With Portlandia I don't think our intention is always to find something funny. Sometimes the humor comes from taking something really seriously. We're okay with making somebody feel uncomfortable or uneasy.

And there's a visceral fun in watching Team America and making it like taking a puppet and throwing it against the wall. Because it's not CG there's something funny about it.

If I'm in something funny I like to try and find some kind of serious line in it that people can relate to.

I was going through a little bit of turbulence in my career. And so it's funny how turbulence itself will make you hold onto something for security. And so the only thing I knew is trust in the Lord and lean not unto your own heart in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path.

Everything seems fine until you're about 40. Then something is definitely beginning to go wrong. And you look in the mirror with your old habit of thinking 'While I accept that everyone grows old and dies it's a funny thing but I'm an exception to that rule.'

Plus I love comic writing. Nothing satisfies me more than finding a funny way to phrase something.

Mmmm... the comedy that matters is the comedy you pull out of thin air. It's a bit like when something funny has happened and you try to explain it to someone else and end up saying 'You had to be there.'

I don't dismiss the music that I was involved with I don't think it was a joke I don't think it was funny or a phase I don't think it was just something I was doing back then to me it was who I am. It connects all the way through. I don't distance myself from any of it.

I think there's something in the fact that it's hard to be good looking and funny. You have to have an oddball quality people have to sympathise with you to find you funny.

It's funny how I use social media because I don't use it to promote my restaurants that much. I use it for social issues and I think that's what it's for. I do a few things - I mess around with music a lot because that's a passion of mine. If something strikes me and I want to share it I do.