David S. Pumpkins | |
---|---|
Saturday Night Live character | |
First appearance | October 22, 2016 SNL season 42, episode 4 |
Last appearance | October 29, 2022 SNL season 48, episode 4 |
Created by | Mikey Day Bobby Moynihan Streeter Seidell |
Portrayed by | Tom Hanks |
Voiced by | Tom Hanks |
In-universe information | |
Full name | David Simon Pumpkins |
Origin | Ibiza |
David Simon Pumpkins is a fictional character played by American actor Tom Hanks who first appeared on the October 22, 2016, episode of Saturday Night Live in a sketch written by Mikey Day, Bobby Moynihan, and Streeter Seidell. The character developed a cult following and served as the basis for an animated Halloween special in 2017 and has subsequently returned to SNL multiple times.
The character was created by Bobby Moynihan, Mikey Day, and Streeter Seidell. Moynihan said they wanted to make a Halloween-themed version of the viral video "Little Superstar" [1] with a character who was a "Santa Claus for Halloween". [2] The writers said the character's middle initial "S" stands for Simon. [3] The writers bought a pumpkin-themed suit for $12.99 at Party City, intending to use something that looked cheap. [2]
The initial idea for the sketch, which did not include the Pumpkins character, involved a "creepy hotel" which resembled Disney's Haunted Mansion, later changed into a Tower of Terror-style ride. [4] Day credits Pumpkins' eventual creation to his love of "stupid suits". [4] The first version of Pumpkins had more dialogue, which Hanks cut back while "playing with the character". [4] There were plans at one point to include Lady Gaga, the episode's musical guest, as "Mrs. David Pumpkins", but she passed on it because "her musical set was pretty involved". [5]
Hanks thought the character was "very bizarre" before the sketch aired and initially suggested Chris Hemsworth would be better suited for the role. [6] [7]
Pumpkins first appeared in the fourth episode of SNL's 42nd season in a skit later uploaded to YouTube with the title "Haunted Elevator (ft. David S. Pumpkins)". [8] In it, a couple (played by Beck Bennett and Kate McKinnon) enters an attraction named 100 Floors of Frights in which a "Hellevator" operator (Kenan Thompson) opens elevator doors to reveal various characters that scare the couple with traditionally scary scenes. On the 49th floor, the doors open to reveal two dancing skeletons alongside David S. Pumpkins wearing a black and orange pumpkin-themed suit. [9] Instead of being scared, the couple is mystified and asks what Pumpkins is meant to represent and why he is part of the ride. In response, Pumpkins says that he is "his own thing" and that the skeletons (Moynihan and Day) standing next to him on most floors (73 out of 100) of the elevator are "part of it". [10] [11] Pumpkins insists that he is there to "scare the hell out of you", but manages only to confuse the passengers. [9] The elevator visits several other floors, at some of which Pumpkins continues to appear, until the ride stops at the final level. The door opens on just the skeletons, whereupon Pumpkins appears right behind the guests and shout-asks "Any questions?", successfully giving them a fright. [9]
Two episodes later, SNL host Dave Chappelle made a reference to David S. Pumpkins in a sketch titled "Jheri's Place". After the "sketch gone wrong", Chappelle jokingly says that he thought his failed character "was going to be the next David S. Pumpkins". [12] [13]
In the season's finale hosted by Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson, Pumpkins reappears in a prerecorded music video called "Rap Song", using the name David S. Pimpkins and wearing a furry hat and jacket. [14] Alongside other fictional featured artists, [15] Pimpkins pesters the character played by Kenan Thompson, [16] [17] in a pastiche of "overstuffed all-star rap videos" like DJ Khaled's "I'm the One". [18] David S. Pumpkins' parts of the segment are solo, he never appears with any of the other characters in the sketch.
