"Ricky Gervais"

This week we find Mr. Ricky Gervais, dusting off old awards from 20 years ago (again!?). Trade secrets, cannibals, getting a crab drunk, and table tennis in a snorkel. Honesty is funny, so how do we look in these slacks? Welcome to an all-new SmartLess.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Sean Hayes?

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• 2:50Sean Hayes?

  Happy, happy New Year.

• 2:52Jason Bateman?

  Hey, Happy New Year to you.

• 2:54Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 2:54Will Arnett?

  New Year?

• 2:55Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 2:55Will Arnett?

  What are we doing?

• 2:55Jason Bateman?

  Happy New Year to you.

• 2:56Sean Hayes?

  Everybody sleep okay? Anybody party last night?

• 2:58Jason Bateman?

  Um, no. No, no, no.

• 3:00Will Arnett?

  Is it New Year's Day?

• 3:02Sean Hayes?

  Oh, sorry.

• 3:02Will Arnett?

  It's not New Year's Day.

• 3:03Sean Hayes?

  Oh, sorry.

• 3:04Will Arnett?

  Are you missing something? Are you?

• 3:05Sean Hayes?

  Sorry. I'm not. I don't know. My calendar.

• 3:08Will Arnett?

  Stop saying sorry. What is happening?

• 3:10Jason Bateman?

  Is that your New Year's resolution is to say sorry for all the things you've done wrong in 2025?

• 3:15Sean Hayes?

  No.

• 3:16Jason Bateman?

  How long would the list be of things you have to apologize for?

• 3:19Will Arnett?

  Do you guys mind if I just interrupt real quick and say welcome to a brand new Smart List?

• 3:22Sean Hayes?

  Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

• 3:22Jason Bateman?

  Oh, yeah.

• 3:41Will Arnett?

  Hi, guys. Are we rolling?

• 3:43Jason Bateman?

  Yeah. Willie, you look really handsome. You've got someone just off camera. Who's, who's the surprise?

• 3:52Jason Bateman?

  Listener, we've got a special guest. The director and co-star of the great film, is this on? Is this thing on?

• 4:02Sean Hayes?

  Dude, I can't believe I'm getting a little peek behind the curtain here. Wow.

• 4:05Jason Bateman?

  Oh, man.

• 4:05Sean Hayes?

  This is amazing.

• 4:06Jason Bateman?

  It's so cool to have you. Hi, Bradley.

• 4:10Speaker 03

  So fascinating.

• 4:12Jason Bateman?

  Wait, but haven't you done, you've done a, I feel like you've done a double. Or am I thinking of you and Downey?

• 4:18Will Arnett?

  No, because he came to the live show.

• 4:20Speaker 03

  I did your 100th episode.

• 4:22Jason Bateman?

  What, but, but live, I remember you on stage.

• 4:26Speaker 03

  And then I came to the live.

• 4:27Jason Bateman?

  But you've done this.

• 4:27Speaker 03

  But I don't remember like, but I don't, you know, seeing it, you know, seeing Sean in his habitat and you and it's cool.

• 4:33Jason Bateman?

  And you are.

• 4:34Speaker 03

  For the, for the listener.

• 4:34Jason Bateman?

  Sean Chu, there he is.

• 4:37Speaker 03

  Sean's got a hat on, glasses, Jason looks like the guy from the Maxell commercial.

• 4:43Will Arnett?

  He does.

• 4:44Jason Bateman?

  I still have my PJs on.

• 4:46Will Arnett?

  You know what, this is fun because we've never done this in intro with a surprise guest. So Bradley, why don't you guess what Sean is eating? Don't tell him yet, Sean.

• 4:54Sean Hayes?

  Oh, okay.

• 4:55Speaker 03

  Hmm, uh, oof.

• 4:57Sean Hayes?

  Want me to show you or?

• 4:58Speaker 03

  Was it, was there, was there, yeah, show me, give me a little hint.

• 5:01Sean Hayes?

  I just do it like this.

• 5:03Speaker 03

  Oh, oh, is that some sort of pie? Is it, was that, is that a glaze on top of vanilla glaze?

• 5:09Sean Hayes?

  It's a glaze, probably.

• 5:11Jason Bateman?

  Hey, it's 9:31, there's gotta be a glaze.

• 5:13Will Arnett?

  All bets are off.

• 5:15Sean Hayes?

  No, it's a, it's a cinnamon, butter cinnamon, sugar, English muffin.

• 5:20Jason Bateman?

  Every day is fourth grade graduation.

• 5:21Speaker 03

  Oh, did you make that? So butter, butter cinnamon on an English muffin you just toasted?

• 5:25Sean Hayes?

  Yes, I'm so, there's butter on it.

• 5:27Speaker 03

  And by the way, and, and for the listener, great, uh, you, you, you covered all of the surface of the muffin. Look at that, look at that, guys.

• 5:34Will Arnett?

  Oh, yeah.

• 5:35Sean Hayes?

  Hey Bradley, how are you?

• 5:36Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, what are you doing over there? Did you guys have a sleepover last night?

• 5:39Speaker 03

  We did, yeah, we're living together now. We're back to living together. We're back to living, we've gone 180, 360.

• 5:45Will Arnett?

  360.

• 5:45Speaker 03

  Thanks. Um, we just, we just came from press, so I was just like gonna run to say hello.

• 5:50Will Arnett?

  We were just doing a bunch of, uh, press for the movie, uh, every day and.

• 5:54Jason Bateman?

  I love that.

• 5:55Will Arnett?

  We just did this GQ game, we just did this, what was it?

• 5:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, we just did this, uh, you have to guess how well you know each other.

• 6:01Will Arnett?

  How well you know each other?

• 6:02Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 6:03Jason Bateman?

  Because listener, they both, they both do look literally like they just came from a GQ shoot. They look gorgeous, these two.

• 6:08Will Arnett?

  Thank you.

• 6:09Sean Hayes?

  You do, you're both.

• 6:09Will Arnett?

  But we did, Bradley won because I gave him extra points. I was.

• 6:13Speaker 03

  You did.

• 6:13Will Arnett?

  Really magnanimous.

• 6:14Jason Bateman?

  What was the contest?

• 6:15Speaker 03

  I was generous too.

• 6:16Will Arnett?

  You were, you were generous too, no, the answers were gen-.

• 6:18Jason Bateman?

  But what was the contest?

• 6:19Will Arnett?

  What's my middle name?

• 6:21Speaker 03

  The contest is like, yeah, it's like, yeah. By the way, do you know his sister's names?

• 6:26Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, wait, Tanis and Chardonnay.

• 6:32Will Arnett?

  No, Tannis is right. That's good.

• 6:33Jason Bateman?

  Shambly.

• 6:34Will Arnett?

  Shanley.

• 6:35Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 6:36Jason Bateman?

  That's it.

• 6:36Sean Hayes?

  Shanley.

• 6:36Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 6:37Will Arnett?

  That's good, JB.

• 6:38Jason Bateman?

  And your middle name, Will, is William Gordon Arnett.

• 6:47Speaker 03

  Almost.

• 6:48Will Arnett?

  Boy.

• 6:48Jason Bateman?

  Gary.

• 6:49Will Arnett?

  Sean, do you know my middle name?

• 6:50Speaker 03

  Go with it, go with the vowel.

• 6:51Sean Hayes?

  Of course I know your middle name is Emerson.

• 6:53Will Arnett?

  Okay.

• 6:53Speaker 03

  Nice.

• 6:54Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 6:54Jason Bateman?

  Wait, is that right? Bradley, yours, what's the first letter of yours, Bradley?

• 6:58Speaker 03

  C.

• 6:59Jason Bateman?

  Channing.

• 7:01Speaker 03

  No.

• 7:02Jason Bateman?

  Curtis.

• 7:03Speaker 03

  Nope, no.

• 7:05Jason Bateman?

  Chad.

• 7:06Speaker 03

  Close.

• 7:07Jason Bateman?

  Come on, Sean.

• 7:08Sean Hayes?

  No, it's Charles.

• 7:10Speaker 03

  Yes, it is.

• 7:11Jason Bateman?

  Is it, god damn, wait, are you Googling Sean?

• 7:13Sean Hayes?

  No, I know this.

• 7:14Jason Bateman?

  God, I wish it was Chad. I'd call you Chad every day if it was Chad.

• 7:17Will Arnett?

  They were like, what's your favorite movie? What's your favorite?

• 7:21Jason Bateman?

  I know, yours is with Nail and I.

• 7:23Will Arnett?

  Mine's with Nail and I.

• 7:24Jason Bateman?

  And Bradley, yours, Bradley, yours is Ghost.

• 7:28Will Arnett?

  Ghost, that's right.

• 7:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, the director's cut.

• 7:33Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 7:33Sean Hayes?

  I've never seen Ghost.

• 7:34Jason Bateman?

  Bradley, what's your favorite movie?

• 7:36Speaker 03

  You know, I, he knew that I couldn't answer it. Like, I don't really have one.

• 7:39Will Arnett?

  He doesn't have one. He loves them all.

• 7:41Sean Hayes?

  Well, you have, what's a couple of them?

• 7:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly.

• 7:43Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 7:44Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, what are they?

• 7:45Speaker 03

  Like Elephant Man, Apocalypse Now, you know?

• 7:47Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 7:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, Beverly Hills Cop.

• 7:49Will Arnett?

  Beverly Hills Cop, Three Stooges. And they said, what is one thing, here's, here's what they said, what's one thing about Bradley that you, that people don't know?

• 7:58Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 7:58Will Arnett?

  And I said, well, there's a lot. And then I was gonna say, I was gonna say, because we keep reading, people, everybody thinks that Bradley's had plastic surgery. Everybody keeps saying that. I'm like, what people don't know is that he hasn't.

• 8:10Jason Bateman?

  That he hasn't.

• 8:11Will Arnett?

  Yeah, of course he hasn't.

• 8:13Speaker 03

  No, I get like people, like some people came up to me the last couple of weeks and they're like, oh, you look good.

• 8:18Will Arnett?

