For those of us who actually watched several decades of SNL

[andylawcc]

Cheri Oteri is my 2nd favorite female SNL actor behind Whig. No way should she be in the 90's.

ya, and Chris Kattan too. wtf

 

[zinfamous]

I'm not sure how Belushi is #1 instead of Eddie Murphy. He had so many memorable characters that were all hilarious, without having to rely on the exact same shtick for the character to make it funny. E.g., Samurai Delicatessen was funny only because something was getting cut in half.

pretty much. But "Little Chocolate Donuts"/Triathalon Belushi was so much better.

I'd argue that he's up there for the same reason that Washington is often considered our "greatest President."

Belushi more or less defined the tone of SNL.

 

[shortylickens]

I forgot they used to have balls:


https://screen.yahoo.com/snl-iconic-skits/word-association-000000441.html

 

[who?]

Paul Mooney is a black comedian who worked as a writer for Richard Pryor. He says that he wrote the word association sketch for Pryor.

 

[gotsmack]

ya, and Chris Kattan too. wtf

What do you mean? Chris Kattan was one of the worst cast members. I can't believe he wasn't ranked in the bottom 10 on the list.

 

[BUTCH1]

I'm surprised Eddie wasn't #1. He truly deserves it. Belushi...eh.

Fey should be top 10, but not where she was. She was a solid writer for many, many years, and it doesn't get mentioned (I know--it's a cast list).

Hartman should be 2, imo....if not 1. I think it's between him and Murphy. Hartman could do anything, any time he was needed, and was always perfect. Murphy saved the show through 4 seasons.

I can see Meyers at 4. Why not?

I think the list is topheavy for the last 15 years, and extremely dismissive of the current years (I can understand that). Also, a lot of favoritism for post-SNL career: Julia Louis-Dreyfus was completely forgettable on SNL. She was good, but no solid characters. She's been amazing from Seinfeld to Veep, though.

Kind of agree, Murphy was clearly the more talented one than John but IMO Belushi gave the viewers the "over the edge" factor in the early years that made all of us tune in every week to see what the hell he would try next. Also agree with Hartman as a strong candidate for 1-3 spot, he could shine in almost anything they wrote for him, my all time fav was "The Chameleon XR" or something where he's pitching an old, rusted car with a nice comfy interior as the ultimate urban car that thieves would leave alone, "the simulated transmission fluid leaking near the car says "don't bother, it's a shitbox". Then they roll a marble down a body panel which falls through a rust-hole to the ground, BMW at the time did the same thing to show off the perfect panel alignment in an ad running about the same time. Also he did the same with the "Adobe", a car made in Mexico from clay, I'll try and find them for everyone, Hartman was just so talented and it sucks how his days ended.
http://www.break.com/video/ugc/chamelion-xle-383947https://screen.yahoo.com/adobe-000000741.html

 

[BUTCH1]

I forgot they used to have balls:


https://screen.yahoo.com/snl-iconic-skits/word-association-000000441.html

Yea, LOL, thanks, totally forgot about that sketch. I remember when they did the "Star trek" sketch and Belushi ended it with "we found intelligent life everywhere in the galaxy except one network" poking a stick at NBC which canceled TOS after 3 seasons and SNL was also an NBC show. To be fair by season 3 TOS was showing the effects of poor screenplays and crappy redundant episodes so it really was it's time to go.

 

[phucheneh]

Even if you include guests, there have not even been 141 funny people on SNL since its inception.

Overly long list is overly long.

 

[BUTCH1]

Even if you include guests, there have not even been 141 funny people on SNL since its inception.

Overly long list is overly long.

Yea, some years were really, really bad but then again when guys like Hartman, Myeres, Chase, Akroyd ect. on the show was a hoot.

 

[Printer Bandit]

check out Kristin Wiig's big TV break on the Joe Schmo Show

 

[darkswordsman17]

Even if you include guests, there have not even been 141 funny people on SNL since its inception.

Overly long list is overly long.

This. SNL has been total steaming dogshit far more than it's been good. Even the good years had lots of dogshit.

That list is awful, the layout the placements, the synopsis, and well it just sucks and that's all there is to it.

What the fuck is Rachel Dratch doing anywhere above 50, maybe even 100?

 

[shortylickens]

All this time I thought it was Buck Wheat.

https://screen.yahoo.com/snl-best-of-the-80s/buh-weet-sings-223446547.html

 

[MongGrel]

The only sketch show I ever watched was In Living Color back in the day. Not sure why I never heard of SNL but I don't watch much tv.

 

[MongGrel]

Belushi _defined_ SNL. Murphy was probably the most talented player the show ever had, but he too wore out a lot of his characters. He also had the benefit of being maybe the _only_ genuine talent on the show in the early 80s.

pretty much. But "Little Chocolate Donuts"/Triathalon Belushi was so much better.

I'd argue that he's up there for the same reason that Washington is often considered our "greatest President."

Belushi more or less defined the tone of SNL.

+1

 

[Carson Dyle]

This. SNL has been total steaming dogshit far more than it's been good. Even the good years had lots of dogshit.

The first thing that came to my mind when I read the thread title...

Who actually watched SNL for all 40 years? Most seasons I'd catch pieces of a couple shows. Enough to know whether or not I wanted to waste any additional time watching more. I'd say at least 20 of those 40 years were totally worthless.

 

[darkswordsman17]

The first thing that came to my mind when I read the thread title...

Who actually watched SNL for all 40 years? Most seasons I'd catch pieces of a couple shows. Enough to know whether or not I wanted to waste any additional time watching more. I'd say at least 20 of those 40 years were totally worthless.

Yeah I don't know, guess it was a different time. But then, compared to talk shows and the rest of the garbage that was on TV SNL probably was quite a relative boon. I'm sure when it was new it was interesting, but I can't even understand the people that watched it all the time during the Sandler/Farley/etc era, let alone during the Will Ferrell dominated era, to say nothing of the downtimes between the "high points".

Sketch shows in general are hit and miss, I've enjoyed some skits from a lot of them (even MadTV had some funny stuff once in a while, In Living Color, The State, some others I always forget the names of), but overall they're not good enough to watch much. Most of the people that are any good on them go on to do much better movies and other things usually too.

Now there's basically no reason at all to watch SNL as anything that's any good will be available to watch in clips.

 

[MongGrel]

Yeah I don't know, guess it was a different time. But then, compared to talk shows and the rest of the garbage that was on TV SNL probably was quite a relative boon. I'm sure when it was new it was interesting, but I can't even understand the people that watched it all the time during the Sandler/Farley/etc era, let alone during the Will Ferrell dominated era, to say nothing of the downtimes between the "high points".

Sketch shows in general are hit and miss, I've enjoyed some skits from a lot of them (even MadTV had some funny stuff once in a while, In Living Color, The State, some others I always forget the names of), but overall they're not good enough to watch much. Most of the people that are any good on them go on to do much better movies and other things usually too.

Now there's basically no reason at all to watch SNL as anything that's any good will be available to watch in clips.

Yep, I personally have just watched highlights now and then for over 20 years.

I almost never tune in to it.

Just thought it was a pretty interesting anniversary special.