SNAFU with Ed Helms

S4E8: Live at 92NY with Samantha Bee

Original Release: November 26, 2025

Episode Overview

In this special live episode, Ed Helms, host of SNAFU, sits down onstage at New York's 92nd Street Y with Emmy-winning comedian and former Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee. Celebrating Helms’s new book, "The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screw Ups," the conversation dives into the recurring follies of history, the origins and curation of snafu stories, the intersection between book and podcast, and the connective threads tying historical faceplants to our chaotic present. Both hilarious and sobering, the discussion offers comfort (and a few thrills) in exploring just how "bananas" the world has always been.

Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Meaning and Genesis of SNAFU (05:49–06:28)

• Samantha Bee opens by asking Ed Helms to define "SNAFU."
  • Ed Helms explains, “SNAFU is an acronym that started during World War II. It stands for Situation Normal. All fucked up.” (05:54)
  • Compares SNAFU to FUBAR as another lexicon addition from the military.

2. How the Book Came Together (07:41–11:14)

• The book curates mostly American stories from the 1950s to the present, divided by decade; the team imposed limits to avoid being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of potential blunders.
• Many entries are "epic, world-ending," but also "childish and silly."
  • Bee: “Should we detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon?” (08:34)
  • Helms: “This is full Looney Tunes.” (08:44)
• Compared to the podcast’s season-long deep dives, the book is episodic—"great for bathroom reading."
• The team behind SNAFU comprises "a team of goddamn nerds. Top notch," praised for their deep-dive research and curation (11:22).

3. Curation Philosophy and Avoiding the Obvious (11:44–13:17)

• Helms did not want to recycle well-known disasters like the Titanic; instead, the goal was to uncover the surprisingly obscure and relevant.
• “A lot of these things, people just don’t know.” (13:17)

4. Project Iceworm & The Greenland Saga (13:49–17:46)

• Bee calls attention to the eerie relevance of Project Iceworm—America's secret Cold War project to build an underground missile network beneath Greenland’s ice.
• Helms recounts its “flawless” premise and tragic legacy: "Now there is still a ton of nuclear waste and a ton of human waste, because they just dug a giant pit in the ice for all the soldiers' bathroom activity…" (16:29–16:56)
• The legacy issue: with global warming, toxic and radioactive waste may soon emerge, impacting indigenous Greenlanders.

5. The Ozone Layer Success Story – Hope from History (18:10–19:29)

• Discusses the successful global response to the 1980s ozone crisis as a rare example of effective scientific consensus and coordinated action:
  • Bee: “It's a great reminder that scientific consensus is possible.” (18:10)
  • Helms: “That is a great example of seeing a problem, understanding the problem, and...pushing hard against industrial interests to fix that problem. And it worked.” (18:41)

6. Secrecy, Hubris, and Repeating Mistakes (19:29–21:09)

• Much of the world’s incompetence used to be hidden; now, “what feels different right now is how transparent the incompetence is, or seems to be.” (20:51)
• Bee: “All these crazy ideas really happen behind the scenes, behind a very secretive veil, and we just learn about them by accident.” (20:17)

7. FBI, COINTELPRO, and Citizen Activists (24:14–28:40)

• Season 2’s focus: 1970s activists break into an FBI office, exposing COINTELPRO’s abuses.
• Helms: "They poured through it and they found actual documentation and evidence of some of this horrible malfeasance..." (25:12)
• Fallout included the Church Hearings—basis for today’s oversight, however imperfect.

8. Taking Optimism from Disaster (29:00–29:47)

• Bee: “You do say that in the intro to the book, that you sort of see the book as a force for optimism in a very chaotic world...We have majorly blundered in the past, and...human good has prevailed.” (29:00)
• Helms: “It's a choice to see things that way...what these blunders...show us is a resilience...and a kind of, like, tendency towards equilibrium of some kind.” (29:26)

9. The Role of (Bad) Civic Education (29:47–30:46)

• Both lament declining civic education as a factor in repeated blunders and the rise of authoritarian movements.
• Helms: “The rise of a strongman is generally the function of an anxious population...that isn't rooted in the fundamentals of civil society...” (30:13)

10. Comedy in Disaster – Finding the Funny (31:19–33:16)

• The book avoids tragedies without comedic potential; preference is for stories with an inherently farcical element.
• Examples: CIA's repeated failed attempts to assassinate Castro—including making his beard fall out—and the infamous Acoustic Kitty and pigeon spy projects.
• Bee: "Cats make the best spies because they're so incredibly trainable..." (32:31, sarcastically)
• Helms: “Somebody who didn’t have. Doesn’t know cats was like, hey, they’re very sneaky and sly. If we can implant a microphone in their ears... ” (32:48)

11. The Government Poisoning Its Own Alcohol Supply – Prohibition (37:35–39:46)

• Season 3’s focus: during Prohibition, the U.S. government intentionally poisoned industrial alcohol to deter bootlegging, resulting in thousands of deaths.
  • Helms: “Let's make the industrial alcohol supply, like, fully poisonous…” (38:05)
  • No meaningful consequences for officials—“We are not consequence oriented people.” (39:58)

12. Audience Q&A Highlights (47:13–54:58)

• On cinematic potential: “Our partner in the podcast is Film Nation Entertainment, and we’ll see what happens.” (47:31)
• All-time favorite snafu? Helms names Season 2’s FBI break-in for its poignance and depth, despite being less overtly funny (47:44–48:56).
• Hardest event to research: Season 1, which relied on the dogged use of Freedom of Information Act requests by a determined historian (49:15–49:55).
• The crucial role of journalism in revealing historical blunders—vital to their own satirical work (50:22–50:49).
• New York City’s own less-known disaster: The Citicorp Building’s near-collapse, fixed in secret after a grad student discovered a fatal engineering flaw (53:02–54:10).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Much of our history is very stupid. Are we condemned to repeat our stupid history? I think maybe.”
  — Samantha Bee (31:09)

• “Human enlightenment is not a straight line. It's a game of Chutes and Ladders.”
  — Ed Helms (31:19)

• “Some things are just too tragic or too horrifying. And so in season two of the podcast...we found some funny, but also felt like it was just a great enough story and a powerful and meaningful enough story that we didn’t need to be as funny...”
  — Ed Helms (47:44)

• “This is like, anybody knows [cats aren’t trainable]. And this is where that group think…somebody who doesn’t know cats was like, hey, they’re very sneaky and sly. If we can implant a microphone in their ears…”
  — Ed Helms (32:48)

• “I do feel like America is full of Jimmy Carters. We just have to summon...the will to save the day.”
  — Samantha Bee (47:04)

Episode Timestamps for Key Segments

• Definition of “SNAFU” – 05:49
• Curation and Book Structure – 07:41–11:14
• Project Iceworm/Greenland – 13:49–17:46
• Ozone Layer Success – 18:10–19:29
• Secret Government Follies then vs. Now – 19:29–21:09
• Citizen Activists vs. FBI – 24:14–28:40
• Taking Optimism from History – 29:00–29:47
• Decline of Civic Education – 29:47–30:46
• Comedy & Absurdity in Blunders – 31:19–33:16
• Acoustic Kitty & Pigeon Spies – 32:04–32:48
• Prohibition Poisoning – 37:35–39:46
• Audience Q&A - Favorite Snafus, NYC Near-Misses – 47:13–54:10

Closing Thoughts

Ed Helms and Samantha Bee, with warmth and wit, reveal that history’s screwups are as endless as they are endlessly fascinating—and useful as a lens for making sense of modern times. Their spirited banter reinforces the enduring relevance of skepticism, curiosity, and laughter when examining the blunders shaping our world, past, present, and future.