Star Wars’ BB-8 rolls with the voice of Parks And Rec’s Jean-Ralphio

By Joe Blevins | January 11, 2016 | 9:28pm

Aux Features TV

It was revealed not long ago that the bleepy, bloopy “voice” of newfangled Star Wars droid BB-8 in The Force Awakens was actually created by two prominent comic actors, Ben Schwartz and Bill Hader, using an iPad app and a talk box. “At first I tried doing a voice,” Hader reports, “but we all agreed it sounded too human.” Maybe he should have given Schwartz a chance at it instead. A highly amusing Tumblr post demonstrates conclusively that BB-8’s roly-poly antics mesh perfectly with the delirious, stream-of-consciousness boasts of Schwartz’s most famous non-robot character: Parks And Recreation’s resident hard-partying wastrel and consummate bad influence, Jean-Ralphio Saperstein. At last, Ben Schwartz’s two greatest roles have been conflated into one convenient place.

Originally posted to the Costume Designer Tumblr here, the action-packed 15-second GIF marries various brief clips of the beach-ball-shaped robot with a typically deranged monologue from Jean-Ralphio, describing an eventful, abomination-filled night. As it turns out, the deep space droid and the Pawnee ne’er-do-well have a great deal in common. Neither one has a permanent address, and both spend a lot of time fleeing from the authorities while nude. Meanwhile, Jean-Ralphio’s unconventional relationship with his sister, Mona-Lisa Saperstein, is apt to remind some viewers of another set of siblings in the Star Wars universe.