It's very, very hard to do anything well and to do something well where you also need to have laughs every 10 seconds.

That's really tough.

Really hard.

Welcome back to where everybody knows your name with me, Ted Danson, and Woody Harrelson, sometimes.

Today I'm with a multi-talented comedian, actor, writer, director.

His name is Stephen Merchant, and you know him from his work on the office, extras.

Hello, Ladies.

And he's done dramatic work, stage work.

Last night I devoured, what was new to me was Outlaws. And it's just delightful. It's funny and scary and just very engaging. So can't wait for you to check that out. He is a super smart,

delightful human being. Here's Stephen Merchant.

I had the best time with you on The Good Place. So much fun. So much fun. How did they get you?

Did you know about the show? I knew about the show and also, um,

you just had admirer of Mike Scher as well from his work on the office and of course.

You knew each other there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sorry. I think there was probably a

begging email from Mike. Yeah, for sure. I can't remember, but I was, no, I love the show and it was a

pleasure to be asked and to work with you as well, was it was definitely, was definitely one of the

impulses. That's why I asked the question. Okay, I can relax now. Yeah. Well, we can talk,

I mean, we can talk at length, if you want, about what an impact Cheers had on the office in terms of the conception, the writing, you know, but we don't have to...

Your English version.

And in a sense, the DNA of the English version was in the American one.

And they definitely, I remember when I was working with Ricky on the British version, it became a conversation because, and I, people often say to me, like, what's the difference between American comedy and British comedy? And in British comedy, traditionally, there's often been a sort of built in bleakness that we're kind of willing as a British audience to accept

and to sort of indulge.

...