Stefon
Stefon Meyers, simply referred to as Stefon, is a character played by Bill Hader on Saturday Night Live who appeared as the New York City correspondent for Weekend Update with Seth Meyers, created by Hader and former SNL writer John Mulaney. Meyers introduced Stefon as a guide who knows all about New York and asks him for tips on essential destinations and events for visitors. Stefon recommends unusual clubs and parties with bizarre characters and very specific tastes, described as "visions a dying gay man would have if he was under too many blankets," "nightmares of a crystal meth addict," or a "coked-up gay Candyland."
Origin
Stefon's segments were inspired by real people Hader and Mulaney had encountered. One was a club promoter who sent Mulaney an email about a club that "had everything," including "rooms full of broken glass" as one of the highlights.The character's mannerisms were based on a barista at a coffee shop in Chelsea, Manhattan that Hader frequented who looked and talked like Stefon. Mulaney decided that Stefon should wear an Ed Hardy shirt, under the assumption that it was made of latex and looked like something out of the Macaulay Culkin and Seth Green film, Party Monster. Stefon's hair was inspired by the characters in that film, "specifically based in popup club culture in New York City circa 2007".
Production
Initially, Stefon appeared in a 2008 sketch with Ben Affleck titled "Movie Pitch with Stefon," with Stefon portraying the outrageous brother of Affleck's more serious character, David Zolesky; however, the idea "barely worked as a sketch," said Bill Hader. "It was a long walk to get to what the sketch was about."The character was instead introduced as a correspondent on Weekend Update the following season, after an invitation from the head of the segment. According to Seth Meyers, "It was a lot easier to just say, 'Hey, here's Stefon.'" During the production for his first appearance on Weekend Update, on the April 24, 2010 episode, Mulaney assumed it would be cut after rehearsal. He stated, "It was so weird that I so assumed it would be cut, and I said, 'When you cut this, can we try it again?' We just thought it was not going to be liked by anyone." However, the character became immensely popular.
Often Hader can be seen suppressing fits of laughter, as some of the more outlandish descriptions are new to him. Hader, on late-night TV interviews, said that this happens with such frequency because changes are often made to the script up until the live show, and frequently Hader does not see the final cue cards until the live broadcast. As a result, some of the more outrageous things that Stefon says are relatively or completely new to Hader. "I have not gotten through a single Stefon update without breaking," Hader says. "Still working on it."
After being unable to perform the character without breaking for two and a half years, Hader successfully remained in character as Stefon during the season finale of the show's 36th season, with host Justin Timberlake. However, this appearance was much briefer than his others, with his appearance only lasting about 30 seconds. According to Hader, it is "completely ironic" that he played a character like Stefon, because he avoids loud places such as clubs.
Stefon's last regular appearance on SNL was on May 18, 2013, owing to Bill Hader's leaving the show. As part of the Weekend Update comedy skit, Seth Meyers realized how much he actually loved Stefon and "married" him.
When Meyers' Late Night premiered on February 24, 2014, a Stefon matryoshka doll with a veil embellishment, originally hand-crafted by matryoshka artist Irene Hwang and commissioned for a crew holiday gift, was unveiled as part of the decor of Meyers' desktop.
Mulaney began writing a Stefon feature film before he left SNL. The film was intended to be a mockumentary, showing Stefon visiting different New York hotspots as a correspondent for Weekend Update. Mulaney wanted to cast director Garry Marshall as Lorne Michaels. However, the film never moved beyond an initial writing stage.
Personality
Stefon is a flamboyantly gay "city correspondent" for Weekend Update. He appears to be always nervous, as indicated by how he can never keep his hands still and constantly rubs them together. Stefon always touches his face and hair, and it seems like he has frequent anxiety attacks. A possible explanation for this is his excessive consumption of recreational drugs. Stefon is very knowledgeable about parties and nightclubs featuring very bizarre themes and characters, which he recommends when host Seth Meyers asks for suggestions for tourists, much to Meyers' frustration. Stefon is apparently infatuated with Meyers; he expresses disappointment when Meyers mentions his girlfriend, and has stated that he envies Meyers' mother for changing his diapers as a child.According to the May 7, 2011, episode of Saturday Night Live, his mother is named Ms. Stefon, and his father is David Bowie. In the October 20, 2012, episode, he mentions he has a dog named Bark Ruffalo. He lives in a trashcan outside the RadioShack at 23rd and 7th. Stefon wears gaudy Ed Hardy shirts, multiple rings, and an asymmetrical, highlighted haircut.
Format
Stefon, the City Correspondent on Weekend Update, is introduced by Seth Meyers and is asked for recommendations for tourists. Stefon's dialogue always begins with “New York’s hottest club is …” and then he starts listing the outlandish patrons that you can meet at this club. He is frequently interrupted by Seth Meyers, who asks for more family-friendly destinations, but Stefon only continues talking about increasingly ludicrous New York clubs with suggestively descriptive names.Security, entertainers, and clientele at the venue are surreal, implied to be from hyper-specific or obscure subcultures, which an impressed Stefon usually introduces by complimenting "this place has everything". Bouncers include: jacked-up homeless guys in period swimming costumes, Hobocops, a bulldog who looks like Wilford Brimley, and a rabbi who looks like Joaquin Phoenix. Passwords for some of the clubs include "My wallet? YEEEEAH, RIGHT!" and "Diabetes". When mentioning the club's typical patrons, he lists outlandish characters such as screaming babies in Mozart wigs, Puppets in disguise, an Albino who looks like Susan Powter, Puppets practicing Karate, sunburned drifters with soap bubble beards, and groups of guys with afros in graduation caps. Underground celebrities to be found at the venues include Blingo, Jewish Dracula Sidney Applebaum, nine-year-old Tokyo pimp Ichi Yakaguro and 300-pound Chinese baby deejay DJ Baby Bok Choy.
