Michael Showalter talks to the stars of MTV's hysterical new series, Human Giant

JOKE HEROES Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer, and Aziz Ansari of Human Giant

In "Rob's Vagina," a sketch on MTV's new comedy show, Human Giant, Rob Huebel's career takes off when paparazzi-style pictures of his "vagina" are leaked to the Internet. Though totally absurd, it's an interesting comment on celebrity and a refreshingly smart turn for a network that's been relying on the lowest form of toilet humor for nearly a decade. In fact, Human Giant just might be MTV's best chance for recapturing some of its street cred from the early '90s—those pre-reality TV days—when the channel gave cult comedy troupe The State its own sketch show.

"I'll tell you right now that every article compares us [to you guys]. They call us 'The next "State."' And that's something that, Huebel, I know you take great offense at."In a transparent effort to belabor the point, Radar recruited State alum Michael Showalter to get on the phone with Huebel and his Human Giant co-stars Aziz Ansari and Paul Scheer, to talk about their new show, the tricks of getting racy material past MTV's standards and practices department, and Showalter's enduring influence on all alternative comics who've followed him.

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT Showalter

Thank you. You guys should come and be a guest on the show (The Michael Showalter Showalter), it would be all three of you.
ROB HUEBEL: That'll be fun as shit, man.

We'll set it up. Okay, about Human Giant. Do you guys read your own press? Do you read the reviews?
AZIZ ANSARI: It's crazy, in the past couple years, any time someone shits on you, you can find out right away on news.google or blogsearch.google. As soon as anyone insults your creative work, you can find out instantly. So we read all the reviews.
HUEBEL: There was this one review where the writer said she couldn't enjoy the show because she didn't understand what "Human Giant" meant, and she couldn't get past that. So she just sat there and criticized us because she didn't understand what the name of the show meant. For the first paragraph, she just starts off like, "Human Giant. What is it? Is it a show about giants? I mean, why would they call the show that?"

Do you get sick of your stock answer for how you came up with the name? Don't you just want to say, "Go read another interview where we answered that question"?
SCHEER: The first three questions are always the same: How'd you guys meet? What does the name mean? Why did you decide to go to MTV? Those are the first three questions always.

Can I stop you for a second?
SCHEER: Sure.

How did you guys meet?
SCHEER: Ha! Seriously though, I think all of us now just take turns answering that question. Aziz at one point came up with an idea that we should give everybody a one-page answer to these questions and then say, "Interview us after you read this."

SWEAT PROJECT The sketch "Let's Go!" on Human Giant

Let's talk about the creative: Did you guys have any standards and practices issues? Let me preface that by saying, when we were doing The State, which, granted, was about 15 years ago, an issue we had with them was that there were certain references we couldn't make. For example, we couldn't make Bob Dylan references because they didn't think their audience knew who Bob Dylan was.
SCHEER: Oh! We have something exactly like that! Yeah. Kurt Cobain. Their audiences don't know who Kurt Cobain is.

"Fucking bait and switch. You come on here, and you're like, 'Oh, I know how it is.' And now we're getting fucked in the ass! Where the fuck is our publicist?"Oh my god! That's really scary. Was there something that you guys loved that didn't make it past standards and practices?
SCHEER: Well, we had one sketch that was ... I mean, we always have this thing where we don't like to talk about sketches because they never come off funny when we describe them. But do you guys want to talk about that "Who Do Ya Gotta Blow" thing?
HUEBEL: Yeah. We had this sketch that we wanted to do called, "Who Do Ya Gotta Blow?" And it was about the expression, you know, "Man, who do ya gotta blow to get into this party?" So it was basically a documentary of where "Who do ya gotta blow?" came from and tracing it back to the first guy who was indeed the guy that you had to blow to get into different parties and stuff like that.

That's very funny.
HUEBEL: So it was sort of a documentary about this guy and his family, and how, to get on the Mayflower, you had to blow this guy and blah blah blah.

That's very funny.
SCHEER: But we couldn't say, "Who do ya gotta blow?" The standards people came back and they were like, "You can say, 'Who's penis do I have to put in my mouth?'" Or we could bleep out ...

But basically you couldn't go with the thing that was key to the joke.
All: Exactly.
ANSARI: I mean, you had to have the expression for the thing to work, like that was the whole joke. But they wouldn't let us say it.
SCHEER: What about you guys? Like what did you guys come up with in standards with Stella?

But that was kind of a negotiation thing where we said, "How can we get it approved?" And we kept giving them suggestions—"Well, what if this, what if that?" So we came up with, "What if he's holding balls?"
SCHEER: What's so funny to me is that watching that as a kid, I remember it now, but I never remember him holding balls in his hands.

Exactly. Because it's so obviously got nothing to do with that. But with the "Who do ya gotta blow?" thing, I'm sure you could have figured out some way so that at least in context, even though it obviously means "give a blow job," standards and practices could have dealt with it.
SCHEER: Yeah. We'd have to have a blow dryer.

Exactly. Another one that we didn't get through was a whole thing about two farmers: One of them has a rooster and the other one has a donkey, and they keep referring to the rooster as a cock and the donkey as an ass. So it's like, "Oh, I love your cock. Your cock is so hot. Yeah, I want to put my cock up against your ass." But it's a donkey and a chicken. But they wouldn't let us do that.
SCHEER: That's hilarious. Did you have more freedom when you were over at Comedy Central?

