Terry Crews on World's Funniest Fails: "You Win by Losing — That's the Only Way to Go"

On January 9, 2015, Terry Crews joined a press call ahead of the premiere of World's Funniest Fails, his new unscripted comedy series on Fox. The show — produced by the YouTube channel Fail Army — was set to debut Friday, January 16th at 8 p.m. Crews, 46, spoke about his philosophy on failure, the audition disaster that led directly to White Chicks, what makes a fail video actually funny, and his dream cast for an all-female Expendables.

How his daughter Tara sold him on the show

Crews didn't need much convincing. "My wife and kids, we sit there and watch this stuff all day. You get caught in a rabbit hole. Once you play one video, you just keep going. There are times I've missed appointments because I can't stop." His 16-year-old daughter Tara — his namesake — was the one who kept pulling him aside. "She'd say, 'Dad, you got to watch this. Look what happens to this guy.' We crack up. I'm in tears." When his agent called about the show, the answer was immediate: "You had me at hello."

The My Wife and Kids audition — and what happened right after

Asked for his most memorable professional failure, Crews went straight to a story he'd clearly been waiting to tell. He had auditioned for a regular role on My Wife and Kids — Damon Wayans in the room, writers, producers, the full setup. His agent had told him it was his to lose. "That made me nervous. I went in there and my hand couldn't stop shaking. It was like I was in an earthquake. I was stuttering. I was sweating. I think they stopped me. I had an out of body experience." He drove across town the same day to audition for Keenen Ivory Wayans on White Chicks. "I failed so miserably that morning that I was like, oh well, I don't care anymore. I walked over there and I was like, yes, yes — I just started going and it was perfect. I got the part. I went from massive failure to extreme success in the same day."

What separates a good fail video from a cruel one

Crews was precise about where the line is. "I've seen comedy being used to bully people, which is something I never subscribe to. Never want it to be where one person is laughing at someone's pain and basically making someone feel less than human. That is not funny." The show's standard: everyone gets up, everyone can laugh about it. His all-time favorite fail video is "Scarlet Takes a Tumble." "When I saw the remakes with Donnie McClurkin — 'we fall down and we get up' — I laughed for probably two years. The best thing about it was she made follow-up videos laughing about it herself. She put it up. It wasn't put out there to embarrass her. She's just like, hey, I got caught in this funny fail. That made it even funnier."

On being a host who is not a host

Crews was candid about his approach. "They told me: Terry, we don't want a host. We just want you. I want to hang out as if I invited some friends over to the house and we're sitting around watching. I didn't go to Juilliard. I didn't go to hosting school." He contrasted it with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: "Millionaire is like buddy, that's our money. You have to say the question correctly. But here, this is just a big free-for-all. It's a perfect Friday night show. You can watch it while you're getting dressed to go out; the kids are eating pizza. It's the perfect show to start off your weekend."

Angela Bassett with a gun

On the rumored all-female Expendables spin-off: "If they do one, I would love to be in it. They just can't call it ExpendaBelles — that's the rule. But my number one draft pick is Angela Bassett, all the way. I want to see Angela with a gun handling business. She is no joke." World's Funniest Fails premiered Friday, January 16th at 8 p.m. on Fox.

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