Hold the pickle!
Michael Rapaport was revealed Wednesday night as the Pickle on Fox’s “The Masked Singer.”
The 53-year-old actor and comedian has played a lot of “tough guy” type roles on television in “My Name is Earl,” “Prison Break,” “Justified” and “Only Murders in the Building” to name a few but his latest small screen appearance definitely had the most crunch.
Dressed in his signature green tuxedo and top hat, Pickle kicked off 2000s night with his rendition of “Beverly Hills” by Weezer.
And he was full of Big Dill Energy.
Rapaport delivered a performance that was all sweet and not sour, ad-libbing the words “pickle, pickle’ into his song.
*NSYNC crooner Lance Bass hit the stage with a “lovely collection of pickles with beautiful wigs” and googly eyes to deliver Pickle’s clue. The box was labeled “Friends,” causing Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg, 50, to suggest it may be an actor from the cast of the NBC hit sitcom or perhaps someone that guest-starred on the comedy.
“Well I’ve done so many things for so many years, and people always associate me with my famous friends,” Pickle teased.
“I wanted to tell Lance to tell the other contestants to go a-bye, bye, bye,” Pickle added. “‘Cause it’s over tonight! Bye, bye, bye!”
When it was time for the judges to make their guesses Nicole Scherzinger guessed the slender veggie was actor Charlie Sheen, Ken Jeong thought he was shock-jock Howard Stern, and Wahlberg chose late night host and funnyman Conan O’Brien.
Robin Thicke, 46, was adament Pickle was Joel McHale because of funky dance moves. The “Blurred Lines” singer even quipped that if it wasn’t McHale, then he’s never seen the actor dance before.
All of the judges were of course wrong, marking the first time all four struck out this season.
“I love that they never got me,” Rapaport said in an interview with Variety. “I was scared shitless that they were going to figure me out. But I loved that I got away scott free. And I was very proud of that. It’s because the voice wasn’t the persona that they think of as Michael Rapaport. The voice is golden.”
“The Masked Singer” airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.