Ed Helms seems like such a nice guy. What's he doing in a raunchy movie like "The Hangover?"

Nailing it, that's what. Helms, who like Steve Carell went from being a correspondent on "The Daily Show" to a role on "The Office," actually plays a pretty nice guy in the film — which is hilarious — about three buddies (Zach Galifianakis and Bradley Cooper are the others) who take their friend to Las Vegas for a bachelor party and wind up losing him.

The movie has been the surprise hit of the summer, grossing nearly $45 million in its opening weekend last week.

Helms plays Stu Price, a relatively mild-mannered dentist who finds all manner of trouble during the trip.

Helms recently talked about the film, Carell's influence and trying to keep a straight face.

Question: It's so funny how "The Hangover" never tries to do anything but make the audience laugh.

Answer: It's pretty unapologetic. Some of my favorite movies are the shallowest out there, like "Caddyshack" and "Ghost Busters." These are not operating on very emotional levels.

Q: In the wrong hands, you guys could have come across as real jerks.

A: I think (director) Todd Phillips was really the ringleader, and was kind of like, "Hey guys, get on board this train, we're going to go to some dark places. But trust me." And we all did, and everyone was eager to do it.

Q: It's just so funny. Did you have a hard time not cracking up?

A: I have a particularly rough time with that. I do break a lot. I love to laugh. I'm a big giggler. For some reason Zach is also a big giggler. The two of us would break a lot, and oftentimes it wouldn't even be anything more than the other guy's laughing that would make the other one laugh. The scene where we're waiting for the valet to pull the car around ... Zach and I have a little exchange (about a baby they've found). ... He also is holding the sunglasses on the baby. The sunglasses I guess had dimmed the baby's vision, so it had opened its eyes super huge. The baby was staring up at me with these enormous eyeballs and the cutest little face, and I start laughing. It killed me. Zach starts laughing. We can't get it back, and Todd gets really mad. After a while Todd's just like, "Come on!" He starts getting genuinely angry, because we're wasting time. Somehow Todd's anger just made the whole thing funnier.

Q: Your character is a little more uptight than the rest, but not so much so that you wouldn't believe all this could happen to him. How much of that did you shape?

A: In the initial version of the script, Stu complained a lot. It really didn't sit well with me. I can't stand watching complainers in movies, especially when the whole movie is about something going wrong. You don't need to be reminded constantly that it's going wrong. You're seeing it unfold. I really leaned hard on Todd early on ... and Todd saw that and agreed.

Q: You've been able to incubate your talents in a couple of pretty high-profile places.

A: In that respect I have been insanely lucky, to be surrounded by the staff and crew of "The Daily Show" and now "The Office." They're incredibly smart, funny people. ... I think the only reason my career has taken the path that it has is Carell bushwhacked ahead of me ... He really broke the mold for all of us.