NEW YORK (AP) - Stymied by the NBA lockout, Blake Griffin is going to work for Will Ferrell instead.
This week, the Los Angeles Clippers All-Star forward is interning at Funny Or Die, the comedy website co-founded by Ferrell and Adam McKay. Griffin arrived at the site’s LA offices Tuesday to begin three days of work in video production.
He will help write, shoot, edit and act in several videos for the site. Funny Or Die quickly creates digital comedy videos, often with celebrity guest appearances.
Griffin said he’s a big comedy fan and an avid viewer of Funny Or Die. As an intern, he hopes to learn more about film production.
“Just to get an inside look at how things are run here is exciting to me,” Griffin said by phone Tuesday. “I don’t know what interns at Funny Or Die are like, but I’m about to find out, I guess.”
Mike Farah, president of production at Funny Or Die, pledged that Griffin will be treated like other interns. He noted that the 22-year-old Griffin is, after all, about the same age as most of the site’s college interns. (The others, of course, may not be able to dunk over midsize sedans.)
“We’re going to put him to work,” said Farah. “He’s shooting a series of videos, and he’s also coming to meetings. He’s basically doing everything that an intern does.”
Griffin counts “Old School,” “Wedding Crashers” and “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” among his favorite movies. On Funny Or Die, he likes Zach Galifianakis’ mock interview series “Between Two Ferns.”
“I’ll go see a bad comedy over a good action movie any day,” Griffin said.
Griffin, who was last season’s NBA Rookie of the Year and won the Slam Dunk Contest (in which he leaped over a Kia Optima), has been keeping busy during the NBA lockout. He’s done a lot of sponsorship work, been active on Twitter and launched a basketball camp for kids in Oklahoma City.
Though Griffin averaged 22.5 points and 12.1 rebounds per game last season, he says he’s not above fetching coffee in his week as an intern.
“I don’t mind doing stuff like that,” said the forward. “It’s not a problem for me.”
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