It has now been more than 20 years since Stephen Merchant and his comedy partner Ricky Gervais changed TV comedy forever with their original British version of ‘The Office.’ Now, after co-starring with Gervais in ‘Extras’ and creating his own HBO comedy series ‘Hello Ladies,’ Merchant is back with ‘The Outlaws,’ a surprisingly intense crime thriller—with plenty of laughs throughout—that co-stars Christopher Walken and just landed on Amazon Prime Video. In this episode, Merchant talks about creating that series with an ex-convict and how they got Walken to paint over an original Banksy piece in the finale. He also tells stories about the early days of ‘The Office,’ what he thought about the even more successful American version, his complicated relationship with Gervais and a lot more. 

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Judd Apatow has spent much of his career trying to illuminate the deep emotional core of humankind through comedy. Now, after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, he just wants to “make people happy.” In a return appearance for the 150th episode of this podcast—taped before everything that went down at the Oscars—Apatow talks about why he decided to go for “hard jokes” in his new Netflix movie ‘The Bubble’ and shares his unvarnished thoughts on everything from his daughter Maude’s performance on ‘Euphoria’ to the Pete Davidson-Kanye West feud to his upcoming George Carlin documentary to his comedian friends who “can’t handle” criticism and a lot more.

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In this preview of our 150th episode featuring the return of Judd Apatow, dropping next Tuesday, the director of ‘Knocked Up,’ ‘This Is 40,’ and the upcoming ‘The Bubble’ on Netflix addresses all of those ‘Euphoria’ fans who just found out that star Maude Apatow has “some director” father.

Subscribe to ‘The Last Laugh’ now to hear our full conversation when it’s released next Tuesday, March 29th. 

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Buy Judd Apatow’s new book ‘Sicker in the Head: More Conversations About Life and Comedy’

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After bursting onto the comedy scene at just 14 years old nearly two decades ago as George Michael Bluth on ‘Arrested Development’—followed by the box office hit ‘Superbad’ and Best Picture nominee ‘Juno’ in quick succession—Michael Cera has been laying pretty low of late. So his latest gig as Amy Schumer’s love interest in the comedian’s new semi-autobiographical Hulu series ‘Life & Beth’ is kind of a big deal. In this episode, Cera explains why he said yes to his first regular TV role since ‘Arrested Development’ and opens up about how he “freaked out” when he suddenly became super famous at such a young age. 

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From his breakthrough gig as a writer for Netflix’s ‘Big Mouth’ to his breakout role as Walter the Lovebug on the new spin-off ‘Human Resources,’ Brandon Kyle Goodman has a lot to say about what it means to be Black and gender-nonconforming in comedy right now. In this bonus episode, Goodman opens up about how he knew his only path to pop culture success would be writing for himself, reveals how his own coming out story came to life on ‘Big Mouth’ and shares his reaction to Netflix’s handling of the Dave Chappelle debacle. 

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“The pandemic was so long I transitioned,” River Butcher jokes near the top of his impressive new half-hour special ‘A Different Kind of Dude.’ It’s the comedian’s way of reintroducing himself to the comedy world and addressing the reality of his personal evolution since breaking into the stand-up scene nearly a decade ago. In this episode, Butcher discusses the unique challenges of being a trans comic in a moment of widespread anti-trans comedy and breaks down how he uses humor to combat hate. Butcher also opens up about his public divorce from longtime comedy partner Cameron Esposito and what it was like to be one of the only comedians to ever perform stand-up on ‘Ellen.’ 

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Taylor Tomlinson started performing stand-up at church shows when she was just 16 years old. Still just 28 years old, she is one of the fastest rising stars in the comedy scene, premiering her first hour-long special “Quarter-Life Crisis’ on Netflix in March of 2020 and now dropping her second Netflix hour ‘Look at You’ this week. As Tomlinson breaks down in this episode, she had to make a hard break from her religious upbringing to be accepted into the mainstream comedy world, trading in her “clean” material for jokes with a “darker” edge. 

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This episode was originally published on September 28th, 2021.

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From his early days as Murray the manager on ‘Flight of the Conchords’ to his latest role as the “gentleman pirate” in Taika Waititi’s new HBO Max series ‘Our Flag Means Death,’ comedian Rhys Darby has never stopped being the funniest part of whatever he’s doing. In this episode, the New Zealander talks about how he first hooked up with Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, how he felt when they decided to end their seminal HBO show after just two seasons and whether he can imagine a reboot down the line. We also get into what it was like to star opposite Jim Carrey in his first movie, hilarious stories about his failed auditions for dramas like ‘Westworld’ and ‘True Detective’ and a lot more. 

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Before Nick Offerman joins forces with his wife, Megan Mullally, to co-host the Independent Spirit Awards this Sunday, March 6th on IFC, the star of ‘Parks and Recreation’ and ‘Devs’ returns to the podcast to chat about what it takes to be a good award show host and what he makes of the Oscars’ oddly lax vaccination requirements. We also get into his incredible performance as a sleazeball pornographer on ‘Pam & Tommy’ and his latest venture into the world of Substack with “Donkey Thoughts.”

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Aparna Nancherla is one of the most accomplished and well-respected stand-up comedians of her generation. But she has spent most of the past two years off stage, recording voiceover work and writing a book about imposter syndrome, the kind of “showbiz activities,” as she put it, that can be done in a “cave.” In this episode, Nancherla opens up about “commodifying” anxiety in her comedy and taking on the culture wars with her new animated Comedy Central series ‘Fairview.’ She also shares why it was so hard to write jokes for Seth Meyers, why it was so rewarding to play Bojack Horseman’s daughter and why Joe Rogan should stop hiding behind the “I’m just a comedian” defense.

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