- Hans and Franz
Hans and Franz were characters in a recurring sketch called "Pumping Up with Hans & Franz" on the
television sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live ". Hans and Franz themselves were played byDana Carvey andKevin Nealon , respectively.Description
In the sketch, Carvey and Nealon played a pair of muscle-bound
Austria n jocks who mimicked/spoofedArnold Schwarzenegger by using padding for fake muscles, drab graysweatsuit s, weight belts, and Austrian accents. The background of the set included several life-sized cutouts of Schwarzenegger during his competition years, and the sketch's introduction music featured mock Austrian "yodeling "."Pumping Up" primarily consisted of Hans and Franz denigrating others for not being strong, and then striking
bodybuilder poses to show off their "muscled" bodies, complete with strained facial expressions. The two finally received their just deserts when Arnold Schwarzenegger himself made a guest appearance on the sketch (to much applause) and ridiculed "his cousins" for being girlie and weak.A movie was in the works for a short time, entitled "Hans and Franz go to Hollywood," but was scrapped once producers saw poor box office performances from such "SNL" sketch-inspired movies as "
Stuart Saves His Family " and "It's Pat ". Nevertheless, a short sketch spoofingVH1 's "Behind the Music " specials was filmed for the show's1999 primetime "25th Anniversary Special", but time constraints prevented it from airing and it went on to appear in a later episode that season. In the sketch, Hans and Franz tell the story of how they were reunited inHollywood when Franz unsuspectingly has his buttocks "read" by Hans.Cultural references
This sketch was one of the most popular on "SNL", and the characters and their
catchphrase s entered Americanpop culture . When Schwarzenegger entered politics, he referred to the sketches himself, using the phrases "girlie men " and "pump you up." He even used the "girlie men" term during the 1988 Presidential election. Accompanying then Vice PresidentGeorge H.W. Bush , he attacked Bush's Democrat opponents by saying to the crowd: “They all look like a bunch of girlie men, right?" He used the phrase again to attack California state legislators in speeches during his election campaign forgovernor ofCalifornia .The two
Crawler-Transporter vehicles used byNASA are nicknamed "Hans" and "Franz" after the "SNL" characters.Two Designers from Germany, Konstantin Landuris and Horst Wittmann, work under the name of " [http://www.hansandfranz.com hansandfranz] ", inspired by the "SNL" namegiving.
Hans and Franz also appeared in the
Cranium Command attraction in theWonders of Life pavilion atWalt Disney World Resort 'sEpcot theme park.Origins
The first sketch in which the characters Hans and Franz appear occurred during the season premiere of the .
Catchphrases
* "I am Hans." "Und I am Franz."
* "Ve are goinck to pump... "(clap)" ...YOU UP!"
* "Hear me now und believe me later..."
* "Girlie men "
* "Look at ze girlie man, goinck into his girlie house!"
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