SNL's 'hilariously perfected' Ambiguously Gay Duo
Jon Hamm and Jimmy Fallon startled — and delighted — viewers by playing live-action versions of the much-loved cartoon characters
The video: This weekend, Saturday Night Live resurrected Robert Smigel's long-running superhero cartoon, "The Ambiguously Gay Duo." (Watch the clip below.) But in a big twist, the animated short morphed into a star-studded, live-action video when a "flesh ray weapon" turned the the 2D characters into real people — namely Jon Hamm and Jimmy Fallon as the crime-fighting, can-can-dancing title characters, along with Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and Ed Helms as villains. (Carell and Colbert voiced the original "Ambiguously Gay" cartoons, which date back to 1996.)
The reaction: In an otherwise "subpar" episode, this segment, packed with the usual parade of double entendres, was easily the "most attention-grabbing," says Mike Vilensky at New York. Indeed, this was "the most surreal thing to air on SNL this entire season," says Mike Ryan at Movieline. While not exactly a laugh riot, "give it credit for trying something so conceptual — and packing so many great stars into one sketch," says Adam Markovitz at Entertainment Weekly. And boy, oh boy, "Fallon and Hamm hilariously perfected the two superheroes," says Kathleen Perricone at the New York Daily News. Watch them mince heroically:
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
'Underneath the noise, however, there’s an existential crisis'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
2024: the year of distrust in science
In the Spotlight Science and politics do not seem to mix
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
The Nutcracker: English National Ballet's reboot restores 'festive sparkle'
The Week Recommends Long-overdue revamp of Tchaikovsky's ballet is 'fun, cohesive and astoundingly pretty'
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published