Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

The willow is too close to the house.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Infrastructure week. at last.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Let there be snark.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

You are here: Home / Humorous / If I laugh just a little bit

If I laugh just a little bit

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I watched that SNL 40 thing everyone was talking about a few days ago. It was a bit too self-congratulatory and Lorne Michaels-centric, but man were some of those old clips funny. I was tempted to do a “what’s the best sketch/recurring character ever”, but there’s just too much good stuff. (I don’t think could choose between “Buckwheat is Dead” and Nick Winters/Rails, and those are two of the first few that come to mind.)

But…what are the worst recurring characters ever? I’ll go with Operaman and they “you likah the juice guys” but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s something even worse in the Sandler-era oeuvre.

Reader Interactions

205Comments

  2. 2.

    burnspbesq

    Hans and Franz are pretty appalling, particularly in their recent re-appearance in State Farm Insurance TV spots with Aaron Rogers.

  5. 5.

    DougJ

    I love the Californians though the one they did on the 40 show was awful. Kristen Wiig is great in general.

  6. 6.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The “Buckwheat is dead” thing was a brilliant skewering of that vile shitstain and obvious operative for the shitty grade-Z movie star Ted Koppel. The entire breathless “this just in” complete with theme music and all the other infotainment crap that has destroyed the credibility of broadcast news in this country was taken to task.

  7. 7.

    Buddy H

    Tracy Morgan was hilarious doing standup in clubs, but his “Brian Fellows” was just painful to watch. Any character that Bobby Moyniyan does is a wasted opportunity. He just comes out in makeup and declaims his lines, without doing anything or interesting with the character. Compare him to Kate McKinnon, who gets laughs before she says a line, because she BECOMES the character (like when she does Bieber).

    In other news…. is this guy a balloon-juice commenter?
    ———————————————

    MANCHESTER-by-the-SEA, Mass. — A Massachusetts man has found a way to profit from the several feet of snow in his yard: He’s shipping it to people in warmer climates for the bargain price of $89 for six pounds.

    Kyle Waring, of Manchester-by-the-Sea, got the idea while shoveling snow earlier this winter and launched ShipSnowYo.com.

    At first he shipped 16.9-ounce snow-filled bottles for $19.99, but he found the snow melted by the time it arrived at its destination.

    So he came up with a new plan, selling six pounds at a time. He tells Boston.com even if the snow melts a little by the time it arrives, the package can still make 10 to 15 snowballs.

    He’s also started offering 10-pound packages for $119.

    He says he’ll keep selling until people stop ordering.

  9. 9.

    Buddy H

    I think Kyle Mooney is the unsung hero of the show. His characterizations are so subtle they fly under the radar. His filmed bits are surreal.

  10. 10.

    jl

    @richard mayhew: heh heh hehe, Californian here who has done some hard Southern California time. I haven’t watched SNL regularly for years, so I have to judge from clips.

    I loved the first Californians clips I saw. A few of the actors had great satires of Valley Girl and Boy talk. I loved the frequent interjection of freeway and travel directions, which is kind of true. The narcissistic mirror action was over the top, but WTF, its part of the stereotype of the obsession with a certain look and conformity, so fair game.

    The skit I saw for the 40th anniversary looked like it is an exhausted skit. The accents have gone to hell, so overdeveloped and stylized that they are not good satire anymore. Hope it goes away.

    Edit: I am letting slide that fact that Californian English is the true English and we do not have accents. You other people from the Old Country do.

  13. 13.

    Gus

    I didn’t care for a lot of Kristen Wiig’s recurring characters. Gilly is annoying, as is the Target cashier lady.

  14. 14.

    Mike J

    Generally speaking, most SNL sketches are funny for the first 30 seconds and then go on for another ten minutes without a single laugh.

  15. 15.

    Cacti

    @Gus:

    Seconded.

    I think Kristen Wiig is a lot better in comedic films than in sketch comedy. The exact opposite of most SNL cast members.

