On October 22, 2016, Saturday Night Live's Halloween episode gave us our new favorite Halloween character — David S. Pumpkins. Played to weird perfection by guest host Tom Hanks, the curly-haired man with the jack-o-lantern jacket quickly became an internet sensation. However, do you really know who David S. Pumpkins is? The story behind his creation is actually more complicated than you might think, and apparently, even Tom Hanks just didn't get him at first. Everyone from Bill Gates to Hanks' son Colin is a fan of the sketch, so let's go all-in on David Pumpkins as we take a look at his untold truth. Any questions?
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00:00If you're one of the millions of people who've fallen under the spell of Halloween's goofiest
00:04new mascot, David S. Pumpkins, you've come to the right place.
00:08I'm David Pumpkins, and I'm gonna scare the hell out of you!
00:15The Tom Hanks persona first made its debut on Saturday Night Live in 2016, but immediately
00:20generated online insanity.
00:22Now he's well on his way to becoming an annual staple of the spooky season.
00:26So now's a great time to take a look at what you might not know about David S. Pumpkins.
00:34Viral inspiration
00:35Have you ever seen the viral video known as Little Superstar?
00:38Well, former SNL writer and performer Bobby Moynihan has.
00:42He and his writing partners Mikey Day and Streeter Seidel were fans of the clip, which
00:46racked up over 18 million views since it first hit YouTube in 2006.
00:54Little Superstar had previously been incorporated into SNL in 2007, when Bill Hader and Fred
00:58Armisen performed a brief parody of the video at the end of an episode.
01:02But that was nothing compared to the bad breakdancing madness to come.
01:05Ten years later, the video inspired the three SNL writers to let their imaginations run
01:09wild.
01:10We were watching that video, there's a video of an Indian guy dancing around, and every
01:14once in a while he stops and the music stops.
01:16And we thought that was really fun, and we were like, let's write something where we're
01:19dancing."
01:20Moynihan revealed that the show's airdate being so close to Halloween was the next piece
01:24of the writing puzzle.
01:25"...we said, there's no Santa Claus for Halloween.
01:28Mikey was like, how about David Pumpkins?
01:29I said, how about David S. Pumpkins?
01:32The rest is history."
01:33"...it really is!"
01:35The S, he'd later reveal, stands for Simon, for no reason whatsoever.
01:40Sounds about right.
01:42Silence is golden
01:43Part of what makes David S. Pumpkins work is the fact that he doesn't really say much
01:47about who he is or why he exists.
01:50He's just kind of… there.
01:52A grinning weirdo who assumes you'll learn everything you need to know about him just
01:55by watching him breakdance with his skeleton pals.
01:58But the original version of the sketch had Pumpkins providing a lot more details about
02:02his wacky existence as a festive Halloween mutant.
02:05Mikey Day told Uproxx,
02:06"...originally there was a lot more dialogue, and originally it was set to like a beat,
02:10so it kind of had rhythm.
02:11And we were like, do you haunt?
02:13And he's like, maybe.
02:14And then there was, if you wake up in the morning and there's a pumpkin in your hall
02:18closet, that means I hate you."
02:20Thankfully, the mysteriously stupid David S. Pumpkins we know and love is the one who
02:24eventually made it to air and into our hearts.
02:28Lowbrow
02:29Tom Hanks has been known as an Oscar-winning dramatic actor for several decades now, making
02:34it easy to forget that he got his showbiz start in comedy.
02:37From Bosom Buddies and Bachelor Party to Big and Joe vs. the Volcano, Hanks' ability to
02:42be funny in just about any role is something we only get to see these days when he shows
02:46up on SNL.
02:47And still, Hanks wasn't entirely convinced that he wanted to take on David S. Pumpkins.
02:52"...Tom Hanks in between dress and air.
02:55Not a fan of the sketch.
02:56Thought it was very bizarre."
02:58In fact, Hanks even suggested that they save the character for the host of the following
03:02week's episode.
03:03However, he went for it and became an instant sensation, even if he still doesn't quite
03:08get the appeal.
03:09"...I'm not, I don't exactly understand it.
03:11I'll be David S. Pumpkins for the rest of my life now.
03:15Here lies David S. Pumpkins."
03:16Indeed, it didn't take long for Tom Hanks to reprise his role on the show… well, sort
03:21of.
03:22In May, Hanks came back to close out SNL's 42nd season in his infamous pumpkin suit,
03:27but his name became David S. Pimpkins, which is something of an upgrade.
03:31Or a downgrade, depending on how you look at it.
03:33"...Any questions?"
03:35Oh, just a few.
03:39Costume craze
03:40SNL's behind-the-scenes team might have considerable experience making custom costumes, but for
03:45David S. Pumpkins, they went the easy route.
03:48"...We purposely went and we were like, just a $12.99 suit."
03:52And it's a good thing they did, because fans of David S. Pumpkins went all out trying to
03:56snag a copy of the costume for themselves.
03:59Just days after the sketch aired, outlets across the web reported that the suit sold
04:03out right away, even though the price tag was a little bit higher than Moynihan remembered.
04:09Imitation is flattery
04:10Tom Hanks wasn't alone in being confused by the chaos of David S. Pumpkins.
04:14His son Colin Hanks also had trouble wrapping his head around the bit.
04:18"...And then I saw that, and I said, oh gee, wow, okay."
04:24But one celeb who really got into it was Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who went on to impersonate
04:29David S. Pumpkins to promote his own Reddit AMA with an inexplicable Christmas spin.
04:34"...Yeah, yeah, and Christmas pumpkins is…"
04:36"...His own thing!"
04:38Between that and the memes of pumpkins popping up in famous horror movie scenes, it's pretty
04:42clear the character has done his job of becoming a holiday mainstay.
04:46Which means…
04:48Pumpkins returns
04:49In September 2017, nearly a year after he first played the role, Tom Hanks tweeted a
04:54teaser image of some script pages that pointed to a Pumpkins Part 2 sketch on SNL.
04:59But NBC had even bigger plans in mind.
05:02The network announced that Hanks would be re-teaming with the writing troupe that started
05:05it all for a 30-minute animated David S. Pumpkins Halloween special, featuring Game of Thrones
05:10star Peter Dinklage.
05:12Judging by Hanks' sneak peek of the script, he'll actually have something to say about
05:15himself this time around, and the press release for the special tells us it'll be set in a
05:19small suburban town on All Hallows' Eve, and focuses on David Pumpkins and his skeleton
05:24sidekicks who show a young boy and his sister the true meaning of Halloween, answering none
05:30of their questions along the way.
05:32Will the show manage to recapture the fun, nonsensical spirit of the sketch?
05:35We'll know for sure on October 28th.
05:38Until then, better practice your dance moves.
05:40Happy Halloween!