Steve Buscemi Revived His Meme'd '30 Rock' Performance for Halloween 2021

By Daniel S. Levine

Steve Buscemi has played many iconic roles in his long career, but the scene he chose to recreate for Halloween this year was one of his shortest and funniest bits. The actor was spotted in New York City wearing a red sweatshirt, a backward baseball cap, and a shirt reading "Music Band," just as he did for a short gag in the 30 Rock episode "The Tuxedo Begins." Buscemi was even asking fans, "How do you do, fellow kids?" to bring the meme'd moment to life.

In "The Tuxedo Begins," Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) brings in private investigator Lenny Wosniak (Buscemi) to help him track down the people who mugged him. "I was part of a special task force of very-young looking cops who infiltrated high schools," Lenny told Jack, in what was a clear reference to 21 Jump Street. The show then flashed back to show an obviously not very-young-looking Buscemi walking in a high school hallway with two skateboards in tow. "How do you do fellow kids?" Lenny asked. "What?" one of the bemused students asked.

Since the episode aired in 2012, the scene has become a meme employed whenever someone tries to sound hip or cool but only comes off sounding even more out of touch. On Sunday, Buscemi recreated that moment outside his New York City home to greet fans. The Fargo actor also referenced the joke in January 2020, when he introduced a montage during the Screen Actors Guild Awards. "How do you do, fellow actors?" he asked.

When Buscemi is not busy recreating his most famous moments, the Emmy winner is keeping busy with new projects. Earlier this month, Deadline reported that he secretly directed The Listener, a one-actor movie starring Tessa Thompson as a helpline volunteer who struggles to get through just one night of answering phone calls from people in need. It was written by Alessandro Camon (The Messenger) and was filmed in Los Angeles in September and October. Verve is handling domestic sales for the film, which producers hope will premiere at film festivals next year.

Buscemi won an Emmy in 2016 for his short-form variety series Park Bench with Steve Buscemi. He also has Emmy nominations for Boardwalk Empire, Portlandia, 30 Rock, and The Sopranos. He won four SAG Awards for Boardwalk Empire. Buscemi can now be seen in the TBS comedy Miracles Workers starring Daniel Radcliffe. He voices the character Wayne in Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, which Sony will finally release through Amazon Prime Video on Jan. 14. 

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