Joel McHale Reveals His Favorite Moments From The Soup - Exclusive
Whether we want to admit it or not, most of us love to hate celebrities. It's the reason tabloids exist, and it's the reason so many talk shows populate daytime television. As Joel McHale showed us on a dozen seasons of E!'s hit series "The Soup," hate-watching celebrities can be elevated to an art form — a hilarious art form. In his 12 years with the show, McHale used spoofs, sketches, and plain old snark to take on every target under the sun ... or at least the Hollywood sign — from real housewives, to the Kardashians, to hit TV shows (let's not forget his "True Detective" spoof), to the Kardashians again. He also wasn't afraid to take aim at himself, or his home network for the sake of a good laugh.
Recently, we got the chance to talk to McHale about his hosting days. In an exclusive interview with Looper, McHale revealed some of his favorite moments from "The Soup," and shared his thoughts on the show that helped launch him to TV stardom.
Mad Men, Monty Python, and too many memories for Joel McHale
After hosting for 12 seasons and nearly 350 episodes of "The Soup," it's understandable that Joel McHale has a hard time picking out his favorite moments. There are just too many to count. McHale admitted to Looper, "People will remind me of moments where I'm like, 'I have no idea what you're talking about.' And then they'll say like, 'remember that time you did this?' And I'll be like, 'I do not. But it sounds like it was really fun for you. And I'm glad it happened.'"
But when we asked him to try and recall some standout experiences, two particular episodes came to mind for McHale. He said one was "the final episode, when Eric Idle from Monty Python and I were doing a sketch together with my best friend from grade school. I was like, 'how did this happen?' And so I was very happy about that." McHale also mentioned "when we had the cast of Mad Men on, and LeVar Burton, that made me so happy ... it was so funny."
Joel McHale on The Soup that started it all
Joel McHale had a passion for comedy from a very young age, and said it was "The Soup" that gave him the opportunity to chase his dreams in a big way. "I dragged my poor wife down to Los Angeles in 2000 and said, 'just give me five years and let's see what happens.' And she was like, 'okay' ... I got The Soup four years later." And McHale's career took off from there.
But it wasn't overnight success for McHale and "The Soup." As he explained, it was "one of those things where we started out with nothing on a Friday night at 10 o'clock on E!, which was a desert, and they let us do whatever we wanted ... Thankfully, no one watched the show for the first year. And I mean, no one. I don't think my parents did. And then finally it started gaining momentum and we're like, hey, people are watching. And that was just sort of wonderful. I couldn't believe it. And I can't believe it ended six years ago."
Since he started hosting "The Soup" McHale has gone on to hold dozens of acting gigs, including his starring role on "Community." He's also appeared as a host and guest host on a range of talk shows and game shows, and even had his own self-titled comedy show on Netflix for a few years. "In the back of my mind, I was like, I'm going to do this until the get-a-real-job police come and take me away, and so far they haven't yet," said McHale. He's not alone in hoping they never do.