Was Saturday Night Live Ever Truly Funny?

lethal5 · February 2015

I was just gonna come in here to post this. Ya, Eddie didnt want to kick Bill while he was down.

Maximus Rex · February 2015

'Saturday Night Live': All 141 Cast Members Ranked

Our insanely ambitious, ruthlessly exhaustive ranking of every 'SNL' player ever

http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/lists/saturday-night-live-all-141-cast-members-ranked-20150211/1-john-belushi-20150211

21. Chris Rock

Era: 1990-1993

Rock always had a hard time getting on the air — there was a classic In Living Color sketch about Rock getting thrown out by NBC security who refuse to believe he's a cast member. But make no mistake: Even back then, Rock was hungrier and faster than anyone else. Whenever he got a sketch (barely once a month, usually in the final 15 minutes), he blew the rest of the episode away, with his militant Nat X ("What's the matter, Whitney — you can't get a black bodyguard?") or his B-boy Onski from "I'm Chillin'." Nobody in the history of the show inspired more Monday-morning "Who the hell was that guy?" conversations. If he never worked a day after SNL, we'd all still know his name.

20. Al Franken

Era: 1975-1980; 1985-1995

What a country — the punk who wrote the "Roman Vomitorium" sketch is now a senator from Minnesota. (Alas, not alongside the late, great Sen. John Blutarsky.) Franken had two totally distinct runs on SNL. In the Seventies, he and partner Tom Davis were the gangly goofballs who resembled the kids in the audience, the ones Belushi dismissed as "the angel-dust crowd." Then he surprised everyone by coming back in the Nineties as self-help guru Stuart Smalley, one of SNL's most beloved and original recurring characters, at a time when 12-step-speak was still very much in the closet.

Greatest hit: Stuart Smalley meets Michael Jordan (he calls him Michael J., to protect his anonymity) and tells him, "Denial ain't just a river in Egypt."

19. Jon Lovitz

Era: 1985-1990

During the final credits of the horrific 1985-1986 season, Michaels watches as Yankees manager Billy Martin sets fire to the dressing room. The only cast member Michaels pulls from the room is Lovitz. Good move. Lovitz didn't have the widest range, but he didn't need one – he knew exactly what he was good at: playing slimeballs, from his Master Thespian to his "yeah, that's the ticket" liar to the bewigged perv from "Tales of Ribaldry." Lovitz had the creepiest eyebrows in SNL history. Acting!

Greatest hit: Mephistopheles goes on The People's Court so he can command the viewers at home to worship him.

18. Maya Rudolph

Era: 2000-2007

Rudolph was always dauntingly versatile, yet loose and cool. She was the only comedian worthy of doing Beyoncé, back in the Destiny's Child days — Britannica from Gemini's Twin was a cartoon diva, but also a real-thing diva. Rudolph did finely shaded characters but could also aim for the cheap seats with her over-the-top Donatella Versace tantrums. Cue the rampage music.

Greatest hit: Her Donatella children's specials remain the stuff of nightmares. What could be more terrifying than Donatella singing kiddie songs? ("Imagine all the happy children when they hear me and John Galliano sing that tired-ass teapot song!")

17. Adam ?

[img]http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/2015/list/saturday-night-live-all-141-cast-members-ranked-20150211/items/17-adam-? -20150211/185369/medium_rect/1423505968/720x405-R1229_SNL_Package_Z.jpg[/img]

Era: 1990-1995

The ultimate "love him or hate him" guy. Sorry — Operaman alone would make him rank high on this list. ? was the first to get a Boston-Irish accent right on national TV ("Get into the faaah left lane, then take the Mass Pike west and you'll see a wicked-huge Radio Shack"), which made him a local hero, even if it set off a very unfortunate comedy trend. Weirdly forgotten historical footnote: Everybody assumed ? was ? , because his first memorable bit was about coming out to his family on Thanksgiving. That made him seem edgier than he turned out to be.

Greatest hit: "The Chanukah Song," a major cultural event. Seriously, nobody had any idea Shatner was Jewish.

