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President Obama Talks Two Ferns Interview: Zach Galifianakis Was Actually “Pretty Nervous”

Ryan Seacrest and Barack Obama
POTUS Barack Obama called into Ryan Seacrest's radio show to discuss his viral (and hilarious!) Between Two Ferns interview with Zach Galifianakis

Pals with POTUS! Days after President Barack Obama's hilarious interview with Zach Galifianakis went viral, the Commander in Chief called into Ryan Seacrest's radio show on Friday, March 14 to discuss what really went down on Between Two Ferns.

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"Zach actually was pretty nervous," Obama, 52, said with a chuckle. "It was funny to watch because this whole Between Two Ferns schtick — which I wasn't familiar with, before my staff told me that we had been pitched to do this."

"His whole character is to go after the guest and I think he was looking around and seeing all these Secret Service guys with guns and thinking, 'I wonder what happens here if I cross the line?'" Obama recalled of the Funny or Die host. "But we had a great time."

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During the course of the interview, Galifianakis rattled off a series of asinine, offensive Obama-related questions, which the president countered with equally-funny retorts. Among Galifianakis' most-quoted moments from the sit-down: "What is it like to be the last black President?" he asked the leader of the free world, along with "What if [your figurative son] was a nerd, like you?"

Although POTUS appeared not-so-amused by Galifianakis at times, he learned later that his oldest daughter Malia, 15, was a fan of the parody show. "I wasn't familiar with this thing, but when I was at the dinner table with the girls and I said, 'Well today I did something with Zach, it's called Two Ferns I think?' Malia was so excited!" Obama dished. "She had seen all the previous episodes, so I figured it was going to reach our target audience, which is a lot of young people and it turns out we've had close to 15 million hits."

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Indeed, the top referral site for President Obama's Affordable Care Act website, healthcare.gov, since the spoof interview went live has been funnyordie.com. "Afterwards people actually did link to healthcare.gov and people actually signed up for health insurance, so it ended up working," he enthusiastically shared. "But I think I have to keep my day job."

The deadline to sign up for ObamaCare is March 31. What happens if you miss that date? "They you will not be able to sign up again until November," Obama shared with Seacrest.

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