The question on everyones mind, did Brick really love lamp?

this is sort of the "rosebud" Citizen Cane mystery at the heart of the first Anchorman. Keep in mind Brick's sense of first person / third person is different than all of ours. To say that Brick loves the lamp assumes that he sees the lamp as separate from himself, which I do not believe he does. Brick has a prelapsarian epistemology that does not include a separate identity from the world. In other words he and the lamp are one. If one reads the writing of St Thomas Aquinas, it is clear that an absence of love only exists when there is ego separation. Brick does not have this ego separation. Therefore, he not only loves lamp…he loves carpet, Ron, barracuda, credit card tray and all of us.

How is Pearl, the landlady? Does she still have a drinking problem?

Pearl is now 8 years old, plays the violin, makes movies on iMovie and is addicted to Zevia Root Beer.

Will there be a step brothers 2? Please

Unfortunately not anytime soon. Anchorman 2 is enough sequel for now, but I can tell you there will be another Will Ferrell / John C Reilly movie. We're working on a couple ideas.

Have both of them act as waterboy-type characters for a martial arts dojo. They are both too weak/not talented enough to join the dojo, so the sensei (preferably played by James Hong) just lets them do all the maintenance work for the actual students.

One day the sensei decides to take one of them on as a pupil, but they both must train for (insert time here, you could make it 6 months, or make it from when they are boys, and they train for years and come back as adults), in separate foreign locations, and come back at a set time and fight for the spot.

They come back and discover the dojo has been destroyed, by whatever type of character (american soldier, enemy martial arts dojo, etc) played by Rob Riggle. They then have to fight through cohorts of Riggle's students/soldiers. They fight Riggle, and after they strike the killing blow, Riggle's face falls off, revealing the sensei, and some heartfelt idea or saying before he dies. That or it could be Kristen Bell underneath, and they enter a devil's threesome marriage (alternate ending).

Sound good?

It's been my dream to meet Will Ferrell, hit me up if you want to make this movie, and I'll see if I can make time in my schedule (new semester coming up).

I've already handed your pitch into Sony. We start location scouting tomorrow morning.

BTW you clearly know your martial arts movies. "American Soldier" as a stock villain is hillarious.

What's the experience of working with Will Ferrell like compared to other top name actors?

Will is not as tough as Sam Jackson or Liam Neeson. He's not as big a movie star as Will Smith. He's not as good looking as James Marsden, but goddamit Will Ferrell has heart and that counts for something in this world.

Hi Adam,

Thanks for the AMA! I have to ask about the marketing of the movie. I have never seen a push for a film like this. It seems like Will is in a new city everyday. New commercial plugs with Will. How did you all plan all of this out?

From our end it didn't feel like a push. We love this character and we had a lot of opportunities with creative freedom. I wish we could have just parceled it out over the next 5 years. I know it was a lot of Burgundy at one time.

What are your 5 favorite SNL sketches you wrote?

1 Old Glory Insurance with Sam Waterston

2 Wake up and Smile with Will Ferrell, Nancy Walls and David Allen Grier

3 Angry Boss with Pierce Brosnan and Will Ferrell

4 The Procedure with Willem Dafoe - short film that never aired, but you can see it on Funny or Die

5 Bill Brasky

Honorable mentions: OBGYN, Neil Diamond VH1 storytellers, The baby and the German intellectual, Centaur sketch with Chris Walken, Jeopardy

With The Other Guys, The Campaign, and now Anchorman 2, you've started bringing in a good measure of social responsibility and sharp satire to mix with your anarchy and absurdity. Is there a reason why you feel you've been including more of this commentary in your work?

It's pretty hard to ignore how f-ed up America and the world are. I feel like as silly as our comedies are, there has to be at least a dash of the real world in there. Plus a lot of times, banker greed, Fox news, and election fraud can be quite hilarious.

What is one of your favorite memories writing for SNL? Were you able to meet Chris Farley during your time there?

It was amazing to live in NYC and work on what is now really the last old school live television show. I remember having to run down the hallway with 20 seconds to go before air with changes for the monologue and having to do the changes on the floor as the cue cards were being put in front of the host…we were only 3 sec in front of what the host was reading. Feel lucky to have been there.

I hear Anchorman 2 is great but i'm personally not a fan of sequels. How can you convince me to check it out?

One simple sentence…there is a love song to a shark. If this doesn't convince you we don't want you to see it.

Have you considered working with Aubrey Plaza? She seems like she'd fit well with your brand of comedy.

Also, what's your favorite Christmas song?