  Yeah, yeah. But it's a cra, it did make me think. And then I was like, I was like, oh, I didn't want to, yeah, but then I'm like, I should have, it made me mad because I'm like, people say that all the time. And I'm like, it's such a hilarious thing. Everybody thinks that they know, you know, you read bullshit stuff and, and.

• 8:33Jason Bateman?

  I've been cut to ribbons.

• 8:34Will Arnett?

  Have you?

• 8:35Jason Bateman?

  But, but look, look how it's worth it. Look at this.

• 8:38Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 8:41Speaker 03

  What look is that? What did you get?

• 8:43Jason Bateman?

  This is, this is, I was asleep 45 minutes ago. And we've got a, we've got a young aspiring guest, you know, that I didn't need to do a lot of research for because this person hasn't done a bunch. So I'm just kinda ready, you know?

• 9:01Speaker 03

  Wow, I mean, your guests must feel great about that.

• 9:03Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, Bradley, we actually might need a little bit of help. Give it, give us five more minutes here and, and help us with this. We got, it's a very exciting comedic voice coming out of the UK. He's received some great momentum from his last couple of stand-up specials. Got a new one on Netflix now. He's a fan of the UFC, David Bowie, animals of all kinds. Let's, let's get him. Guys, give a warm welcome to England's brightest new star. I want to get this pronunciation right. Ricky Gervais. Ricky Gervais. Is that right? Do I have it right, sir?

• 9:35Speaker 03

  Look who's back. It's like, it's like reunion night. Ricky's back, Bradley's back.

• 9:40Jason Bateman?

  Everybody's doubling up. Good morning, Ricky.

• 9:43Speaker 04

  Hi.

• 9:44Jason Bateman?

  Hiya.

• 9:45Speaker 03

  Hi, Ricky.

• 9:46Speaker 04

  That sound good?

• 9:47Jason Bateman?

  Christ, look at the row of Baptists behind him.

• 9:50Speaker 03

  Wow, that's so cool.

• 9:51Jason Bateman?

  Are those real?

• 9:52Speaker 04

  No, it's a, it's a green screen.

• 9:56Sean Hayes?

  Ricky, can you do, can you do the podcast and just make sure your camera's covering all the awards before you hop on?

• 10:03Jason Bateman?

  If we widen out, we'll see more.

• 10:04Speaker 03

  Ricky, we've never met, but wow, what a great thing to see you.

• 10:07Speaker 04

  Nice to meet you, man.

• 10:08Jason Bateman?

  You two have not met?

• 10:10Speaker 03

  No.

• 10:10Sean Hayes?

  Wow.

• 10:11Speaker 04

  I don't know anyone. I, I, I think, I think I met Jason and Will on my first even brush with Hollywood about 20 years ago. And that's, I just kept them as friends and didn't add anything to that. Didn't need to.

• 10:26Speaker 03

  Yeah, I love all your shows, man.

• 10:28Speaker 04

  Oh, thank you, man. Cheers.

• 10:29Speaker 03

  Loved extras, oh my god.

• 10:31Jason Bateman?

  What, what, what isn't good that Ricky's done?

• 10:33Speaker 03

  All right, guys, just take care. Bradley's gotta go.

• 10:35Jason Bateman?

  Love you, Bradley. Bye, buddy.

• 10:37Will Arnett?

  Bye dude.

• 10:38Jason Bateman?

  You know Ricky, I was, I was on a plane, an overseas plane, so I had a lot of time on my hands. And I went into their little entertainment offerings there on the plane. And I climbed into Office Christmas, the Christmas special.

• 10:53Will Arnett?

  Oh.

• 10:54Jason Bateman?

  Fuck. I ate that up so deeply, making a real idiot of myself and the folks next to me. Just, I know you don't want to talk about The Office anymore, and I'm not asking any questions about it. There's no question here, it's just, you're just it. I just love your, what you do, I could eat it all day.

• 11:18Speaker 04

  Oh, that's lovely. Thank you very much. That's just so, now I've got to be nice to you.

• 11:23Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, that's my strategy.

• 11:26Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 11:26Will Arnett?

  But Ricky, didn't it look like Jason was reading that off a script?

• 11:31Speaker 04

  No, I know he can't read.

• 11:34Speaker 04

  He was a child star. He didn't need an education. He didn't need anything to fall back on.

• 11:38Jason Bateman?

  Nothing.

• 11:39Speaker 04

  So, and he's kept his looks, because sometimes child stars, they start looking weird.

• 11:44Jason Bateman?

  Well, just, yeah, give it a couple more years.

• 11:46Speaker 04

  They sort of turn into like a weird little monkey. But he's still nearly handsome.

• 11:51Jason Bateman?

  I'll be taking my hair off and you save it, it's still the same.

• 11:56Speaker 04

  I watched the film with you in actually, Carry On. I loved it. I thought you were great.

• 12:00Jason Bateman?

  Oh, thank you.

• 12:02Speaker 04

  You did sort of menacing really well, because obviously, I find you funny. And there was, I could still, you could have made a joke at any point.

• 12:11Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 12:12Speaker 04

  It was really good. It was quite, it was quite chilling.

• 12:15Jason Bateman?

  Any drama is always one line of dialogue at the end of every scene from becoming a comedy.

• 12:21Speaker 04

  I know, I know. Well, I sort of turned down a lot of, not, not big dramas, but things, I thought, they just laugh. I turned down, they wanted me to play Winston Churchill. And I was going, they're just laugh. They're not gonna, they're not gonna be lost.

• 12:38Will Arnett?

  I'd give anything. I would have given anything.

• 12:41Speaker 04

  It would have been terrible. I hated every minute of it as well, because... I look back to every day, the bald wig, actually, if I leave it a couple of years, I won't need that, but it would have been, it would have been three hours in makeup and puffing a cigar and.

• 12:56Jason Bateman?

  But what, what was that, was it, um, was it, uh, intolerable, oh no, um, uh, what was a Quentin Tarantino film where Mike Myers played a, a German soldier?

• 13:07Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 13:07Jason Bateman?

  Uh, Inglourious Basterds.

• 13:10Sean Hayes?

  Inglourious Basterds, yeah.

• 13:10Jason Bateman?

  Right?

• 13:11Speaker 04

  Right.

• 13:11Jason Bateman?

  And, and, uh, I started to smile when I saw him and, and then realized, oh wait, I shouldn't be, um, but it's fine, you get right past it and your, your acting talent, like, you never tell jokes, your, your acting talent is just incredible and so you could, you could seamlessly and effortlessly.

• 13:30Will Arnett?

  I agree, I agree.

• 13:31Jason Bateman?

  Play somebody dramatic, I mean.

• 13:33Speaker 04

  Right, you've got to stop this now because I don't know whether this is a wind up or not, I'm just waiting for the big punchline.

• 13:39Jason Bateman?

  And look how handsome you look today.

• 13:40Speaker 04

  I was, all the time you were saying that, I was looking at Will, I was thinking, what's Will gonna say now?

• 13:45Will Arnett?

  I just love the work, I just love the work you've done for animals and, and with your time and what you've done and really how you've inspired millions of people.

• 13:54Speaker 04

  This is the worst, this is the worst case scenario ever, oh, oh god.

• 14:00Will Arnett?

  And just how, how thoughtful you are and I think for me, that just really, I don't know, Scott, I'm, I'm, I can barely, I'm, I'm choking up, you can hear me.

• 14:10Speaker 04

  Yeah, you're warming up, I can tell.

• 14:12Will Arnett?

  People say that my crying sounds like laughing.

• 14:14Speaker 04

  Yeah, I know, you're not very active, but I could tell what you were trying to do.

• 14:18Jason Bateman?

  Sean, do you have any praise for Ricky?

• 14:23Sean Hayes?

  I do, I sent him an email after I saw Afterlife and I thought it was, um, it was great, I was late to the party watching it.

• 14:30Jason Bateman?

  No notes?

• 14:31Sean Hayes?

  No notes.

• 14:31Jason Bateman?

  No notes at all?

• 14:32Sean Hayes?

  No, no, I thought it was one of the best shows I'd seen, I've ever seen.

• 14:37Jason Bateman?

  I mean, is it locked?

• 14:37Speaker 04

  How is this the biggest entertainment podcast in the world?

• 14:41Jason Bateman?

  Zero idea. I've been pajamas.

• 14:43Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, we haven't covered anything yet.

• 14:45Jason Bateman?

  You know, I was thinking about that on the walkout to plug my computer in. And all I'm thinking about, I'm thinking I'm about to chat with my two best friends and Ricky Gervais. Like, that's all. I'm not thinking about this going out to X number of people. And I think that's a really great thing. I hope we never lose that.

• 15:04Speaker 04

  In fact, we did a, Will and, Will and I and Ted and Mitch did a few of these in lockdown. And it was just, it was, it was lovely because you were, that's when you really remembered you had friends, when you couldn't see them. That's the.

• 15:21Jason Bateman?

  Right, that's how this whole thing started.

• 15:23Speaker 04

  Yeah. Oh, was that when you started? Oh, cool. Yeah.

• 15:25Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, it was just like stay in touch.

• 15:27Will Arnett?

  You, you did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The end of 2020. You were one of our first. You were in our first, first batch and.

• 15:33Jason Bateman?

  Gosh, that doesn't seem that long ago, but it was five years ago.

• 15:35Will Arnett?

  It was five years ago. And I saw.

• 15:38Speaker 04

  When I did that, I thought, listen, let's, let's help these guys.

• 15:41Will Arnett?

  Yeah, sure.

• 15:42Speaker 04

  And then five years later, ah, right, they need my help again.

• 15:45Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 15:48Speaker 04

  Let's give a little leg up, a little injection.

• 15:51Will Arnett?

  Yeah. Yeah, of course.

• 15:53Speaker 04

  A little vitamin R injection. Boom. And then back.

• 15:57Will Arnett?

  We're happy, we're happy that you're on here helping us out and your backdrop with your dusty old awards from 20 years ago. You know what I mean? It's just for us.

• 16:05Speaker 04

  How dare you?

• 16:06Will Arnett?

