Did ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Reference the Best Paul Rudd Bit?

We all love Paul Rudd. That’s just part of his charm, but some of us remember the lore. Rudd has been doing comedy for quite some time now, and part of that means that he’s hosted Saturday Night Live quite a bit. Actually, he’s technically a member of the Five Timers Club, even if one of his episodes got mostly canceled because the cast all got COVID. He’s just that funny. So, when he was cast in Only Murders in the Building, it wasn’t surprising that he brought his special kind of humor to the role of Ben Glenroy.

We briefly saw Ben at the end of season 2, when he seemed to drop dead center stage in Oliver’s (Martin Short) new show, while season 3 takes us is into a whole new mystery and murder to solve for Oliver, Mabel (Selena Gomez), and Charles (Steve Martin).

Spoilers for the first two episodes of season 3 of Only Murders in the Building lie ahead.

The end of season 2 is sort of where we start. Ben seemingly dies, we see a little more about the start of their rehearsal process as a cast for Death Rattle in flashbacks, and we see how Oliver is trying to do damage control. The twist is that, despite the blood pouring out of Ben’s mouth when they said he was dead, he survives. An hour after he was pronounced dead, he comes back to life and runs right to Oliver’s apartment to tell his cast he’s okay.

Only to then … die again. In episode 2, we’re at his funeral, and who is giving a speech? Harry Styles. Now, if you remember Dan Charles, you probably remember why it’s fun to have a former One Direction member at a Paul Rudd funeral.

He really does love One Direction

Formed in 2010, One Direction was the biggest boy band in the world during their time together. Before their breakup in 2016, the five members (prior to Zayn Malik leaving the band) were known far and wide, so it’s not that surprising that Saturday Night Live wanted to have their fun with the craze. And who better than to make a superfan of One Direction than Paul Rudd?

During his SNL hosting gig with One Direction as his musical guest, Rudd did a sketch all about the fandom surrounding the band, with his “Dan Charles” shaming young girls for not being better fans than him. Honestly? It’s a sketch I think about a lot, and I’ve also seen people bring it up to Rudd at conventions because it’s just so good.

Hearing that Harry Styles was going to do a speech at Ben Glenroy’s funeral was less about name dropping one of the biggest stars in the world for me. Instead, it was all about Dan Charles and the legacy that he left behind in Paul Rudd’s career. Wherever you are, Dan, I hope you are watching Only Murders in the Building and so happy for yourself.

(featured image: Hulu)