Nellie Andreeva

Community star and host of E!’s The Soup Joel McHale returned to his standup roots this morning when he was summoned to open NBC’s executive session and dropped a few zingers.

He called to American Idol host Ryan Seacrest as “the most powerful hobbit in all of Middle Earth.” He referred to the E! Entertainment that employs him to the “Ehh… Network”.

“My favorite part of TCA is gambling which network is going to try to do something with Christian Slater pool,” McHale said, referring to Slater’s recent string of three back-to-back series — NBC’s My Own Worst Enemy, ABC’s The Forgotten and Fox’s Breaking In — adding that his money is on the CW. He called NBC’s new drama The Playboy Club “Mad Men with boobs.”

McHale didn’t spare barbs about his NBC show, Community, or as he called it, the “Chevy Chase babysitting service”. “Once again we tied The Jersey Shore in Emmy nominations,” he said, referring to Community‘s latest Emmy shutout.

McHale also took shots at TCA’s press tour, calling it “just like Comic-Con but with more nerds” and “like summer camp for shut-outs.”

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