Comedian Adam Carolla Talks New Show, ‘Crank Yankers,’ Being Funny in 2024

Adam Carolla's name has been synonymous with comedy for decades. Beyond standup comedy, Carolla's name has been attached to comedy shows, sketch comedy shows, reality TV, DIY programs, and of course, the "most downloaded podcast in history," The Adam Carolla Show.

Besides comedy, one of the constants in Carolla's life has been his fictional character Richard "Dick" Birchum. Carolla created the character on KROQ radio about 30 years ago, and after a brief retirement, brought him back for the hit Comedy Central show Crank Yankers. Now, that character is the star of the new animated series Mr. Birchum, which just premiered on DailyWire+.

I was privileged to chat with Carolla about the new show, as well as his colorful comedy career. I grew up a big fan of Crank Yankers, way before I was old enough to technically watch the program, which revolved around celebrities making (real) prank-calls to businesses.

Carolla has never been afraid to speak his mind. One of the questions on the tip of my tongue was asking if he was ever concerned about the public backlash on social media, or what I refer to as "the daily outrage machine" (a phrase I first heard from director Raja Gosnell):

I've always just sort of subscribe to [the idea of] 'if I think it's funny, I'm going to say it.' It's not a popularity contest [....] For me, if I think it, and it's funny, then I need to say it, and if, I think it's true, I need to say. I got into a lot of trouble during COVID times because I said a bunch of stuff that didn't make me popular, but I happened to believe it was true, I happened to be correct about, so I talked about it. That's sort of the job of the comedian [....] - Adam Carolla

Beyond that, Carolla gave some tremendous insight into the production of Crank Yankers, including how him and the various voice actors (co-creator Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, etc) conducted and recorded those famous prank calls from the state of Nevada. Nevada is the only state where a call can be recorded with the consent of only one party (the caller), as opposed to both.

I also had to ask him about Road Hard, his feature directorial debut back in 2015 I really loved (and named one of my favorite films of that year). Following the lonely life of a comedian doing sparsely attended shows and staying in suboptimal hotels around the country, Carolla said he wanted to write a movie about what he perceived as the undiscussed and unglamorous life of a comedian.

Take a listen to my interview with Adam Carolla below, and learn more about him on his official website!