The 12 Days of Guy Fieri: ‘SNL’ Gets a Taste of Flavortown

The internet is full of people making all sorts of jokes and memes about Guy Fieri, but there is one comedic take that rises above them all: Bobby Moynihan’s impression of the Triple D host from SNL. On this, the seventh day of The 12 Days of Guy Fieri, it’s time to look back at the legacy of this hilarious homage to the Mayor of Flavortown.

When Bobby brought Guy to 30 Rock

Moynihan first introduced his Guy Fieri impression in a just-okay sketch from 2009 called “Cooking Al Fresco” wherein the Food Network star appears as the guest of a rooftop cooking show that’s besieged by hungry birds. It’s a manic sketch that ends, grimly, with Guy’s skeleton dropping from the sky, but Moynihan manages to get in a few good Fieri-inspired lines, including, “Today we’re talking ham hocks, so get ready to rock out with your hock out.”

Moynihan spun his Fieri character off into two Weekend Update segments — one about Thanksgiving and another about the Super Bowl — as well as the masterful “Guy Fieri’s Full Throttle Christmas Special.” This sketch includes bonus impressions of Bret Michaels, Chris Angel, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Big Ang, and the cast of Pawn Stars, plus a menu that features “a stocking full of 20 layer bean dip in a crumbled Teddy Graham crust.”

The reason why this impression works so well is that Moynihan is tapping into Guy’s confidence and zeal for culinary spectacles. It’s definitely an over-the-top version of Fieri, but it’s also aligned with the Food Network star’s gonzo, good-natured attitude on-screen. Perhaps that’s why Fieri himself is a fan of this impression.

“I love it,” Fieri told Parade in 2014. “Whenever he’s done it, he’s texted me the next day to ask how I liked it, and I always tell him he’s brilliant.” During a talk with the Build Series three years later, Fieri also revealed that he called upon Moynihan to do his impression for a family gathering once:

When Hunter [Fieri’s son] turned 18, I asked Bobby to send... I do a little video, all my buddies I had them do little videos, and I put them together as a little comprise thing for his birthday, and Bobby did one..and it was really cool. He’s a true artist. He’s able to pick out the nuances and point them out to the fifteen-millionth-degree. But it’s funny and you gotta laugh at yourself. Unfortunately, in this business in today’s world, in media or not, you have to be ready to take the heat. That’s what it is. Don’t get hung up on it. You spend too much time worrying about it but I laugh with it. As a matter of fact, I think it’s funny. I think he does it great. I wanna do it one day, though, where he says ‘and the Jägermeister...’ and then I come on and go ‘No Bobby, you’re doing it wrong....It’s the Jägermeister goes in the raisins.‘ I wanna do Bobby Moynihan doing Guy Fieri.

Sadly, Moynihan ended his tenure at SNL last year, and he never got a chance to appear alongside the inspiration for his greatest character on screen. But thankfully, through the magic of the internet, we can enjoy his impression of the Platinum Prince forever. Here’s the rest of his Fieri bits from SNL:

Cooking Al Fresco (2009)

Guy Fieri on Thanksgiving (2010)

Guy Fieri on Super Bowl Snacks (2012)

Moynihan also planned to do a Weekend Update segment with Guy reacting to the New York Times review of his restaurant, but it never made it past the dress rehearsal.