How Salacious Crumb Became Return Of The Jedi's Unexpected Breakout Star

You know the laugh. You know the beady little eyes and floppy ears. The little Kowakian monkey-lizard Salacious B. Crumb may have been on the wrong side of things in 1983's "Star Wars: Episode IV — Return of the Jedi," but somehow Jabba the Hutt's tiny jester has become a fan favorite over the years. To be fair, he always was. The diminutive cackler was the talk of the playground when I was little, and rightly so. 

In case you have somehow managed to exist in the world without seeing this film (and I know there are some of you out there), Salacious B. Crumb is perched at Jabba's side in the film as the crime lord baits a mostly blind Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and captures Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), chaining her to his side. Crumb helps with the mockery by repeating things Jabba says, and his laugh is ... well, distinctive. 

In the 1983 book "Star Wars — The Making of Return of the Jedi" (via Archive.org) by John Phillip Peecher, producer Howard Kazanjian spoke about how the teensy lil' guy became such a popular character. 

His popularity is surprising considering Crumb is not a good guy. As things devolve while Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) begins his rescue mission, this weird lil' dude spends his time pulling out the eyes of trusty droid C-3PO (Anthony Daniels). Crumb was voiced by Mark Dodson and puppeteered by Tim Rose, and working with this little hand puppet was a bit of a journey during the two-week shoot for the sequence in Jabba's Palace. Kazanjian said that once they saw what he could do, his role was expanded. In order to create the movement for the character, the crew needed to get a man behind Jabba the Hutt's throne. Kazanjian explained:

"We cut a hole in Jabba's throne and put a man under there. But that was added way late. We were fortunate that we were able to cut away some of the underneath structure and put a man in there and lie him down flat and still have the support to carry Jabba and his throne. It looks as if Salacious will speak in Huttese, but much of his performance is laughs and reactions rather than dialogue."

Honestly, I'm sometimes astonished by the beauty of puppetry. If anyone out there wants to debate whether Puppet Yoda is better than CGI Yoda, I will definitely win with my puppet argument, even though I appreciate the craft of digital effects. As for Crumb's performance, Tim Rose and legendary creature designer Phil Tippett had a hand in making him the star of the entire sequence.

As Kazanjian said, "What happened was, when we weren't even shooting with him, Phil Tippett — or the puppeteer under the floor who was manipulating him — would be playing with Salacious and would have him do something unexpected, such as peck at somebody's ear, or some other impromptu action, and we couldn't help but fall in love with him." It's hard not to fall in love with him, just look at him! Kazanjian continued, "So, gradually, we enlarged his part. At the same time, we would discover that another character would be very cumbersome, or not mobile enough. Or it took too long to dress him, and that creature would just kind of fill a dark spot in the background."

I love that Crumb was sort of a pinch hitter for any creature who didn't work for the scene. Adding in the fact that there was some imp-y improv involved here is pretty awesome. He's like that little kid at an adult party who crawls under the table and grabs everyone's ankles or sneaks food off their plates. Crumb is just plain funny in a scene that is pretty dire for our heroes. You just can't help but love the guy ... unless you're a golden protocol droid with no sense of humor. 

"Star Wars: Episode IV — Return of the Jedi" is currently streaming on Disney+.