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Streeter Seidell: Last season was electrifying from the get-go with all the political stuff.
Watch: Watch Every Impression From Last Season of SNL
Mikey Day: We were a little overwhelmed.
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SS: But then we were all just pumped Tom Hanks was hosting.
If youre our age, you grew up with Tom Hanks.
MD: He surpasses your greatest expectations of who he is.
Any fatigue washed away.
SS: We were happy to not write a political sketch.
MD: The possibilities were endless.
MD: The little superstar.
BM: Every time the music stopped, he stopped dancing.
MD: Im obsessed with the song hes dancing to: Holiday Rap by MC Miker and DJ Sven.
Theres a breakdown in the middle.
SS: We first pitched Tom the idea on Tuesday afternoon.
Tom weighed in that, maybe they are like Dutch brothers.
SS: But he also was like, fellas, I dont break dance.
I dont know why we assumed Tom Hanks would know how to break-dance.
That put the kibosh on that.
So we just dropped it and wrote a few other things.
We wrote one where hes Frankenstein that I was working on for a good chunk of the night.
It was just Mikey and I alone first, talking about the one that eventually became SWAT Recon.
We were working on it for a while, but we couldnt quite crack where it goes after that.
MD: You start kicking into high gear.
Sometime around then, we have the idea of Tower of Terror.
I grew up in Orange County near Disneyland.
SS: Our idea was that it was real.
It wasnt a ride.
It was a real, haunted elevator.
MD: I think names and suits are funny.
Normal names in insane situations and dumb suits are funny.
So, I just remember thinking,David Pumpkins.
Hes got pumpkins on his suit.
Hes surrounded by two skeletons.
And we put them all on a Tower of Terror setup.
And we get to put in Holiday Rap.
So we start writing.
MD: The doors open, and theres David Pumpkins.
I remember writing, Im David Pumpkins, and then Bobby added the S David S. Pumpkins.
BM: Why not?
At four oclock in the morning, you dont ask questions.
You just go, What should be his first line?
And Mikey goes, Hows it hanging?
Great, write it down.
MD: In the original version, David Pumpkins talks a lot more.
SS: It really emerged as it went on that the joke was the Any questions?
MD: It was always the two people in the elevator freaked out.
And lines like Any questions?
Yes, several, were there from the very first draft.
But it was all about [the couples question]:Why are they here?
BM: We tried to explain it a little more in the original draft.
There was more trying to get to the bottom of it.
We tried to contextualize it a little bit.
MD: There was way more mystery-solving in the first draft on behalf of them.
SS: Bobby was the one who was saying these lines, like, Do you scare with pumpkins?
And David Pumpkinswould be like, Get a life!
MD: How many pumpkins do you use?
And he goes, Between 10 and 38 pumpkins.
MD: And it was a lot of, Are you a ghost?
SS: Grow up!
He had a real attitude.
MD: Do you haunt with pumpkins?
SS: One-thousand percent.
MD: At that point, those lines were set to a beat.
It was kind of like an early hip-hop rap.
BM: Eventually we realized it was just, Nope, this guys weird and were all here onboard.
SS: And hes coming from a place of like, Everyone gets it.
Everyone knows who I am and what my deal is.
SS: It was a mess.
MD: But the no pun intended bones were there.
MD: I was excited.
I was like, This could be fun, you know?
He was like, Cool!
He thought it was insane.
When you say it out loud, its insane.
Hey Tom, so you play a guy.
His names David Pumpkins.
Hes in a haunted elevator.
No one knows who he is and youre just super confident and cool.
BM: When we read it at the table, the skeletons only danced once.
MD: The response was pretty good.
Bobby and I sort of half got up from our chairs.
When you stand up at the table, its like …
SS: Big swing coming!
SS: He had not yet cracked the two-finger pointing motion.
BM: Then it was all David Pumpkins trying to explain who he was.
SS: It was still pretty far from what people eventually saw.
It was still a lot more talking.
I was thinking,This is loooooong.
Everyones talking too much.
MD: It wasnt a rock concert by any means, but it was fairly well received.
Even if it wasnt a crusher.
SS: After the sketch was picked, we went to wardrobe.
They described what they wanted, which was a suit with pumpkins on it.
BM: She said something about giving him hisBosom Buddieshair?
MD: Yeah, and then throwing in that yellow-orangey pumpkin streak homage.
Everyone in the creative departments so good at what they do.
