Joel McHale on Community's Upcoming Apollo 13 Episode and the 'Murderous' Betty White

Community earned a lot of buzz in its first season on the air, but there's still a lot of people who have yet to discover it, and Joel McHale met almost all of those people on the red carpet for the Chopard pre-Emmy bash in Los Angeles last weekend (among the odd questions he had to field: "Growing up, did you prefer the Backstreet Boys or N Sync?"). Needless to say, he was happy to actually talk about the show to Movieline, and dished on the cast's recent Comic-Con sojourn, guest star Betty White, and his favorite unaired pilot.

Now, the whole Community cast was just down at Comic-Con, which is kind of a novel place for a sitcom. How did that experience go?

Well, here's one of the reasons we were there: Community is releasing a comic book with the DVD that's coming out. It's called Kickpuncher, which was referenced in one of the episodes as Abed and Troy's favorite movie. It's about a guy whose punches are as powerful as his kicks. So, we could say we were at Comic-Con because we technically did release a comic book, but it was a great experience. I think, like, 1600 people showed up and they had to turn away some people? It was a terrific ego stroke for any actor.

How much did you get to interact with those fans?

Oh, we don't let them touch us! No! [Laughs] There was some interacting, but there was also so much moving around -- so much "Now you go here, now you go here" in a little golf cart -- there there wasn't a lot of time for anything. I imagine Comic-Con was a lot different ten years ago -- it was a lot of comic books and fantasy/horror. Now, it's become something different. Glee was there and we were there...

And your new timeslot competitor, The Big Bang Theory, had ads everywhere there.

But they're perfect for Comic-Con. I would love to go back, it's so much fun.

Obviously, Betty White is guesting on the show, but what kind of character is she playing?

An anthropology professor.

But what kind of anthropology professor? A daffy one? A sassy one?

She's very sweet, and somewhat psychotic. Like, literally psychotic.

How so?

She tries to kill someone.

One of the main characters?

Yes. She has a murderous streak.

Can we talk about Dan Harmon, the creator of Community?

Wow. You do know your s**t.

Oh yeah. I remember when he used to run Channel 101.

Do you know Heat Vision and Jack, his famous pilot?

Absolutely. Did you know of it?

I didn't know about it until he handed me a copy just before we shot the [Community] pilot.

It's kind of notorious. And what a cast...Owen Wilson, Jack Black...

I was like, "This didn't get picked up? Well, we're definitely not gonna get picked up if this didn't get picked up!" Thank God we did get picked up. Dan is a genius. He's one of the funniest, smartest people I've met in my life.

He's a very free-associative guy, and the show can be that way too. Do you recognize a lot of the references he's making?

I do know a lot of that stuff. We got criticized at first for having a lot of reference humor, and I was like, "I didn't realize reference humor was a problem! I didn't realize it was bad." Having someone like Abed, who's like the Spock or Data of the show...the references just don't stop. We're shooting our Apollo 13 episode starting next week.

How's that going to work?

You'll see.

Will you go up on the Vomit Comet for zero gravity?

There's a ship. I will say that.

A ship.

A vessel.

All right. If that's all you got, I'll take it.

Thanks, man. You actually know the show.

Well, sure.

God bless you!

[Lead Photo Credit: Michael Buckner/WireImage]