MacGruber

MacGruber
Created by	Jorma Taccone
Written by	Will Forte John Solomon (writer) Jorma Taccone
Directed by	Jorma Taccone John Solomon (writer)
Starring	Will Forte (2006- ) Maya Rudolph (2007) Kristen Wiig (2008- ) Richard Dean Anderson (2009- )
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	24 (as of March 7, 2009)
Production
Production locations	Studio 8H, GE Building, Rockefeller Center New York City, New York
Running time	Approx. 1 Minute
Production companies	Broadway Video SNL Studios
Original release
Network	Saturday Night Live (2006- ) Super Bowl XLIII (2009)
Release	January 20, 2007 – present
Related
MacGyver

MacGruber is a Saturday Night Live sketch that is a parody of the show MacGyver. The sketch stars Will Forte and Kristen Wiig (replacing Maya Rudolph). Richard Dean Anderson (who played the title role in the MacGyver series) has also appeared on MacGruber. The shorts are written by Will Forte, John Solomon (writer), and Jorma Taccone. Taccone is responsible for creating the character and directed most of the spots with the exception of the Jonah Hill and Shia LeBeouf episodes, which were both directed by John Solomon. The sketch revolves around MacGruber always becoming consumed with some sort of personal issue, to the detriment of himself and his assistants.

Premise

The skit sets MacGruber, Vicky, and another assistant (typically played by the current SNL host) in a life or death situation. The sketch always occurs in three parts. The setting is always the sort that stars of action shows find themselves in (an abandoned mine, a warehouse, and so forth), and they always find themselves trapped in the control room (no matter the setting, there is always a control room.) They need to disarm a bomb which is about to go off, and Vicky will call out that there are twenty seconds left, ten seconds, and so forth. MacGruber calls for his assistants to pass him ordinary objects, like rubber bands or bubble gum wrappers (a parody of how MacGyver would typically devise some way of getting out of a jam with typical household objects). Unfortunately, MacGruber is always dealing with some sort of personal issue, and always becomes distracted by this issue, ignoring Vicky's notices about how much time is left, and the bomb always ends up going off.

Somehow, all three always seem to survive each explosion, because in the second part, they all appear, seeming none the worse for wear, but MacGruber is still focused on the issue that distracted him in the first sketch, to an even greater degree; again, he allows the bomb to go off. The sketch revolves around MacGruber becoming more and more consumed, obsessed or overwhelmed as each new part of the sketch appears, until, by the third sketch, he can barely function. (His assistants have often lost confidence in him or are quitting by the third sketch.) A few of the issues that he has dealt with include his fear of aging (on one mission, he brought along a young trophy girlfriend and pretended his assistants were his mom and dad, and then he foolishly got plastic surgery in South America from doctors with questionable qualifications who botched his surgery), alcoholism, and losing all his money in the stock market.

There were three installments of the pretaped, three-part sketch; one set in January in an episode hosted by Jeremy Piven, and another in May, hosted by former castmember Molly Shannon. The sketch returned for the October 7, 2007 show, with host Seth Rogen, on March 15, 2008 with host Jonah Hill, and again on January 31 with host Steve Martin.

Featuring MacGyver

During the January 31, 2009, episode of Saturday Night Live, Richard Dean Anderson appeared as MacGyver in a series of Pepsi commercials. Although these aired during the commercial breaks, they were presented as MacGruber sketches and later aired with the SNL material on Hulu. In the commercials, MacGyver complains about the poor job MacGruber is doing and accuses him of being a sellout.

The second of the three Pepsi "MacGruber" commercials re-aired as a TV commercial during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009, where MacGruber, locked with MacGyver in the control room of an "illegal supply ship", has 15 seconds to disarm a bomb, but becomes distracted by the temptation of a drink of Pepsi. The commercial ends with the ship exploding in a fireball just after MacGruber, who has announced that he has renamed himself "Pepsuber", takes one last sip of Pepsi. In the 3rd skit, the entire theme song lyrics have been replaced by the word "Pepsi" repeated over and over again. In the skit, MacGruber's entire dialogue also consists of the single word "Pepsi".

On the March 7, 2009 episode of Saturday Night Live (host: Dwayne Johnson; musical guest Ray LaMontagne), it was revealed that MacGyver is actually MacGruber's long-lost father (making MacGruber's full name "MacGruber MacGyver") who left his mother (Abby Elliot) for a stripper when he was a baby.

Characters

Current characters

Character	Played By	First Time On The Sketch	Notes
MacGruber	Will Forte	2007	The main character; a spoof of MacGyver.
Vicky	Kristen Wiig	2008	MacGruber's assistant; replaced Casey.
MacGyver	Richard Dean Anderson	2009	MacGruber's dad; has appeared in the last few episodes.

Former characters

Original Airdate	Character	Played By	Notes
all 2007 sketches	Casey	Maya Rudolph	MacGruber's original assistant
20 January 2007	Jojo	Jeremy Piven
12 May 2007	April	Molly Shannon
6 October 2007	Caleb	Seth Rogen
15 March 2008	Isaac	Jonah Hill
15 March 2008	Name Unknown	Bill Hader	MacGruber's Life Coach
10 May 2008	Merrill	Shia LaBeouf	MacGruber's son
10 May 2008	Scott	Andy Samberg	Merrill's secret boyfriend
18 October 2008	Kyle	Josh Brolin

Feature film

On June 1, 2009, Will Forte confirmed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that there will be a MacGruber movie, written by Forte, Taccone and Solomon. Forte and Wiig will star, with additional cast to be determined. Taccone will direct, with production beginning August 2009. On July 29, 2009, Jimmy Fallon said that it would be filming in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Director Jorma Taccone has recently released early behind the scenes footage. The production crew is seen testing guns in a warehouse.

Professional wrestlers M.V.P. and John Cena will make cameo appearances in the film. Actor Derek Mears stated on his Twitter feed that he also appears in a small cameo.

Val Kilmer has been cast to play the villain. Bill Hader talked to NY Mag about the film and he said that he "read the script and it sounds like a hard-R comedy and it blew his mind". It is currently for a release date of April 16, 2010.