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Will Ferrell has finally met his match in the form of a "disturbing" life-sized replica of one of his most popular characters.
Ferrell appeared on the Today show on Tuesday (January 28) to promote his new film You're Cordially Invited, and while there, the topic of his character Buddy the Elf from the 2003 Christmas classic Elf came up in conversation. After he chatted with co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin about stepping back into the character at an NHL game in December, the trio talked about the life-sized animatronic Buddy figure that went viral over the holiday season, per People.
The Gemmy Industries animatronic was dressed exactly like Ferrell's character and even repeated some of his famous phrases from the film, but the overall appearance was giving major Uncanny Valley vibes, especially the way its mouth moved and how it didn't look exactly like Ferrell.
When Ferrell first learned of the talking figure, the Stranger Than Fiction actor admitted that he found it "really disturbing" and emphasized he had nothing to do with it, saying, "Here's what's crazy, someone signed off on that, and it wasn't me."
As a special surprise, Today brought out the Buddy the Elf lookalike to get Ferrell's real reaction and he didn't hold back his strong thoughts on his supposed doppelganger by screaming, "Oh my God! It's Buddy the Elf the Axe-Murderer!"
The Saturday Night Live alum noted that while the animatronic has a Christmas theme, it would fit right in during another holiday's celebrations.
"It's chilling. Is this the Halloween show?" he joked, before hilariously pushing the figure offstage and telling it to "get out of here!"
When it comes to how he feels about Elf, Ferrell is looking back fondly on the now-holiday classic and its lasting impact on audiences.
"It's really quite special," he previously told People. "I mean, it continues to grow by leaps and bounds, and it continues to kind of entrench itself as kind of a holiday classic for people. I'm so lucky to have a movie like that in my catalog."