0:01
Nothing can be hotter than that and still legal.
Search this video
0:13
Hey, what's going on everybody?
0:13
For First We Feast, I'm Sean Evans and you're watching Hot Ones.
0:15
It's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings.
0:18
Today we're joined by Rob McElhenney.
0:20
You know him as Mac on the FX comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which is set to return for its 17th season later this year.
0:24
Keep up with him and his Emmy Award-winning sports documentary series Welcome to Wrexham.
0:29
And he also co-created in the Apple TV Plus comedy series Mythic Quest with season 4 out right now.
0:34
Rob, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. I'm a big fan.
0:39
What's going through your head as you prepare to take on these spicy wings in front of you? Are you a hot sauce fan?
0:44
Um I like when I can taste things, not necessarily feel the pain.
0:46
Um and I've watched many episodes of the show, so I know what I'm in for, but I have a feeling I don't really know what I'm in for until we get there.
1:14
My right side, Senior Lechuga. Okay.
1:18
We just take a bite and then we talk. That's the concept. Okay. I had a sweater on.
1:28
And I realized, no, no, sweater's not going to work.
1:33
You're you're I mean, I saw like you sweating right through it. I know.
1:38
I noticed you're wearing a jacket and I'm wondering if that's because of Are you actually chilly or are you hiding something? I think you look nice. You look great.
1:44
I'm just wondering You look great.
1:45
I love this polo, by the way.
1:47
I'm kind of a polo guy, too.
1:47
So, when I see one that I like pick out any of my own clothing.
1:52
I have a wonderful wonderful person that does that, named Laria, and she'll be happy that you said Laria doing a great job.
1:59
So, I heard you say that it took all of 30 minutes hanging out at the Ubisoft video game studio to realize its potential as a workplace comedy.
2:05
What are the things that you observed that made you think this is a great setting and inspiration for a show like Mythic Quest?
2:13
I would in 10 minutes of walking around I realized we had a show because I realized the video games had nothing to do with it.
2:18
It was a workplace comedy.
2:18
I watched people with big egos and big ideas and executors and the people who just had to run the office, human resources, and realized, "Oh, wow, it's just another take on a workplace comedy."
2:32
So, that's what we went with. I'm ready to go. Okay? Come on. There we go. we start? Why don't we start?
2:50
I feel like I'm going to have one of those Shack moments, which I think is one of my favorite moments of the series where he's talking [ __ ] and then all of a sudden he just stops and looks directly in the frame when he realizes he got got.
3:04
He uh And I'm wondering which one of these is going to get me got. He apologizes to Kansas. I'll apologize, Kansas. Holy I know.
3:11
I was actually thinking about Kansas cuz I know that's where Ooh. the bomb is made. too much, Rob. You know too much. my research. I want to do a good job.
3:20
So, It's Always Sunny is entering its 20th year, making it the longest-running sitcom in American TV history.
3:24
Do you have any foundational tips for preserving a creative partnership or striking that balance between ambition and sustainability?
3:34
Yes, it's uh just like any uh long-term relationship in your life, whether it's platonic, romantic, professional, you got to communicate, and you have to be able to uh resolve conflict.
3:45
Because there's three of us with that particular show, early on we realized let's just institute a rule of two against one.
3:54
And it's really really and I know it sounds silly and simple but it has been profound.
3:59
The The assumption is do you trust me? Yes. Do I trust you? Yes.
4:03
And the three of us trust each other and we trust our taste.
4:06
So therefore if two of us feel strongly about something then the other one has to capitulate no matter what no questions asked.
4:12
They get a chance to plead their case and we all have to remain open-minded.
4:18
But if the two of us still or two of them say nope this is the way we're going you move on quickly.
4:22
And it actually diffuses so many problems so quickly because you don't have time as you all know you work in production it's so expensive to run these shows you just don't have time to negotiate every single thing and you got to move fast and that has saved us I mean that has saved us hours I would actually say that that saved years of our lives emotionally.
4:51
pickled I'm very conscious of talking while I eat but that's also the show. That's yeah.
5:00
I'm not even just taking a bite but I realized I just watched a movie the other night my kids never seen Ocean's 11.
5:07
So we watched Ocean's 11 and Brad Pitt is eating through the entire [ __ ] movie. I'm serious.
5:13
You think I like at first you're like oh well you know Brad Pitt's like kind of a cliche that he eats in every one of his movies.
5:21
He's eating in every scene of the movie.
5:24
So I don't know if you can get the rights to show clips from it but whatever it's the internet so we're all wild west.
5:31
Go back and watch it every scene.
