SNL Writer Behind "Mr. Belvedere" Reveals Tom Hanks' Reaction to the Twisted Sketch
SNL alum David Spade remembers "the sketch killed on the air" over 30 years ago.
In the weeks leading up to February 16's three-hour 50th anniversary celebration on NBC, the team behind Saturday Night Live has selected one sketch from every single season — 50 seasons in 50 days — to reflect the show's rich legacy across five decades. Presenting the sketch chosen to represent Season 17: "Mr. Belvedere Fan Club” starring Host Tom Hanks along with cast members Phil Hartman, Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Victoria Jackson, Mike Myers, Tim Meadows, Melanie Hutsell, and Kevin Nealon.
Every once in a while, Saturday Night Live delivers a dark and unexpected twist you didn’t see coming. Take the “Mr. Belvedere Fan Club” sketch from Season 17, starring Tom Hanks as the chairman of a fan club for Mr. Belvedere, the ‘80s sitcom starring Christopher Hewett as an English butler for the Owens family in suburban Pittsburgh. Innocent enough, right? Well, just wait until you meet the obsessed members who want to discuss things like murder and kidnapping.
The “Mr. Belvedere Fan Club” sketch not only started its own Brocktoon fanbase, it also kicked off an SNL writer’s career. In addition to Hanks — Host of the May 9, 1992 episode — the fan club was comprised of eight Season 17 cast members, whose lines only got more twisted as the sketch went on.
Relive the hilarious madness below.
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SNL’s “Mr. Belvedere Fan Club” sketch with Tom Hanks gets hilariously dark
In “The Mr. Belvedere Fan Club” sketch, Hanks plays the chairman in charge of the meeting’s agenda. One item? A secret nickname for diehard fans of
“Now, last time we spoke, we resolved to come up with a nickname for Mr. Belvedere that only we use, so we can identify each other in a strange town or something? Alright, ideas?” Hanks asks the group.
“How about Thaddius or Big Bob,” Chris Farley suggests, while Adam Sandler chimes in, “How about the Man Who Rides Alone.”
“How about... Brocktoon,” Kevin Nealon says, which quickly wins the vote. Tim Meadows, playing a comic, then joins the meeting just to wait for the comedy night taking place in the room later on.
The meeting carries on as Farley raises his hand to discuss another, much darker topic. “Uh, Mr. Belvedere is the light of my life. Um, I know I speak for the others when I say he is so amazing, you know?” he says. “I wish I could know him more, you know? … I think about him all the time, and well, I’m wondering: Should we kill him?”
“For God’s sake, no!” Hanks shouts. Nealon points out that they vote on everything. With only Farley and Sandler voting in favor of killing their idol, Hanks quickly declares, “The Nays have it. He lives. But the vote shouldn’t have been that close!”
Next topic on the agenda? The chairman says he received a letter from Mr. Belvedere’s publicist because “it seems somebody has been killing his house pets again.”
“Now, I’m not gonna ask which one of you is doing it, but I do think we need to do our exercises,” Hanks suggests.
“What exercises?” a concerned Meadows asks.
“The exercise that helps keep the line between reality and fantasy a little less blurry,” Phil Hartman explains. “You’ll see.”
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The exercise kicks off kinda, sorta tame as Victoria Jackson recites: “I should want to shake hands with Mr. Belvedere, I shouldn’t want to grab a lock of his hair.”
But things quickly take a drastic, dark turn. “I should want to cook him a simple meal, but I shouldn’t want to cut into him, to tear the flesh, to wear the flesh, to be born unto new worlds where his flesh becomes my key,” Hartman shares.
“I should want to say hi to him nicely. I shouldn’t want to keep him in a big jar in my basement,” Farley says.
When Meadows' character stands up to defend Brocktoon, he lives to regret it.
Watch "Mr. Belvedere Fan Club" from Season 17, Episode 19 above, and stream all 50 seasons of SNL on Peacock anytime.
Fred Wolf’s SNL writing career started after the “Mr. Belvedere Fan Club” sketch
Before he worked on a number of cult-classic comedies like Tommy Boy, Black Sheep, Joe Dirt, and Without a Paddle, Fred Wolf got his start as a writer on SNL in the ‘90s.
During a November 2023 interview on David Spade and Dana Carvey’s Fly on the Wall podcast, Wolf detailed how “The Mr. Belvedere Fan Club” sketch landed him a gig to “try out” as an SNL writer for two weeks. “They liked the sketch enough to bring me out,” he said.
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Wolf said he originally pitched the sketch to Jerry Seinfeld when he was Host on April 18, 1992, but the comedian thought it was “a little too dark” for him. Wolf said he held onto the sketch for another week and showed it to Hanks. “He read it and said ‘Oh I think this is funny, yeah let’s see how it goes at the read-through,’” he recalled on the podcast. “And we did and it crushed, like it blew the roof off."
“The sketch killed on the air,” Spade remembered.
From there, Wolf’s SNL career officially began. He was a writer from 1993 to 1996 and was also a Featured Player on Seasons 21 and 22.
Fred Wolf was distracted by Bruce Springsteen when his sketch aired
When it came time for the sketch to air live, Wolf was distracted by the episode’s Musical Guest, Bruce Springsteen.
“I idolized the dude. I had three posters on my wall, [knew] every word to Darkness on the Edge of Town. There he was, he’s out there while Hanks and them are doing my sketch,” Wolf recalled on the podcast. “I don’t know if I should watch my sketch, which is the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me in my life, or should I watch Springsteen. He’s just standing there getting ready to do his song and I go ‘I’m going for Springsteen.’ I’m staring at him and he’s laughing, I see him laughing.”
After the sketch, Wolf said he was in shock when The Boss approached him. “He goes ‘Hey, that sketch was really funny, they told me you wrote it,’” he remembered of his conversation with Springsteen.
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Wolf told Spade and Carvey that after Springsteen as well as SNL writers, cast members, and producers congratulated him on the sketch, he thought to himself, “I’m like ‘Alright, I’m cool.’”
