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Snarky Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry is the latest birdie to leave Jon Stewart’s nest. He ends his four-year run on the Comedy Central fake news show today to star in the upcoming Fox comedy TV series The Winner, slated to be a midseason replacement. While it likely won’t appear on the air for months, you can get your fix of Corddry here, in this extended version of an interview about his DVD paintball flick from Complex’s Aug/Sept issue.

In Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, paintball’s long-ignored camouflaged warriors can finally see their story told. Rob Corddry, 35, best known as the tufted correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, plays Dukes, a disgraced former champion who attempts a comeback after a 10-year ban for cheating. Shot cheaply on digital video by director Brant Sersen and largely improvised with Corddry’s friends from the Upright Citizens Brigade, the hilarious mockumentary, which had a very limited theatrical release, warrants its growing cult following. In honor of Blackballed’s DVD release, we spoke to Corddry about critics, the power of paintball, and whether it’s okay to masturbate to your likeness.

You received serious money to play Bobby Dukes, right?
Let’s just say that my manager can pay his electricity bill…most of the time…almost every month.

So is Blackballed a low low-budget schlock film or a really professional YouTube masterpiece?
It’s the gonzo porn of paintball movies.

At least one critic described it as a “very, very long sketch that doesn’t know how to end.”
I will review those reviews right now by saying they were way off base. If anything, my performance is what seems like it will never end. The movie is like 89 minutes long! What else do you guys have to do? You will stay ’til the end, critic! You can watch it twice in an afternoon, for God’s sake. Get high halfway through. It’s a different movie if you watch it high. Play Dark Side Of of The the Moon while you watch it, —see what happens.

Have you detected much jealousy on The Daily Show set since it was finally picked up for DVD release?
Are you kidding me? [Fellow correspondents] Ed Helms, Jason Jones, and Dan Bakkedahl are really kicking themselves for turning down the role of Bobby Dukes. So yes. And believe me, I lord it over them. I actually have a copy of the movie hanging so when you open the door to my office it smacks you in the face.

Are you, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, and Mo Rocca competitive about who’s sold more DVDs, or had a semi–lead lead-role in a film that’s actually been in theaters?
Well, yes. You know we have bi-weekly meetings; there’s the Correspondents Club in Gramercy Park. We get together and we smoke cigars and we drink scotch and we talk about how well we’re doing, and then we jerk each other off and soak in a tub…and fence on Saturdays.

Do you anticipate wildfire DVD sales will lead to sequels, an animated series, and videogames?
You know what’d be great? If they just made a movie of the movie and Cameron Diaz played me. That’d be hot. Would it be okay to masturbate to that? ’Cause it’d be sort of like masturbating to yourself. Think about it. I pose that question to your readers.

Should more sports involve weaponry?
I’ve always said we should mix sports, like paintball and downhill skiing. Or let’s just kill ice dancers. I don’t care what sport you mix it with as long as they die.

Did firing a paintball gun make you feel empowered?
Firing a paintball gun is not like firing a real gun. You have to contort your arm in this really girly way, and you just kind of slap the trigger with your middle finger. It just feels kind of…dirty.

Will paintball be to your film career what baseball was to Kevin Costner’s?
I made a pledge to myself years ago that the minute somebody started comparing me to Kevin Costner I would quit and enter a monastery. So this interview is over. Thank you.

Well, given that sucess is pretty assured, have you already given notice at The Daily Show?
Ooh…shit! Am I supposed to give notice? that’s polite isn’t it?

Yeah
Oh crap! God, I guess I should huh?

Interview by Justin Monroe
From the August/September 2006 issue on newsstands now.

Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story is available now on DVD.