Knuckles and Gyros

How I Got Into SNL

Yeah this was originally going to be me waxing poetic about Phil Hartman, but it kind of meandered off topic in my head and it turned into a story of how I got into watching SNL. So I thought I’d talk about that. I WILL eventually write about Phil Hartman, I swear. 

I think I was an SNL fan from birth. I like to think that because my mother was a huge fan. She was 25 when SNL debuted in 1975 and practically grew up with them. It was a big event for her and her friends to watch it together and laugh over the antics of Belushi, Aykroyd, Murray, and Radner among others(FWIW, Radner is my mom’s favorite cast member). I think she watched some of the Crystal/Guest/Short era which was going on around the time I was born. Of course the SNL that ran after my birth didn’t air because there was a writer’s strike going on. Go figure, eh? So a love of sketch comedy was already in the blood enough. 

During some weekends, my siblings and I would go up to Pawtucket to stay with my grandmother. When she’d go to bed, we’d be in the den together with the TV on. We were quietly watching Nick at Nite and it’s variety of programming. Nick at Nite, at the time, used to air half-hour episodes of SNL from the 1975-1980 era. One of the earliest memories I had was falling asleep to the opening credits of SNL and the TV framing an airbrushed picture of either Jane Curtin or Gilda Radner. I don’t know why I recall this, but I do. I’d basically nod off to the lullabies of lulz giving by men dressed as bees, Coneheads, ignorant sluts, and the Blues Brothers. It was quite a way to fall asleep, lemme tell you. 

However, it’d be years later before I really got into SNL. It was 1996 and I was the tender age of 11 years old. Tommy Boy had come out on video and my brother really wanted to see this movie. So we rented it from the video store and actually came to really enjoy it. It was funny and I really loved the physical comedy of the whole thing. However, I also found myself drawn to the blonde snarky short guy. He was the straight man, but despite that, he still got laughs. I liked that. Of course, that was David Spade. It was through this newfound liking of David Spade and Chris Farley that I came to rediscover SNL.

And what luck was it that one hour SNL episodes were shown on Comedy Central just as I got home from school?! Damn lucky, I tell ya! My after school ritual was rather strange for an 11 year old girl. At an age where I should’ve been more about dolls and boys (it was in that time frame where boys were just starting to be interesting), I was more focused on watching SNL and trying to imitate or act like the many characters on the show. I wasn’t that great, but screw it, I enjoyed watching it. 

As I watched SNL, however, I began to drift away from David Spade. I began to find his humor a little mean-spirited and not too…well…good. Sure, snarkiness is fine and I can get my inner snark on every so often, but the truth of the matter was that I became more interested in the other kind of comedy — the character based. I was liking the idea of sketch comedy, how these entire characters were just being presented and just making us all laugh. It was more about just the act itself rather than the person doing the act. And no one cast member was better at that than Phil Hartman, who soon became my favorite one to watch.

By the next year, I began to watch some of the stuff on Saturday nights. I was old enough to stay up later, plus my sister was obsessed with Hanson at the time and wanted to see them on SNL. Helen Hunt was hosting that episode. I watched that episode and it left me rather unimpressed with most of that cast. I did recall that was the episode that had all the baseball players in it. That warmed my baseball loving heart. But really, it wasn’t much to write home about, which left me a little sad. I still watched, however. I found myself drawn more to the standalone sketches in the late 90s (Jingleheimer Junction still never fails to crack me up)

However, I was still more into watching it on Comedy Central and just loved the late 80s cast…and the early 90s to an extent. But basically, this was how I got into SNL. 

Mel’s SNL Rant #45: KRISTEN WIIG IS NOT FUNNY

So I’m going about my everyday business, engaging my SNL nerdery in full bore. When I come across an article from April 2011 which was on MSN. In this article, Lorne Michaels is talking about Kristen Wiig. I guess there was an article about Wiig in the New York Times, which okay, all well and good. I assume “Oh he’ll just say some nice stuff, like how she’s talented or whatever” which while I do not agree with, I will at least humor it. But then, I read this line…

Asked to rank Wiig among the show’s top performers, Michaels did not hesitate. “Top three or four,” he says (lest anyone need reminding, the group’s alums include John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Will Ferrell, Mike Myers and Dan Aykroyd).  

And well…needless to say, I am NOT HAPPY with this assessment from Lorne. At all. 

