Hallmark’s 2025 Christmas Cruise just wrapped up, and lucky fans onboard got to see and interact with an unbelievable number of their favorite Hallmark actors. Jonathan Bennett and Nikki DeLoach co-hosted the epic journey from Miami, Florida, to Cozumel, Mexico, that included dancing, sing-alongs, Hallmark shows, and panels with stars.
But there was one celebrity panel that audience members won’t soon forget. Featuring Erin Cahill, Tyler Hynes, and Benjamin Ayres, somehow, the topic turned to Will Ferrell‘s “Saturday Night Live” audition. When it became evident that not everyone had seen it, Ayres took it upon himself to reenact the scene.
Audiences Cheered Benjamin Ayres’ Impromptu Ferrell Act
After asking the audience if they’d seen Ferrell’s audition, he said, “I’m not going to do it all right now,” then started explaining the scene. Hynes wasn’t having it. “I think you have to do it, buddy,” he told his friend.
At that point, and with the audience’s loud approval, Ayres decided that he was “going to do a little bit of it.” After introducing himself as Ferrell auditioning for “Saturday Night Live,” he pretended to call his secretary and ask her to hold all his calls. Then Ayres put down the microphone and began batting an imaginary cat toy around with his ‘paws,’ just like a cat would do. The audience — along with Hynes and Cahill — loved it.
“It was the weirdest thing I’d ever seen, and it’s so funny,” Ayres said. “And now that I have a cat, every time Willow is doing that — that’s her name — I think of Will Ferrell.”
Benjamin Ayres Revealed ‘Elf’ Was the Inspiration for His Angelic Character
Ayres previously expressed admiration for Ferrell’s acting when discussing “A Christmas Angel Match” with EntertainmentNow. Ayres claimed that some of the scenes in which he really unleashed his character’s angelic, exuberant personality were inspired by “the type of joy that Will Ferrell brings to walking into Manhattan for the first time.”
While we never saw Will Ferrell bring that character back to SNL in future skits, we did see two of the other characters from his audition in later episodes. The first, an exaggerated version of the famed Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray, would become one of his most popular.
The second was Frank “Get Off the Shed!” Henderson, which he brought to the show shortly after joining. Ferrell and his wife, played by Mariel Hemingway, are entertaining the Taylors (David Koechner and Nancy Walls). In between chit-chat, he gets increasingly aggressive, yelling at his kids to get off the shed. By the end, the Taylors are pleading with the kids to get off the shed.
