LOC #84: Top 50 Saturday Night Live Cast Members

[Darth Geek]

"ACTING!" - from Lovitz, said with flourish!

I love those bits with him and Lithgow!

And I think that is what they are referring to in MST3K: The Movie right before the Mutant jabs Exeter in the side.

[MightyJack]

Ha, I love those quips. One and all brought a smile to my lips.

I remember the first time I saw Church Lady, I got a huge laugh out of the way he built up to the name "SATAN!" but everyone else glommed onto "Well isn't that special", which was funny too. But I liked Satan even more.

[MightyJack]

Tonight's Host: #6. John Goodman - 4 points
Gregarious John Goodman has hosted "Saturday Night Live" a total of 13 times and popped up in bits on several other occasions. Especially during the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal when he would do his hysterical Linda Tripp impression. I also remember him in a funny Toonces piece, and as one of the Chicago Superfans, Irwin Mainway (a relative of Aykroyd’s classic character) and doing Marlon Brando in one of the early Jeopardy bits.

But here, see them for yourself… http://splitsider.com/2013/12/john-goodmans-8-best-snl-sketches/

[MightyJack]

#38. Cheri Oteri

Era: 1995-2000
23 points on 3 of 10 lists - Highest Ranking: #13 (Tripe)
Most Memorable Characters: Collette Reardon, Barbara Walters, Arianna the Spartans cheerleader, Cass Van Rye, Joy Lipton, Rita DelVecchio, Nadeen, Judge Judy

Cheri Oteri was never one to let her drive and snappy on-screen confidence be underestimated, and as such she's left us with five seasons of kooky, clueless, and sometimes bossy characters who helped pave the way for the best time to be an SNL lady. Whether with Will Ferrell as zippity cheerleaders or morning talk show cohosts, with Chris Kattan as a couple stuck in PDA overdrive, with Molly Shannon as Ann Miller and Debbie Reynolds, or flying solo as deranged prescription addict Collette Reardon, Cheri Oteri was SNL's quintessential tiny theater geek firecracker. – Saturday Night’s Children

Rolling Stone ranked Oteri with Kattan at #95-95 and said…
These two go together somehow, since they made a perfect couple as the Zimmermans. The ultimate theater kids, always trying so goddamn hard. They get full marks for originality — they were fearless in their pursuit of quirky characters. But they sure did repeat themselves (that Mango! those cheerleaders!), and they were incapable of dialing it down a notch, so once you got sick of them, you never went back to being un-sick.

A clip of her Spartan spirit… http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/spartan-cheerleaders-at-a-chess-tournament/n10803

[MightyJack]

#37. Robert Downey Jr.

Era: 1985-1986
25 points on 1 of 10 lists - Highest Ranking: #1 (ScottD)
Most Memorable Characters: Jimmy Chance, Rudy Randolph III

I guess this was inevitable (Speak of the devil and he will appear.) But hey, at least this gives me the opportunity to talk about season 11s mad experiment. So in the previous year there was Ebersol’s All-Stars, the ringers who were signed to one-year contracts (Crystal, Short, Guest and Shearer). The next season Dick Ebersol and his all-stars were gone and Lorne Michaels was brought back as producer. And I dunno, maybe he thought he’d do what Ebersol did, but with actors. There was Joan Cusak, Anthony Michael Hall, Randy Quaid and RDJ. Unfortunately SNLs frustrated writers didn’t know how to write for them.

On RDJ, the website Saturday Night’s Children noted… “While on SNL, Downey had two recurring characters who each appeared three times — the name-dropping New York actor Jimmy Chance from "Actors on Film" and redneck commercial salesman Rudy Randolph III. He also impersonated celebrities including George Michael, John Cougar Mellencamp, Elvis, Paul Simon, Sean Penn, and Julian Lynch in the sketch "Models Against the Wilderness."

Watching the videos posted on that website, I’m not sure what Downey was doing – giving a book reviews by making fart noises / sitting on stage in a suitcase (with only his head showing) and yelling at a cast mate (Joan Cusack) – was this bad performance art?

In the end, the experiment failed and season 11 is looked on as one of SNLs very worst. Lorne’s first year back on the show was almost his last. But he managed to talk the network in giving him another chance, and didn’t squander the opportunity. He fired his “actors”, found and brought in Carvey, Hooks and Hartman (keeping Lovitz and later, Dennis Miller and Dunn). All of whom helped usher in an SNL Renaissance.

