THIS LIST WAS NOT MADE BY AN ACCREDITED SNL FAN BUT BY AN ENTHUSIASTIC BLOGGER WITH A LOVE FOR ALL OF JULIA SWEENEY'S MEMORABLE CHARACTERS: Paste lists SNL's top 30 characters of all time, and while I can forgive the exclusion of Gilly, who most people outside of my immediate family can't stand, how can you leave Nick the Lounge Singer off the roster? And I am guessing characters excludes celebrities or else Alex Trebek & Sean Connery and even Buckwheat would be here. And while Dan Aykroyd merits the most mentions with four (Killer Bees, Wild and Crazy Guys, Coneheads and Blues Bros.), Dana Carvey wins the most praise for holding down the top two slots, solo with the Church Lady at No. 2 and alongside Wayne at No. 1. But seriously, Pat?
So, who else deserved to be on the list? Talk amongst yourselves (No. 11) in the comments.
And that list was doing so well until it hit the indefensible #14. (And #3 is far too high.) Seriously, no Caveman Lawyer, or Tonto/Tarzan/Frankenstein?
ReplyDeleteNo love for the Sweeney Sisters (Jan Hooks and Nora Dunn)? My college roommate and I loved, loved, loved them. "Bang, bang, bang went the trolley. Ding, ding, ding went the bell." Classic! Pure schmaltz.
ReplyDeleteThe guest was moi...one glass of wine at dinner and I forget who I am!!!!
ReplyDeleteNo Buckwheat? F this list.
ReplyDelete(Also: no Tonto/Frankenstein/Tarzan, no Stuart Smalley, no Canteen Boy, no Falconer, no DeAndre Cole? WUWT?)
The Spartan Cheerleaders? I've never gotten that one as even remotely charming. Seriously, I'd prefer Goat Boy.
ReplyDeleteI second the Sweeney Sisters - and I was so frickin happy to find their classic Christmas medley online last year - and would also add Bobbi and Martie Culp. For Molly Shannon, I'd pick either "Joyologist" Helen Madden ("I love it! I Love it! I love it!") or Sally O'Malley over MKG.
ReplyDeleteAlso, of course: Stefon
Cheerleaders at number three makes his list highly suspect. I second the aforementoned omissions and add Emily Litella for your consideration.
ReplyDeleteI can't seem to get to the list but if Brian Fellow(s) isn't on it, it is a travesty.
ReplyDeleteIf Emily Litella wansn't on the list...it's meaningless. I recall getting in a lot of trouble in my H.S. Social Studies class while my friend and I giggled about various Gilda skits.
ReplyDeleteYes, but even worse is that it includes the horrible Mary Gallagher sketches.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if the exclusion of Buckwheat had something to do with no celebrity impressions being on the list even though Buckwhear is a fictional character, but the Continental and Gumby made the list, so there goes that theory.
ReplyDeleteFellow is No. 8
ReplyDeleteI can't click through the list for two reasons (first, click-through list; second, it includes Pat, which is usually my go-to "worst character in the history of SNL" example). But I stick by my statement that Carvey's most popular characters were never funny, and were always popular in a Jay Leno go-for-the-cheer-not-the-laugh kind of way. Carvey had a tendency to view himself as a catch-phrase delivery system and used audience familiarity as a crutch. He didn't have to do that (for example, Massive Head Wound Harry, who I think appeared only once, was really funny), but obviously it worked for him -- his giant stable of catch-phrase characters must have made the show ridiculously easy to write. Once you know the name of the host, how long would it take to bang out a Church Lady?
ReplyDeleteMy favorite character that nobody likes: Rob Schneider's Orgasm Boy. Schneider did exactly three things on the show that I liked during his entire tenure. One was Orgasm Boy. One was his backing work on the weird Lunch Ladyland song by Sandler. And the last was during a Mothers' Day show, when all of the cast members filmed bumpers with their mothers. Most were either straightforward "I love you mom" things, and a couple had a bit of tame scripted banter. In Schneider's, he sang a bit of "Love Me Tender," and his mom said something unscripted and loving along the lines of "you have such a nice voice, Robert." She went to give him a hug, and he flinched. Perfect timing, and the look on her face, like this was the millionth time he ruined a beautiful moment to get a cheap laugh, was unbeatable.