The Interview

January 26, 2026·1 hr 23 min·8 clips

A stupid 2014 comedy somehow perfectly predicted Tucker Carlson interviewing Putin and America's current political chaos.

The Interview represents a fascinating case study in how a dumb comedy can accidentally become geopolitically significant. Hosts Chris Winterbauer and Lizzie Bassett analyze Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's 2014 film about two journalists recruited by the CIA to assassinate Kim Jong-un during an interview. The movie emerged from Rogen and Goldberg's long-standing collaboration, dating back to their teenage years in Vancouver, and their successful run of comedies under Judd Apatow's mentorship. The initial concept was inspired by real journalists who had interviewed figures like Osama bin Laden, combined with the idea of Western entertainment's appeal to dictators. Originally conceived with a fictional dictator, the filmmakers made the crucial decision to use Kim Jong-un's real name after Dennis Rodman's bizarre diplomatic basketball trip to North Korea in 2013. Sony executives were immediately uncomfortable with this choice, particularly given Japan's complicated history with Korea. The hosts provide essential context about North Korea's brutal history under three generations of Kim family rule, explaining how the country's isolation and economic collapse after Soviet support ended created the conditions that make the film's premise so provocative. Screenwriter Dan Sterling, known for his work on South Park and The Daily Show, conducted extensive research on North Korea but was constantly reminded by Rogen and Goldberg to keep it comedic rather than political. The film's casting proved crucial, with Randall Park's humanizing portrayal of Kim Jong-un being the movie's strongest element, while James Franco's manic performance as Dave Skylark fails to create a coherent character. The hosts argue that while the movie contains genuinely funny moments, it's undermined by gratuitous racist jokes and a fundamental failure to create emotional stakes. They compare it unfavorably to Galaxy Quest, which managed to make alien characters deeply sympathetic while maintaining comedy. The film accidentally predicted several current events, including Tucker Carlson's Putin interview and botched CIA operations in North Korea. Despite its flaws, The Interview became the center of one of the most significant corporate hacks in history, transforming a mediocre comedy into an international incident that would reshape how studios approach controversial content.

As heard by us

A comedy about a bad movie that ends up feeling uncomfortably close to reality.

What Went Wrong makes The Interview feel less like a one-off comedy than a strange artifact of its moment, with the Sony hack hanging over it and the film's biggest absurdities circling back into reality.

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Why you'd press play

If you want the Sony hack story through a movie-making meltdown, press play.

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