Witness Peak Joel McHale in the Trailer for Netflix’s The Joel McHale Show With Joel McHale
Photo via NetflixRemember The Soup? Those were good times on Joel McHale’s long-running E! show, weren’t they? Before McHale was sucked into the orbit of the Harmonverse via the brilliance and constant drama of Community, it was The Soup that had long been the calling card of the wry comedian. Now, Netflix seems to be attempting to put the actor back in the saddle via The Joel McHale Show With Joel McHale, which released a teaser trailer today.
The trailer, seen above, doesn’t really do a lot to hint at the show’s real format, although there are hints. The fact that they’re projecting images onto him via green screen certainly recalls the talky, jokey, minimalist approach of The Soup, which presaged a dozen other “make fun of clips” shows such as Tosh.0. The voiceover says “when anger and hatred are on the rise, the world needs a hero; someone brave enough to point and laugh,” and claims the series will be “a weekly show with no boundaries.” Does that mean McHale will be hewing in the direction of American politics, or will the show more or less restrain itself to the entertainment (and especially reality TV) roots of The Soup?
It’s honestly hard not to root for the latter. In a hyper-partisan age of infotainment, it’s not as if comedic political commentary is hard to find these days. Here’s hoping that The Joel McHale Show With Joel McHale exists simply to rip our current pop cultural landscape to shreds.