With Groundhog Day just around the corner, it’s time for us to honor everyone’s favorite Groundhog Day icon. And no, we aren’t talking about Punxsutawney Phil and his 39% accuracy rate. We’re talking about everyone’s favorite drunk uncle, Bill Murray. From his iconic film roles to his truly endearing shenanigans in the wild that have made many a news story over the years, Bill Murray should honestly be given a lifetime achievement award for pure awesomeness. For now, he will have to settle for this list.
Fill your tobacco pipe, throw on a sharp suit, and grab yourself a Suntory Whiskey on the rocks, because we are about to talk about the world’s most interesting man – sorry, Dos Equis guy. I’m Scott and today, Scarlett Media Presents the top 10 times Bill Murray saved joy in the world. Don’t forget to use your proton pack on the subscribe and like buttons or be Scrooged and hit the dislike button if you don’t mind being wrong.
10. Eating Strangers’ French Fries
Every once in a while, a story will go viral for a day or two about a funny or scandalous celebrity siting. Usually it’s to the dismay of the celebrity. There is one man, however, for whom this is not the case. Bill Murray seems to truly enjoy his stardom, or at least makes the best of it. In 2010, a story went viral that outlined how Bill Murray walked up to an unsuspecting tourist in Times Square, stole one of their French fries, and said “No one will believe you!” Of course, if it were any other actor, the angry mob that is the internet would have responded with a hearty “Yeah, we don’t believe you.” But everyone knew deep down that this was the most Bill Murray thing to do. It was further confirmed when in 2016 this happened again, but this time in Martha’s Vineyard and this time someone got a picture. The man loves delighting strangers as much as he seems to love French fries.
9. Lost In Translation
In Lost in Translation, Bill Murray plays a somewhat bitter, washed-up actor who has a questionable relationship with a married woman and cheats on his wife with a different woman altogether. But audiences can’t help but love the character that he helped create. We of course have to give credit where credit is due to writer and director Sofia Coppola, but Bill Murray undoubtedly brought that extra something special to the role. In addition to playing an unforgettable role, Murray gave audiences an unforgettable moment: he improvised the ending scene where he whispers something to Scarlett Johansson’s character. Allegedly, no one on Earth aside from the two actors, and maybe a nearby boom operator, knows what was said and it has fueled fun curiosity for years. We’ll have to see if anyone has asked Colin Jost if it ever came up during a late night heart to heart.
8. Doing Dishes at a Random Party
Bill Murry’s incredible off-screen extra curriculars didn’t stop at eating strangers’ French fries, even though that was enough to make him the coolest Bill, if not the coolest actor. No, Bill Murray takes to antics the way over-achieving actors take to trying to get an EGOT – they’ve already proved their worth but they do more just because they can. Our favorite Bill went viral another time when he seemingly strolled into a party of mostly 20-somethings in Scottland and started doing the host’s dishes. It was impetus for every lazy person everywhere to never do their dishes. Thank you, Bill.
7. Incredible Costume Inspiration
As if Bill Murray weren’t memorable enough as is, he seemingly has a knack for selecting roles that turn him into equally recognizable characters. There’s the iconic red/orange beanie and blue captains shirt as Steve Zissou, the argyle sweater and stoner bro hair in Zombieland, and the corduroy jacket, maroon turtleneck, and positively Freudian facial hair in The Royal Tenenbaums just to name a few. He knows how to pick a standout role. Of course, no one is surprised that the man who views the world as his playground would select characters that would allow him to play dress-up for a living. But we have to thank the man – no one need ever be at a loss for a Halloween costume ever again.
Number 6. Throwing phones off a roof.
In 2016, Bill Murray proved that even the cool guy gets pissed off sometimes. The actor was attending a Justin Timberlake tequila party, which is apparently a thing, when three fans pestered him a bit too much while trying to get him into a selfie. Murray quickly took the situation into his own hands, quite literally – he grabbed all three phones and threw them off the roof. Everyone who has ever been annoyed with someone’s cell phone activity was able to live vicariously through him at that moment. We mere peons could not get away with such an activity, but our main man Bill can play out the deepest desires of our evil hearts. He, of course, maintained his nice guy reputation by offering to pay for all of the damages.
Number 5. Ghostbusters.
