--- title: SNL: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Mike O'Brien Star In Monster Pals Sketch description: A sketch that's both funny and touching canonical: https://time.com/60709/james-franco-snl-monster-sketch/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-13T14:43:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:08:45.271Z og:title: SNL: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Mike O'Brien Star In Monster Pals Sketch og:description: A sketch that's both funny and touching og:url: https://time.com/60709/james-franco-snl-monster-sketch/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt50e502d72ca75264/69868a7b06f2c1047032e5f2/screen-shot-2014-04-13-at-10-15-04-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1369 og:image:height: 770 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2014-04-13 at 10.15.04 AM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: SNL: Seth Rogen, James Franco, Mike O'Brien Star In Monster Pals Sketch twitter:description: A sketch that's both funny and touching twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt50e502d72ca75264/69868a7b06f2c1047032e5f2/screen-shot-2014-04-13-at-10-15-04-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # James Franco Stars in _SNL'_s Beautiful Story of 2 Monster Pals > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=db5aecc5-0e43-4023-b6d6-aba29c536e76&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Apr 13, 2014 2:43 PM UTC  by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Apr 13, 2014 2:43 PM UTC This pre-recorded short opens with a couple of buddies who just happen to be monsters — ugly, green, disfigured monsters. Some awful bully, played by Seth Rogen, makes them feel terrible about themselves, prompting one of them to undergo expensive plastic surgery so he can look like a normal human (the surgery goes pretty well, because he comes out looking like James Franco). Mike O’Brien also stars as Franco’s fellow monster, who eventually gives in and gets the human-transformation surgery too. When the friends reunite afterward, Franco asks O’Brien why he chose that face. “It’s just a little bit cheaper,” he explains. The tone of “Monster Pals” is reminiscent of the excellent [“Sad Mouse” sketch from 2012](http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/10/21/snls-5-best-skits-inevitable-debate-parodies-and-a-few-surprises/slide/bruno-mars-as-a-sad-mouse/), though the former is much lighter and funnier. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/60709/james-franco-snl-monster-sketch/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/60709/james-franco-snl-monster-sketch/"},"headline":"James Franco Stars in SNL's Beautiful Story of 2 Monster Pals","datePublished":"2014-04-13T14:43:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:08:45.271Z","description":"A sketch that's both funny and touching","url":"https://time.com/60709/james-franco-snl-monster-sketch/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Comedy","SNL","Saturday Night Live","Arts","james franco","Seth Rogen"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt50e502d72ca75264/69868a7b06f2c1047032e5f2/screen-shot-2014-04-13-at-10-15-04-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt50e502d72ca75264/69868a7b06f2c1047032e5f2/screen-shot-2014-04-13-at-10-15-04-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2014-04-13 at 10.15.04 AM","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/60709/james-franco-snl-monster-sketch/","name":"James Franco Stars in SNL's Beautiful Story of 2 Monster Pals"}}]}] ```