| Hans and Franz | |
|---|---|
| Saturday Night Live characters | |
| Portrayed by | Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Family | Arnold Schwarzenegger (distant cousin) |
| Nationality | Austrian |
Hans and Franz are characters in a recurring sketch called "Pumping Up with Hans & Franz" on thetelevisionsketch comedy showSaturday Night Live, played byDana Carvey andKevin Nealon, respectively.
In the sketch, Carvey and Nealon play a pair of muscle-bound Austrian bodybuilders in the mold ofArnold Schwarzenegger, using padding for fake muscles, drab gray sweatsuits, weight belts, and speaking with Austrian accents. The background of the set includes several life-sized cutouts of Schwarzenegger during his competition years. The sketch's introductory and ending music featured mock Austrianyodeling.
"Pumping Up" primarily consists of Hans and Franz denigrating others for not being strong and as physically fit as they appear to be, striking bodybuilder poses to show off their "muscled" bodies, complete with strained facial expressions. Schwarzenegger made one guest appearance in the sketch (to much applause) in which he ridicules "his cousins" for being "girlie" and weak. Another sketch was done in response to recent sports news, where a "Saturday Night Live editorial" showed Hans and Franz barking back at a recent remark byJimmy the Greek that African men were more apt to be muscular than European men.
One sketch that did not have the pair in their signature sweatsuits and leather belts was a Halloween episode. Hans and Franz both dressed up as their idol, Arnold Schwarzenegger, with Hans as the titular character from the firstTerminator film and Franz as the T-800 fromTerminator 2: Judgment Day. The two compared how their Terminators were tougher, then derided others for their "girlie" costumes, including a boy who was dressed as Superman. Rather than hand out high sugar candy, Hans and Franz gave "treats" of vitamin C pills, coconut oil, andbee pollen to encourage kids to stay in shape.
The idea for the characters of Hans and Franz came in 1987 in aDes Moines,Iowa, hotel room while Nealon was watching an Arnold Schwarzenegger television interview during Nealon's and Carvey's first comedy tour.[1] The first sketch in which the characters appear occurred during the season premiere of the13th season.
After Carvey left the show, the sketch was retired. However, a 1994 episode where Carvey hosted had Hans and Franz appearing as guest commentators asWeekend Update, with the pair mentioning they took some time off and were dismayed at the show's crew for dismantling their set. Franz also considered theWeekend Update sketches were not good since they replaced the past anchor (also played by Kevin Nealon).
A short sketch was filmed for the show's 1999 primetime25th Anniversary Special which spoofedVH1'sBehind the Music specials, but time constraints prevented it from airing. It appeared in a later episode that season. In the sketch, Hans and Franz tell the story of how they were reunited inHollywood when Franz unsuspectingly had his buttocks "read" by Hans.
Carvey and Nealon, with Hans and Franz accents and mannerisms, portrayed the Right and Left Ventricles of the heart (which pump blood instead of iron) in the "Cranium Command" attraction at theWonders of Life pavilion atWalt Disney World.
In 2014, the duo appeared in severalState Farm commercials withGreen Bay Packers quarterbackAaron Rodgers.[2]
Starting in the early 1990s, a Hans and Franz film was in development, with the working titleHans and Franz Go to Hollywood.[3] In a 2010 interview onConan, Nealon and hostConan O'Brien discussed being holed up in a Santa Monica hotel room for a month with Carvey andRobert Smigel working on the script for what was then intended to be a musical. Carvey discussed the script under the titleHans and Franz: The Girlyman Dilemma during a 2016 interview withHoward Stern. Schwarzenegger expressed an interest and was at one point set to co-produce,[3] but ultimately declined to participate following the poor reception of his self-parodying vehicleLast Action Hero. The disastrous box office performances of theSNL spinoff moviesStuart Saves His Family andIt's Pat likely hurt the film's prospects, but Schwarzenegger dropping out proved an insurmountable obstacle.[4]
Scenes from the script were acted out on O'Brien's podcastConan O'Brien Needs a Friend in May 2023.[5][6]
NASA's twocrawler-transporters—large diesel-powered transport devices used since 1965 to carry heavy launch loads to the launch site, including fully assembled spacecraft from the Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle eras—are also nicknamed "Hans" (CT-1) and "Franz" (CT-2).[7]
In the popularMMOWorld of Warcraft, Hans'gar and Franzok are twin brothers in the Blackrock Foundry raid. With a throwback to theSaturday Night Live characters, Franzok can be heard yelling "Hear me now and believe me later!"[8]
InSesame Street Season 38 Episode 5, Hansel and Gretel introduce themselves and reference the Hans and Franz tagline "We just want to pump...you up!" changed to "We just want to throw...bread crumbs!"[9]
German supermodelHeidi Klum nicknamed her breasts Hans and Franz. However, given the differing nationalities (Klum is German and Franz and Hans are Austrian), it has never been confirmed if this was in homage to theSNL sketch, nor has she made mention as such.[10]