When a talented actor is unafraid of being the punching bag for comedic purposes, they’re implicitly giving the audience permission to laugh at their vulnerabilities, too. It also proves that at least some actors possess a thick skin. Consider the long-running success of Curb Your Enthusiasm, led by Larry David as an extremely outspoken version of himself. James Van Der Beek in Don’t Trust The B**** In Apt 23 and Matt LeBlanc in Episodes both used their most popular roles to figure out their place in an ever-changing industry. But those were recurring roles. What about the appearances where, in a very limited time, actors and artists are willing to become the punchline for maximum impact?
TV shows set within the world of filmmaking are primed to lure actors into the fold, from HBO’s Entourage and Netflix’s biting BoJack Horseman to, most recently, Apple TV+’s rip-roaring The Studio. With only three episodes under its belt, the latter already boasts drop-ins from Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Anthony Mackie, Greta Lee, and Sarah Polley. This week’s episode, “The Missing Reel,” sees Olivia Wilde impressively willing to dial up the crazy. With The Studio sending up A-listers every week, we’ve put together 15 of the funniest self-deprecating guest star turns.
Olivia Wilde, The Studio
There’s nothing like a director gone wild. At least that’s what the Don’t Worry Darling press cycle was all about when it came to Olivia Wilde: Scandals, rumors about a seemingly sour relationship with the leading star(s), and plenty of other unnecessary, unproven gossip. So it’s kind of a genius move to cast her in The Studio as a neurotic director. Wilde obviously doesn’t address any real-life controversies in episode four, but she’s also not shy about playing up the antics. In “The Missing Reel,” she goes to extreme lengths to ensure no one sees specific footage of her performance in the Zac Efron-led film (a Chinatown ripoff) she’s helming for Continental Studios. So what if Wilde has to commit a teeny tiny crime for it? No one is going to stop her from doing a high-budget reshoot to her satisfaction, not even “stingy” studio head Matt Remick [Seth Rogen]. You can tell the actor had a great time throughout the episode, but never more than when she sighs with relief after destroying her film’s costly reel, standing on a deserted, dark Los Angeles highway, with Matt screaming in horror about Wilde’s outburst. [Saloni Gajjar]
Denise Richards, 30 Rock
Like a lot of the shows on this list, 30 Rock takes place in the entertainment industry and features constant cameos and guest stints from famous figures, especially those in the NBC family. But it’s hard to argue that any of them were more self-effacing than that of Denise Richards, who shows up as Tracy Jordan’s (Tracy Morgan) ally in the season six episode “Idiots Are People Two!”. Playing on her public perception as, well, an idiot, Richards gamely commits herself to a pair of episodes and correctly notes that a microphone looks like a black ice cream cone. Ultimately, the whole endeavor of defending idiots as a beleaguered minority group may have just been a means to promote her new single “La Piscine,” a riff on the genre of Real Housewives pop. That Richards ultimately ended up a Real Housewife (albeit one without a song) is just icing on the metatextual cake. [Drew Gillis]
The best way to upset Sterling Archer is to make him remember that his mother is a human being. Particularly, a human being with a healthy sex drive. Burt Reynolds, whose doofier films were referenced in the first two seasons of Archer by the world’s greatest secret agent, would naturally rev anyone’s engine. When he turns up as himself in season three’s “The Man From Jupiter,” he’s as suave as ever, but with a healthy self-awareness about the crappy movies that Archer knows him from. Whether Reynolds is shaking his head at the “god awful” Operation C.I.A., brainstorming up a Gator sequel, or wistfully grumbling about his flop jukebox musical At Long Last Love, he’s both a game voice actor and a confident late-career superstar with a sense of humor about his popular image. He even helped juice up the script with more jokes about his movies! [Jacob Oller]
Carrie Fisher, The Big Bang Theory
