The episode poignantly kicks off with Peter Bogdanovich (who is one of many celebrity testimonials from Wallach’s life featured here, along with Mia Farrow, Faye Dunaway, and Peter Fonda) explaining how unreliable of a narrator Jerry Wallach is and how the wisest move would be to do this documentary on him without his presence involved, lest the whole project become tainted by his embellishments. It’s the perfect sort of litmus test for throwing you into Jerry’s world and a necessary disclaimer before moving forward into Wallach’s hyper-narcissistic, deluded take on his life and career.

“Mr. Runner Up” largely follows the formula of Wallach recounting his entire life to you (he even narrates the project), beginning with his humble childhood that plays alongside old black-and-white photos and newsreel reports to give it all additional credence. While Wallach’s childhood is hardly the focus of this doc, it’s still full of plenty entertaining detours, such as learning about a young Wallach’s struggle with “Magenta Fever”(you know, the “Moroccan Influenza”) which renders Jerry bald at the age of five, greatly impacting his sense of self and affecting the boy’s confidence.

“Mr. Runner Up” is also sure to highlight the momentous impact that cinema had on a developing Wallach and how entrenched the medium is in his character. We learn how motion pictures made the boy feel invincible when he was without a father (although to be fair, 35 is kind of pushing it…), with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves holding particular significance for him (but not for the reasons that you might think).

While large spans of Wallach’s life are hilariously skipped over (like Wallach’s years in college, “which he had absolutely no stories from”), a great amount of weight is put on Jerry’s arrival in Hollywood, the clients he signs shortly after, and his lavish life which eventually sees him getting put in charge of running a movie studio, Pinnacle Pictures, and on the top of his game.

Not far into Wallach’s tenure in Hollywood, he runs afoul of Enzo Entolini (Armisen), the “Italian Chaplin” and the perfect client to sign and save his floundering Pinnacle Pictures in the process. Seeing the footage from various Entolini films is really well handled and Armisen is in prime form in these “Italian sexy neo-realism” productions. There’s a bit of his Ferecito character from SNL in Enzo, but that’s a good thing if anything. As soon as Armisen shows up here the episode feels a lot more balanced and that it’s not purely going to be a showcase of Hader’s abilities. Watching Entolini slowly morph into a Polanski surrogate is also great stuff and the joke about his 12 year-old wife is so damn funny. “Mr. Runner Up” soon begins shifting into focusing on the palpable friendship between Jerry and Enzo (“I called him ‘El Wopo’ and he called me ‘racist.’”) and it’s another great instance of the chemistry between Hader and Armisen.