Name: Ben Stiller | You Made It Weird
Uploaded: 2022-06-15T07:00:14.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ben Stiller | You Made It Weird' from Pete Holmes on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-06-15. Transcript available. Ben Stiller makes it weird! #ymiw #youmadeitweird #benstiller #peteholmes.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ben Stiller | You Made It Weird' from Pete Holmes on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-06-15. Transcript available. Ben Stiller makes it weird! #ymiw #youmadeitweird #benstiller #peteholmes.

Ben Stiller | You Made It Weird

You made it weird. You made it weird. You made it weird. Oh yeah. You made it
weird. You made it weird. Yes you did. You made it weird. Oh yeah. You made it
weird. With Pete Holmes. You made it weird. Yes you did. You made it weird. Oh
yeah.
What's happening weirdos? Welcome to our third video podcast or our like 900th.
If you're listening to this old school, which I hope you are. I'll always love
my audio friends, but hello to our new video friends. This is Ben Stiller. He's
an actor and a comedian and a director. He also, he directed my favorite show
of this past year, which was called Severance. Ever heard of it? It's
incredible. It's on Apple TV. I absolutely,
absolutely recommend that you check that out. And if you're in a need for a
laugh, who delivers better than Ben Stiller? Check out anything. Why am I
plugging Ben Stiller? He'll be fine. People are, we're glad he's here. He did
us a favor. So we're glad that Ben finally came in to sit down and chat. We
really hope you love it. Check it out. Why am I being so weird today? We really
hope you love it. Check it out. Nothing to plug is what I'm saying. Get into it.
I was venting. I watched press with you. If it's okay, we're recording now. If
that's all right. I'd like that. Yes. It's not a trap. I just don't like WKBBL.
I'm sitting here with the man Zoolander himself. It's not that way. And I
should say up top, I told your fine people that it's not a gotcha show. You end
up saying something you don't want it in. We take it out. This is something we
build together.
Sweet. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And you're welcome and safe. And you'll
have, you know, a good week to think about. If you're like me, you'll wake up
at 2 a.m. and replay moments.
Oh, God. Yes. I just do that in life anyway.
I do, too. I do, too.
Yes. And it's not recorded.
Since I got, I stopped going on social. I don't go on social media. I have the
account.
What's wrong with you?
Dude, I mean, well, I saw you found the artist for the Severance opening on
Instagram, which is such good.
It's first of all, the music is incredible. And the opening, I don't think I
skipped it once. And is that a fine compliment to that artist? I mean, like,
they really nailed it.
Yeah. And that is true. I saw him on Instagram. But since then, I got off of
Instagram.
Okay. So you're more on my side.
That's the one social media that I'm not on. I'm still on Twitter. But
Instagram, I decided to quit. But before that, I just stumbled upon Extra Weg.
That's Oliver Lata, the artist. That's his name on Instagram. And I was just
blown away by his weird animations and really cool stuff. And it just sort of
clicked like, oh, this would be cool for the show.
Yeah, well, that's so when I got off, you know, we post, we post, but I can't
go on. And then when I heard that you found that guy on Instagram, I was like,
am I being an idiot? Am I like locking myself off from how art is consumed? You
know what I'm saying? Like, am I making myself irrelevant in some way?
I don't think you are. I don't think you are. I honestly don't think you are.
There's too many other pitfalls, you know, that you get caught up in. Like, for
every one Extra Weg, there's like 40 or 50, you know, accounts that you shouldn't
be looking at that start you thinking about things. Like, for me, just like in
my life, I'm like, wait a minute, what's that guy doing?
You don't need this.
I should be doing that.
I got forwarded something. I'm doing a TV show right now. And I love doing it.
And I got forwarded an article that had nothing to do with the TV show. But so
I read it. It pertained to something, but not directly. But then in the article,
it was like, the show, which is on the bubble for renewal. And I was like, on
the bubble. Like, I didn't need it. I didn't need it.
No, no, it's really, you get bombarded with just things that in pieces of news
and information and events that just can totally spin your day into a whole
different direction, for sure.
We talk about this all the time. We're so susceptible to priming. Have you
heard of priming?
No, what's that?
Priming is literally, we're priming one another right now. If I say kindness,
if I say patience, if I say silliness, which might serve this podcast, you're
more likely to be this.
And this is why advertising works. And there are all these great examples where
they test how quickly someone walks through a hallway after having heard the
word rapid or quick or swift or preview for Sonic the Hedgehog.
They walk faster. Ben, here's a better one. I'm going to make your day better
because these studies changed my life. You get on an elevator. You're
participating. You, Ben, are participating in a study.
You get in an elevator. Someone hands you a cup of coffee because they have to
tie their shoe. They go, can you hold this? You hold it.
Later, after the study, which has nothing to do with anything. It's a fake
study. It's a ruse. They ask you, describe the man who handed you the coffee,
right?
Ben, if the coffee was cold, people say he was cold. If it was hot, people say
the person was hot. This is the world we're living in. So one comment...
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let's go
back a second.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay.
Somebody comes up to you or me and asks if we want to be part of a study, first
of all.
Yeah, yeah.
But it's a fake study. But it's actually a real study.
All the studies are fake. All the good ones. All the good ones. The study is
bullshit. You get in there and they're like, which one's a circle? And you
think you do great.