  Yeah. Most of them have rusted out.

• 16:11Jason Bateman?

  I used to see you a bit more.

• 16:13Will Arnett?

  It's like going to a museum. It's amazing. You know, this is so educational.

• 16:18Jason Bateman?

  Have you not been coming out here lately? I seem to, I used to see you a lot more. You used to like have dinners with Will and.

• 16:25Speaker 04

  Well, the truth is, I, I've still got a place there in New York and yeah, from like, for the last 20 years, I used to come out like. It's got like six, seven, eight times a year, whenever I had something out, the second series, I'd come out, I'd do the chat show sort of thing, New York, fly to LA, do that. And but I I think, not not just because of COVID, but since COVID, sort of things have changed, really.

• 16:49Will Arnett?

  Yeah, you can do everything from home.

• 16:51Speaker 04

  Well, yeah, and and Netflix, they've got like three hundred million subscribers, they send an email. I don't have to, I don't have to go on a chat show and play table tennis in a snorkel, you know what I mean?

• 17:02Will Arnett?

  But you're also doing, but but Ricky, you're you're also doing, you're also doing stand up so much more now than you were fifteen years ago.

• 17:11Speaker 04

  That's absolutely right, yeah.

• 17:12Will Arnett?

  Right? So that's, it's kind of changed the way that you interact with your fans a little bit.

• 17:17Speaker 04

  Well, I I think I started off, yeah, writing and directing and being in stuff. And I'd I'd fit in a little stand up tour when I could between writing and, you know. And then I think humanity was the first one. I hadn't done it for like seven years. And after humanity, I thought, oh, no, this is my job. I'm a stand up now. Who I'll do the odd TV show and film when I have time. And it just, I just flipped it. And I think in the last eight years, I've done four tours and four specials. And it it felt like I'm fitting other stuff in and I I want that to continue. Well, to us, you know, to a certain degree. It does get harder.

• 17:56Will Arnett?

  You don't mind the travel, all that touring, that's, there's a lot more travel with that than doing the acting stuff, right?

• 18:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, but I I honestly, I do the most luxurious tour possible. It's like, I'm, I do two or three nights away at the most and four nights home. Um, I, you know, I I hop, I hop private to all around Europe, you know. I'd, I I'd do three trips to North America and get it all done then with the, you know, the biggest venues I can play.

• 18:25Will Arnett?

  Now, did Jane go with you? No.

• 18:27Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 18:27Will Arnett?

  She does.

• 18:28Speaker 04

  All the good places. She comes to, you know, America, Canada, all the lovely places in Europe. She don't, she doesn't, she just doesn't come to the, some of the the seaside towns of England out of season. Um, but, um, yeah, no, again, I make it a little weekend break, so. I'll play Prague Arena and we go the night before, we have dinner, we'll walk around all day. And then I'll pop to the arena and do a gig and then we fly home. So it's like, you know, forty six hours of holiday and and and two hours of work. So and and it it it it couldn't be better. But still, the last few years, I I if I do three, two or three gigs now, I wake up, I think, was I run over last night? I am absolutely exhausted. It's it's age.

• 19:12Speaker 04

  It's like, I'd also, I think, I don't know what it's like, what it'd be like for people to see me at seventy. I'm already sort of grumpy and I shuffle around.

• 19:23Jason Bateman?

  Sorry, you're not, you're not yet seventy?

• 19:27Speaker 04

  I remember the first time I met you, right? It was the the um, in the makeup trailer on the uh, The Invention of Lying.

• 19:37Jason Bateman?

  Invention of Lying.

• 19:38Speaker 04

  And I said something like, so so you're forty? And you went, I think you were thirty seven or something. You went, you think I'm forty? You were like that. You couldn't believe that someone thought you were two years older than you. And then someone else came and said, he thinks I'm forty.

• 19:58Jason Bateman?

  Why do I sound like Mrs. Doubtfire?

• 20:00Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 20:01Jason Bateman?

  You bastard.

• 20:02Speaker 04

  It was like that. It was like, and then I think you mentioned it again, I'm thirty eight.

• 20:10Jason Bateman?

  Now, you don't, so, yeah, I get it. Like, there's no way you miss being on a set for twelve hours a day. Yeah, come on.

• 20:17Speaker 04

  I honestly, I do. Because, no, honestly, I I the the thought, I I will do it again, but the thought of doing it again. Like, eight weeks up at the crack of dawn, eight weeks. So at the moment, I'm um, just finished a tour, but I'm starting again straight away in January. I'm doing warmups for the next tour, which will be two years. Um, I'm just finishing the first season of an animation I've been working on for two years. But I've been doing that with having a nap every day as well. So I do all my work. I work, I work ten till twelve, have lunch, come home, I get. Forty minutes nap and then I so the you can't do that on set. That's out of the question.

• 21:01Jason Bateman?

  You can do it.

• 21:01Will Arnett?

  I'm a big I'm a big napper and funnily enough, because you know Winston Churchill famously took a nap every day, even during the war. He'd get full pajamas between the sheets. So we call it Mark Chappell, whom you all know, Chappie, we call it taking a Churchill. So I as often as I can, take a Churchill.

• 21:16Sean Hayes?

  Churchill this morning.

• 21:17Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's great, isn't it? It's just it gives you I look forward to it because I wake up tired. I wake up at seven, think, oh, I'll have a nap in five hours. Do you know what I mean? It just gets me through that first five hours.

• 21:29Will Arnett?

  Are you a good sleeper Ricky? Like, do you go to bed early, wake up early? Do you get eight hours, all that kind of stuff?

• 21:35Speaker 04

  Yeah, I do. I probably do. I I think I've had a bad night if I don't get eight and a half hours, I'd say.

• 21:42Will Arnett?

  Oh, good. Good for you.

• 21:44Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, you know, you have to get up like I know that feeling like it's seven o'clock in the morning. Like, I should get up because that's what people do.

• 21:51Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 21:51Sean Hayes?

  But if I had the choice, I would just stay here. But I have to, I should get up.

• 21:55Speaker 04

  Well, that that's always been the case. In fact, I've got earlier as I've got older. Again, I think it was in Covid. I used to get up at half nine and think, oh, I've got to do it. And now I and now what I can't not get up at like seven, seven thirty. But I feel like I want to. I could easily, if I didn't wake up, I'd I'd just keep keep going. Yeah, it'd be lovely, but as soon as I look at the clock and go, right, that's that's it. You've had to.

• 22:17Will Arnett?

  I'm six, I'm six AM every day. I can't help it. And you know, and I was just in London again for a couple of days and I I. It's dark right now until about eight thirty in the morning. So, you know, you now I've got like two and a half hours of dark after I've woken up. And I'm like, fuck, it really fucked me up.

• 22:34Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 22:34Speaker 04

  Yeah, I I I bet I I I seem to, I don't usually beat the sunrise. That's that's pretty rare, but.

• 22:43Will Arnett?

  Ricky, I will say this about you talking about going to the cities and I I know that about you. I love that you go and you really like that you and Jane go for go for a meal and you walk around. And last summer, I think we we learned to text it about this. You were, you went to Toronto and did some, did a gig in Toronto.

• 23:00Speaker 04

  One of my favorite, it's my favorite place.

• 23:02Will Arnett?

  And you talked about how it's your favorite and you love going to the island, Toronto Island.

• 23:05Speaker 04

  Oh, I love it.

• 23:06Will Arnett?

  Every person I know in my family, because Canadians are so proud in the nicest way. They're like, my dad, my dad's like, hey, your buddy Ricky came and they went and he loves the Toronto Island, eh? Like, they love it.

• 23:17Jason Bateman?

  Is that the name of a comedy spot or is that literally an island?

• 23:19Will Arnett?

  It's a park, it's like a park, it's a beautiful island in the harbor.

• 23:22Speaker 04

  It's like an island where, where residents live and it's, it's so lovely. And you just get the, the little boat over for like

• 23:30Will Arnett?

  The ferry.

• 23:31Speaker 04

  It's ten dollars or whatever it is. Um, and I, I stay in Yorkville, I just love walking around Yorkville.

• 23:38Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 23:39Speaker 04

  And I, then I, then I, I hop to Montreal and I love Vancouver as well, I love Vancouver. I've only been to a few, but I've been to, I think Vancouver, Banff, Toronto and Montreal. And that is my Canadian experience. And I'm from, my dad was from

• 23:53Will Arnett?

  Kitchener, right?

• 23:55Speaker 04

  It was, he was, it was sort of near London, Ontario, it's sort of near Chatham. It was called something like, uh, oh, Pont something.

• 24:02Jason Bateman?

  And he was a World War II vet, yeah?

• 24:04Speaker 04

  He was, he volunteered, right? So, he, yeah, he, Canadian, he joined the Canadian Army to volunteer. And he got stationed to Europe. And I think he spent most of his time in Britain. He drove, I didn't talk about it much to him, but he drove tanks, he delivered tanks to the front.

• 24:25Jason Bateman?

  Jesus.

• 24:26Speaker 04

  He was, he, yeah, yeah.

• 24:27Jason Bateman?

  And that's where he met your mom when he was over there?

• 24:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, he met my mom, got her pregnant. Um, uh, so, yeah.

• 24:35Will Arnett?

  And just stayed?

• 24:37Speaker 04

  And just stayed. And my, I think my, my oldest brother was born, uh, forty-four, he's Larry, he's, he died recently. Um, then my sister, forty-seven, and my next brother 1950, so I was 11 years after all that. I don't know what happened there.

• 24:55Sean Hayes?

  And your mom admitted it was a mistake.

• 24:57Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah. When I was about 13, I said to her, I said, "Why am I so much younger than my brothers and sisters?" And she just went, "You were a mistake." And I laughed. And that taught me that honesty is funny. Honesty has always been the funniest thing for me. Just, just, people who just say the first thing comes out and they mean it. That always makes me laugh. That's why anger's funny, because you can't help it. It's a visceral reaction. Oh, if someone does that, ah, I want to laugh. It can be anything. If someone bumps their head and they go, "Ow, fucking hell." Like that. I want to go, "That's the funniest thing I've seen today." But I've got to make sure they haven't got concussion, they're not bleeding. But then, I ask people their permission.

