To promote a new indie comedy he’s starring in called Somebody Up There Likes Me, Nick Offerman made this ridiculous video with Adam Scott, Megan Mullally, Amy Poehler, Alison Brie, and Friday Night Lights’ Stephanie Hunt. He also did a question-and-answer sesson on Reddit, the highlights of which are contained below:
On crying:
“I cry with regularity, and I don’t mind a bit. I cried last night during rehearsal for this beautiful play Annapurna, by Sharr White, that Megan and I are doing in LA. I consistently cried at the curt but heartfelt life advice dispensed by Coach Eric Taylor. I cried when Ashton Kutcher came back to television. For all of us. For shame.”
On his college experiences at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign:
“Champaign-Urbana, Illinois made a bong-chorking man out of me. You can’t beat a great college town as a wellspring of knowledge and culture. Something cool to do on campus? Eat a couple of mushroom caps, then prime yourself with a viewing of The Wild Bunch. Walk to the quad whilst trucking to the early funk of The Meters. Pleasure yourself in the middle of the quad with as much gusto as you can manage, and when they come to arrest you, only to find that you’re jerking off onto a Michigan State jersey, they will fall onto the lush lawn with guffaws and then throw you a parade. True story. Also - visit Japan House, there lies the opportunity for a truly beautiful supplication.”
On how to be manly:
“Turn off your computer and go out of doors. Dig a large enough hole to transplant a mature apple tree. Nurture the tree, feed it, coddle it so that its fruit will be ample, bright and firm. Practice open-hand strikes against the rough bark of the trunk until it’s time to harvest. Choose the champion of your apple crop, pluck it from the tree, and beat yourself about the face and tits with it until your mettle will suffice.”
On playing Ron Swanson outside of Parks:
“I don’t like to ever play Ron when I’m not at work, even over the phone in a radio interview. Ron is not my individual property, I make him together with Mike Schur and our show, so I don’t like to whip him out at the lumber yard.”
On the three items he’d bring if he were stranded on a desert island:
“Sharp knife One dozen hogs Small seaplane”
On if he’d ever star in a show that uses his woodworking skills:
“I did a show 10 or 11 years ago for Courteney Cox and David Arquette, called “Mix it Up” on the WE channel. I was the Ty Pennington of the show, the wisecracking carpenter. The only difference was that Ty never actually did any work because Trading Spaces had a budget, which means they had 6 unseen stalwarts building armoires out in the yard, freeing up Ty to be cute as shit. On our show, we lacked the $$$, so I was hauling way too much ass trying to get furniture built and crown moulding mitred and hung in 3 days per episode, being filmed all the while. Hanging chair rail in an Elvis Presley costume while someone behind a camera is telling you to be funnier turned out to be not super fun. I learned that I should make things if I wanted to, and I should do a show if I wanted to, but I shouldn’t try to do a show and make things at the same time.”
