Dedicated to reminding viewers that Ryan Seacrest is short and Tyra Banks is self-obsessed, Joel McHale has skewered TV’s most deliciously dreadful clips as smart-alecky host of E!’s The Soup since 2004. But McHale’s acting career got cooking in 2009 with The Informant! and NBC’s hit comedy series Community. Now hungry for a juicy gay role (or roll), the 38-year-old funnyman dishes on The Soup’s homoerotic humor and why he’d love to make it even meatier.


We’re usually among the first to point out a celebrity’s gay following, but yours is so large and widely acknowledged that it’s frequently discussed with you in mainstream media.
And one day I hope to form a gay army and start a gay country of some sort — even gayer than France. I have been asked about my gay following a lot, and my standard response is “It’s fabulous!” But then I wonder how these people know I have a gay following. Are they taking some sort of gay census?

What do you think gay fans want to know about you the most?

Easily, it’s which game I’m playing on Xbox 360 right now. And that answer is Modern Warfare.

When did you first realize that gay men enjoyed you?
We did some bit for The Soup where I was in the shower, and it ended up on a number of gay websites. I thought, Well, I guess we’re reaching everybody. There’s also a guy on our staff named Matt Carney who plays the intern that we shoot all the time. When we had him half-naked and covered in oil, [Towleroad.com] called him a “greasy treat.” His dad just said, “Hey, at least you have fans.”