Jonah Hill is ready to be funny again.
So said the funnyman Saturday night while appearing on stage at Hollywood’s Palladium as the surprise guest of SiriusXM’s Smartless LIVE hosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes. Hill, who broke out 20 years ago with roles in Knocked Up, Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall to become an in-demand comedy star who got nominated for two Academy Awards for Moneyball and Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, has kept a low-profile in recent years.
But on the heels of releasing his new Apple TV original film Outcome — a Hollywood satire that he wrote, directed and stars in alongside Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz and Matt Bomer — Hill sat for one of his longest interviews in recent memory and explained his retreat from the spotlight and desire to come roaring back.
“I’ve been gone for a while, so I’m kind of coming back and I’m like excited because I got all, like, serious for a while and I wasn’t as happy,” Hill explained to the Smartless trio of quiet few years of not appearing in any major films after Kenya Barris’ You People and Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up. “And then I had my family and I got happy, and now all I want to do is be funny again. That’s why I said yes [to being on Smartless]. I’m, like, I want to go fucking be funny in front of a crowd and that’d be awesome.”
The family he mentioned is his wife, Olivia Millar, and their two children, a 3-year-old boy and a baby. He beamed while talking about all three, particularly his wife who was in the audience. “Real quick, before we go any further, my wife is here. My best friend. Shout out to my beautiful wife, Liv. Where is she? Oh, what’s up baby,” he said, as he pointed her out in a private box on the second floor of the venue. The couple moved to San Diego from Hill’s native Los Angeles around the time they had their first child three years ago. “I live in a very small town in San Diego, and it’s amazing, and my neighbors are incredible people,” Hill explained. “I wanted to leave L.A. and raise a family outside of Los Angeles.”
Hayes, Bateman, Hill and Arnett during SmartLess LIVE. Hill praised Bateman as someone he looks up to “very much,” adding, “I would call him a mentor because I admire his relationship with his amazing wife, Amanda, and the father he is to his children and he’s great at his job.”
(Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
Hill appeared genuinely giddy to be on stage while soaking in the spotlight, a moment many of his fans thought they might never see again after he released a lengthy statement in August 2022 announcing that he would be stepping back from media appearances and public facing events due to 20 years of anxiety attacks. He credits his family for the vibe shift.
“If you’re bummed, you don’t feel like being that funny, right? The first thing I thought about when I had my kids and was so stoked, it was like I connected to back when I was just like 12 and I was just being funny for fun,” he explained. “That’s the thing I fell in love with my whole life.”
Hill credits The Simpsons with making him fall in love with comedy. He said he was so obsessed with the iconic animated show that he used to record episodes on VHS and pause it during the credits so he could jot down all the writer’s names and write them fan letters. “If someone shook me in the middle of the night and asked, ‘What do you do?’ I would say, ‘I’m a comedy writer.’ That’s what I do. I write jokes every day. I go and write scripts. You don’t know this because you just see the front side of it. But most of my job is writing comedy movies. That’s mostly what I do.”
Speaking of, next up Hill will star opposite Kristen Wiig in Cut Off from Warner Bros. The comedy was written and directed by Hill and he gave the room a quick pitch by calling it “pure stupidity” and “dumb.”
“I’m about to go on a run of just the dumbest shit you’ve ever seen in your entire life. I hope you left your brains at home. It’s called Cut Off and Kristen Wig and I played two dumb ass heirs, rich kids in their mid-40s who get cut off by their rich parents, played by Bette Midler and Nathan Lane. It is like Step Brothers, Clueless and Trading Places. It’s so great. Kristen Wig is an American treasure.”
Cut Off is scheduled to hit theaters on July 17. “We are trying to bring comedy movies back to the theaters,” he addd.
After putting out back to back films featuring his multi-hyphenate talents, Hill said he’s ready to be an actor for hire. “I might take a job,” he said. “I’m so excited to just put on the t-shirt you tell me to put on and go be fun. I’m so excited like I was when I was young. It’s a fun feeling.”
Hill even promised “to try and make a movie every year that’s funny,” even if Outcome landed with less than stellar reviews. “Critics do your best, you cocksuckers,” he joked. “And then I’m going to make people laugh, so fuck y’all.”
New episodes of SiriusXM’s Smartless debut every Monday.
Hayes, Arnett, Hill and Bateman at SiriusXM’s SmartLess LIVE at Avalon Hollywood on April 25, 2026. The event was sponsored by Ashley Furniture and SkinnyPop.
(Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
