‘We are Right here to Assist’ Podcast Attempted to Pause. Enthusiasts Wouldn’t Let Them

In December, Jake Johnson and Gareth Reynolds introduced that their recommendation podcast, We’re Right here to Assist, could be coming to a short lived finish. The duo had launched greater than 140 episodes, on occasion devoting 5 hours an afternoon to recording, and it was unsustainable. Reynolds, a traveling comic, was once steadily Zooming in from the street and Johnson was once in the middle of generating a brand new film. It made sense to hit pause.

“It saved rising and it were given means larger than I anticipated,” Johnson says, talking from his house studio in Los Angeles. “It were given higher, larger, and we saved converting it.”

Reynolds, at the name whilst in his parked automotive, additionally in Los Angeles, provides, “Abruptly we have been doing two every week, as an alternative of 1.”

“It was far more of a task than I at the start concept it was once,” Johnson continues. “We felt just like the power we needed to put within the display, as a result of we each in reality care concerning the subject matter, was once simply now not as nice. We concept, ‘If we don’t have the time to do that proper and if we’re now not going to do it proper, let’s now not do it.’”

We’re Right here to Assist introduced in August of 2023 as an off-the-cuff recommendation podcast with Johnson and Reynolds as co-hosts. The duo took questions from callers and presented attainable answers, despite the fact that, as Reynolds famous within the premiere, “We in reality make no promises.” It aired two times every week, on Mondays and Thursdays, and it temporarily advanced to incorporate visitor hosts, like Johnson’s New Woman co-stars Lamorne Morris and Zooey Deschanel, and accompanying video variations on YouTube filmed in a studio. Quickly, there have been greater than 100 episodes. 

Sooner than the 2024 vacations, Johnson introduced the end result of Season One, telling listeners they meant to deliver the podcast again in the future sooner or later, however have been unclear when. Usually, that might be that. As a substitute, the display’s lovers despatched in hundreds of emails, begging Johnson and Reynolds to reevaluate.  

“There have been such a lot of going like, ‘Come on you assholes, you’ll’t do one a month?’” Johnson says, giggling. “[It was] a staggering reaction to a few 40-year-old young children announcing ‘We will be able to’t do that.’”

“We’re higher on the display, which makes it extra a laugh”

The answer got here unusually simply. Podcast community Headgum known as and presented a 52-episode deal for 2025. The display would run as one episode a week on Mondays (despite the fact that Johnson and Reynolds say they may air bonus episodes on occasional Thursdays). There could be no YouTube element, despite the fact that lovers can nonetheless subscribe to the podcast’s Patreon for video. For Season Two, the hosts introduced in “new blood” at the back of the scenes and shifted the layout of the display again to its roots: Johnson and Reynolds providing recommendation to callers in combination, with handiest the occasional visitor (to this point Michael Cera has proven up in Season Two). It’s a long way fewer hours recording and, as they’re fast to confess, a lot more stress-free. 

“Now that we’re doing Season Two, it does now not really feel just like the [same] degree of labor doing one every week,” Reynolds explains. “And it appears like we’re slightly bit higher at doing the display, which makes it extra a laugh.”

“What I like about that is it will probably stay converting and rising, and there’s no regulations to it,” Johnson says. “There’s no actual studio at the back of us. We don’t regulate our commercials, however we do regulate the ingenious output.”

The hosts have been most often acutely aware of the group they’d constructed with We’re Right here to Assist because it introduced within the fall of 2023. However Johnson was once extra stunned through the serious response than Reynolds, who frequently comes head to head with the lovers whilst doing stand-up.

“I’m just like the candidate out at the street shaking arms,” Reynolds says. “The object with podcasts is that para-social courting in reality is so hugely other than anything. Jake clearly was once on one of the vital largest TV displays of the closing 15 years, and that’s monumental reputation. However the podcast lovers are other. You listened to me for 1,000 hours? This is ungodly.”

Reynolds, a creator for TV displays like Arrested Building and You’re the Worst, got here up with the speculation for We’re Right here to Assist right through the 2023 SAG and WGA moves, when many within the leisure trade have been compelled to pivot. He and Johnson have been buddies for greater than 15 years after assembly on the Los Angeles dive bar Ye Rustic Inn, and spent a large number of time sharing recommendation with each and every different about their careers. On the time, Johnson, perfect identified for taking part in Nick Miller on New Woman, had not too long ago transitioned into directing — his directorial function debut, Self Reliance, arrived in early 2024 — and was once additionally ready out the moves.

“I texted Jake and I used to be like, ‘Should you ever sought after to, shall we do that display in combination,’” Reynolds recalls. “I stated, ‘It might have compatibility our strengths in some way {that a} podcast favors.’”

The debut episode, “The Quest of Wilhelmina,” set the tone for what was once to return. It featured lovers calling in with issues, very similar to many recommendation displays, however the way was once refreshingly off-kilter. Their first question: How may just a caller give her Dungeons and Dragons personality extra “nerd clout”? Now not handiest did Johnson and Reynolds take their roles critically, chatting with the caller for all of the 30-minute episode, however they gave her actionable recommendation: Enhance her German accessory to make the nature extra memorable. Because the episodes endured, the pair’s manufacturer handiest decided on questions that have been unserious — and hilarious. 

“In earnest, we’re looking to clear up the issue”

For the reason that podcast introduced, Johnson and Reynolds have talked to callers about the whole lot from terrible wedgies, to getting stuck masturbating on a safety digicam whilst cat sitting, to a coworker who received’t put on sneakers. Reynold’s option to the latter? Pour a jar of parmesan cheese at the flooring below her colleague’s table so it could get on her naked ft and, with a bit of luck, inspire her to put on sneakers.

