KFC taps Jim Gaffigan to portray Colonel Sanders in Super Bowl 50 commercial
Colonel Sanders may be beside himself, but the latest guy to portray KFC's famous chicken king from Kentucky is a Hoosier.
Comedian Jim Gaffigan gives his best Southern drawl during a Super Bowl 50 commercial.
Gaffigan, 49, grew up in Munster and Chesterton in northwest Indiana and graduated from La Lumiere, a Catholic school in LaPorte — and his comedic stock has been rising. He is scheduled to present a second season of "The Jim Gaffigan Show" this summer on Comedy Central and TV Land networks. He's also written books, had TV specials and is about to announce a summer standup tour.
He performed to a crowd of 8,000, including budding comedian and Colts punter Pat McAfee, on the final day of the 2014 Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis. He got an early start in 1993 as a guest on another Hoosier's talk show, "Late Show with David Letterman," and is a frequent guest on radio's "The Bob and Tom Show."
Sunday's Super Bowl commercial for KFC, posted online Saturday, shows Gaffigan as the KFC founder waking up from a nightmare in the pitchman role of fellow funnyman Norm Macdonald. In August, Macdonald captured the role from another "Saturday Night Live" alumnus, Darrel Hammond. The fast-food chicken restaurant's retro campaign to lure younger fast-food fans began last spring.
The commercial begins with a shot of Macdonald in a sitting room while reading a newspaper. A giant headline proclaims a fast-food chicken promotion is ending. "Oh, no!" Macdonald cries.
Cue Gaffigan. In bed, he awakes, dressed in the white double-breasted suit, hair, mustache and goatee (oh, and the colonel's black string tie), and realizes it's all a dream.
Enjoy the rest of the dialogue now on Twitter at @kfc or when the commercial airs, likely during the pregame events starting at 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The hint Macdonald was leaving came Wednesday in another online video nicknamed "Nightmare." It opened with a shot of the famous KFC paper bucket sporting the talking face of Macdonald where the colonel usually is displayed — and the whimsical tune "So Long, Farewell," sung by the Von Trapp children in the 1965 movie "The Sound of Music." That video then shows some of Macdonald's adventures as the fast-food icon until he waves goodbye.
KFC is headquartered in Louisville, Ky., at Yum! Brands, which also owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Colonel Harland Sanders is the cook who more than 70 years ago created a secret list of herbs and spices for his fried-chicken recipe — and the rest is history, as Gaffigan notes with the KFC catch phrase at the end of the commercial: "It's finger lickin' good."
Call IndyStar producer Gregg Montgomery at (317) 444-6292. Follow him on Twitter: @indystar_gregg.
