MEDIA HORDE
Ed Helms

“To me, Harold Ramis
is one of the greatest
comedic minds ever
and a very mellow,
down-to-earth guy.
I had the pleasure
and privilege to work
with him [when he
directed episodes of
The Office], and it was
everything I could
have hoped it would
be. He’s sort of like
Confucius: You can
just hang around him
and learn things. But
unlike Confucius, he’s
not doling out deli-
cious little nuggets of
wisdom on a regular
basis. You just kind of
absorb his presence.”

The guide to how entertainers
entertain themselves. This month:
The Office’s crooning rageaholic.

“I get really strong
nostalgic feelings
from Ang Lee’s The Ice
Storm. That’s a very
moving film for me.
There’s just something
incredibly poignant
about the time of year
and the isolation of the
characters. I’m pretty
emotional. I get a
lump in my throat from
Sleepless in Seattle.”

“MythBusters [on
the Discovery
Channel] is a guilty
pleasure of mine. It’s
a cool show because
the hosts [Adam
Savage and Jamie
Hyneman] are always
making contraptions
and exploding things.
More often than not,
the actual myth that
they’re trying to bust
becomes second-
ary to making a big
explosion. They’ll just
haphazardly attach
rockets to something
because it’s fun to
attach rockets to
things. And a lot of it
is just stuff you want
to do with your dad in
the garage, like build
a hovercraft out of
leaf blowers.”

“The first record I
bought was the ⁴⁵
of Queen’s ‘Another
One Bites the Dust.’
I liked to crank it up
and dance around my
room. But then my
parents confiscated
it because the B-side
is this obscure song
called ‘Don’t Try Sui-
cide.’ It freaked them
out—they thought I
didn’t need to be hear-
ing about suicide when
I was ten years old.”

“Atlas Shrugged is,
like, ¹,²⁰⁰ pages
long, and it’s riveting.
Ayn Rand had a keen
sense of personal
responsibility and
the importance of
controlling your own
destiny—although she
was part of the House
Subcommittee on
Un-American Activities
and all that bullshit, so
she was clearly out of
her mind.”

“When I was a
teenager, Eddie Van
Halen was my Lord
Almighty. I freaking
worshipped that guy.
I had all these live
videos of Van Halen
concerts, and his
guitar solos would
turn me into goo. I’m
pretty psyched about
their reunion.”

“I suppose if there was
a song that gets me
in the mood to play
Andy Bernard [on
The Office], it would
be an a cappella
version of ‘Africa,’ by
Toto. I just think (a)
it’s one of the greatest
American rock songs
and (b) it’s exactly
the kind of song that
Andy would think is
actually better when
performed a cappella.”