SB Nation's Eric Sollenberger has been hanging out at South by Southwest this week, and he attended a panel called "Now Athletes are Funny: Power of Comedy and Sports." One of the panelists speaking was Adam Richenbach, an executive producer at Funny Or Die Sports who, as Sollenberger tells it, shared an anecdote about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's legendarily tight ass.
During the panel, Richenbach told a story about how Goodell was almost a guest on Between Two Ferns, a faux-talk show hosted by an awkward and surly Zach Galifianakis. The comedic formula behind Between Two Ferns is a simple one: The celebrity guest plays the befuddled straight man, and Galifianakis plays the openly hostile, this-close-to-coming-unhinged host. It works every time, so long as the guest doesn't take him or herself too seriously. Barack Obama did it!
Of course, the NFL had a problem with this, and informed Richenbach that there would be no jokes made at the commissioner's expense. And then things got really good. From SB Nation:
In an attempt to salvage the interview, Funny Or Die countered by reminding them that even the leader of the free world was willing to take a joke, saying "but Obama did it, and he's President of the United States."
Richanbach said that the league shot back, "well, he's not the commissioner of the NFL."
Roger Goodell is the most hilarious brand of fucking idiot.