There are quite a number of Phil Hartman fans on the board. Whether you love him from SNL, The Simpsons or Newsradio, Phil had a huge impact on comedy. Why don’t we share our favorite Phil moments?
SNL
I loved his Frank Sinatra impression. The best skit was with Billy Idol, 2 Live Cru and Sinead O’Connor.
-Frankenstein, Tonto, and Tarzan was exceptional. The best one was when Phil lost it live on TV. In Live from New York, Phil’s reasons for cracking up make the whole skit funnier. #1 It hit him how funny it looked to have Frankenstein, Tonto and Tarzan on a talk show. #2 It hit him how funny it must have looked to see Frankenstein laugh.
Anal retentive chef makes me feel better about my own neuroses.
His voiceover for Happy Fun Ball
Newsradio
The smoking episode: screaming at Matthew while going cold-turkey and the way he says “You’re mocking me, aren’t you?”
The cane episode: his cane-fueled directions to the graphics department and the cavalcade of canes at the end.
Malt Fuel Liquor damn! That episode has entered my personal vocabulary. It’s crizappy!
"Tell me Dave about these new fangled com-poo-ters.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I’m just a caveman. I fell on some ice and later got thawed out by some of your “scientists.” Your world frightens and confuses me! Sometimes when I get on a “message board”, I wonder: “Did little demons get inside and type it?” I don’t know! My primitive mind can’t grasp these concepts. But there is one thing I do know - when a man like Phil Hartman passes away, it is a tragic loss to humor and mankind.
Now this is something the other tour guides won’t tell you. In this particular cell-block, Machine Gun Kelly had what we call in the prison system, a “bitch”. And one night in a jealous rage Kelly took a make-shift knife or “shiv”, and cut out the bitch’s eyes. And as if this wasn’t enough retribution for Kelly, the next day he and four other inmates took turns pissing into the bitch’s ocular cavities. (short pause) This way to the cafeteria!
Phil Hartman was awesome. His character on Newsradio is my favorite. I love the smoking one where he puts on the belt of nicotine patches. And the one where they are getting rid of the vending machine and he eats all of those crunchy sandwiches that have been in there for years.
That is my favorite line in the history of SNL. No kidding.
Sometimes I forget he’s dead. I’m so glad the Newsradio DVD came out.
The Anal Retentive Chef skits on SNL are so ridiculous that you think there can’t be anyone on this earth like that…and then you meet my husband. I call him that all the time.
One of the best SNL episodes had Jason Preistly as a host. It had great skits with New Kids on the Block after they fired their entire staff to prove themselves. It also had The Dating Game and Phil Hartman played Susan, one of the choices. I still think of the line, “My name is Susan, and I just got out of prison” with that foreign accent. Hilarious.
That’s just it - I remember that scene vividly, but I’m damned if I can remember what movie it was in. That’s the mark of a great actor - one cameo is the only memorable thing in an entire movie.
I loved Bill McNeal’s horrifying family stories which always ended with “Good times” That is my family’s catch-phrase now. The best one is where he recalls an exchange between his mother and father:
“My goodness George, is there anything that you won’t drink”
“I won’t drink poison. WHICH I"M SAVING FOR YOU!”
“Good times…”
My favorite Clinton skit was the one in which Phil Hartman as Clinton goes into a McDonald’s, surrounded by an entourage of Secret Service guys, and starts graphically demonstrating the situation in Somalia by grabbing people’s burgers and taking bites out of them. “OK… now, here’s a shipment of necessary food…” (CHOMP) “… once again taken by warlords!”
I still get a little verklempt every time they do a “Continental” skit and they play Phil’s voice-over intro to it. He’s the only celebrity that I’ve actually missed in a really personal way.
