Film cameos range wildly in type and effect. You have the “blink and you’ll miss it” self-insertions of Alfred Hitchcock in 39 of his 52 surviving films, the fan-pleasing Stan Lee bit parts in all Marvel Comics films, pop-culture figures playing themselves (like Kurt Vonnegut in Back to School, Marshal McLuhan in Annie Hall) and the occasional absolutely over-the-top cameo that become the most memorable scenes of the film. This list a celebration of that last type. Here are the 10 best 100% ridiculous, “I can’t believe this is happening,” completely over-the-top cameos in modern movies.
# 10. David Duchovny – Zoolander
Ben Stiller’s 2001 male modeling comedy Zoolander is chock full of cameo appearances by a wide range of actors, musicians and celebrities, often playing themselves as acquaintances of Stiller’s Derek Zoolander. One particular cameo stands out, though, as David Duchovny spoofs his own history as Agent Fox Mulder by playing hand model J.P. Prewett (he keeps his hands preserved in vacuum-sealed glass orbs). He anonymously calls Derek throughout the film before finally arranging a conspiracy theory-filled secret meeting at a graveyard where he reveals the dark history of male model assassins. Derek returns the favor in the usual fashion.
# 9. Tim Robbins – The Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
2004’s The Anchorman also features a large number of cameo appearances, culminating in one of the most ridiculously over-the-top scenes of the film, a Gangs of New York style battle royale between various news teams in a back alley. Ben Stiller appears as Spanish Language News anchor Arturo Mendez, but the insanity reaches a peak when an unnamed and mostly silent Tim Robins catches a machete and cuts off the arm of competing news anchor Frank Vitchard, played by Luke Wilson.
# 8. Neal Patrick Harris – Harold & Kumar go to Whitecastle
After starring in Doogie Howser, M.D. from 1989-1993, Neil Patrick Harris guest starred in a number of television shows, acted on Broadway, and had small roles in a few films before blazing back into pop-cultural imagination with an absolutely ridiculous cameo role in 2004’s Harold & Kumar Go to Whitecastle, playing a drug-addled, borderline psychotic version of himself. It’s arguable that the cameo revived his career, especially as a comedy actor, considering the following year he began his role as the almost equally over-the-top Barney Stinson on one of the best comedic sitcoms of the last decade, How I Met Your Mother.
# 7. Bob Saget – Half Baked
Since 2007, when Bob Saget resurfaced as a foul-mouthed comedian in his one-hour special Bob Saget: That Aint Right, nobody is all that surprised anymore to see him say crude and ridiculous things. But back in 1998 when he had a brief cameo in the stoner comedy Half Baked, his line about the woes of cocaine addiction came way out of left field considering his image was still that of America’s Funniest Home Videos host and Full House Father. I literally spit my drink all over myself the first time I saw this.
# 6. Bill Murray – Zombieland
This 2009’s zombie comedy flick was host to one of the craziest, most unexpected cameos of the last decade: Bill Murray playing himself and wearing a zombie disguise to blend in with the walking dead. Proving that he’s still got it, even the accidental tragedy that results is hilarious.