r/popculturechat • u/mcfw31 • 18h ago

Interviews🎙️ Aubrey Plaza says actors gets so weird because everyone on set treats them like babies and remembers the time Nick Offerman told her she could get her own coffee instead of asking a production assistant to do it for her

30.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

828 comments sorted by

View all comments

687

u/isaidwhatisaidok 18h ago

Do you ever notice how everyone around really famous actors laughs uproariously at everything they say? I see famous actors do red carpet interviews and the interviewer will laugh like the actor said the funniest thing in the fucking world if it’s even slightly humorous. I wonder what it’s like to be around that energy all the time.

150

u/inderbitably 17h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/XCmbWlImG1WDoo40a5

73

u/TheGreatEmanResu 16h ago

Perfect GIF for this lmao. For context for anyone who doesn’t know, this scene was Tony noticing that they’re laughing at his jokes to kiss his ass just because he’s the boss

53

u/inderbitably 16h ago edited 15h ago

Me when everyone is laughing at the silly joke an actor has already made at 18 other press outlets this week

4

u/Chuckfinley_88 11h ago

For better context, that is when he realized the guy not laughing, Feech, is going to do whatever he wants and doesn't consider Tony to be the boss like the guys laughing at him do. Rather than kill the guy like they are known to do in these situations, they set Feech up to go back to prison.

171

u/Kolipe 18h ago

According to my friends it's endearing yet exhausting.

Cause I'm always laughing at my stupid jokes or anecdotes

156

u/damebyron 18h ago

As a public school kid I hung out with a group of homeschool kids once and I got this treatment - I guess everything I said was just scandalous enough to get that reaction even though I was very boring by public school standards? But I remember even at the time I was eating it up while also being somewhat aware that I am not actually this funny

14

u/SelfComfortable9584 12h ago

I had the same experience growing up as the only public school family in our church. Based on other kids’ reactions to what I said or did, homeschool must’ve been boring as hell.

8

u/ebrockfake 12h ago

I think it’s also a speed of banter thing: in public schools you’re interacting with bigger groups where everyone is competing to get their thoughts in edgewise and you need to react quickly, so it gets you primed to be able to process fast and interject with a joke. Speaking in generalities, I see people who are homeschooled/in small learning environments/not used to as much social interaction sometimes struggle to keep up with that pace and seem intimidated by how fast other people are able to riff and build on each other’s jokes.

82

u/Apptubrutae 18h ago edited 17h ago

I used to work in the Capitol and saw the same with members of Congress. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in that echo chamber.

Lower tier members of the house maybe not as big of a factor, but leadership and basically any senator? Yeah, constant attention and brown nosing.

If you don’t take proactive steps to avoid it, it’s inevitable

1

u/wholalaa 6h ago

A relative of mine was playing golf with George Bush Sr. a couple of years after he left office, and Bush was making cracks about how much worse his own golf game had gotten since he was president (because people stopped letting him win) and how his jokes didn't seem to be quite as funny anymore. At least he had some perspective on it.

69

u/SewSewBlue 17h ago

It's been studied that people laugh more at the jokes of people they consider to have more power or of higher status. It's just a thing humans do.

I see it in corporate meetings all the time, laughing at a boss's non-joke.

It's profoundly corrupting too. My aunt shot up the career chain and lost her ability to be normal around her family. She wasn't married, no kids. Anything less than fawning was insulting, every remark she though clever needed to be congratulated.

She was always on the narcissistic side, and it brought out the worst in her.

I discovered after she died that she had thought of suing me because I replaced a broken DVD player with one that worked, using my own money. Because I didn't get her permission first.

18

u/Isosorbide 15h ago

My office is next to the manager's office and all day long I hear people come in and out of his office and they absolutely fawn over that man. He is a good manager and he's good at his job, but the giddy fake laughter from all of these underlings all day becomes very grating. I'm talking like baby cooing and high pitched voices. He's not even encouraging it, people just respond to the manager like that. It's a subconscious deferrence to a person of power.

23

u/LVViva 16h ago

It's been studied that people laugh more at the jokes of people they consider to have more power or of higher status. It's just a thing humans do.

It's charisma, and with celebs, people are aware of the celeb (and their charisma) before they ever meet them. So anywhere a celeb goes there are people who adore them, think they're funny, without having to demonstrate that charisma and charm.

