In a relatable tech mishap, Jason Bateman recently found himself in a virtual conundrum on the ‘SmartLess’ podcast. If you’ve ever struggled with remote work and video conferencing, you’ll empathize. But here’s the twist: Matthew McConaughey was patiently waiting on the other end of the call.
This amusing episode revisited the time two years ago when Bateman had to scrap an entire podcast due to technical glitches. His co-hosts, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, seized the opportunity to have some good-natured fun at his expense.
Arnett kicked things off by playing audio clips from the canceled episode, highlighting Bateman’s escalating frustration—a moment he referred to as a “full meltdown.”
In the soundbite, Bateman can be heard saying, “I don’t see it here on the sound thing, so let’s cancel. Let’s just reschedule this thing. I’m in a total f—ing tailspin.”
At this point, Bateman had no idea who the mystery guest would be. As McConaughey listened to Bateman’s exasperation, he burst into laughter. Bateman was understandably irritated.
“Great,” Bateman grumbled amid McConaughey’s laughter. “Who the f— is that? Who is that? Great, that’s helpful. Is that our guest?”
Fast forward to the present, and McConaughey, the Academy Award-winning actor, channeled his acting skills to reenact Bateman’s digital debacle. With comedic finesse, he narrated the chaos: “We’ve gotta reboot here. His iPad got cloned, and then it got wiped right before the dog peed on it, so I had to reboot one more time. Wait a minute, it’s buffering. Wait, let me reinstall. No, I’m installing. No, it’s gonna restart. We got a failure. I need a security check. Oh s—, we got a virus. Let me reschedule this whole show. S—, you guys start without me. F— that, every one be patient.” McConaughey’s humorous take on the situation had everyone in stitches.
As it turns out, McConaughey is quite the prankster. He admits to taking notes during the tech fiasco because it just kept getting “funnier and funnier.”
For Bateman, the experience was downright embarrassing. “I just slammed my laptop shut,” he confessed about the frustrating incident. “It’s not one of my prouder moments.”
This episode underscores a timeless truth about humor—what’s funny often depends on whether you’re on the side of the pain or the laughter. Comedy, as Mel Brooks once said, is when you fall into an open sewer and die, while tragedy is when you cut your finger. In this case, Jason Bateman’s tech troubles definitely veered into the realm of comedy, providing entertainment for all of us sitting comfortably on the other side of the screen.
