Dan Aykroyd Dove Head-First Through a Window in SNL's "The Farbers Meet the Coneheads"
"Greetings": The beloved extraterrestrial family had quite the evening in this iconic Season 2 sketch.
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 2: "The Farbers Meet the Coneheads” starring Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, and Laraine Newman.
The Coneheads — the alien family from the planet Remulak, though they swear they’re from France — are, by far, among Saturday Night Live’s most famous characters. Their bald cone-shaped heads and robotic way of speaking arrived at Studio 8H nearly 50 years ago, and continue to deliver laughs whenever fans watch them “consume mass quantities” of anything and everything.
The Coneheads were created by Dan Aykroyd
The extraterrestrial family was initially conceived by Dan Aykroyd, who was an original SNL cast member and writer from 1975 to 1979. Aykroyd once said in a 1978 interview (via The Tapes Archive) that the idea behind the “Coneheads” sketches partly came from his own curiosity about TV screen sizes.
“I was intrigued by video. By the fact that most screens are a certain height and people’s heads are a certain height on the screen,” he said. “And I figured why not fill up another three or four inches there, you know, on a 21-inch screen.”
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The otherworldly idea ultimately blossomed into a hilarious recurring series in the early days of SNL, including one very memorable and chaotic sketch with another iconic set of characters — the Farbers.
Two worlds collide in SNL’s “The Farbers Meet the Coneheads” sketch in 1977
Gilda Radner and John Belushi made their debut as Bobbi and Larry Farber in Season 1. A year later, in January 1977, “Coneheads at Home” introduced the alien family played by Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, and Laraine Newman. And on March 26, 1977, those two worlds famously collided in Season 2’s “The Farbers Meet The Coneheads.”
The sketch begins with the Farbers getting ready for their new neighbors to come over for dinner and drinks just before the Coneheads ring the doorbell.
“Greetings,” Beldar (Aykroyd) announces as he, wife Prymaat (Curtin), and daughter Connie (Newman) enter the Farbers’ home.
“Oh, hi,” Bobbi says in her distinctive nasally voice. “Larry! It’s our new neighbors.”
“I trust that we have arrived at the predesignated time coordinates,” Beldar says in the Conehead family’s signature monotone voice.
Larry then asks how to spell their last name, which he believes is “Cohen,” and Prymaat quickly corrects him. “Conehead, the name is Conehead.”
“We come from France,” Connie chimes in.
“Oh, France!” Bobbi says. “Well that explains everything!”
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The chit-chat carries on with Larry asking if the Coneheads like their new home, and Bobbi inquiring why it was “glowing last night.” Things take a wacky and hilarious turn as Bobbi and Prymaat go to get drinks from the kitchen and Beldar lights up an entire pack of cigarettes. And before Larry, a former semi-professional bartender, can mix up a few cocktails, the Coneheads each grab a bottle of liquor to chug.
With some time to kill before dinner, the Farbers suggest they play a quick game of Scrabble. Not familiar with the rules, Coneheads each “scan” the instructions and they’re ready to go. But the game doesn't last long, as the Coneheads play “French” words like “Klatu” and “Sebfarg.” The conversation then turns to Larry's business in women’s commercial hairdryers before all hell breaks loose.
“Ahhhhhhhh,” the Coneheads all scream as Larry brings out a big salon-style hairdryer that’s shaped like their conical heads. Beldar crashes head-first out of the living room window with Prymaat and Connie following his lead.
“Larry,” Radner says as Bobbi, trying to not break out in laughter. “Do you think hairdryer means something bad in French?”
SNL’s “Coneheads” sketches became a feature film in 1993
Produced by Lorne Michaels, Coneheads starred Aykroyd and Curtin as Beldar and Prymaat, respectively, along with Michelle Burke taking on the role of Connie. The movie’s cast also featured many other SNL alums, including Newman in a different role, Michael McKean, David Spade, Chris Farley, Phil Hartman, Adam Sandler, Kevin Nealon, Jan Hooks, and more.
Coneheads premiered in theaters in July 1993, decades after the sketch first aired on NBC’s sketch comedy show and roughly a year after the release of another SNL-inspired movie, Wayne’s World. Aykroyd told Entertainment Weekly he'd always envisioned the original SNL sketches as a movie.
“When Tom Davis, Jane, Lorne, and I wrote the original sketch, we always thought it would be a great movie,” Aykroyd told the outlet in 1993 ahead of the movie’s premiere. “We actually came up with a full story line — how the Coneheads come to earth, assimilate into society, are chased by the Air Force, which in this case we changed to Immigration, and then got returned to their planet.”
Fun fact: Aykroyd could only film in his cone costume for eight hours at a time “because he sweats so much that water starts to fill up the back,” Curtin told Entertainment Weekly.
Dan Aykroyd would “love” to play Beldar Conehead again
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Out of all his legendary SNL characters, from George Festrunk to Fred Garvin, Aykroyd said in an interview with Food & Wine that he’d love to play the Coneheads patriarch again.
“I feel like an alien already,” he said in 2020. “I love Beldar and I loved working with Jane Curtin. That family had an objective look at the world. I would love to do that part again.”
