TIL Moe Was Based on Comedian Rich Hall
There's a British panel show I'm addicted to (QI), and one of the frequent guests in its earlier seasons was American comedian Rich Hall. I always thought that he looked strikingly similar to Moe Szyslak but just chalked it up to coincidence.
After years of wondering, I finally bothered to look up who Moe was actually based on. Lo and behold, it's Rich Hall.
So, I guess it's less "today I learned" and more "today I confirmed my random theory".
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They used to call me Kid Gorgeous. Later it was Kid Presentable. Then Kid Gruesome. And finally, Kid Moe.
"You are an ugly, hate-filled man."
"Hey! I may be ugly and hate-filled but... What was that last thing you said?"
What's funny, is that's the kind of joke Hall would make.
I'm not sure how much of Hall's personality was factored into the character (there's another source for some of Moe's characteristics), but that line is definitely in Hall's style.
This is an AI generated image of what Moe would've looked like as a real person.
I gotta say the resemblance is striking.
I get the feeling they probably used Rich Hall in the prompt to generate that image, though
Yeah that was my guess also. No way it can be this close by coincidence.
This would have been his look around the time Moe was designed.
https://youtu.be/IqbpuOIuWDg
Interesting, he doesn't look anything like Moe here
Yeah, I'll admit he definitely looks less Moe-like back then. I was going by the Wikipedia page and the source it lists. Groening has confirmed it, FWIW, so I guess they could have designed Moe as an older Hall?
Dunno if that's a reach on my part, lol, but I've got this video versus word-of-god and both are compelling.
QI is gold.
If like me you went through all qi episodes multiple times and are itching for more like a junkie jonesing for a fix, the Qi elves' podcast - there's no such thing as a fish - is also excellent!!
But he's not pug fugly
He's even got that Moe Sislak voice.
As soon as I read the title and looked at him I could see it.
I think I saw him flipping off Jimmy Carr on 8 out of 10 cats