These impressions will have you in stitches! For this list, we’ll be going over the greatest impressions of celebrities and other famous figures by actor Bill Hader.
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00:00But enough talk, let's go drink a milkshake, shall we?
00:03Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the Top 20 Bill Hader Impressions.
00:09And you know something, Mr. Cohen? I've never even heard of you!
00:14Your mother has.
00:18You don't sass me with your liar mouth!
00:21I never knew there were two Lindsey Buckinghams!
00:25How did this happen?
00:26You should have let him talk, man, he would have told you.
00:31Zero difference! I mean, it's like, I mean, no one cares.
00:35For this list, we're going over the greatest impressions of celebrities and other famous
00:39figures by actor Bill Hader. To be clear, we won't be including any original characters by
00:44Hader, such as Stefan. Those have a list of their own.
00:47Thank you, thank you so much for joining us, Stefan.
00:51Connor, Percy, it's nice to be here.
00:54If there's a Hader impression you're especially impressed with, let us know in the comments.
01:00Number 20, Lorne Michaels.
01:02The creator and longtime producer of Saturday Night Live, as well as Bill Hader's boss for
01:07many years, Lorne Michaels is known in many circles of the entertainment industry.
01:11He's also frequently the subject of imitation by those who've worked for him.
01:15Lorne Michaels tried to help me after season four, he went, you know,
01:18you can work here as long as you want.
01:21Hader does perhaps the best impression of the man. While being interviewed on Conan,
01:25Hader recounted an occasion when Lorne spent a whole plane trip speaking to him nonstop
01:30as he drifted in and out of sleep.
01:32You wake up and it's like, and Ray Charles said they all owe me money.
01:38You wake up and he's like, that's how you grow blueberries in May.
01:41Hader also does a great bit where he imitates Michael's habit of name-dropping the cavalcade
01:45of celebrities he knows, but instead of celebrities, he name-drops famous serial killers.
02:05Jack Nicholson is one of the most famous actors out there, and his very particular acting style
02:10and mannerisms make him the perfect subject for imitation.
02:13As a guest on Ellen, Bill Hader does a spot-on rendition of the actor.
02:22Given the prompt of Nicholson running a lemonade stand,
02:25Hader proceeds to mimic his squint and sinister grin. And he absolutely nails the voice,
02:31as he threatens a young customer should they fail to buy from him.
02:38Slap a pair of sunglasses on him, age him up a bit,
02:41and you would swear he was Nicholson himself.
02:46Bill Hader and Seth Rogen have worked together on more than a few occasions,
02:50most famously in the 2007 comedy Superbad. Naturally, working around Rogen has allowed
02:55Hader to pick up on his voice and mannerisms. Hader has recounted several anecdotes about
03:00Rogen, including their time on Superbad and times they've smoked pot together.
03:11He'll usually throw in a quick impression of Rogen somewhere in these stories,
03:19but his imitation of him on Ellen takes the cake. In this one, Hader stays consistent with
03:24the Amsterdam incident and imagines Rogen reading his own on-brand version of Puff the Magic Dragon.
03:42Bill Hader loves Star Wars. Who doesn't? While he did make it into the franchise itself,
03:51brownie points if you know who he played, he'd honed his vocalizations for years beforehand.
03:56And it certainly paid off. His best impressions from the franchise are of non-human creatures.
04:01Firstly, he does a great Jabba the Hutt.
04:11He's previously done his impression of the slug-like gangster on Conan,
04:18and has also busted it out in the movie It Chapter Two as part of an extended Your Mom joke.
04:31But perhaps his most bizarre impression overall is that of a dying Tauntaun.
04:36These domesticated Hoth animals may smell bad inside and out,
04:40but Hader's impression is positively rosy.
04:53Fans of SNL know of Fred Armisen's famous impression of Barack Obama.
04:57However, there are probably fewer people who know that Bill Hader's imitation of the former
05:02U.S. president is scarily good. While doing an interview with The Hollywood Reporter,
05:06Armisen and Hader recount how, while on set,
05:09the two of them would do a bit that involved emulating Obama.
05:20Hader perfectly replicates the cadence of Obama's voice, and hearing his version of
05:25the politician in the bizarre scenarios the two comedians cooked up is a lot of fun.
05:29Take Obama giving a speech about his time in Los Angeles,
05:32or working on the set of Two Broke Girls, for example.
05:44There are few things more glorious than this.
05:50A veteran television actor, Henry Winkler may have gotten his start as Fonzie on Happy Days,
05:55but he's pretty much the opposite of the over-the-top macho character in real life.
05:59He also stars alongside Bill Hader on the show Barry.
06:11Given how closely they work together,
06:13Hader has managed to capture the essence of Winkler quite well.