  16. 16.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Cacti: If you locked Rob Schneider and Adam Sandler in a cage with a dozen rabid ferrets, that might have some comedic (or at least karmic) potential.

  17. 17.

    Buddy H

    I know he was popular, but Jon Lovitz’s “pathological liar” just seemed like an amateur high school comedy bit to me.. I liked when he did 1930s ham actors, but the liar just seemed 2nd rate to me.

    Charles Rocket doesn’t get much love. When they showed his photo, there was silence, then a single handclap, then the rest of the audience joined in dutifully. Poor bastard killed himself. He thought he was going to be bigger than Eddie Murphy.

  18. 18.

    shortstop

    Gilda Radner was quite talented, but Roseanne Roseannadanna leaves me cold. Maybe it was funny at the time and just doesn’t wear well.

    Toonces went on about 200 years too long. The same for Church Lady.

    Anything Victoria Jackson ever did or said is embarrassing to watch.

    I didn’t mind Operaman, but Cajun Man, meh.

    I like the Californians and don’t get the hate for it — but I also loved Christopher Walken as The Continental and no one else I know did.

  20. 20.

    rusty

    I pretty much stopped watching during the Sandler era, and never re-engaged. Not sure I missed much.

  21. 21.

    shortstop

    @Mike J: YES. THIS. In 40 years, they’ve never learned how to a) sustain the initial laughs and b) end it when they should. It just gets worse with popular recurring sketches/characters…they see it as a license to go on for many minutes too long.

  22. 22.

    Laertes

    @Cacti:

    This. Schneider’s office drone was easily the worst recurring character I can remember.

    At least, I think it was a recurring character. I guess it’s possible that he only ever appeared in one sketch, and it only seemed like he kept coming back.

  23. 23.

    SatanicPanic

    Uggh, there are too many to list. Basically, if a character is done more than once, it’s probably not funny anymore. I thought Wayne’s World was especially not funny.

  25. 25.

    jl

    ‘ 200 years too long ‘

    That describes most of the supposedly bad skits that are mentioned here that I have seen.
    Funny first couple of times, but dragged on way too long. Lovitz’s liar and master thespian. A little of that goes a long way. But SNL did too much of it too often with too few new twists.

    One of big problems I have had with SNL is lazy writing, which I think is the source of so many tired recurring sketches.

    I am disobeying DougJ’s instructions, but the fake commercials have been the best recurring feature, maybe because the writers are forced to come up with a new angle more often than when they churn out another edition of some recurring character sketch.

  28. 28.

    burnspbesq

    @shortstop:

    Roseanne was a New-York-insider joke. It only really worked if you grew up watching Roseanne Scamardella on the 6:00 news on Channel 7.

  29. 29.

    Bobby B.

    I have a few “best of” dvds of Lovitz, Hartman and Mike Meyers. No matter how nostalgic we get about the 70s SNL, it’s some of the 80s bits I remember best. And The Corporation has removed “vintage” SNL from television.
    How much more Justin Timberlake SNL can VH1 possibly broadcast ???

  32. 32.

    raven

    I have the 1st season on DVD and the part where George Carlin talks about slitting a stewardesses throat is pretty chilling.

  33. 33.

    Buddy H

    I actually found Roseanne Roseannadana offensive.

    It’s interesting, in the original cast, how many of the members were trust fund brats… Chevy Chase (although he claimed there was no family fortune) Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin. I wonder if Lorne was attracted to trustfunders.

    I’m not a big Lorne fan.

    Paul Mooney told some interesting stories about the cast. He saw them when he wrote for Pryor’s guest host gig. He said they all hated Lorraine Newman. (I thought her baby girl psychiatrist was the funniest thing, but I’m alone on this)

  34. 34.

    burnspbesq

    @Cacti:

    Everyone involved in the making of the Deuce Bigalow movies should be sent to the Hague for crimes against humanity.