5:33
As an actor you know that too if he's eating like one sandwich in a scene he's actually eating like six sandwiches that Exactly.
5:39
That's the thing he's not spitting it out well he's got to spit out most of it I don't know but either way he makes it work. So why can't you? So why can't you?
5:50
As I was talking about comparing myself to Brad Pitt eating his, you know, I just spit [ __ ] chicken all over the all over the table.
5:58
Let's slow mo that, please. Okay, I'm sorry.
6:11
I feel like you're going to [ __ ] me at some point. No.
6:17
Do you ever rate the uh You get it a little bit? it a little bit.
6:21
Now I Now I see where this is going.
6:25
So you once said, "I feel like it's a dangerous and dark world if Sunny becomes mainstream comedy." Can you unpackage that?
6:32
I think that satire just by nature needs to be somewhat counter culture, otherwise it would be culture.
6:39
And if it's culture, then it would be taken at face value, and if it's taken at face value, then it's no longer satire, and then you can't do the things that we do on Sunny.
6:48
We're satirizing hypocrisy in culture, and I don't think we get it right 100% of the time.
6:53
In fact, if you do, then you're probably not pushing as far as you need to.
6:56
So we're always right out on the edges and on the fringes, some would say of good taste, um and they're right, and some would say of like, you know, correctness or whether you know, whether it's fair to even look at a show from 2007 or 2008 and judge it by the same standards um as as we do today.
7:17
I think the vast majority of the people that watch what we're what we do understand what our intent was at the time. Halfway mark. Really? I mean, come on.
7:37
This is a I love this part.
7:39
I I I like this is a prank.
7:43
This is the part where everyone's like, "I thought this show was going to be hard."
7:48
I thought it was going to be and then it comes. It drops.
7:53
What do you think is the most underrated regional food specialty in Philly?
7:57
I'm so glad that you asked that this question and framed it the way that you did because usually you get people saying, "What's your favorite cheesesteak?
8:04
Where do you go to get your favorite cheesesteak?"
8:06
Uh or soft pretzels possibly.
8:09
And it's almost like I mean, we Philadelphia's the birthplace of our nation and we've been reduced to uh the purveyors of diced meat on rolls as like our our touchstone. Let's stay positive. Okay.
8:27
There's something called a Tastykake and they're basically like donuts. They have jelly ones.
8:33
They're like a grape jelly, which is definitely not jelly.
8:34
It is some sort of lab-made delicious sugar But it hits. But it hits.
8:43
Well, speaking of delicious treats, are you ready to move on here to sauce number six?
8:47
feel like this is where it's going to go. Okay, yeah.
8:49
So, this one right here is called Volcano here in the sixth spot. Okay. And there's a cat.
9:07
And the cat's breathing fire or puking.
9:10
All right, this is not That's a bone. That's me losing a bone.
9:14
That's cuz you're going in. You're going in, Rob.
9:16
I'm trying to I want to do it right.
9:19
Um Yeah, that's getting there. That's roasted habanero. Yeah. Yeah.
9:27
We're simmering here a little bit on set, but it's getting fun. It's getting fun, baby.
9:33
So, do you think being a creator, showrunner, writer, do you think that's made you an easier actor to work with or do you think it's created a monster that has to pop the hood on everything that comes to their trailer? A little bit of both.
9:43
I think what it what it's definitely made me um and I Cait- Caitlin really has um curbed this with me.
9:50
I'm not a great person to watch stuff with I think sometimes because I'm always I'm not trying to ruin things, I'm trying to figure out how and why people made certain decisions.
10:01
You do this for long enough and you realize like oh that would be the most effective way to manipulate this situation or tell this story.
10:05
And I wouldn't consider myself an actor first um and I think anybody who's ever seen anything that I've acted in would agree.
10:14
Uh I think I'm an uh a writer first and so the really great actors um the ones that can just be so vulnerable and open themselves up and be weird and be okay with like it takes a special breed to be like a really really amazingly effective actor.
10:36
And so I have so much compassion for them and I love them and and uh and there's always this a certain way you have to approach things with them. I know it's coming.
10:51
When's it going to hit though?
11:00
You need more than seven spots for me. Oh, there we go. Where's the eighth spot? Up next. Yeah, no. Okay. Yeah. I get it. I get it. I [ __ ] get it.
11:21
And too, you know, like sometimes they're a little late, you know? Like you I know.
11:25
go a couple bites, you think it's fine, and then it turns up the volume on you, you know? Yeah.
11:33
Yeah, I know what you're talking about.
11:36
We got a whole episode of Sunny this year where we um um where we try we treat hot sauce like it's uh like cocaine where we start doing enough hot sauce that it gives gives us that endorse endorphin rush.
