Hans and Franz
Encyclopedia
Hans and Franz were characters in a recurring sketch called "Pumping Up with Hans & Franz" on the television
sketch comedy
show Saturday Night Live
. Hans and Franz themselves were played by Dana Carvey
and Kevin Nealon
, respectively.
n jocks who mimicked/spoofed Arnold Schwarzenegger
by using padding for fake muscles, drab gray sweatsuits, weight belts, and Austrian accents. The background of the set includes several life-sized cutouts of Schwarzenegger during his competition years and the sketch's introduction music featured mock Austrian "yodeling
".
"Pumping Up" primarily consists of Hans and Franz denigrating others for not being strong and as physically "fit" as they were, and then striking bodybuilder poses to show off their "muscled" bodies, complete with strained facial expressions. The two finally receive their just deserts when Arnold Schwarzenegger
himself makes a guest appearance on the sketch (to much applause) and ridicules "his cousins" for being girlie and weak.
A movie was in the works for a short time, entitled Hans and Franz go to Hollywood but was scrapped once producers saw poor box office performances from such SNL sketch-inspired movies as Stuart Saves His Family
and It's Pat
. In late 2010, on the Conan program, Conan O'Brien
and Nealon discussed how they were holed up in a Santa Monica hotel room for a month or so in the early nineties with Carvey and Robert Smigel
, working on a script for the movie (which was to be a musical).
A short sketch spoofing VH1
's Behind the Music
specials was filmed for the show's 1999 primetime 25th Anniversary Special, but time constraints prevented it from airing. It went on to appear in a later episode that season. In the sketch, Hans and Franz tell the story of how they were reunited in Hollywood when Franz unsuspectingly has his buttocks "read" by Hans.
" and "pump you up." He even used the "girlie men" term during the 1988 Presidential election. Accompanying then Vice President George H.W. Bush
, he attacked Bush's Democratic opponents by saying to the crowd: “They all look like a bunch of girlie men, right?" He used the phrase again to attack California state legislators in speeches during his election campaign for governor of California
.
The two Crawler-transporter
vehicles used by NASA
are nicknamed "Hans" and "Franz" after the SNL characters.
Two Designers from Germany, Konstantin Landuris and Horst Wittmann, work under the name of "hansandfranz", inspired by the "SNL" namegiving.
In the West Wing season 6 episode "The Wake Up Call
", President Bartlet refers to the British prime minister's press conference as "getting all Hans & Franz" about the alleged shooting down of a British airplane by Iran.
Hans and Franz also appeared in the Cranium Command
attraction in the Wonders of Life
pavilion at Walt Disney World Resort
's Epcot
theme park.
In a Tiny Toon Adventures
episode parodying SNL sketches, Buster and Plucky play as "Sigmund and Raymond", and played the sketch on "blowing up" their visitors. Hamton shows up and he is pumped with air.
Hale and Hardy, the accented, musclebound dachshund
s in Garfield Gets Real
, are likely based on Hans and Franz.
In the 2009 video game Borderlands
, the player partakes in a boss fight against a pair of beefy, muscular men named Hans and Franz, a reference to the SNL duo.
.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
show Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
. Hans and Franz themselves were played by Dana Carvey
Dana Carvey
Dana Thomas Carvey is an American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for playing the role of Garth in the Wayne's World movies.-Early life:...
and Kevin Nealon
Kevin Nealon
Kevin Nealon is an American actor and comedian, best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1986 to 1995, acting in several of the Happy Madison films, for playing Doug Wilson on the Showtime series Weeds, and providing the voice of the title character, Glenn Martin on Glenn Martin,...
, respectively.
Description
In the sketch, Carvey and Nealon play a pair of muscle-bound AustriaAustria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n jocks who mimicked/spoofed Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
by using padding for fake muscles, drab gray sweatsuits, weight belts, and Austrian accents. The background of the set includes several life-sized cutouts of Schwarzenegger during his competition years and the sketch's introduction music featured mock Austrian "yodeling
Yodeling
Yodeling is a form of singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal or chest register to the falsetto/head register; making a high-low-high-low sound.The English word yodel is derived from a German word jodeln meaning "to...
".
"Pumping Up" primarily consists of Hans and Franz denigrating others for not being strong and as physically "fit" as they were, and then striking bodybuilder poses to show off their "muscled" bodies, complete with strained facial expressions. The two finally receive their just deserts when Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
himself makes a guest appearance on the sketch (to much applause) and ridicules "his cousins" for being girlie and weak.
A movie was in the works for a short time, entitled Hans and Franz go to Hollywood but was scrapped once producers saw poor box office performances from such SNL sketch-inspired movies as Stuart Saves His Family
Stuart Saves His Family
Stuart Saves His Family is a 1995 comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, and based on a series of Saturday Night Live sketches from the early-to-mid 1990s. The movie tracks the adventures of would-be self-help guru Stuart Smalley, a creation of comedian Al Franken, as he attempts to save both his...
and It's Pat
It's Pat
It's Pat, also known as It's Pat: The Movie, is a 1994 comedy film directed by Adam Bernstein and starring Julia Sweeney, Dave Foley, Charles Rocket, and Kathy Griffin...
. In late 2010, on the Conan program, Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted Conan, a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS....
and Nealon discussed how they were holed up in a Santa Monica hotel room for a month or so in the early nineties with Carvey and Robert Smigel
Robert Smigel
Robert Smigel is an American actor, humorist, comedian and writer known for his Saturday Night Live "TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.-Early life:...
