Hans and Franz

Description

In the sketch, Carvey and Nealon wear padding for fake muscles, drab gray sweatsuits, and weight belts, speaking with Austrian accents. The set includes life-sized cutouts of Arnold Schwarzenegger from his competition years, and the music features mock Austrian yodeling. Hans and Franz primarily denigrate others for not being strong, striking bodybuilder poses with strained expressions. Schwarzenegger made one guest appearance, ridiculing "his cousins" as "girlie" and weak.

A separate sketch responded to sports news, with Hans and Franz barking back at a remark by Jimmy the Greek about African men being more muscular. In a Halloween episode, the pair dressed as their idol, with Hans as the Terminator from the first film and Franz as the T-800 from Terminator 2. They derided a boy dressed as Superman and gave treats of vitamin C pills, coconut oil, and bee pollen instead of candy.

Other appearances

After Carvey left the show, the sketch was retired. In a 1994 episode hosted by Carvey, Hans and Franz appeared as guest commentators on Weekend Update, expressing dismay that the crew had dismantled their set.

A short sketch for the 1999 25th Anniversary Special, spoofing VH1's Behind the Music, was cut for time but aired later that season; it depicted the pair reuniting in Hollywood when Franz had his buttocks "read" by Hans. Carvey and Nealon, in character, portrayed the Right and Left Ventricles of the heart in the "Cranium Command" attraction at Walt Disney World. In 2014, the duo appeared in State Farm commercials with Aaron Rodgers.

Proposed film

A Hans and Franz film was in development starting in the early 1990s, with the working title Hans and Franz Go to Hollywood. Nealon and Conan O'Brien discussed being holed up in a Santa Monica hotel room for a month with Carvey and Robert Smigel working on a script intended as a musical. Carvey later discussed the script under the title Hans and Franz: The Girlyman Dilemma.

Schwarzenegger expressed interest and was set to co-produce but declined after the poor reception of Last Action Hero. The box office failures of Stuart Saves His Family and It's Pat likely hurt the film's prospects, but Schwarzenegger's withdrawal proved insurmountable. Scenes from the script were acted out on O'Brien's podcast in May 2023.

Cultural references

NASA's two crawler-transporters are nicknamed "Hans" (CT-1) and "Franz" (CT-2). In World of Warcraft, the twin brothers Hans'gar and Franzok appear in the Blackrock Foundry raid, with Franzok yelling "Hear me now and believe me later!" On Sesame Street, Hansel and Gretel referenced the tagline, changing it to "We just want to throw... bread crumbs!" German supermodel Heidi Klum nicknamed her breasts Hans and Franz, though it has not been confirmed if this was an homage. In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) cartoon, an episode features an Arnold Schwarzenegger-like enemy named Wally Airhead with muscleman henchmen named Hans and Fitz, all speaking with Austrian accents.