06:16He's recounted Winkler's continued shock of the dark content of Barry on various talk shows,
06:21and has managed to imitate his co-star's soft-spoken, good-natured surprise perfectly.
06:26Incidentally, Hader's impression of Winkler's impression of John Travolta's hand acting is
06:31also fantastic. Is that meta enough for you?
06:46In this cold-open SNL sketch, Bill Hader plays Jim Jordan, an Ohio congressman involved in
06:51questioning Donald Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, who was played by guest star
06:55Ben Stiller. Hader plays up Jordan's anger and increasing exasperation wonderfully.
07:06Although Jordan doesn't have as distinct a voice as some of the other impressions on this list,
07:11Hader more than makes up for it with his body language and overall enthusiasm in the role.
07:15It says a lot about his skills that he manages to steal the scene away from Ben Stiller's
07:22dead-on Cohen impression.
07:27While many today probably aren't familiar with him, James Mason was a huge star in the
07:32mid-20th century. The British actor had a very distinguished and suave voice.
07:40Bill Hader reportedly did an impression of him during his Saturday Night Live audition,
07:44which he has recounted on several talk shows. In the bit, Mason's trying to buy a dozen donuts
07:50with an expired gift certificate. Hader's impression work is always so fun because of
08:07these weird scenarios he puts the celebrities in. We hope that Mason was able to get the
08:11bottle of Yoo-hoo at least.
08:15Impressions of John Malkovich are pretty rare. The actor is so singular that it seems impossible
08:21to imitate him. Yet somehow, Bill Hader not only manages it, but does so spectacularly.
08:27Hader has actually done the impression to Malkovich's face while interviewing the actor
08:32in an SNL Vinny Vedeci sketch. Can you imagine the guts that takes? He's also busted out his
08:47Malko as a guest on Weekend Update. Regardless of the circumstance, Hader captures the very
08:52particular way that Malkovich emphasizes certain words, as well as the intimidating aura he,
08:58or at least his most famous characters, exude.
09:13Some say that Anthony Scaramucci was put on this earth just so Hader could impersonate him.
09:17And after seeing Hader's take on the mooch, it's hard to disagree.
09:21When watching Scaramucci in interviews, you get the impression that he kind of likes the
09:29sound of his own voice. And Hader grabs hold of this with both hands.
09:33And when I hear my name three times, I appear like a Goomba Beetlejuice.
09:46With his scrunched up face like he's just sucked on a lemon and constant imposing hand gestures,
09:50Hader channels all the foibles of the ex-White House Director of Communications.
09:54And you know what? Hader's hardly even exaggerating.
10:03Here's an impression that everyone likes to think they can do, but very few can actually pull off.
10:14Hader, however, has got the predator-crushing muscle man down to a T,
10:18from his trademark groaning to his cigar waving.
10:34Oh, and of course his schnitzel anecdotes.
10:46And Hader's done his research, too, famously acting as Arnie's personal assistant on the set
10:51of Collateral Damage. If his straight-up imitation of him wasn't enough to convince
10:55you of his Austrian prowess, then maybe his face-mapped reenactment on Jimmy Kimmel will be.
11:04Remember?
11:07Wow.
11:09Oh, that's scary.
11:12To say this iconic actor is known for being a little over-the-top is a huge understatement.
11:18Just ask Oprah.
11:25During an interview on Letterman, Hader recounts how Cruz was trying to place him
11:29while filming on the set of Tropic Thunder. In true Tom Cruise fashion, Hader starts off
11:34slowly with some intense squinting and pointing, eventually escalating to loud, wide-eyed applause.
11:47Which is to say Hader's Cruise impression probably hovers somewhere between the office
11:50scene from Jerry Maguire and any of the intense stares from the Mission Impossible franchise.
11:55Speaking of which, we wonder if Hader can do the run.
11:59From realistic to ridiculous next, and a larger-than-life impression that's both inaccurate
12:10and offensive, but in all the right ways.
12:19Presenting the royal family as a gang of cockney thugs,
12:22Hader plays Prince Philip alongside Fred Armisen's Queen Elizabeth.
12:30This is how we really talk, love. Not so nice, right? But it gets the job done, don't it?
12:37Who, at every chance, try to intimidate newly-initiated members Kate and Pippa Middleton.
12:42Whether it's his wildly inappropriate threats or his toothpick-twirling mannerisms,
12:46Hader's Prince Philip is a classic case of a caricature being more entertaining than the real thing.
12:51Your Majesty, your secretary briefed me on all the royal etiquette.
12:54I'm not talking about salad forks, love. This ain't the Princess Diaries.
13:00Although, hey, for all we know, the real Phil could be a punk badass, too.
13:19Horror legend Vincent Price has always been a special kind of creepy.
