Photo Illustration: Jamie Divecchio Ramsay
As Jon Stewart is to politics and the news media, Joel McHale is to, in his own words, “reality shows and meaninglessness.” The host of E!’s trash-TV digest The Soup (formerly Talk Soup), McHale, ever smirking and sarcastic, tours the wilds of the boob tube, from mainstream drivel such as Dancing with the Stars to obscure drivel like I Love Toy Trains. But McHale has other aspirations: He shares screen time with Matt Damon in the just-wrapped Steven Soderbergh film The Informant, and he stars, alongside Chevy Chase, as a lawyer forced to return to college in the NBC pilot Community. Recovering after a late night on the set of Community, McHale called from his L.A. home in advance of a stand-up gig at the Venue at Horseshoe Casino.
Time Out Chicago: Word is, Rod Blagojevich has a new reality show in the works—if the judge allows him to travel. Do you see potential in a Blago show?
Joel McHale: Hmm, it should be America’s Biggest Douche Bag, in which he’s searching for a douche bag bigger than himself.
TOC: There’s The Soup’s entire season.
Joel McHale: The douche will be hard to find. Blagojevich may have to go off the continent.
TOC: Have you done any Blago-related material on the show?
Joel McHale: We did. We don’t do that much political stuff, only because E! freaks out: “Why are you talking about our leaders and how this country works? It’s about Lindsay Lohan and how she pulled her dress up at a party. So get on it!”
TOC: It’s still cultural criticism—you’re just on the garbage-culture beat.
Joel McHale: It is a cultural comment, especially when we go, “Hey, douche bag, stop watching these ridiculous shows!”
TOC: The Soup promotes shitty TV, too, though. Does it drive the viewership of some of these awful shows?
Joel McHale: That argument can be used for any news item: “Hey, should we report this new way that people are smoking crack? Won’t that encourage more people to smoke crack that way?” To criticize anything, you must bring up the subject. If that’s perpetuating it, then too bad.
TOC: One of your favorite targets on the show is your doppelgänger and E! colleague Ryan Seacrest. Is it awkward seeing him in the hallway?
Joel McHale: He’s an incredibly good sport about it. He’s actually remarkably clever, and he has a good sense of humor.
TOC: So who’s not a good sport about the ribbing?
Joel McHale: Tyra. And David Hasselhoff. He doesn’t like the show because we played that YouTube video his daughter took of him, drunk, shoving tacos into his mouth. We asked him to come on the show when he was in the building, and he was like, “No way! Those guys are jerks!” I was like, “Hey, I wasn’t the one who got wasted and shoved tacos in my mouth while my daughter filmed me.”
TOC: He dug his own grave.
Joel McHale: Right. We let the clips speak for themselves. If you’re running your assistant down in an SUV in a parking lot, like Lindsay Lohan, I’m going to make fun of you.
TOC: How do you keep your face off TMZ? Just well behaved?
Joel McHale: I’m not a real celebrity, which really helps. I also have two children, so I’m not doing coke at clubs.
TOC: How does your family deal with your diet of crap TV?
Joel McHale: Well, I watch a lot less than in the past. When our staff was tiny, I was going to shoot myself in the face. I got to the end of a Sunday catching up on all my reality shows, and then I had to watch a live, two-hour Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and I said to my wife, “Honey, could you grab the cheese grater? I’m going to grate all my skin off. I’m going to zest my entire body.” Now I watch what I want to watch.
TOC: Are there shows on The Soup that you genuinely like?
Joel McHale: I actually enjoy American Idol a lot because it’s just a talent show. There’s some contrived drama crap, but for the most part it’s just people singing.
TOC: After all that TV, you ever get the urge to consume some high culture—take in a symphony or read Kant?
Joel McHale: Yeah, when I’m through watching, I feel like I need to cleanse myself.
TOC: But not really with a cheese grater.
Joel McHale: E! is saturated with ridiculous celebrity news. Sometimes I’m like, Is there any culture, or is this the only thing that’s happening? I feel like I have to have silence. But I have two kids. That makes that impossible. So instead I listen to some Mozart and give myself a colonic. That’s the only way I can feel better.
McHale performs May 2, 7:30pm at the Venue, Horseshoe Hammond.