Though Bill Murray has an extensive IMdB page, many fans’ first exposure to him was in Ghostbusters, and for good reason. It’s one of the few kid appropriate movies he’s in, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less funny. Bill Murray plays Peter Venkman who has two degrees and basically is the lead Ghostbuster, but he’s also lazy and constantly sarcastic. Making a loveable and believable lazy, sarcastic professional is perhaps what makes Bill Murray Bill Murray, and this role is the epitome of that skill. Audiences love that he’s relatably messy yet able to save the day and drop some great one-liners while he’s at it. Not everyone is cool enough to calmly deliver the iconic “Well you don’t see that every day” while the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man is terrorizing the city right before their eyes.
Number 4. A Very Murray Christmas
In 2015, Bill Murray decided he hadn’t done enough for humanity yet and Netflixed announced they would be releasing a Christmas special starring Murray just in time for the holidays. The project was directed by none other than Sofia Coppola, was co-written with Murray himself, and was, of course, called “A Very Murray Christmas.” The cast of the special is pretty awesome all on its own, with George Clooney, Chris Rock, Miley Cyrus, and Maya Rudolph. If someone asked you what you thought a Bill Murray Christmas special would be like, you’d probably say there’d be lots of drinking and singing, and you’d be right. In the special, Bill does what he does best: boozing, partying, and being friends with everyone. And it was a Murrying Christmas for it.
Number 3. Bartending at SXSW
Filling out his persona as the man everyone wants to get a drink with, Bill Murray once again made headlines when he stuck around South by Southwest after his part in the festival had ended. He reportedly hung out with the Wu-Tang Clan and then drunkenly returned to a bar they had attended earlier to do some classic Bill Murray stuff. Patrons knew that this drunk Bill Murray siting was going to top all the others, however, because this time, he was the one behind the bar. At the request of one of the staff members, he hopped behind the bar and began taking orders. You were out of luck if you were still traumatized from that trip to Mexico you took in college, though, because despite anyone’s order he would only serve them Tequila. Bill once again proved to people everywhere that on any given night, pretty much anything is possible.
Number 2. Relationship Advice.
By this point, no one will be surprised to hear that when, in 2014, Bill Murray happened upon someone’s bachelor party, he decided to get involved. He didn’t just buy the man a drink and congratulate him, he decided to impart some wisdom that quickly went viral. In a surprisingly grainy for 2014 cellphone video, Murray can be seen enthusiastically imparting wisdom for a successful marriage as if he’s speaking to a packed church on a Sunday morning. He tells the group of men that if you love someone, you should travel with them to places that are hard to get into and hard to get out of and if when you land you’re still in love with them, you should marry them at the airport. Judging by his own relationship track record, he doesn’t seem to have taken his own advice, but humanity is better for his drunken wisdom.
Before we remind you how we mere mortals were graced with the human shaped alien that is Bill Murray, drive the subscribe button off a cliff (Groundhog day reference) to get notified of all tributes and condemnations of the best and worst in entertainment.
Number one. Groundhog Day.
This is why we’re all here, of course. No one knew Groundhog Day would ever become important to anyone other than local TV news anchors, and we definitely couldn’t have predicted that it would somehow inspire what could technically be considered a holiday movie. But, as per everything else in this list, Bill Murray manages to make the mundane fascinating. And that’s exactly what he does in Groundhog day. After realizing he is stuck in a seemingly never-ending time loop, Murray’s character does increasingly hilarious stunts to amuse himself, from binge eating all the way to committing suicide with an actual groundhog. He manages to make funny an allegory for the painful doldrums of everyday life, gifting us with endless memes when we feel particularly self pitying. He is, of course, eventually saved by love proving that it truly can conquer all…or something moving like that.
Thats all for now. Go out and celebrate like Bill and check out one of our other videos because as he says in the movie, It’s Groundhog Day…again. Thanks for watching.
Credits:
Writer: Laura Townsend
Editor: AB Scarlett
Voice: Scott | http://bit.ly/3bD679R
Video: @_FearOK
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See Hosseinzadeh v. Klein, 276 F.Supp.3d 34 (S.D.N.Y. 2017); Equals Three, LLC v. Jukin Media, Inc., 139 F. Supp. 3d 1094 (C.D. Cal. 2015).