13:23His rollercoaster of a persona can go from a jovial grin to an eerie scare in the blink of an eye.
13:29Ha ha ha! All Hallows' Eve, when the minions of Samhain come back.
13:37Guys, I'm not fully up yet. You gotta keep pressing the thing.
13:41And Hader's over-the-top take on Price is all the right kinds of dramatic.
13:45Sure, he's got the slouched body language down,
13:47but it's the squeaky voice that really sells it. Well, that and the raven on his shoulder.
13:52Tonight, prepare yourself for a night of spooks and scares,
13:55as we have invited over some of our most famous friends for some tricks and also some treats.
14:03Not only is his impression spot-on, but seeing Hader's Price trying to wrestle
14:07with inappropriate guests and keep his show family-friendly, as well as spooky, is absolute gold.
14:13Let's wrap it up. We have just partaken in a celebration more foul.
14:19We're fattened peasants in race. You wanna clear your frame there? Just wanna...
14:27...wander the earthly plane in search of vengeance upon the living and...
14:31Guys, I thought we had this thing fixed.
14:35Daniel Day-Lewis is an actor who disappears into his roles,
14:39so any impression of him is bound to be specific, and Bill Hader's is no exception.
14:44In this SNL sketch, he parodies Day-Lewis's character Daniel Plainview from the film
14:48There Will Be Blood. He literally acts out a famous metaphor from the film,
15:01drinking people's milkshakes.
15:02My straw goes across the room, and I drink your milkshake!
15:15I drink it up!
15:16There are a ton of quotes lifted straight from the movie,
15:19but Hader's imitation of Plainview is positively uncanny and hilarious throughout.
15:25Good day, old man. I'm going to drink your milkshake.
15:30No, you're not. Go get your own milkshake.
15:33It's every bit as delicious as those milkshakes. In fact, you might say we drink it up.
15:52Out of all the impressions on this list, Hader's take on Alan Alda has gotta be the
15:56most accurate vocal mimicry by far. Just close your eyes, and you'd put money on the fact that
16:01it was Hawkeye Pierce for MASH himself. This is thanks to Hader's mastery of the thick Bronx
16:17accent and the way in which Alda would stammer, which became trademarks over the years.
16:22But it's not just the voice. Hader even nails Alda's renowned hand gestures and body language,
16:28which is, as he'd say, terrific. Just terrific.
16:53Our fourth entry is another politically charged impression,
16:57and one that makes Hader's take on Anthony Scaramucci look like child's play.
17:01Political commentator James Carvel is known for his Louisiana accent,
17:04bald head, and, of course, his sometimes controversial views.
17:08And Hader rolls all that into one in this spot-on performance that sees him spoofing
17:26the Ragin' Cajun Democrat flawlessly. Okay, so maybe Hader focuses on the wild,
17:31frantic side of Carvel more than anything else, with alligator anecdotes coming out of his ears.
17:38But picture Carvel on a whole bunch of caffeine, and boom, you've got bald Hader.
17:52You know an impression is good when it gets the seal of approval from the person themselves.
17:56And Hader got just that with Keith Morrison. His impression of the true crime presenter from
18:08the show Dateline has become legendary on SNL, with Hader delivering a pitch-perfect
18:13version of Morrison's seemingly morbid sense of intrigue.
18:27And when the self-proclaimed Dateline fanatic came face-to-face with Morrison,
18:31it only further highlighted just how accurate his take on the TV personality is.
18:44Anyone can make getting so into gruesome crime stories okay, and it's Hader's Morrison.
18:57There's a certain amount of anger, frustration, and high intensity that goes into an Al Pacino
19:05impression. And pulling it off without looking like you're trying too hard ain't easy. Unless
19:10you're Bill Hader, that is.
19:27From the way he drags out the ends of his sentences to his slow,
19:32methodical head movements, Hader has perfected the enigmatic Pacino personality.
19:40You know it's good when you can tell he's in character even when he isn't saying anything.
19:45But we guess the biggest part of selling it is making even the most boring stories
19:48sound enthralling, like spotting a cantaloupe in a kitchen.
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20:22Take every aspect of stereotypical Clint Eastwood impersonations, throw them together,
20:29and you get Hader's take on the movie god that is Eastwood.
20:41Let's see, cold stare that could give you nightmares? Check.
20:45Gravelly, spiteful voice that induces fearful goosebumps? Check.
20:51High trousers that almost touch his chin? Check.
20:59In these spoof SNL Chrysler ads, Hader not only sells the impression comically,
21:03he even sells it cinematically.
21:13Just look at him. From a distance, that glare could be Eastwood himself.
21:18All he needs now is a Smith & Wesson and a Gran Torino.
21:21Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
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