I understand he’s the big kahuna, its his opinion, and I’m merely just a peon who nerds on SNL a little more than most people should. That being said, this only just erupted me into a complete and utter rage. I looked around online, wondering perhaps that the years of drug use have caused Lorne’s brain to translate humor differently. But then, I see people online saying all these different things like “OMG She’s soooo funny!!1”, “She’s so talented!”, “She’s the best cast member ever” or my particular favorite “She’s this generation’s Lucille Ball”. And now I’m wondering if I’m just not seeing it…but then I watched a few sketches and quite honestly….I’m pretty sure that this entire world has gone completely insane. 

Let me just say it: KRISTEN WIIG IS NOT FUNNY!!

She is a fucking hack of a comic who merely just mugs for the camera and plays the SAME FUCKING CHARACTER EVERY FUCKING TIME!!! Look at all of her characters and you will see the same linking aspects of awkward and overreacting bullcrap. It’s just the same thing and like…she’s got this Dane Cook vibe about her where she thinks if she yells out loudly enough or if she says it as many times, it’ll eventually end up funny. Yeah, sometimes it can be, but for fuck’s sake, don’t use it all the fucking time!! WHY DO PEOPLE THINK SHE’S FUNNY?! WHAT AM I MISSING HERE!!

And for Lorne to say something like THAT?! I can’t help but feel like that’s a personal fucking insult. I know I shouldn’t feel that way but like…honestly…really?! She’s one of your top 3-4 of all time?! HER?! First off, the funniest and best cast member of all time is Phil Hartman. Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Dana Carvey are not too far behind. As a fan of these cast members, I am just flat out in complete rage for Michaels to actually compare her to those awesome fellas. Second off, she’s not even the funniest and best WOMAN cast member of all time! I can name 5 female cast members miles more funny that she could ever hope to be — Jan Hooks, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Ana Gasteyer, Tina Fey….those five women are MILES upon MILES funnier…and there’s even more but I’m naming off the top of my head. (for the record, while I regard Gilda as the best, Hooks and Curtin are probably my favorites). And as for this cast? There’s others I like a LOT more than Wiig like Bill Hader, Bobby Moynihan, Taran Killam, Nasim Pedrad, Jason Sudeikis, and Jay Pharaoh are amongst those folks.

I’d put Seth Meyers on the current cast members list but I’m really getting frustrated with him since he’s the head writer and that’s partially to blame. The writing is fucking lazy and they just fall back on the same characters and when someone’s repertoire of characters is so fucking low and seems to be favored by Lorne, it turns out to be a disaster. I mean I understand that you need to have those back pocket characters for those instances where the host wants to do a sketch with them or they’re being a douchebag of a host or can’t act for shit. However, they do it for everybody. And they rip off sketches too! Shit, in the last Jon Hamm hosted episode, I saw TWO sketches they ripped off from the late 90s. The Back to the Future anniversary DVD thing? Yeah, the late 90s cast (whom I did not care for at all) did it with Star Wars (which included a hilarious impression of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau by Kevin Spacey). I can forgive this one since it’s a good outlet to do impressions with (and we were treated to Hader’s amazing Alan Alda impression and Jon Hamm doing a damn good Robin Williams). Then later on in the night, Wiig and Hamm did a sketch that was pretty much like the Culps…like almost exactly. It was ridiculous. I mean, shit don’t be the Dane Cook/Carlos Mencia of SNL seasons, guys. Come up with some original material, sheesh. I mean some of the best sketches of all time were standalones. 

I think the thing that bothers me the most is that when I think of a great cast member, I think of someone whose able to do it all. They’re a team player who will fall by the wayside to let others shine. They’re someone who can fill in any role, hold the sketches and the show together, and just are kind of a leader in a way. They’re someone who can play the straight man, the impressionist, the ham, the snark, the satire, the physical comedian…they can do it all basically hell even with the drop of a hat. Wiig is a ham, a mild impressionist, and does some decent physical stuff. However…those other things? She cannot do. I mean, shit, have we EVER seen her do a straight man role? And while I’m aware that some cast members are one dimensional, they at least do their dimension well and they craft it to damn near perfection so they can mostly get away with it. Wiig, I believe, is unable to. 