Rolling Stone ranked him #141 and said…
Robert Downey Jr. is a comic genius. Making him unfunny stands as SNL's most towering achievement in terms of sucking. How do you f*** up a sure thing like Downey? He's funny in anything. I mean, dude was funny in Weird Science. He was funny in Johnny Be Good. He was funny in Iron Man. But he met his Kryptonite, and it was SNL, where he spent the 1985-1986 season sucking up a storm. His greatest hit? A fart-noise debate with Anthony Michael Hall. In a perverse way, the Downey Fail sums up everything that makes SNL great. There are no sure things. No rules. No do-overs. No safety net — when you flop on SNL, you flop big. And that's the way it should be. The cameras roll at 11:30, ready or not. Live from New York — it's Saturday Night.

[MightyJack]

#36. Kenan Thompson

Era: 2003-present
25 points on 3 of 10 lists - Highest Ranking: #14 (Pak-Man)
Most Memorable Characters: DeAndre Cole, Jean K. Jean, Lorenzo McIntosh, Reggie Hudson, and his role as Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Cosby, Steve Harvey, Al Sharpton, Jimmy McMillan

Paste Magazine ranked him #23 and said…
When Kenan Thompson first got hired at SNL—which, by the way, was all the way back in 2003—a lot of people people thought, “Really? The kid from All That and Kenan & Kel on Nickelodeon?” But Thompson’s long since proven that his years as a child comedian were nothing but an asset to him, and he’s gone on to be one of the show’s longest running cast members. And, most importantly, he’s maintained a devotion to weird bits like ”What Up With That?” or his French Def Jam comic, Jean K. Jean, through it all.—BS

Rolling Stone ranked him #46 and said…
Twelve seasons and counting. True, he often might have seemed more at home on Nickelodeon, where he originated, but he killed as the "Alex Tre-Black" host of "Black Jeopardy!," with his verdict on Justin Bieber ("He ain't grow") and Robin Thicke ("Had that been me? I'd still be hittin' that").

Kenan as Steve Harvey… http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/halloween-on-the-steve-harvey-show/n42347

[MightyJack]

 

#35. Kate McKinnon

Era: 2012 - Present
26 points on 2 of 10 lists - Highest Ranking: #8 (George Harrison)
Most Memorable Characters: Penelope Cruz, Angela Merkel, Olya Povlatsky, Justin Bieber, Cecilia Gimenez, Hilary Clinton, Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Suffering the loss of head writer Seth Meyers, and some top-notch talent in recent years, SNL has gone pretty flat in its 40th season… with one shining exception. Kate the great: the best thing going on the show right now. With her wide-eyed characters and spot-on impressions, McKinnon’s the primary reason I’ve stuck with it this year. I love her timing, the disarming little touches she’ll bring to a scene. Such as the quick, choked, “Ew” during the Casablanca sketch. And when she goes big, as with her “NO, NO, NOOO’s” (in that same bit) it put me in stitches.

Here’s a list of... Comedy Bang Bangs 11 Funniest Kate McKinnon videos

And here’s the Casablanca sketch with J.K. Simmons... http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/casablanca/2844002

Kate has been nominated for an Emmy, but lost to Tarran Killam’s wife! (Colbie Smulders)

Rolling Stone ranked her #37 and said…
The brightest light in recent years. Her cop show with Aidy Bryant, Dyke and Fats, needs a spinoff movie. (and) It takes a sick enthusiasm to bring off her vicious portrayal of starving Russian peasant Olya Povlatsky: "Our only exports are homophobia and snow."

[MightyJack]

#34. Billy Crystal

Era: 1984-1985
32 points on 2 of 10 lists - Highest Ranking: #4 (Compound)
Most Memorable Characters: Willy, Fernando Lamas, Tony Minetti, Lew Goldman, Buddy Young Jr, Sammy David Jr, Al Minkman, Joe Franklin

In making my lists I wanted to use only one spot on season 10s ringers. And while I like Short and Guest a little more in total, when I think of this year the first thing that pops into mind is Crystal. He just stood out among a talent cast and left a lot of catch phrases in his wake. Fernando’s Hideaway was the bit that everyone remembers, I always like the line, “It’s better to look good than to feel good.”

