SNAFU with Ed Helms Live at LA Talks with Tig Notaro
Mar 25, 2026
Tig Notaro, deadpan stand-up comedian, writer, actor and podcaster, joins a live stage chat. They roast each other and unpack highlights from a book of historic screwups. They riff on bizarre Cold War plans, the Ever Given fiasco, research that uncovers forgotten stories, and how these tales make perfect dinner-table fodder.
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Why SNAFU Focuses On Forgotten Screwups
- Ed Helms created SNAFU to combine deep historical research with comedy by focusing on forgotten yet revealing 'snafus' rather than well-known stories.
- He and his team turned piled-up podcast research into 31 short, standalone chapters ideal for quick reading or gifting.
Write History As Short Standalone Stories
- Use short, modular stories to make historical lessons accessible and giftable; Helms structured the book into 31 short chapters for quick reading.
- Each chapter stands alone for easy bathroom, beach, or nightstand reading and sharing.
The Bizarre Moon Nuking Proposal
- Ed Helms recounts a Cold War plan to detonate a nuclear warhead on the moon to intimidate the Soviets, with Carl Sagan involved in the research.
- Planners feared misfires could sling a warhead back to Earth and realized any impact would likely be an unnoticeable dust cloud.