[BALEETED: upon realization that I am kind of a dick and I stupidly attacked people who actually think she’s funny, it was uncalled for and kind of harsh. So I have since baleeted this part. Why? Because overgeneralizing is douchey and if I wanna give an opinion about something, I should actually bring up good points and not just attack others. Tha’ts not cool]

She doesn’t seem to be so bad outside of SNL supposedly. Some folks found her acting job in Bridesmaids hilarious and she was a lot more subdued. Perhaps she was, I haven’t seen it yet so I can’t judge…I know that her cameo in Knocked Up REALLY bothered me. It was the same shit. So perhaps I am just overreacting…then again, that’s something I normally do. 

So to finally bring this roundabout rant home, the conclusion here is that I don’t find Kristen Wiig funny and am insulted for Lorne to say such a thing as calling her one of the 3-4 best all time.

Top 10 Underrated SNL Cast Members of All Time

This is my list. Remember this. I have differing opinions than a lot of folks. So keep that in mind. This is someone who thinks Kristen Wiig is vastly overrated and doesn’t see the appeal in Norm MacDonald, so you may think of me as a no-humored bitch. That’s all well and good. I have a right to judge you if you think Hartman is not in the Top 10 All Time, so lets leave it there. :P

10) Darrell Hammond — I think it’s because he spent so damn long on the show that people tend to not realize how talented he really is. He was a damn good impressionist and his Clinton was better than Hartman’s by far. He and Gasteyer are the only two in the late 90s cast that I still laugh at to this day. Ferrell’s early stuff never made me laugh so much…it wasn’t until the early 00s when I started to appreciate Ferrell. Hammond was very good. And well, that’s all I got on him. 

9) Dennis Miller — Okay this one sounds weird, I know. He wasn’t the most versatile cast member, but you see he’s on this because of his influence on shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. While I’m aware that Chase created it and Fey/Fallon did this as well, but Miller is the one who really started bringing the biting satire into the news. It started with him.

8) Jon Lovitz — I think the gist is that Lovitz is funny, but can sometimes get very obnoxious in his acting. It’s the way he does things, but I can see why people don’t like him a lot. That being said, he is one of the few who stuck around after the disastrous Steinbrenner-esque 84-85 season. Lovitz has a lot of awesome characters like Master Thespian, Hanukkah Harry, and Mephistopheles. The latter of these characters is like the worst costuming ever, but it just works because of it. It’s great. Also, he was partly responsible for getting Hartman on the cast, so bonus points for life on that. 

7) Chris Parnell — Dude has a stone face. I mean that in the best way possible. He can make the most ridiculous/immature things look hilarious just by him doing it. He seems to thrive on being kind of doing the unexpected. Like his vulgar raps, going around in a speedo, and so on. Plus he could play the straight man. Parnell got fired at one point and then got re-hired. I think this is the only case (at least in-season) where this had happened. I mean if you are that good for that to happen, you gotta be underrated. Hell, you were underrated by friggin Lorne!

6) Joe Piscopo — First of all, I don’t really care for him in most aspects. He seems like a real dickface. However, you have to give him some credit, man. It wasn’t just Eddie Murphy who saved SNL in the early 80s. Piscopo helped a lot. He was a funny dude and had a dead on Frank Sinatra. He had funny characters and him and Murphy worked pretty well together. I think he thing with him was that his post-SNL career went to hell so quickly that people kind of forget how good he was. 

5) Tim Meadows — Tim Meadows took a little longer than most to break through. He was almost fired in 1995. But he stuck around and The Ladies Man was soon born. However, it wasn’t really the Ladies Man that got me into Meadows. For me, it was his deadpan/reactionary comedy style. He, like Curtin, had great comic timing in his reactions. The Census sketch, I doubt, would’ve worked with anybody else as the census taker. But he can always play the character, like the host of Perspectives. Meadows lasted a while for a reason, folks. 

4) Kevin Nealon — Little known fact but Kevin Nealon stayed a year longer than Phil Hartman did. Yes, its true. Nealon was kind of the everyman who you could stick anywhere for the most part. He did a pretty good Weekend Update. It wasn’t really on the levels of Miller (who I think did it the best), but he was very damn good. Plus, he did a great Franz (or was it Hans?) and the Subliminal Message Guy as awesome.

3) Ana Gasteyer — In the late 90s, there was always talk about Chris Kattan, Will Ferrell, Molly Shannon and Cheri Oteri. It was always yammering about how they were the superstars, how they were the real talent and all this other crap. Meanwhile, you had Gasteyer who could friggin act rings around some of those guys and was insanely talented. The Celine Dion show cracks me up to this day and was one of the few things from the late 90s SNL I actually dug, I also thought her Martha Stewart was the best of them all. The Topless Christmas special also still makes me laugh. I never understood why she got so little love from the press. 