    Note the date and time. We agree on something.

  35. 35.

    wrb

    I quit watching when the original cast left and liked most everything except a few Steve Martin bits in which he seemed nasty to me and some of the Penn and Teller bits

  36. 36.

    Buddy H

    Jack Handey is a national treasure. He’s written some New Yorker “casuals” that are funnier than anything in the history of the magazine. His SNL “Deep Thoughts” and “Fuzzy Memories” were classic.

  37. 37.

    Cacti

    Molly Shannon’s character Mary Katherine Gallagher was also consistently unfunny and annoying.

    So, of course they made a feature length film of her.

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    @Cacti: I kinda liked a few of the Mary Catherine sketches. The one with the choir singing, and she throws herself backward into them?

  43. 43.

    shelley

    Roseanne Roseannadanna

    Fell flat right from the beginning for me. But it somehow felt sacrilegous to say it.

    Remember those weird Muppet characters in the first season? They were mercifully terminated.

  48. 48.

    Davebo

    @Buddy H:

    I actually found Roseanne Roseannadana offensive.

    Which just shows it worked exactly as planned.

    I loved it!

    The worst had to be Toonces and Pat but it’s hard to say. There were so many horrible ones.

  49. 49.

    gogol's wife

    @Cacti:

    He was the greatest, and it seemed he got quite short shrift on that show, although I didn’t watch the whole thing.

  50. 50.

    Barbara

    @Buddy H: I have not watched in ages, but I thought Lorraine Newman was funny only when she was playing straight to the much funnier Gilda Radner — she was the starstruck fan to Radner’s send up of Patti Smith, and I still remember the skit in which Radner asks to borrow Newman’s comb and then proceeds to comb her underarm hair — just one of the funniest, least expected acts. I never found Jane Curtin to be very funny either, except when she was playing straight to someone else a lot funnier.

  52. 52.

    bjacques

    That episode with the running “Who Shot C. R.” was dire. It didn’t even come to a conclusion, but just sort of petered out. I remember during the closing credits when Charles said “I wanna know who the f*ck shot me!” which I believe ended the season right there.

    I kinda liked Charles Rocket, and he was a good villain in the Max Headroom series.

    I loved Leonard Pinth-Garnell.

  53. 53.

    Cacti

    @Buddy H:

    Best Deep Thought Evar:

    Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink, I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, it is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.

    -Jack Handey

  54. 54.

    Buddy H

    @Davebo: We agree to disagree. I know we’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but Gilda had more charm than talent, in my opinion. Her body of work reminded me of high school theater club stuff. Lorraine Newman was funnier and more subtle. But she was never given a chance. Gilda was everybody’s pet.

    Some brilliant writers over forty years, but for every good writer, there were a lot more lazy ones.

  61. 61.

    Redshift

    Anything by Fred Armisen, especially as part of a duo. Having them show up at the end of Weekend Update was the signal to change the channel, because it was going to be a ten minute long “if this one note wasn’t funny the first time, surely it will be hilarious if we repeat it over and over, and then make *that* a recurring bit.”

  62. 62.

    trollhattan

    Didn’t catch the special, maybe #50. Roseanne Roseannadanna cracked my father up, so generations successfully crossed and all that. “Why are we making Puerto Rico a STEAK?” For whatever reason I knew at the time that Gilda was somehow special and welcomed the opportunity watch her no matter what she was in. If you want to tear up (and who doesn’t want that?) watch her dance sketch with Phil Hartman. So much loss.

    My hate-o-meter never pegged more than with those damn cheerleaders (how many times can you bring back an exhausted sketch?). I was relieved when Will Ferrell proved to be a truly funny guy–something I didn’t discover until probably Talledega Nights, specifically this scene.

  64. 64.

    Buddy H

    @raven: Okay, so we’re asked to list our favorite and least favorites, but if “Raven” disagrees, we can bit his ass? Go fuck yourself, troll.

  68. 68.