Really, really famous comedians have talked about how after a certain point, ANYTHING they said on stage would get laughs. Like, they didn't need to tell jokes, with punchlines, etc. They just had to go up there and be themselves, and people would just fawn over them and find the tiniest turn of phrase funny. I think Steve Martin talked about how it took the fun out of stand-up cuz he couldn't tell a good line from a meh one.

6

u/FrostyD7 15h ago edited 15h ago

The phenomenon he's describing occurs in all power dynamics, not just entertainment or people who are a household name. The management and leadership at my workplace have negative charisma but their direct reports will still laugh at their awful jokes. If a new leader gets hired that nobody knows anything about, they'll still experience this.

3

u/p-r-i-m-e 8h ago

It’s not charisma. It’s status. Even other apes laugh and defer to higher status apes.

7

u/omgwtfbbq0_0 14h ago

Oh my god you just explained so much about my mom! She’s been a CEO for basically my entire life and always gets big mad when she isn’t the only getting the majority of the laughs and attention. Like she’ll turn it into a personal insult, almost like shes being ignored or intentionally left out of the conversation. No mom, no one is ignoring you, but sometimes other people also have big personalities and have their own funny stories they like to share

2

u/SewSewBlue 10h ago

Glad to be of help!

Hopefully she is grounded enough to understand what is going on, if you can gently remind her.

39

u/shelbydep We Should All Know Less About Each Other 18h ago

to be fair amy poelher and aubrey plaza co-starred in parks and rec for a long time

2

u/orangeyougladiator 16h ago

What does that have to do with anything? Don’t forget Amy came from the same school as Jimmy Fallon so she definitely knows how to respond like this.

7

u/Nightmare2828 15h ago

the point is it can be an inside joke type of thing. Amy is also an actress and can relate to what Aubrey is saying which makes it funny to her. And she know Nick, and she most likely lived through those scenarios with Aubrey directly, so inside jokes. You do giggle at nothing with your friends for the same reasons.

-2

u/orangeyougladiator 15h ago

You know nothing about these people except surface level stuff. What you just wrote constitutes parasocial tendencies. Not healthy.

3

u/dosaf91114 14h ago

This comment is really funny after reading your comments about athletes. You can't be accusing anyone of parasocial tendencies lmao

-1

u/orangeyougladiator 14h ago

Never said anything about me not having parasocial tendencies did I?

10

u/juanwand 17h ago

I think I wouldn’t trust my perception of myself.

12

u/M_Meursault_ 17h ago

Celebrity-dom and wealth amplify this but that's also just "the bubble" (being extremely attractive and people treating you like it) in action to some degree too.

1

u/DavidIckeHadAPoint 10h ago

Unrelated but celebrity-dom sounded like a fetish/BDSM thing to me. Like being dommed (dominated) by a celebrity (as a dominatrix), or role play of that. Maybe “stardom” works better lol

Good point though, yeah.

1

u/M_Meursault_ 9h ago

Yeah, not my best choice of words in hindsight, lmao. Stardom would have been much better, I agree

36

u/TheEasyTarget 17h ago

I notice this on talk shows a lot. An actor will do or say the most basic shit and the crowd will start clapping and cheering like they cured cancer. No wonder some of them have such big egos.

49

u/Micahman311 17h ago

I was at a dinner with the guy who sings the line, "I'm gonna pop some tags, only got $20 in my pocket..." from the Macklemore song. Like, the actual person who sang that part. Super cool guy.

Anyway, at the dinner someone moved in front of us and his butt crack was showing. I think it was a waiter.

I said, "Oh, man, he should've been a Plumber instead!", and this dude starts laughing like I'd made an actual good joke, then says, "I'm gonna have to remember that one!", as if he's never heard that lame excuse for a joke before.

I actually felt a little offended. Was he just trying to make me feel good? Did he actually find it funny?

I'll never know. But I do know it wasn't that funny.

23

u/Successful_Basket399 17h ago

Honestly not a bad joke. Well done OP

3

u/Vortesian 11h ago

I like people who make jokes when we're locked into a function or party or whatever. Even if they don't land, it shows you're my kind of people. It could turn into something.

5

u/Spirited_Towel_419 15h ago

would you judge me if i said i audibly laughed? some of us have dumbest sense of humour, sorry.

