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Hollywood Prospectus Podcast: Special Guest Adam Pally, the Golden Globes, and John Legend

By Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan at 12:15 PM ET

The Golden Globes are the one night a year when Hollywood stars are allowed to break free from the joyless, sweat-streaked struggle of their lives and really let loose. So it stands to reason that some of that celebrity good cheer should trickle down to the Hollywood Prospectus podcast, no? After a spirited discussion of Sunday night's surprisingly entertaining ceremony — including talk of the winners (Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain, anyone at home watching Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain), losers (Steven Spielberg, Hillary Clinton's husband), and WTFs (Jodie Foster's ménage-à-hamster with BFFs Robert Downey Jr. and Mel Gibson) — Chris and I welcomed a star of our own in the form of Adam Pally, co-star of TV's funniest sitcom, Happy Endings. Adam called in on his cell phone during a lunch break (he was presumably eating Greek yogurt, not wearing it) to explain why getting two new episodes of HE per week (on Tuesdays and Sundays) isn't necessarily a bad thing. While we had him on the line, we also asked him about the dirty things the writers slip past the censors, how he'd behave in the E! hospitality tent, and what's really going on with the Knicks.

Eliza Coupe: We had a laugh attack that was honestly … I don’t know. We had another one —

Damon Wayans Jr.: We have one like every —

Eliza Coupe: Well, during the scene with the workout stuff where Pally and I decided to make each other smell certain things.

Damon Wayans Jr.: Oh man! That was crazy! Don’t tell them that!

Eliza Coupe: I’m not even going there with that one. It was one of the grossest things in the world. But funny.

Damon Wayans Jr.: Basically we just laugh a lot together.

Eliza Coupe: All the time.

In the taxonomy of sitcoms there are many species. There are workplace comedies and relationship comedies, romantic comedies and anarchic comedies. Showtime even harbors a particularly rare and delicate genus, the unfunny comedy. But in the same way the Sham-Wow guy and Shamu are both mammals, all sitcoms are really one thing: family comedies. It’s a secret sauce as basic and unchanging as what McDonald's slaps on your Big Mac: Successful sitcoms are about clashing personalities forming lifelong bonds. The characters bicker, but really they love, just like families or particularly liberal cults. If the people onscreen don’t enjoy spending time together, then the audience won’t enjoy it either. The accumulated quirks, Segways, and unseen wives should serve to accentuate the chemistry, not distract from it. In other words, it should always be about the guys and the girls. Never the pizza place.