Fire Marshal Bill
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Fire Marshal Bill Burns is one of the most popular fictional character to emerge from the sketch comedy show In Living Color. He was portrayed by actor Jim Carrey & appeared in 10+ sketches. He is the only character to appear consistently throughout all 5 seasons of ILC.
A common sketch would be for Fire Marshal Bill to appear unexpectedly then show how unsafe ordinary activities were by showing himself engaging in off-the-wall, dangerous activities which he responded with "LEMME SHOW YA SOMETHIN!!!!" Examples included where he warned against drinking cocktails on a cruise liner because it would be dangerous if one was holding a vial of hydrochloric acid in the other hand. The climax of the sketch occurred when he would perform the most destructive act involving explosives which would inevitably destroy the set, only to have people running for their lives and his response '"Do not panic, I am a fire marshal!" before the expected destruction. Despite sometimes losing limbs, Fire Marshal Bill was never killed, as he was then seen among those forced out of the destroyed structure. The character is widely known to have been modeled as a caricature of Mr. Rogers. The idea was suggested to Carrey by longtime friend and fellow actor Daniel Lichtblau.
"Fire Marshal Bill" is a term used to describe someone who is engaging in very risky behavior, such as a man who smokes a cigarette while pumping gas.
[edit] Examples of Fire Marshal Bill's destruction
- Lighting the pilot light when a meteor shower occurred, burning down a house.
- Injecting himself with nitroglycerine and then flautulating, resulting in an explosion destroying a hospital.
- Arming the self-destruct sequence on a futuristic space station, vaporizing it.
- Defusing a plastic explosive only to send it to a cruise liner's engine room, reigniting it and forcing everyone to abandon ship.
- Throwing grenades into a fireplace during a Christmas party.
- Throwing a explosive in a bar during the Super Bowl, blowing the bar up.