Don Roy King | Jonah Hill Dating Andy's Dad / 2008 [TV (SNL) episode]

a fractured fairy-tale

by Douglas Messerli

 

Seth Myers (head writer) Don Roy King (director) Jonah Hill Dating Andy’s Dad / 2008 [TV (SNL) episode] [4.17 minutes]

 

The March 13, 2008 show of Saturday Night Live began with a meeting with guest performer Jonah Hill and regular SNL cast member Andy Samberg, with the former announcing that since

they met up at a friendly dinner party relating to Hill’s guest performance on the show, Hill was been dating Samberg’s dad.

     Well, it’s a bit more than simply “dating,” it quickly becomes clear. They’ve been having an affair, which quite understandably disturbs Samberg, particularly given the images that the skit calls up, deep tongue kissing and hand holding between the two of them, including Hill’s suggestion that Samberg’s Dad is one of the most fascinating men he’s ever met in his life.

      Understandably, Samberg wonders, “Is this a joke?” Of course, it is, but in the reality of Saturday Night Live-land, it isn’t, and in the myth of the TV fantasy film world in which SNL exists, Hill is truly having an affair with one of the player’s Father.

      “My Dad?” Samberg, shaking his head, inquires.

  “Yes, your Dad, my boyfriend, whatever….”  A moment later, he announces: “It’s gotten extraordinarily physical.”

      “I got to be honest with you. I’m really not cool with this,” Samberg predictably responds. We are, after all in a TV time warp where such impossible things might actually happen.

      “You’re dating my 57-year-old father.”

      “Why is everyone freaking out about the age thing. You sound like you mom right now.”

    Andy’s father suddenly shows up, gives Hill a kiss, and turns to his son: “Andy, I’ve been meaning to tell you…. Jonah and I are dating.” Hill explains that he has already told him, to which the father responds, “Blabbermouth,” Hill rejoining, “I know, I’m the worst.”

      All we need is Bill Hader to show up, and wonder how Samberg happens to know “them.”

      “Ah, he’s my Dad.”

      “Small word,” Hader announces, “We’ve been fucking.”

      Where do you go after an opening skit like that? You’ve entered the strange dimension of time called “the Twilight world of SNL.”

      Of course, gay humor has been a standard of the long-lived comedy show, but this burns down in close to the supposedly private lives of the actors themselves, during a season when, due to a writer’s strike, everyone might have wondered whether or not there would even be a show.

 

Los Angeles, October 24, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (October 2024).