2024 was a rough year for a lot of folks, and one particular figure, most associated with irrepressible hope and joy, appears to have borne the brunt of it: Buddy the Elf, who showed up to a hockey game in Los Angeles this weekend looking extremely haggard and bedraggled.
On Sunday, Dec. 29, Will Ferrell went to see his beloved Los Angeles Kings play the Philadelphia Flyers, all dressed up in a green-and-yellow ensemble like the one he wore in Jon Favreau's hit 2003 Christmas movie, Elf. But rather than sporting a big smile and radiating festive cheer, Ferrell looked hilariously weary and unshaven, with an unlit cigarette dangling between his scowling lips.
Carrlyn Bathe, a sideline reporter for the Kings, noted Buddy's shocking turn of fortune during the broadcast. “I stopped by just to check in on him, he's smoking a cigarette ringside, he's got a five o'clock shadow, looking a little bit disgruntled. Said it was a 'tough holiday season.'”
At the time of Bathe's report, the Kings and Flyers were tied, perhaps adding to Buddy's sour mood. But two goals in the final period gave the LA side a 5 to 4 victory, which hopefully means Buddy's in for a much happier new year.
While it may have been a tough year for Buddy, Ferrell, by all accounts, has had a pretty good one. He had a four-episode stint in the latest season of The Boys and appeared in Despicable Me 4but his biggest project was the documentary, Will & Harper. That movie found Ferrell road-tripping across the country with longtime friend and former Saturday Night Live colleague Harper Steele after she came out as a trans woman.
Will & Harper was recently placed on the Oscars shortlist for Best Documentary Feature Film, while the film's theme, “Harper And Will Go West,” was shortlisted for Best Original Song.
