WHAT’S the slacker half of the stoner duo of the “Harold & Kumar” movies to do when faced with an elaborate F.B.I. questionnaire for his White House security clearance?

Turns out, the cannabis-smoking alter ego of Kalpen Modi (who is perhaps better known by his stage name, Kal Penn) never even came up when Mr. Modi underwent a background check before taking a job in the Obama administration.

But his comedy credentials were a different matter.

“You have to list the jobs you’ve been fired from,” Mr. Modi said, “and the two jobs I was fired from were sitcom pilots, because the executive producer didn’t believe I was funny enough. So I was looking at these forms like, ‘How do I word this in a diplomatic way, because I want to be honest?’ And I wrote, ‘Fired for not being funny enough.’ ” (The agents, at least, found that funny.)

Security questions behind him, Mr. Modi quickly learned that life in the West Wing was not at all like, well, life in “The West Wing,” Aaron Sorkin’s idealized version of the presidency.