In 2022, Hanks and Moynihan returned in the season 48 episode hosted by Jack Harlow. Viewers began speculating on social media that there was going to be a David S. Pumpkins sketch when Hanks cameoed in an earlier sketch and Moynihan reprised his role as Drunk Uncle on Weekend Update . These suspicions were confirmed when Hanks and Moynihan reprised their roles alongside Day (still a regular cast member) as Pumpkins and the skeletons in one of the final sketches of the night. As in the original sketch, the three repeatedly show up in a jump scare–themed attraction hosted by Thompson, now set in a prison populated by famous horror movie characters. Thompson's operator explains that the ride spent most of its budget on characters like Freddy Krueger and Pennywise the Clown, so Pumpkins was needed to fill the rest of the attraction. The patrons in this sketch are a group of friends played by Harlow, Ego Nwodim, and Andrew Dismukes. Unlike in the first sketch, Nwodim's character expresses a neutral opinion of Pumpkins, while Harlow outright enjoys him—only Dismukes expresses bewilderment and frustration, particularly at the revelation that Pumpkins is apparently from Ibiza. Once again, Pumpkins delivers on his promise to "scare [the group] stupid" by surprising them at the end of the sketch. [19]
On September 28, 2017, NBC announced that Pumpkins would star in a 30-minute animated special to be produced by Bento Box Animation. [20] Hanks, Day and Moynihan reprised their roles, with Seidell and Peter Dinklage joining the cast. [21] Two weeks prior to the announcement, Hanks posted a picture of the special's script, titled "The David S. Pumpkins Song", on social media. [22] [23] [24]
The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special aired October 28, 2017. [25] It starts with a live-action address from Hanks dressed as Pumpkins. In the story, Kevin (Dinklage) is embarrassed to take his younger sister trick-or-treating. After choosing the "magic pumpkin" at a pumpkin patch, David S. Pumpkins and the skeletons take them on an adventure and sing-along. The siblings ride in Pumpkins' "pumpkinmobile" (a strawberry car) while the mysterious villain named the Raincoat Man is stealing all the Halloween candy. Pumpkins and the skeletons rescue the candy from what turns out to be pre-teens who had bullied Kevin. Pumpkins uses magic to deliver the candy around the neighborhood inside of pumpkins. [26] [27]
When the character was first performed, his appeal was unclear to some but he immediately developed a fan following. [9] Airing just weeks before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, it has been suggested that the non-political nature of the sketch helped fuel its popularity. [28] Day suggested this came from a "weird alchemy of Halloween, the best host ever, the time of the country, and just a silly song". [9] Seidell said, "The election was so intense. David Pumpkins, this dumb silly thing, was the last thing that everyone could kind of agree on, that they could talk to each other about without it ruining Thanksgiving". [9]
Hanks's performance as an SNL host, including the Pumpkins sketch, earned him a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2017. [29] [30]
The character's apparent meaninglessness was referenced in the original skit. [10] [31] Tom Hanks jokingly tweeted that he dressed as Pumpkins for Halloween in 2016. [32] In promotion for a Reddit AMA, Microsoft founder Bill Gates parodied the original sketch, [33] [34] and received some criticism for the effort. [35] [36] In October 2017, Madame Tussauds Orlando adapted their existing wax figure of Tom Hanks to appear as David Pumpkins. [37]
David Khari Webber Chappelle is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He starred in and co-created the satirical comedy sketch series Chappelle's Show (2003–2006) before quitting in the middle of production during the third season. After a hiatus, Chappelle returned to performing stand-up comedy across the U.S. By 2006, Chappelle was called the "comic genius of America" by Esquire and, in 2013, "the best" by a Billboard writer. In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked him No. 9 in their "50 Best Stand Up Comics of All Time".
Michael William Day is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and game show host. Day was hired as a writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live before its 39th season in 2013. He was then promoted to on-air cast status and became a featured player during the show's 42nd season in 2016, later being promoted to repertory status beginning with the 44th season in 2018. He is also the host of the Netflix show Is It Cake? Day previously was an on-air correspondent for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Jay Leno Show.
Little Superstar is a video uploaded on YouTube, which is a clip from the 1990 Tamil film Adhisaya Piravi, starring Rajinikanth. The clip features the Tamil actor King Kong breakdancing to MC Miker G & DJ Sven's "Holiday Rap". Various mashups have also appeared on the Internet using tracks from Cypress Hill, Michael Jackson and others, including Ted's Fear Factory video. The first site to feature Little Superstar and give the clip its name was Dorks.com.
John Edmund Mulaney is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Mulaney first rose to prominence for his work as a writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2008 to 2013, where he contributed to numerous sketches and characters, including Stefon, a recurring character that he and Bill Hader co-created. Since his departure from SNL, Mulaney has hosted it several times, becoming a member of the SNL Five Timers Club in 2022.