    Mike J

    SNL has been an amazing vehicle to take struggling comedians from the soul crushing comedy circuit to fame, fortune, and feature films, all by simply coming up with one four or five word catch phrase that will be repeated over and over and over again.

  69. 69.

    shortstop

    Thanks, Doug-bama! Now I’m humming “Star Wars, those crazy Star Wars, if we should bar wars…” Not that I mind at all.

  71. 71.

    Redshift

    @trollhattan: I’ve always found Will Ferrell painfully unfunny (except for his W) and still do. There are several movies I like where he has a bit part, and the action just stops dead while he “does Will Ferrell,” and then gets started again.

    Not as bad as Fred Armisen, though.

  72. 72.

    geg6

    @richard mayhew:

    Ditto. And anything that has Adam Sandler in it automatically sucks. And, though I’ve loved him in other stuff, Tracy Morgan’s Brian Fellows thing was pretty awful every single time.

  73. 73.

    shortstop

    @Buddy H: Technically, we were asked to discuss only our least favorites. Predictably, doing so has set off a hair-trigger temper or two. It’s Wednesday at Balloon Juice!

  77. 77.

    Redshift

    Armisen’s recurring David Paterson character, which was always at least half making fun of his blindness, was also the worst. I enjoyed many SNL bits that pushed the envelope of taste, but that isn’t pushing the envelope, it’s just lazy and retrograde.

  80. 80.

    kindness

    I think the absolute worst skits are the ones Victoria Jackson is doing right now.

    Damn that shit is painful to watch.

  82. 82.

    raven

    @shortstop: Technically, if it matters, we were asked “what are the worst recurring characters ever”. Gilda Radner was not a recurring character.

  84. 84.

    geg6

    @Buddy H:

    You have got to be kidding. She was brilliant in almost anything she was in. My very favorite skit of all time was her and Steve Martin dancing. They were both brilliant in it and Laraine Newman couldn’t have done that on her best day.

  85. 85.

    SenyorDave

    Two favorite recurring sketches: Greek diner (I’ve from NJ and my dad was an engineer and he had a client who owned a few diners who looked and acted just like Belushi from the sketch) and the Jeopardy parodies. I’ll take the penis mightier than the sword for 200, Alex.

  88. 88.

    trollhattan

    @trollhattan:
    Oops, confused Jan Hooks with Gilda, who danced with Steve Martin, who is at least still alive and well. Just no more Cheaper by the Dozen movies there, big guy–you don’t really need the paycheck.

  90. 90.

    FlipYrWhig

    Contra gogol’s wife, I always liked Chris Kattan as Mango. Contra Davebo, I always liked Pat. Both of those premises could compound–like Pat’s equally ambiguous friend/partner Chris. I think Adam Sandler’s Canteen Boy is underrated.

    Never got Kristen Wiig as, well, anything. The deformed Andrews Sister, the Target lady, the Gilly kid, just, what? Surreal for the sake of surreal. Jimmy Fallon in the leather store was tedious. Bobby Moynihan does many versions of the same exact thing. Coneheads isn’t funny. To me, none of the Gilda Radner characters are funny.

    The absolute worst is a tie between Molly Shannon’s Woman Who Says “I Love It” and Molly Shannon’s Woman Who Is 50 Years Old.

  94. 94.

    Violet

    @DougJ:

    Kristen Wiig is great in general.

    Good Lord. No. No no no no no no. She’s one note and I always ended up fast forwarding through any skit she was in. Ruined everything on SNL during her time there. She’s the reason I haven’t seen “Bridesmaids.”

  96. 96.

    trollhattan

    O/T this is not going to make Parisians twitchy, nosir.

    Three al-Jazeera journalists have been arrested for the alleged illegal flying of a drone in Paris after being spotted by police in the Bois de Boulogne area. A spokesman for prosecutors said there was “no relationship for the moment” between the arrests and mysterious drone flights over the city at night.