• 25:40Speaker 04

  If someone falls over, I go, "Can I laugh now?"

• 25:46Sean Hayes?

  And we will be right back.

• 25:51Sean Hayes?

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• 26:36Sean Hayes?

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• 26:45Jason Bateman?

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• 27:25Sean Hayes?

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• 28:05Sean Hayes?

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• 28:50Sean Hayes?

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• 29:15Jason Bateman?

  And now, back to the show.

• 29:18Jason Bateman?

  Now, what I love is that you're always so beautifully unapologetic about leading your audience with like, this is okay to laugh at. But, you know, obviously, we've gone through a section of years where people were a little bit uncomfortable about laughing at some of the things that were freaking hilarious. Do you get the sense that the audience that you're in front of now, that that whole thing is starting to soften and...

• 29:41Speaker 04

  It is. It is. And it's cyclic. It's not the first time it's happened. I've experienced it three or four times in my career, let alone my lifetime. But, you know, these things, they come and go. They're like fashion, really. And it's like, it's generational. And they kick out the past, and they want to be, you know, quite rightly, more progressive than the last one. And sometimes, sometimes they get it right, sometimes they get it wrong. Sometimes things were okay. Sometimes this is the best we've ever been. We don't need to change stuff. But, they have to have a go, and I think we have to go through it. And I think that you sort of, you sort of ride the waves. And you're, you know, I mean,

• 30:23Speaker 04

  comedy seems to be at the, on the front line.

• 30:27Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 30:28Speaker 04

  Of course. People can go, people would rather someone say something awful and mean it than say something awful and be joking. Like, sometimes they're angry that you would joke about a terrible thing. Sometimes people are angry at someone joking about the terrible thing than the terrible thing. Because they know they can't do anything about that. But they can't tell someone off for laughing at something terrible.

• 30:51Jason Bateman?

  Is Jane still your most trusted sort of barometer of that which is funny or not? Like, do you trust her laugh the best?

• 30:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, I do run things past her. Because I'm excited, I think. I, you know, we're just a vessel for ideas, you know? I don't sit down and go, I've got to have a great idea. Because it doesn't happen. You live your life, and then something comes in your head, and you go, oh, thank you. And I usually have, I'm going jogging, and I come up with an idea, oh, that's a good joke. And I run home, and I tell Jane, I go, look, I've got an idea. I tell her, she says, please don't say that in public. And I know that's somewhat, I can work on that. That's got, it's got something.

• 31:32Jason Bateman?

  Well, but, and, and I mean, I know you're joking, but you're also being serious. Is it because, is it because you trust your ability to match performance to content? That it would make it somewhat palatable and like, yes, I get it's offensive, but I know I can deliver it in a way where I, yeah.

• 31:49Speaker 04

  Yeah, there's lots of things. One, I like the challenge, you know? There, there, there's no, I can, I can point out funny things, but there's, you know, it's like, they're like found objects. Where's, where's the added value? What have I done to it? So the harder dive, the, the, the thing that tantalizes me more is can I make a terrible thing funny? How do I do that? How do I make them, you know? And I deal with taboo subjects on purpose because I sort of want to take the audience to a place it hasn't been before. So you're already, as soon as I, as soon as I approach a subject, I can feel the, oh, what's, what's he gonna say about that? That's, it's the elephant in the room. Sometimes pointing out the elephant in the room is funny enough. It's like, just even.

• 32:35Jason Bateman?

  And, and you're probably, you're probably touching on a lot of things that people want to say themselves or thought themselves.

• 32:40Speaker 04

  I think that's exactly it. I think it's exactly it. And you know, when you see an impressionist and they do an impression of a person and then you can do the impression of that person?

• 32:48Jason Bateman?

  Of the impression, yeah, totally.

• 32:49Speaker 04

  It's like I've reduced it for them to go, well, this is the meme. This is, this is that terrible thing you don't know how to approach. Look, this is a good way to do it. And it's, it's a discussion.

• 32:59Will Arnett?

  Is the thing that excites you about it, Ricky? Cause I, I, I think that I see it a lot in your comedy and it's something that kind of excites me too. I'm not a stand-up, but that, that you, this idea, I, I can relate to the, the sort of the idea that getting into subject matter that is taboo or dangerous or that people don't want to talk about and figure out a way to, to sort of shed a light on it, make a joke about it and do it in a way that you can kind of work around really hard parameters. That's exciting. I feel like a, that's where I feel like a schoolboy where like, I'm getting away with saying the thing that the teacher, that I'm not allowed to say. So how do I get to it? That's okay and still get my point, you know what I mean?

• 33:40Speaker 04

  Well, that's the thing. Obviously, you want everyone to laugh, right?

• 33:43Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 33:43Speaker 04

  Um, you you can't, you can't second guess, you can't try and make anything so anodyne that everyone likes it. Because that won't happen either. Most people go, this is horrible, this is anodyne. So you've got, you've got to polarize by mistake. If you're doing anything that's slightly interesting, slightly contentious, as many people are gonna hate it as like it, because everyone's different. So you just do what you think is right and funny. And I I um, I do wanna, I I do want everyone to to like it. But if they don't, there's nothing I can do about it, you know? Some people say, uh, like journalists, they say things like, um, is there anything you won't joke about? And I wanna go, is there anything you won't write about? It depends on what you say. It's like, it's mad.

• 34:25Speaker 04

  And that's, and most defense, most defense I've noticed, comes from people mistaking the subject of a joke with the actual target. They see a joke about a contentious, I think, well, that's gotta be, that you could, you could only, that can only be bad. And it's just not true, because we discuss bad things all the time, and we come down on the right side. So I'm just doing it and hoping there's a punchline as well. There's just, there's nothing wrong with that at all.

• 34:49Jason Bateman?

  Talk a little bit about the difference. So you you do many things incredibly well. But one of the things I really marvel at is that your, your stand-up persona, and I don't mean to say that it's, it's, it's contrived, so persona is probably the wrong word, but.

• 35:05Speaker 04

  It is though, it is to a certain degree.

• 35:07Jason Bateman?

  But there's, there's a swagger that, that you have on stage when it's Ricky Gervais.

• 35:12Will Arnett?

  That you could possibly have in real life, knowing you.

• 35:16Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 35:16Jason Bateman?

  But it's, but it's part of the joy that I, I love that there's just, there, no fucks given or no apologies. Not in an asshole way, but just, I just love going on that ride. Yet when you're playing some of your most iconic characters, Andy Millman or David Brent, like, there is, there's a level of vulnerability and insecurity and and brokenness to them that is so heartwarming and, um, and earning and lovely. Like, how do you, how are you able to? Find the the the bullseye of humor in both of those polarizing kind of strategies, you know, ones with swagger.

• 35:53Speaker 04

  Well, I think as long as it's a.

• 35:55Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 35:55Speaker 04

  As long as it's a realistic portrayal, it doesn't matter what it is and because, you know, people are complex. So even my villains, I I sort of give them a bit of redemption or a bit of backstory or why are they like that? And I think you find that with everyone, everyone who's who's sort of like a little bit nasty or arrogant. It's because something bad happened to them, probably, or they've had a hug, you know, there's there's usually a reason to it. And we're all like that and we all go around thinking, oh, we we all live in our head because we walk around thinking, oh, everyone. Everyone is thinking I'm I'm a loser, I've got to act a bit, and we because look at them, they're great. But they're living in their head, too.

• 36:35Jason Bateman?

  Right, right.

• 36:35Speaker 04

  They've got all the same insecurities and all that as as you. So I think that comedy at its best is saying, we're all idiots. Let's just admit it and get on with it. So even when I do the swagger on, uh, that is a bit of a persona because I've got to have that. I've got to have that faux arrogance, so me falling down is funnier.

• 36:55Jason Bateman?

  Yes.

• 36:55Speaker 04

  If I just come out and clown and go, oh, please, or slipping over, boring. If I come out and go, right, I'm the best thing since sliced bread and then slip over, that's so much funnier. That's so much funnier in life and in character. Um, and the other thing is I've got to keep comedians, stand ups and certainly British stand ups. We're we're jesters, we're court jesters, we're down in the mud with the other peasants laughing at the king, right? We're low status, right? Now, how do I keep low status? Because everyone knows how much we earn now, so I've got to keep, I can't fake it, I can't pretend, I can't go, oh. I was on the bus the other day going to uh, claim a welfare check. You liar, right? So I I I I can't do it like that.

• 37:40Speaker 04

  So I keep my low status in two ways. One, I show them that it's not all glam, all the all the silly things I've done, all the mistakes I've made, all the faux pas I've made in Hollywood. All the, you know, all the ways the press have called me an idiot and caught me out. And the other way I do it. Is I talk about things where they're better off than me. I talk about being fat and old and gonna die and going bald and my balls distending. And you know what I mean? So they so that's how I keep. I in a way, I don't think that I keep low status. I try and keep same status.

• 38:14Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 38:15Speaker 04

  That's what I wanna do. I want I want it to be us against the world.

• 38:20Jason Bateman?

  And are you able to? Yeah, are you able to tap into some of this sort of explanation and theology? When you're trying to court folks on the extras to sort of, you know, when they come out and they parody themselves a bit? Like, are you able to sort of make them feel comfortable? Like, we're all idiots. I'm an idiot. Come on and have fun at yourself.

• 38:40Speaker 04

  I found that the the stars that I approached, right? That was like a day off to them. They wanted to do it. They wanted to go. Let me show the world I've got a sense of humor about myself. Because there's so many rumors about these people. They want 12 white kittens in their trailer. They want the trailer to be big. They someone else has to flush the toilet. They wanna go, let me let me show them I'm normal. Let me show them I'm an idiot.

• 39:07Jason Bateman?

  All right.