11:49
Which does happen, by the way.
11:51
So, we thought that'd be really fun and funny.
11:53
And so, we track as we get more and more addicted to the hotter sauces using the Scoville meter, which we stole from stole from me and you, obviously.
12:01
Um but um I think you'll appreciate that episode.
12:03
I'm I'm resisting this for as long as possible, but like I'm never going to tap out.
12:08
I'm going to see it through, but my kid was like, "Don't drink the milk."
12:16
And so, I'm doing this for him. for him to say. I know. I'm doing this for him.
12:21
He didn't say anything about the water, but he said, "Don't drink the milk."
12:22
But How does being an owner make you any more or less sympathetic to American sports owners in general?
12:28
How does that shift your perspective?
12:30
Like, does it make you like more sympathetic to that?
12:34
Yeah, it's you know, look, teams are going to go up and down and up and down and up and down, but then you have these organizations that maybe even when they go down they only go down for a couple of years, and then they come back up.
12:43
And then you have other organizations that just sort of are middling for so long or maybe always at the bottom.
12:49
And I always feel so bad for the for the fan base is more than anything else because they deserve something better.
12:55
But it and it has to be it has to come from the top.
13:00
That's at a certain point. Like, 5 years, sure. 10 years, I don't know.
13:04
15, 20 years of a lack of success, that's a Those are my teams. Yeah, I know.
13:08
I mean the Bears are that's tough, man.
13:10
Like, I the the football is better when the Bears are good.
13:15
I'm always straddling, and I have been since the beginning of Sunny, both being management and on the workforce.
13:19
I'm in charge of the budget, but I'm also negotiating against myself when we're you know, when we're putting together lighting packages and things like that.
13:30
And so I always no matter what will always tilt towards labor um or artists always.
13:35
Um so it's it's hard to feel sorry for the owners cuz you know kind of [ __ ] them.
13:41
I feel bad for and so I feel bad for the fan bases number one and then I will always tilt towards the players more than the owners. That makes sense to me.
13:52
Which you got to be careful about saying that cuz then the players at last and we're like, "Okay, boss." Write the check. YOU ONLY GOT THREE LEFT. Look at that.
14:09
Looking right down the barrel. It's hard to swallow. That's tough. Yeah. Okay.
14:24
Well, I thought we would get I thought we would get here. If I'm being honest. Ah, [ __ ] Yeah.
14:36
I thought we would get here earlier. Yeah. So I'm happy about that.
14:44
But there's not much else to be happy about in a moment like this. that sucks. Yeah. Yeah.
14:52
And it's not going to get any easier. No.
14:55
That's just me being radically transparent as a talk show host, yeah. That's good. Yeah, take a lap, yeah. Walk it out. Here we go.
15:09
Yeah, just find that zen.
15:17
As someone who grew up shaped and inspired by shows like Family Ties and watching Golden Girls at your mom's house on the weekends.
15:26
I'm curious, what's your Mount Rushmore of sitcoms, your top four of all time? Wow.
15:33
Seinfeld cuz I've never seen anything like that before.
15:37
Uh um British Office cuz I've never seen anything like that before. Woo.
15:46
I'm going to say Friends. I think Friends.
15:55
Cuz you've never seen anything like that before?
15:56
Uh no, I've seen lots of that stuff.
15:58
Like, I've seen lots of things like that before, but never executed that well.
16:02
And was a big inspiration for Sunny, oddly. And Family Ties. Because Michael J. Fox was my idol.
16:11
And nothing can be hotter than that and still legal. Well, when does it stop?
16:21
In like 15 or 20 minutes, this will all be just a memory. You know?
16:27
And you'll be like, I could do that again. It won't be a memory.
16:30
It'll be a television show.
16:35
This is called Sicilian Scorpion.
16:35
I will say you've been throwing down on the wings.
16:38
And you haven't had any water or milk this entire time. No.
16:42
But I notice you haven't either. I know. You know what I'm doing? cues from you.
16:47
I Well, I take them from you, so we're in a standoff. Take off your jacket. OKAY. I FEEL ALL RIGHT. WE'RE DRESSED SIMILARLY. WE ARE. YEAH, YEAH. That's what we needed.
17:06
Let me tell you more about the trials and tribulations of being a celebrity.
17:11
These are the trials and tribulations of being a celebrity right here. [ __ ] you. Yeah. Here we go.
17:23
I feel like I'm cursing too much and my my mom's going to be upset. Long leash on this show. Okay. Which stung worse?
17:29
Having your Deadpool cameo cut or being cut out of your acting debut in the 1997 film The Devil's Own?