    Drones flew over the Eiffel Tower and other landmarks five times for a second night running on Tuesday. Flying drones over Paris without a license is banned by law. The offense carries a maximum one-year prison sentence and a €75,000 (£55,000; $85,000) fine.

    A judicial source told AFP news agency of the three people arrested: “The first was piloting the drone, the second was filming and the third was watching.”

    The names and nationalities of the journalists have not been released.

    In Paris? After Charlie Hebdo? Nice PR strategy there, guys.

  97. 97.

    catclub

    Given that 95% of everything is crap, the fact that only 85% of SNL is crap is doing three times as well as anyone else, and doing so for 40 years. I am impressed.

    I am also much more easily amused than you people.

  98. 98.

    dexwood

    I saw Lemmings in 1973 at the Morris Mechanic Theater in Baltimore. Belushi, Chase, Christopher Guest and others. A van full of stoned hippies went together, roommates and friends we were. Enjoyed it immensely. Belushi rocked that place. After, we went across the street to a bar called Burke’s. Belushi, Chase, and most of the cast showed up there. Chase was a real asshole and he was physically ejected from the bar to much applause, all the while yelling, “don’t you know who I am?’ Hardly anyone did then.

  99. 99.

    Hungry Joe

    Years before SNL, the Pythons figured out how to end a comedy sketch: As soon as it starts to go flat, just STOP. “And now for something completely different.” “All right, that’s it. This sketch has become just silly.” “Stop the sketch. Stop the sketch! It’s been going on for two minutes now and I haven’t had a single funny line.” Etc. Sometimes the Pythons went on too long, too, but at least they tried not to.

  100. 100.

    FlipYrWhig

    @gogol’s wife: My in-laws are super into the Boy Scouts, an organization I have always found wicked creepy, so that character rings true as a distinct “type.” And (at least the way I’m remembering it) they did more with the character as it went on. I’m relatively pro-Sandler-on-SNL, though I find the movies other than Wedding Singer to be atrocious.

    Oh, I forgot another contender for worst recurring character: Mr. Bill. Never remotely funny.

  104. 104.

    shortstop

    I just stringently avoid all movies based on SNL characters. It’s a policy that’s served me well.

  108. 108.

    Doug r

    @jl: it’s actually a Canadian accent, due to the million or so Canadians in the greater Los Angeles area, eh?

  110. 110.

    Mike E

    @trollhattan: The misheard bit is her elderly Emily Latella character, and she danced with Steve Martin in that crowded disco. Never mind!

    When I first saw Ferrell’s W impersonation I kinda knee-jerked a dislike for it, but it grew on me and now I see his genius in the approach. People love/hate Will Ferrell…I think he’s great.

    Oh, and DougJ, I know you gotta be a Lazlo Toth fan! ‘Fess up.

  111. 111.

    Violet

    I thought “MacGruber” was terrible (especially because of the horrendous Kristen Wiig always being in it) but when that week’s guest host was in it sometimes they’d be funny in it.

    Semi-related, heard on the radio they’re remaking MacGyver and going to have a woman in the lead.

  113. 113.

    raven

    @Violet: I have never see MacGyver. I was at a conference and they were having trouble with a big display and I fixed it and a woman said “you’re a real MacGyver”!!! I get it now but I had no idea what she meant at the time.

  115. 115.

    Laertes

    Celebrity Jeopardy more than makes up for all the Cheerleader stuff and whatever other regrettable bits Ferrell got up to on SNL.

  118. 118.

    Mike E

    @raven: Must’ve been the paper clip you used to fix it…and the gum wrapper. Also, if you’ve been in the woods for more than a day or too, you pretty much know if you’re a McGuyver or not.

  119. 119.

    daveNYC

    I’d almost say that all the recurring characters ended up being the ‘worst’, just because the SNL formula is to find something that works (even if it barely works) then grind out puppy into the ground. I can’t think of any ongoing character that wasn’t over used to the point where it just wasn’t funny by the end of the run.