• 39:07Speaker 04

  And and some of them made it worse. Some of them went, oh, no, do this, do this, do this. I did this once. They it's it's cathartic. It's like it's like a day off for them, you know? And I I I think that's fun. And I sort of I've played it, you know, myself a couple of times when I've been the other side of like curb enthusiasm. Where, you know, where I was thinking, oh, I've got to parody myself here. And it and it is fun. I mean, you do it anyway. If you write yourself a part, you've got to you've got to parry, you know, a little bit. And but it's it's nothing new. It was nothing new. The Muppets used to do it. When I was a kid, I used to watch The Muppet Show and they would have big stars and they would be the idiot. The Muppets won.

• 39:52Speaker 04

  The Muppets won over this.

• 39:54Jason Bateman?

  Right. It's like it's like being interviewed by Jiminy Glick when Marty Short is Jiminy Glick.

• 39:58Speaker 04

  Oh, my God, I was interviewed by him and I just.

• 40:01Jason Bateman?

  You can't compete. Like, the worst thing you could do is try to one up him. It's like, no, just.

• 40:06Speaker 04

  You can't, I was just, I just was laughing. I wanted to hug him. I wanted to go, right. I wish, I, I want to say, I wish this was real. I wish you were like this all the time. I felt that I did a Muppet film, right, and Constantine was the evil Russian frog. And I just wanted, I wished he was real. I wished I could take constantly, I, I did all my press stuff with Constantine. Cause it was so good having, yeah, you, you, you, I, I like being, I like being, you know, the lower status, the, you know, it's good to play the arrogant idiot who wins. But it's much, it's much more fun to, um, I like it when I'm insulted in fiction. I love, I love me being the butt of the joke.

• 40:49Jason Bateman?

  Well, so, uh, how about, could that possibly be a new, um, uh, angle on whatever sort of, uh, filmed entertainment, like scripted entertainment you might be doing this? Cause, you know, fans like us, like, we love the stand-up stuff, but we, we, we want more, we want it all. We want what, like, what, is it gonna be another show? Is it gonna be another movie? Is there anything close to the, to the?

• 41:11Speaker 04

  Yeah, there is something that's, that's, that's close to parodying myself that I'm gonna get around to one day. I can't even tell you. I've got the title, I've got the idea, but I can't even discuss it now because.

• 41:21Jason Bateman?

  Would be, maybe shooting in the next 12 months?

• 41:26Speaker 04

  Yeah. Oh, you'd, oh, you lot would be roped straight in as my only friends.

• 41:31Jason Bateman?

  We're available, we're available.

• 41:33Speaker 04

  Yeah, you're, you're in it. Um, um, and, uh, but I'm, I've, I've just finished, uh, a thing called Nearly. It, it's like, it's like two years and it still isn't quite finished and it won't be out till the, the end of next year. Doesn't animation take a long time? Yeah. But it's a six-part thing about, it's called Ali Cats and we're a group of sort of feral cats living in a, a, a disused basement. And we watch TV and go out and cause havoc and, uh, it's, it's, a lot of it is improvised as well. There's, there's storylines, but they're the sort of. You know, the meanest, sweariest cats in the world, but you know, they're losers as well. They're the bottom of the pile. They're, they're, it's all about sort of like survival.

• 42:15Speaker 04

  And it is all about that thing that when you're the bottom of the pile and you know, you can, you can be angry. You can lash out because there's, there's a reason.

• 42:24Jason Bateman?

  You get away with a lot because you're not, there's nothing perfect about you.

• 42:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, I, I, I think that's, that's funny, isn't it? Because that's one of the big differences between sort of drama and comedy. You know, the, the lead in a comedy is a putz, whereas the lead in a drama is perfect. He can't slip, he can't hit his head, you know? He can get shot, but then he's got to go, it's just a flesh wound.

• 42:48Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 42:48Speaker 04

  I can't do the voice. Will, do the, do the butch voice, will ya?

• 42:52Will Arnett?

  Do the butch voice.

• 42:55Speaker 04

  Do that butch voice you learned when you got your.

• 42:57Will Arnett?

  Wait, when my balls dropped, uh, hey, listen, hey, Rick. Rick, listen, um.

• 43:05Will Arnett?

  When, when this summer, did you do, did you, when you were doing The Office, which is a great, it's kind of Jason's earlier point. It's a, it is a great acting triumph, that, that series for you, playing David Brent. And, uh, and I'm sure you got to ask him fucking million times, and I'm sorry.

• 43:23Jason Bateman?

  They all are, he never sucks.

• 43:25Will Arnett?

  No, I know.

• 43:25Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 43:26Will Arnett?

  And, and did you, did you, how much of that was, um, and then when you were first making that, of course, it's kind of like, you, you know, they made the internet without the internet, you know what I mean? You made The Office without knowing, with no reaction, you made it in a vacuum, that first season.

• 43:42Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 43:43Will Arnett?

  There was no reaction, so you're doing it, did you have any idea that you were, what you were doing was, was, was special?

• 43:50Jason Bateman?

  Or working.

• 43:52Will Arnett?

  Or working.

• 43:52Speaker 04

  I knew it was different, I knew it was different.

• 43:54Will Arnett?

  You did know it was different.

• 43:54Jason Bateman?

  Did you think it was gonna sponsor?

• 43:55Will Arnett?

  Were you guys improvising, were you improvising a lot?

• 43:58Speaker 04

  No, I was uh uh I was the only one that really improvised at all. And I did that at the beginning and the end of the scenes, or it's just to make the actors think a little bit and make it real. Or do something different to to make them laugh or or whatever, or just some of you.

• 44:13Jason Bateman?

  Put them on their back foot.

• 44:14Speaker 04

  But it was, I'd say it was ninety nine percent scripted. And what we found, um and I've always found this, actually.

• 44:21Jason Bateman?

  But the behavior was was was improvised, though. Do you know what I mean?

• 44:24Speaker 04

  Well, uh sort of, you know, I I I did want to be an actor's medium. I remember saying to, like, sometimes the the D O P might uh go, it'd be good if you came in and sit there. I'd go, no, I said, come in and sit where you would. And I said, we're filming. It's like wildlife. But we, you know, we had to stage it a bit because there had to be.

• 44:44Jason Bateman?

  Of course.

• 44:44Speaker 04

  Because we didn't cheat. So, you know, some documentaries.

• 44:47Jason Bateman?

  But you wanted cameras to react, right?

• 44:49Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's one, well, it's one camera. So if someone went through a door, we wouldn't cut to a camera there waiting for them. We'd follow them through the door. So it was all possible. So we probably cheated less than real documentaries in a way, which was a bit of naivety, but I think it came across. Um but we had to find people who got it, just that that they had to say these things. And I do remember that, you know, we were meticulous. I no doing like this, no, because it's got, you know, we saw the whole picture. So we would make them, there were sort of multiple takes for them to get it, you know, how how we wanted it.

• 45:24Jason Bateman?

  Did you find that the cast bought into it early on or did it take some convincing? Because they didn't have the reaction from the audience either, you know?

• 45:31Speaker 04

  No, no, I I think, well, it was finding them, it was the, once we've done this sort, because um well, it's the first thing I I did, and I I sort of cast it with someone in my mind. Like, I had these characters, like Gareth was based on a kid I went to school with, right? When I was like fourteen, fifteen, and he was in the Territorial Army. And he spoke like that, right? And he he he said, this is a true quote of this guy, I won't say his name. Um he said, when you're captured by cannibals, right? And you're in the pot and they're cooking you, they show you pornographic pictures. So you get an erection and there's more meat.

• 46:10Speaker 04

  Right? And so.

• 46:13Speaker 04

  And he'd he'd said, and once, right, I I did this in my stand up. I um, as a joke, I was talking to him once and I told him, when we were a little bit older, I told him that um.

• 46:24Speaker 04

  Um, I said, if you get a crab drunk, it walks forwards. And he came back off holiday, right? He'd gone on holiday with his parents. And he said, you're talking shit, Gervais. I did it to a crab in my beer and it just walked sideways still. Right? So this was the sort of, so, so Gareth was based on him and he was quite a sporty.

• 46:45Jason Bateman?

  How did you find that incredible actor that could hit that tone without any winking at all? He was just, what, what was that actor's name?

• 46:52Speaker 04

  But what made it even better was this guy was quite a sporty guy. He played cricket, football, he was big. And I, and I was looking for this guy. I was looking for a guy who came in and, and talked about killing a man and all this. And then when Mackenzie Crook walked through and he's about seven stone and looks like a baby bird. It was even funnier. Because suddenly him talking about, I could kill a man. Yeah, if I was in the jungle, you know, you couldn't, you could, you definitely couldn't survive. You couldn't, he'd be eaten by a lizard immediately. So, so there's surprises with, but we cast and cast and cast and, and, um, I remember it was like, uh, you know,

• 47:33Speaker 04

  two thousand and, um, in England at that time, you either got these people who talked like that. It was like, you know, they were like that. They were sort of like, you know, this and that and that. Or they wore bonnets and spoke like the royal family. There was, there was no one who acted in between and comedy was sort of quite heightened. Everyone still talked funnily like that. They, and so you had to tone it down. And once we found the people that could do that, they could do anything. They could just do it. They could just act naturally and do, you know.

• 48:03Jason Bateman?

  Did you have success? I mean, I, I love the American office, uh, as well, but my, my, as far as I'm concerned, can't touch what you guys did in England. Were you able to have at least the amount of success comedically, tone wise, with the other international iterations of the show? Cause you've done it 16 times, did I read, around the world?

• 48:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, I, I usually, on all the others, I, you know, I, I okayed it. I, I'd see a rough thing. I'd see they'd cast a, a fat 50 year old as Brent. And I thought this, they're, they're doing it right.

• 48:41Speaker 04

  And I, I often watched the first pilot. Some of I haven't, I haven't seen a minute of them. I've seen clips, um, but, you know, and they have to make it. There was a funny one. There was a French one. And you know when Tim puts Gareth's stapler in jelly?

• 48:59Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 49:00Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 49:01Speaker 04

  In France, they put it in a big cheese. It's that easy. How do we translate this? Well, we like cheese.

• 49:09Jason Bateman?

  Right.

• 49:09Speaker 04

  Let's put it in cheese.

