Funny or Die CEO on the Secret to Viral Video and the Future of 'Billy on the Street'

Life

What's the last pitch you got excited about?

A pitch that cracked me up is for a fake 30 for 30 that looks back at the day that Ice Cube fucked around and got a triple-double in basketball, from the song "It Was a Good Day." I'm the perfect age for a 1992 Ice Cube joke to resonate.

What's the status of Billy on the Street?

[Billy Eichner] has to commit a vast majority of his year for those eight to 10 episodes. With the opportunities that he was getting, with The Lion King and the movie that he's doing with Shirley MacLaine [Nicole] and the TV shows Difficult People and Friends From College, it just wasn't realistic for him to devote 10 months of the year to Billy on the Street. I think Turner still has it. My hope is that we will be able to do some version of it someplace, I just don't know when or where, because we haven't really had time to talk through it.

How involved in the business are Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy today?

They are the founders and they are still very involved. We have multiple projects with all of them. Will and Adam through Gary Sanchez [Productions] are executive producers on No Activity and the Sarah Silverman show. We have a really cool thing with Will coming up next year that I think is going to be huge and awesome — to sound like Donald Trump. They know exactly what's going on. They watch a ton of the content that we make, but they also have their day jobs.

“Isay the word holistic a lot,” says Farah.

“I say the word holistic a lot,” says Farah.
What is a favorite memory from your early days producing for Funny or Die?

Lindsay Lohan made a video after she was on the cover of US Weekly and it was like this eHarmony thing. At the time she had this spray tan that she wanted to publicize and it was kind of tense on set, and so I let her spray tan me. I think [the video] is actually on Funny or Die. It got all these views because the joke was that her spray tan ended up killing me. I’ll have to save the other stories for my book.

Given Funny or Die's past political work, will you do anything for the midterm elections?

We're putting together a plan for the midterms next year because no one votes in the midterms, and if people want to enact change they are going to have to get out and vote. Speaking as an individual, I want more involvement and participation from anyone, regardless of party. The whole country is better when everyone is involved with the electoral process. I might disagree with the president, but we are all Americans first. If we can move that needle even ever so slightly, it's worth the work.

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