Will Forte's MacGruber is one of the most well-known Saturday Night Live characters of recent memory. The ridiculous situations, catchy theme song, and explosive punchlines made MacGruber an instant classic.
The character was so popular that he was even given his own movie in 2010, a Pepsi commercial, and is now heading up his own series on Peacock. Now that MacGruber has been confirmed for a second season, it is time to look back at the sketches that introduced audiences to him in the first place.
Shia LaBeouf
Shia LaBeouf's series of MacGruber sketches are not necessarily unfunny, but they have definitely not aged well. LaBeouf plays MacGruber's estranged son Merill who is helping in on a mission. The sketches center on MacGruber finding out that Merill is gay through some very explicit means and trying to "correct" Merill's sexuality.
It is a premise that audiences may not find as funny in this day and age, but the sketches do still manage to garner a few laughs. LaBeouf's delivery of his lines is superb, and the awkward expressions when he mentions that his "girlfriend's" name is Scott are pretty funny, but overall the sketches do not hold up terribly well on a rewatch.
Ryan Phillippe
In the most recent episode to feature MacGruber, Ryan Phillippe reprises his role from the movie and the show as one of the most intelligent characters from the series while MacGruber fumbles his way through the Coronavirus. The sketch features MacGruber burning the trio's masks, taking questionable home remedies, and finally spiraling completely into conspiracy theories he found online.
While everything is completely fitting of the character and does a decent job of trying to poke fun at current issues, it came at a point when jokes about Coronavirus and politics had already pretty well run their course. It is still funny, but this sketch almost tries a little too hard to be relevant.
Seth Rogen
This episode, starring Seth Rogen as one of MacGruber's sidekicks, centers on MacGruber going through a midlife crisis. While at first, nothing seems amiss, when MacGruber's bandana falls off in the opening sketch, revealing that he is going bald, he spirals down a rabbit hole of plastic surgery.
The transformation of MacGruber through his numerous plastic surgeries is bound to leave viewers both amused and horrified, and the final stinger of MacGruber revealing his final, altered face just as the bomb explodes is one that fans are not likely to forget.
Jeremy Piven
The first-ever MacGruber sketch, which is in the Jeremy Piven episode, also features the simplest premise. In the most direct parody of MacGyver, MacGruber asks his partners to give him a whole host of random objects to help him defuse the bomb.
Unfortunately for them, those objects include some incredibly disgusting things like dog poop and pubic hairs, which have to be taken directly off Piven's body. Piven's refusals are both hilarious and understandable, and it introduced the recurring trope of MacGruber never managing to defuse the bomb in time. Plus, at the time, seeing MacGruber get blown up immediately after threatening to rip out a man's pubic hair is a punchline few fans probably expected.
Josh Brolin
Seeing Josh Brolin removed from his badass roles like those in the MCU or No Country For Old Men almost singlehandedly makes this sketch worth watching, as Brolin plays a hilarious knock on the helpless sidekick role. While defusing the bomb, MacGruber decides to check up on his stocks, only to find that he has lost everything right as it explodes.
His progressively more desperate attempts to get his money back are what really make the episode, though, as he begs for loans, does a humiliating stunt with a ping pong ball, and mugs both of his partners.
Jonah Hill
Jonah Hill was a perfect fit for the ludicrous deadpan comedy of MacGruber. In the episode, Hill plays Isaac, a coworker of MacGruber's who has supposedly been gossiping about him around the office. MacGruber not so subtly tries to get Isaac to confess and gets progressively more self-conscious as the sketches go on.
It all culminates in MacGruber forcing Isaac to defuse the bomb instead. Forte and Hill have great chemistry through their hilarious back and forth, and Hill's "I literally could not do any worse than you right now" when asked if he could do better is one of the funniest lines in the sketches' history.
Betty White
Working with one's grandmother could either be great or terrible, which MacGruber finds out when Betty White joins the cast of this sketch. White is hysterical as she corrects MacGruber on his manners and tells a whole host of embarrassing childhood stories, including his breast reduction.
Their relationship continues to strain as she tells more and more humiliating secrets until MacGruber finally remedies the situation by proposing to his own grandmother. The highlight is definitely when White fakes being dead, being caught opening her eyes just in time for the bomb to go off.
Molly Shannon
Alcohol dependence is not a particularly funny subject, but this sketch manages to make MacGruber's experience with it quite comedic. The title sequence states that he is fifteen years sober as MacGruber asks for a series of strange ingredients before Molly Shannon catches him using them to make a Bloody Mary.
The second sketch features MacGruber singing a hilarious parody of his theme song, and the third reveals that he had actually made the bomb himself while drunk, and the others just leave him out of pity. It is probably not the most effective warning against alcohol dependence, but the sketch provides plenty of funny moments.
Charles Barkley
Charles Barkley has proved himself to be a surprisingly talented comedian during his multiple appearances on SNL, but this sketch may be one of the best starring turns by an athlete on the show. As MacGruber repeatedly mispronounces his name and throws around horribly misplaced slang, Barkley's Darrel becomes more and more frustrated.
After a racist joke forces MacGruber into sensitivity training, MacGruber refuses to call a pen "black" and maces Barkley before finally admitting he is a racist. The best moment occurs in the final sketch, when a newly reformed MacGruber tries to make amends with Darrel, only to mace him again right as the bomb explodes.
Richard Dean Anderson
The best MacGruber sketch ever features MacGyver in a parody of his original TV character. Anderson's MacGyver reveals himself to be MacGruber's long-lost father, just in time for both of them to be blown up. The episode is so great because it essentially gives two sketches in one, with a flashback to MacGyver's past in each sketch.
Both always end the same way, though, and the cut from one explosion back to the present just in time for the second one is funny every single time. Richard Dean Anderson's star power and his hilariously funny back and forth with MacGruber make this easily MacGruber's best appearance on SNL.