“In earnest, we’re looking to clear up the issue,” Reynolds insists. “We would possibly make a laugh of the opposite one’s concepts. We would possibly even poke a laugh at why anyone is passing on an concept, however our middle actually is in the fitting position.”

Johnson provides, “I don’t suppose both folks ever wish to make a laugh of the caller as a result of we’ve got an excessive amount of a laugh making a laugh of one another. The entire a laugh for me is seeing if we will clear up the issue. I feel that push pull between me and [Gareth] is a laugh. Once in a while he’ll pitch one thing as though he’s being severe, however I do know he’s now not.”

He pauses, reluctantly including, “That’s how we get to parmesan-ing the ground.”

Within the notorious parmesan episode, “Seeing Previous the Piggies,” each hosts’ concepts was more and more bizarre. Reynolds first urged the caller declare to have noticed spiders at the flooring and perhaps been bitten through one. That led Johnson to chime in, “What about liberating a rat?” (Now not conceivable because of safety cameras within the administrative center.) Different ideas from Reynolds: the caller may just clip her toenails to “out bizarre” her coworker. 

“Parmesan-ing the ground resonated with The us as it was once a just right pitch,” Reynolds says, insistently. (He says that lovers ceaselessly display as much as his stand-up displays with precise cans of parmesan cheese.) “However on occasion it’s just right to provide them the worst pitch in order that they know the way just right the opposite ones are. Once in a while we throw out a canine shit pitch after which the individual might be like, ‘Yeah, you recognize, I’m going put the ‘fuck you’ Put up-It observe on their door. Godspeed.” 

Now with just about 150 episodes launched, We’re Right here to Assist has now not handiest established a devoted following, but in addition a longer universe. There are jokes and characters that recur, on occasion months later, and likely callers, just like the notorious Connor, who’s at all times in a special ordinary residing scenario, pop again in each from time to time. Lately, a caller recorded a track, “The Ballad of Mrs. Gingerbread,” particularly for the podcast after having her downside solved. The hosts have performed the track on the finish of more than one fresh episodes.

“That global development was once an enormous element of the joys,” Johnson says. “There’s a egocentric section to that as a result of we revel in it. And if one thing turns into much less a laugh, it fades away.”

Reynolds provides, “The sector development was once there in an instant. It was once superb for the display to have returning callers and to stay listening to again from folks.”

“It’s like a date”

We’re Right here to Assist receives round 40 emails a week soliciting for recommendation, which a manufacturer then is going thru to make a choice individuals who might be requested to name in; Johnson and Reynolds don’t know the query forward of recording. Even supposing the hosts are on digicam, the caller isn’t. The pair normally ask callers for his or her identify, location, and age sooner than entering the problem. Lately, Johnson has loved asking concerning the caller’s favourite jungle animal — an ice-breaker to lead them to extra relaxed. 

 “I attempt to sluggish it down and get to understand everyone,” says Johnson. “It’s like the start of a date. As a result of a large number of instances you’re in reality looking for out the ‘why’ at the back of a choice.”

Once in a while, issues have long gone sideways — just like the time Reynolds spent an episode hitting on Johnson’s mother, or when comic Steve Berg interrupted a significant second from a caller when his roast hen stuck hearth within the oven. Those derailments are partially why Season Two has re-focused at the dynamic between Johnson and Reynolds as an alternative of depending an excessive amount of on visitors. 

“The caller must be the primary individual, but when there’s a visitor we’re honoring the visitor,” Johnson says. “We perceive you’re Sarah from Maine, however Jimmy Kimmel is right here!”

“Once in a while it’s lovely immediately down the center after which different instances it’s utterly bananas,” Reynolds admits. “There were ones the place we’re like, ‘Yep, that was once out of regulate.’”

A kind of episodes befell when the hosts and their visitor Morris, who performed Winston on New Woman, have been requested for assist with a marriage speech. Morris recorded more than one takes of a video of an absolutely unhinged speech for the caller to play on the marriage ceremony, certainly one of which they in fact did. Amongst his sage items of knowledge: “Now I’ve been married, I wanna say 10 instances, all a hit marriages. And the only factor that I realized that you just gotta do to stay that factor highly spiced within the bed room is don’t brush your tooth. So in case you don’t brush your tooth, you recognize what actual love is.” It didn’t cross over smartly.

“We’re mindful — and we weren’t in the beginning — that those are folks’s actual lives,” Johnson says.

Once in a while, being attentive to the podcast appears like being in on an inside of shaggy dog story. The target audience turns into part of habitual bits and visitor hosts like Morris, Berg, and Eric Edelstein are buddies with Johnson and Reynolds outdoor the display, resulting in a well-known dynamic. The hosts’ precise friendship is helping too. 

“A part of it with Gareth and I is that we’ve got identified each and every different now for over two decades and there are such a lot of inside of jokes between us by way of textual content,” Johnson continues. “And for Gareth and I, the sport is like: How can we stay converting in order that we’re making each and every different snigger? So long as we’re loving it and the target audience is loving it, why wouldn’t you stay going? It sort of feels like a great sport.”

Going ahead, the hosts are sure We’re Right here to Assist will proceed to conform. They’ve evolved a forged base (Reynolds’ favourite shaggy dog story is to name the display “The us’s primary podcast, don’t glance it up”), however there’s room to develop. Co-stars from Johnson’s undisclosed approaching film would possibly display up. However regardless, the duo be ok with how the podcast has evolved.

“When folks pay attention to our display, they most commonly dig it,” Reynolds says, optimistically. “Most commonly.”