• 49:11Will Arnett?

  I thought you were gonna say they went on Striking the Pilot and then they just came back, episode four.

• 49:16Speaker 04

  Right, we're doing satire now.

• 49:18Will Arnett?

  Hey, listen, man, we're having fun.

• 49:20Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 49:24Jason Bateman?

  We'll be right back.

• 49:27Sean Hayes?

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• 50:06Jason Bateman?

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• 50:47Sean Hayes?

  Can we talk about something embarrassing besides the sound of my voice? Imagine you're at lunch. The server brings a Coca-Cola Zero Sugar while the food is still on the way. You think, just a sip while I wait for my chili dog. So you take that sip, but suddenly you can't stop drinking that delicious ice cold Coke Zero. The food arrives and you're just sitting there emotionally unprepared, waiting for a life-saving refill. Real Coca-Cola taste with zero sugar? It's hard to resist. Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, too good to wait. Enjoy the delicious taste of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar today.

• 51:28Sean Hayes?

  And back to the show.

• 51:31Sean Hayes?

  What a great success, though, that that, I mean, I'm sure you felt like you were in such a vacuum there in England and you're doing, what, only six episodes a year? And, but then it takes off.

• 51:44Speaker 04

  Well, it's, yeah, well, we got that. I was a big fan of Faulty Towers. That was the first time that I saw, like, this is my, this is so perfect. And they honed the script, you know? Often, British sitcoms were written by, you know, people banging out on a typewriter over the weekend and they'd, you know, they'd do loads. And this was like, you know, 12 episodes, so perfectly, like, possibly the most perfect farce ever committed to TV, Faulty Towers. I thought, that's, that's what we do. We do it, this is boutique, this is, you know.

• 52:21Sean Hayes?

  But that was a sitcom, right? Shot proscenium style, right? Multiple cameras, audience, studio audience. Like, you, you did the opposite of that in that it was single camera, very quiet. There was a lot of humor in the discomfort of silence and awkward beats.

• 52:37Speaker 04

  Well, I stole that from Spinal Tap. Anything you say that I invented, I'll tell you where I stole it, okay?

• 52:43Sean Hayes?

  We all do, all of us.

• 52:45Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 52:45Sean Hayes?

  All of us, yeah, my God.

• 52:46Will Arnett?

  We were inspired, Jason and I were inspired when we were just shooting Arrested Development, the first season, and we were.

• 52:52Sean Hayes?

  We watched your show religiously.

• 52:53Will Arnett?

  We watched your show and we were just, we were crazy. We were like, holy shit, look what these guys are doing. Like, we were fucking blown away.

• 53:01Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 53:02Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 53:02Speaker 04

  Oh, that's lovely.

• 53:03Jason Bateman?

  I give you all credit on that.

• 53:04Speaker 04

  I mean, because, as you know, a huge fan of all of yours.

• 53:08Jason Bateman?

  Well, then, like, I think we told the story last time you were on. Then it was like, we got word to us that you might be interested in actually coming over and doing an episode of our show. And Will, wasn't there like some sort of like ridiculous argument high up at the studio level with them like wondering, eh, should we really buy him a first class ticket to come over? I think like the phrase was, he's not gonna put new people in the tent. Like, it's not worth the fucking plane ticket to bring him. Remember like?

• 53:36Speaker 04

  Well, they're right. They were right.

• 53:38Jason Bateman?

  Wasn't there that like ridiculous?

• 53:41Will Arnett?

  Well, no, because Ricky, no, because he wanted like 12 kittens in his trailer.

• 53:45Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 53:47Will Arnett?

  Because when Ricky made that point earlier, he was just reading off his own writers.

• 53:51Speaker 04

  Yeah. No, I mean. No, it was Arrested Development, or Arrested, as Will calls it.

• 54:00Will Arnett?

  He always gets me.

• 54:03Speaker 04

  Did you just get, I think it was, I think you were voted for like five years when it was, how long it was on, you were always voted best comedy of all time, weren't you?

• 54:16Jason Bateman?

  The best unwatched show.

• 54:20Will Arnett?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 54:22Jason Bateman?

  Well, and then we got a little bit of awards attention and we got to stay on a little bit longer. And speaking of awards, we've got, we're gonna ask you for some advice.

• 54:31Will Arnett?

  Ricky, Ricky's gonna be blown away by this.

• 54:33Jason Bateman?

  We've got a nice bit of love from your friend.

• 54:35Speaker 04

  No, I know, you've been, you've nominated for a Golden Globe.

• 54:38Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, so I think we're gonna get up there on stage, maybe present at a minimum.

• 54:43Speaker 04

  I think you've got a great chance. I think you've got a great chance because this is really fun. You've got all the big guests, you're like, you're huge, it's friendly, you're, you're very, you're not Hollywood in that, but you're very, you're very Hollywood, the three of you, I mean, you're. You know, three people at the top of their game. I think you've got a very good chance.

• 55:05Jason Bateman?

  Well, but what do you, what, I'm trying to think, we don't, I just don't want our patter to like, I hope they don't write us some weird patter.

• 55:13Speaker 04

  Just say no, whenever, even when, even when Arrested Development wouldn't give me a first class ticket, I was still arrogant. And when I was handing out awards, I said, I'm not doing it with anyone. I'm not going out with someone I've never met, doing a bit of shtick. I said, I'm gonna come out as me and I'm just gonna do the thing. And they let me do it. And I.

• 55:30Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, the best thing like it too is the default is just to just read the prompter like without any bits, right?

• 55:35Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 55:36Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 55:36Speaker 04

  Yeah. I, I, I think I complained every time I got there. I said something like, I've come a long way for this and I didn't win. I was usually up for an award. I, I, I tell you what, I, you know, I've been nominated, you know, 25 Emmys and I've won two. Now that is just taking the mickey, isn't it? That is like, get him over here again, get him over here again. Let him think he's gonna win again. Get him over. And at least I thought, oh, you're right. I used to hand out an award at least. I used to go, get up there somehow.

• 56:02Jason Bateman?

  Your host, but your hosting of the Globes, what did you do, five or six years was just priceless. Oh, I wish. Do you watch it? Ricky, do you wa, do you watch it at all anymore?

• 56:11Speaker 04

  The Globe? The Globe. I don't, I don't think I've ever watched an award ceremony I wasn't at.

• 56:21Speaker 04

  Well, for first, for, for a start, the Globes and the Oscars and all those in America, I'm in bed. They're like, they're 3am here. So that's not the question. I sometimes check out, I check out the monologue if it's a comedian, you know? Um, so I thought, I thought, yeah, oh, yeah, whatever. Um, but no, I don't, I, I, I mean, I don't know. It's, it's all changed. You can't take it seriously. You mustn't take those things seriously. No, you can't. You've got to treat it like a, a night out meeting your friends or a job or, you know, you, it's like, um, uh, it's an, it's an industry award.

• 56:58Jason Bateman?

  I like meeting all those people, all those fancy folks. It's, it's nice to see people.

• 57:02Speaker 04

  The only, the only reason it's on telly is because it's an industry award for really famous people. The, the teaching awards don't get televised, do they? You know, they, they don't do it for science awards, really important awards don't get televised.

• 57:15Jason Bateman?

  I love that they put a bunch of booze on the table too. They try to get everybody hammered. So when they go up there, they do something entertaining.

• 57:20Speaker 04

  That's, that's, that's the great thing about the Golden Globes. That's the good and bad thing about the Golden Globes. The Golden Globes is better to be at. And the Emmys is probably better to host because at least they're all in their seats and they're listening and you can do your, I've never hosted the Emmys because it's too much work and you have to rehearse.

• 57:36Jason Bateman?

  There's no rehearsal hosting the Globes?

• 57:40Speaker 04

  No rehearsal, no. I talked about this in my special, 30th of December.

• 57:48Will Arnett?

  I came in, I came and saw, I saw you in October.

• 57:52Speaker 04

  Oh, you saw it just before. I think I filmed it.

• 57:53Will Arnett?

  Before you filmed it and I saw Ricky at the Palladium in London, Chappie and I went over and watched it. It was great. It was brilliant, man.

• 58:00Speaker 04

  Oh, thank you.

• 58:01Will Arnett?

  Yeah, it was brilliant. It was brilliant, brilliant. And yeah, you talk about, it was fun and the audience was so psyched and you were really funny talking about like hosting the Globes and what that was like.

• 58:11Speaker 04

  Yeah, I talked about some behind the scenes, just like what it was like for me and what happened and there's a couple of really funny stories, but I can't, I can't tell you.

• 58:22Jason Bateman?

  Don't, don't do it.

• 58:23Will Arnett?

  No, no, because they need to watch the thing.

• 58:24Jason Bateman?

  Was that, was the, was the show that Will went to, is that the one that you filmed? How do you decide which one to film?

• 58:29Speaker 04

  It was the, it was the, it was the venue and maybe the week, but not the, not the night. Because I, I did about, I did like, I think I did 14 shows and I taped two of them. I don't think.

• 58:43Jason Bateman?

  How is that traditionally decided? Is it usually you, you want to film one of the later shows because you're still working on the material?

• 58:49Speaker 04

  You want it to be, you want it to be ready. You want it to be ready and you want it to be as soon as possible while it's still fresh and you're still sort of, you know, into it and, you know, loving it. So it was within the last sort of like five or six shows, actually. You want it to be a venue that you can do a night before, warm up in the same venue. And you want it to be as intimate as you can without it looking.

• 59:12Jason Bateman?

  And you have to wear the same outfit.

• 59:13Speaker 04

  Yeah, I was gonna say. I wear the same outfit. Well, that's fine. I do that anyway. I could do it tonight. I haven't, I haven't changed my hairstyle in 22 years. So it's not a problem, that.

• 59:24Speaker 04

  Uh, and you do, you do two, just in case. And usually, you sort of, you make sure, you nail it on the first one and make sure you've got everything. And then the second one, you just have fun.

• 59:35Will Arnett?

  You're right.

• 59:35Speaker 04

  And in the cold light of day, the first one is always the best.

• 59:38Will Arnett?

