Will Ferrell famously played a human among elves in the modern Christmas classic Elf, while Braun Strowman is known to WWE fans as “The Monster Among Men.” They’re not exactly similar; Ferrell’s Buddy the Elf was known for his kindness and pure joy, while Strowman is known for threatening opponents to “get these hands” and rolling improbably heavy objects over the fallen bodies of his victims.
But it seems the mohawked maniac with the “Country Strong” tattoo has more range than we’ve seen on WWE TV, the company recently employed him to re-create some of Will Ferrell’s best-known Elf scenes. On the whole, he’s pretty good at playing the wide-eyed naif, and convincing us he’s genuinely scared of jack-in-the-boxes. But at a certain point, nature takes over…
Nobody puts Braun on a shelf. Let’s just say things don’t end as peacefully as they did with Ferrell, but for such a humorless on-camera character normally, Strowman shows quite the range. We’re still curious, however, how much spaghetti with syrup he could eat, or Coca-Cola he could chug. But we want to see more…maybe get Braun’s creepy mentor Bray Wyatt to substitute for Bob Newhart?
Some fans are already outraged that Braun is portraying a softer side in any form. We can only assume they missed Hulk Hogan’s star turn as Mr. Nanny back in the day. Or that time Strowman performed some of Ellen Page’s dialogue from Juno.
If anything, this only enhances the man-mountain’s marketability. Get those hands on more parodies, stat.
Image: WWE
