Joel McHale Ranks the Wildest & Most Hilarious Moments in ‘Talk Soup’ History

Some hosting jobs come with a teleprompter. Joel McHale's years on Talk Soup came with a board broken over a guest's head and a hazmat suit worn on set. Asked for the craziest thing the show ever produced, McHale reached for a story that still sounds like a liability meeting waiting to happen.

Danny Bonaduce, McHale recalled, wanted to come on and break a board over his own head. He was doing a lot of martial arts at the time, and he brought the board himself. Everyone agreed it seemed safe enough. The first time McHale hit him over the top of the head with it, the board did not break. Bonaduce told him to swing again. This time it broke, but Bonaduce was clearly dazed. To his great credit, McHale said, he stayed on camera, even as McHale started to suspect they had actually injured him.

Then there was Tila Tequila, whom the show honored as artist of the year. McHale played up the gag to the hilt, wearing a hazmat suit to present the award and handing it to her with tongs while apologizing that she had never received it before. She agreed to all of it, he said, which was somehow the funniest part.

McHale also remembered a booking that turned into a pileup of guests. The cast of Mad Men was set to appear, and LeVar Burton happened to be available the same day, so the show simply put everyone on together. It was so funny, McHale said, the kind of scheduling accident that only a clip show could turn into an actual segment.

Taken together, the stories capture what made Talk Soup such a strange and durable job. The guests were in on it, the props occasionally fought back, and McHale's main task was to keep a straight face while a former child star insisted on being hit again.