MONDO EXTRAS

TWoP: The pop-culture shout-out that got the biggest cheers in my household last season was Abed's extended riff about Farscape in the birthday episode. Please tell whoever wrote that episode that you made a pair of Farscape fans very, very happy.

Pudi: Andy Bobrow wrote that episode but I don't know who came up with the Farscape stuff specifically. I'd seen some episodes of Farscape, but I'm not as familiar with it as Abed is, obviously. I do remember that after that episode, I got a great fan response. So many people were like, "Seriously man, if you ever need somebody to talk Farscape with, I'm your guy." I got phone numbers and e-mails from girls and guys. I realized this is a problem in America right now: people want to talk about Farscape and they have no one to talk about it with! [Laughs] It's another example of how fun it is to play a character who gives a voice to people that haven't heard that voice. They haven't been able to hear enough about Farscape or characters who are attached to it.

TWoP: Outside of Community, you've got a guest spot on Chuck coming up later this season.

Pudi: Yeah, I'm super excited about it. I've become pretty good friends with Zach and Josh over the last few years at Comic Con and NBC events and so when I heard about this, I jumped at the opportunity. I'll be shooting it in a couple weeks so I don't know too much about the episode yet, but my character is sort of tied to Lester. It'll be like hanging out with buddies for a day. There are spies, involved, it's Chuck, it's Geek Squad... all these things make sense to me. And it's their final season too, so I'm just thankful to be part of that.

TWoP:You've also got a role in the movie Knights of Badassdom, about live action role players. Will that be coming out this year?

Pudi: I heard rumblings about it coming out later this year, but other people have told me early 2012. As long as that meteor doesn't hit earth or whatever the Mayans said will happen, I'm hopeful that it comes out and people will see it. The cast is really incredible and it was such a goofy good time. It was fun to explore that world for a couple of weeks. There are a lot of LARP players in the movie and I spoke with a player for quite a bit before I shot anything to get some pointers. Because when you're holding a foam sword, you want to make sure you're using it correctly. You don't want the fans to say, "He's not a LARP player! I can tell by the way he's handling his foam sword."