Everything The Big Bang Theory claimed was nerdy—comic books, Star Wars, superheroes, sci-fi, etc.—has grown increasingly mainstream, even more so in the years since the CBS sitcom ended. A lot of the show’s jokes about geek culture felt dated then and certainly don’t land well now, either. But what does resonate is the main characters’ love for everything they saw on the screen. So it’s not surprising that nothing was bigger for Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) than meeting his on-screen hero, James Earl Jones. And to no one’s surprise, the man is a sweetheart, one of the few actors to embrace Sheldon’s aggressive fandom. But the best part of the season seven episode in which he appears is when Jones takes Sheldon to pay a visit to his “crazy” co-star, Carrie Fisher. “Get ready to run,” he warns Sheldon before ringing Fisher’s doorbell as a prank. Lo and behold, our erstwhile Princess Leia opens the door, sporting messy hair and a robe, a baseball bat in hand, ready to beat up her peer for the prank. [Saloni Gajjar]
Lots of famous folk rolled through The Larry Sanders Show over the years, playing exaggerated versions of themselves and trading banter with Garry Shandling’s neurotic talk show host. But few threw themselves into the role like David Duchovny, a huge fan of the series who personally pitched Shandling on his “character’s” quirk: a full-bore romantic monomania for all things Larry Sanders. In its lesser moments, the Duchovny plotline (which pops up in the show’s fifth season, and then again in its final run) can act as a bit of mild gay panic comedy or a low-hanging swipe at Hollywood actors concealing their sexuality in order to maintain marketability. The key, though, is in Duchovny’s total commitment to the idea that he is genuinely romantically and sexually obsessed with this odd, unpleasant little man. “Sometimes I do wish I was gay because I find you very attractive,” Duchovny tells Shandling’s deeply uncomfortable character during one of their heart-to-hearts. “It’s not a gay thing because the feeling I’m having when I’m with you, it’s the kind of feeling I normally have with a woman that I like… It’s definitely a heterosexual feeling, but it’s directed at you. It’s very confusing.” [William Hughes]
LeVar Burton, Community
As far as self-deprecating cameos go, LeVar Burton emerges relatively unscathed in his brief but memorable turn on Community. Initially, his sole purposeis to serve as the object of Troy’s (Donald Glover) idolatry, so it would be pretty hard for him not to seem at least a little bit deserving. Still, to Troy, Burton in the flesh is far, far less desirable than a simple signed picture because, as he screams during Pierce’s (Chevy Chase) season two experiment in psychological torture, “you can’t disappoint a picture.” Burton, of course, takes all of this lunacy on the chin, even getting a few Reading Rainbow riffs in as Troy experiences meltdown after meltdown in his presence. The actor also gets a chance to poke a bit of fun at his own filmography: Britta (Gillian Jacobs) tells him she knows him because she “was a huge fan of Rebop“, while he later swipes a bite from an absent Troy’s plate, declaring “more fish for Kunta.” The real kicker, though, is Burton’s surprise return three seasons later to spirit Troy away from Greendale, allowing his newly courageous charge to assault him with a litany of Star Trek questions he couldn’t ask the first time. Later, a news chyron reports that Burton and a “non-celebrity companion” were captured by pirates in the Gulf of Mexico. R.I.P. (probably) to an idol. [Emma Keates]
Matthew Broderick, Only Murders In The Building
The self-deprecating cameo has been baked into Only Murders In The Building‘s DNA since season one’s appearance from Sting. With the particularly star-studded third season (Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd introduced in prominent roles), Matthew Broderick appearing as himself was almost quaint. But he’s the perfect fit as a temporary replacement in Oliver’s (Martin Short) play: a veteran theater actor who is somehow more annoying and difficult to work with than the neurotic Charles (Steve Martin). Broderick’s trademark likability is on display even as he needles Oliver’s nerves with his intense commitment to dramaturgy. “When I commit to a show, I commit fully,” Broderick declares, adding a fun meta layer to the episode: In his brief screentime, the real-life Broderick commits himself fully to the performance of a fictionalized Broderick who commits way too hard. He doesn’t stick around long, but he does provide a funny foil for Oliver (“You know, I don’t normally enjoy a name drop, but that was delightful,” Oliver tells Broderick at one point.) The actor’s intense insufferableness is also what motivates Oliver to reconcile with Charles—as they say, you don’t know what you’ve lost until you get stuck with (fake) Matthew Broderick. [Mary Kate Carr]
Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, The Critic
Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were notoriously picky about what cameos they’d do: Siskel only ever appeared as “himself” twice, in the episode we’re about to talk about, and the aforementioned Larry Sanders Show. So it was a weird vote of approval from the two critical giants when they signed on for guest stints in a 1995 episode of Jon Lovitz’s animated series The Critic. “Siskel & Ebert & Jay & Alice” doesn’t go as hard on its title guest stars as it could—they were arguably a lot rougher on The Critic in a rare TV-focused segment of their own show—but it does play up their sometimes fractious friendship to absurd lengths. The most memorable sequence comes halfway through the episode, when an argument about the merits of Rain Man parody Snow Man brings the two men to literal blows with each other on a crowded airplane, Siskel threatening to glass Ebert, who responds with a “Cueball in the side pocket!” before decking his long-time partner. Like most episodes of The Critic, “Siskel & Ebert, et al.” veers all over the place in the interest of serving up absurd gags and movie parodies, but it is one of the only instances in all of pop culture of a TV episode climaxing with a Roger Ebert/Gene Siskel musical duet, which is, y’know, probably not what either man was expecting when they said yes to the rare appearance. [William Hughes]
Ralph Macchio, How I Met Your Mother
Is How I Met Your Mother‘s Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) responsible for the Cobra Kai revival, which premiered roughly five years after “The Bro Mitzvah” aired? He’d love to say yes because it’s at his elaborate surprise bachelor party that Ralph Macchio and William Zabka share the screen again to celebrate their ’80s trilogy The Karate Kid. Barney obsesses over wanting to meet his hero Zabka—he’s written the wish down on a list and everything. Except, much to his disappointment, the star who shows up for his big day is Macchio. The actor plays himself but doesn’t mind being the butt of the jokes, specifically ones Barney makes about how Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso, who won the all-star championship, isn’t the real karate kid at all. Macchio endures takedowns about him being the loser in spirit and ends his cameo by shamelessly flirting with a married Lily (Alyson Hannigan). While Zabka spends most of “The Bro Mitzvah” hidden under a literal clown costume, it’s Macchio’s self-effacing work that’s the real delight. [Saloni Gajjar]
Jessica Biel, BoJack Horseman
BoJack Horseman‘s “B-list celebrity Jessica Biel” is one of the real Biel’s funniest roles, primarily because she’s unafraid to deride herself, considering the lengths the show’s writing goes to achieve this. The clip above is proof enough. Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s Netflix series poked plenty of fun at the industry and its people, including Felicity Huffman, Naomi Watts, and character actress Margo Martindale. Yet among the many exciting celebrity appearances, the exaggerated version of Biel—one who’s scared of mummies because she wasn’t cast in The Mummy, doesn’t give a damn about setting Zach Braff on fire or resorting to cannibalism for survival, and thrives on bragging for no good reason—is a total winner. Whether she’s talking about how she landed Justin Timberlake (and left Mr. Peanutbutter for the former N’Sync singer) or her maniacal run for California’s governor after an earthquake, she’s un-biel-evably game for everything. [Saloni Gajjar]
Carl Weathers, Arrested Development
The late, great Carl Weathers is only in four episodes of Arrested Development, but that’s all he needed to leave an indelible impact. Weathers played an unemployed version of himself, unable to find much work—but it’s okay because he’d become proficient at small scams like exploiting airlines for money and mooching off gullible idiots like Tobias Funke (David Cross). This heightened version of Weathers doesn’t teach this dummy his craft as much as he takes him for whatever little Tobias is worth. It’s a brilliant running gag that Weathers himself came up with, going against type —his delivery of “Baby, you got a stew going” is an underrated Arrested Development line. He also finds that interacting with the Bluth clan puts him in an unenviable position: He can turn their miserable, hilarious life story into a TV show if only he can get Tobias to sign over the rights. As always, Weathers got shit done, even in this fictional, over-the-top situation. [Saloni Gajjar]
