Aykroyd, decked out in a Saturday Night Live hat and a Crystal Head Vodka promotional polo, was chatting with the Talking Strange podcast, promoting his History Channel show The UnBelievable, when the canonicity question came up. (And can we just say, in passing, how refreshing Aykroyd’s whole vibe is in this era where so many conspiracy-minded brains go down a path of anger, instead of the genuine, unskeptical wonder he brings to the topics he talks about? There’s an honest joy in hearing the Nothing But Trouble director/star talk about whether he believes pictures of fairies are real, or list any number of reasons the Loch Ness monster can’t actually exist before concluding that he simply doesn’t know. It’s very charming.)
Anyway, Aykroyd was asked by host Aaron Sagers about his 10-second appearance in Casper, which sees him, in full Ghostbusters regalia (including his “STANTZ” nametag) get driven out of Whipstaff Manor by its infestation of spirits. While he avoided many of our questions—What’s Ray doing in Maine? Why is he alone? Shouldn’t someone have talked him out of that mustache?—Aykroyd concludes that there’s no reason to exile the scene from Ghostbusters lore. “I think so. Given the fact that Spielberg asked for me, and said come and do this. It’s a beautiful nod to what we were doing with Ivan [Reitman] and everybody. You’ve got to include it in the canon, no doubt.”
And while we could quibble with whether Aykroyd is referring to a strict narrative canon, as opposed to the term’s use as an acknowledgement of something being an admirable scene, we’re too distracted by the fact that this verdict means that Don Novello’s Father Guido Sarducci, who appears in the scene right before Aykroyd’s, is also now Ghostbusters canon. And, not to get all Tommy Westphall on you, but that’s a whole can of worms, given how prolific Novello was with in-character cameos in the 1980s and ’90s. Blossom, Married… With Children, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show… Hell, this means Rodney Dangerfield’s “Rappin’ Rodney” music video is now Ghostbusters canon, opening up the possibility that, after Dangerfield gets executed (by Pat Benatar!) for his crimes during the course of that video, he might have eventually ended up on the wrong end of a proton beam. A grim thought, indeed.
Anyway, Dan Ayrkroyd’s clearly still having a lot of fun. Good for him!
