Who is your favorite cast member in SNL history?
Who is your favorite recurring character?
What is your favorite recurring skit?
Who is your favorite guest host?
Who did the news the best?
Who did the best political impersonation, and why?
Has beisbal been berry berry good to you?
Gilda Radner – no one else comes close for me. She was good no matter what character she played, or skit she was in.
It’s like my father always said to me, he said to me, he said, Roseanna Roseanadana, it’s always something. If it isn’t one thing–it’s another! It’s always something.
What’s all the fuss about violins on TV?” -Roseanne Roseanadana
that was Emily Litella.
. . . . never mind.
This will cheer you up
“..Generallissimo Francisco Franco..!”
“..is still dead!”
I’m laughing so hard I can hardly see the monitor.
Have to second and third and fourth that Gilda Radner vote….
Second only to Lily Tomlin back in the late 60’s…
Whacky women – gotta love ’em!
I fourth-fifth-whatever your vote for Gilda. She was the greatest! The early years of that show were the greatest- even though I had to sneak downstairs after my parents were asleep to watch it.
I must preface…I started watching SNL when I was about 8 in the early to mid-80’s. I’ve only seen clips of the early years.
My favorite cast member…that’s tough. Gilda? Eddie? Mike Myers?
I liked Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood–wasn’t that what it was called? I liked the sadistic security guys. I liked the Boston kids who’d make out.
I think Darrell Hammond was great as Clinton and Gore. Dana Carvey was good as George I. But Will Farrell as W killed me. I still crack up when I think of him playing with the ball of yarn during the 2000 election fiasco.
I can’t say beisbal has been all that good to me.
I forgot–did you all see Drew Barrymore playing Ann Coulter? Kind of funny.
Chris Katain’s(sp)monkey boy,
Mr. Bill, anthough I never saw a single episode of him, my friend would tell me the nexzt day and I thought it was hilarious, don’t know how I would feel if I actually saw one.
Presidential debates were great too, can’t remember their names.
And how about mad tv? Some great comedians on that show.
Who is your favorite cast member in SNL history?
Who is your favorite recurring character?
Jim Belushi. Runner-up: Gilda Radner
What is your favorite recurring skit?
Belushi’s Samarai. Runner Up: Gumby dammit.
Who is your favorite guest host?
Steve Martin. Runner Up: Joe Cocker
Who did the news the best?
Dennis Miller Runner Up: Jane Curtin
Who did the best political impersonation, and why?
Phil Hartman: Bill Clinton. Runner Up: Dan Akroyd: Bob Dole
Has beisbal been berry berry good to you?
Yes.
Jim Belushi? Surely you meant John. Please tell me you meant John.
Yes, John Belushi, Samarai Optometrist.
Thanks for the correction.
Madeline Kahn (guest star) skit w/Gilda Radner
(Lyrics to the song they sung)
The Animals
The Animals
Let’s talk dirty to the animals.
Fuck you Mr. Chicken
Eat Shit Mr. Bear
If you don’t like it, you can shove it
Frankly I don’t care.
appeared 17 times, these are the dates.
1 10.29.77 Hire The Incompetent
2 01.21.78 Weekend Update
3 01.28.78 Weekend Update
4 02.25.78 Weekend Update
5 03.18.78 Weekend Update
6 04.15.78 Weekend Update
7 05.13.78 Weekend Update
8 10.07.78 Weekend Update
9 11.18.78 Weekend Update
10 12.16.78 Weekend Update
11 02.24.79 Weekend Update
12 04.07.79 Weekend Update
13 05.26.79 Weekend Update
14 10.20.79 Weekend Update
15 12.22.79 Weekend Update
16 03.15.80 Weekend Update
17 05.24.80 Weekend Update
Roseanne Danna was my second favorite…There will never be anyone like Gilda…God she was a genius. I must admit Madiline Hahn was my all time favorite Female Comedic actress. They both died WAY to soon. “Lie a comet streaking across the midnight sky….Gone to soon”
I’m sorry to hear that.
Speaking of Young Frankenstein actresses, I heard not long ago that Terri Garr had MS (I think it’s MS, could have been something similar) and has been touring the US and Canada to raise awareness.
yup….Madeline Kahn died several years ago…and Teri Garr has had MS for some time now…Makes me so sad..Young Frankenstein is one of my all time fav’s.
Samurai Futaba
played by: John Belushi
member of: Samurai
appearances: 17
1 12.13.75 Samurai Hotel
2 01.17.76 Samurai Delicatessen
3 02.14.76 Samurai Divorce Court
4 05.22.76 Samurai Tailor
5 05.22.76 Only Two Songs
6 07.31.76 Samurai General Practitioner
7 10.30.76 Samurai Stockbroker
8 12.11.76 “Lagoon”
9 03.19.77 Samurai Hit Man
10 05.21.77 Samurai B.M.O.C.
