I'm not really an exhibitionist. I'm drawn to the outrageous stuff because it's fun, not because it's some deep compulsion. I'm no tortured, anger-stoked, deeply neurotic comic. Just a pretty low-key normal guy. A, "Hey, the glass is half-full", kind of a guy. But please keep it quiet, or I may never work again. I often don't think a lot about the ramifications of anything I do. There's just something about yelling that's funny to me. [On being a comic]: I attribute it to growing up in safe, boring suburbia in California. I wasn't beaten up by anyone, there was a really low crime rate. There was really nothing to do except think of funny things. "It was a gradual rise that started on SNL. I went from being the guy who did the cheer-leading thing, to the guy who plays the president to, 'Hey, that's Will Ferrell!' I saw that happen then in terms of films, and it was really Old School (2003) that got me a real lead part. It was a scary thing when I left SNL (in 2003), but then Old School came out, and then Elf happened the same year, and now Talledega Nights." "I saw a news story recently that said I'm 6' 4". I'm creeping up, like in the high school football programs where you give yourself 15 more pounds. In three years I want to be 6' 5" in stories. And I'm gonna do the opposite of these kids like LeBron James who are coming out of high school and going into the NBA. I'm gonna be the first 36-year-old white guy who tries to make it in the NBA." "It doesn't really exist, this Frat Pack. We run into each other on occasions and we all like each other's films, I guess, but there isn't some big funny restaurant or bar where we all hang out. At least, if there is, they haven't invited me. I wasn't in You, Me and Dupree, Luke's last movie, and none of them was in Talladega Nights with me and actually, nobody gives a shit." "I've got no dark secrets, I wasn't beaten up, my parents were kind to me and there was a low crime rate where we lived. Maybe that's where the comedy comes from, as some sort of reaction to the safe, boring suburbs. Although, I gotta say, I never had any resentment of the place. I loved the suburbs." "I'd much rather be in a comedy. In my view, comedy wins out in the long run. I'm not sure I'm a good enough actor to play real tragedy, so I bring a comic element to most things as my answer to the world's problems. I'm not a clown, though. I love goofing around, but I don't feel the need to act the clown in private - I do it at work, that's where I exorcise my demons. Although I confess that I do sometimes put together outfits to annoy my wife." "I always forced myself to do crazy things in public. In college I would push an overhead projector across campus with my pants just low enough to show my butt."