The picklesphere has a friend in actor, comedian, writer, and director Jake Johnson.

The co-host of the popular We're Here To Help podcast recently dealt with a rather intriguing situation on the show, guiding a pickleball coach named Taylor through a dilemma.

Taylor's brother-in-law, Bryon, claimed that he would "absolutely destroy" him in a head-to-head match even though he'd never picked up a paddle in his life, so Johnson suggested a showdown on the court to settle this once and for all.

The hilarity that ensued in Episode 201, Episode 210, Episode 212 and on YouTube was nothing short of legendary.

Johnson is also starring in the upcoming pickleball-themed movie, The Dink, alongside Ben Stiller, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris, Chloe Fineman, Patton Oswalt, Chris Parnell, Christine Taylor, Martin Kove, John McEnroe and Andy Roddick.

Earlier this week, we chatted with Johnson about both projects.

PICKLEBALL.COM: Let's start with your podcast, specifically the recent episodes referencing the pickleball showdown between Taylor and Bryon. It seems like everyone had a blast with that storyline.

JAKE JOHNSON: That's the beauty of the show. We've been doing it for a couple of years. You never know what the audience is going to care about. We've had some stuff that we've tried to hype up, and nothing, but this exploded with our fan base in terms of people writing in and referring to it as the "Super Bowl" of the podcast. We actually forgot to announce the winner at one point because we were so busy, so people were writing in being like 'Who won?'

PICKLEBALL.COM: Taylor and Bryon went to such remarkable lengths to make this whole experience super creative and fun. They had announcers on-site, and they even made a YouTube video about it.

JAKE JOHNSON: How funny was that? Taylor and Bryon are very different types of players. I just did The Dink, and I was new to pickleball, so I took extensive lessons in tennis to get ready, and then I started studying pickleball. We had to play against professionals in our practice, and there's levels to the game. People don't really know that. They think of it like ping-pong where you could just kind of get started, but apart from the rules, there's a lot of levels to the game. Seeing an athlete (Bryon), a guy who played college baseball, who's got the attitude, versus a coach (Taylor), you never know what's going to happen.

PICKLEBALL.COM: During the podcast, you mention that a problem with pickleball is that people tend to think that it's especially easy to play and enjoy success. Maybe the result of this match provided listeners with some perspective on the subject.

JAKE JOHNSON: That's really interesting. The first time I played, I played one-on-one against the showrunner from The Walking Dead, a guy named Scott Gimple, and we filmed it. The reason we filmed it was because he was talking trash, and I murdered him. I was the brother-in-law in terms of the podcast. He had played more than me, but just by athleticism, I beat him. And then what I realized, when I started doing this movie and playing against professionals, is that if you play pickleball against somebody who's bad, you'll be fine. It only matters when you're playing against somebody good. So people play against each other and they're like, 'This game's easy. We had a 20-point rally.' It's like, 'Yeah, because you're playing against your grandma, buddy.' Some of these players, they just whip it and it's perfect placement and spin, and you just go, 'Come on, man! Not a chance!'

PICKLEBALL.COM: You've had over 200 conversations on We're Here to Help, so where does this Taylor-Bryon scenario rank as far as fun times with callers?

JAKE JOHNSON: This was a true blast. The show lately has been getting so fun. The truth of the matter is these guys, Gareth Reynolds, Steve Berg and Eric Edelstein, these are my best friends. The podcast is a true labor of love for all of us. We started doing it during the Hollywood strike as just something to do, and it has just turned into something so much bigger than we ever expected because there's a base that listens to everything and cares, and cares about the callers, and things like this are what gets really fun for me. I'm truly invested in these calls. I think about them when I'm alone. I was really hoping Taylor won. As a coach, if he doesn't win, it’s just a really bad moment for pickleball. It's a really embarrassing moment for the game. You can't have a game where your brother-in-law bullies you and then beats you and you claim to be a coach. You have to kill him. Don't be a nice coach. Let people know that this game is not as easy as you think it is. 

PICKLEBALL.COM: One of your most memorable lines from the podcast is when you likened this showdown to Cobra Kai in the sense that Taylor needed to essentially protect his house (the pickleball court) and "represent the gym," right?

JAKE JOHNSON: Pickleball.com and the pickleball community are the gym here. My buddy Justin Long is a die-hard pickleball fan, so he's taken me out to a couple of places. He's got a few places that we go to, and the community there, the beauty of pickleball is that it's a really mixed bag. You've got some senior citizens and they can play. I was getting smoked by a 65-year-old lady and she was talking trash, and there was nothing I could do about it. So if you go to the Cobra Kai idea, the gym is every one of those courts full of all those great characters. If we lose, all of those people's family members and friends will be going, 'Every day you're playing and some bully could just beat you?' No, if somebody challenges you and thinks they can beat you - and doesn't want to learn, because if they want to learn, let them in - but if they're talking trash like, 'It's a stupid game and anyone can do it,' you've got to humiliate them.

PICKLEBALL.COM: Did the podcast episodes with Taylor and Bryon, along with the YouTube video of the actual match, further strengthen your appreciation for pickleball?

JAKE JOHNSON: Honestly, my appreciation for the game came from the movie because when I signed on to do it, I was working with the writer, Sean Clements. I read the script, and I'd never played pickleball. I didn't give it much thought. I thought of it as I'll just pick it up, I grew up playing sports, so that'd be pretty easy. Then I started taking some tennis lessons and getting into that, and once I started the pickleball section, I was working with the tennis coach, Brad Gilbert, and we started playing pickleball together. He started bringing in local pros, and just hitting with these guys and doing a thing where they would put a hat up and you'd have to hit the hat. The game just started getting more and more fun, and the appreciation of the game really came into training for the movie and understanding that they were going to ask me to do a lot on camera and it wasn't just going to be goofing around. The professionals who were our consultants on the movie really cared about the pickleball stuff looking good, and it meant a lot to them. These men and women make their money doing this. These are professionals. They care, and they wanted to represent the sport. Our director, Josh Greenbaum, wanted to make it a real sports movie, so the pickleball is represented. We shot the hell out of the pickleball stuff, and it looks good.