Mark Hamill, The Simpsons
The hundreds of celebrities who’ve popped up as themselves on The Simpsons across the decades have taken a wide variety of approaches to their parts, sometimes actively shooting down plotlines they found too unflattering. (Johnny Carson, who guested back in the show’s fourth season, famously rejected an initial pitch that would have depicted him as a massive mooch, so the writers simply made him good at everything, instead.) Mark Hamill, though, understood the assignment when he popped up in the show’s season-10 episode “Mayored To The Mob.” Although the show depicts Springfield’s residents as passionate (if very sudden) fans of Star Wars, it also lets Hamill play himself as a washed-up fixture of the sci-fi convention circuit—and, probably even worse than that, the local dinner theater scene. Belting out “Luke Be A Jedi Tonight” with the same expert pipes that would make him one of TV’s most sought-after voice actors, Hamill cheerfully portrays himself as an inveterate attention hound happy to fake an injury to get some start treatment, as long as he still gets his lightsaber back afterward. (George Lucas makes him pay for those.) [William Hughes]
Kate Winslet, Extras
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s Extras carried their trademark humor. As background actor Andy and incompetent agent Darren, respectively, they jumped from project to project trying to score Andy more work. A lot of big names appeared as twisted versions of themselves, usually leading the movies that Andy was an extra in, offering either useless advice or help and revealing the inner workings of the industry in the process. Kate Winslet’s appearance, in particular, is fascinating because it satirizes the desperation to win a coveted Oscar. When praised for taking on a pivotal story about the Holocaust, Winslet’s instant and honest reply is that she doesn’t care about the issue at hand (“We get it, it was grim, move on,” she says). The real reason is that doing such a depressing film will likely win her an Academy Award (Adrien Brody knows a thing or two about that). Extras turned out to be prescient because Winslet won her statuette three years later for The Reader. [Saloni Gajjar]
Liam Neeson, Life’s Too Short and Atlanta
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant mined the self-deprecating celebrity cameo to hilarious ends in Extras, but they saved the best for their follow-up, Life’s Too Short, when Liam Neeson tried his hands at some improv comedy. Immediately intimidating Gervais and Merchant whilst disregarding his Phantom Menace co-star Warwick Davis in what’s supposed to be an introductory meeting, Neeson strides into the show and explodes his star persona as a humorless dramatist that allows a lighter-than-air Schindler’s List joke to breeze right past him. Neeson’s self-seriousness prevents him from engaging in improv. When he strong-arms Gervias into doing a scene with him, the Oscar nominee abandons the golden rule of improv and shuts every idea down. When he should say “yes, and,” Neeson responds, “No, and I have full-blown AIDS,” and it makes the actor look stupid, egotistical, and impossible to work with. Neeson would again weaponize self-seriousness in a brief turn on Atlanta, playing the Cancel Club’s welcoming committee for Paper Boi and digging into his own cancellation. He again grounds absurdity with his Taken severity, highlighting his movie star persona and ability to sink into a scene. This time, he brings more warmth and humanity to a character who revels in his unwillingness to learn a lesson. It’s not as funny as his role on Life’s Too Short, but it is twice as cutting. [Matt Schimkowitz]
Donal Logue, What We Do In The Shadows
In its six-season run, FX’s What We Do In The Shadows had some wild cameos, ranging from the likes of Tilda Swinton, Evan Rachel Wood, and Wesley Snipes as members of the Vampiric Council, to John Slattery getting into a car crash with Colin Robinson. But Donal Logue stands alone. The in-universe Blade actor arrives in season three to proclaim that starring in the 1998 movie compelled him to turn into a vampire—such was the impact of the film that launched one of the earliest Marvel cinematic franchises. Logue isn’t as outright self-deprecating as the others on this fine list, but he walks the line of being satirical and mildly sweet while still being raunchy because he’s certainly very interested in seeing a supposedly dead Nandor’s very big dong. [Saloni Gajjar]