2) Jane Curtin — Poor Jane Curtin. She was overshadowed on all angles. You had Belushi, Murray, and Aykroyd basically made of awesome as it is. Then you had Radner who was the woman that everybody remembers (with good reason mind you). But Jane? She was just as funny as Radner. She JUST missed my Top 20, fwiw. Curtin usually ended up playing the straight man, which sometimes is a thankless task. However, the thing with her is that she was a great reactionary comedienne much along the lines of Bob Newhart and Dave Foley. Plus she did have some funny characters. I also give her mad credit for not falling into the whole drugs and shit that everybody else seemed to fall into. She only just barely misses my top spot. 

1) Jan Hooks — This was a close one between her and Curtin. Both are excellent EXCELLENT choices. However, I went with Hooks because of a) my soft spot for the late 80s/early 90s SNL and b) Her range of characters was nothing short of impressive. I loved watching her and thought she was flat out hilarious. It’s a damn shame that she isn’t recognized more often as one of the best, because she really is. When she and Phil Hartman would team up…shit man, it’s one of the best tandems in SNL history. 

10 Most Overrated SNL Cast Members

Oh have I wanted to do this one for a while. Goddamn do I have some opinions I’m sure will piss off a lot of people. But hey, they’re my opinions, so just take them for what they are. Perhaps I’ll make an underrated cast members post after this. Feel free to agree or disagree with this. 

10) David Spade — This one pains me to do because I used to love Spade when I was younger. I had a bit of a crush on him and he was the reason why I first got into SNL via Comedy Central reruns. However, as I began to watch more and while I did laugh initially and I liked the snarky humor, I began to discover the more talented cast members like Hartman, Carvey, Myers, etc. And well, his humor just didn’t really translate so well into sketches. He was more of a standup than a sketch comedian. I still enjoy his stuff, but I just didn’t think he was that great.

9) Victoria Jackson — Even though she was a member of my favorite cast era ever, I didn’t really care for her. Usually, sketches came to a screeching halt if she was around. She was good with Roseanne, however. And I mean she wasn’t godawful, I just didn’t really care for her. And seeing her today — oh dear lord, she’s fucking crazy rightwing nuts. D:

8) Seth Meyers — Oh this one pains me too. I like Seth Meyers and I liked a good chunk of his characters. Plus he’s a New Englanders so points there. However, since he’s become the head writer, the quality of the show has really slipped downwards. The writing has gotten lazier and he feels like he probably plays favorites which explains why there’s so much Kristen Wiig. Meyers is best when he’s playing off of someone, particularly Amy Poehler. When he’s not, he’s well…overrated.

7) Chris Kattan — I HATED late 90s SNL. I hated the Ferrell/Oteri/Shannon/Kattan years. Oh god did I hate them. While I do see Ferrell as one of the best, it took me until the early 00s to realize it. Molly Shannon was not so bad. She could do a little more than Mary Katherine Gallagher but it felt like they never let her. And that always bugged me. Kattan just had Mango and Mr. Peepers and honestly…I hated both characters. He just reminded me of one of a douchier version of Dennis the Menace. He wasn’t bad in the 25 Lame special with Jon Stewart, Janeane Garofalo, and Denis Leary however. But that’s not SNL.

6) Chevy Chase —One of the first breakout stars of SNL, I didn’t mind him so much. Norm MacDonald seems to have a lot of Chevy Chase in him. And I do appreciate good deadpan humor. However, I didn’t think he was that great. I mean, he didn’t have any impressions, his range didn’t seem to be there either. Then again, I like Dennis Miller and he was rather one dimensional, but he did his schtick very well. Chase did his pretty good, but…I dunno….I just didn’t care for him.

5) Fred Armisen — Never made me laugh. Pretty much that’s the gist. Also does a godawful Obama. 

4) Jimmy Fallon — He kind of is like Adam Sandler in some respects, but he is at least slightly more likable. His main problem that pissed me off was that he’d crack up in every sketch humanly possible. It’s all well and good if it’s every once and a while or like if it was the Carol Burnett show where making each other crack up was an art form, but not on SNL. However, despite this, he’s actually a pretty decent talk show host. 

