It's tough to find a job these days and, sometimes, tougher still to keep one. Just ask Rob Corddry, who has been fired from many, many jobs--and lost out on a few too.
We've all been there, but in light of--and to make light of-- how difficult it is to find (and keep) a job these days, Golden Grahams has been running the Golden Grants Stimulus Package promotion, which calls on people to Tweet their most ridiculous job search story and awards 75 Golden Grants a week at random. (A Golden Grant is 12 boxes of the cereal.)
Some of those Tweets have also been made into short animated videos. Currently in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he's shooting the film Butter, Corddry spoke with Fabio Periera about his funniest job search story, which Golden Grahams has animated for your viewing pleasure.
Fabio Periera: So, what was the part that was written for you and you didn't get?
Rob Coddry: I can't say, I really cant say. They wanted to put it in the actual (commercial) and I was like, "Oh you can't. You can't do that." I don't even know if is still on television and wasn't necessarily that it was written for me, but it was one of those things where (they say), "This was written for you. There's no chance that you're not going to get this. This job interview, this audition--it's a studio formality."
So this was for television?
Yeah, actually it's not in animation. It was a very funny sitcom. The story is, that this producer--he was in his car when he called me--and he says, "This is a total formality. Like, we may as well start paying you already. It's just the studio can't give anybody a job without reading for it." And I go, "Ok, no problem." And then he goes, "Wait, do you have a cold?" (Laughs.) "Is that the way your voice sounds normally?" And I was like, "Oh no, I'm not going to get this!" (Laughs.)
Oh my God, that sounds horrifying.
Yeah, he's a very well-known television producer and a very good guy but-- (Laughs.) It's just very funny.
Yeah, I can imagine. But you're obviously doing very well otherwise--
Yeah, I don't need those guys! (Laughs.)
Well, there's The Daily Show, that went well...
Sure, no complaints!
And you're also working on a film called Butter right now aren't you?
Yeah, I'm actually down in Shreveport today. For a month.
What is that film about, if you don't me asking?
Well no, of course. It's a political satire set in the world of butter carving.
Ok...
If you think that's made up, butter-carving, I invite you to Google it. Um, it is a really, crazy, insane world.
What is it, exactly?
People get together, I think in the Mid-West, in Iowa--our movie's set in Iowa. The Iowa State Fair is famous for it. There are sculptors who sculpt very intricate sculptures out of butter. And they're paid a lot of money to do so and it's really, really crazy and very real and wild.
Ok...
And delicious.
And delicious! So tell me a little bit about your character in this film.
To tell you the truth, I play the opposite of every character I usually play. The character I play now is as nice and sort of reserved as Lou, the character I played in Hot Tub Time Machine. It's a total different role than I usually get to play. He's an actual nice guy.
So, what is Butter a satire of?
As far as I can tell, I believe it's a satire of the race for the Democratic nomination--(Barack) Obama and Hillary Clinton--and sort of the old guard versus new guard politics.
So, did your work on The Daily Show influence your work here? They sort of seem like they'd be in a similar vein.
It does seem that way, right, but it's definitely not--it's the least over political satire you can imagine. Like I said before, I didn't even know it was a political satire. I had to be told it was a political satire. It's really, at its core, a really nice story about this little ten year old African American orphan who decides she's gonna take on the world's greatest butter carver.
Wow.
Yeah, and it stars Jen Garner and Hugh Jackman and Ty Burrell and Olivia Wilde. And Alicia Silverstone plays my wife., somehow. Somebody somewhere thought it was plausible that we were married.
What's it like working with Alicia Silverstone? This is her first movie in a while, isn't it?
Yeah, she's been doing a lot of theatre in New York and she's great, man. Such a pleasure to work with and so sweet and cool. And very good, like she ups my game.
It sounds like the whole cast is pretty great. What's it like working with them so far?
It's great. They're all very nice people and I think it's gonna be a really special movie. It was good enough to attract all these epoeple and the director, his name is Jim Field Smith, is a really wonderful guy and yeah, I think it's gonna be great.
What kind of other characters do you want to play?
Well, I always say, because it's true, I wanna play a rock star. I'm getting a little too old for that but I got to have a taste of it in Hot Tub Time Machine. I wanna play a baseball player. And that's, uh, I'm getting up there as well. (Laughs.) I might have to play a retiring baseball player. And I want to play a superhero. All the things I want to play, I think I'll be too old for in a year or two, so I better get on it.
