“Hangover” star Zach Galifianakis is tearing into fellow comedians who have had President Donald Trump on their podcasts without pushing back against his claims or doing their jobs as modern-day court jesters — and he’s recalling holding power to account himself a few times too.
The actor made his case on Monday’s episode of “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” where the host argued nobody has talked to the sitting president the way Galfianakis did when he interviewed then-President Barack Obama in 2014 on his satirical talk show “Between Two Ferns.”
“Well, all the podcasters that have had the president on now, they don’t do their court jester,” Galifianakis said. “They don’t do it. They just, they suck up to him. So, the ‘comedians’ that are podcasters that have had Trump on, they’re not doing their job.”
He continued: “That’s not the job of a comedian. You are to challenge, you are to make uncomfortable — you’re not to sit there and fake laugh. That is not the job of the court jester, period. So, there is a difference.”
Galifianakis exploded on the Hollywood scene when “The Hangover” was released in 2010, but had already made a name for himself as a stand-up comedian and host of “Between Two Ferns,” named after the plants on his set.
