The U.K.’s leading comedian Steve Coogan takes Hollywood by thunderous storm. Here, a cock and bull story about his rise to the top.

"My career is so important. I’m being ironic. Can you put that in quotes: ‘He said, ironically?’” Lacerating the celebrity interview while in the middle of one, Steve Coogan deftly turns irony into art like a chef demonstrating knife skills. In person and in his roles, this British comedic icon has mastered telling the truth yet making it sound like a lie, and vice versa; his laughs stem from the audience nervously trying to figure out which is which. Likewise, he may be the most important English comedy export since Peter Sellers -- and often as star-crossed and complex.

Hamlet 2 is set for an August release, but until then, check out its R-rated trailer. The film stars an incredibly funny Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler, Melonie Diaz, and Elisabeth Shue as herself—although she's now a nurse. "Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't." (And, thankfully, nary a Julia Stiles in sight.)