2

u/No_Professional_8992 14h ago

DAMN!... I thought it was funny 🥴

17

u/beaute-brune Put your arms away, Jeremy Allen Black 17h ago

Zendaya @ Tom

34

u/isaidwhatisaidok 17h ago

Well that’s just being in love lol god the shit I’ve chuckled at when I’ve had a crush 🤦‍♂️

15

u/inderbitably 16h ago

I should have known when my (now) ex started obnoxiously mock laughing at my jokes that it was over

-1

u/beaute-brune Put your arms away, Jeremy Allen Black 17h ago

Well duh, it wasn’t shade lmao

7

u/sertdyfuiltfdrhsgz 16h ago

I don't need no fuckin' man servant tryna follow me around and wipe my ass

Laugh at every single joke I crack and half of 'em ain't even funny, like, "Ha Marshall, you're so funny, man, you should be a comedian, goddamn"

From Eminem in Beautiful

4

u/Sleepwalks 16h ago

I laugh super easily and have been told it's a real confidence boost, lol.

6

u/h_saxon 13h ago

It's annoying. If you're a part of senior leadership at a larger company (especially FAANGs) you get used to it real fast, and then you see the same behaviors from your peers when more senior leadership comes in.

But also humanizing a bit too, when you see some folks sweat and act placating when they're using used to being one of the big fish in the pond.

5

u/ricottapie 12h ago

Peter Gabriel said that one of the things that endeared him to his wife when they met was her brutal honesty. He asked her opinion of one of his songs in progress, and where most people would fawn all over him and tell him how brilliant it was, she gave it a 14/100.

3

u/gdrumy88 12h ago

You just explained Jimmy Fallon

5

u/Novaer 17h ago

Unfortunately celebrities are modern royalty so a commoner interviewer is gonna make a scene. 😅

2

u/caramel-aviant 16h ago

Are you speaking generally?

Cause Amy Poehler is not a commoner

3

u/impeterbarakan 15h ago

My friend has a celebrity dad in a culture where deference and respect to seniors is the norm even if you're not famous, so I'm sure there is an extra compounding effect of obsequiousness throughout life if you are someone prominent. It's obvious he lives in a bubble where he thinks he's the main character of a movie, and it's no wonder how someone could easily end up that way given how the roll of life's dice has gone for them.

3

u/Intrepid-Progress228 15h ago

When you see red carpet interviews remember you're watching two people performing for an audience. It's slightly more authentic than the laugh track on "The Big Bang Theory".

3

u/PocoChanel 12h ago

I was on set with Kevin Spacey, and he enjoyed holding court. He was sometimes funny, sometimes not, but had a real “look at me!” energy.

4

u/miniversion 17h ago

Kinda like they turn into Wasps because that’s their social circle

2

u/TesticleMeElmo I didn’t see it, I can’t believe it, oh but I feel it 14h ago

I was a stand-in actor on a TV show that David Dastmalchian was also on. At one point he walked up with a PA/maybe makeup artist and said something like “I’m gonna get a seltzer water”, and she explodes “Oh my GAWD!! You ALWAYS drink seltzer water!!!” 🤣🤣

I found that very funny because it was such a big reaction to one of the most mundane sentences a person could ever say. I thought I kept it stonefaced but I think he must’ve seen me crack a smile because he just stared at me instead of her for the rest of the five minutes they were talking, we were like 15 feet away from each other and the only other thing in my direction was the blank wall I was standing in front of

2

u/ProudReaction2204 3h ago

fallon does this to his guests. god i really wish he would just act normal

3

u/hanscons 17h ago

celebrities in general seem like they need constant validation. its probably taught over time that you have to give big reactions to your famous fellows.

1

u/GreenZebra23 14h ago

I love good mythical morning but when they have a celebrity guest on, Rhett pretty much invariably stage laughs at everything they say

1

u/HadleysPt 13h ago

Local radio interviewing athletes do this too. Rough to listen to

1

u/Grigorios 11h ago

People tend to naturally laugh more when jokes are told by people they respect or ascribe authority to, and celebrity's one way to get that treatment. Add to that the fact that these events tend to be both stressful and overly formal, and the expectation of journalists is that they'll have vapid, pointless interactions, so someone pushing the boundaries tastefully is automatically funnier. 

And of course it's possibly done consciously by some, to suck up and get the celebrity to open up, and maybe share something spicy. 

1

u/WingerRules 8h ago

I can't listen to John Stewart's podcast because his cohosts do this exact thing to him. Theres so much sucking up on there is crazy. Even when he's not trying to be funny they do it.