16. Rachel Dratch

Era: 1999-2006

If you tuned in to SNL on May 1st, 2004, you saw Dratch as Harry Potter, quaking under the spell of Lindsay Lohan's cleavage — then, a few minutes later, as Debbie Downer at Disney World. One of the best nights any SNL player has ever had. Dratch had no ego — just the will to try anything. Her Sheldon on "Wake Up Wakefield!" was an agonizing portrayal of adolescent overtrying, and only Dratch could make it so soulfully funny.

Greatest hit: Debbie Downer was unstoppable, kind of like feline AIDS. Which is the number-one killer of domestic cats!

15. Chris Farley

Era: 1990-1995

Reach for a bottle of Schmitts ? and pour some on the floor for this guy. Farley made his act look like impulsive slapstick, but all you have to do is look at all the failed Farley imitators to see how intricate it was. For all his Chippendales antics, he had an easily overlooked finesse, especially when he was playing uptight mansplainers — like the strangely poignant "Medieval Scalders" sketch, where he mentors his son Macaulay Culkin: "You'd be surprised how many different things you can heat up and pour
on people."

Greatest hit: "Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker" — "You're gonna be doing a lot of doobie rolling when you're living in a van down by the river!"

Maximus Rex · February 2015

14. Kristen Wiig

Era: 2005-2012

One of a kind. You could argue she ran too many characters into the ground — Gilly again? — but she had a knack for high-strung basket cases, from her flirting expert Rebecca Larue ("I'm just really hearing you") to "Cougar Den" host Toni Ward. When Lana Del Rey showed up, she seemed like a real-life Kristen Wiig character. Wiig got the most sentimental send-off of any cast member ever, complete with ? Jagger singing "She's a Rainbow," and she earned it.

Greatest hit: Mindy Grayson, a washed-out theater queen who still dreams of her Broadway glory in smash failures like And Sarah Made a Sound ("the story of a mute girl who desperately wanted to say the word 'jazz' ") and Sassy Slacks of 1963.

13. Bill Hader

Era: 2005-2013

The unquestioned MVP by his last few seasons — a master shape-shifter who put real humanity into his characters. His weaselly newscaster Herb Welch or club kid Stefon would have fallen flat without Hader's affectionate touch. He was the most crucial utility player since Hartman — a glue guy who never needed to be the center of attention, just serving any kind of role.

Greatest hit: Stefon raves about New York's hottest clubs ("Built from the bucket list of a dying pervert, this Battery Park ? parade is now managed by overweight game-show host Fat Sajak") and promotes a fundraiser for Doctors Without ? .

12. Will Ferrell

Era: 1995-2002

Ferrell's SNL strategy was basically the opposite of Chevy Chase's: Stick around for years, make your mark as a team player, make everyone around you funnier, and (this is the really weird part) get a hundred times funnier after you leave. Indeed, the hardest thing about appreciating Ferrell's SNL tenure is that none of us knew the glories of Anchorman and Talladega Nights were yet to come. Great Odin's raven!

Greatest hit: Banging the cowbell to "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," his beard and belly jiggling to the music.

11. Dana Carvey

Era: 1986-1993

Carvey was the greatest impersonations guy in SNL history — his impressions were usually darker and more compelling characters than the originals. His Ross Perot was way more than a parody of a politician — Carvey turned the character into an American archetype worthy of Randy Newman, sneering "Here's the deal, see" in the voice of every boss or principal you ever despised. When people try to imitate Johnny Carson or George H.W. Bush (or Lorne Michaels), they're usually just doing Carvey's impression.

Greatest hit: Perot behind the wheel, taking Phil Hartman's Admiral Stockdale for a final joyride. "That was world-class."

http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/lists/saturday-night-live-all-141-cast-members-ranked-20150211/1-john-belushi-20150211

Maximus Rex · February 2015

10. Chevy Chase

Era: 1975-1977

Strange as it sounds, Chase might be the most under-rated SNL player. True, he stuck around for only one full season, but so did Farrah on Charlie's Angels — it took him only one season to define the franchise. Of all the original cast members, Chase was the one guy who got how TV worked — the others were theater types. So if you check out the first episode, which is 80 percent unwatchable, Chase is the only one who knows how to stare right into the camera without flinching. He looks like a coldhearted bastard surrounded by a bunch of needy kids. But without that deadpan arrogance, the whole SNL style of humor would fall flat. (By the 12th episode, his castmates are doing jokes about how much they all hate him.) He was famous for his stumbling Gerald Ford impersonation, but he was even sharper and more merciless as Ronald Reagan, the only killer Reagan SNL ever had. Alternate-history question: If Chase had stayed on SNL, would he have sunk Reagan the way he sank Ford?