Bobby Moynihan is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. Moynihan was a cast member and writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2008 to 2017. Outside of SNL, he has also voiced Louie Duck on Disney's DuckTales from 2017 to 2021, Panda in We Bare Bears from 2015 to 2020, and Hal the Dog in the PBS Kids series Nature Cat since 2015. He has also starred in animated films such as Monsters University (2013) and The Secret Life of Pets (2016) and its 2019 sequel. He portrayed Jayden Kwapis on the sitcom Mr. Mayor and the manatee Loafy in the 2020 show of the same name of which he is also the creator, executive producer, director and writer.
Streeter John Seidell is an American comedian, writer, actor, and TV host. Seidell was part of the cast of CollegeHumor's online sketches. His video series Prank Wars was viewed tens of millions of times, which eventually led to a TV-series called Pranked on MTV with fellow CollegeHumor editor, Amir Blumenfeld.
Stefon Meyers, more commonly known as Stefon, is a fictional character created by Bill Hader and John Mulaney, and portrayed by Hader on the American sketch-comedy television show Saturday Night Live (SNL). The character first appeared in a 2008 sketch in an episode hosted by Ben Affleck, then in 2010, he became a correspondent on Weekend Update, SNL's recurring satirical news segment. Stefon is based on people Hader and Mulaney encountered, including a club promoter and a barista at a coffee shop Hader frequented. Stefon is described as a "city correspondent"; when asked about recommendations for events and destinations in New York City, Stefon suggests unusual nightclubs and parties with bizarre characters and themes. Because lines for Weekend Update are read from cue cards, Mulaney changed the script before the live broadcast to make Hader break character.
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between September 26, 2009, and May 15, 2010, the thirty-fifth season of SNL.
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between September 24, 2011, and May 20, 2012, the thirty-seventh season of SNL.
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced during the thirty-eighth season of SNL, which began on September 15, 2012.
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced during the thirty-ninth season of SNL, which began on September 28, 2013.
"Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special" is a three-and-a-half-hour prime-time special that aired on February 15, 2015, on NBC, celebrating Saturday Night Live's 40th year on the air, having premiered on October 11, 1975, under the original title NBC's Saturday Night. It is produced by Broadway Video. This special generated 23.1 million viewers, becoming NBC's most-watched prime-time, non-sports, entertainment telecast since the Friends series finale in 2004. It is the third such anniversary special to be broadcast, with celebratory episodes also held during the 15th and 25th seasons.
Saturday Night Live is an American sketch comedy series created and produced by Lorne Michaels for most of the show's run. The show has aired on NBC since its inception in 1975.
The forty-second season of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live premiered on October 1, 2016, during the 2016–2017 television season, with host Margot Robbie and musical guest The Weeknd, and concluded on May 20, 2017, with host Dwayne Johnson and musical guest Katy Perry. The season removed two commercial breaks per episode in order to increase programming time. Episode 18 on April 15, 2017, was the first episode ever to be broadcast live in all four time zones within the contiguous United States. Until this episode, the show aired live only in the Eastern and Central time zones, and was tape-delayed in the Mountain and Pacific time zones.
The forty-third season of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live premiered on September 30, 2017, during the 2017–2018 television season with host Ryan Gosling and musical guest Jay-Z, and concluded on May 19, 2018, with host Tina Fey and musical guest Nicki Minaj. Like the final four episodes of season 42, season 43 was broadcast live in all four time zones within the contiguous United States, with the exception of the Natalie Portman/Dua Lipa episode due to the network's commitment to the NFL.
Lexi Underwood is an American actress and singer, best known for her role as Pearl Warren in Little Fires Everywhere. She also played Athena in Will vs the Future, a comedic science fiction series created and executive produced by Tim McKeon and Kevin Seccia, and directed by Joe Nussbaum.
The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special is an animated Halloween television special that aired on NBC on October 28, 2017. It stars Tom Hanks as Saturday Night Live character David S. Pumpkins. The 21-minute special was written by and also features Mikey Day, Bobby Moynihan, and Streeter Seidell. Peter Dinklage narrates the story, which follows a brother and sister who go trick-or-treating, meet Pumpkins and catch the troublemakers who had disrupted Halloween.
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced during the forty-second season of SNL, which began on October 1, 2016.
Chloe Fineman is an American actress and comedian. Fineman became a featured player on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live starting in its 45th season in September 2019, and was promoted to repertory status in 2021 at the beginning of season 47.