-You look fantastic, buddy. Welcome back to the show.
-I bought a fancy suit for you. -You look great.
Thank you so much for dressing up.
-And congratulations, Questlove. -Yeah, there you go.
[ Cheers and applause ] The great.
-I mean, it's so nice when somebody
wins the first time out.
-Anyway, Judd, let's get to your...
-I mean, some of us are really try hard for 37 years.
-But the first time out -- Yeah. -Some people, they nail it.
They nail it.
-There you go. It's good for them.
-Too many boners in my movies. I don't know.
I've got to eliminate these boners.
-I want to talk to you about "Sicker in the Head."
-Yes.
-"Sick in the Head," the first book you did,
a "New York Times" best seller.
I loved it so much.
I told you that I kept it on my side table on my bed for like
a year and a half because I wanted to --
I didn't want it to end.
All your interviews are so interesting
with these great comedic minds.
I'm like, "I don't want this book to have an ending."
-And you were in it.
-And I read my part over and over again.
That's how sick I am in my own head.
When did you decide you were going to do another book?
-Well, I was doing it a little before the pandemic.
-Okay. -And I was being a little lazy.
-Okay. -And then the pandemic hit.
Then I realized that everybody was home.
-So they had no excuse. -They had no excuse.
-They have to do your interview. -So I would call people.
I'm like, "I know you're available."
And all these people I never would even ask,
you know, like Letterman.
Yeah, Letterman.
I'm like, "You've got nothing to do."
-Yeah, bud. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
"Let's do this right now." "Come on, Whoopi."
-Whoopi Goldberg. -Yeah, yeah.
But, also, I just needed human contact,
so I just started calling, you know,
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Nathan Fielder,
and just talk to me, please.
-Yeah. Sacha Baron Cohen is gonna --
-Yeah.
-You also have non-comedians in there.
Roger Daltrey from The Who, who is actually very funny.
But he's -- But what an interesting guy.
-Sure.
-You just are a Who fan or what --
-Yeah, and waited my entire life to nerd out on him.
-You did. -Cameron Crowe is in there.
Because I always felt, like, a real connection to
Cameron Crowe, because I started interviewing comedians
when I was 15 and he started interviewing rock stars
for, like, "Rolling Stone" when he was 15, 16 years old.
But it's different, because he's so much cooler than I,
'cause he's -- because I'm, like, going --
I'm going to go drive three hours to Poughkeepsie
to see "Weird Al" Yankovic,
and he's on tour with Led Zeppelin.
-But I see the similarities there.
-It's, like, similar, in a way. -Very similar, yeah.
It's Nana Week here at "The Tonight Show."
We're talking about grandmas.
And there's a great photo in here of your grandma.
-Yes, Molly. -Look at Molly.
-At my Molly.
So, that's Totie Fields. -The great Totie Fields.
-The comedienne. -I love Totie Fields.
-Yeah. And then my grandmother was best buddies with her.
And that's me next to Totie Fields
at the Westbury Music Fair.
-Let me see it. Wow! Nice -- That's a great sweater.
-Yeah. -Judd -- Yeah.
At the Westbury Music Fair with -- Wow!
-Yeah. And that's how I got interested in comedy.
She was friends with Totie Fields.
I remember I went to see her. -Totie Fields, the legend.
-Yeah, and she was like a --
you know, like, a Joan Rivers type of comedienne.
-Phyllis Diller. Yeah.
-And she had diabetes and she had her leg amputated.
And then she did a comeback tour at Westbury Music Fair
and she came out and did like an hour of jokes about
having one leg, and the place gave her a standing ovation.
And I think, as a little kid, I just thought like,
"Oh, my God.
You can be cool in this world
no matter what the circumstances are."
-Yeah, you can do it. That's what a comedian does.
-Yeah.
-I heard a rumor --
and I don't know if it's true, but I hope it is --
that you're doing a sequel to "This Is 40"
called "This Is 50."
-Yes. Do you want it?
-Yeah! [ Cheers and applause ]
-That's -- I'm trying to get a feel for the room.
-Yeah, I want it. I would love to do it.
Is it possible? Is it real?
-I mean, I'm working on -- I have one big problem
is that Paul Rudd and Leslie don't age.
So, it's 10 years later. They look exactly the same.
