Y’all are thinkin’ too hard about David S. Pumpkins.
Well, you know: so many questions!
and asking too many questions
ETA @gracchus
Of Course Gen X loves David. S. Pumpkins. Mellon collie and the infinite sadness was a great album.
"OMG gen X I think we accidentally replaced you. Sorry bro!
-Love, the Millennials"
Would, say, Benny Hill be more your speed, then?
PS: Just look at you!
PPS: Above was for @Banabanana
I realize now what I wish I wrote. It doesn’t fit in with Gen X. But here goes:
It doesn’t look like anything to me.
Backstory and Epilogue: Reportedly, the pumpkin costume was ordered from an online store. Following the skit, orders skyrocketed for the same costume.
Tom Hanks is hard not to love but I hate this stupid SNL skit. It completely hangs on Tom Hanks being slightly quirky and some bad children’s techno.
According to Bobby Moynihan, the music came from the popular “Little Superstar” internet video taken from the Indian film Athisaya Piravi. It was a connection I didn’t make until it was explicitly pointed out to me, despite having seen the clip multiple times (especially on the early The Daily Show, if my faltering memory serves).
But since I checked into this, I had to look up the actual song. “Holiday” by MC Miker and DJ Sven, Dutch rappers sampling Madonna’s “Holiday.”
ETA: “video,” to make clear there wasn’t a special internet for “Little Superstar”
/gestures at everything
“Ummm… you can have it?”
It was like a $5 costume. The way I heard it, it was the shop was just down the street.
Amusingly, his hair is in a big curly poof because it’s a reference to his character on Bosom Buddies. Literally the same hairdo! I think the orange streak was put in as a joke, like, why not?
According to another source, the costume was designed by the show’s costume designer. Hanks wasn’t the source for that, but did refer to the costume as “that cheap pumpkin suit”. (Referring to its cost?)
We must get to the truth!
UPDATE: Excerpts from Vulture site re EVERYTHING about the sketch
But then Eric, the co-costume designer, said he knew of a company, OppoSuits, that actually made suits with all-over Halloween designs. So he hit the internet, found out all the information, and we bought all that were available in the city the following day.
[Later… after the show.]
Broecker : After, Tom took the suit off and said he wanted to keep the costume and take it home. That is how much he loved it.
MD : Then I saw some Halloween costume website being like, “Here’s how you make your own David Pumpkins.” We were like, “This is crazy! This is awesome!”
It was cute, but like everything else SNL for the last thirty years or so, about twice as long as it needed to be. That’s their brand. At this point, I think it’s love it or leave it.
I personally think this sketch is brilliant!
The whole sketch is chock full of subtle humor taking stabs alternately at bland Halloween commercialization (understanding why the woman from the Ring is scary, but David S Pumpkin being his own thing? Heresy! “Sexy” boy and skeletons!) and at SNL itself (“there’s 100 floors of frights, they not all gonna be winners”). And the payoff: a jump scare delivered by David S Pumpkin because who would think such a lame, ridiculous character could sneak up and deliver a scare like that? Especially after the chainsaw wielding maniac starts dancing along?
It’s a tiny, well written and well executed O Henry-esque story that stands up to repeat viewing.
Not the same song. Same voice sample, but not the same song.
I’m pretty sure they pulled a sample from the 3:10 mark of the song. I’m open to the idea that it’s another song if anyone can find it, but for now it’s commonly accepted that it’s from the “Holiday” rap.
ETA: I guess I should have asked for clarity. Do you mean that the song isn’t used in the clip for the movie, or that the song isn’t used for the SNL sketch? If the latter, it’s extremely likely they made an in-house version of the song so they wouldn’t have to bother with any potential issues for streaming or home video releases. So, no, not the exact same song but a reproduction.
Here’s the David S Pumpkins song so you can compare them side-by-side: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_H13aMX9HE.
For one thing, the Holiday remix doesn’t have the “whip crack” sounds that feature prominently in the sketch.
The song used in the sketch definitely has a similar sound and feel to the Holiday remix, but it’s definitely not the same song. The goofy voice sample in the SNL song sounds quite similar to the one in Holiday but also it is not the same. The melody is different, the bass line is different.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that (as you suggest) they were thinking of Holiday for the sketch but wrote and recorded a “sound-alike” to avoid copyright issues. Still, not a sample of the Holiday remix, and not a cover of it either.