Paste Magazine ranked him #31 and said…
It still feels weird to think that Billy Crystal was only on SNL for one year. I was just old enough in 1984 and 1985 to be familiar with his impression of Fernando Lamas, his catchphrase “you look mahvelous” permeating pop culture as thoroughly as any other bit in SNL history, and I just assumed that’s what the show had always been. There was no SNL without Fernando to second grade me. Crystal is one of the biggest stars to ever be a cast member on the show, and is one of the few to become a regular after already establishing himself in the public eye. He had already had his own primetime variety show, starred on Soap for years, and even hosted SNL multiple times before joining the cast. The show certainly helped his career, but he easily could’ve become the huge box office draw he became without that one year on SNL. Not all of the proven veterans Dick Ebersol brought into the show for the 1984-1985 season made a huge mark, but Crystal remains a huge, if short-lived, part of the show’s history.

Fernando interviews Hulk Hogan… https://screen.yahoo.com/fernando-hulk-hogan-mr-t-000000193.html

[MightyJack]

#33. Martin Short

Era: 1984-1985
32 points on 3 of 10 lists - Highest Ranking: #11 (Fred Garvin)
Most Memorable Characters: Ed Grimley, Nathan Thurm, Jackie Rogers Jr. Katherine Hepburn

I loved Short from his SCTV days, so he was a welcome sight on SNL. Even though it was strange to see his regulars interacting with different people. Short is one of sketch comedy’s greats, his timing and delivery, the facial expression and body language are a scream. Look at the way Ed Grimly moves for example. And in that Synchronized Swimming bit, Martin earns big laughs by just looking funny.

Paste Magazine ranked him #26 and said
Of all the ringers from the 1984 season, Short had both the most memorable characters and most closely fit the mold of an SNL player. That’s no slight to Crystal, who did great work the same season, but who was already well-established in America before joining the show, and thus always seemed a bit bigger than SNL itself. It was both Short’s lower profile in the States and his experience doing sketch comedy on SCTV that helped him slide seamlessly over to SNL, establishing himself as the show’s premier talent that year without completely dwarfing the show itself. And although he definitely made full use of such preexisting characters as Ed Grimley and Jackie Rogers Jr, he still created new characters, most notably the slimy lawyer Nathan Thurm. It’s telling that Short, of all the stars of the Dick Ebersol era, is the most welcomed back and celebrated by Lorne Michaels.

One of Martin’s funniest impressions: "Kate and Ali" (with Crystal)… http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/kate-and-ali/n9289

[MightyJack]

And that’s it for now; I’ll be back around this same time tomorrow. But I leave you with the…

SNL Question of the night: Favorite Faux Commercial?
There are so many good ones: Bass-O-Matic Colon Blow, Old Glory Robot Insurance, Oops I crapped My Pants and most recently, Jim Carey’s hilarious riff on Matthew McConaughey’s Lincoln ads.

But my #1 would have to be “Happy Fun Ball”, I remember the first time I saw that. It started off nice enough, and then just built and built on one terrible side effect after another. By the end, I was doubled over with laughter.

[Johnny Unusual]

Happy Fun Ball is by far the best one.  In close second aren't actual commercials but the "Brought to you by" parts of Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.

"Big Bean.  Why eat a bunch of little beans when you can have one big one?"
"A square foot of worms.  What you do with them is up to you."

Oh, also Action Cats (which would be great actual toys if it wasn't also a form of animal cruelty) and Philadelphia action figures.

[Tripe]

#38. Cheri Oteri

Era: 1995-2000
23 points on 3 of 10 lists - Highest Ranking: #13 (Tripe)
Most Memorable Characters: Collette Reardon, Barbara Walters, Arianna the Spartans cheerleader, Cass Van Rye, Joy Lipton, Rita DelVecchio, Nadeen, Judge Judy

Lovely, funny and so very sexy.

[Fred Garvin]

I got a hold of some bad shrooms didn't I? That's the only way I can explain seeing Robert Downey Jr on this list? 

SNL Question of the night: Favorite Faux Commercial?

 'Shimmer'- It's a floor wax. It's a dessert topping!" Still one of the best, with Chase, Radner and Aykroyd.

[Fred Garvin]

In close second aren't actual commercials but the "Brought to you by" parts of Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.

"Big Bean.  Why eat a bunch of little beans when you can have one big one?"
"A square foot of worms.  What you do with them is up to you."

They used to do that with Weekend Update in the 70s as well. My favorite "Brought to you by" was "Chairman Meow, the Chinese food for cats." And they show an image of a cat with chopsticks.

[Pak-Man]

Crystal Gravy!