Eric André: ‘Tell Chet Hanks to say that to my face’

Eric André is rolling around on the floor. The comedian and creator-host of The Eric Andre Show, Adult Swim’s brilliantly anarchic chat-series-cum-prank-show, dangles a webcam above his face as he speaks to me about the imminent return of the series. “It’s the most satanic season yet,” he says, before sinking into a fit of giggling. “We brought the Devil in as a creative consultant. It’s season 666, baby. Season of the beast.”

Over the course of five – soon to be six – seasons of The Eric Andre Show (streaming in the UK on Channel 4), I’ve watched André wrong-foot countless celebrities, from Jack Black to Mel B. I’ve watched him draw a swastika on his forehead while interviewing US reality star Lauren Conrad (André is Jewish), and nearly get beaten up by The Sopranos’ Bobby Baccalieri (Steve Schirripa) after holding a microphone to his penis. I’ve watched similarly madcap out-of-character appearances, including an episode of the YouTube interview series Hot Ones in which he smashed crockery over his head while belting out Tay Zonday’s viral 2007 song “Chocolate Rain”. I assume, naturally, that these antics are a performance for the cameras, that our conversation will be more of a conventionally down-tempo chat about his life and career. I am wrong.

Within moments, our interview has taken on the elastic, free-associative vibe of an acid trip. André sings a few bars of “Louie Louie” (my name). “Don’t get shy on me,” he says, a little pre-emptively. “Don’t get all coy on me like a geisha girl. Ask me anything. AMA.” He is almost completely horizontal, holding himself at a visibly uncomfortable slant for either my or his own amusement – I can’t quite tell which. I try to ask a question and am twice interrupted as he cries out, “Booyakasha”. André’s mischievous schoolboy temperament belies the fact he turned 40 last month. “Forty is the new 50, brother,” he says. “I’ll call you when I turn 69.”

Fans of André and his cult series will know what to expect from the new season of The Eric Andre Show. Manic sight gags. Meme-ready celebrity interactions. Pranks that push the boundaries of what you can show on TV. And, underneath it all, deceptively incisive pop-culture satire. Previous seasons featured Broad City’s Hannibal Burress as André’s sidekick; he left midway through season five and was replaced by Mexican comic Felipe Esparza. This time around, interviewees include actors Natasha Lyonne and Jon Hamm, and rappers Lil Yachty and Lil Nas X. “I think that the show has some cultural cachet [with hip-hop stars],” André admits. “It’s the only show like it. I suppose rappers are of my generation and younger and grew up on the same influences as me, so they’re excited to do something so crazy.”

Also on the guest roster this season – though André may already regret it – is Chet Hanks, the, shall we say, somewhat notorious third son of Tom Hanks. The actor and rapper has previously drawn criticism for cultural appropriation, anti-vaccine rants and allegations of domestic abuse, which he has denied. After filming finished, André and the younger Hanks exchanged pointed words on social media, with André claiming that the “emotionally disturbed” actor engaged in “dangerous” behaviour on set, spontaneously riding a dirt bike around the studio. Hanks shared an Instagram post calling André “a p***y”, claiming that he had been trying to “match the energy” of the show. Was this some confected beef to promote the new season? Not in the slightest. “Tell him to say that s*** to my f***ing face,” André says, emphatically. He remarks on the stark reputational divide between Hanks and his Oscar-winning father. “I don’t believe he’s Tom Hanks’s son,” he jokes. “I want him to f***ing come down here and show us his birth certificate.”

André is now supine on the floor, looking up at the phone he is holding above his head. “Were you named after Louis XV?” he asks. “I thought you were named after Louis CK.” I’m beginning to get a vague sense of what it must be like to be a guest on The Eric Andre Show, to be probed by a barrage of nonsense and provocation. “You’re my little cupid,” he coos, “and I want you to shoot your arrow to my heart.” On his series – whether it’s the in-studio interviews or the “man on the street”-style pranks – André seems an unflappable presence, impossible to throw off his eccentric comic rhythm. He insists this isn’t the case. “Most things faze me,” André claims. “It’s actually surprising how easy I am to prank. I’m very sensitive.” He belches.

