Coneheads


The Coneheads was a recurring sketch on Saturday Night Live about a family of aliens with bald conical heads. It originated in the 1977 premiere on January 15 and starred Dan Aykroyd as father Beldar, Jane Curtin as mother Prymaat, and Laraine Newman as daughter Connie. It was later made into a movie.

Summary

The Coneheads are an alien family, natives of the planet Remulak, who find themselves stranded on Earth. The Coneheads' most distinguishing feature is that, as their name implies, the tops of their heads are shaped like large cones. It is unclear if "Conehead" is the name of their race or just their surname, but in their interactions with humans, it is used in the latter sense.
When questioned by Earth neighbors as to their strange behavior, they invariably reply that they are from France, Remulak being the purported name of their home village. With the exception of Agent Seedling and his assistant in the 1993 feature-length version, they are never suspected of being extraterrestrial aliens by anyone who encounters them, even when accidentally referring to their neighbors as "Earthlings". Much of the humor is derived from this clash between their odd behavior and appearance, and the casual acceptance of the Coneheads by those they encounter.

Strange behaviors

Coneheads have much larger appetites than an average human. They eat large amounts of food during meals, announcing "Consume mass quantities!" They drink entire six packs of beer at once, and smoke whole packs of cigarettes at a time. They also consume foods that are inedible to humans, including cleaning fluid, pencil shavings and fiberglass insulation. On Halloween in 1977, a neighbor complains about the Coneheads' choice of trick-or-treat handouts: six-packs and fried eggs.
The Coneheads have a very fast, nasal, monotone speech and humorously strange language patterns, using needlessly technical dialogue. They refer to food as "consumables", and say "I summon you" to ask to speak to another person. The phrase, "Maintain low tones," is used towards Connie by Beldar in the film and in the original 1977 sketch. This initial sketch is also the source of the little used human first names assumed by Prymaat and Beldar. The popular term parental unit also comes from the sketches. When highly upset a Conehead will utter the term, "Mebs!"
Coneheads rub their cones together as a sign of affection at which point a bizarre, theremin-like noise is emitted, presumably from the cones themselves. They also play a game involving tossing "senso-rings" over each other's cones, which is somehow sexual in nature, and is considered taboo for the underaged Connie to play.

Conceptual origins

Dan Aykroyd said he was inspired to create the Coneheads by marijuana consumption and based the characters' appearance on the Moai, the mysterious and ancient stone statues of Easter Island, which have similarly conical heads, and the people of the land of Points from Harry Nilsson's fable The Point!. Dan Aykroyd also mentioned in an interview that he drew inspiration from the film This Island Earth where the very tall foreheads of the aliens go largely unnoticed by humans.
The conehead costume is highly reminiscent of the white clown costume used in circuses for more than a century.

Music

wrote a song based on the sketches, titled "Conehead". It appeared on his 1981 album You Are What You Is. When he hosted SNL, Zappa also appeared in a Coneheads sketch as a man dating Connie, where he makes note that he prefers French women.
In the music video for Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", Beldar shows up in Cyndi's bedroom.

Adaptations

The concept was turned into a Rankin/Bass animated special, The Coneheads, in 1983, with Aykroyd and Curtin reprising their roles.
A live-action film, Coneheads, premiered in 1993, starring Aykroyd and Curtin. Michelle Burke took over the role of Connie in the film, with Newman appearing as Connie's aunt on Remulak. Marvel Comics produced a comic book limited series, with all original stories set after the events of the film. The feature film was licensed to Playmates Toys and a line of action figures was created, designed by the development team from Pangea Corporation. The film was a box office disaster.

Other formats

For the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, several East German lugers competed wearing helmets that were shaped similar to the Coneheads, including gold medalist Detlef Gunther. The International Luge Federation banned them after the Olympics for safety reasons.

''SNL'' appearances

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Licensed usage

As of late May 2015, State Farm Insurance created a Coneheads version of its commercial "State of Unrest," in which Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin reprise their Coneheads roles and put a Coneheads spin on the original commercial that features a husband calling the State Farm 24-hour policy line, while his wife is sure he is talking to his mistress despite his protests that he is talking to State Farm. A second Conehead State Farm commercial is set on their spaceship. When the microwave breaks, the Coneheads invoke their State Farm representative by singing the company's jingle. The agent assures them they saved money on their policy, but then notices they are in space and not in France, where the Coneheads are supposedly from, so the Coneheads sing the jingle again, but add "in France!" and they all end up sitting at a table outside a French bistro, with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
The Coneheads are the fourth SNL sketch to appear in State Farm commercials, following the Richmeister, the Super Fans, and Hans and Franz.