That dumb little streak is so key to David Pumpkins.
SS: Stupid little streak.
It lets you know hes crazy.
Somethings off with this dude.
MD: Then we recorded the music with [SNLmusical director] Lenny Pickett.
BM: Well, we didnt even record it.
I just made a bunch of weird sounds into a microphone.
SS: The notes are Bobbys voice going, Baw, Bow, Bowb.
MD: Lenny in turn retrofits it to [sound like the Holiday Rap breakdown].
Then we layer in the whip sounds.
Thursday
The writers work together to rewrite the sketches that were picked the day before.
MD: I remember going to the rewrite table thinking,Its about the dancing.
Its not about this two-page, offbeat rap.
SS: We all knew.
it’s possible for you to just tell which parts arent working.
It was like, All right, so the dancing stuff will be fun.
Were like, Yep.
Always has been a ride.
SS: Kenan got more as we made it a ride and it got slimmed down.
His role became more important.
MD: We added Kyle [Mooney] and Melissa [Villasenor] at the rewrite.
Youve seen David Pumpkins, havent you?
Or You wanna find out more about him and get to the bottom of it?
BM: Instead, it became us popping in and out, separating it with the other scares.
Like Vanessa [Bayer], Leslie, and Kyle.
SS: And that really is a mold of Kates head that our makeup department literally made.
Its a straight-up realistic, creepy-looking, full Kate head.
SS: We cut skeletons names between rewrites and Saturday.
MD: Tommy Lee Bones and Oprah.
I was Tommy Lee Bones and Bobby was Oprah, but we kept taking her out.
BM: I tried to shoot for those names a couple of times.
At one point we were gonna call them The Skeletones.
MD: Then the producers came to us.
SS: Gaga might want to do something.
We were like, Ooh!
MD: And Beck and Kate go, Whos this?
BM: Instead of us making sex noises, it would be her.
MD: Shes wearing a jacket with witches on it.
You think shes gonna say Wanda Witches or something, but she goes, Im Mrs. David Pumpkins.
Of course his wife would be weird.
SS: Sadly, she wanted to focus on her performance for the show.
MD: She read it and liked it, but it was just a matter of time.
Her musical set was pretty involved.
SS: I remember being so bummed.
I was like, Oh man.
That could have been the thing that put it over the edge.
We didnt block it.
It was a very big issue for our director, how to get him behind the couple.
I remember having to go before dress to adjust the camera stuff.
We were fighting behind-the-scenes battles with the camera angles and stuff the whole week.
MD: But we ended up being really proud of that ending.
SS: When you crack a good ending, its a fantastic feeling.
This one just worked pretty well because its a ride.
It was really a nice little bow on the end.
MD: We also added in the sensual noises the skeletons make.
BM: We didnt put them in till really late.
And then Mikey just started doing his strange sex noises.
MD: Those are my voice.
BM: It was the most Ive ever rehearsed for anything on the show.
SS: Ive never seen the cast really rehearse that much.
MD: Wed be like, dance, pose, dance, butt slap, butt slap, pose.
SS: Taking it so seriously.
And then Ill probably do this kind of wave thing with my body and then thats the butt-slap one.
Which hand is he gonna hit you with?
MD: I remember saying butt slap over and over.
Butt slap, butt slap, pose … Like, our goal was to get it sharp.
BM: I remember being excited because the set was done up.
They had done all of the cobwebs and everything and the set looked so cool.
I thought,maybe this will actually be okay.
It looks pretty cool, at least.
MD: I thought,Well see.
It could be a complete disaster or it could be really fun.
Lorne is giving notes on the composition: Is that lighting weird?
Can those doors open a little faster?
Cant we just get to it?
Im looking past him as hes giving me these very serious notes, and Im nodding and saying yes.
Meanwhile I just see Tom Hanks being like, Im David Pumpkins!
and these guys dancing and slapping each others asses.
MD: After, I was like, Did Lorne like it?
Did Lorne like it?
Streeter was like, He seemed to … he liked the end.
SS: When you have a good end joke like that, it always helps out.
MD: Lornes good at making things work.
Seeing it and being like, Heres what you oughta do.
SS: At dress, there was a longer piece before you got on the ride.
Lorne was like, Just get them in the ride, and lets go.
Otherwise, we just cut a couple lines per David Pumpkins appearance.
MD: In between dress and air, Tom came up to us.
The audience was just like, What the hell is this?
