Ryan Seacrest is king, perched atop his golden throne overlooking his burgeoning reality T.V. empire, funded by his egregious American Idol salary. Closer to the bottom of the entertainment hierarchy sits Joel McHale, the underestimated Seacrest look-alike subsisting as E! Network’s court jester (or body double).
Even McHale’s own son can’t discern their handsome faces. “He (McHale’s son) would see Ryan Seacrest on the air, my wife would go, hey Eddie, who’s on the TV right now? And he would go, daddy! And I’m like ah…”
McHale isn’t Ryan Seacrest. He doesn’t own a share in eight restaurants, doesn’t own a clothing line and doesn’t host KIIS-FM, “American Top 40,” American Idol and E! News Daily. Even up to his September 17 premiere of “Community,” a highly anticipated new comedy series on NBC’s Thursday laugh-out-loud lineup, McHale relishes the smallest publicity garnered from infrequent movie cameos, the “Community” hype and his cult-like following of the week’s pop culture and television mishaps that become fuel for his sarcastic commentary on “The Soup.”
But, he sits comfortably in his highchair as host of “The Soup” – an accomplishment in itself – indicative of his maturation since the heydays at the University of Washington, where the self-proclaimed college slacker received his Masters in Fine Arts. As McHale’s dreams are to become reality with “Community,” it transpires in ironic fashion. But as for his frequent jabs at Ryan Seacrest (“The Soup” fans know what I’m talking about), hate is far from what McHale feels. It’s more along the lines of admiration.
Joel McHale appeared to delight in the comedic coincidence of his first starring role as remedial community college student, Jeff. It’s a return for McHale to the humdrum that was college – without the stress of exams. “This guy (is) similar to me in that I did everything I could not to, you know, work hard in school because I was much more interested in acting and trying to do that. And I always felt like I was kind of putting in – you know, just kind of clocking time at school until I could get out and do something, you know, perform,” McHale confided. “But that’s not the greatest parallel. I mean this guy starts off very selfish. I hopefully am not that way. And he cheats and he lies to get what he wants. And I have not done a lot of that. But, I have cheated in a math class or two.”
Personalities aside, the actor and his fictional muse, Jeff, bear little resemblance.
Jeff is an attractive lawyer who falls from his high horse and returns to college after the State Bar revoked his license for an illegitimate bachelors degree acquired from Colombia – the country. “He approached life in that he just kind of did what he wanted to do. And people kind of let him get by with it. And this is the first time that he actually has to do work. And it’s a change in his world completely,” McHale divulged.
Joel McHale is an actor who, despite his lackadaisical efforts in college, happens to be standing on an uncharted oil field spewing comedic powerhouses, Chevy Chase (“Caddyshack”), Ken Jeong (“The Hangover”) and writer Dan Harmon (“Funny People”).
“It’s a dream come true. It’s something I never imagined… I can really phone in my performances because everyone else is amazing. And no, but, you know, it’s really is ideal because Dan Harmon is such an incredible writer. The Russo brothers who did Arrested Development and they’re directing most of the episodes. And then you’ve got this cast of, you know, from Chevy Chase to John Oliver to Ken Jeong to Jim Rash to everyone in, you know, everybody. I mean it’s really ideal. And I can’t, you know, it’s one of those things where it’s like yeah, it’s awesome and I’m so excited. That’s kind of like I can’t believe it.”
Revolving around Hollywood clich?s, refreshing puns and the incessant community college stereotypes prodding, NBC saw it fit to release the pilot exclusively on Facebook. The verdict? Giddy critics hold high expectations for its first full season, like the hype that Fox riled with its four-month hiatus between the pilot and second episode of “Glee.”
“All this hype and reviews… the good, the positive reviews and the positive feedback that we get is all great – I much appreciate it obviously,” McHale said. “There’s nothing I can do to control whether it’s good or bad hype. And all we can do is deliver on the scripts and then it’s up to the editor,” the comedian continued in a withdrawn, modest tone that sedated the pressure of satiating the audience’s anticipation. “So in that sense I don’t feel much pressure at all. So I just really hope – all that really matters what it comes down to is that people watch it and they like it and then it will stay on the air,”
Interviewing Joel, he was more demure than expected. His frequent jabs at Ryan Seacrest and comedic quips during interviews with more prominent syndicates litter Youtube searches under his name, so one would expect the comedian to bite my questions, chew and spit out sidesplitting rhetoric. Surprisingly, that Joel McHale was unavailable. On the other hand, it was a reprieve listening to Joel McHale, modest career man.
“When I got to LA in 2000, my goal was to act in television and movies. And getting on the Soup was kind of a lark… but when that opportunity came up, I thought well if this can do it for me, you know, 1/20 of what it does for Greg Kinnear, I’ll be really happy. And so that is kind of how it’s going, meaning that I was able to get noticed through doing the Soup and get into all those audition rooms that I was not allowed into before that. I’m saying I’m going to continue to do the Soup while doing Community and while doing movies hopefully… it’s one of those things where my first love is acting and that’s what my goal is to be doing.”
Fans and critics of McHale will recognize that Ryan Seacrest often is the butt of McHale’s jokes – so much so that the first “ryan seacrest+joel mcHale” Google result lists the question, “Do Joel McHale & Ryan Seacrest really hate each other?” To dehumidify the sweltering cloud of suspicion revolving around the Ryan Seacrest, Joel McHale relationship, think of a prepubescent boy poking a female classmate. Why does the boy pester the girl? He likes her.
In the New York Times piece, “From ‘Idol’ to Empire: The Success of Ryan Seacrest,” Lola Ogunnaike dishes on Seacrest’s daily routine, beginning at 4 a.m. She reveals that the workaholic Seacrest is fearful of the, “thought of being out of work.” And according to McHale, the American Idol host sleeps a mere two hours a day (McHale is keen on exaggerations).
After divulging his current schedule that rivals Ryan Seacrest’s, and appearing to do so with an air of accomplishment, Joel McHale can no longer be seen as a mere court jester. “Let’s see. I – boy, am I – I’m in New York right now promoting both the Informant, the Matt Damon movie and Community. And so I am doing like Today Show, the View, Rachel Ray, a number of local news shows here, Time Magazine. I can’t even – I literally have a long list of stuff and there’s almost not one hour in the day where I’m not doing something.”
He modestly discredits his self as a proletarian within Seacrest’s empire. “I am not the king of E!. The kind of E! would be one man named Ryan Seacrest… He is the king. He is the emperor and ruler of E!. And I am yet a court jester to his domination,” McHale gushed.
But, his aspirations are not too far from those that propel workaholic Ryan Seacrest every day. Joel McHale, the actor, just happens to have an innate talent to tickle our limbic system.
