September 4, 2013

SNL Recurring Characters/Sketches--The Honorable Mentions & Characters I Hated!


The other day I posted my top 12 favorite Saturday Night Live recurring characters and sketches. But in my work to get the list ready I ended up having to remove or leave off several other great recurring sketches that deserve to be mentioned. So here are the honorable mentions, the sketches I love which did not make my original list.



These are in no particular order.





Hardball with Chris Matthews



For some reason Daryl Hammond was another amazing talen which did not make it on my list. He was on the show for a long time and did some amazing impressions, including Al Gore and an eerie Bill Clinton. But my favorite has to be the parody of Hardball, and his take on Chris Matthews was simply laugh out loud funny!





Celebrity Jeapordy



Man this came close to being on the main list. This was consistently funny, every single time it came on. The idea isn't original, we know how dumb celebrities look when they play Jeopardy, but for some reason the writing on these sketches was always top notch as was the celebrity impressions. Alex Trebek was always Will Ferrell, and speaking of Daryl Hammond his Sean Connery became a regular. Always teasing Trebek. These were always, always funny and for SNL that's an accomplishment.







The Ladies Man



Tim Meadows had been around for a long time without getting himself a good recurring character. That changed with this silly sketch. The Ladies Man was a horny guy who used to give advice to people who called in to his show, but his advice was usually sexist. I admit it had to grow on me, but I soon became a fan of this sketch. Not enough to see the movie of course.....








President Bush



This was so close to being on, but I removed it because it broke my rule of only one castmember per character. Which George Bush am I referring to? Both! Dana Carvey did an amazing job, because George Bush was a hard person to parody. So what to do? Exaggerate everything about him! That's pretty much what Carvey did, making a character based on Bush which people loved. People still remember that impression and it was really funny. Then George W Bush came into office, and Will Ferrell just nailed the impression. He managed to find a balance between confident commander in chief and stupid dufus which just always worked. It seems very few can find that balance. The best was the sketch done after 9/11 where Bush called out Bin Laden. A classic!





Superfans


It took awhile for me to get into this one, I didn't even realize George Wendt wasn't the original host, but it really grew on me.I guess they really love Da Bears in Chicago, and of course Ditka. They brought this one back a lot including George Wendt who appeared whether he was the host or not. Yeah it was a bit stereotypical, but in a harmless way.




Mr.Short Term Memory




I love this because it wasn't a regular cast member who created this. Tom Hanks created this character, and it only appeared when he hosted. The gag was simple, even cliche today, having the main character forget instantly what he just learned a second ago. They did several and it never fails to make me laugh.


Ed Grimly


Would you believe I remember this character more for the lame Saturday morning cartoon? Well I do but I have seen the live character and it was funny. Martin Short had several characters that while I missed when he did them on SNL, I have learned to love since then including Nathan Fern.








The Richmiester



Rob Schneider rocketed to fame with this silly sketch. The gimmick was simple, a guy sits by a copy machine and does silly versions of everyone's name. This became so popular that people still quote him. Don't we all somebody like this at work?





The Boston Teens


Being from the Boston area, I loved these sketches. Jimmy Fallon and Rachel Dratch play New Englanders, with heavy accents, who just like to clown around and party. I think these work because, like the Superfans, it wasn't over the top. These characters felt like real people, and the situations always changed enough so it wasn't rehash evey time it came on.


Before I go on to long, will stop there. Yes there are even more I could list, but we'd be here all day. By the way, The Blues Brothers never did anything for me. The Czeck Bros were funny but never a favorite. The Killer Bees was idiotic, even the cast members hated doing those. I also wanted to mention the Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer characters Marty and Bobby Cult who were really clever and funny.. Someday I will do a whole article on just the women of SNL.









I do admit SNL had a problem with doing the same sketch over and over, and I don't just mean using a character again but literally doing THE SAME SKETCH OVER AND OVER. Take Debbie Downer, it was the same thing again and again. And some chatracters just did not work me, no matter what they did with them.

So since I can't love them all here are some recurring sketches I just HATE (just my opinion of course) :





The Lawrence Welk Show



I loved what Kristen Wiig did on SNL, here is the exception. Please someone tell me why this is funny??? We know the bit, ugly woman with deformed hands.  If they had just done this once I would have that was cute and been fine with it. But over and over again? It's the exact same joke!!








Mango/Mr.Peepers


I never got this one either, what is it about Mango that made everyone love him? As bad as that was Mr.Peepers was even worst. Making animal noises isn't funny, just as Jim Breuer.





Goat Boy


Speaking of Bruer, what the heck was up with this one? Ok, you can make convincing animal sounds. So?  It isn't funny!





Canteen Boy


Adam Sandler at his worst. I guess making fun of mentally challenged people is funny. And there is an infamous sketch with Alec Balwdin that I am not even going to discuss.






The Hot Tub Lovers


How much of Will Ferrell and Rachel Dratch petting each other can we stand?







The Californians


Do we need this stupid sketch every other week???




The British Fops

Many may have forgotten this one, two men dressed in Restoration period clothing and were very, very annoying. Played by Mark McKinney and David Koechner I am glad they disappeared










That's it for my SNL tribute, hope you liked it.

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