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Those unfamiliar with his Adult Swim series may know André from his tabloid-catnip romance with supermodel Emily Ratajkowski. Or for his recent stint in the Jackass troupe. Or for his voice acting work, which began with a main role in Matt Groening’s Netflix animation Disenchantment (playing, fittingly, an impish demon), before he moved on to mainstream family films: The Lion King (2019); Sing 2 (2021); Trolls Band Together (forthcoming). André is a distinctly “adult” entertainer who is outspoken about sex and drug use, with a proclivity for posting full-frontal photos of himself online. I’m surprised that a company as traditionally censorious as Disney wouldn’t baulk at the association with him. André isn’t. “Richard Pryor did Sesame Street,” he says. “Eddie Murphy did The Klumps and Shrek. Chris Rock does Madagascar. You know, we’ve all done it.”

Talking of sex: André has previously suggested he was bi- or pansexual, telling the LGBT+ website Towleroad in 2016 that “sexual orientation, race, and gender” were “obsolete man-made concepts”. I ask if he still feels this way today – is there a label he likes to use for himself? “A hole is a hole, man,” he replies. “We all feel like hot spaghetti in the dark, you know?”

He goes on: “You know, the Abrahamic religions created homophobia. Before that, everybody was just sucking and f***ing. I think that’s why the Abrahamic religions created homophobia. They were like, ‘Hey, Greg, I know it’s fun to f*** your friend Ralph, but we gotta get our numbers up. Only f*** your wife.’ And then Greg was like, ‘Oh, OK, fine.’”

As well as the returning Eric Andre Show, André recently fronted the prank-based reality series The Prank Panel with Jackass’s Johnny Knoxville and Precious actor Gabourey Sidibe, in which contestants pitch elaborate practical jokes to the stars, the best of which are then staged. Over the course of filming, behind-the-scenes mischief between André and his co-stars escalated; before long, everybody was showing up to set armed with Tasers, stun guns and pepper spray. “We all had weapons on us towards the end,” he says. “It was so stressful.” How on earth did this get the green light from the show’s health and safety department? André bursts out laughing. “It didn’t. It was illegal.”

By this point, he has seemingly calmed down a bit. I take the opportunity to bring up The Eric Andre Show’s demographics: the audience skews heavily male, around 90 per cent so. “Well, it’s not by design,” André says. “It was a little bit of a bummer when I got that information. There’s been a lot of research done around this and historically [US network] Adult Swim has struggled with that in general. But my show… it’s non-narrative. It’s non-linear. There’s no emotional investment. And it’s just two dudes hosting. So that’s a big hindrance for the ladies. It’s also gross. It’s loud. It’s violent.”

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André points to his 2021 Netflix film Bad Trip – which hit upon a similar vein of hidden camera malarkey but situated it within a fictionalised road narrative – as a counterpoint. “Bad Trip was gross and violent too, but it had [Girl’s Trip’s] Tiffany Haddish, and [Bones star] Michaela Conlin, and it did way, way better with women, ratings-wise. So I think if I could do [The Eric Andre Show] all over again, I’d at least have more female cast members.”

It is true, of course, that André’s oeuvre is loud and gross – not to mention often quite crass. He doesn’t seem beholden to good taste any more than he seems beholden to wearing clothes on camera, or sitting upright in a chair. “I think there’s ‘good’ bad taste and there’s ‘bad’ bad taste,” he says, “and that line is in the eye of the beholder, and constantly changing. To apply one year’s line to another year is impossible.”

A PR interjects to say we are out of time. André holds the camera even closer to his face; more or less my entire screen is taken up by his mouth. I am conscious of the fact that I don’t understand the mind of Eric André any more than I did when we started. I see only his disembodied lips. Perhaps there’s a metaphor in there somewhere.

The lips break into more laughter. “It’s been a pleasure,” they say. “Thanks, King.”

All episodes of ‘The Eric Andre Show’ season six will be available to stream exclusively on Channel 4 in the UK and Ireland from 3 July. New episodes continue every Sunday at midnight on Adult Swim in the US