SNL's classic "Haunted Elevator" and the amazing David S. Pumpkins

Originally published at: SNL's classic "Haunted Elevator" and the amazing David S. Pumpkins | Boing Boing

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tom hanks snl GIF by Saturday Night Live

This is never not funny…

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The feel-good creepy guy of the century.

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The closest I can come to any reasonable explanation is that they’re playing off the name of comedian Paul F. Tompkins. But “closest” in this case is still very far off.

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Somethings don’t need explanations…

Scared Episode 4 GIF by Saturday Night Live

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“¡Ay, papi!”

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It’s a genius skit, that I guarantee was not intended to be as brilliant as it turned out. There’s a level of absurdity and irony at work that I dare not even try to articulate out loud. I love it.

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I read somewhere that at the time of taping, Tom Hanks was also bewildered by the sketch and its lack of a “reasonable explanation” for the D.S.P. character.

I think part of the appeal (“PART OF IT!”) is that the elevator riders are just as baffled as we, the studio and at-home audience, are. I can imagine myself as the guy. “Any questions?” “Yes, actually, several!”

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“Yes! Several!”

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Absolutely. David S. Pumpkins is a thing existing arbitrarily, and he’s original–which baffles the elevator-riding consumers who can only understand something if it’s a reference to pre-existing media they’ve already been sold as “scary”.

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Sentence one in the original post.

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/starts running searches for costume pumpkin suits for my BF

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Even tried to get out of doing the bit, but in the end committed himself to the role like the pro he is despite his reservations.

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I’ve seen some pushback to the sketch this year, because everyone’s just too cool to laugh at obvious absurdity. Well, not me.

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