When describing the club’s attractions, Stefon repeatedly uses vague faux pop culture portmanteaux and slang terms including "Jewpids", "Furkels" and "Teddy Graham people". Stefon also frequently mentions objects personified by little people, which he originally referred to as "midgets". When Seth Meyers pointed out in one segment that the term "midget" was politically incorrect, Stefon corrected himself and referred to them as "fun-sized"; in a 2018 guest appearance alongside Colin Jost and Michael Che, Stefon brought his lawyer Shy onto the show to inform him that the correct term was "little people". The club owners Stefon describes are almost always malapropisms of famous celebrities' names, e.g., Snoozin Lucci, Jew Diamond Phillips, Tranderson Cooper, Baloney Danza, Fat Sajak, Gay Liotta, Gay Dunaway, Tranny Oakley, D-bag Chopra, and Blow J. Simpson. His style comes close to absurdist humor, mocking New York City's notorious Club Kid scene.
Final regular appearance and guest appearances
Stefon made his last recurring Weekend Update appearance on Season 38 Episode 21 on May 18, 2013. After Stefon's usual comment on "New York's hottest club", Seth Meyers again criticized his recommendations, making Stefon flee out of NBC Studios to get married. Seeing the error of his ways, Seth goes after him to the wedding at the Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue only to find out that Stefon is marrying Anderson Cooper. Seth goes in after Stefon and takes him away from the wedding back to Studio 8H, where they proclaim their love for each other. The wedding guests included Black George Washington as the minister, a puppet in disguise, human traffic cones and a human fire hydrant, HoboCops, Jewpids, infamous gay running back Blowjay Simpson, a group of guys with afros and graduation caps, grown men in wedding dresses, jacked homeless guys in period bathing suits, Gizblow the coked-up Gremlin, Furkel, evil chef Wario Batali, Germfs, Sidney Applebaum the Jewish Dracula, a screaming geisha, Hanukkah cartoon character Menorah the Explorer, and DJ Baby Bok Choy. Ben Affleck makes a cameo appearance reprising his role as Stefon's brother, David Zolefsky. After they return to the studio, various Weekend Update characters including David Paterson, Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy, Drunk Uncle, Arianna Huffington, The Devil, Jean K. Jean, Ann Romney and The Girl You Wished You Didn't Start a Conversation with at a Party along with Amy Poehler congratulate them by throwing rice. Seth refers to them as Seth and Stefon Meyers and closes out Weekend Update.Stefon returned to the Weekend Update desk in a guest appearance along with Amy Poehler to wish Meyers good luck in his final Weekend Update, as Meyers prepared to become the new host of Late Night. Stefon's jokes included that the world "has everything...", such as homeless weightlifters that look like The Croods, Japanese daredevil YOLO Ono and human DVRs, to which Stefon replied "It's that thing where a midget sits on your TV and tells you what happened on Scandal. And like a regular cable box, it goes down all the time". Before Seth's final Weekend Update goodbye, he acknowledged Stefon as his husband. In this appearance, Hader again broke character after the human DVR joke.
Stefon returned to the show on the October 11, 2014 episode, hosted by Hader. In this appearance he recommended clubs for tourists interested in autumn in New York. He expressed shock at new Weekend Update hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che, questioning how long he had been on anesthesia, before looking at their racial make-up and remarking "one of each." The sketch was co-written by John Mulaney, who worked on it with Hader over Skype and texted new jokes to the writers to once again surprise Hader, who barely began the sketch before having to cover his face from laughing. Hader had particular trouble staying in character due to each club Stefon recommended including at the end of its list of features Dan Cortese. Stefon referenced his now-husband Meyers by explaining that he was at home "practicing sitting behind a desk," and ended the sketch by announcing he was pregnant.
As part of Saturday Night Lives 40th Anniversary Special, Edward Norton appeared as Stefon during the special's 40th anniversary-themed Weekend Update. Feeling like Norton was failing his impression, Stefon appeared to try to guide him into doing the correct hand gestures. After that, Meyers appeared behind both Norton and Stefon and briefly mentioned their unnamed children.
On March 17, 2018, three years after his last appearance in SNL, Stefon returned to the Weekend Update desk for a St. Patrick's Day-themed segment of his New York City recommendations, which included multiple references to recent Academy Award-winning films, Farrahchauns and human squatty potties. Stefon, who usually uses the term "midget" to describe his bizarre recommendations, chose not to use it in order to not be insensitive and consulted his attorney and conceptual piss artist named Shy for a better term, ultimately using "little people". Mulaney caused Hader to crack up by whispering into his ear during his brief appearance, "My girlfriend works at Yoshinoya Beef Bowl." Stefon also made a reference to Meyers' A Closer Look segment at Late Night.