Watch Matthew McConaughey Pretend to Be a 3D-Printed Man in This 'SNL' Skit
It was all right, all right, all right.
Sure, we can 3D print satellites (in space!), glass, and even detached nerves… but last night, SNL took things one step further: What if we could 3D print a man?
On the November 21 episode, hosted by Wooderson Matthew McConaughey, the SNL folks spoofed a science-tech conference (called “Bio Crunch 2015,” no less) with a presentation that asked audience members if they could determine which of three similarly dressed men was actually a 3D printed humanoid robot.
It all starts off simply enough, with Cecily Strong as the “3D Bio-Print” spokesperson, presenting Beck Bennett, Taran Killam, and McConaughey as the lineup of guys with which the company tries to stump the audience. “I’d like to introduce three men to you,” says Strong. “Two are human, but one of them was printed with a Bio-Print 3D printer. Can you tell who?”
That’s when we meet the guys who are dressed like triplets on their way to a piano recital in matching blue sweaters and khakis.
“Hello. Am I the 3D-printed man?” Bennett asks.
Killam is up next: “Hi there. Am I the 3D-printed man?”
Finally, it’s McConaughey’s turn. “Hi. Today,” he says, slipping right on into the Uncanny Valley with his inhumanly wide eyes and stilted speech pattern. “Am I the 3D printed man today.”
Obviously, McConaughey is the 3D-printed man. He goes on to answer questions with choice phrases like: “Who me. As for me, I’ve got to say every single one of the bananas,” and “Get out of here in your town with that question. You’re making a sunglasses guy like me laugh hard from my face. Ha. Ha. Ha. Oh, yeah.” Eventually, McConaughey’s 3D-printed man also goes on to show off his (terrible) walking skills and (equally horrifying) dance moves.
Bio-Print’s technology isn’t quite there… but in real life, there are robots that have learned consequence reasoning and how to say “no” to humans. While that might not quite be the personality or emotion SNL tried to capture with this faux-robot, there are definitely new leaps in being made in the humanoid robot field every day. (Even if humanoid robots aren’t the most innovative things ever.) We’re just glad the 3D-printed man didn’t go Terminator on anyone, because people are already afraid of robots enough as-is.
“Now, if you all wanna come up here and meet Bruce, you have about three minutes before he catches fire.”
Meet SNL’s bizarro 3D-printed dude before his khakis ignite:
