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The Coneheads was originally a sketch on Saturday Night Live which starred Dan Aykroyd as father Beldar, Jane Curtin as mother Prymaat, and Laraine Newman as daughter ("Connie").

The Coneheads were an alien family, natives of the planet Remulak, who found themselves stranded on Earth. When questioned by Earth neighbors as to their strange behavior, they inevitably replied that they were "from France". Their unearthly appearance, however, was never strongly questioned -- a point from which much of the humor was derived.

Aside from their obvious physical differences, the Coneheads also had a very fast, nasal, monotone speech, and seemed to have much larger appetites than average humans. They would eat massive amounts of food during meals (which they referred to as "consuming mass quantities"), drink entire six packs of beer at once, and smoke whole packs of cigarettes at a time. Despite their distinctions, they were never suspected of being aliens by anyone who encountered them (even when accidentally referring to their neighbors as "Earthlings").

Much humor derived from the Coneheads' use of over-technical dialogue, such as referring to food as "consumables", and saying "I summon you" to ask to speak to another person. The somewhat popular term "parental unit" also came from the sketches. They engaged in strange behaviors, such as rubbing their cones together as a sign of affection, at which point a bizarre, theremin-like noise is emitted, presumably from the cones themselves. There is also a game they play involving tossing rings over each others' cones, which is somehow sexual in nature, and is considered taboo for the underaged Connie to play.

Dan Aykroyd said he developed the idea for the Coneheads based on the Moai, the mysterious and ancient stone statues of Easter Island, which had similarly conical heads.

Frank Zappa wrote a song based on the sketches, titled "Conehead". It appeared on his 1981 album You Are What You Is.^[1]

The concept was turned into an animated special, The Coneheads, in 1983 and a movie, Coneheads, in 1993, with Aykroyd and Curtin reprising their roles in both. Newman played Connie in the special, while Michelle Burke played her in the movie.

The term "Coneheads" became a familiar part of the legendary 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team coached by Herb Brooks.^{[citation needed]} Composed of three northern Minnesota college hockey players (Mark Pavelich, John Harrington, and Buzz Schneider), the trio instinctively knew how to maneuver together like no other line on the team, and Brooks would often use them when he needed a secret weapon. The U.S. team went on to beat Russia and Finland and capture the gold medal that year.

• Recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches