Jason Voorhees Was Secretly Laughing During His Arsenio Interview

It’s Friday the 13th, that special time of the year when flights are cheaper (thanks to our collective stupidity) and everybody celebrates the murderous exploits of Jason Voorhees. The iconic slasher first showed up, albeit very briefly, in 1980’s Friday the 13th, before later taking Manhattan, and eventually journeying to outer space, where he went on a Holodeck killing spree.

In addition to the roughly 5,000 Friday the 13th movies, Jason has also occasionally popped up here in the real world — not to disembowel horny camp counselors, but to sell stuff, like the time he visited his local RadioShack.

But no doubt the most famous of Jason’s promotional appearances was the time he guested on The Arsenio Hall Show. Yes, back on July 28, 1989, the late-night host welcomed Bo Derek, Ursula Andress and an axe-wielding undead monster. 

Remaining in character for the entire interview, Jason didn’t say a word. He just sat there, silently and menacingly, while Arsenio asked him jokey questions about the root of his anger issues: “Was it a woman? Did you get cut from the hockey team in high school?” And whether or not he ever considered “doing a musical.”

Then, at the end of the interview, Hall hesitantly leaned in for a handshake, only for Jason to pull the host toward him, causing the audience to gasp, and Arsenio to recoil in horror.

The unusual interview was ostensibly a promotional stop for the newly released Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, and has subsequently been heralded as “the best horror movie marketing of all time.” But apparently the whole thing was Arsenio’s idea. As Kane Hodder, the actor behind the hockey mask at the time, revealed during an interview  with the YouTube channel Astronomicon, he randomly received a call from Arsenio asking him to be a guest on the show. “You dumb fuck, I don’t speak. You know that, right?” was Hodder’s response.

But that was exactly what Hall had in mind. “He said, ‘Well, that’s the whole point. I’m going to make it funny because of that,’” Hodder recalled.

Hodder showed up to the set with the actual costume and props from the movie. Before the taping, Arsenio visited Hodder in the green room and confessed that he was genuinely scared of Jason, telling the performer, “I know it’s going to sound stupid, but I’m terrified of you as that character.” 

So Arsenio’s apparent nervousness was 100 percent genuine. And it was only exacerbated by Hodder, who decided to “fuck with” the host by making him flinch during the interview and even grabbing him “around the throat” off-camera. 

But Jason would have been far less intimidating had Arsenio been able to view his face. “I never saw the questions ahead of time, so I was laughing my ass off,” Hodder explained. “Fortunately, you can’t tell because of the mask.”

Jason’s laughter was slightly noticeable at one point, after Arsenio brought up the reduced body count in Jason Takes Manhattan, and asked, “Are you getting soft?” Hodder appeared to be shaking very slightly, prompting Hall to point out, “You’re trembling, man.”

So if they ever reboot Friday the 13th, perhaps the studio should consider casting Ryan Gosling or Jimmy Fallon as Jason.

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