BEVERLY HILLS, CA–Among the Top-5 no-nos at press tour: never open a session with stand up.
Bill Maher bombed a few days ago leading into the HBO executive session and Joel McHale hit the same wall Monday starting NBC’s day. The Community star probably didn’t help his own cause by opening by goofing on the TV press. “It’s just like Comic-Con but with more nerds,” he read off the teleprompter. “Like summer camp for shut-ins.”
Critics are a notoriously cranky audience. A week into press tour, with WiFi up-and-downs playing havoc with deadlines, there’s not a lot of tolerance for smart-ass.
Funnier was his line welcoming us to the “which network can do something with Christian Slater pool.”
He mocked new NBC drama The Playboy Club, calling it “Mad Men with boobs.”
He called America’s Got Talent TV’s most grammatically incorrect series, wondering why they didn’t just call it America’s Done Got Talent. He made fun of David Hasselhoff (“still thinks he’s judging that show”) and Ryan Seacrest (“most powerful hobbit in all of middle earth”).
He zinged Simon Cowell and his “creepy nipples desperately trying to pierce his two-sizes-too-small T-shirts.”
McHale would have killed with this stuff if he just once would have accepted our invitation to host the TCA Awards. Maybe next year.
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