  121. 121.

    Laertes

    @daveNYC:

    I can’t think of any ongoing character that wasn’t over used to the point where it just wasn’t funny by the end of the run.

    Tastes vary, of course, but I never got tired of Celebrity Jeopardy. It killed every damn time.

  122. 122.

    raven

    @Mike E: I never carry a rubber band but I had one from something I had done earlier and I was able to secure the display with it! Field expediency!

  123. 123.

    askew

    @DougJ:

    See, I would put Kristen Wiig and Fred Armisen in the worst category. They were unfunny screen hogs. I’d put Seth Meyers as WU anchor in there as well. How someone can be that smug and that bad at their job is beyond me.

    My best would be that stupid skit about a store clerk that sold everything by saying you could put your weed in it, in a van down by the river, the Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin skits and the bizarre skit with Justin Timberlake, Amy Poehler, etc. as white rap kids who die in a cave.

  124. 124.

    MomSense

    Since this is an open thread, middle kid just got accepted as a transfer to his dream college!

    We are going to celebrate tonight!

    Victoria Jackson was the worst. I can’t remember a single character just that stupid baby voice.

  127. 127.

    Suzanne

    @Laertes: Celebrity Jeopardy was just fabulous. I still drop “Anal Bum Cover for $200, Alex” into conversation on occasion.

    “That’s AN ALBUM COVER!”
    “I can read, Trebek!”

  135. 135.

    daveNYC

    @MomSense: No idea how she lasted on that show. Lack of talent is one thing (because lets face it, SNL isn’t exactly the hive of talent that something like The Daily Show is), but by all accounts, she was pretty damn tough to get along with and started letting her wingnut flag fly pretty early on, which went over gangbusters with the rest of the cast.

  138. 138.

    Amir Khalid

    I don’t remember ever seeing SNL except in YouTube clips. Did it get international distribution?

  140. 140.

    Bobby Thomson

    The whole show sucked ass after Phil Hartman left, so I doubt I’ll ever watch this thing.

    No love for Mr. Bill?

  141. 141.

    J.D. Rhoades

    @Amir Khalid:

    Actually, that’s how I’ve been watching it for the past few years. All the good stuff shows up on YouTube or Hulu and I don’t have to sit through the boring, unfunny, lame stuff, which was the majority.

    But you know, that’s sketch comedy. No sketch show hits more than 60-70% of the time. Watch some old Monty Python shows and you realize how many times they swung and missed.

  142. 142.

    daveNYC

    @Librarian: The Stuart Smalley skit with Michael Jordan was mildly amusing as a concept. They didn’t do anything interesting with it though, just had him do his regular schtick, they should have had Jordan destroy Stuart’s worldview (and not just dent like they did in the skit). Then had a skit later in the episode having him hanging out with Chris Farley in a van down by the river.

    I’m continually impressed that TDS can put together 2.5 hours of funny together each week when forced to use current events, and SNL can’t manage 1.5 hours (or even a decent 15 minute news spoof).

    As much as Dennis Miller is a wanker, he did a good job on the Weekend Update because he was able to keep moving and gloss over the jokes that didn’t work. Everyone else I’ve seen do it will just drop the punchline and then wait until the applause sign (or the electo-shocks) milks a few laughs out of the audience.

  144. 144.

    J.D. Rhoades

    @raven:

    the part where George Carlin talks about slitting a stewardesses throat is pretty chilling.

    Whaaaa????

    He wasn’t talking about “slitting anyone’s throat,” he was talking about paper cuts.

  148. 148.

    kc

    @shortstop:

    I like the Californians and don’t get the hate for it — but I also loved Christopher Walken as The Continental and no one else I know did.

    Ooh, I did! The first one, anyway. The subsequent one just wasn’t quite as funny to me.

  149. 149.

    kc

    I can truthfully say I never thought Dennis Miller was funny. He just rubbed me the wrong way on Weekend Update, long before I knew he was a wingnut.