And I think it would annoy people, right?
-They would get mad.
They'd go, "That's not what 50 looks like."
-Yeah, I could call it, like, "This Is 42."
And you know what the worst part about being friends with
Paul Rudd, as the guy who doesn't age?
-Yeah. -Is I age.
So every picture with him -- Like, I have pictures with him
for the last like 20 years,
and he just doesn't change and I'm slowly falling apart.
-Yeah.
No, you look great. You look -- Here's you --
-Here's us 10 years ago. This is 10 years ago.
-This is you and Paul Rudd 10 years ago.
-Okay. He looks exactly the same right now.
-He looks exactly the same. -And I look like his dad.
-Now I have to show a picture that you --
This is you during the --
-Well, this is -- I think -- Don't show it yet.
I mean, during the pandemic, we all lost it a little bit.
And, well, I kept growing beards
and different shapes of beards,
'cause there was nothing else to do.
-Look at -- This is Judd Apatow, good-looking Judd Apatow.
This is you during the...
This is a low point. This is "wow!"
This is probably when you decided to write
"Sicker in the Head."
Here's Judd Apatow right here.
This is -- Holy mackerel! [ Cheers and applause ]
-Yeah. There you go.
-That makes sense.
-Yeah. -That makes sense.
Not only do you have a big, giant book out,
but you also have a funny movie called "The Bubble."
-Yes.
-And I heard about this as you were filming
because it was one of the first things to
kind of go in production.
But I'm like, "That's a great comedy mind."
You're like, "People need entertainment.
That's what I do.
I'm going to show up and give it to them."
Can you set up what "The Bubble" is about?
-Well, you know, I was taking these long walks
every day to try to not go insane and be more like that.
And, so, I kept thinking about the NBA bubble.
And I thought, "Well, that would be, like,
a funny movie or a play."
Like, a lot of 7-foot guys
in a small space, getting angry at each other.
-Yeah.
-And then I thought, "Oh, maybe, like, actors,"
because you'd heard about, like,
the "Mission: Impossible" problems and "Jurassic."
And they were shooting, like, "White Lotus,"
and all these people were trying to stay in production.
So I thought, "Maybe you could do almost like
a Christopher Guest-type movie of a bunch of actors
stuck in a hotel, trying to make
a flying-dinosaur action movie during the pandemic.
And everything goes wrong, and the studio will not
let them leave until they complete the movie."
-But does that -- I mean, flying --
They're great CGI, by the way.
It is amazing.
But these are very interesting dinosaurs.
I mean, this had to cost millions to make these.
-Yeah, at the beginning, I thought,
"Maybe they should look cheap.
And then I thought, "What if they looked exactly like
'Jurassic Park,' except they're flying tyrannosaurus rexes?"
And I'm working with the same people
who make the dinosaurs for "Jurassic Park."
And they love that we're doing jokes,
because they never get to do jokes.
-You have to be -- Yeah.
-And by the end of it, they're just like,
"What if the dinosaur's
penis and testicles were flammable?
And then the penis is like a fuse."
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -"And they blow up."
-Okay, that's -- Now we got a comedy.
Now we got a movie. -And you know what I said.
You know what I said.
[Bleep] the Oscar."
-Wow! Wow!
He said, "I'm going for comedy. I'm going for entertainment.
I'm going for entertainment." That's exactly right.
-If I said "no," I would have got it.
-Exactly! I want to show everyone a clip.
Here is a scene from "The Bubble."
Take a look at this.
-Gavin, how are you?
-Hi. Hi. Hi. How you doing?
-Oh, good.
I just wanted to say good luck
and we love you and we're counting on you.
-I know. I know. I'm on it.
-You are such a hero for keeping the lights on at the studio.
This lockdown has been so hard on all of us.
-But -- but you're skiing.
-Yeah, well, this was the only country that was open.
Thank God I got my shot.
-Did you?
I thought they weren't available for six months.
-Oh, they're not -- Oh, not for normal people,
but I'm with rich people.
Don't hate the player. Hate the game.
[ Chuckles ] Ugh! I hate the game.
-"I hate the game."
The one-and-only Judd Apatow, everybody.
"The Bubble" is on Netflix Friday.
And his book, "Sicker in the Head,"
is a must-own.
It's available now.