-Our first guest tonight is an Emmy-nominated comedian
and actor you know from his work in "Big Mouth"
and "Don't Worry Darling" and "Sing."
He executive produces and stars
in "History of the World: Part II,"
which is streaming now on Hulu.
Let's take a look.
-Luke, there it is.
-Judas, what's going down? -How you doing, man?
-Man, I had to get me something in my belly, man.
You know, that last supper wasn't [bleep].
-Yeah, didn't hit anything for me.
Yeah. More like a last snack, right?
-Nothing worse than going somewhere for a meal
and you got to come to [bleep] home and eat again.
-It's like, what's the point? I could have just stayed home.
-What's the [bleep] point, man? -Jesus invites us over for
dinner, and then what, it's like a bunch of small mini plates.
One lamb meatball as an entree?
-If you're going to give me one meatball,
it better be a big-ass meatball.
-If it's not bigger than my head, I don't want it.
-Please welcome back to the show our very good friend
Nick Kroll, everybody.
♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
So lovely to have you back, Nick.
-Thank you for having me, Seth. -It's great to have you.
How's your family? Are they good?
-Yeah, I'd rather not talk about my family, my kid.
Just trying to stay private with that stuff.
-You can just say they're fine. You know?
-Oh, they're fine. -Okay. Great.
[ Laughter ] That's so much less aggressive.
-My son did the funniest thing recently.
-Oh, so now you do want to talk about it?
[ Laughter ]
-On my terms. -Your terms.
This is so exciting.
First of all, I remember seeing this movie when I was a kid,
"History of the World: Part I" which was very funny,
because there was an expectation that there would be a part two.
And it's taken now over 30 years.
-42 years to be exact, yes.
-And so this is a Mel Brooks film.
-And my son loves Mel Brooks. -Oh, my God,
so now we are going to talk -- [ Laughter ]
I feel like if I had asked, you would've had a different --
Does your son like Mel Brooks?
-I don't want to talk about that.
-Okay, gotcha. -I have my public life.
I am who I am here on television,
and then I have my private life, my family at home, okay?
-Okay, it feels like that's really a gray area.
-So, when Mel comes over to babysit --
[ Laughter ]
This is a story about Mel. It's not about my kid.
-Okay, gotcha. -I keep private.
It's very separate, okay?
No, I've been a Mel Brooks fan my entire life.
I assume you as well.
And I met him for the first time like 20 years ago.
And I was at an event.
And I went up to him, and I said,
"Mr. Brooks, I just want to say hello."
He's like, "Hello." And I said, "I have an idea
for a remake of 'The Producers.'"
And he said, "Go do your own work."
And then he just walked away.
[ Laughter ]
So, 20 years later, look who comes [bleep] crawling back.
[ Laughter and applause ]
No, but the truth is, I mean, I was I took that to heart.
"Go do your own work." When I first moved to New York,
I was doing, like, background work, extra stuff.
I would try to be in commercials.
And I was told, if you get your face on camera in a commercial,
you get a full fee, so, I'd be, like,
in an office commercial for Xerox.
You can just feel me in each take just sort of being like
Sliding into frame. [ Laughter ]
I don't know where Seth's camera is.
-Yeah, here, take a single of me.
Where's my single of me?
Alright, ready? Here. -If it's a Xerox commercial,
and I'd just sort of be like...
[ Laughter ]
...getting fired from commercial after commercial.
But I did do extra work, background work.
I did do background work when the season of
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" when Larry was playing Max Bialystock
in "The Producers" on Broadway, I was in the crowd in
the St. James Theatre doing extra work
for a Mel Brooks musical, as portrayed by Larry David in
"Curb Your Enthusiasm."
So, now I'm doing "Curb Your Judaism," again,
as a [bleep] you to both of those guys.
[ Laughter ]
-The amount of Jewish layers that you just made.
-Oh, my God, yes.
It's just like a moist, like, matzah meal thing.
-So you were playing sort of -- that is "Curb Your Judaism."
That is the sketch we saw a clip from.
You're playing a Larry David type.
The actual J.B. Smoove is playing J.B. Smoove's part.
Did you ever think that you should reach out to Larry
and see if he wanted to play Larry?
-I thought the most respectful thing I could do was
not make Larry David say no to me, you know.
Like, there's just no world -- -He was never going to say yes.
-The nicest thing I could do is not even bother him with it.
But I was like, I don't know if you can do
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" without J.B. Smoove.
-Right. -Because I think like, I mean,
J.B. is genuinely like the funniest person on the planet.
-And singular. -Yes, yes.
And so it just felt like a great way for us to kind of, like,
to bring it all together. -And it should be noted,
Richard Kind is in the sketch, who's been on "Curb."
You have, since doing background work, a real triumph.
You were then also then on "Curb."
-I've been on "Curb," and I have also --
and Larry David was on "The League" as future me.
-So there you go. -So, in a way,
he's already been on the show.
-Yeah. He really has.
You guys were at opening night -- sorry,
the premiere, I should say, not opening night.
This is a photo of you and Ike and Dave Stassen
and Mel and Wanda. And how is Mel on the red carpet?
I mean, he's obviously done quite a few over his life.
-I mean, Mel is amazing. He's 96.
He's incredibly sharp, incredibly funny.
But he's also very much Mel Brooks.
So he won't go -- The photographer is like, "Okay,
look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me."
And Mel goes, "We're all looking at you.
Take the [bleep] picture."
[ Laughter ]
And I was like, it's so funny.
And he's saying what we all --
It's like we're all just waiting to be 96 to be as honest as Mel.
