Why has Smartless become one of the most staggeringly popular podcasts in the world in under two years, you might ask? It’s not hard to understand why, once you have listened to the show.
Smartless is the joint project of jaunty threesome Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. Bateman (Arrested Development, Ozark), Hayes (Will and Grace) and Arnett (Arrested Development, Bojack Horseman), all actors with comedic leanings, know how to switch it on for the mic. They’re obviously no strangers to performing, they are long-standing friends and collaborators, and they know a bunch of famous people. It’s a no-fail recipe for instant success and a lotta money, which is presumably why Amazon acquired the early access rights to Smartless in 2021 for a reported $80 million.
It’s got such a large listenership and warm place in America’s ears that even US president Joe Biden found it within his list of leadership duties to make an appearance.
Here’s the premise: once a week, the Smartless three get together. They banter wittily about their lives: Bateman plays a lot of golf; Arnett has just become a father for the third time at 52; Hayes eats a lot of junk food and his husband Scotty is beloved to all. And then one of them – they take turns – introduces a guest whose identity is only revealed to the other two as the interview begins. Surprise! It’s Sigourney Weaver! Surprise, it’s David Byrne!
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The interview, led by whoever has invited this particular guest, wanders into whatever territory feels comfortable to all concerned, like a safe celebrity space. Arnett, Bateman, and Hayes are not trying to be journalists: they are not here to push their megawatt guests into difficult terrain or dig into celebrity psychs, which means Smartless can seem largely like a series of super softballs lobbed at experienced batters. But the camaraderie between hosts and guests ofen works to disarm the latter and allow for something fresher than your usual famous-person-talking show: Bradley Cooper recalling a come-to-Jesus visit once from Arnett that ultimately led to his sobriety; Elisabeth Moss dishing on her desire to have children. The success lies in the fact that the guests get into such a comfortable spot it breaks the traditional barriers erected between the talent and the press.
The questions – and let’s use that word loosely, given that they’re usually more multipart statements with suggested answers embedded therein – are often largely a vehicle for this trio to perform. But still over 130-plus episodes, there are nuggets of newness in spite – maybe because? – of Hayes’s complete lack of self consciousness or Bateman’s habit of leading the witness or Arnett’s unabashed sycophancy.
When I asked one friend what episodes she liked most, she went straight for “the one with Tony Hale”, aka Buster from Arrested Development. Why? “It’s like you’ve been invited to the party,” she says of their warmth for each other and their shared history, and that gets to the heart of the Smartless sparkle. They make jokes and slag each other and talk about being late because they had to bring their kid somewhere at the last minute or about swinging over to each other’s houses for a barbecue and it sounds delightfully relatable, even after you confirm with a quick Google that the house Hayes swung by is a Hollywood mansion for which Arnett paid $16 million.
So yes. They are rich and they are connected and they know a lot of famous people. But they’re also funny and charming and, contrary to the podcast title, they’re smart. In the end, it doesn’t really matter what they talk about and who they talk to – many just want to be in their company.
