Saturday Night Live Fans Want Jeff Goldblum To Play The Fly On Mike Pence's Head

In case we needed another reason to file 2020 away as a horror show, fans of Jeff Goldblum and [...]

By Russ Burlingame

In case we needed another reason to file 2020 away as a horror show, fans of Jeff Goldblum and Saturday Night Live are trying to bring the actor to late night following a fly that landed on Mike Pence's head and hung out there during the vice presidential debate with Kamala Harris tonight. The evolution -- forgive us for just that one little joke -- happened pretty quickly, with the fly that landed on Pence becoming big Twitter news, followed by jokes about the fly being Goldblum, and finally a realization that Goldblum could play the fly in an SNL sketch and it would be comedy gold.

So, when Maya Rudolph and Beck Bennett come together as Harris and Pence to lampoon this week's debate, don't be surprised if there are jokes about the fly. Or even jokes about The Fly.

For those who aren't old enough to remember, one of Jeff Goldblum's most acclaimed performances came in the role of Seth Brundle in David Cronenberg's 1986 horror classic The Fly. In the film, Goldblum plays a scientist who cracks short-distance teleportation -- but is hideously disfigured when a fly ends up in the telepod with him and their genes are mixed together. Throughout the course of the movie, more and more of his humanity -- both physically and mentally -- slips away as he becomes a giant, grotesque fly-man.

The film, which also starred Geena Davis and John Getz, is widely regarded as a classic of modern horror and one of the best movies of its kind ever made. It inspired a sequel, a remake, scores of imitators and a comic book follow-up from IDW Publishing.

Besides being the original star of The Fly, Goldblum is the perfect person to be associated with a quirky viral meme like this. His whole career, he has played flamboyant oddballs, and in the last few years he has become something of a caricature of himself, leaning into the idea that he's a larger-than-life national treasure. He also has both dramatic and comedic chops, so the idea of bringing the guy who played The Fly in a horror movie to pop into SNL has potential to be genuinely funny, and not just funny in the moment he appears, and then the joke is done and you have to work around the fact that he isn't funny (as so often happens with stunt guests on late night shows).

You can see some of our favorite responses below.

The cries go out...

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Live from the Telepod, it's Saturday Night!

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Apparently he's trying to help?

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Declaring him the winner

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Lorne Michaels should already be on the phone

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Your move

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Jealousy

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Getting the message

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We just think more people should see this drawing

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And there's hopes for an encore...

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