You'll have to forgive Joel McHale if he was not his usual effervescent self the other day. Cramped into a tiny plastic library chair on the set of 'Community,' he had spent the night mocking desperate bachelors and bachelorettes, Z-list stars and the news media's coverage of Tiger Woods on his E! network series, 'The Soup.' He then spent an estimated five minutes that morning with his wife and his sons, Eddie, 4, and Isaac, 1, before heading to his second job: an NBC sitcom on which he mocks the other misfits at the fictional Greendale Community College. Half wearily and half sincerely, McHale said, 'It's a dream come true.' Like a comic-book hero, McHale, 38, leads a double life, though perhaps not the kind you're thinking of. Yes, he holds down two gigs, as a snarkier-than-thou cable television host and as a smarmy, Sam Malone-type sitcom lead who holds together a dysfunctional Spanish study group. Off camera, however, McHale is hardly smug; he's generally an earnest (if occasionally yawn-prone) guy who seems genuinely proud of his accomplishments. But, like Bruce Banner transforming into the Hulk, he reveals a super-powered, sarcastic side when he is pushed too far -- usually by awful reality shows. 'Someone needs to say something,' McHale said. 'It's like seeing someone mugged in a park. You must act.' McHale, a slender, 6-foot-4-inch actor and comedian, came to the entertainment industry with his idealism intact. After a stint as a tight end on the University of Washington football team he started performing improvisational comedy and appearing on the Seattle sketch television show 'Almost Live!' With a master's degree in acting he moved to Los Angeles in 2000 and was quickly cast in small roles on shows like 'Will & Grace' and in films like 'Spider-Man 2.' But as he continued to work in Hollywood, his experiences wore down his outer shell of optimism, and his first agent dropped him after just six months. 'He said that I was not big enough for his agency,' McHale recalled. 'He told my manager he would like to represent me in four years.' McHale rebounded a little faster than that. In 2004 he was hired by E! to star on 'The Soup,' its rapid-fire commentary on reality television, talk shows and celebrity misbehavior. (The show was originally, inexplicably titled 'The What the ...? Awards' before it was renamed to evoke its predecessor, 'Talk Soup.') Though he was initially wary of a job that promised more hosting than acting, McHale found the show to be an ideal outlet for his burgeoning cynicism. 'I've always been insanely opinionated,' he said. 'Not necessarily about important things -- things like MTV shows like 'Date My Mom.'' The negligible expense of the show (which McHale said was initially budgeted at about $30,000 an episode) also meant that he and his 'Soup' colleagues faced little creative interference from E! executives. 'They saw how little it was going to cost them,' he said, 'and they were like, 'Pffft, go ahead.'' McHale's 'Soup' performance so defined him that when the 'Community' creator Dan Harmon began casting that show, he was not necessarily interested in McHale, even for the seemingly compatible character of Jeff Winger, a cocky lawyer who is sent back to college after it is discovered that he does not have a valid bachelor's degree. 'He was too sarcastic, based on his 'Soup' personality,' said Harmon, who is also a creator of 'The Sarah Silverman Program' and the comedy shorts series Channel 101. 'We needed the guy to have a warmth and a sincerity.' But when Harmon met with McHale, he discovered the actor possessed a sensitive side beneath several layers of comedic defense. 'I don't want to say he's playing a character on 'The Soup,' because that ruins him for millions of 'Soup' fans,' Harmon said, 'but I don't think he's that cynical at all.' On 'Community,' Harmon said, McHale serves as the 'wayward son-turned-caretaker' of an ad-hoc ensemble that includes a pop-culture polymath (played Danny Pudi); a prudish good girl (Alison Brie) and an over-the-hill business magnate (Chevy Chase). The difference between his two screen roles, McHale said, is that on 'Community' his character must learn that he is not superior to his classmates and accept his place in their peculiar group. On 'The Soup,' however, 'almost every single human being is above some of the programming we show,' he said. Chase, who is no stranger to characters that call for a certain over-the-top arrogance (see 'Caddyshack,' 'Fletch,' et al.), said he felt a kinship with McHale. 'Are you kidding?' Chase said. 'He's playing me 30 years ago.' What will keep McHale from being typecast as the good-looking smarmy guy, Chase said, is that 'Joel is a very stable, centered person with a lovely family.' He continued: 'I have high hopes for him as he moves onto greater heights. On some show on Fox, let's say.' McHale, who has a year left on his contract at 'The Soup,' said he had no plans to leave that show. 'With the unpredictability of network television,' he said, ''The Soup' is working really well. And I have two kids, so I want to make sure they go to college.' So in addition to his five-day-a-week schedule at 'Community,' McHale regularly spends his Thursday nights taping 'The Soup' (at what he calls 'the Ryan Seacrest Memorial Studios'). He is also allowed short breaks to work on movies (like the Steven Soderbergh satire 'The Informant!,' in which he played an FBI agent), and somehow finds time to perform stand-up comedy too. In his more hopeful moments, McHale can imagine himself having an eclectic, unpredictable acting career in the mold of Johnny Depp's or Matt Damon's. But having spent enough time in -- and making fun of -- show business, he knows that ambition and achievement do not always go hand in hand. To illustrate his point McHale recalled the reaction at 'The Soup' when a special wedding episode of the reality show 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians' (broadcast on E!) drew a larger audience than the season finale of 'Mad Men.' 'We were like, 'So, that happened?'' McHale said. 'I guess: Don't go to school. Stay up late and drink. It doesn't matter anymore.' 