Emmy nominee Will Forte talks about the F-word — only it’s not the one you think it is

Will Forte’s total commitment to his post-apocalyptic comedy “The Last Man on Earth” can be easily charted just by looking at his face. For much of the show’s first season, Forte sported a shaggy beard that would put a song in Walt Whitman’s heart. This season, for a running joke on the show, he shaved off half the beard, as well as half his head. (And, yes, he removed the corresponding eyebrow, too.)

Forte, Emmy-nominated again for lead comedy actor, talked with The Envelope recently about the show’s second season. Here are edited excerpts from that video interview.

This has always been an unusual network comedy. But this second season dug even deeper, dealing with death and grief and your character inching along toward responsibility. You tackled some big issues.

Oh yeah, we’re so excited because when we originally pitched the show, it felt like its logical home would be a cable channel. And then Fox was very into it, so we just assumed that they would try to change it into something else. And they really liked the tone that we had in mind.

So this is how the show would be if it was on a cable channel, with probably less F-words. But I love saying “friggin’.” Now, in real life, I say “friggin’” instead of the other one.

The go-to F-words are friggin’ and farts, pretty much, right?

Farts, yes. Farts has always been with me.

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Will Forte talks about his TV show “The Last Man on Earth.”

Both as a word expressing dismay as well as something you used for a surprising emotional payoff this season between the brothers.

When [Jason Sudekis] hands me this fart [in a jar] that he’s just collected.

Where did that idea come from?

You know, I actually don’t remember who pitched the fart jar. I don’t think it was me.

You’re not raising your hand, taking responsibility.

Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, we used to write at “Letterman” together, and I think after I got canned from “Letterman,” I farted into an empty Arrowhead bottle and possibly sent it to them or they sent me one.

That wasn’t the reason you got canned from “Letterman”?

No. They probably would have kept me if they knew that I could do stuff like that. I’m sorry, I apologize to my family if you’re watching this.

I brought it up. I’m sorry.

It’s just like “MacGruber” all over again. My whole family—my mom lost friends from making them go see “MacGruber.”

What kind of friends were they if she lost them for “MacGruber”?

That’s what I said. But then I was so excited by the “Nebraska” situation because then this was a movie that all my parents’ friends could go see.

Alexander Payne, prestige picture.

It kind of anti-”MacGruber”-ed their friends. And then this fart comment is probably going to take it back down.

Let’s change the subject then to something everyone loves — singing. You and Jason performed a fine version of “Falling Slowly” from “Once” this season.

We do a lot of karaoke together. We go and sing songs for hours and hours, getting into some deep cuts, but “Falling Slowly” is one we do every single time. Also: REO Speedwagon’s “I Can’t Fight this Feeling.” And “Always and Forever.” Those are the three main ones.

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Will Forte talks about doing karaoke with Jason Sudeikis on the TV show ‘The Last Man on Earth.’

Slow jams are your specialty.

Oh yeah, slow jams. So we had so much practice. But we also had the ability to pick the best takes too.

[With Kristen Schaal’s character, Carol, pregnant] I would imagine that parenthood will be a big theme in this season coming up.

That’s something we’re very interested in. It’s really scary because everyone in the room has debated since day one: “What would the scenario be realistically?” Like, half the women in our writers room say, “Oh, there’s no way I would give birth under those circumstances.” The other half feel like, “Oh we’ve got to keep the population going and start over.”

I always go back to, “Well, you know, in cavemen times, there were no OB/GYNs.” But I’m also not the one who has to have the actual child.

It’s fun because there are a lot of shows that have had people get pregnant and deal with it, but we get to have that extra special twist because it’s such a different scenario with no doctors and stuff.

glenn.whipp@latimes.com