Tooning Out the News creator tells how he gets high-profile people to submit to brutal interviews, says there are some people he wouldn't have on

The Daily Beast

“There is this thing, which you’re probably aware of, which is that people like being on television,” R.J. Fried, who portrays news anchor James Smartwood, tells The Last Laugh Podcast of landing prominent people for humiliating interviews. “And that tends to maybe appeal to their worst instincts.” Former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, for example, “was more than happy to come on, to the point where it was almost off-putting and afterwards informed us that he had a great time and would love to come back," says Fried. In fact, Fried has a list of people he wouldn't have on Tooning Out the News. “There are definitely guests we’ve turned down because we didn't want to give them a platform," he says, citing conservative commentators Ben Shapiro and Tomi Lahren as figures who “might gain more from it than we would.”