Andy Richter is recognized for two things: his comic genius and his explosive temper. While everyone in show business recognizes that he is one of the funniest people at work today—he can be funnier while doing nothing than most would-be funny people are while… well, trying much harder—he has been known to dress down friends and foes alike, and fisticuffs are one of Richter’s favorite solutions to even the smallest conflicts. He co-starred for many years on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and after retiring from that post developed and starred in a prime-time comedy called Andy Richter Controls the Universe, which was, according to many, much too good to survive. The show’s closest comedic sibling might be Strangers with Candy, the long-running HBO comedy starring Amy Sedaris. The Believer sat down with Richter poolside—true!—in Los Angeles and talked about comedy, and the likelihood that something as distinctive and actually funny as Andy Richter Controls the Universe ever had a chance in the first place. All the while, of course, we were concerned that at any moment something would set Richter off, and we would soon find ourselves on the floor, with him above us, panting, slapping us with the back of his hand, cursing and possibly even drooling. This did not, in fact, happen, but after we finished conducting what we thought was a very friendly interview, Richter, convinced we had “pulled one over on him,” insisted on adding his commentary to the transcript. Below is the actual interview, interspersed with Richter’s post-interview commentary and beginning with his thoughts about the endeavor in general.

—Jonathan R. de la Manzana, Jr.

SR. DE LA MANZANA,
YOU SNEAKY SON OF A BITCH. I DON’T KNOW HOW YOU DID IT, BUT SOMEHOW WHILE WE WERE HAVING WHAT I THOUGHT WAS A VERY PLEASANT CONVERSATION BETWEEN TWO INTELLIGENT PEOPLE, YOU MANAGED TO MAKE ME INTO THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE ON EARTH. WAS I HYPNOTIZED? HOW COULD I NOT HAVE CAUGHT ON TO WHAT YOU WERE DOING TO ME? YOU ASKED FOR MY NOTES ON THE TRANSCRIPT, SO HERE THEY ARE, YOU OILY, SABOTAGING SCUMBAG.

THE BELIEVER: A strong argument could be made that Andy Richter Controls the Universe was not really meant for survival on prime time, and seemed from the start like a stranger and smarter show, one that you’d be more likely to find on cable. But still, the show was given a shot on basic TV, and it didn’t succeed in that marketplace. Can we talk about scale? What if I said that you really have to choose a scale for a mass-media sort of form like TV or...