Over 30 years ago, Saturday Night Live unearthed the comic potential in the idea of tie-in action figures for a critically acclaimed film that had no business having tie-in action figures. That sketch focused on the tonally bizarre idea of Philadelphia action figures. Yes, as in Philadelphia the prestigious, Oscar-winning drama — except here, Antonio Banderas’s character can transform into a fighter plane.
This weekend SNL returned to that particular well, and did so memorably. Given that host Teyana Taylor recently won a Golden Globe for her work in the film One Battle After Another, it’s not hard to guess which film was featured in the sketch. What is impressive, though, was the degree to which everyone in the sketch commits to the premise and the idea of a world in which the revolutionary violence and psychosexual intrigue of One Battle After Another are channeled into, well, action figures.
Some things have changed in the years since SNL riffed on Philadelphia and action figures. While they aren’t action figures per se, Funko Pops that connect to everything from Almost Famous to Pride and Prejudice now exist — though, to be fair, it is difficult to imagine a group of elementary school-age kids playing with Funko Pops for an extended period of time.
“One Battle After Another” Is Just as Good as Everyone’s Saying It Is
Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film is his best to dateThen again, Funko Pops did make a memorable appearance in a promotional segment for this week’s episode, in which Taylor did a spot-on impression of Angela Bassett in Waiting to Exhale. The One Battle After Another sketch also hints at a world where even more prestige dramas get their own tie-in action figures. Then again, there is a Lego tie-in to at least one of this year’s Best Picture nominees, so maybe SNL is ahead of the curve on this one.
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