Community actor walked over BC-Washington border in snowstorm

Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock | Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube

Actor and comedian Joel McHale shared a harrowing-but-lighthearted tale of how he walked across the BC-Washington State border to go home for Christmas as the region was slammed with a snowstorm.

He told the story to Jimmy Kimmel on-air this week, eliciting laughs from the TV host. The journey involved Ubers, new friends, and frigid temperatures.

“I walked into Blaine, Washington, with my luggage. My penis was frozen. I just left it on the ground,” McHale joked.

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McHale was filming in Vancouver and missed his flight home because he worked late. That’s when he decided to try and catch an Uber to Seattle. Uber estimated the trip to be $220, which was about US$8, McHale joked.

But the Uber driver said he couldn’t go over the border, so McHale accepted a ride to the crossing — and during the trip, the driver apparently told him cancer could be cured with breathing. The journey was getting interesting already.

Once McHale walked across, contrary to his first driver’s assurance there would be lots of Ubers, it was snowy and desolate.

“It became Fargo. It was snowing and there was nobody there. There were no Ubers, there were hardly any guards,” McHale said.

He rolled his luggage to the Wheelhouse Bar and Grill, where he met another man named John from Victoria. A third, very drunk man, apparently offered to drive them to Seattle — but they declined.

The pair found a taxi that would take them as far as Bellingham.

“John and I fell in love, I left Sarah,” McHale joked. “He’s a big hunter, big fisherman… We’ve been texting. He’s a great guy, you would love him.”

He shared a photo of his new friend with Jimmy Kimmel, but the show moved on before McHale finished the story from Bellingham to Seattle.

The actor wasn’t the only one to walk across the border this holiday season. A snowstorm forced Vancouver International Airport to temporarily suspend all flights and to pause international arrivals for 48 hours while the stuck aircraft cleared out of the airport.

One group of travellers took to TikTok to share their experience walking over the border in deep snow after Air Canada cancelled their flight.

“Even border patrol laughed at our story,” one of them says in the video. Thankfully, they made it home to California.

@kellyeatatani Never going to Canada again. #canada #vancouver #aircanada ♬ Funny Song – Cavendish Music

Despite the snowstorm and travel woes, McHale did sing the praises of Vancouver during the Jimmy Kimmel segment, calling it “one of the lovelier cities on the planet.”

He is best known for his role as Jeff Winger on Community and he also hosted The Soup for more than a decade and played roles in Spider-Man 2 and Spy Kids: All the Time in the World.