3) Adam Sandler — Oh geez, is he so fucking overrated. He’s a standup trying his hand at sketch comedy and it really shows. The times when he’d shine would either be when he was singing some made up song or doing something on the Update desk. Other than that, he was like the prototypical Dane Cook in which he’d yell something and that’d automatically make it funny. 

2) Kirsten Wiig — I don’t get it. I really don’t get it. What am I missing here about Kristen Wiig that seems to have everybody so entranced?! I keep being told she’s this hilarious comedienne and Lorne Michaels even said that she was one of the 3-4 funniest cast members OF ALL TIME. Because honestly, when I see her, I just see her PLAYING THE SAME FUCKING CHARACTER EVERY FUCKING TIME!!! For fuck’s sake, it’s not even that great of a character! And for Lorne to say that, it fucking INSULTS my sense of humor. And as for her being a woman, shit I can name like 5 funnier female cast members off the top of my head (Jan Hooks, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Jane Curtin, Melanie Hutsell) and I didn’t even include the great Gilda Radner!

1) Norm MacDonald — The hate that I’m gonna get on this one is going to be unprecedented. Holy shit do people seem to revere the hell out of him. Okay, for the record, I will say that I think that Norm got the shaft when it came to his firing. He shouldn’t have been fired. I thought he was actually pretty decent by all means(loved his Burt Reynolds). The problem that I had with him is that I don’t think he’s as funny as everybody else seems to think. I don’t hate him, I just don’t like that he’s like thought of as some sort of sacred cow along comedians. He wasn’t even that great on SNL…maybe I don’t understand his type of comedy, but it just didn’t appeal to me. 

20 Greatest SNL Cast Members of All Time

Ahh, yes, the always enjoyable list makings… This is a rather popular topic and I have as of yet found a list that hasn’t made me want to punch things for one reason or another. So I thought to myself “Shit! I’m gonna make my own list…with blackjack…and hookers” and so I am here. This is my Top 20 Greatest SNL Cast Members of All Time. As a disclaimer, this is MY list so there is quite possibly choices that you may not agree with. That is par for the course. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this list. 

Honorable Mentions: Al Franken, Adam Sandler, Kevin Nealon, Jane Curtin, Andy Samberg

20) Joe Piscopo (Helped keep SNL afloat with Murphy)

19) Ana Gasteyer (Probably one of the most underrated cast members of all time)

18) Darrell Hammond (Stayed on too long, but impressions were fabulous)

17) Amy Poehler (Would be higher if this was a Meyers/Poehler tandem)

16) Billy Crystal (One year but hell of a year)

15) Tim Meadows (Stayed on a while, took some time to break out, but I always liked him as the straight man reacting to shit. Great deadpan)

14) Mike Myers (Wasn’t as high on him as others but good characters)

13) Bill Hader (Only current cast member…could easily break into the Top 10)

12) Dennis Miller (helped revolutionize the Weekend Update desk which helped influence Politically Incorrect and The Daily Show in some respects)

11) Jan Hooks (She was great but never really talked about)

10) Tina Fey (Snarky, smart, and witty — gotta love the combo)

9) Chris Farley (Farley had crazy energy and was fun to watch)

8) Will Ferrell (Annoys me when he’s over the top, but he can play it all)

7) John Belushi (One of the originals, can’t go wrong with them)

6) Gilda Radner (Showed girls can be funny and she wasn’t afraid to make an ass of herself)

5) Dana Carvey (Great impressions, great music talent, and just a damn good cast members)

4) Dan Aykroyd (One of the originals, could do most of it. Loved his shady business man characters)

3) Bill Murray (Bill Murray is one of those guys whose funny without even trying. Sheer respect on that front. He can make almost anything funny)

2) Eddie Murphy (Dude saved SNL and had amazing talent. Too bad he’s turned into such a suckass actor in suckass roles…but hey, whatever pays the bills)

1) Phil Hartman (I will not argue this. I’m sorry but I refuse to argue this one. Hartman was the man and I still get angry whenever I think about his murder. I’ll write a more eloquent post about him soon)

So that’s my Top 20. And if you try to ask me where’s Norm MacDonald or Kristen Wiig, you may not get a very friendly response because I find both of the insanely overrated (And I actually don’t mind MacDonald, I just don’t think he was that great). However feel free to comment and such :) Oh and if I forgot anybody feel free to tell me, I’m sure I forgot someone.