But it's a real study about priming. That's what it's called? Priming?
Yeah, priming.
So somebody's doing a study on priming, but they tell you they're doing a fake
study on something else, which seems ethically already. It's like a little bit
weird to me.
All of science, Ben. All of science is like covert and suspicious.
Yes, because they know, because human beings, like, you know, you read those
studies. This actually kind of ties into severance, which, by the way, I want
to say, I think it's the best show of the past 10 years.
I really mean that.
Oh, jeez. Thanks, man.
It's a masterpiece.
Well, all credit to Dan Erickson, who's minding.
We'll edit this out. We're going to edit this out. Dan Erickson, go to living
hell.
All credit to me.
The clock is jumping time in the background. To me, Ben Stiller. No, no, no.
What was I saying? Oh, fuck.
Are you talking about how these studies related to severance somehow?
A little bit. It doesn't matter.
But can I just ask you, while you're thinking about it, because, like, the
whole thing to me…
No, it's gone.
Okay. But the whole thing to me with the study about, first of all, the hot and
cold thing, it's like somebody's hot, like you thought the person was hot, good-looking,
or just hot, like warm?
No. Warm.
Like a warm person, like somebody you like.
Their personality is warm.
Got it. That's so weird.
Well, you have to.
I know you're saying people in life are doing this now, like, intentionally,
like in business meetings, people are trying to, like, manipulate, like, it's a
methodology that people have to try to get people to do things.
But if you're smart, you are, I would say.
Right.
Door-to-door salesmen, I remember reading this somewhere.
When you open the door, they would start nodding their head, yes.
And that was a micro-prime.
It was a way to prime, you know, this podcast is a lot of priming.
A lot of times I'll, and it's not by design.
It's just I noticed when I would share my feelings, the guests would share
their feelings.
That's intentional because you're kind of interviewing, too, so you want to,
you know, you foster the conversation and take it in a certain direction, right?
Sure.
I mean, I feel like people do that sometimes consciously and also subconsciously
just in life, for sure.
Now, I'm thinking about that in my own life, you know, when I'm talking to
somebody, when I want to, not like for some sort of malevolent reason or, you
know, to have some sort of an agenda of any type, but just sort of like when
you're trying to connect with somebody, right?
And finding common ground who you don't know, maybe.
I think that's huge.
And what we're doing, I feel like, and I'd love to know what you feel like, so
much of my life as a sensitive person is sending out a little sonar.
It's almost like I'm blind and like a dolphin or some animal like that.
I send out sonar.
And if you ping it back, that's how I'm sensing who's safe, who, not only who's
safe, but who might I enjoy.
So you might set out something self-deprecating and if somebody sends it back
your way or, I have to imagine you do that.
Do you relate to that idea of like looking for life?
I mean, I'm literally thinking like when I say hi to somebody.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Just when you say hi to somebody you don't know, you're like all your sensors
are out and you're just like, okay, how's this person going to relate to my
high?
Are they going to be nice?
Are they going to be straight?
Are they going to be cold?
Are they going to be, you know, are they going to like, I can, you can get us
or maybe I'm assuming or maybe assuming too much about it or I don't know.
But like from just the high, how they respond to that, you get immediately you
judge them on a certain number of levels, right?
Completely agree.
Nice guy, strict guy, serious guy, you know, all that.
And Malcolm Gladwell's book, Talking to Strangers, Malcolm did the pod not long
ago and he said the number one thing we should remember from that book is we're
almost always wrong with our first impressions.
I found that to be life changing, yet we think we're right.
Yeah, for sure.
And I think that's something hopefully you learn as you go along in life that
you definitely kind of put up your defenses sometimes and will assume the worst
or assume something from a sort of a self-preservation standpoint.
And definitely you're proven wrong a lot.
I know there are so many people who I've had that experience with.
I've also found, if we're talking about that, that when I allow myself to drop
my defenses preemptively, if I remind myself, hey, you know, this person is
having the same reaction that I'm having to them when I say hi or when they say
hi.
So when I am aware of that and can go, you know what, I'm going to be more open,
that makes a huge difference.
I was just talking to Val about, that's my wife, about this, which is like when
you're a kid, you go on a date and you think you're nervous.
When you're a grownup, you go on a date and you realize you're both nervous.
You know what I mean?
Right.
What lunatic, nobody I would want to date, would be just like fine and
comfortable on a first date.
Like you have to be a little bit uncomfortable.
Yeah, but that's also, and that's just in life, just the, just in life and
encountering new human beings.
And, you know, when you live somewhere like New York where people are just, you
know, have their defense shields up all the time and there's just, you never
know what's going to happen on the street, you know?
And like, because it always could be like, oh, that could just be a crazy
person, you know, or somebody's going to attack me or it's, you know, someone's
wrapped up in some life issue.
And I mean, it's just, it happens all the time where you just like, you're,
there's, it's almost like sensory overload.
So you naturally, you know, go to a place where you sort of, I mean, it's also
different when you're recognizable in life too, I think.
I think we put up our, our sort of, you know, some sort of a protective shield
when you're walking through life just to, because you just don't know how
people are going to react to you also, you know?
Yeah. Well, I have to think it's, at your level, it must, it must be
simultaneously sort of safer.
You know what I mean? Like there's times when it feels kind of nice.
Like I love David Letterman. I've said this a mil