Its funny and were enjoying it because were not hearing about Trump right now.
SS: A nice palate cleanser.
MD: It was an adrenaline shot of silly.
MD: Confident, normal dude.
High energy, a la Kevin Roberts.
SS: He decided to put that voice on himself.
Literally not until air.
Because we watched dress the other day and we were like, Oh, that voice isverydifferent.
I get it now.
Im just supposed to go out there and have a good time.
We did not tell him to point two of his fingers and shake his hands in a weird way.
This is all just Tom doing it.
We didnt tell him to make the most insane face.
You look at it and you go, That character is truly insane.
There is no order in that characters brain.
MD: I remember being happy that Bobby and I got the dancing sharp.
I was worried wed launch into a dance when it was only supposed to be Tom.
The sharper it is, the stupider it is.
BM: For my time onSNL, it was definitely the most present Ive been for a sketch.
We just had a blast.
Right before the elevator doors opened, Tom whispered, So is this butt slaps?
And we were hysterically laughing.
We were like, No, thats the next one.
It definitely felt different.
Just everyone trying to smush in.
The smoke guys were going insane smoking the place.
I was watching the cast trying to squeeze in.
That is how much he loved it.
MD: I remember walking out with Bobby being like, Wow, that was fun.
BM: At the after-party, Lorne and Tom came over.
They were very complimentary and nice.
I believe there were some compliments about dance moves.
We were like, This is crazy!
SS: That suit sold out by Sunday.
BM: A Comic-Con or something happened a week later, and there were like seven David Pumpkins there.
I asked to take a picture with them.
Someone sent me a photo from a basketball game, and the sketch was playing on the jumbotron.
SS: Al Roker brought it up in some way or another for five days straight.
MD: He wore the suit.
I was like, Did Tom?
Then on Halloween he tweeted …
Oh, I HAVE my costume!
Any questions??!
I remember readingVultures articleand going, Man, I had no idea we were so good.
MD: Theres nothing funnier to me than reading people analyze David Pumpkins.
SS: Everyone became the Beck of the sketch.
But instead of being like, Why is he in this ride?
theyre like, Why do people like this?
Why do I like this?
Because there really is nothing there.
MD: The cool thing when people are like, I dont get it.
I dont get it!
Why is this a big deal?
Youre like, Youre being David Pumpkinsd.
He just confuses people and makes them angry but then he scares you in the end.
And I was like, You are giving us so much more credit than we are due.
It all kind of came together.
SS: My personal theory is that everyone in the country at that point was so divided.
The election was so intense.
Like my aunt, whos very conservative was like, Oh, it was so funny.
But so did my mom, whos very liberal.
Its about this dumb thing that we all saw.
MD: In the finale, we reprised the character for a rap song we did with Dwayne Johnson.
MD: It came from seeing a lot of the kids dressing up and responding to the character.
SS: We brought up the idea and then kind of forgot about it.
Then in the spring it was like, Hey, theyre interested.
MD: [SNLproducer] Erin Doyle pitched it to Lorne, and Lorne was cool with it.
He talked to Tom, and Tom was down.
Theres some scary stuff in there.
MD: Its not like David Pumpkins for a half-hour going, Aaah!
SS: As we were writing it, we realized, Oh, this guys kind of annoying.
If he talks for long enough, youre just like, I hate this dude.
SS: You learn zero about David Pumpkins.
By the end of it, you learn one piece of information, and thats it.
He only makes one pronouncement and offers one opinion.
MD: Then we emailed Peter Dinklage, because we had a great time with him doing Space Pants.
MD: A laThe Grinch.
SS: And he wrote back in rhyme agreeing to do it.
And Lorne just very coolly gave us the first half-hour of the broadcast on the 28th.
MD: It will be David Pumpkins, and then an hourlong best-of Halloween special.
MD: I feel like when Im an old man Ill be saying, I was left skeleton.
BM: I still refused to be called right skeleton.
I wanna be called fat skeleton.
SS: In a red-carpet interview, Tom said his headstone will read, Here lies David S. Pumpkins.
MD: Im thinking this could probably be a Universal ride.
It could be right next to theJimmy Fallon ride.
SS: Perhaps theres a movie.
Just making the world go, Was there a first David Pumpkins movie?
MD: Its ultimately a testament to how well Tom Hanks knows David Pumpkins.
SS: I think he knows David Pumpkins better than we do at this point.
