Tom Hanks' David S. Pumpkins Returns to 'SNL'

By Daniel S. Levine

Saturday Night Live needed the appearance of three major surprise guest stars to energize this weekend's episode featuring rapper Jack Harlow. Former cast member Bobby Moynihan dropped by to play his Drunk Uncle character again, while Survivor host Jeff Probst stopped by for the "Joker Wedding" sketch. However, the biggest surprise came from Tom Hanks, who revived his David S. Pumpkins character for the "Cellblock 666" sketch.

Hanks made his first appearance in the episode during the "AA Meeting" sketch, then introduced Harlow's first song. Then, he appeared as Pumpkins in a sketch that was practically a remake of the original "Haunted Elevator" sketch from 2016. Incredibly, this was the first time Hanks reprised the role on-camera since then. However, he did voice the character in The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special, an animated special that debuted in October 2017.

In "Cellblock 666," Harlow, Ego Nwodim, and Andrew Dismukes visited a haunted prison tour ride. After several stops featuring genuinely scary characters, they reached cell 662, where Pumpkins was revealed. Moynihan also played one of Pumpkins' skeleton friends as he did in the 2016 sketch. "Are you shaking in your boots?" the tour guide (Kenan Thompson) asked the guests. "No... I've seen like every horror movie ever and none of them had David Pumpkins in it," Dismukes said.

David Pumpkins Returns

Pumpkins was also at cellblock 664. When they reached 665, Pumpkins was also there to interrupt Freddy Kreuger. Once they reached cellblock 666, it was only Puimpkins' skeleton friends. Pumpkins turned out to be hiding right behind Dismukes to scare him. The sketch did reveal that Pumpkins is from Ibiza.

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'Too good to be true'

The original Pumpkins sketch was written by Moynihan, Mikey Day, and Streeter Seidell. In a 2017 oral history on the sketch, the three writers told Vulture the character was just a silly idea they came up with and they loved seeing it be overanalyzed before the 2016 presidential election. "It was funny to watch the first reaction of people being like, 'We don't know what this is, but we love it,' and then the dissection of it, and then the backlash articles that inevitably come when everyone likes something," Seidell said at the time. "It was funny to be like, 'Look at all these people putting so much effort and mental time into this dumb, dumb thing.'"

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'It shouldn't be funny but it's effing hilarious'

The next new SNL episode airs on Saturday, Nov. 5 at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Comedian Amy Schumer is hosting with "Bad Habit" singer Steve Lacy performing. The series is available to stream on Peacock.

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'Glad to see him back'

Scroll on for more reactions from fans excited to see David S. Pumpkins return.

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'Is David single?'

"I can't tell you how much I enjoyed seeing the return of David S. Pumpkins and his skeleton friends," one fan wrote.

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'Oh my God David S. Pumpkins has returned'

"I actually really loved that they brought back David S Pumpkins on SNL tonight. Was it a blatant nostalgia grab? Sure. Did it work on me? 100%," another fan wrote.

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