I’m not sure if this something that can be pinned on James Lipton, but late night chat shows have become increasingly fond of getting their guests to step back into memorable roles for fun and presumed YouTube profit. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert employs this comedy technique every now and again with inspired results. It’s that framework that’s set the table for a sly Late Show digital short featuring Sean Astin reprising his “three greatest film roles” for the show. Sadly, Do You Believe did not make the cut.
In this bonus goof-n-spoof, Astin revisits the roles he’s best known for. That means hopping back into the role of the titular Rudy, reprising his iconic portrayal of Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings and rounding out the trio is Astin’s turn as Devil Boss in the straight-to-video animated film My Job Is Hell. What’s that? You’re not familar with Devil Boss and its enormous popularity in China? Allow the actor to explain as he meshes the faux film with recreations of memorable quotes from Rudy and the Lord of the Rings series. It’s funny, silly and comes with a t-shirt friendly catchphrase.
For what it’s worth, it took me a moment to crack that Mikey from The Goonies is the third role that you’d expect to pop up as opposed to Dave from Encino Man. If that’s not a commentary on how malleable memorable role lists are, I don’t know what is.
