MacGruber

MacGruber
Logo and screenshot during the opening
Created by	Jorma Taccone
Written by	Will Forte John Solomon Jorma Taccone
Directed by	Jorma Taccone John Solomon
Starring	Will Forte (2007–2010) Maya Rudolph (2007) Kristen Wiig (2008–2010)
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	30
Production
Location(s)	Studio 8H, GE Building, Rockefeller Center New York City, New York
Running time	Approx. 1 Minute
Production company(s)	Broadway Video SNL Studios
Release
Original network	Saturday Night Live (2006–2010) Super Bowl XLIII (2009)
Picture format	480i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV)
Original release	January 20, 2007 – May 8, 2010
Chronology
Related shows	MacGyver

MacGruber was a recurring sketch on the NBC television series Saturday Night Live, first appearing on the show in January 2007. The sketch is a parody of the 1985–1992 adventure series MacGyver. The sketch stars Will Forte as special operations agent MacGruber, who is tasked in each episode with deactivating a ticking bomb but becomes distracted by personal issues, resulting in the bomb's detonation and (presumably) the deaths of his companions and himself.

MacGruber's popularity has led to a film based on the character, which was released on May 21, 2010.

The character of MacGruber was created by SNL writer Jorma Taccone. The sketches are written by Forte, Taccone and John Solomon and directed by Taccone, except for the March 2008 and May 2008 installments, which were directed by Solomon.

In the sketch's first appearance of each SNL episode, MacGruber finds himself and his assistants trapped in a control room with a ticking time bomb. MacGruber's female assistant (played in 2007 by Maya Rudolph and later by Kristen Wiig) and another assistant (usually played by that week's SNL host) "recap" their situation, explaining that they are in an abandoned mine, abandoned factory, or other adventure-type setting (it is a running gag that they are always locked in the control room, no matter how illogical the idea of a control room is in the context of the location where they are trapped), and that the bomb will detonate in about 15-20 seconds. As he attempts to deactivate the bomb, MacGruber calls for people to pass him ordinary objects such as rubber bands or bubble gum wrappers (a reference to the sorts of objects typically used by MacGyver in devising a way out of a jam), but MacGruber inevitably loses focus before finishing the job and the bomb explodes, ending the sketch. The replacement of his female assistant from Maya Rudolph's character to Kristen Wiig's is explained in the film version of the skit.