Greatest hit: Chase reports an item about the Peanuts bird Woodstock. He's getting replaced by "a bird named Altamont, who will beat the other birds to death with a pool cue." The audience gasps. They're horrified. Chase loves it. And this is 1975. The whole Saturday Night Live story in 10 seconds.

9. Gilda Radner

Era: 1975-1980

The most beloved of the original cast — in the years between Mary Tyler Moore and Seinfeld's Elaine, Radner was the prototype for the brainy city girl with a bundle of neuroses. She looked frail, but she was a live wire whether she was playing bratty kids, pushy talk-show hosts or old ladies like Emily Litella, who spoke out on "endangered feces," "natural racehorses" and the "deaf penalty." Like so many other SNL legends, she died way too young and remains missed.

Greatest hit: Lisa Loopner, patron saint of nerdy girls everywhere.

8. Amy Poehler

Era: 2001-2008

She got more amazing every year. She could do warmth, yet was always buzzing with a real don't-mess-with-me hostility never far from the surface. The ultimate pro — the way she read and responded to the people around her raised everybody's game. She revived the ancient concept that the "Weekend Update" anchor should also raise hell the rest of the show. Poehler and Fey have more chemistry than any SNL duo since the Blues Brothers. It's a tragedy if they don't host every awards show from now on.

Greatest hit: Betty Caruso on "Bronx Beat," an urban mom grousing about her husband, the weather and everything else. ("You know what word I hate? 'Hemoglobin!' ") You can see that caustic edge in the way she sneers when Maya Rudolph starts to cry: "Here we go with the waterworks!"

7. Phil Hartman

Era: 1986-1994

The grown-up in the room. In the credits, he's not hanging on the street like most of the others; he's relaxing at a swank lounge with a blonde. (Hard to watch, now that we know the blonde was the real-life cokehead wife who killed him in 1998.) He was nicknamed "the Glue" for holding the show together. Chris Farley's motivational-speaker rant never could have worked without Hartman as the cool dad in chinos, keeping a straight face. No role was too small for him. He was a master at playing bitter old men; his Sinatra made Piscopo's look like a cream puff. ("I got chunks of guys like you in my stool!") But his speciality was charming ? , from the Colon Blow ad to Bill Clinton. Oh, that smug smile when he tells the Secret Service, "There's gonna be a whole bunch of things we don't tell Mrs. Clinton."

Greatest hit: "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer," where he sums up the classic pitch of the all-American con man: "Your world frightens and confuses me. . . . But there is one thing I do know."

6. Bill Murray

Era: 1977-1980

He was the cast's first "new guy," which probably gave him that underdog's mean streak. More than anyone, he embodied SNL's this-could-be-you realness; he looked like a random Seventies burnout who happened to bluff his way to the stage — he made it seem like anyone could do it. Nobody's ever been so good at making audiences feel like they were funny, which in many ways is the essence of SNL.

Greatest hit: Nick the Lounge Singer, who treats every dismal gig like it could finally be his chance to shine. Whether he's in the Zephyr Room at Lake Minnehonka or the Powder Room on Meatloaf Mountain, he croons his heart out: "The first couple on the floor will also get their picture on the cover of next week's Breezy Point Lodge Bulletin, so, ladies and gentlemen — it's dancing time!"

Maximus Rex · February 2015

5. Dan Aykroyd

Era: 1975-1979

Of the original greats, Aykroyd is the least imitated — just because nobody else can do what he did. His seriousness, his biker-intellectual intensity — he could grab your attention just standing onstage for the "good nights" and asking if anyone could sell him fuel tanks for his '71 Harley. The classic sketch where he's a grumpy mechanic telling his daughter Gilda a bedtime story about doing a wheel alignment — only Aykroyd could make that so touching as well as funny. He had a real empathy for American hucksters and sleazebags – what makes the "Bass-o-Matic" sketch isn't the joke (a fish in a blender, big deal), it's Aykroyd's demented grin.