11 10.29.77 Samurai Dry Cleaners
12 11.19.77 Samurai Psychiatrist
13 02.25.78 Samurai Night Fever
14 05.20.78 Samurai T.V. Repairman
15 10.21.78 “Rollo”
16 11.11.78 Samurai Optometrist
17 05.26.79 Samurai Bakery
Do you ever sleep booman, I am watching SNL right now on echannel. The one last year with Jennifer Anniston.
every character she played. No one else comes close for me.
Ummm, every character Gilda played.
Coneheads.
Andy Kaufman. (Or was he just a guest at first? I have to admit, he totally took me in the first time I saw him.)
Chevy Chase.
Chevy Chase as Gerald Ford. (You can probably tell I quit watching it after the first few years.)
No. But I’ll tell you a story. The Blues Brothers had one where they were playing harmonicas and Belushi was jiggling his leg keeping time and when he started singing what he sang was. “I can’t stop my leg . . . I can’t stop my leg . . . .” Not long after that, I was in the hospital at 6.5 mos pregnant with severe pre-eclampsia. I mean, at one point I asked what my blood pressure was and it was 220/180. I was having peripheral seizures, and all I could think of was “I can’t stop my leg . . .” and it would crack me up. Daughter born soon thereafter – 10 weeks early, 2.5 pounds, 7 weeks in the NICU – but she’s fine (more than fine, she’s great.) Doc said being premature and all the rest of it would make her short. She’s 5’10” – we joke that she was meant to be 6’2″.
I have to say one of the funniest things I think I ever remember seeing was this group of big bad black mammerjammers pounding on various sorts of drums and punctuating their percussion with “Unh!”. It looked like the dance band for a particularly militaristic sub-Saharan nation or something.
And then up comes Andy Kaufman, and with this beat in the background, he starts singing something like:
“I go wild, simply wild when I hear a yodel
As it echoes through the mountains clear and true,
I go wild, simply wild when I hear a yodel
‘Cause you know it makes me want to yodel too.
Yodel-aydel-aydel-ay-ye-hooo, yodel-aydel-aydel-ay-ye-hooo,
Yodel-aydel-aydel-ay-ye-hooo, aydel-ay-dee-hoooo.”
And then these big black percussionists start joining in, and the absolute funniest part of the skit is them trying to maintain their bad mofo faces and failing as they sing this dippy little song.
Ah Andy, you were uneven but when you were good you were great.
A total no-brainer…Charles Rocket!!
okay, maybe not.
I can’t believe you know who Charlie Rocket is? I was friends with him and his wife years ago. He told me he was booted for saying “Fuck” live on the air.
I also worked with an actress that was on the show for I believe one season with Eddie Murphy…Christine Ebersole is her name.
I’ve heard of her, too…among other things, she won a Tony a few years ago.
she has an amazing singing voice and also is probably one of the most gifted comedic actresses around. To bad Joe public doesn’t know her. She should have been a huge TV sitcom Star, perhaps it might still happen
Gosh almighty, I rarely miss American TV over here but I do miss some verbal comedy shoes, such as SNL…
Ok, first I’m surprised no one’s mention Phil Hartman, a comedy genius. The all-time best SNL political skit was when Phil Hartman played a senile Ronald Reagan when the Boy Scouts came into the White House for a photo but then when they left he was super sharp, intelligent and directing some invasion or something.
I got to give it up to Eddie Murphy for three skits – one the Gumby sings the hits (Unce, Tice, Tree times a Mady), his impression of James Brown getting into the hot tub and last but not least the semi-serious skit he did where he put on “white face” and got on the bus to see what life was like for white people. And then the conductor said oh you don’t have to pay the bus fare.. haha I’m laughing just thinking of it.
I like the old stuff (Belushi/Radner/Aykroyd) as well as some of the middle years stuff, esp Mike Myers (if it’s not Scottish it’s crap) as well as some Adam Sandler, particularly him as Canteen Boy with Alec Baldwin.
I got to give it up to Dana Carvey’s earlier Church Lady skits, esp when he had the “Iranian president” on the show in like 1987 and he declared his forces would “come from the west, come from the east, and u will not where we will strike” and DC/Church Lady says, “have you ever heard of radar?”.
My favorite physical comedian on SNL tho was Chris Farley, god rest his soul. The first time I saw Matt Foley I never laughed so hard in my life (Christina Applegate was the guest). Where he asks David Spade what he wants to do when he grows up and he says “be a writer” and Matt Foley says “from what I hear, you’ve been using your paper not for writing but for rolling DOOBIES”. Oh gosh that makes me laugh just thinking about it.
A minor shout-out to Kevin Nealon, who did Subliminal Guy as well as No-Depth Perception Guy. And in 1986 or so, I did think it was funny to say “yeah that’s the ticket” courtesy of Jon Lovitz.
Who am I forgetting? Chris Rock (the Black Power talk show), hmm… Will Ferrell was great, so was Darryl Hammond. Tina Fey is quite good at times. Horatio Sanz on that “cybercast” show.
