Joel McHale's Biggest Achievement Is Partnering with Seattle's Best Coffee, According to His Parents

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Joel McHale has done it all — hosting the award-winning show The Soup for over a decade, starring in NBC's cult-favorite Community, and cementing his place as one of Hollywood's quickest comedians. But according to his parents, his crowning achievement might just be…coffee and marshmallows.
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The Washington State native has teamed up with Seattle's Best Coffee, a brand his family has been sipping for years, to launch Coffee Roast Mallows: tiny little treats in four 'coffee-inspired flavors,' according to the brand. You can eat them as they are or pop them into a fresh cup of joe; the choice is yours.
McHale didn't just work with the brand on the campaign either; he went full McHale about it. In a short video, he's joined by a raccoon (we think a fake one?), dressed in full park ranger gear, delivering his signature wit and charm.
Rolling Stone caught up with the actor and comedian to talk about the collab, his favorite summer camping memories, and whether that long-promised Community movie is actually brewing. Read it below.
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What made you want to partner with Seattle's Best Coffee?
I don't know if you know this, but I've been to Seattle a couple of times. In fact, I was raised there as a child. I grew up in one of the suburbs, and that's where all of my formative years happened. I met my wife in Seattle, and as a teenager, I even worked at a coffee cart (like one that you wheel out every morning). The culture of coffee in Seattle took itself very seriously, and I was absolutely swept up in that. God, when I die, is going to be like, 'you drank 80 tankerfuls of coffee,' and I'm going to be like right…
So when Seattle's Best came to me, I was flattered. They've allowed for a lot of comedy to be in the spots. Even talking to a raccoon — and so it's been really fun, and they've been great.
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How do you choose which brands you collaborate with?
I do my Catholic guilt thing with some of the brands that offer to partner with me. But with the others that I can get behind, I still can't believe my good fortune. When I started out acting and hosting, I was just like, well, if this doesn't work, I don't know what I'm going to do. And it started working before you were born, back in 2004, and I just can't believe that brands are cool with wanting me to represent them.
When Seattle's Best came up, I thought my agent was joking. He said, 'Have you ever heard of Seattle's Best Coffee?' And I was like, no, nooooo, noooooo, never heard of it. And I responded, YEAH. It's a ubiquitous, iconic brand throughout Seattle. When I told my parents, they said, 'Well, you've finally arrived, haven't you, Joel?' I was like, 'Are you mocking me? You're definitely going to be getting some coffee out of this. I feel like you're kind of scolding me about it, but alright!'
Editor's note: I was born in 1995, sorry, Joel.
Was there anything that surprised you about Seattle's Best behind the scenes?
They care deeply, which, you know, a lot of brands do, but they are unique in wanting it to be Seattle-esque, and with all of the different flavors, they've innovated a lot. And now, with the Limited Edition Roast Mallows, they're like, 'Well, summer is the time for s'mores,' and you can just show up with a cup of coffee and throw some of your s'mores mallows in there, and you can either roast them or drink them.
It's those little things that they've thought about and have developed really well. I drink a lot of it.
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Speaking of camping, I've heard you're a pro at pitching a tent or two. Do you have any favorite camping memories?
I went to CYO camp, and it was some of the best times of my life. There was a huge bonfire. We would roast s'mores, and we'd sing the night away. And I look back on that, and I kind of go, 'Oh, that was magic.' The day we came home is the day I started looking forward to the next time we were going to go back out there.
And now I've gone camping with my kids through their schools, and once you get out there (even with all of the preparation), it's heaven. It's perfect. I can just sit back, have a fire, drink some coffee with my mallows, and the kids just love it. When you can just let your kids frolic and hopefully not get bit by a mountain lion, it's the little things.
Were you ever a camp counselor?
I was a camp counselor and a horse wrangler. Not wrangled like I showed up in a bandana, I would wrangle all of the horses for the little kids to get on top of and make sure they didn't fall off when I was leading them down a trail. It wasn't like Yellowstone out there. I was wearing a T-shirt and shorts. I can't shoe a horse, but I can feed it, wash it, and get it to go somewhere.
What are some of your top camping essentials?
Fire, shelter, and food are a bare minimum. I also bring the largest coat because even when it's warm, late at night, it can get cold. And that can even double as a blanket. A broom — that's a good one. Don't skimp on the camp stove, and don't forget the Seattle's Best Coffee.
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If you had to take any of your castmates camping, who would it be?
Well, I'd like to say the entire cast, but I would bring Danny (Pudi), because he's a really good runner, so if we got in trouble, he'd run for help. Probably. Donald (Glover). I think we can all agree he's the funniest person on the planet. But then I would bring Jim (Rash) and Ken (Jeong) with me, because they're also right up there. I don't know if Ken goes camping, but I think it would be funny to see him camp. And I don't think Jim does either, but it would be funny to watch them react to that.
That sounds like it would be the best episode of of all time.
I actually did go on Bear Gryll's show.
Did that make you rethink your entire life?
Oh yeah, he had so many questions like that, and then I would of course make fun of them. I was like, 'Don't start this, Bear.' I'm not going to cry! I'm not going to cry in this slot canyon here. Let's go eat a lizard or something. He's the real deal, he's on top. He also knows all the camera angles and lighting. He knows all that stuff as it's happening. It's pretty impressive.
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What about any updates on the movie or a revival? Is there anything you can tell us?
We're doing the musical revival. Yep, on Broadway. It's gonna be very exciting. Andrew Rannells is playing me. NO!
But yes, the movie is going to happen because we have the money now. It really is a matter of scheduling, and I am pretty hopeful it's happening in the new year. Just as long as the audience is okay with me getting much older.
Your show, became a cultural phenomenon, and afterward, we saw other series emerge that followed the same format. Did you find that flattering, or did it piss you off?
I was annoyed that they outrated me and continued to. But Greg Kinnear was the real inventor of the format and some E! executive, and he worked it out way back in 1991.
My addition to that format was basically not making it a daily show and just making it a weekly show. And then, when reality shows came in, it was the new frontier. It was open. And they were the craziest shows on television, like Flavor of Love, or Being Bobby Brown, or like Britney Spears just having video cameras given to her and Kevin Federline. Reality shows don't really happen anymore. They're all really careful now, like we know exactly what we're getting into with Love Island. And everything is so instantaneously commented upon, no one is going to wait a week to see what I think of RuPaul's Drag Race.
When I was making that show (The Soup), we thought we were going to be canceled every week, and all of a sudden it started working, and I couldn't believe it. It was a time when we were just making jokes to ourselves. I always kind of followed Conan O'Brien (I'm no Conan O'Brien, I wish), and every night, he even said we were going to be cancelled. And I was like, 'Oh, that's how we feel.' It was good times, and I can't believe how lucky I am.
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