Top Secret! (with Ed Helms)

About this episode

Paul Scheer and guest Ed Helms discuss the absurd comedy 'Top Secret!' and its place in film history.

Paul welcomes Ed Helms into the Unspooled booth for a deep dive into Top Secret!, the gloriously absurd 1984 comedy from ZAZ while Amy is away. Between stories about Meet Dave, Ed’s lost role as “Lieutenant Buttocks,” and a celebration of his history podcast SNAFU, the two make the case that Top Secret! may be even funnier than Airplane! or The Naked Gun — just harder to categorize. Listen to Ed’s podcast SNAFU here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/snafu-with-ed-helms/id1635374692 You can join the Unspooled conversation on Paul’s Discord at https://discord.gg/ZwtygZGTa6 Follow Paul and Amy on Letterboxd for more of their movie hot takes! https://letterboxd.com/paulscheer/ https://letterboxd.com/theamynicholson/ Paul’s book Joyful Recollections of Trauma is out now! Find it at https://www.harpercollins.com/products/joyful-recollections-of-trauma-paul-scheer Check out more of Paul's writing on his Substack https://substack.com/@paulscheer Episodic Art by Kim Troxall: https://www.unspooledart.com/ Learn more about the show at Unspooledpod.com, follow us on Twitter @unspooled and on Instagram @unspooledpod, and don’t forget to rate, review & subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts…

People in this episode

Host: Paul Scheer

Guest: Ed Helms

Topics covered

• comedy
• film review
• absurd humor
• podcast discussion
• 1980s cinema

Keywords

• Top Secret!
• Ed Helms
• comedy
• film review
• 1984
• ZAZ
• SNAFU

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: HarperCollins, Discord, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Unspooled, Megaphone

Products: Joyful Recollections of Trauma

Books & works: Top Secret!, Meet Dave, SNAFU, Airplane!, The Naked Gun

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