Paul Drinkwater/NBC

Community premieres tonight on NBC at 9:30pm, and associate degrees have never been so hot. Danny Pudi plays a hyperactive student who ends up in a study group with various other misfits (misfits like Chevy Chase, that is). But is this half-Indian, half-Polish Chicago comic really community college material? Comedy editor Jane Borden found out:

Tell me a little bit about your character, Abed.
I talk a little too fast, because I don’t have a filter. I don’t really pick up on social cues. I might scare you a little too long. I mean, I will not break eye contact until you do… Uh-oh: Are we having a staring contest now?

Yep.
Okay.  Oh, this is serious.

Have you played more characters that aren’t from India than that are?
I played a Turkish French guy.… Oh no, you won; I looked away.

So can we hear about what it’s like to work with Chevy Chase?
Oh, I knew we’d get to that eventually. It’s everybody’s first question, all my friends back home especially.… He’s an icon, he’s a comedy legend. So being in scenes with him is very surreal.… I can’t tell you on how many levels this is a dream for me. And I know everyone’s like, “Oh, all right Danny…,” but it really is: to be in a show that so smart and funny, to work with Chevy Chase.

I’m still not sure Chevy knows how to pronounce my name, though. I think he calls me Puda. And I will never correct him. If Chevy Chase wants to call me Puda, then Chevy Chase can call me Puda.

To what indignity would you stoop before correcting Chevy Chase on the pronunciation of your name?
I’m a nonconfrontational person. If I order salmon and I get chicken, I’m going to eat the chicken. So it would take a lot. There would have to be a dare involved, there would have to be witnesses, and it would have to be written into the script as my character Abed doing it. “Uh, hey, Pierce, you know that guy Danny Pudi who plays me? You’re pronouncing his name wrong: It’s not Puda, it’s Pudi… just kidding, you’re the greatest comedian of all time.”

NBC is really backing this show; there’s been a lot of press.
Yeah, I just did a bunch with Ken Jeong, who’s really great. So you might see us on American Airlines. Actually I don’t know that we answered any questions directly, but we did make out. And we ate some Skittles together.

Is Ken a good kisser? Good eye contact?
It’s all eye contact with him, which kind of throws me off a little bit. Because sometimes you just want to close your eyes for a second, but then when I open them he’s still looking, and he just goes right for it. There’s no, like, little nibble, and then open the mouth, and then the tongue; he just goes straight in. So be prepared, everybody.