Will Ferrell gets back into some USA short shorts to surprise “SNL” pal Harper Steele

A swimming pool scene in new doc "Will & Harper" leads to an important chat about body image between the longtime friends.

New Netflix documentary Will & Harper is a moving chronicle of friendship and allyship, but one scene will also have Saturday Night Live fans saluting some (short) shorts.

The doc features SNL great Will Ferrell and the show's former head writer, Harper Steele, as they travel by car from New York to Los Angeles while re-establishing their decades-long friendship after Steele comes out as trans at age 61.

After visiting the Grand Canyon, Ferrell and Steele make a pit stop at an Arizona Comfort Inn on their way to Las Vegas. The pals, who met in 1995 when they both started at the legendary sketch show in the same week, knock back some brews and hit the hotel pool where the Anchorman star has a surprise in store for his friend.

Related: Will Ferrell remembers being rejected by some SNL peers: 'He doesn't seem that funny'

"Your first time swimming in a public place, you're taking the chance, I wanna make you feel at home," Ferrell said, stripping off his board shorts to reveal a pair of tight American flag-themed swim briefs in front of the giggling Steele.

Ferrell's travel companion takes a photo of him posing and pointing at his junk in the revealing suit. "God, that's freakin' sexy," Steele remarked wryly while taking the snap.

For SNL fans, the sight of Ferrell in the patriotic Speedo may call to mind a popular early aughts sketch: "Short Shorts for the USA."

From the Oct. 6, 2001 episode, the sketch parodied the country's ramped-up nationalism following 9/11, with Ferrell playing an office worker who stuns colleagues by nonchalantly donning a "USA" crop top and flag-patterned tiny thong shorts as a show of patriotism.

"For the love of God, why are those shorts so short?" his boss, played by guest host Seann William Scott, asked in the sketch, as Ferrell bent over a water cooler and later sat spread eagle in a chair, causing castmates Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler, Horatio Sanz, and Seth Meyers all to break at various points.

"I got a little view of Will's penis and testicles playing peekaboo how do you do," Scott recalled years later on an episode of Late Night With Seth Meyers. "I'll wake up in a cold sweat, and I'll have Will Ferrell nutsack flashbacks," the actor joked.

Related: Will Ferrell and Harper Steele on all those SNL cameos in Will & Harper and the 'intensely funny' stuff they had to cut

More than just a subtle SNL reference, the Will & Harper scene serves as a bonding moment between the friends as they open up about body positivity while sitting together in a hot tub (which conjures up other memories of Ferrell on SNL).

"So, swimming in a public pool…" Ferrell began inquisitively. Steele, wearing a more conservative two-piece, replied, "I mean, I love it. I really do love it. I would've liked my suit to fit a little better, honestly, but I don't think I'm any different than any woman on the planet when it comes to bathing suits. I'd be a little more comfortable in a perfectly fitting suit, I think."

"I think you look great," Ferrell said, raising a can of Natty Light while hyping up his friend as she'd done to him moments earlier.

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

The Step Brothers star then got vulnerable about his own body image over the years. "The irony that I have done so many shirtless things and things in my underwear or things in a Speedo is that I'm a fairly modest person," he shared.

"When it comes to comedy, though," Steele said knowingly, "You will sacrifice yourself."

"That's why I'm so excited no one was in here," Ferrell noted of the empty hotel pool. "I put the Speedo on, and I used to be kind of like, comedically out of shape, now I'm like, 'Oh boy, not good.'"

Related: Kristen Wiig fulfills promise to make perfect theme song for Will & Harper — and could get an Oscar for it

"I know you're being honest," Steele replied. "I know you're a little overweight in places you don't want to be right now, but when you put on that suit in D.C., you are a handsome man," she said, referring to the comedian getting into formal wear for their trek to Washington earlier in the trip.

"To our great looks," they both cheered.

Will & Harper is streaming now on Netflix.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.