Greatest hit: President Jimmy Carter, talking down a kid from a bad acid trip. "Remember, you're a living organism on this planet and you're very safe. You've just taken a heavy drug. Relax, stay inside and listen to some music — do you have any Allman Brothers?" If the actual President Carter could have governed like that, the 1970s might have turned out differently.

4. Mike Myers

Era: 1989-1995

Myers has kept a low profile since his Austin Powers days, so at this point he seems curiously obscure. But more than anyone, he epitomized the manic, art-damaged energy that revitalized comedy in the early Nineties. Like his British idols Peter Sellers and Peter Cook, he threw himself into his characters with madcap enthusiasm — metalhead Wayne, middle-aged yenta Linda Richman, monkey-stroking German aesthete Dieter. He missed the first few episodes in 1992 because he was working on the Wayne's World 2 screenplay; it turned into a nationwide vigil praying for Myers to return. The only word to sum up his genius is "asphinctersayswhat?"

Greatest hit: Linda Richman hosting "Coffee Talk," getting verklempt over Barbra Streisand's legs. Like buttah.

3. Tina Fey

Era: 2000-2006

You could argue that most of her onscreen contribution was "Weekend Update," but Fey did a lot more than salvage "Update" from a decade-long losing streak — it swiftly became the highlight of the show, as the entire franchise remade itself around the wry, sardonic, not-afraid-of-her-brain Fey style. She slapped SNL out of its late-Nineties coma. Suddenly the skits were full of ass-kicking women, just because Fey proved how much they could get away with. And her 2008 return as Sarah Palin might be the most brilliant move SNL ever made. Talk about a hot streak — it was a moment when all America spent the week waiting to see what Fey would come up with on Saturday.

Greatest hit: "I can see Russia from my house!" almost made it worth having Palin around.

2. Eddie Murphy

Era: 1980-1984

It's customary (and accurate) to say Eddie Murphy is the only reason SNL survived the five-year wilderness without Lorne Michaels. Nobody had seen anything like him. He stood out from anyone else on TV, mostly by being so young — he was the first post-boomer comedy star, a kid born in the Sixties and down with the Eighties. He mocked SNL's racial hang-ups (which isn't to say he made them go away). Murphy could make any moment memorable — the shooting of Buckwheat, the boiling of Larry the Lobster, the C-I-L-L-ing of his landlord. But he was funny just standing still, as in the classic Tootsie sketch that basically consisted of Gary Kroeger putting makeup on Murphy. He knew how to stare into a TV camera like he owned it.

Greatest hit: His 1981 "? My Landlord" poem remains a heartwarming piece of verse. "Dark and lonely on the summer night/? my landlord, ? my landlord/Watchdog barking — do he bite?"

1. John Belushi

Era: 1975-1979

Nobody embodied the highs and lows of Saturday Night Live like Belushi. He was the first rock & roll star of comedy — a touch of John Lennon soul behind all that Keith Richards pirate bravado. All the extremes were there in his weird physique — a wrestler's body with a dancer's feet, a palooka face with a showgirl's eyelashes. He was the first to make a ? joke on SNL (sixth episode — Beethoven takes a hit from the snuffbox and turns into Ray Charles), as well as the first to make the host (Buck Henry) gush blood after accidentally slashing him in the head with his samurai sword. There was always something boyishly vulnerable in his madness, whether he was doing the slow burn (Captain Kirk, George Wallace) or exploding (his horrifying Sam Peckinpah). Belushi was the "live" in Saturday Night Live, the one who made the show happen on the edge. We should have gotten a lot more years with him than we did. But no.

Greatest hit: "Samurai Hitman," where Belushi proves he doesn't need words — just a robe and a sword — to turn a one-joke premise into a savage comic ballet.

A$AP_A$TON · February 2015

Good ? Eddie.

Norm as Burt Reynolds is still funny as ? .

mikelewis · February 2015

Isn't there a rumor out there that Kenan kept Kel from getting onto SNL???

Maximus Rex · February 2015

mikelewis wrote: »

Isn't there a rumor out there that Kenan kept Kel from getting onto SNL???

U used to be my ? , now u act like u don't know me: Kel Mitchell Opens Up About Kenan Thompson

http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/484251/u-used-to-be-my-? -now-u-act-like-u-dont-know-me-kel-mitchell-opens-up-about-kenan-thompson/p1