Joel McHale, host of ‘The Soup’ on E! and actor on NBC’s ‘Community,’ stopped by the Archie Griffin Grand Ballroom April 14 to do standup for students and faculty in an OUAB-sponsored event.
Credit: Mark Batke / For The Lantern
What do Ohio’s weather, OSU’s basketball team and the Wexner Medical Center’s emergency room all have in common?
Joel McHale has mocked them all.
The Ohio Union Activities Board hosted the comedian and actor, best known for his roles acting in NBC’s “Community” and as host of E!’s “The Soup,” Monday evening at Mershon Auditorium.
McHale doled out jokes throughout the evening in reference to OSU, celebrities, and his own family and life.
He even joked about the Wexner Center’s emergency department, which was named after Central Ohio-headquartered clothing company Abercrombie & Fitch in September.
“And they (Abercrombie & Fitch) are so powerful that there’s the Abercrombie & Fitch emergency room? Is that right? I can see that you’re not proud of it,” McHale said. “An article about you that said (you) passed away at the Abercrombie & Fitch emergency room — no matter what you did in your life, that will be the punchline of your entire life.”
McHale continued on with the joke, making references to male models wearing acid wash jeans.
“Are there just dudes standing outside wearing acid wash jeans and spraying stuff on you when you walk in? Try this. Try this on. Dr. Hollister will help you,” McHale said.
The comedian also talked about OSU’s basketball team and compared the team’s early loss in the NCAA tournament to being dumped at prom.
“Man, but you guys lost to Dayton. That’s like being dumped by the one-eyed fat chick on prom night. Look on the bright side, they had to go back to Dayton,” McHale said.
He went on to also joke about Ohio’s weather.
“I looked at the weather here. I thought, I’m going to look in advance,” McHale said. “I prepare for these things. I’ve got my North Face jacket, my North Face shorts (and) my North Face socks. So it was 12 o’clock last night on the West Coast, but 3 a.m. it was 70 degrees here. And then I check the weather again, and it says tomorrow morning it’s going to be 32 degrees. What the hell is going on here?”
McHale also talked about his family life and described a moment when his son, Eddie, began to flirt with a woman as a toddler.
“We went to this wedding that was at a hotel. There was a big group Jacuzzi,” McHale started. “This woman, very hot, was sitting in a bikini, so hot that she had on those brass rings holding the two tiny pieces of material together. So, Eddie sits right down next to her, puts his finger in the hole and goes, ‘Do you wear this all the time?’ And the woman goes, ‘No.’ And he goes, ‘Where are you from?’ She goes like, ‘New York.’ He goes, ‘I want to be from New York.’ And I go, ‘That’s my boy.’”
Many students said they enjoyed McHale’s standup.
“I thought he was really funny. He was good at getting the audience laughing. He had material that we could understand,” said Emily Cobb, a second-year in finance.
One student enjoyed McHale’s comedic techniques and his ability to transcend cheap laughs.
“I thought it was impressive. I’ve only seen him in ‘Community.’ I was surprised that he was as good as he was in his standup. He wasn’t shooting for offensive stereotypes to get cheap laughs. He was actually using very good comedic techniques. He didn’t have to be offensive to be funny,” said Andrew Thomas, a fourth-year in molecular genetics.
Jenica Kramer, a third-year in psychology, appreciated that McHale was able to talk about his kids.
“I loved it when he talked about his children, because as soon as a comedian is going to talk about his children, you know that it’s not going to be awful humor. It’s going to be wholesome. It’s going to be a funny and cute story,” Kramer said.
Before heading out, McHale made sure to poke fun at a three-letter word fundamental to OSU’s identity.
“It’s not Ohio State University. It’s The Ohio State University. Got that? We’ve been knighted. It’s The Ohio State University. It’s not A Ohio State University,” McHale said, impersonating an OSU student. “Look, when I went to the University of Phoenix Online and got my degree, I didn’t just spat that around at everybody.”