  Yeah, of course.

• 59:39Speaker 04

  Because it's more self-indulgent than the second one. You're going, I'm having a lovely time, they're laughing, they're, I'm riffing, I'm riffing. Then you get into the studio and go, well, people at home aren't there. So they just wanna hear what you had to say, clearly. And it's always that first one that wins, uh, uh, every time. Um, but, um, it, it, no, uh, I, I even do things on the night that I haven't done before, little things I try out. And, um, cause you can always edit it out, so.

• 1:00:04Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:04Speaker 04

  You know, I, I film too much and crunch it down. Uh, I probably do seventy minutes and it comes out at sixty-five, just so things didn't hit so much. Or I, uh, you know, or two jokes about the same thing. I don't go, that just sound, that sound too much or cruel or whatever. Or something that wasn't ready, I'll go, I won't put that in, I'll, I'll work that up, that'll be in the next special, so.

• 1:00:26Jason Bateman?

  And as far as your material goes, have you found that the sourcing of the ideas that you get, um, has, has changed over the years? Has the ratio kinda stayed the same as far as like pulling from like family and friends funny ideas and news ideas and?

• 1:00:39Speaker 04

  Nah, it's still, it's still, it's still, um, uh, Hitler, AIDS, um, in that order.

• 1:00:46Will Arnett?

  Classics.

• 1:00:47Speaker 04

  Shitting yourself.

• 1:00:48Will Arnett?

  Yeah, they're classics.

• 1:00:49Speaker 04

  Evergreen, evergreen.

• 1:00:51Will Arnett?

  The stuff that got us here, you know what I mean?

• 1:00:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, uh, you know.

• 1:00:57Speaker 04

  Well, also that translates as well. So if I, if I work up my show in England, I've done fifty shows in England, and it's all about what was on telly last night, or our prime minister, or. Uh, uh, uh, you have to go about universal subjects. And joking aside, my use of universal subjects are usually, um, things like what it's like, you know, uh, you know, ego, bad days, uh, getting old, or, you know, uh, so, uh, I, I, I try to be more timeless than topical.

• 1:01:27Jason Bateman?

  Right, so this one, this one called mortality, is that the theme of the whole thing? Is, is sort of mortality is?

• 1:01:32Speaker 04

  Again, it's a jump off. You know, it is about me getting old and grumpy and, you know, uh, getting annoyed at stuff more and more. Uh, again, it's quite classic, you know, everyone goes through the phases of their life.

• 1:01:45Will Arnett?

  Um, sure.

• 1:01:46Speaker 04

  You know, I, I think it, it, it, it is about, it's, it's not, it's not zeitgeisty, but it is clearly about now.

• 1:01:55Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:55Speaker 04

  Um, but I hope it, I hope it lasts.

• 1:01:57Will Arnett?

  But I will say, Ricky, that's one of the things again about sort of the office and your stand up, which is, and you just said, I was about to jump in and say that it's not zeitgeisty. And that's what gives it, all those best comedies aren't because they do have that evergreen thing. They do, it is about these characters who are flawed, uh, the, the relationships between people, certainly in the dynamics of the office between the different things. I mean, that, that, you know, is just as relevant today as it was 25 years ago.

• 1:02:24Speaker 04

  Well, I think so. I think if you, if you, if you go classic, sometimes I even go retro, but like this project I'm working on now, Ali Cat's. It's like 2D retro. I want it to be Hanna-Barbera mixed with sort of 60s Disney. So if you look at it in 20 years, you don't go, oh, what were they thinking of then? It just looks.

• 1:02:43Will Arnett?

  Classic.

• 1:02:43Speaker 04

  It, it, it's already sort of classic. It's already stood, it's already stood the test of time, the way it looks, you know?

• 1:02:49Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:50Speaker 04

  So I do, yeah, I, I, I am quite conscious of it sort of being universal and timeless and, and, uh, cause you notice as well, if you suddenly, it's going well, but you, you get to Paris and you go, well, I can't do that bit, can't do that bit. They won't know he is, I can't do it. It's really sort of demoralizing. So, you know, I want, I want.

• 1:03:10Will Arnett?

  And they know they surrendered, you know what I mean? So you don't need to tell, you know what I mean?

• 1:03:16Will Arnett?

  You don't need to do that joke. You don't have to, you don't have to remind them, you know?

• 1:03:22Speaker 04

  Uh, what, uh, when did you, did you enter the war? Before or after my dad volunteered in 19?

• 1:03:29Will Arnett?

  Trying to think and boy, it's been funny. I have, I did change my number. So I, I don't remember getting a thank you. So maybe that came, maybe that got sent out.

• 1:03:40Jason Bateman?

  Ricky, if with all of your, your, your, your influence, your access and, and, and credibility, capital, that stuff, if you could, you could point all of that towards something that is not comedy, not stand-up, not movies or television, something like that, like a documentary or something like that, what, what would, what would the audience be surprised that you would, if you had to shine a light on something, would it be like animal rights, like a documentary on animal rights?

• 1:04:06Speaker 04

  Well, that's the first one, I suppose. I, I think that.

• 1:04:10Jason Bateman?

  And where'd that come from? Did you have, did you have like a, pets as when you were a little kid and, yeah?

• 1:04:16Speaker 04

  Yeah, it was, it was, it was always quite important. You know, pets were like, you know, a member of the family, you know, growing up as sort of like a, just a working class family in England, it was, it was all about the kids and pets. I remember when I was, I was about fifteen and my, my brother, as you know, you know, twenty-six, twenty-seven at the time, he came over with a couple of his kids, right? And the kids came running into the house to, to my mum and they went, "Nanny, nanny, daddy just punched a man in the face and knocked him over in the park", right? And my mum was like horrified, right? And then Bob comes walking in and she went, "Shit, they said you punched a man in the

• 1:04:58Speaker 04

  face." And Bob went, "Yeah, he kicked the dog." And my mum went, "Oh, fair enough." And that was it. And that was like, that was the life lesson. It's like, some, some things are all right. Sometimes violence is justified. That was, it was always about, you know, I've always, I've always thought animals were unconditionally sort of perfect and beautiful and should be treated well. It's, it's all about, it's about empathy, isn't it really? And I know, I know you guys are the same. I don't, I've never understood animal cruelty. And then, then the more, the older you get, the more you find out, well, there's so much animal cruelty, you didn't know what was going on and you're, you're, you're sort of like,

• 1:05:39Speaker 04

  you're cashing in on it without knowing. And so that's why I became vegan as well, because the terrible cruelty in this sort of farm industry and, you know, and I thought, oh, I can't, I can't really, I can't really be saving dogs and eating sheep. And so, yeah, you just, you know.

• 1:05:56Jason Bateman?

  If, if, if you had to make a choice between bringing one person back to life, one, it could be any person, historical figure, family member, whatever it is, or... Give voice to one animal that is alive right now. Like your pet could talk, or you could bring back a person. What would you pick?

• 1:06:17Speaker 04

  That's really good. Well, it would be, oh my God, they're both pretty irresistible, aren't they?

• 1:06:24Jason Bateman?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:24Speaker 04

  It's too risky in bringing someone back because you might bring back, oh, I'd love to. Yeah, you might bring back Einstein and he keeps going, it's boring. Yeah, I know, he equals MC squared. I know, I've got it. I've got it.

• 1:06:37Speaker 04

  Fuck me, why would I bring?

• 1:06:38Jason Bateman?

  Yeah, now he's got to catch up.

• 1:06:40Speaker 04

  It's got to be my cat talking, hasn't it? It's got to be my cat talking.

• 1:06:42Jason Bateman?

  You've just got the one pet?

• 1:06:44Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:06:44Jason Bateman?

  One cat?

• 1:06:45Speaker 04

  What if, what if my cat was really boring?

• 1:06:49Will Arnett?

  Oh, God.

• 1:06:50Jason Bateman?

  Or had an attitude. Yeah, it's a real pain in the ass.

• 1:06:53Speaker 04

  I know you're sleeping, but we can talk now.

• 1:06:55Will Arnett?

  What if your cat, what if your cat just said, I've been, this whole time I've been all over you because I'm a sadist. I just want you to fucking kick me.

• 1:07:05Speaker 04

  Oh, God.

• 1:07:05Will Arnett?

  I just, that's what gets me off. I just want to get kicked. And you spent all this time telling people not to kick. And that's the only thing that gets me off is getting kicked.

• 1:07:15Speaker 04

  Obviously, we're gonna cut this bit, right? We're definitely gonna cut this bit.

• 1:07:17Will Arnett?

  Keeping this bit, leading with it.

• 1:07:19Jason Bateman?

  Yeah. It's the opener. It's the only thing that gets me off.

• 1:07:23Speaker 04

  Don't worry, I'm not gonna sleep now. I'm not gonna sleep now. What? Oh, God.

• 1:07:27Jason Bateman?

  Right, so now you got a chatty cat. And, and, and, all right, I think that's a, that's a good decision. What's the cat's name?

• 1:07:35Speaker 04

  Um, she's called, um, Pickle.

• 1:07:40Jason Bateman?

  Are you sure?

• 1:07:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, no, I've, I've, I've had lots of cats.

• 1:07:45Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:45Speaker 04

  And, yeah, yeah.

• 1:07:47Jason Bateman?

  But, so if you had to give voice to one, it's gonna be Pickle?

• 1:07:50Speaker 04

  It's gotta be Pickle because you're like, you're, you're, you're current. Your current cat is your favorite and you just, you probably forget how much you love the other ones. And you go, oh, my God, this is, you know, yeah, you took, they become a member of the family, you know?

• 1:08:02Jason Bateman?

  What's a life span of a cat?

• 1:08:03Will Arnett?

  Sean, Sean, Sean, what's, hang on, one second, Sean, Sean, what's your, what's your dog's name?

• 1:08:07Jason Bateman?

  Ricky.

• 1:08:08Speaker 04

  Excellent.

• 1:08:09Jason Bateman?

  Look at that. Yeah.

• 1:08:10Speaker 04

  I've always known that my name should either be a child or a dog.

