However, he is anything but respectful to his famous guests, often badgering them with aggressive, pointless, irreverent, and often insulting questions.
[2] His coworkers include Michele (Daphne Rubin-Vega), his producer, on whom he has a crush; Kevin (Jacob Tierney), his production assistant; Leif (Josh Alexander), his nemesis, who is VH1's star; and Z (Nancy Giles), the all-business head of programming.
[3] The band Fountains of Wayne performs their own original compositions for the show, and appear as animated characters during the musical sequences.
Saying the television series "simply isn't very good", Waterloo Region Record's Joel Rubinoff stated, "Blending elements of Martin Short's big-headed Jiminy Glick and Larry David's narcissistic super-geek on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Hey Joel's attempts at cheeky satire are amusing in small doses but too often come off as grating and overwrought.
"[4] Toronto Star television critic Rob Salem wrote about the show, "Does the whole add up to the sum of its parts?