  150. 150.

    raven

    @J.D. Rhoades: He didn’t say slitting their throats but, in retrospect, it was damn chilling to have him talk about holding something sharp against stews throat. Was for me and my wife anyway.

  151. 151.

    J.D. Rhoades

    @daveNYC:

    I’m continually impressed that TDS can put together 2.5 hours of funny together each week when forced to use current events, and SNL can’t manage 1.5 hours (or even a decent 15 minute news spoof).

    It helps that they work within a consistent framework (desk piece, then field piece or correspondent report, then interview). They don’t have to keep coming up with new characters/situations every week. Still, it is pretty amazing and a tribute to the skill of the writing staff.

  152. 152.

    J.D. Rhoades

    @raven:

    If you don’t mind my asking, and I’m really not trying to be snarky, how old are you? Maybe the difference is that I’ve spent more of my life in the pre-9/11 world than post-9/11.

  154. 154.

    H.K. Anders

    Worst recurring SNL characters: pretty much anything Kristen Wiig ever did. The Target Lady, Gilly, “Don’t Make Me Sing,” all of them were unwatchable. None of those sketches ever made me smile, much less laugh. The only think she did on that show that I liked was Mindy Elise Grayson on Secret Word (The Game the Stars Play!).

  155. 155.

    J.D. Rhoades

    @shortstop:

    I also loved Christopher Walken as The Continental and no one else I know did.

    I thought he was pretty funny, but my daughter was less amused. “Rapey as all hell” was her take on it. Again, the generational divide.

  156. 156.

    Mike J

    @J.D. Rhoades:

    They don’t have to keep coming up with new characters/situations every week.

    If SNL could get away with they wouldn’t either. Everyone’s dream is a recurring character that stays on until the entire world is sick of it. Every sketch that doesn’t have a recurring character is just another attempt at coming up with something Lorne Michaels will make a movie around.

  157. 157.

    Librarian

    I thought Norm MacDonald was the best Weekend Update anchor, and I stopped watching SNL when he was fired.

  161. 161.

    raven

    @J.D. Rhoades: I just remember when we bought the DVD set and sat down to watch it. When he did that bit about airport security and stew we just looked at each other and said “damn, that was really eeire.”

  163. 163.

    shortstop

    For me the very best part of Celebrity Jeopardy was watching the third baseman lose his mind laughing at Sean Connery. Sometimes the funniest thing of all is taking in the reactions to comedy of people you’re with.

  164. 164.

    ThresherK

    @shortstop: Count me in on “The Continental”.

    I’m the sort of guy who read (on paper) about the original show in the early 1980s, way before the TV skit, and way after the actual show. (And in the pre-home-video age.)

  169. 169.

    trollhattan

    @kc: LOVED Dana Carvey doing Dennis Miller doing the news, in front of Dennis Miller. It was spot-on and one could tell it really bugged Miller that his schtick was so easily pantsed.

  171. 171.

    MCA1

    Agreed with putting every character played by Adam Sandler towards the bottom of the list. He was just embarrassing to watch on SNL; couldn’t stop giggling at himself. I can’t even watch his movies, he’s so grating to me with that 4th grader sense of humor.

    The worst recurring SNL characters to me are the absurdist ones. Maybe mildly interesting or funny the first time, or they were clearly one note or strained catchphrase material, but there’s never more juice in a fruit like that: Gilly, Mr. Peepers, Goat Boy, Mango, Doug and Wendy Whiner, Ferecito.

    The ones that worked for me usually did because the character was a vehicle for real satire rather than just a catchphrase: Church Lady, Dieter, Mr. Robinson. On the other hand, Matt Foley was funny every time simply because of the force of nature playing him.

  174. 174.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    I have to second (or third) Mango as the unfunniest recurring character in SNL history. Never drew a single laugh from me. Adam Sandler wasn’t great but I thought some of his songs were clever and although he himself wasn’t all that funny as Canteen boy, Alec Baldwin is consistently hilarious in that sketch.

