It’s the SNL moment everyone’s talking about. But if, like us, your first reaction to seeing Mikey Day looking like Butt-Head in the show’s Beavis and Butt-Head sketch last weekend was “how did they do that,” the show’s makeup department head Louie Zakarian has the answer.
Posting a shot of Mikey Day in his “Butt-Head” get-up to Instagram, Zakarian explained “I built a set of dentures to lift his lip, added a silicone nose and bald plate to bring it to life.”
Zakarian also shared a time-lapse video of Day in the makeup chair as the hair and nose is applied by the team.
“Making the denture that would make Mikey’s lip look just right made this whole look work,” Zakarian explains. “The next thing was figuring out how to get Ryan into his whole look in 3 minutes. That’s right: Makeup, prosthetics, hair and wardrobe in 3 minutes.”
The make-or-break nature of makeup design in the sketch is evident in a behind-the-scenes video SNL posted Thursday, which tracks Heidi Gardner and Day’s performances in the sketch as it evolved over the week. While the pair managed a straight reading during the Wednesday table read, Gardner had an increasingly difficult time holding back her laughter as Day’s Butt-Head look progressed through the Saturday run-through and rehearsal.
Gardner famously caved when it achieved its peak final form during the live show. As Zakarian confirmed to one Instagram commenter, the makeup “was better at air.”
“Putting this look together gave me so much joy,” the makeup artist says of the Beavis and Butt-Head sketch.
Based on its YouTube performance, it seems the sketch has given the rest of us plenty of joy, too.
