Comedy Nerd Quentin Tarantino Cast Five Members of the Groundlings in ‘Pulp Fiction’

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“I loved that he was a big Groundlings fan,” Kathy Griffin told Neal Brennan on his Blocks podcast late last year. The “he” Griffin was referring to? That’s director Quentin Tarantino, who was a Thursday night regular at Groundlings in the early 1990s. He was such a big fan that he cast five Groundlings in his breakout hit, Pulp Fiction. Other than Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, says comic Phil LaMarr, that makes Pulp Fiction the film featuring the most Groundlings. 

Let’s start with Griffin and fellow improviser Karen Muryama. They’re in the scene when Ving Rhames’ Marsellus Wallace regains consciousness after a car accident with Bruce Willis’ Butch. Muryama is Gawker #1, the woman who incorrectly proclaims that Wallace is dead. Griffin, who dated Tarantino at one point, offers to testify as a witness. Tarantino credited her as “Kathy Griffin” in the film, which she says “made me feel very famous. That was huge.” And it’s not hard to imagine the real Griffin making a similar offer.

Julia Sweeney, who also may have dated Tarantino depending on your internet source, shows up as the Wolf’s girlfriend, Raquel. Sweeney and Tarantino worked together a lot in the 1990s, with the director producing the film version of Sweeney’s Broadway show, God Said Ha!. Unbelievably, he also did an uncredited rewrite on It’s Pat: The Movie. “What I love about the character,” Tarantino told Playboy, “is that Pat is so fucking obnoxious.” 

Then there’s LaMarr, who played Marvin. LaMarr goofed around doing improv sets with Tarantino “and he was very funny, actually,” he said on Breaking Ground: A Groundlings Podcast. “I actually think he should do more comedy because he was very good at improv.” With all those nice words from LaMarr, you’d think Tarantino wouldn’t have Vince Vega shoot Marvin in the face.  

Finally, there’s the Groundling who was the least recognizable in the movie — Stephen Hibbert as the leather-masked Gimp. “He was on set a lot in that freaking outfit,” remembered Griffin. “They did not shoot him out in a day. I remember him talking about how hard it was to be the Gimp.” 

“I heard a funny thing from Jon Lovitz, who knew Stephen Hibbert, the guy who played the Gimp, from The Groundlings,” Tarantino later told Empire. “Jon watches Pulp Fiction for the first time and is like, ‘What the fuck is this?’ And he stays in the theater as the credit crawl is going on and sees Stephen’s name. He said out loud, ‘WHAT? I know the Gimp?!’”