Yes, would love to work with Aubrey. She's hilarious, beautiful and talented. I think Judd got to her first, but I'm guessing some day it will happen.

My Favorite Christmas song is either Run DMC Christmas in Hollis or Burn Hollywood Burn by Public Enemy (technically not a Christmas song, but I listen to it a lot on Christmas)

What was it like working with Kanye?

Kanye was Awesome. I was struck by how funny he was. He actually improvised one of his laugh lines in the movie. Extremely thoughtful guy and yes he performed a couple of his songs live on set.

How are you liking your new Tesla? Damn, those things are nice

I literally can't shut up about the Tesla. I'm not a car guy at all and I'm now spoiled for all other cars. Haven't been to a gas station in 8 months. And we have solar power at our house…so I love giving no money to creepy oil companies or coal plants. Supposedly Tesla is coming out with a more affordable model in the next couple years. Highly recommend. I also drove a Chevy Volt and that car kicks ass too.

1) How do you rank your movies in terms of personal achievement? 2) Is there one moment that you fought hard to get into any of your films and were denied the chance? If so, please describe 3) How often do you see Gary Sanchez? Hell of a guy...

I love each movie we've done in different ways, but the one that I always laugh at when it's on TV is Step Brothers.

We always talked about step brothers ending with Dale and Brennan joining the army and driving into Fallujah asking "this was a good idea, right? " Probably better we didn't end the movie this way.

We see Gary Sanchez 3 times a year. Always in international waters.

Hi Adam,

Thank you for doing this AMA, my wife and friends and I are all huge fans of all your work! We actually life right near Great Valley High School!

Ever since the first time we heard the Anchorman Unrated Commentary, it has become one of the most quoted things among all our friends. My question is, how the hell did you guys get Lou Rawls to participate in the commentary?

P.S. – the Wake Up Ron Burgundy commentary with “Aaron Zimmerman” is incredible.

I'm very impressed that you guys are name checking Aaron Zimmerman. That is obscure Anchorman knowledge. We got Lou Rawls by simply calling him. He had no idea who Will Ferrell was or what Anchorman was.

obligatory intrusive personal life question:

now that pearl's getting older, how aware is she of her time in the spotlight (the Landlord, Baby Cop)? does she show interest in your work, or is she still too young to understand her dad's job(s)?

Pearl just watched Anchorman for the first time and went to the Anchorman 2 premiere. She is starting to ask if she can act now for the first time. So yes, she's aware. Plus she has a 1 line part in Anchorman 2 so all of her friends are freaking out.

Favorite film(s) of 2013? (besides yours)

So far Prisoners…love that movie. 2 1/2 hours long, but never lost me for a minute. The script was so good. Thought it was adapted from a novel it was so dense and layered. Also loved Dirty Wars, a doc by Jeremy Scahill. And then thought Pacific Rim was vastly underrated.

My question is, did sex panther have an actual scent or was there nothing actually in the bottle?

Do you really want to know? Or is this like a 5 year old asking if there is a Santa Clause? I refuse to answer this…but I will tell you, when the cap was off the Sex Panther Bottle there definitely was a smell. You tell me what you think the smell was.

What's your very best life advice?

Whenever life gets tricky, confusing or uncertain tear off your shirt and run as fast as you can for a mile. Then usually things will work out. And also, always take a penny, never leave a penny.

Hey, huge fan! I'm skipping Christmas to see Anchorman 2! What are your favorite books? Also do you listen to podcasts? Biggest inspirations? Thanks for doing the AMA!

First off, anyone who chooses Ron Burgundy over their family at Christmas time is clearly an enlightened being. Let me know when you write your self help book and I will read it.

I love Paul Auster, James Ellroy and I have to admit I devoured those Gillian Flynn novels in 2 nights.

I'm also addicted to Radio Lab, Improv for Humans and Owen Burke and I do our own podcast called "Owen and TJ read the News" (warning it's very NSFW and quite odd)

Who is someone you would like to work with in the future?

I'd love to direct Melissa McCarthy. Also, I want to work with Steve Coogan and Richard Jenkins again.

How many push ups can you do in a row?

God I'm really terrible at push ups. If I really have to…I think I could do 30, which is pretty pathetic. But, I can do 100 crunches…well, I have done 100…I don't think I could right now. Lest anyone think I'm in good shape, I can't do 1 pull up, but I can catch an arrow mid flight with my bare hands and have killed a hyena with a butter knife.

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There's a drop of truth to that. I was drinking with Ferrell and Koechner when we started to improvise the characters. However I'm not 8 ft tall and I can't sell a rubber to the Pope.