“Hangover” star Zach Galifianakis is tearing into fellow comedians who have had President Donald Trump on their podcasts without pushing back against his claims or doing their jobs as modern-day court jesters — and he’s recalling holding power to account himself a few times too.
The actor made his case on Monday’s episode of “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” where the host argued nobody has talked to the sitting president the way Galfianakis did when he interviewed then-President Barack Obama in 2014 on his satirical talk show “Between Two Ferns.”
“Well, all the podcasters that have had the president on now, they don’t do their court jester,” Galifianakis said. “They don’t do it. They just, they suck up to him. So, the ‘comedians’ that are podcasters that have had Trump on, they’re not doing their job.”
He continued: “That’s not the job of a comedian. You are to challenge, you are to make 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 exploded on the Hollywood scene when “The Hangover” was released in 2010, but had already made a name for himself as a stand-up comedian and host of “Between Two Ferns,” named after the plants on his set.
“And whatever their motive is, fine,” he told O’Brien. “But the comedy has to come first.”
The entertainer named no names during his conversation with O’Brien, but was clearly referring to the so-called manosphere podcasters who interviewed Trump ahead of the 2024 election, including Joe Rogan, Andrew Schulz and Theo Von.
“I remember when I interviewed [former Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton — and 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,’” Galifianakis said.
“And I go, ‘Well, we don’t have to do the interview. I totally— that’s fine, we won’t do it.’ When you tell powerful people no, it’s crazy,” he continued. “They were like, ‘OK, we’ll do it, you can ask.’ Because it’s not that important to me to do it the way they want to do it.”
Richard Shotwell/Invision/Associated Press
Galifianakis did indeed ask Clinton about the scandal, which involved her use of a private email server for government business and deleting more than 30,000 emails, asking her during an interview ahead of the 2016 election, “What’s the best way to reach you? Email?”
Rogan recently joined Trump in the Oval Office as he signed an executive order for the Food and Drug Administration to expedite reviews of certain psychedelics, but has criticized the president over various issues in recent months, including his Iran war and “crazy” Canada obsession.
Von and Schulz have both voiced criticisms in recent months as well.
O’Brien argued on his podcast that the “current president” could benefit from being “the butt of the joke,” suggesting Trump is far too sensitive and ego-driven to humble himself the way Clinton or Obama did, only for Galifianakis to counter, “That’s impossible.”
“You wouldn’t do it with him,” Galifianakis continued. “It wouldn’t work.”
