- Tyler's been in everything.
- I know.
- I've done a little bit of things here and there.
I've been blessed to be able to keep my SAG insurance.
- That's right (chuckling).
- [Male Announcer] This is "What A Joke."
- [Female Announcer] With Tom Papa and Fortune Feimster
- [Male Announcer] On "Netflix Is A Joke Radio."
- Oh my God, this show is so funny.
I watched it with my wife
who is an elementary school teacher for 12 years
and she's constantly like,
"Yep, that's true, that's true," so you guys nailed it.
- Unfortunately, we get that a lot.
Yeah, we really do, we get that a lot.
- I know, right.
It does shine a light on public school systems
being in desperate need of money.
- I mean, it's something that we all know
and have always known,
I think we just like to try to forget,
we like to try not to remember that sometimes
we underfund the rearing of the next generation.
Like we want to believe
that we're doing a good job with that.
But once we really see it and especially on this show,
we can kind of not necessarily make light of it,
but talk about it in a way that's realistic.
And real life is funny, this will at least affect how people
talk to their teachers of their kids.
You know what I mean?
Even if you could just give them a really good,
good morning, how you doing?
You've been going through it, I bet you have.
(chuckling) It can do a lot.
- Where did you grow up, where did you go to school?
- I grew up in New York, I was in Yonkers.
I went to a Lutheran School until I ended up coming out here
and then I did TV school.
- Was "Everybody Hates Chris," your first big role
or had you been doing stuff before that?
- I had done a fair amount of work in New York
but that was, I guess, of the largeness
that I guess we're capable of, yes, that was the big one.
- That show was so funny.
- Thank you. - You were so good in it.
How old were you when you got that role?
- I was 12, I was 12 when that happened.
Yeah, it was a wild, wild time.
- Yeah, man, oh man.
And 'cause it ran for how many seasons?
- We did four seasons.
People like to feel like we did more than that
because right afterwards it's syndication
and it just erupted but it was actually only four.
- Man, so 12 to 16, that is such a time of change
and to be in that. - Yeah.
Everyone saw my puberty moments all over the country.
Like when dating, you usually wait to go to the parents'
house to see that, people could just look mine up,
the all four years of the most awkward moments of my life.
(all laughing)
- Then you went from there to do
so many different kinds of projects.
Like I said, "Walking Dead", "Dear White People."
- Right, this is where we met.
- You guys worked together on that?
- Yeah, I did that scene with Tyler, just one episode
where I'll play the crazy talk show host (laughing).
- It was fun, we had a really good time,
and that was my first time back to that show.
I did the film, I didn't do the show.
So it was my first time coming back then
and seeing everybody and seeing what happens
when you're not shooting on a micro budget in Minnesota,
(hosts laughing)
and Netflix is behind you, and we're like, yeah.
- But if you benefit from racism, you are a racist.
- The platform is to talk about serious stuff.
But my segment producers don't really want that.
- Ah, I see what you're doing here, I see it.
That's great, it's great tactic to, you know,
pass the buck and it's definitely worked
for people throughout all of history.
- Can you believe this is the guy
Sam wants to bring to Winchester?
- Carson Rhodes?
I mean he is woke as fuck.
- I follow you on Twitter
and you speak of the ills of the world.
You can do the same thing on your show.
- But isn't this campus polarized enough?
I mean, BSU you can do what it wants
but nobody's gotta keep the peace.
- Come on, either we get in or we don't,
it's no big deal, right?
- Are you kidding?
We could be the first women admitted to Pegasus
- As a white person, what can I do?
Do I watch more BET 'cause I am down, I love that show.
- I've had like the opportunity
to work with some really people.
And I think that's what it's dope
about finding success early is
I wasn't chasing it as long as other people were,
so after I kind of did that,
I was able to just kind of pick projects on what was fun
and interesting and "Dear White People",
this was like 2012, just even the title alone scared people
but it was fun to be able to do that
and take those risks to not really be concerned
about the success of it all.
- Are you at a point now where
you don't have to go audition for every part?
- Yeah, people know now what I'm capable, I think of,
and that's the thing about showing that diversity over time
is showing there's a wide spectrum of what I can do.
Like this show, for example, although I ended up,
chemistry reading with Quinta,
she reached out to me in, I wanna say December of 2020,
saying that she had loved some work that I had done
and had written this role for me in this pilot
and would love if I would read it and try it out.
And I couldn't be a bigger fan of hers.
We'd worked together on "A Black Lady Sketch Show."
I always appreciate her for that and being able to see
what I was capable of going into this show.
- Now everybody keeps waiting
for your two characters to get together (laughing).
(all laughing)
- Yeah, yeah, that's kind of a thing.
- It's that's push-pull thing with the show (laughing).
- It's a whole thing, we're slow burning.
We know that we've seen this done a few times,
but we're finding our own interesting way to do it.
