Entertainment

Arnold Schwarzenegger: Remember the '90s?!

by Kadeen Griffiths

Back in 2003, there was a general attitude of "What... what?" hanging over Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision to go from Terminator: Rise of the Machines to running for governor of California. After all, he was known for basically three things back then: that accent, those muscles, and those actions movies that gave him plenty of opportunity to show off all three. As his appearance on Monday night's The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon proves, absolutely nothing has changed. We got that memo from his upcoming movie Sabotage, but watching him and Fallon spoof his role in Predator with a cooking show parody really gave the impression that Schwarzenegger's trying way too hard to make sure that no one feels that approximately 10-year gap in his career. (Especially that part of the gap that, you know, involved a secret love child and all that.)

Because who doesn't love a good Schwarzenegger impression? With iconic lines like "Get to da choppa!" and "I'll be back," half the fun of going to a Schwarzenegger film in the '90s was leaving the theater with a new line to grunt at your friends when you called them up. Watching Schwarzenegger himself do a Schwarzenegger impression, however, can get a little silly. It'd be nice to think we still lived in the nostalgia feel of the '90s, when laptops and iPhones were a foreign concept, Saturday morning cartoons were a regular part of weekend fun, and Schwarzenegger was a lovable peak of masculinity and futuristic terminating technology.

But that was then and this is now. Schwarzenegger didn't dip a toe into the pool of politics and come out dry and his name is associated with a lot more than being able to crush his enemies like a grape or carrying big guns that seem pretty unnecessary up against the ones he's got on his arms. As much fun as it was to see him dressed as a ping-pong instructor in the celebrity Super Bowl Bud Light commercial or jumping in the ring with Joe Manganiello and Hulk Hogan, too much has happened over the last 10 years to look at Schwarzenegger the same way.

And, honestly, maybe that's a good thing. Admit it, '90s Schwarzenegger was as much of a pop cultural in-joke as he was a serious actor. Trying to convince us that nothing has changed despite the political career and the illegitimate child scandal is probably doing Schwarzenegger more harm than good. Either way, with this Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon clip, just might make you laugh. If you have a bad memory, that is.

Image: NBC