Daaaad! Even Will Ferrell’s kids think his dad jokes are lame

He’s one of the funniest men in Hollywood, but there’s one group of people who aren’t laughing. And if he can’t get a giggle what hope do the rest of us have?

He may be one of Hollywood’s funniest and most successful actors, but Will Ferrell, 47, doesn’t need to look too far to find his harshest critics. It seems his three sons: Magnus, 11, Mattias, 8, and Axel, 5, are his toughest audience.

“My boys don’t find me funny. They find everyone else funny but me. So, I don’t try anymore,” he says, shaking his head for dramatic effect. The Anchorman star is raising his brood in his hometown of Los Angeles with his wife of 15 years, Swedish actress, Viveca Paulin.

Do any of his offspring show any burgeoning signs of their dad’s comedic talents? “Well, the middle boy is the entertainer. His one move is to just pull his pants down so I don’t know if he got that from me. It’s probably part of his genetics.”

Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart in a scene from the movie Get Hard.

Ferrell is at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills to promote his latest comedy, Get Hard, in which he starred in and produced. In the role of the buffoonish, racist businessman, James King, audiences are treated to an up close and personal view of his bare buttocks, a body part with which we’ve become familiar in movies such as Old School (2003), and more recently, Casa de mi Padre (2012).

“As producer of the film, I ordered myself to be naked,” he deadpans. “No, seriously, being naked was a character choice. I think it really set up what a conceited asshole James King is because he enjoyed waking up naked and subjecting his staff to his nakedness.” He sighs. “It’s pretty much how I live my life.”

Actor Will Ferrell in scene from film "Old School". /Films/Titles/Old/School naked nude

Get Hard has been heavily criticised for its racist and homophobic content. Ferrell’s character is sentenced to ten years in prison for a white collar crime. He naively assumes that Darnell Lewis (Kevin Hart) a car-wash attendant must have some jail time experience simply because he’s African American. He hires Lewis to teach him some much-needed survival skills to cope with his upcoming stint in jail; most importantly how to avoid being sodomised.

In response to an audience member at South By Southwest (an annual film and music festival held in Austin, Texas), who tweeted after the screening that the film was racist, Ferrell says, with a hint of frustration, “It’s interesting. I watched it at that screening and it played through the roof. People weren’t walking out. Actually, that one person’s comments were taken out of context. What was left out of the quote was ‘….and I thought the movie was hilarious.’”

He went on to explain, “I wanted to portray a guy who is ignorant about how the world works and I always relish the chance to be outrageously funny and offer a social commentary. Regardless of whether it’s a PG or an R-rated movie, comedy is subjective; some will like it and some won’t.”

Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart in a scene from the movie Get Hard.

And in an uncharacteristically serious moment, he says of today’s climate of political correctness, “It’d be interesting to see how a movie like Blazing Saddles in this time of social media would do with audiences. It would be (feigning a scream) ‘What’s going on?’ And that’s a comedy classic. So not to say we’re heading towards that with Get Hard but you have to be willing to take those chances. The same thing Kevin (Hart) and I share is that we are both fearless.”

Alison Brie (Community, Mad Men) plays Ferrell’s fiance. I tell Ferrell that Brie said earlier on that day she was impressed with his simulated sexual skills. He quips, “Oh, I told her: ‘Let go; be free.’ No. I don’t actually remember that day.” He jokes, “My marriage is on the rocks right now because of that scene.”

MAY, 2003 : Comedian Will Ferrell & wife Viveca Paulin during Sydney Harbour BridgeClimb 05/03.

Ferrell and his younger brother, Patrick (who has appeared in many of his big brother’s films) grew up in California. Their father was a musician with The Righteous Brothers, and their mother was a high school teacher. Their parents divorced amicably when Will was 8 years old.

“When did I know I was funny?” Ferrell says repeating the question out loud. “It was July 17 last year.” He pauses. “Well, I was a funny kid at school but at the same time, because my mom’s a schoolteacher, I towed the line. I couldn’t mess up at school so I was a good student.”

He graduated from the University of southern California with a Bachelor’s degree in Sports Information. After being fired from such random jobs as hotel valet and bank teller, he joined the comedy improv group, The Groundlings. His career took off in 1995 when he joined Saturday Night Live where he remained a regular fixture until 2002.

Ferrell will reteam with Mark Wahlberg (with whom he starred in The Other Guys) in his next movie, Daddy’s Home, and then appear in the much-awaited Zoolander sequel, in which he will star with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, repricing his role as the megalomaniacal fashion designer Mugatu. Zoolander 2 is due for release in 2016.

Undated photo. Actor Will Ferrell as Magatu in a scene from the film 'Zoolander'.

Given that the world of comedy is said to be the entertainment industry’s toughest genre to crack, Ferrell, for the most part consistently hits the winning goals. “Personally, I’m amazed that there is an audience that thinks what I think is funny because as a comedian when you’re starting out you’re having your own thoughts and it’s really all by chance that you could make a group of strangers laugh,” he says.

Despite Ferrell’s stance on remaining fearless in his work and testing boundaries, he confesses that there is one gig in Hollywood that would cause him to lose his nerve. “Hosting the Oscars,” he says, without hesitation. “I’d be much too afraid to do that.”

Originally published as Daaaad! Even Will Ferrell’s kids think his dad jokes are lame