We Are the Creators & Executive Producers of THE LEAGUE on FX, Ask Us Anything

What is the most ridiculous idea for the show that just barely missed the cut?

Let's start with the two we had to cut for time this year - for starters: do you realize that we only get 20:45 of air time for each show?? That's basically the worst part of the job - getting the shows to time. Back to the question. In the S3 Premiere "The Lockout" we had to cut that whole run about Rafi's obsession with the Smurfs (They're 3 apples tall but their dicks are an apple and a half long...) We posted it on our FB page: www.facebook.com/theleaguefx. And next week in the "Bobbum Man" episode - there is a crazy beatnik Jazz performance with Taco, Pete and Rafi that we had to cut for time. We'll post that one on FB too next week.

Hahaha. No other show handles social media like you all do and know it doesn't go unappreciated. Deleted scenes? AMAs? Hilarious twittering? Perfect.

Glad to know - Im responding to you on my laptop under a urine stained bridge in downtown LA

MORE MR MCGIBBLETS!!!

I guess this is as good as any place to announce that YES Mr Mc Gibblets is BACK this season!

How many of the cast and crew are real life Eskimo brothers/sisters?

Follow up question, which is stronger, a murder boner or a fear boner?

I have never watched this show, but if this comment is somehow relevant I think I need to start.

It's more than relevant - tears were shed.

Is Taco actually the genius of the group? He always seems to be trolling everyone else but just playing dumb.

Finally someone gets it.

This. Changes. Everything.

Right? yeah. Right? yeah.

Will we ever meet the out of town guy?

Yes - you will meet "CHUCK" this season , played by Will Forte. He's hilarious - and has a really bad habit...

Who would win in a fight: cast of The League or cast of Always Sunny?

Probably an even match until Rafi dives for the knife

Are you guys counting online, dvr, and other playbacks in your viewership totals? I love this show but rarely watch it when it is scheduled.

Thank god they're starting to - our SEASON 3 Premiere was the most watched League Episode ever, so maybe its catching on? You tell us.

For the record, I don't give a shit about football, but I think The League is one of the funniest shows on TV. It doesn't hurt that I have a ladyboner for Nick Kroll.

When I heard they were making a show about fantasy football, I thought any stupid idea could get a pilot and run. Then I actually watched the show and realized I was the stupid one.

Glad we are responsible for your shitty self esteem - sharing the load with your disappointed parents. Wait, am I a dick for writing that? Can I be a dick if I don't have a dick? - Jackie

Have you guys had any scenes that just took forever to get right due to laughter etc? I mean, I would imagine Andre's dating video to take ages

Excellent Question! Episode 2 of Season 2: Bro Lo El Cunado - Rafi was like kryptonite to Ruxin - Nick kept laughing every time Jason talked about Vanilla scented candles. We had to search through the takes to find one where his shoulders weren't visibly shaking TOO much. If you look at that very last shot, you can still see it from behind

Taco in the kitchen in Season 1 in the Mr. Mc Gibblets episode trying to explain that he peed a little in the suit. And again, Taco getting sketched nude with his "lilt" in Expert Witness in S2 - poor Jon LaJoie kept laughing and then his cock sock would slip and the over eager Wardrobe guy - yes guy - kept having to re-adjust it. If the network came to visit the set that night they would have shut us down for sure.

How do you guys come up with the outfits that Andre wears?

This gets a video response

just shot it - will be on www.facebook.com/theleaguefx tomorrow am

How easy is it to get players on the show? Do any of them watch the show previously?

To borrow from Matthew Berry - humblebrag: We currently have more players (1st round Fantasy picks) who WANT to do the show and are fans than we have realistic space to put them in. We do have one more announcement on that front coming this week....

And you picked brent grimes? haha.

no in all seriousness, though.... i don't really like the episodes that have NFL players w/ cameos just for the sake of putting them in the show...

I think It WOULD be pretty funny though, if you did some sort of twist. Like get a nice guy like tom brady or peyton manning to come on the show and make them out to be a humungous asshole the entire episode. Or have rafi be the cause peyton manning's neck injury... or have him "DICK PUNCH" some NFL star.

Brent Grimes was AWESOME. And lovely to step in when a bunch of the players we originally confirmed were their team's players reps in DC for the CBA. We are Grimes fans for life. He worked that Shiva krunk cup like nobody's business.

Do any of the guys play fantasy football in real life? Also I assume Ruxin is equally a bad ass off set.

We have a 8 team league together - and Nick Kroll is a bit of a drunk tinkerer

Can we expect a Shiva-reunion?

We love Janina, very possible...

I just came here to say that Nick Kroll deserves a goddamn Academy Award for his facial expressions.

Wait until you see Jeff Goldblum as Rupert Ruxin do the Ruxin face. Its going to blow your mind

What was your guys' career path out of college? (How did you guys break into tv writing/producing?)

And also, have you all been working together for a while or did you come together specifically for this show?

