{"id":27187,"date":"2025-07-27T05:53:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T05:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/27187\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T05:53:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T05:53:08","slug":"craig-robinson-tricked-his-dad-with-announcement-of-quitting-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/27187\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Robinson tricked his dad with announcement of quitting comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Craig Robinson<\/a> might have committed to the bit too hard.\n<\/p>\n

The Office<\/a> actor announced earlier this month that he was retiring from comedy<\/a>, only to eventually reveal that it was all an elaborate ruse<\/a> as part of an AT&T marketing campaign. Robinson’s lie was so convincing, however, that he tells Entertainment Weekly that it genuinely fooled people close to him.\n<\/p>\n

Robinson visited the EW’s San Diego Comic-Con<\/a> Studio on Saturday alongside his The Bad Guys 2 castmates. When asked if his bit had fooled anyone he knows, Robinson responds, “A thousand percent. Everybody.”\n<\/p>\n

He continues, “My father was like, ‘What’s this going on?’ I was like, ‘I’ll call you back, Dad.’ ‘Cause I didn’t wanna tell him.”\n<\/p>\n

Robinson then takes a moment to clarify his status in the comedy world. “I’m not quitting. I’m back!” he says. “You’re welcome. Yes, Dad. Dad, I’m still in comedy.”\n<\/p>\n

The comedian’s Bad Guys 2 costar, Marc Maron<\/a>, chimes in, “How’d it feel with that day off?” (Robinson actually maintained the lie for about 10 days.)\n<\/p>\n

“What you’re saying is, it was a joke?” fellow Bad Guys 2 cast member Natasha Lyonne<\/a> adds.\n<\/p>\n

“It was a nice, relaxing,” Robinson says. “It was a re-shift in focus.”\n<\/p>\n

Craig Robinson at ‘The Bad Guys 2’ premiere in Hollywood, Calif., on July 23, 2025.<\/p>\n

Kevin Winter\/Getty<\/p>\n

Robinson initially announced that he was “quitting comedy” to begin “following something bigger,” and hinted that he was planning on starting a small business. (We immediately called that claim into question, as the comedian still had a number of live shows planned throughout 2025.)\n<\/p>\n

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s<\/a> free daily newsletter<\/a> to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.\n<\/p>\n

Later, Robinson revealed the full scope of his scheme, which ended with an AT&T Business commercial that reunited him with his Office costars Ellie Kemper<\/a>, Angela Kinsey<\/a>, Creed Bratton<\/a> and Oscar Nu\u00f1ez<\/a>. The ad sees Robinson reveal his new project, CraigAI (or “CrAIg”), an AI alarm clock that he wants to sell to “help small businesses wake up”\n<\/p>\n

The Bad Guys 2 also stars Sam Rockwell<\/a>, Anthony Ramos<\/a>, Awkwafina<\/a>, Danielle Brooks<\/a>, Maria Bakalova<\/a>, and Zazie Beetz<\/a>. The film hits theaters on Aug. 1.\n<\/p>\n

Watch the livestream of EW’s San Diego Comic-Con video interviews below.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Check out more of EW\u2019s coverage from San Diego Comic-Con 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Craig Robinson might have committed to the bit too hard. The Office actor announced earlier this month that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-27187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}