Zach Galifianakis Stood Firm Against Hillary Clinton’s Team Over Email Jokes in 2016 ‘Between Two Ferns’ Interview

Comedian Zach Galifianakis has never shied away from pushing back against powerful figures, as he recently shared on Conan O’Brien’s Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast. During a discussion about modern celebrity interviews, Galifianakis revealed that he nearly canceled Hillary Clinton’s 2016 appearance on his Between Two Ferns show after her team instructed him not to ask about her email server scandal.

“I could tell she didn’t want to be there, and I totally get that. I get it,” Galifianakis recalled. “But before we had set that whole thing up, they wrote back, ‘Well, you can’t bring up those emails.’ And I go, ‘Well, we don’t have to do the interview.’”

He continued, “‘Totally, that’s fine. We won’t do it.’ When you tell powerful people no, it’s crazy. They were like, ‘OK, well, you can ask.’ Because it’s not that important to me to do it the way they want to do it. You have to, if you’re going to get them on a comedy — you’ve got to do it the way we want to do it.”

The interview, which aired in September 2016, became one of the most talked-about segments of the show, with Galifianakis famously grilling Clinton on her email controversy. Clinton later admitted in her memoir that she initially hesitated to do the interview due to concerns about the format.

Defending the Role of Comedy in Challenging Power

During the podcast, Galifianakis criticized modern comedians and podcasters for “sucking up” to celebrities and politicians instead of holding them accountable. “A lot of the podcasters that have the president on now, they don’t do their court jester,” he argued. “They just suck up to them. So the comedians that are podcasters that have had Trump on, they’re not doing their job. That’s not the job of a comedian. You are to challenge, you are to make them uncomfortable. You’re not to sit there and fake laugh.”

O’Brien agreed, noting that subjects who embrace humor about themselves, like former President Barack Obama, come across as more relatable. “I know it reflects well back on the president,” O’Brien said. “And our current president would do well to understand that if he let himself be the butt of the joke, it’s humanizing.”

Galifianakis interjected, “It’s impossible. You wouldn’t do it with him. It wouldn’t work.”

Comedy First, Politics Second

Galifianakis, who is currently promoting his Netflix series This Is a Gardening Show and AMC+’s The Audacity, emphasized that comedy should always come first, regardless of the guest’s political leanings. “I’m more interested in the comedy first,” he said. “And whatever their motive is, fine, but the comedy has to come first.”

He also dismissed the idea that media outlets only target conservatives, arguing that self-deprecating humor benefits everyone. “There’s this misconception that the media just wants to go after conservatives, and they don’t understand that everyone benefits when they laugh at themselves, period. Everyone wins. Yes, if you laugh at yourself, it humanizes you.”