff on the table.
Liars with no principles need handlers. If you have convictions, whatever they are, and don’t lie, there is nothing to fear of an open interview. I forget what Al Pacino movie it was where he says , “Always tell the truth. You’ll never have to remember your lies” or similar. It wasn’t Scarface. Of course it was Tony Montana who also said, “I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.”
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