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Frame from Bill Hader impersonates Arnold Schwarzenegger [DeepFake] Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Bill Hader impersonates Arnold Schwarzenegger [DeepFake]

Ctrl Shift Face
Comedy
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this comedy video2 months2019–2022 score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Pointed to as one of the most impressive early deepfakes, where a good impersonation makes the effect convincing and funny.

A deepfake in which Bill Hader, impersonating Arnold Schwarzenegger on a talk show, visibly morphs into Schwarzenegger. It was made with DeepFaceLab by Ctrl Shift Face.

“this DeepFake video (SFW) is the most impressive I've seen so far” (HN, 2019)

2 recommendations · 2 citations · Comedy · partly dated

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@jcims Aug 2019 Recommends
on HN thread ‘Deepfakes’ Trigger a Race to Fight Manipulated Photos and Videos
Ctrl Shift Face on YouTube has some really good stuff. There are definitely artifacts in this vid but the seamless transitions are pretty crazy - [this video] To me the odd part is that these are just generally individuals tinkering with the technology using source material that wasn't intended to support a fake.
Deepfake with seamless face transitions despite some artifacts

Citations, criticism and jokes

@Deimorz Aug 2019 Cites it
on HN thread Bill Hader Channels Tom Cruise – DeepFake [video]
Same creator as "Bill Hader impersonates Arnold Schwarzenegger", which I think is easier to see the shift in since there's less resemblance and higher quality: [this video]
Higher quality deepfake where the face shift is easier to see
@jcims Sep 2022 Cites it
on HN thread The road to realistic full-body deepfakes
I think the problem we have with deepfake believability today it just takes one weak link to spoil it. It turns out that we're somehow still pretty bad at believable audio and not even close with deepfaked 'presence' in the form of persona of motion. But if you pair a believable impersonation with something even remotely state of the art in the visual, you end up with something pretty compelling: [link] [link] [link] [this video] (Not the greatest visually but funny nonetheless, esp the end)
Deepfake paired with good impersonation is compelling and funny

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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