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BillHaderLaugh.jpg

No, My Friends, Bill Hader Has The Best Laugh In Hollywood

By Emily Cutler | Late Night TV | May 15, 2019 |

By Emily Cutler | Late Night TV | May 15, 2019 |


BillHaderLaugh.jpg

My friend Petr is a brilliant and kind person, and a gifted writer. And he’s also one-hundred-percent wrong about a very important fact: Emilia Clark does not have the best laugh in the business. I feel bad for taking yet another thing from the Khalessi after that show (which I’m done with, by the way) did her so dirty. But it’s true. Her laugh, while delightful and infectious, is not the best. The absolute best laugh in Hollywood belongs to Bill Hader.

See, Bill Hader has been doing a lot of press recently for the season two finale of Barry this Sunday (point of order: Barry is phenomenal). Which means lots of time on various late-night host’s couches talking about how phenomenal Barry is (very. It’s very phenomenal (don’t tell me in the comments that something can’t be very phenomenal. I know it can’t. But there are still people out there who insist on not watching Barry despite how phenomenal it is so I’m steps away from going full Mad Queen. Just watch the show)). Anyway, the point is, Bill Hader is funny and charming and seems like a really, really good dude and his laugh is like very awkward sunshine. Just listen:

Right? I mean, 1) it’s amazing that “King of Suck Balls Mountain” was ad-libbed, and 2) even more amazing that Hader still finds it so funny that he cracks up while telling the story. Although, from what I can tell based on his interviews, Hader is anything but stingy with his laughter.

Now, when I say that it’s like “awkward sunshine,” I want you to know I say that with the most love possible. It’s not bad at all. Nor is it harsh on the ears. It’s more so that the more he laughs, the quicker and higher pitched it becomes. And Hader seems completely unconcerned with how he sounds. He throws himself into the laughter. As a person with a somewhat unusual laugh (it might have been referred to as “cackling” by a close friend before), I have to appreciate the full-bodiness with which he approaches his amusement.

I’ll also fully admit that as entertaining as Hader is with Colbert and Conan, it’s really with his old buddy Seth Meyers where he’s his most endearing.

Oh, and that Lorne Michaels impression he trotted out? First debuted on a much earlier interview with Seth.

Man, that laugh. It’s all the more wonderful because Hader had to hide his light for such a long time. On Saturday Night Live, he had to temper his laughter because he was constantly breaking. It’s wonderful to see him able to embrace the deeply awkward, wonderful laugh we’ve always known he’s capable of. And given that wonderful laughter is wonderful, do we really even need to declare one better than another? Is Hader’s perpetually escalating giggle actually better than Clark’s fully-bellied bust? When we’re talking about things that bring us joy, do we need to muck that joy with rankings? Do we need this fight? Did I actually want to do this post as a workaround for Dustin’s rule about writing only one For Your Consideration post each year? The answers are: no, no, no, no, and definitely. Get your houses in order, people.



Header Image Source: NBC