Best Will Ferrell impression I loved was the late Harry Caray, asking Colin Quinn “if you were a hotdog, would you eat yourself? Gosh I know I would. First I’d slather myself with brown mustard… ooh I’d be so delicious!”.
Gosh it’s been about a year since I’ve seen SNL so that’s all I can remember.
Pax
Oops. My reply is here.
Oh, my. Memory lane. Haven’t watched SNL in years, but started laughing about the Chevy Chase newscasts and Roseanne Rosannadanna. She was so brilliant.
When SNL was first on the air, I worked for a company that had offices in the RCA Building, too. What’s more, on the same elevator bank. The elevators then were still operated manually, by a bunch of stolid guys who had seen everything in their many years of ups and downs.
So I hopped in the elevator one day to go downstairs, said hello to the operator, and realized that Chevy Chase and John Belushi were among the people standing in the back of the car. Between the 23rd floor and the lobby, they did an entire routine of the killer bees, sans costumes, and continued it out into the lobby.
The operator maintained his stoic face, but I think it cost him.
They were hysterically funny, and it was some time before we knew they were stoned all the time.
I mentioned Hartman as doing the best political impersonation.
His skit as Clinton in a New Hampshire McDonald’s was the best I’ve ever seen. Explaining why humanitarian aid was not reaching the people in Somalia:
Oh gosh, I remember that one. It was hilarious.
I also remember all the fake SNL commercials, including the animated chicken head who talked the audience through how he was killed and beheaded and ended up being a delicious meal at X restaurant hahaha
Pax
It truly used to be “Must See TV.” Killer bees, Blues Brothers, Emily Latella, Bass-O-Matic, Erwin Maimway, “No Coke, Pedzi”, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush explaining how Dana Carvey did him all wrong, “Jane, you ignorant slut,” my first glimpses of Devo and Elvis Costello, Chico Escuela, the Scotch Tape Store, “it’s a floor wax and a dessert topping!”, Brad giving noogies to Lisa Loopner, the Coneheads, Mr. Mike, Mr. Bill, the Loud Family, Weekend Update, “I’m all verklempt”, Mr. Short Term Memory Loss, “OUR TOP STORY TONIGHT”, and of course Generalissimo Francisco Franco still strugglling in his heroic fight to remain dead . . .
And there’s more I can’t remember because I’m on my way to doing something else.
I haven’t watched in years, but it was absolutely the funniest thing on television way back when. When I told my wife The Daily Show was basically “Weekend Update 30 years on” she knew exactly what I meant.
and then I really have to get out of here.
Anybody remember Buck Henry? He was once described as being willing to cheerily do even the stuff the other cast members thought was tasteless. And he was funny with it too. He showed up about once a year for some time at the end of the season, usually acting as a foil for someone else (e.g. the customer in John Belushi’s “Samurai TV Repairman” skit).
He was a talented actor and writer in his own right, but he first came to prominence perpetrating a hoax. In the late fifties and early sixties he would go on the air as a spokesman for a group whose mission was to clothe animals. The gig eventually stopped when one host started asking him questions that were increasingly pointing toward giving up the gag, and Henry fielded them. Then the host asked “Sir, are you acquainted with a Mr. Buck Henry?” “Yes,” he said, “I know Mr. Henry very well.” The host then thanked him and cut to commercial.
Wish I had time, I’d google for more on this. Maybe later today.
Oh one more I totally forgot, which was Darryl Hammond as that guy on Hardball, Chris Matthews?
And he was interviewing “Harry Belafonte” who was played by the black guy on SNL I forget, and “Harry Belafonte” said “Osama bin Laden is an Uncle Tom!” And Matthews said “I don’t even know where to begin to understand what’s wrong with that statement”.
I think I laughed so hard I peed my pants when I saw that.
Osama bin Laden is an Uncle Tom! haha
Pax
You mean Tweety?
Who is your favorite cast member in SNL history?
Bill Murray.
Who is your favorite recurring character?
Tie: Goat boy and Mango.
What is your favorite recurring skit?
Sexual Innuendo Couple. (How’s momma like that, huh. Does daddy want some more of that, huh, huh?)
Who is your favorite guest host?
Steve Martin.
Who did the news the best?
Dennis Miller, no question.
Who did the best political impersonation, and why?
Dana Carvey of Bush I. Why? Just don’t ask, it wouldn’t be prudent, at this.. juncture. A thousand points of light, boo. A thousand points of light.
Has beisbal been berry berry good to you?
Hey!
If you were a hot dog…
Would you eat yourself?
I would.
That’s gotta be my favorite. Aykroyd plays Child. He/she hacks at this rubber chicken with a big meat cleaver, but cuts off her finger instead. Big fountains of fake blood squirt out everywhere, and Dan/Julia prattles in her kitchen, assuring us that everything will be fine.