It’s been eleven years since Seth Meyers married Alexi Ashe. The gorgeous wedding was widely covered by the press at the time, but more than a decade later, it’s one of the speeches that people are still talking about. Comedian Will Forte stood up during the rehearsal dinner and fired off a six minute toast as Hamilton Whiteman, an obscure SNL character that’s “a neo-Nazi basically.” By all accounts, it went over well with some in the audience and not so well with others.
Among those it went over very well with were Ted Danson and Bill Hader. The two could not stop laughing as they reminisced about the speech on the Cheers star’s podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name. Danson said the bride’s family was “not amused” and Hader said he was laughing so hard you can hear him in the background of the wedding video losing his mind. Here’s a portion of Hader’s thoughts below…
He looks like Paul Williams the singer… and he’s very very right wing, a neo-Nazi basically… In the sketches, he was always giving speeches; so he stood up at Seth’s wedding and gave a wedding speech. (The bride’s side of the family was not amused). Not at all because he described her, he goes ‘I met Alexi beautiful face, coltish legs, perfect tits.’ Everyone was like, ‘Jesus.’ We all were like (shaking head). Well, you can hear on the audio, I’m dying laughing because I’m like this dude does not care but you can feel everyone going ‘Oh my god.’ He ended his speech by saying, ‘I will be there when Alexi gives birth to what will undoubtedly be a homosexual baby, and I’ll be in the corner brimming with I told you so.’ It was this wedding (that) was very nice in Martha’s Vineyard, and he stood up and did it. It was the laugh where I was kind of terrified, but it was just ballsy.
A video clip of Danson and Hader talking about the speech has been widely shared on social media recently, but it’s not the only time the speech has been talked about in public. Meyers once had Forte on Late Night With Seth Meyers to talk about it, and they even showed a clip from the speech, which Meyers said was the only thirty seconds appropriate to air on network television.
Fortunately, Meyers was clearly amused by the whole thing, as there’s probably some expectation you’re gonna get weirdness if you invite Will Forte to your wedding. You can watch a clip of the two of them talking about it, as well as those thirty seconds from the actual wedding below…
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The speech came up on the podcast because Danson and Hader were initially having a more general conversation about Forte. More specifically, they were talking about how he always wanted to do work that he liked and was more concerned about doing things that he considered good versus things the audience liked. Hader said it was a great lesson to see someone not be worried about outcome and instead focus on the process and what they were trying to say.
That really tracks with Forte, whose outrageous personal life stories and work tend to cover unusual ground. Something like MacGruber, especially the movie and TV show, were never going to hit with a wide audience (which is probably why Pepsi was hesitant to partner). The humor is really specific and creatively daring, and there’s nothing about it designed for broad appeal. You could say the same about a lot of Forte’s sketches on SNL too like say, Jeff Montgomery, a local man dressed as a sex offender on Halloween who may or may not actually be a sex offender or Tim Calhoun, a political candidate who gives speeches in an awkward tone of voice and with over the top political mannerisms.
Fortunately, there are plenty of fans out there who really get what Forte is trying to do and appreciate his humor, and there are also plenty of his fellow comedians who are on the same wavelength. After Forte’s big speech at the wedding, he was approached by his SNL co-star Andy Samberg who asked him to give a toast in character at his wedding too. Fingers crossed we get more info on what happened there someday.