The Return
Five years later, the stars align for David Pumpkins to reemerge.
MD: We never really legitimately discussed a return.
He makes a lot of things, so just getting Tom is kind of the hardest part.
SS: The week before it aired, we were on a break.
BM: I think I have to thank Rita Wilson.
I believe it was his idea.
MD: We got that information and then we had a brief telephone conversation with Tom just discussing ideas.
SS: You could have him pop up in a totally different jot down of sketch or whatever.
But its not like weve done David Pumpkins 15 times.
MD: We decided not to stray too far from the formula.
We were basically like, We dont think we should reinvent the wheel here.
Well just do a version of the first and have some fun with David Pumpkins.
MD: We texted Bobby, like, Youre available, right?
He said yes and then on Friday, Bobby was just magically here.
and I was like, How could I say no?
I was transported back five years the second I got the text.
It was a show week again.
SS: We underwrote it for the table read because we knew Tom wasnt gonna be there.
The whole fun of this is Tom.
A lot of time was spent trying to think what the new ride would be.
MD: The key was finding a ride that would justify lots of doors opening up and closing.
SS: It ended up looking very similar to the old ride.
So it was Andrew getting mad that David Pumpkins was not from a movie.
I cant really explain why!
MD: Tom was so chill about it all.
He was definitely aware of what David Pumpkins is and didnt overthink anything.
Its always funny having those serious conversations when hes dressed like David Pumpkins and youre dressed like a skeleton.
We went through a few options for the sound.
SS: It was an old-timey car horn at one point.
SS: I was pitching the Yoshi sound.
We wanted David Pumpkins to be where Andrew was sitting to scare Ego and Jack.
I said, Im around, you want to do anything else?
You want to do Drunk Uncle?
Anthony Crispino or anything?
And they said, Sure, lets do it.
And then I dont hear anything for days and I hear that Lorne said, Yeah, why not?
And then its like, I wrote Drunk Uncle Saturday morning with the writers and did it Saturday night.
SS: It was treated very reverently.
For a true piece of shit, a $25 suit, its treated with much respect.
MD: And its the same one as the first time.
He puts it on, the magic happens!
SS: In dress rehearsal, David Pumpkins was right after the monologue.
MD: It was much earlier, so people hadnt seen Tom or Bobby yet.
SS: The cheer was sharp and overwhelming.
BM: When that door opened, it rocked the room.
MD: It went from zero to David Pumpkins.
SS: When Tom first appeared, you basically couldnt hear his entire line.
BM: I couldnt believe it.
MD: I guess in the live version, there was an anticipation as youre putting it together.
Youre like, Oh, theres Tom and theres Bobby … Are we getting Pumpkins?
SS: I think thats what Lorne was thinking.
MD: Bobby went right from Drunk Uncle into Pumpkins, but they put that skeleton makeup onso fast.
BM: I had a super-fast quick change, like two and a half minutes.
MD: And they had to cover his beard too!
But Bobby was standing and leaving immediately.
MD: He had his skeleton jumpsuit on under the Drunk Uncle suit.
That was just so funny, how hot that must have been.
BM: I made a gametime decision.
I just decided to throw the skeleton costume on, because it had the hood.
So, I just put the hood over the wig and everything.
I was still Drunk Uncle underneath the skeleton.
I was like,Ive never really watched a sketch from up here before!
Might as well watch that one!I loved it.
MD: It felt like we had done the other one yesterday.
Posing next to Tom before the doors opened for the first time was exciting.
Tom Hanks is here.
Were having a good time.
Its highly choreographed to get people in and out of the little door area.
BM: People forget its a live show, first and foremost.
If those doors dont work or something goes wrong with the doors, itsover.
SS: This time I was much more tense.
MD: The doors kept not working in rehearsal.
SS: Like, everyone thinks Tom is the star of this sketch, but hes really not.
MD: The crew was like Dont worry, itll work, and they worked.
As everything does on the show, magically, everything worked.
BM: Tom had a great time.
Tom was excited to be back.
MD: He was like That was fun!
He was characteristically friendly and wonderful.
So maybe someday hell return.
Wed need Toms willingness to do it, and Bobby coming in and being the skeleton.
BM: We just have to go full hard-R horror movie, I think.
MD: And again, this time we wanted to find his wife!
Someone like Meryl Streep as Mrs. David Pumpkins!
SS: Friday night we texted our talent people and asked, Is Julia Roberts in town?