Yeah. But with Stella, we were making a concerted effort not to be R-rated. But I think that doesn't seem to be the case with you guys.... This actually segues a little bit into one of my big questions for you guys.
SCHEER:Let's have it!

THIS SKETCH KILLS Human Giant in "Blood Oath"

So when Radar asked me to do this interview, I was like, "This is great," because I feel like I have a kinship with you guys because you're doing a sketch show on MTV and obviously I did a sketch show on MTV. But then I was reading some of your interviews and a lot of people ask you what your influences are and you never mention The State. And I just wanted to know what was up with that.
SCHEER: Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!

This is your opportunity to just be honest, and if you didn't like it, you can say so.
HUEBEL: Dude, first of all, we're big fans of The State. We never meant to hurt your feelings. It sounds like we accidentally hurt your feelings, and we didn't mean to do that. We're big fans of The State. We always assumed that it was implied that—

"I was told this was going to be a fucking candy interview, and now you're gonna come in my face?"Why would you assume that?
HUEBEL: Well, because you guys were on MTV. We're a family. We're part of the MTV comedy family now.
SCHEER: And to do an interview and say that you love your father ... I mean, everyone knows that. You have to. That's your family.

But don't you think your father would appreciate you saying that?
HUEBEL: Look, Dad, first of all, you know that we love you and we respect you. There's just not enough time to list all of our influences.

You only said two. You said Mr. Show and Saturday Night Live.
SCHEER: I think we should turn this on the reporters. A lot of reporters will excise those comments. I know I always start off saying, "My influences were The State and Stella," and they cut it out.

Wait. Is that true, Paul?
ANSARI: I say, specifically, "Michael Showalter was a big influence," and it gets cut out.
HUEBEL: I say that, too. You know, when people ask me, "Who has influenced you more than anybody?" I say, "Showalter." And they say, "Oh, sounds like you're sucking up," and then they don't print it.

Now I just feel like you guys are patronizing me.
HUEBEL: We're not!

You're obviously making a big joke out of it, and what I'm trying to say is I don't understand why it is that when people ask "What are your influences in sketch comedy," no one ever says The State.
HUEBEL: Look, man. It seems like we're all yelling at each other now and part of it just has to do with the fact that it was a long time ago.
SCHEER: Where the fuck is our publicist? Where is our publicist right now? I don't want to fucking deal with this bullshit!
ANSARI: Jordan! Where's that Radar editor? Get back on the phone! What the fuck?
SCHEER: I was told this was going to be a fucking candy interview, and now you're gonna come in my face? Come on, man!
HUEBEL: I'm driving right now, and I'm swerving all over the highway.
ANSARI: Fucking bait and switch. You come on here, and you're like, "Oh, I know how it is. You get asked the same questions all the time." And now we're getting fucked in the ass!
HUEBEL: This is like a Michael Moore interview.
SCHEER: This is exactly the reason why we don't say we like The State, because you guys fucking try to sabotage us.
HUEBEL: I knew this would happen. I told you guys.
ANSARI: You were right. You were right.

I'm asking you guys to be honest with me, and now you're evading the question.
SCHEER: I'll tell you right now that every article compares us. They call us "The next State." And that's something that, Huebel, I know you take great offense at.
HUEBEL: I'm offended by that because we don't have nearly the number of members in our group that you guys had. So to compare us, it's like comparing apples and oranges. You guys had no less than 35 people in your sketch group. We have three people in our sketch group. Each one of us ...

I thought there were four. How would your director [Jason Woliner] feel about the fact that you just left him out?
HUEBEL: Okay. Four.
SCHEER: Three on camera.
HUEBEL: Three on camera. The point is that, mathematically, each of us is doing the work of ten men to equal The State sketch show. It's a lot of work, man. I don't think you appreciate what we're trying to do here.

You guys have writers. Rob, you have writers?
HUEBEL: Yeah, we do. But for me, do you know the pressure that I'm under to go out there?

Why am I getting attacked? I feel like I'm the one whose feelings were hurt, but I'm the one being attacked.
HUEBEL: But we have nothing but respect for you. You are one of the biggest names in Hollywood, and we would not besmirch the good name—
SCHEER: Definitely not besmirch.
HUEBEL: We would never besmirch the name of Michael Showalter.

I'm giving you one final opportunity to answer the question honestly, and then I'm gonna drop it.
SCHEER: Well, Aziz wasn't even born when The State was on TV.
ANSARI: Yeah, I mean, honestly, I was too young, and we didn't get MTV. I was in South Carolina, and we didn't get MTV.

I give up! I give up! Because they say Kids in the Hall, they say Monty Python ...
ANSARI: I didn't watch Kids in the Hall either.

What about Mr. Show?
ANSARI: I've seen Mr. Show a bunch, but I haven't seen much TV. I mean, I didn't get MTV in South Carolina, and I was too young.
SCHEER: I actually have a VHS tape that has Eddie Murphy on The Arsenio Hall Show and three episodes of The State that is still in my closet right now.
HUEBEL: Enough about that. Let me ask you a question: I want to know about some behind-the-scenes gossip of Wet Hot American Summer. I want to know who was fucking who on that movie.

I can't even go there. When you're interviewing me, you can ask me that question.
HUEBEL: Okay, well, we're gonna go now. We appreciate it, Showalter.
SCHEER: Yeah, thanks so much for doing this, Michael. We'd love to do your show when we're all in New York.
ANSARI: Yeah, um ... bye.