Ed Helms Says His ‘Socially Conservative’ Parents and ‘Repressed Southern Home’ Did Not Raise Him to Be in Movies Like ‘The Hangover’

Ed Helms recently stopped by SiriusXM’s “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” podcast, hosted by Ted Danson, and remembered how nervous he was for his parents to see “The Hangover,” Todd Phillips’ blockbuster 2009 R-rated comedy that paired Helms with Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis. Helms said his upbringing made a movie like “The Hangover” an absolutely nuts choice for his family.

“I grew up in a kind of a repressed Southern home. Politically, very progressive, but still a very socially conservative kind of environment,” Helms said. “And so ‘The Hangover’ is nuts. That’s not what they raised me to do, to be in a movie like ‘The Hangover. So my parents — at that point they’d seen me do crazy stuff on ‘The Daily Show’ and ‘The Office’ — and so there was some sort of acceptance already, but, still, I was nervous for my parents to see ‘The Hangover.'”

Helms was already a TV star by the time “The Hangover” opened in theaters thanks to his correspondent duties on “The Daily Show” from 2002 to 2006 and his role of Andy Bernard on “The Office,” which kicked off in 2006.

“I was like 35 when that movie came out, and I’m still nervous about my parents,” Helms joked to Danson.

The actor ended up taking his parents to the premiere because it was his leading role in a big studio comedy. He remembered: “I’m looking at my mom, the lights come up, and she’s crying. Tears streaming down her face, and, for a second, I’m like, ‘Did I just break my poor mom’s heart?’ She says to me that ‘That was so funny,’ and just a big hug. I’ll just never forget that was such a special moment.”

Helms concluded, “The Hangover was such a pivotal moment in my career, in my life, and for mom to just be all in on it, it meant so much.”

“The Hangover” became a pop culture sensation and earned $469 million at the worldwide box office, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie at the time. It launched a trilogy, with Helms and his co-stars returning for 2011’s “The Hangover Part II” ($586 million worldwide) and 2013’s “The Hangover Part III” ($362 million worldwide). Cooper said on “The New Yorker Radio Hour” in 2023 that he would be on board to return for future sequels.

“I would probably do ‘Hangover 4’ in an instant,” Cooper said at the time. “Just because I love Todd , I love Zach , I love Ed so much, I probably would.”

However, Cooper doubted a fourth “Hangover” movie getting off the ground because writer-director Todd Phillips has moved on to bigger budget studio fare like the “Joker” movies. As the actor put it: “I don’t think Todd’s ever going to do that.”