Larry King's Sonic The Hedgehog impression will live on forever in our hearts
Aux Features Video game characters
Larry King died today, ending one of the most prolific and singular careers in the history of television broadcasting. For all his personal biases, idiosyncrasies, and outright faults, King was never not that rarest of things in the chameleon-friendly world of TV and radio talk: A person who was only, and entirely, himself. Few people in broadcasting have ever seemed to simultaneously give both so little, and so much, of a shit, and we’re unlikely to see his like in the broadcast booth again any time soon.
And also, one time, he gave the worst/best Sonic The Hedgehog impression in human history.
There are many classic King clips being circulated online today, from the infamous moment in which he appears to have legitimately irritated Jerry Seinfeld by suggesting that his show was “canceled,” to Debbie Reynolds’ borderline-cruel impression of Meryl Streep while King cracked up, to that time he took a 3-minute phone call in the middle of a live Dave Rubin broadcast, to Danny Pudi’s recent, triumphant, “Larry, I’m on DuckTales” moment. But for us, these can never be the Larry King clip, because they all pale in comparison to this, quite possibly the finest 90 seconds of television ever broadcast on the Ora on-demand digital network (with apologies to Brown Bag Wine Tasting with William Shatner):
This, in one croaked and nasal “No one, no one caaaares about meeee,” is the genius of Larry King laid bare. He doesn’t know who Sonic The Hedgehog is. He may have only the vaguest impression of what hedgehogs even look like. But under the gentlest of goading from Sonic star Ben Schwartz, King simply goes for it, no self-consciousness, no second-guessing. You want a Sonic impression? Larry King will give it his best damn shot.
In a Twitter thread posted earlier today, shortly after news of King’s death broke, podcaster and radio host Jesse Thorn shared his experiences interviewing the man for his 2017 podcast about the art of interviewing, The Turnaround. In the thread, Thorn highlights the way King somehow made a virtue of unpreparedness, a paradoxical achievement in the world of broadcast conversation that only worked because the man was boundlessly, all-consumingly curious about everything. You can see it in the Sonic clip, as his genuine “Why do they do this?” re: semi-soulless video game adaptations swiftly transitions into his totally game commitment to figuring out what the hell Sonic The Hedgehog might sound like. We’ve watched this clip once a week since it first aired. It’s likely that won’t be changing any time soon.
21 Comments
Ben Schwartz really commanded that interview. “We want it to sound like a trumpet.”Also, Middleditch & Schwartz on Netflix is quite good.
It’s very much to their credit that I had to look to see that the episodes/sketches were nearly an hour long apiece.
Agreed! I’ve never gotten into improv other than Who’s Line Is It Anyway? before, but their long-form improv was just great. They’re both just easily likable, particularly Schwartz – which helps tremendously, too.
I like how they both try to trip each other up, and are clearly having a blast with the whole thing. I remember in the ‘law school’ sketch, when they were recounting the characters, and they both forgot about the British character, Nigel. At one point, Middleditch is scrambling to figure something out and he’s like, “Oh, wait! Nigel! We forgot about Nigel!”
Those were easily my favorite bits. I generally don’t find anything to laugh about in improv comedy, but a good solid “no, and” – or just leaving another performer hanging, calling them out on forgetting a name mid-skit, any kind of intentional sabotage makes me bust a gut.
Oh absolutely. I loved Parking Lot Wedding, but Law School Magic really took the crown for me. It was just a joy. Schwartz was just giddy at the opportunity to act like an alien, too.
Larry King as Geoff Peterson on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is a classic moment of late night television as well. MAN that was a long sentence!
Someone on here invokes Craig Ferguson, they get rewarded with this:
Yes! Man do I ever miss Craig’s Late Late Show. I’m not sure when it will happen…5? 10? 20 years? but there has to come a day when people will look back on that run for just how truly brilliant it was.
I know much of it was topical, but it would be great if we could stream old episodes!
I’ve rewatched the Wilford Brimley interview a hundred times since he passed. Just pure unfiltered gold, every moment.
There are a ton of LLSWCF eps and clips on YouTube. A couple of channels are dedicated exclusively to his interviews flirting with beautiful women.
That never even occurred to me! This will be a nice second screen activity with football today!
The Geoff episode was the first thing I thought of too. “You didn’t want a robot who THINKS…”
Larry was clearly a huge Sonic fan. Of the two people in that interview, only he knew Sonic’s famous catchphrase, as seen on this poster for the movie:
I want a redub of Sonic The Movie in which people have mined words that Larry King has said over the years to make him voice Sonic. No wait, that would still involve watching that horrible movie.
Sonic, while jumping on a robot or running on a loop or something: I’m here with Vince Neil, lead singer of the Motley Crew. Am I pronouncing that right, it’s like you’re a pirate crew, right? That’s the theme of your music?Sonic, while chasing Dr. Eggman: Now, George, in the new movie, we get to see Darth Vader when he was a little boy, is that right? Sonic, while engaging in a friendly swimming competition with his good friend Mario at the Olympic games: Socks. Your socks, that you put on your shoes? But that’s not a luxury, you know, coffee and socks, that’s not a luxury.
Schwartz’ “I can’t wait to see where this goes” killed me more than the impression itself.
Kids! There’s nothing better than getting a hug from someone you love! But if no one, no one cares about you, that’s no good!
Larry King seems confused by the idea of voicing an animated character, but he himself has voiced animated characters (if granted, small cameos where the whole joke is “this character has Larry King’s voice”). That really was King in Gravity Falls, as well as in Shrek Forever After and Bee Movie.
In the last segment of the same interview, Ben Schwartz spent 10 minutes interviewing Larry, which includes a conversation about death and dying.