Jonah Hill, SNL, And A Surprise Guest Spoof Her
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Spike Jonze’s futuristic love story Her was one of my favorite movies of 2013. Admittedly though, the quirky love story of a man falling in love with an artificially intelligent operating system voiced by Scarlett Johansson is rife for parody, and there have been a bunch. A couple attempts, both called Him, missed the mark, but NBC’s long-running sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live came close to getting right last night, with Academy Award nominee Jonah Hill (I never fail to giggle when I write that phrase) in a clever short called Me.
In this iteration, Hill takes the Theodore role, the part played by Joachim Phoenix and his sweet, sweet future mustache. Like the source, he’s sad and lonely and bonds with his new OS. Here’s the big change, instead of a sultry female voice that laughs at all his jokes and likes to watch him play the ukulele, this version is also voiced by Hill. You know, because before we can learn to love someone else, we first have to love ourselves, or something like that.
It’s really damn funny to watch Hill and himself go through the motions of Her. Some are essentially almost word for word lifted from the movie, but play drastically different with the new casting, while others tweak and twist what came before. As you can imagine, the new gags often involve testicles, as they should. Most of the other spoofs I’ve come across have been super obvious and not particularly interesting. Though Me falls into many of the same traps, there are moments that are actually inventive, and overall they’re having a lot of fun with the material.
I haven’t watched SNL on any regular basis since probably the early 1990s during my first year or so of high school. These days it’s way past my bedtime, and though when I do see some funny bits and pieces, trying to watch an entire episode generally leave me cold and unamused. That said, I might have to go back and watch the whole thing.
Me also features a fantastic cameo that reunites Hill with his Superbad partner in crime, Michael Cera. I won’t ruin it for you—the whole video is only three minutes, you can totally watch it—but if you’ve seen Her, you probably have a decent idea of what’s coming. That doesn’t make it any less funny or ridiculous.
The Cera appearance was actually one of two awesome cameos from last night’s SNL. Hill’s The Wolf of Wall Street costar Leonardo DiCaprio shows up during the opening monologue and the pair reenacts an iconic moment from Titanic. Sure, you may have to sit through the groaner that is “Heterosexual Figure Skating” to get there, but it’s totally worth it.