I guess if they did Kick-Ass 2, you could be a superhero in that?
I'll be like Aging-dot-dot-dot: aging rockstar, aging superhero, aging baseball player.
What else do you have planned to work on coming up?
Well, I'm just putting the finishing touches on my TV show, Children's Hospital, which is going to premiere on Adult Swim in July.
Tell me a little bit more about that.
Oh, it's great, it's this thing I did on the Internet last year and it got picked up on Adult Swim and we just shot the second season. And we're premiering the whole thing, web series and all, in July and it's sort of a--it's kind of like Grey's Anatomy in that it's about really beautiful, inappropriate doctors boning each other at work. But in this case, you know, work is a children's hospital.
(Laughs.) And what character do you play in this?
Oh, I play Dr. Blake Downs. He's a clown doctor, less in sort of the Patch Adams way. He's a clown, but mostly just by race. He's really probably the least funny person on the show. He's a huge dick and takes that very seriously.
And who else worked with you on the project?
Oh, we have a great cast. Megan Mullally, Henry Winkler, Lake Bell, Erinn Hayes, Rob Huebel, Ken Marino, David Wain, who also produced it with me. Who else? We've got a bunch of great guest stars: we've got Jeff Ross, Ed Begley Jr. Ernie Hudson, Adam Scott, Matt Walsh--a lot of really great people.
Were most of the cast part of the web series you did last year, or did they just come on board for the actual series?
All our main characters were in the web series, except for Malin Ackerman, who is one of the main characters in season two.
Nice.
Eva Longoria also makes a guest appearance.
As who?
Well, it's... It would be giving away a huge seasonal plot point if I told you.
What do you think about the web in terms of launching series. I know that Kevin Pollack did a web series, Vamped Out, about a vampire struggling to get cast as a vampire in Hollywood. How do you think the web does in terms of launching new forms of entertainment?
Well, you know, we were kind of lucky. I did this during the writer's strike--basically something to do while all pens were down and it was an opportunity to do what I wanted to do and no TV network would have bought this show. It's just kind of crazy and out there and really not conducive to television at all, except for a place like Adult Swim. I love the opportunity the Internet affords in terms of development, but it's also kind of a failed experiment I think. We're the only show to ever get picked up, I believe, or at least get reshot (and) picked up as a TV show. So, I wouldn't advise anybody to--if you wanna pitch a TV show, pitch a TV show. If you wanna have fun and not get paid a lot of money and you have an idea that's conducive to a short-form Internet idea, do that. We never thought we'd get picked up for TV.
But there is some weight to it. There was Joss Whedon's Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, which did really well, so there's obviously something to using the Internet for showcasing entertainment.
Oh yeah, I mean people spend a ridiculous amount of time on the Internet, mostly wasting time. And we've seen with Funny or Die and Doctor Horrible and with other web series--like Clark and Michael sticks out. The idea is, I guess, to produce stuff to fill those many moments of downtime that people seem to have at work.
What do you watch in your moments of downtime at work?
Well, I usually go to--if I'm gonna watch a video, I go to Funny or Die and search for my friends and watch their stuff.
See anything recently that you liked?
(Laughs.) Yeah, one of my best friends writes and directs for Funny or Die. His name is Seth Morris and pretty much anything he does is a sure thing. I did a video with him called "The Broner"--"Rob Corddry has a Broner." It's about guys that get erections for their friends in a very platonic kind of way. He also did a video, I forget what it's called, but it's (about) the tiniest cock in porno.
(Laughs.) What?
It's a mockumentary about a guy who has the tiniest cock in porn. It's hilarious.
(Laughs.) Wow, that sounds amazing.
Yeah, it's great.
I just wanted to wrap up by asking about this project you did for Golden Grahams. Why did you do it? There are so many people who are out of work at this point and share their horror stories on blogs and with their friends.
Well, I'm kind of known for having had many, many horrible jobs that I was usually fired from and it was just an opportunity to tell one of my stupid stories. It's also, you know we were talking about the Internet, it's sort of--it's very creative. It made me look at advertising in a different way as well. It's a way to do cool ads. I'm really proud of this thing. I think the animation is awesome and I think it's a funny story. And look, if we can sell some Golden Grahams at the same time, we're doing God's work.