, working on a script for the movie (which was to be a musical).
A short sketch spoofing VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
's Behind the Music
Behind the Music
Behind the Music is a television series on VH1. It originally ran from 1997 to 2006, before it was stopped and only aired new episodes sporadically. The series places its generality on documentation of musical artists or groups who are interviewed and profiled, and discuss how their careers became...
specials was filmed for the show's 1999 primetime 25th Anniversary Special, but time constraints prevented it from airing. It went on to appear in a later episode that season. In the sketch, Hans and Franz tell the story of how they were reunited in Hollywood when Franz unsuspectingly has his buttocks "read" by Hans.
Cultural references
This sketch was one of the most popular on SNL, and the characters and their catchphrases entered American pop culture. When Schwarzenegger entered politics, he referred to the sketches himself, using the phrases "girlie menGirlie men
Girlie men is a pejorative term that is notably used by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to characterize opponents in the state legislature of California over the state budget.-History of the phrase:...
" and "pump you up." He even used the "girlie men" term during the 1988 Presidential election. Accompanying then Vice President George H.W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
, he attacked Bush's Democratic opponents by saying to the crowd: “They all look like a bunch of girlie men, right?" He used the phrase again to attack California state legislators in speeches during his election campaign for governor of California
Governor of California
The Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...
.
The two Crawler-transporter
Crawler-Transporter
The crawler-transporters are a pair of tracked vehicles used to transport spacecraft from NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building along the Crawlerway to Launch Complex 39. They were originally used to transport the Saturn IB and Saturn V rockets during the Apollo, Skylab and Apollo–Soyuz programs....
vehicles used by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
are nicknamed "Hans" and "Franz" after the SNL characters.
Two Designers from Germany, Konstantin Landuris and Horst Wittmann, work under the name of "hansandfranz", inspired by the "SNL" namegiving.
In the West Wing season 6 episode "The Wake Up Call
The Wake Up Call
-Plot:The episode opens with the President listening to opera in the Oval Office and C.J. tells the President to go to bed by 8:30pm and gets Margaret to move his morning wake up call to later in the morning....
", President Bartlet refers to the British prime minister's press conference as "getting all Hans & Franz" about the alleged shooting down of a British airplane by Iran.
Hans and Franz also appeared in the Cranium Command
Cranium Command
Cranium Command was an attraction at the Wonders of Life pavilion at Walt Disney World Resort's Epcot theme park. The show was a humorous presentation on the importance of the human brain....
attraction in the Wonders of Life
Wonders of Life
The Wonders of Life pavilion was an attraction at Epcot at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The pavilion was devoted to health and body related attractions. It is located inside a golden colored dome between Mission: SPACE and the Universe of Energy...
pavilion at Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort , is the world's most-visited entertaimental resort. Located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida ; approximately southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States, the resort covers an area of and includes four theme parks, two water parks, 23 on-site themed resort hotels Walt...
's Epcot
Epcot
Epcot is a theme park in the Walt Disney World Resort, located near Orlando, Florida. The park is dedicated to the celebration of human achievement, namely international culture and technological innovation. The second park built at the resort, it opened on October 1, 1982 and was initially named...
theme park.
In a Tiny Toon Adventures
Tiny Toon Adventures
Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures, usually referred to as Tiny Toon Adventures or simply Tiny Toons, is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. It began production as a result of Warner Bros....
episode parodying SNL sketches, Buster and Plucky play as "Sigmund and Raymond", and played the sketch on "blowing up" their visitors. Hamton shows up and he is pumped with air.
Hale and Hardy, the accented, musclebound dachshund
Dachshund
The dachshund is a short-legged, long-bodied dog breed belonging to the hound family. The standard size dachshund was bred to scent, chase, and flush out badgers and other burrow-dwelling animals, while the miniature dachshund was developed to hunt smaller prey such as rabbits...
s in Garfield Gets Real
Garfield Gets Real
Garfield Gets Real is a 1999 CGI movie starring Garfield. It was produced by Paws, Inc. in cooperation with Davis Entertainment and The Animation Picture Company and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was written by Garfield's creator Jim Davis, who started working on the script in the fall of 1996...
, are likely based on Hans and Franz.
In the 2009 video game Borderlands
Borderlands (video game)
Borderlands is a science fiction based first-person shooter with RPG elements that was developed by Gearbox Software for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It was first revealed in the September 2007 issue of Game Informer magazine...
, the player partakes in a boss fight against a pair of beefy, muscular men named Hans and Franz, a reference to the SNL duo.
Origins
The first sketch in which the characters Hans and Franz appear occurred during the season premiere of the 13th seasonSaturday Night Live (Season 13)
Saturday Night Live aired its thirteenth season during the 1987-1988 television season on NBC. Season 13 started on October 17, 1987 and ended on February 27, 1988.Before the start of the season few changes happened...
.
Catchphrases
- "I am Hans." "Und I am Franz." "Und ve just vant to pump... (clap) ...YOU UP!"
- "Hear me now und believe me later..."
- "Girlie menGirlie menGirlie men is a pejorative term that is notably used by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to characterize opponents in the state legislature of California over the state budget.-History of the phrase:...
" - "Poor little girlie man alone in his girlie house!!"
- "Pummela pummela pummela pummela pummela!"