Heidi Gardner Will Never Shake That Viral Moment From SNL's Beavis & Butt-Head Sketch
This past weekend, Ryan Gosling hosted a spectacular episode of "Saturday Night Live." There wasn't a single bad sketch among the bunch that debuted on the staple late-night comedy series, but there was one clear standout that had pretty much everyone involved breaking.
During a News Nation panel about artificial intelligence featuring Kenan Thompson as an expert on the subject being interviewed by Heidi Gardner, a distraction emerges in the audience in the form of two young men who happen to look uncannily like live-action versions of the animated characters Beavis and Butt-Head, from Mike Judge's comedy series of the same name. If you need a refresher or you missed the sketch over the weekend, take a look below:
Gosling appeared as Beavis, complete with an elongated, prosthetic nose and a big blonde pompadour haircut. After he's moved to avoid any more distraction, he's replaced with Mikey Day as Butt-Head, complete with an upturned upper lip, braces, and a furrowed brow. While Gosling and Day had trouble keeping straight faces when the two eventually ended up sitting next to each other in the audience, the entire cast in this sketch was snickering at the mere sight of them in full Beavis and Butt-Head makeup and wardrobe.
However, it was Gardner who broke the most during the sketch. This was surprising, not only because Gardner almost never breaks during sketches, but also because she simply couldn't shake the laughter, and she struggled to compose herself as the sketch went on. It was a pivotal moment in the sketch that helped it go viral the morning after the show aired, and Gardner quickly followed it up by talking about how this hilarious moment played out. While it might have seemed like Gardner was seeing Gosling and Day in full makeup for the first time during the live show, she had already seen them during dress rehearsal, which makes her breaking during the sketch even more unexpected.
'I didn't know about Mikey's exposed gums and teeth'
Gardner knew getting through the Beavis and Butt-Head sketch was going to be challenging when dress rehearsal came around. In an interview with Vulture, the comedian recalled:
"They were in costume for the earlier rehearsals on Saturday with their wigs and outfits but not the prosthetics. It was funny to look back and see Ryan and know he was nodding along to what I was talking about. I could hear people giggle. But yes, the dress rehearsal was when the prosthetics made their debut — the noses and the mouths. I didn't know about Mikey's exposed gums and teeth."
The fact that Gardner lost control during dress rehearsal and still couldn't compose herself enough to keep from breaking during the live airing just goes to show you how perfect this sketch turned out to be. That's impressive when you consider the fact, as Gardner revealed, that this bit had apparently been percolating "at table reads and rehearsals for about five years prior to this." At one point, Gardner was merely an audience member in the sketch, but previous versions never made it to dress rehearsal.
Blame Mikey Day and Warriors of Virtue
So, if Gardner saw the prosthetics and wardrobe during dress rehearsal, what made her break again during the live show? The blame may fall somewhat on Mikey Day. Gardner explained:
"Mikey does seem to turn his head just a little bit and bug out his eyes. It's like he's doing a subtle acknowledgment. That was new. Maybe the fact I was trying to give myself pep talks contributed to it. Mikey and I sit next to each other during table reads, and he makes me laugh a lot. It's easy for us to mess with each other. Something in the way he moved on live television felt like when someone messes with you to make you laugh."
However, we can also toss some of the blame on the 1997 fantasy movie "Warriors of Virtue." That's right, the movie about a team of warrior kangaroos. Don't remember that movie? Here's a reminder:
How did that make Gardner break? It took her back to an amusing moment from her childhood:
"The makeup department did such a good job with the gums and hair. He looks so much like Butt-Head, but there's also this movie when I was a kid called 'Warriors of Virtue.' There were kangaroo samurai creatures. Me and my friends thought that movie was so funny when I was younger, so at a certain point, looking at Mikey and Ryan, it was like staring right into the 'Warriors of Virtue.' There was clearly a lot going on for me."
'This makes me feel almost even worse and unprofessional'
For Gardner's part, she actually felt bad and worried about breaking during the live show — even though every cast member in the sketch, from Chloe Fineman (seen above) to Michael Longfellow broke at some point during the bit. She explained further:
"This makes me feel almost even worse and unprofessional. When I looked and saw Mikey in the dress rehearsal, I lost it. I was shocked. I'm thinking about it right now and laughing. I recovered and tried to tell myself in between dress and the live show, You can't laugh like that again. I was trying to imagine seeing him in my head so I was prepared for it, but I just couldn't prepare for what I saw. I really tried. I even saw Mikey out of the corner of my eye seconds before I went live. I saw the red shorts. I knew I couldn't look over there again. Mikey even told me later that he was bending down and hiding himself so I wouldn't see him."
In fact, Gardner's not even ready to take credit for making the sketch funnier by breaking, mostly because she still feels like that means she didn't do her job well, no matter how encouraging everyone was afterward. But she fully acknowledged that it's a moment that will stick with her forever:
"It's really hard for me to give myself any sort of credit because I didn't do the job. I hope, for those guys and their portrayals of Beavis and Butt-Head, that it helped how shocked I was by how funny they were. And I hope it helps people think of the sketch. I'll never be able to shake looking over my shoulder and seeing what I saw. That's really special."
Gardner's big guffaw should make the extras in that sketch feel great, because not a single one of them looks like they're anywhere near breaking character. But as a longtime "SNL" fan, I'll always be glad that Gardner couldn't help but laugh during this fantastic sketch.