Jeff was on The Harvard Lampoon and the worked on CONAN before starting on Seinfeld at 24 (he got hired when he pitched "George eating out of the Trash") Jackie was a studio executive for Warner Bros and Working Title and then a producer. She developed OLD SCHOOL, DISTURBIA, THE TRAILER PARK BOYS MOVIE and UP IN THE AIR. Most importantly - has anyone see EUROTRIP? It's a movie Jeff co-wrote and directed and Jackie produced. So yes, we have worked on stuff together before, but this is actually the first thing we've written together. Oh yeah, and we are married.

Oh yeah, and we are married.

Wow! Haha. Is it working out?

If it doesn't you guys are fucked and there won't be anymore League. But no worries, so far so good.

Where did the idea for the show come from?

Co-Creator Jackie Marcus Schaffer. FF lover, and FF widow. And current reigning champion of "The League's League" - the League with us and the 6 lead cast.

Just wanted to say that the scene in the public library with Scumbag Randy was hilarious.

-Public Librarian

Thanks - this made writing that worth it.

Will The League always be a half hour show? Is there anyway to at least get a few hour long specials?

On 11/10 and 12/22 we will air TWO episodes back to back - If we get picked up for a 4th season maybe we should do a one hour special.

How hard was it to shoot the gay butt sex scene with Rafi?

The car that showed up from Transpo Dept was the wrong car. So I had to use my car - the silver SUV. It reeked for 2 days. I cursed Rafi and Russell for stinking it up. Then I realized our new labrador puppy had peed in the back after wrap that night. This is a 100% true story.

Katie Aselton is hilarious on the show. How easy/hard is it to write for a husband/wife duo for The League?

Easy, because we are married to each other too. Hard because they are better looking - but we try.

How hard is it to film with the children? Are they present for all the dialogue between the adult actors?

They're like tiny little line repeating sponges. Ruxin's kid can't stop saying "balls deep" and last week the girl who plays Ellie asked the set teacher what a strap on is - What did Whitney Houston say? Children are our Future? We're fuuuucked.

Can we have an entire episode where Ruxin eats and sings about Crackers n' Jelly in his kitchen?

If FX will pay for it, we'll shoot it, and then we'll watch it at home on a loop. We love it too.

Has lobbying started for Season 4? I can't go through that Season 3 drama again!

@fxnetworks - go for it!

Thank you for consistently being hilarious. How hard is it to keep S&P from ruining an episode?

At the risk of getting fired, we are cutting and pasting an actual email exchange with SandP re the Vaginal Hubris episode: As with the previous cut, we still have issues with the song “Vaginal Hubris”, including (but not limited to) “clit”, “bearded clam”, “peach”, etc. Lets discuss at your earliest convenience. Our response: We are trying to figure out a way to believably loop a couple things and fix asap as requested. Do you think there is any way at all you could approve the following: She's proud of her pussy, her peach, her bearded clam is well groomed. WHAT IF WE CHANGED PEACH TO "PIECE" AND CHANGED TO "BEARDED HAM" Her vagina is a church and her clit is the steeple, her vulva is one of Barbara Walters' most fascinating people. IF WE CHANGE THE ABOVE LINE CAN WE KEEP "CLIT" IN THE SECOND LINE?

Best. Email Exchange. Ever.

Behind the scenes stuff with S&P fascinate me most. How clinically you have to discuss and negotiate certain words. Like with the South Park doc that recently aired, the funniest prt was the girl talking to S&P about people shitting into each others mouths and the call ended with "..and happy Easter to you too." I could watch a whole documentary on shows dealing with S&P alone.

That is an excellent idea for a doc. We could name 100 show runners who would treat it like therapy.

6:44 PM - We are back for a last round of answers.

I was reading an article from Matthew Berry in which he talked about his guest appearance on the show. He mentioned that much of the dialogue on the show is improvisation. i was wondering to what extent that is true? How much direction are the actors given in a scene? Great show!

We didn't give Matt the script for the episode, just his scenes so we can understand why he didn't know the process of how we make the show. We write a very detailed single-spaced 12-14 page scriptment that has scenes and a lot of dialogue. But the great thing about our process is that the actors can bring their own take/ jokes/ ideas to the dialogue and we also write new jokes on set - similar to the process that Jeff did "on the floor" when he ran Seinfeld and does still on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" Also, fun fact: in the ending we originally wrote, that character that became Matthew Berry's cameo was single and was vulturing that girl from Andre. There was a whole exchange where he rips Andre for not needing the girl because Andre literally feels girls up for a living as a plastic surgeon - and Matt Berry only gets hit on by guys. The scene ended with that speech from Berry saying "I never thought Id say this but I can't wait to get back to fucking Bristol". Unfortunately, ESPN probably wouldn't have liked if we said that, and Matthew Berry is married with kids now, so it didn't make sense. So last minute, we changed it - and it was so great - largely because Matt is a great writer and helped us re-jigger it in a way that worked for him personally and professionally and is hilarious.