17:37
Not even close by a country mile.
17:40
Getting cut out of The Devil's Own.
17:43
That was one of the most humiliating and terrible experiences of my life because it was my first job, my first acting job in a movie.
17:50
I got to do a scene with Harrison Ford.
17:54
I got to do a scene with Brad Pitt.
17:56
I got to see do a scene with um Jesus Christ.
18:00
Uh with Julia Stiles, Ruben Blades, all these incredible actors.
18:04
So, it was like four or five different scenes.
18:08
Then the movie's coming out and I notice I don't get an invite to the premiere, the friends and family screening.
18:16
And but I'm I'm still just starting out.
18:17
I'm like 19 or something, 18.
18:20
And I'm thinking, oh, it'll be fine.
18:22
So, I tell Of course, for a year I'm telling everybody I got this movie.
18:26
Nobody believes me cuz I hadn't worked at all doing anything else.
18:31
And then we go to the movie.
18:34
All my friends, everybody, my family buys tickets.
18:35
And I'm just not in it at all.
18:38
They cut me completely out of the movie.
18:42
Didn't give me a heads up. Nothing. They were all A-players.
18:48
And I was a D-player on the ground. I wasn't even a player.
18:51
I was on the editor room floor editing room floor. Yeah. WHAT ELSE YOU GOT? LOOK at you now. I'll let you dab me. I'd be honored. I trust you. There you go.
19:11
I don't know why I trust you, but I trust you. Okay, here we go. Let's go. Let's go. What a run, Rob.
19:19
we cheers or do Let's cheers. All right. [ __ ] up. [ __ ] up. There we go. What a run. Okay. AMA. Let's go.
19:37
And the good news is the wings of death are behind us.
19:39
Just one more question for you.
19:42
You know Now, this is actually for my son.
19:46
So that I can say to him, if I may, directly in the frame Go ahead. I beat you.
19:52
And I'm still the alpha of this family.
19:55
Now, I'm not a large man, and you will be a large man because of the genetics through your mom's line. But I will take you.
20:03
I will take you for at least the next 10 to 15 years. Let him know. Let him know. All right.
20:10
So to close things out, Rob, you're somebody with a Midas touch who's bridged entertainment in the business of Hollywood as well as anyone.
20:15
But I'm curious as a showrunner and a media {slash} entertainment visionary, do you have a note for us?
20:22
Do you have a note for this show?
20:25
And feel no impulse to hold back.
20:28
We have very thick skin here.
20:31
One of the things that we we desperately search for in the entertainment industry is the hook that gets people in, but then that hook also winds up becoming a liability because then you have to play to it and pander to it on a consistent basis.
20:44
And then you can't let character come through.
20:48
I believe you've transcended that.
20:48
I think you've got the hook that gets people excited, um and they want to check it out.
20:53
But then the reason it works is because you are so good at what you do, I I say as I blow snot out of my nose.
21:07
The people in this room are fantastic.
21:08
Your editors are amazing, and I think you're making an excellent show. Wow.
21:15
And so, if I have notes, I'll think about it on the toilet tomorrow, I'm sure, and I'll text them to you.
21:22
Oh, I can't wait for those.
21:22
And look at you, Rob, taking on the wings of death, clearing every wing, no water, no milk.
21:29
Let the record show, and now there's nothing left to do but roll out the red carpet for you.
21:32
This camera, this camera, this camera, let the people know what you have going on in your life.
21:37
Uh just this morning I I mentioned to my wife uh that I was going to do Hot Ones, and I was complaining, and she reminded me she had two children naturally.
21:50
Um I got a television show, Mythic Quest.
21:52
I've got another show, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
21:54
They both have a couple of seasons airing very, very soon.
21:58
And then there's Welcome to Wrexham. And that's it. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.
22:10
YEAH, THEY THEY SAID they I would be like the they wouldn't be able to go to school if I tapped out, which I wasn't going to, but that might want some as I don't I I I was like, "I'm probably going to drink the milk."
22:22
And I still have it, and I feel good about that.
22:23
I'll get some water backstage, but I'm not touching that. Cut cameras. Yes. Thanks for everything.
22:33
Hot Ones fans, this is Sean Evans checking in to let you know that it's a new year, a new season, a new lineup of hot sauces, and that means the season 26 Hot Ones 10-Pack is now available. Visit heatness. com, heatness. com, that's heatness.
22:49
com to get your hands on the season 26 Hot Ones 10-Pack.
22:51
Big spice, big flavor, but you don't have to take my word for it.
22:56
Take on the challenge yourself. Heatness.
22:59
com to get your hands on the Hot Ones 10 Pack.