• 1:08:14Jason Bateman?

  Dog, yeah.

• 1:08:15Speaker 04

  It, it doesn't really suit a man in his sixties, does it?

• 1:08:18Jason Bateman?

  Yeah. Never Richard, ever?

• 1:08:20Sean Hayes?

  When he's back.

• 1:08:21Speaker 04

  No, it was Ricky, Ricky Dean Gervais. It was apparently, um, it was a thing, uh, what shows lower class from a name most in, in America? And the top name to show you were from a lower class was Ricky.

• 1:08:36Will Arnett?

  Really?

• 1:08:36Sean Hayes?

  Really?

• 1:08:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, apparently.

• 1:08:38Sean Hayes?

  Funny.

• 1:08:39Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:08:39Jason Bateman?

  Somebody is having a gag on you.

• 1:08:43Will Arnett?

  Shaun, what do you think Ricky, your dog, would say if he could talk today?

• 1:08:49Sean Hayes?

  How do I get out of here?

• 1:08:51Jason Bateman?

  How about stop curling my hair?

• 1:08:53Sean Hayes?

  Well, I crimp it. I just crimp it. I don't curl it. I crimp it.

• 1:08:57Will Arnett?

  Ricky is such a beautiful dog.

• 1:09:00Jason Bateman?

  And Ricky, you're a beautiful guest.

• 1:09:01Will Arnett?

  When's the special?

• 1:09:02Jason Bateman?

  And we thank you.

• 1:09:03Will Arnett?

  When's the special? What's the date on it?

• 1:09:03Jason Bateman?

  The special's out.

• 1:09:05Speaker 04

  It's out now.

• 1:09:06Will Arnett?

  It's out now.

• 1:09:06Speaker 04

  It's already out of the charts. It's already made number one. This is absolutely fucking pointless, this.

• 1:09:11Will Arnett?

  Okay, you ready? I'm gonna do this. So Ricky, Ricky, your special came out December 30th. It's already number one across the world.

• 1:09:18Sean Hayes?

  I don't know how we booked you.

• 1:09:20Will Arnett?

  What incredible success and congrats on all the nominations.

• 1:09:24Sean Hayes?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:25Will Arnett?

  Really great.

• 1:09:27Speaker 04

  Let's do one just in case. Say, Ricky, just after your special came out, you had your testicles removed from cancer. Just in case, let's do every scenario.

• 1:09:38Sean Hayes?

  Yeah, just run them down.

• 1:09:41Speaker 04

  I'm all right with testicular cancer now. When you're about 50, you forget about it's asshole. It goes, don't worry about your testicles, mate, but we've got to check your ass now.

• 1:09:54Speaker 04

  I'm out of the woods. My testicles are safe. They're absolutely safe. Well, there's a fear of them getting trodden on these days.

• 1:10:00Jason Bateman?

  Safely tucked in your socks.

• 1:10:06Jason Bateman?

  We love you and thank you and please say hello next time you're out here.

• 1:10:11Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I did last time.

• 1:10:14Jason Bateman?

  Oh, I wasn't there. Where was I?

• 1:10:16Speaker 04

  Oh, you weren't this? No, when was that? That was the last time I played the bowl, when we all came to Ted's house.

• 1:10:21Will Arnett?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, it was two years ago.

• 1:10:23Will Arnett?

  It was a while ago.

• 1:10:24Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:10:25Will Arnett?

  A while ago.

• 1:10:25Speaker 04

  I will. I'll say.

• 1:10:26Jason Bateman?

  I'm back.

• 1:10:27Speaker 04

  You were in England recently, weren't you? You didn't say hi.

• 1:10:30Jason Bateman?

  I'm not. It's Will that has the sleepovers at your house, not me.

• 1:10:37Jason Bateman?

  I'd love to. I need friends. I don't have any friends. I got these two. Help me out.

• 1:10:42Speaker 04

  I know. You're all busy. You're all too busy. We're all too busy. I'm too old. I'm too old and grumpy and antisocial and you're too busy. That's fair enough.

• 1:10:50Jason Bateman?

  We'd be perfect. I'm just like a cat. I don't talk. I'm sitting in the corner.

• 1:10:53Will Arnett?

  You know what it's called? It's called making an effort. You make an effort. I go there and I make an effort. I reach out to Ricky and I say, what are you doing? He says, I'm busy. I'm gonna come see your show. It's called making an effort. Okay, Ricky, thank you so much.

• 1:11:06Jason Bateman?

  Teach me, Willie, teach me.

• 1:11:08Will Arnett?

  All right, Pelley.

• 1:11:09Jason Bateman?

  All right, have a great rest of the day.

• 1:11:10Will Arnett?

  Bye, buddy.

• 1:11:11Speaker 04

  Thank you. That was absolute, uh, pleasure for me. I hope it was a pleasure for you and, uh,

• 1:11:16Jason Bateman?

  It was.

• 1:11:17Speaker 04

  I understand I'm the first, first second guest.

• 1:11:20Jason Bateman?

  The first.

• 1:11:20Will Arnett?

  You are the first second guest.

• 1:11:22Speaker 04

  I'm sorry, first guest to do two.

• 1:11:24Jason Bateman?

  First repeat, the first repeat.

• 1:11:26Will Arnett?

  The first repeat.

• 1:11:26Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's the word I was looking for. I'm getting tired.

• 1:11:29Jason Bateman?

  The money's the same, though, so don't look for an increase in your check.

• 1:11:32Speaker 04

  I won't.

• 1:11:33Will Arnett?

  What is it? It's, yes, after half past nine, isn't it?

• 1:11:35Speaker 04

  It's, uh.

• 1:11:36Will Arnett?

  Yeah. So, half past six.

• 1:11:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, half past six. That's, I've only got two hours before I think about bedtime.

• 1:11:41Jason Bateman?

  Dinner time. Say hi to Jane at the dinner table for us, please.

• 1:11:44Speaker 04

  I'm going out there to eat now. Thank you.

• 1:11:46Will Arnett?

  Yeah, love to Jane. Uh, great to see you, man.

• 1:11:48Speaker 04

  Cheers, guys.

• 1:11:48Will Arnett?

  Bye, bye, bye, bye.

• 1:11:49Jason Bateman?

  Say hi to Ricky. Bye, buddy.

• 1:11:50Speaker 04

  Bye.

• 1:11:54Jason Bateman?

  The great Ricky Gervais. Our first return. And that's, and that's the bar. That's the bar, right there. You don't get to come back unless you're, uh, Ricky Gervais good, you know?

• 1:12:04Sean Hayes?

  You know, I don't remember him going into so much detail about The Office. It's really cool to hear that.

• 1:12:07Will Arnett?

  I know.

• 1:12:09Sean Hayes?

  You know, like, cause you don't wanna.

• 1:12:10Jason Bateman?

  When's the last time you guys saw that? I, I, seriously, I was on the plane a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't seen it since we watched it, Willie.

• 1:12:16Will Arnett?

  It's been, it's been a minute, but you know what? In that time, I will say, I will say, and really, you know, and I know Ricky was part of it, and, and credit to Greg Daniels and Mike Short and all those brilliant people that we love over The Office, and all the performers. The American Office was very funny, and I, I ended up watching the bulk of it during COVID cause I missed, there were gaps in it. And fucking hell, I mean, first of all, Steve Carell was, you know, because Ricky cast such a huge shadow, you know, what he did on, on.

• 1:12:48Jason Bateman?

  I remember thinking like, who is this guy Steve Carell thinking that he can do what Ricky Gervais did? And he made it his own.

• 1:12:54Will Arnett?

  He just did it differently. He made it his own and he drilled it, and, oh, so good. And it's tough, those are big shoes to fill. Everybody.

• 1:13:01Jason Bateman?

  All of those characters were so specific, and everyone in The American Office came, made it their own, kicked the door down, and, uh, I think inarguably, uh, became a, a bigger success than the British one, yeah?

• 1:13:13Will Arnett?

  Yeah, well, yeah, I, I, who, who knows?

• 1:13:16Sean Hayes?

  Like you said, it's so hard to write a part and a tone and a voice of a character and then have an actor match that. Like, what are the odds of that?

• 1:13:23Will Arnett?

  Yeah, I loved, yeah. I also love Martin Freeman. I'm such a fan of Martin Freeman's and he was so good.

• 1:13:30Will Arnett?

  And I loved that show that he did, The Responder. I think I mentioned it before. It's a BBC show set in Liverpool. He plays a cop that came out two years ago. He's unbelievable.

• 1:13:41Jason Bateman?

  Well, you just fire up BritBox and you just start knocking down shows?

• 1:13:44Will Arnett?

  Kinda.

• 1:13:45Jason Bateman?

  Yeah. No, I know.

• 1:13:46Will Arnett?

  Are you doing a plug for the BritBox? I mean, I'll do it.

• 1:13:49Jason Bateman?

  Do I have BritBox?

• 1:13:50Will Arnett?

  No, you have, you are.

• 1:13:53Jason Bateman?

  Do I just, I just, I guess it's a certain channel? I gotta find it?

• 1:13:56Will Arnett?

  It's a fun callback. That's a fun callback to Do I Have To Be, you know?

• 1:14:03Jason Bateman?

  Sean, do you have one yet?

• 1:14:04Sean Hayes?

  Well, I was thinking of To Be, To Be, To Buy.

• 1:14:07Jason Bateman?

  No, no, that's too much of a reach.

• 1:14:10Sean Hayes?

  Okay, what about?

• 1:14:12Jason Bateman?

  Sort of buy, buy coastal.

• 1:14:14Sean Hayes?

  Well, their shows are so, their shows are so, those are shows, you know, all those shows like The Office.

• 1:14:18Will Arnett?

  This is gonna be sloppy. I can feel it.

• 1:14:19Sean Hayes?

  They're so good and they're so rare that they're really hard to come.

• 1:14:25Jason Bateman?

  Bye.

• 1:14:25Sean Hayes?

  Bye.

• 1:14:27Jason Bateman?

  Bu, bu, bu, bu, bye.

• 1:14:41Will Arnett?

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