And we've introduced some nice interesting turns
here and there, even in the first season.
- Anna was just announced the show's getting huge numbers,
which sitcoms had really taken a big dip
and this was such cool news to see how popular the show is.
- I'll always be a fan of network TV
because I feel like network TV can really
help control the pulse of where the country is.
If you notice, if there's a lot of really dark stuff,
we tend to go to really dark places.
And I think that's what happened after these last two years.
I didn't wanna do anything dark
and Quinta said she didn't wanna do anything dark.
We wanted to make people feel good
at the end of an episode, on a large scale.
- There shouldn't be a single conversation about America
being divisive without mentioning
the lack of comedy on network television.
- And people being able to laugh about the same things,
reminds them that they're more alike
than they are different.
And as we see these numbers grow, for me,
outside of it just being a successful show
and I want that to happen, it helps reinvigorate
my feeling of what people can come together
and watch the same thing and all find commonality in that.
So even if that's a bridge to somebody
that in your office that you wouldn't normally speak to,
or you know you have differences in political opinion.
If y'all can set up and say,
did you see Abbott Elementary last night?
This piece was so funny, that's a bridge that connects,
and we need as many bridges right now as we can get.
- Absolutely.
- Do you take any breaks
or do you go straight into other projects?
- For me, when I'm on network TV, I try to take breaks.
This is like a grind, I've done it before.
When we did "Everybody Hates Chris"
I got the flu every year while shooting
just 'cause it's every day, sometimes 22 straight weeks.
Keeping the energy there for that long is difficult.
So with this, it looks like we can be here for a while,
so, knock on all the wood.
So I'm trying to pace myself
unless there's something I find really interesting.
- Right. - Well, that's good.
You gotta take care of yourself.
- You have to, man, I'm trying not to fall into
that loop of you need to be working constantly.
You maybe don't need to be working constantly.
I need to refill my cup when I can.
- Especially when you're working since you were 12.
- You know! - And even before that.
- You're allowed to still have a break.
- Yeah, I learned how to do that.
I don't need to be in the grind consistently.
- Tyler James Williams, Abbott Elementary.
It's a hit. - You gotta watch it.
Tyler kills it as the sub.
- (chuckling) As the sub who's making decisions.
- That's right.
I did have to say real quick, I did love the storyline
that you applied to be the principal
and you clearly are the most qualified for it
and Janelle James' character got it
'cause she blackmailed somebody here or something.
(all laughing)
- And I'll give you the slide, that story's not over.
That story's not done.
So if you enjoyed that one,
it's not finished. - Good to know.
(all laughing)
(celestial beeping)
(triumphant music)
- We have a lot of nonsense bets
on the game here on the show.
- I like that about the Super Bowl,
they have coin flip stuff.
- Okay, so let's start with that, coin toss, heads or tails?
- I'm gonna say tails.
- Oh. - That's what I said, twins.
- So did everybody but me.
(bell dings) - Oh.
- How long will it take to sing the National Anthem?
Under or over one minute and 55 seconds?
- Over, I'm taking the over.
- Why?
- They like to elongate those notes.
- Yeah, they make a meal out of it in the Super Bowl.
When I went to (indistinct) for a hockey game
the guitarist played it like Jimmy Hendrick style
and I'm like, this is perfect.
I don't know the words, I don't need the words.
(hosts laughing)
- [Papa] All Right, here's another bet.
Which team is leading at halftime?
- I will guess the Rams.
(bell dings) (crowds cheering)
- I think LA will be up by like three.
- What color Gatorade will be spilled on the winning coach?
- You know, my heart says yellow
but I'm gonna go ahead and say orange.
(water splashing)
- Nice, that's what I predicted.
- I had threw a wrench in things and said water.
- That's possible,
but not likely. (refs whistle blowing)
I had a friend high school who was an idiot.
He played on the basketball team
and when the basketball team lost
their last game and season, not won, but lost,
he dumped the Gatorade on the coach in the basketball court
which is way harder to clean up.
- (laughing) On the court?
- Yep, yep, just ruined, I mean ruined the entire court.
- I love this guy.
Puppy Bowl winner, Team Fluff or Team Ruff.
- Team Ruff wants it more.
And I think Team Fluff is just kind of there
to have a good time, they don't know what's coming.
- Yeah, to be on TV.
- Team Ruff's been waiting their whole lives for this.
- What about the injuries?
What about their injuries?
- I hope there's a lot of them.
(record scratching)
(hosts laughing)
- No, puppies.
- Take the over, take the over on injuries.
- Well, it seems like Anthony and I
kind of had a lot of the same results in these bets.
- Well, I had a lot of the same answers as Anthony.
- I mean they were yes or no questions, guys.
It wasn't too rough.
(Tom laughing) - 50-50 shot.
(upbeat music)