[ Laughter ]
-But I would imagine that honesty -- sometimes you're
there and you're enjoying him being honest with other people.
But also through this process, you would pitch him jokes.
-Yeah. -How was Mel receiving joke pitches?
-He was actually great. Like, he narrates the show,
and so I was directing him in -- you know, in the original film,
Orson Welles does all the narration.
We had Mel narrate this one.
And so, he'll announce like, "The Civil War!"
And we'll have him do -- I was like, "Do one surprised."
And he's like, "oh, funny." He'll go, "The Civil War?!"
And then I'll be like, "Now do one angry."
And he'll go, "No, that's stupid."
[ Laughter ] "It's a bad pitch."
And I was, "Oh, cool." So it's like, literally my
all-time hero being -- it was just a roller coaster of
emotions, which is like what it's like having a son.
-Okay. [ Laughter ]
I'm going to give you space. I'm going to give you space
to tell a story if you want to tell a story.
-Talk about my son? -Okay.
[ Laughter ]
-The guy's got no boundaries.
It's like he's like TMZ at the airport.
[ Laughter ] -Oh, my God, come on.
I've known you a long time. How dare you.
[ Laughter ]
-You don't know the black track suits that he normally wears.
-Yeah, I like to hang out -- I just like to hang out
at the luggage claim by LAX.
That's just a thing I do anyway. -Very true.
-Johnny Knoxville plays Rasputin in a sketch that sort of weaves
its way through called Jack Rasp.
-Yes. -He reached out to you.
-He reached out. When we announced that we were
doing the show, he was like, "Mel is my hero.
If there's anything I can do on the show, I'll happily do it."
And we were doing this whole Russian revolution thing.
Danny DeVito plays our Nicholas.
Dove Cameron plays Princess Anastasia.
Jack Black plays Joseph Stalin.
[ Laughter ]
Rob Corddry plays Lenin.
The fastest casting I've ever done in my life.
I've been waiting 20 years to be like, "Corddry's Lenin.
That's it, we're done, moving on."
So, and we get to Johnny Knoxville as Rasputin
and doing Jack Rasp.
So he said, "If you need anyone for anything else" --
Rasputin was famously -- They tried to kill Rasputin
famously over and over.
So who better to do that than Knoxville who's been doing it?
And when I called him, I was like,
"Hey, do you want to play Rasputin?"
He was like, "Oh, great, I would love to.
I was at a sex shop/urologist in Saint Petersburg, Russia,
and I saw Rasputin's penis in a jar."
[ Laughter ]
And then he sent me a picture of it.
[ Laughter ]
-At that point, it's fate. -I know. It was perfect.
And my son loved the idea of -- -Okay.
[ Laughter ]
-We do all of our castings together.
He watches tape with me.
And, um... -Mm-hmm.
[ Laughter ]
-I don't know what you're waiting for.
-Nothing. I'm just going to move on.
Thank you for sharing that?
-Okay. Now, this feels condescending.
[ Laughter ]
Can I tell a story about my character?
-Yeah. -Okay.
[ Laughter ] -From the show?
-Yeah. Gerena says hi, by the way.
-Oh, great. Give her my love. -I will.
-Okay. -So I --
My character's name in the Russian revolution is
named Schmuck Mudman. -Schmuck Mudman.
-Yeah. -Which, I will say, has
a real nice Nick Kroll sheen to it.
Only Nick Kroll would come up with the name Schmuck Mudman.
-Well, it's like I build my characters from the name up.
Other people are like, "What were their childhood like?"
No, I'm like, "Just his name is Schmuck Mudman."
That's what matters.
That was not the first -- There were a couple other ideas
that we had for a name.
Putz [Bleep]stein was the other name.
And then we did some research and we found out that
that was Clark Gable's name in "Gone With the Wind."
-Right. [ Laughter ]
-And you know that famous line.
It's, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a name."
Let me do that again.
[ Laughter ]
Famously, Clark Gable's name in "Gone With the Wind."
-Yeah. -And that famous line we all
know is, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn,
or my name isn't [Bleep] Putstein."
[ Laughter ] I didn't even say it right.
I [bleep] the whole thing up. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-Can I do it one more time? -No, I don't think so.
Trust me. They have been watching this all night.
They do not stand for flubs. -Okay.
[ Laughter ]
I was doing cocaine with this bear backstage, so...
[ Laughter ] -That's what they like.
That's what they like. Callbacks.
[ Applause ]
-We're eating all those Starbucks egg bites --
-I wouldn't call that one back. -Okay.
[ Laughter ]
I asked for a venti. One of these venti egg bites.
-Thank you for watching in the green room.
Not everybody does. Not everybody does.
-Well, my son, I'm FaceTiming with him.
He's watching the show. [ Laughter ]
Can I just quickly -- I know we're running short.
And so I want to quickly -- just quickly get to
a few other things if I can. -Few more?
[ Laughter ]
-Obviously "History of the World: Part II" is coming out.
-I think we've established that.
[ Laughter ]
-Last season of "Snowpiercer" on TNT.
-You're not in that show. -I'm not in that show.
-Okay. [ Laughter ]
-Also "Friends." The show "Friends."
-What about it? -It's great. It's on Peacock.
You can stream it on Peacock.
Or just friends, the concept. -Just have more friends?
-Yeah, to have more friends. -Well, you know what?
That's a good message to end on. Can we end on it?
-No.
[ Laughter ]
I got to say hi to my son. Where are you?
-Oh, boy. [ Laughter ]
Nick Kroll, everybody.
"History Of The World: Part II" streaming right now on Hulu.
We'll be right back with Zoe Chao.