Nick Kroll On Amy Poehler & The Importance Of Women In Comedy

For the past six years, viewers have watched Nick Kroll play a jerk on The League. He stars in the show as Rodney Ruxin, a character Kroll himself described as having a "fiery black hole" for a heart. For anyone who's watched the comedian as Ruxin, it can be hard to imagine him as anything different. (He's rather convincing as a guy you'd never hang out with, let along root for.) Yet, today at AOL Build, Kroll proved quite the opposite of the douchebag  character he's played for so long.

His eponymous Kroll Show  premiered its third and final season on January 13. When it debuted in 2013, viewers got a different, more palatable taste of the comedian. Where Ruxin is a selfish, terrible person who loves fantasy football just a little more than he loves objectifying women, The Kroll Show has been a space for showcasing female talent, including Jenny Slate, Chelsea Peretti, and Amy Poehler — Kroll's better half.

In November, Poehler told People, "Talented men are not threatened by talented women. They welcome them." At today's AOL Build event, I asked Kroll how his show embraced that idea specifically.

"I grew up with two older sisters, and some of my closest friends —  always and especially in comedy — have been women," he told us. For Kroll, it's about who's the funniest, who's got the chops.  "I have both men and women who I think are hilarious, and my show is a pretty good example of that: where you have someone like Amy (Poehler) pop in — who is obviously so funny — Chelsea Peretti who plays Farley on the show, or Jenny Slate who plays a myriad of characters, as well as women like Casey Wilson who come in for a special guest spot." 

While it may be a given for Kroll, it's a rarity to see so many talented ladies in one spot. It's even more gratifying to hear when you remember that the latest women in media report indicates that women only had 28.4% of the speaking roles in film. 

"It's funny, it's like if you're going to create a realistic world of characters specifically, you just want to fill it out with the funniest people who also make sense for a sketch. Luckily for me, I know some incredibly funny women who are willing to do the show and elevate it and bring another element."
He did clarify that sometimes when you have a specific stand-up or voice in mind, it doesn't matter whether that person's a man or a woman. "When you're doing a sketch, the more you can mine different points of view the better off you are."

The Kroll Show  airs Tuesdays at 10:30 p.m. ET.