    An honorable mention for one of the funniest, but lowest profile, recurring sketches – Rachel Dratch’s Debbie Downer was always funny. In fact, Rachel Dratch may be the funniest person from SNL never to become fabulously successful at some other venture. She’s thoroughly underrated as a cast member and comedic actor.

  176. 176.

    Karen in GA

    Jon Lovitz’ recurring characters, especially Hanukkah Harry (or whatever the name was) really got on my nerves. It seemed like he just had catchphrases that he really, really wanted people to repeat — the characters were just vehicles to deliver the catchphrases that he was sure would make him huge.

  177. 177.

    Violet

    @H.K. Anders: Kristen Wiig makes my skin crawl. I saw “Paul” and while she was slightly less annoying in it than she is on SNL she could have been replaced by almost anyone else. She’s not a good actress and not very funny and the best parts of that film were when she wasn’t in it.

  178. 178.

    FlipYrWhig

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I think Mango was funnier in a moment when ideas around homosexuality were shifting but not where they are now. The notion of a series of masculine men developing a confusingly erotic obsession with this funny-looking guy… I think that was clever for its time. And, yikes, does it jar me to think of the Chris Kattan era on SNL as a different age than this.

  181. 181.

    catclub

    The interesting part to me was Chris Rock talking about Eddie Murphy. … and Murphy never being invited back. I was not really aware.

  182. 182.

    MCA1

    @J.D. Rhoades: I don’t remember Miller being all that pissed about it. Didn’t he bob his head along with Carvey and say “I hate myself” at the end? I took that as being a sport about it, in his egotistical, boobish way, yes, but not totally afraid to laugh at himself.

    Totally agree with the first comment upthread on it, though. Seeing Carvey produce a spot on skewering of the only thing Miller contributed, after probably putting in no more than 20 minutes writing and practicing, showed just how little Miller brought to the show.

  183. 183.

    J.D. Rhoades

    @MCA1:

    I don’t remember Miller being all that pissed about it. Didn’t he bob his head along with Carvey and say “I hate myself” at the end? I took that as being a sport about it, in his egotistical, boobish way, yes, but not totally afraid to laugh at himself.

    I may be misremembering it, but I recall Miller looking really pissed off.

  188. 188.

    trollhattan

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    Same here–I thought it was letter-perfect. Jordan was on at a time he was probably the most famous man on the planet, and having him do guided imagery where he had to repeat “I may not be the best basketball player…” was gut-busting.

  195. 195.

    EriktheRed

    But…what are the worst recurring characters ever?

    Fred Armisen’s salsa drummer character.

  199. 199.

    smintheus

    @p.a.: I never heard of Charlie Rocket, but recognized him immediately when I looked at his wiki page. He used to hang out on college hill in Providence in the early to mid ’70s, mostly at RISD, when I was hanging out mostly at Brown. Seem to remember friends calling him CC; he was one of the fixtures on the scene.

  200. 200.

    ally

    The Continental was BRILLIANT! My husband and I still laugh about it. I think I read somewhere that Walken had been inspired by some actual, cheesy TV show that aired long ago in New York. But his “lady’s” giant hand in that glove also reminded me of the old Soupy Sales show.

  201. 201.

    Jamey

    @ThresherK:The posters on Mr. Frond’s wall slay me: “Always Wear Your RESPECTacles.” “Ride the Self-ESTEEM Boat.” I torture my two school-age kids with those, whenever attend school events and see the anti-bullying/confidence-boosting slogans hanging about…

  202. 202.

    Phoebe

    I never liked the “baseball been very very good to me” character, I forgot his name because I’m senile, and loved Stuart Smalley. I know we weren’t supposed to say who we loved, but in case anyone up there in the 200 and something comments hated Stuart Smalley: no, you’re wrong.

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