Lady Gaga Almost Played David S. Pumpkins’ Wife on “Saturday Night Live”
Tom Hanks’ Saturday Night Live character David S. Pumpkins has become a new Halloween favorite, charming fans whenever he pops up. But it turns out that the spooky fella was supposed to have a wife — played by none other than Lady Gaga.
Chatting with Vulture about the history of the quirky character and the 2016 “Haunted Elevator” sketch from which he emerged, the writers responsible for the phenomenon — Bobby Moynihan, Mikey Day, and Streeter Seidell — revealed that one version of the idea featured a third companion for Mr. Pumpkins (to go with the two dancing skeletons).
With Lady Gaga set to perform on SNL on the very same night that Hanks was scheduled to debut David S. Pumpkins, producers told the three writers that the singer was considering popping up during a sketch. Seidell recalled that he immediately knew what part she should play, saying, “Ooh! Let’s have her be Mrs. David Pumpkins.”
Day and Moynihan told Vulture that at the end of the skit, when the elevator doors opened and the skeletons appeared (without David S. Pumpkins) before the bewildered couple played by Beck Bennett and Kate McKinnon, “[it] was originally gonna be [the skeletons] and Lady Gaga.”
Day added, “Beck and Kate go, ‘Who’s this?’ [Gaga]’s wearing a jacket with witches on it. You think she’s gonna say ‘Wanda Witches’ or something, but she goes, ‘I’m Mrs. David Pumpkins.’ Of course his wife would be weird.”
Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. Although the “Million Reasons” singer liked the character, the writers told Vulture that the lack of time to prepare was an issue. Seidell confessed, “Sadly, she wanted to focus on her performance for the show… I remember being so bummed. I was like, ‘Oh man. That could have been the thing that put it over the edge.’”
Indeed, we’ve seen how creep-tastic Lady Gaga can be — just look at her fab performance on American Horror Story.
If you just can’t get enough of Tom Hanks’ cheeky character, the animated David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special will air on NBC on October 28 at 11:30pm ET.
Would you have liked to see Lady Gaga as David S. Pumpkin’s wife? Let us know @BritandCo.
(Photo via Rosalind O’Connor/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty + Kevin Winter/Getty)
