Sanders the 5th: KFC has officially gone Colonel-crazy

KFC's bizarre coterie of Colonels just gained a new member.

Comedian Rob Riggle is replacing comedian Jim Gaffigan as the fifth actor to play the goateed face of the fried chicken chain.

The switch is part of an enigmatic ad campaign KFC launched last year that involves a seemingly never-ending parade of Harland Sanders impersonators.

"We always thought that having one actor playing him wouldn't really do him justice," KFC marketing chief Kevin Hochman said in June, when the chain tapped George Hamilton to play some sort of super-tan ancillary Colonel.

The brand's latest shtick is the Colonel's questionable quest to launch Kentucky's first professional football team, "the Buckets."

In the campaign's signature self-referential style, Riggle repeatedly denies that the team is "just a marketing gimmick to get delicious chicken in front of football fans."

"Yes, we are a real team," the team's supposed quarterback says woodenly to the camera with an upward inflection that suggests otherwise.

KFC first revived the caricature of its late founder last year in the form of Saturday Night Live veteran Darrel Hammond.

Months later, the impressionist was unceremoniously dumped in favor of fellow SNL alum Norm MacDonald, a change that Hammond was apparently not apprised of.

Gaffigan next took over the white suit during this year's Super Bowl.

"We have to stay unexpected because we don't want to fall into a formula where people just go, 'Oh there's another Colonel,'" Hochman said in an earlier interview.

The campaign is the work of Portland, Oregon-based ad agency Wieden+Kennedy.