“The State” and “Wet Hot American Summer” star Michael Ian Black gets in on the YouTube generation’s fun with “SMOSH: The Movie,” playing eccentric billionaire villain Steve YouTube, who sends the SMOSH guys (Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla) literally into the Internet to try to undo an embarrassing viral video. And Black, as it turns out, has a handy trick for playing that type of character. How familiar were you with the whole SMOSH thing before this? So how did they explain it to you? Has this created a chance for some sort of reconciliation? How do you get into the head space of a character like Steve YouTube? It works for you, I think. RELATED:VIDEO Cameron Dallas and Marcus Johns talk Vine success and Expelled What do you make of the whole YouTube thing? If you’d had this kind of platform like this when you were starting out with “The State,” how different do you think things would have been? RELATED:Video: A full length ‘Wet Hot American Summer’ trailer is here at last You could argue a lot of the popular YouTube stuff owes a lot to “The State.” That’s fair. Very humble. You’ve got a lot of TV projects going right now. Why are you on everything? Is that where you’re looking to stay?
Zero. I was aware zero.
Well, I mean, it’s easy to explain. Once I’d heard of it, I understood it immediately. They’re a comedy duo who are extremely popular on Facebook. And my son knew all about them. And because my son and I don’t speak, that’s why I hadn’t heard of them before.
It has. It’s the only thing that’s brought my son and I together. Things are going much better now. Much, much better, all thanks to SMOSH.
You just act a little bit like a dick, and that’s easy for me. I’m just wired to be a little bit of a dick.
Thanks. (laughs) I’ve based an entire career on it.
Well, I certainly support the ability to create content and put it out there and have people watch it, and YouTube is the premium platform for that. So I guess I’m a big fan.
Probably much different. I can’t say they’d be better or worse, but the ability to just create stuff and find an audience so easily probably would have changed everything — in terms of what we did, how we did it. But who knows what the result of that would’ve been, whether it would’ve been better or worse.
Unquestionably, nobody would be where they are were it not for me. I mean me singularly. Just me.
I’m trying to keep it as modest as I possibly can.
Well, I’m on three. And it’s a result of probably poor or maybe good timing and not any resurgence or renaissance in my career. I don’t think. I think my career is still safely in the toilet. That’s the hope.
Well, it’s comfortable.
Michael Ian Black: The trick is being ‘just enough of a d—’
