Bowen Yang’s Oscars Appearance Borrowed a ‘Three Amigos’ Joke
In order to ensure that the Oscars would last for as long as humanly possible, several categories in this year’s ceremony were presented by multiple stars, with each taking extra time to highlight the achievements of individual nominees. Of course, they didn’t do this for the top acting awards, seemingly for pretty obvious reasons.
When it came time to present the Best Costume Oscar, actors from the nominated films Nosferatu, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, and Gladiator II all took the stage — also Wicked’s Bowen Yang who, unlike the other presenters, came out dressed as Pfannee, his character from the film.
“Guys? I thought we were all doing this,” Bowen complained.
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“Uh, yeah, no, we changed our minds,” Elle Fanning replied, prompting the Saturday Night Live star to fire back, “Well that would have been helpful to communicate in the group chat, Elle Fanning.”
Lily Rose-Depp pointed out that it would have been “cringe” to show up dressed in their costumes, and John Lithgow agreed.
If the joke felt a little familiar, that could be because it’s an apparent riff on a 25-year-old bit starring some other SNL cast members. During the long-running sketch show’s 25th anniversary special, Steve Martin, Martin Short and Chevy Chase made an appearance, but while Short and Martin wore tuxedos, Chase donned his outfit from Three Amigos. Keep in mind, this was over a decade after the movie came out.
“Wait a minute, didn’t we have a conference call to discuss this, where (we said) we’re all going to wear the Amigo costumes?” Chase asked.
“No, no, remember we talked about it, and we decided it would seem desperate and sad,” Short responded.
The sketch was inspired by a prank that Chase came close to playing on Short in the 1980s. He told his co-star that both him and Steve Martin would be wearing their costumes to the premiere of Three Amigos, imploring him to put on his as well. But Chase later felt bad and admitted that they would really be wearing tuxes.
Apart from the fact that the “conference call” was replaced with a “group chat,” both routines used the same basic set-up. Of course, the Oscars one was uniquely funny in its own ways. Perhaps the best part of the whole segment was Yang’s insistence that Lithgow is his best friend, despite his claim that they barely know each other.
He also committed to the bit way more than Chase did. Which is probably why they didn’t cast Chase in Wicked.
