Here’s a few I found memorable–maybe not the best ever (most of those have already been named, and Schweddy Balls tops that list) but the best I haven’t seen in the thread yet.
Joe Montana as the creepy roommate who always says exactly what he’s thinking.
Cameron Diaz on the kid’s show Friendship Junction, featuring Freddy Friendship, Umberto Unity, Cathy Caring, and Katie Kindness, complete with initials on their t-shirts…
An opening sketch from during the 2000 presidential featuring an idea of what it would be like to watch Bush’s first address to the nation. In it, they showed a map of the country, and the Mississippi Delta was completely flooded, along with half the Midwest, New York City was on fire, California was in the sea…it was remarkably prescient. And sadly, I’m one of the few people who remembers it. I’d love to get a .jpg of that map.
Oh, and Bad Idea Jeans! I think we could have a thread just for best commercials, though.
I remember a late night talk show skit called “Women’s problems”.
It was Ackroyd, Belushi, Mr. Mike, annd maybe a couple of other guys being total sleazoids and discussing what’s wrong with all their women.
When Belushi said (something like) “My wife can’t have an orgasm”, everyone agrees, and if you couldn’t already figure it out, it became clear that these women’s problems were these very same sleazy men.
There’s over 30 years of sketches to choose from, how is it possible to select only five?! My personal favorites are from the early years … maybe it was because the crew was mostly high or maybe because I was mostly high.
Landshark
Todd and Lisa
Roseanne Roseannadanna
Mr. Bill and his nemesis Sluggo
And finally, a sketch from the late 80s; I haven’t seen it in years, but when it originally aired, I remember laughing so hard that I almost couldn’t stop! It was when Leona Helmsly was in jail as was Zsa Zsa (for slapping the policeman in LA), and some other woman as well. The woman were all breaking out of jail … I can’t even recall most of the sketch, but I do recall that I was nearly rolling on the floor, literally, as I watched it. I think.
I’m not claiming these are among the top five, but a few that haven’t been mentioned yet that spring to mind as having made me laugh pretty hard, even though I haven’t seen them in ages:
Oh man, I loved Stuart Smalley. But my favorite was the one he did with Michael Jordan. “Michael… do you ever lie awake at night before a big game and think… I’m not going to make any baskets tomorrow… I’m not going to do a very good job on the basketball court.” “Um… no, Stuart. Actually, I don’t.”
Along similar lines, the Chris Farley Show where he interviewed Paul McCartney:
Chris: “Um… do you remember… that time… when you were in the Beatles?”
Sir Paul: “Yes, Chris, actually, I do.”
Chris: “That was AWESOME!!!”
Okay, but my top 5 picks:
Columbian Crystals, with Chris Farley. The tableau at the end, with Farley bellowing in rage while his wife weeps at his feet and the waitress cowers in fear, is just hysterical to me.
That skit where the teleprompter quits working on the morning talk show, and by the end, they’re resorting to cannibalism.
“DEAD honkey.”
The very recent fake commercial for Annuale, the birth control pill that gives you a period once a year. “Ladies, go buy yourselves a hat and hang the **** on to it.”
That one debate skit between Bush and Gore. “Gentlemen, can you sum up your positions in one word?” Gore: “Lockbox.” Bush: “Strategery!”
Ask me another day and I could probably come up with 5 totally different picks.
The one about Beatniks! That’s my very favorite thing on SNL ever! It swas set in one of those poetry-panelled coffeeshops cum bongo basements like the one you saw on that one episode that every 60s sitcom did, the one that somehow involved the cool cat counterculture.
There was Steve Martin as a fey, beret-arrayed celebrity poet;
John Belushi was a hoot, playing a maniacal “hip comedian” who must have shot up a whole lot of speed in the cafe crapper just before going onstage to do a mile-a-minute monotone monologue of surreal and vaguely theatening nonsequiters;
the super-skinny chick from the original NRFPTP (what was her name?) played an interpretive dancer who looked more like of a hyperactive contortionist,
and Garrett Morris sat around not getting any dialog but looking very hip and cool indeed in his jazzman shades
–oh yeah and there was an MC who was all but wearing a HEY LOOK! I’M A POTHEAD! t-shirt, played by a non-memorable nobody, or somebody or other.
The next four run far distant seconds to that one, to my tastes anyway. But I still recall 'em occasionally with a self-enclosed chortle or chuckle:
Bat-O-Matic: like the Bass-O-Matic except redone for the nefarious needs of kitchen wizards and suburban sorcerors who want a potion that’s in motion.
“THE BREAKFAST YOU BANG!”
John Belushi as an old fart dancing on everyone else in the cast’s graves
Steve Martin (just before his sudden and startling explosion into irksome ubiquitousness for several years) singing the King Tut song (which was funny that one time, but then quickly so saturated the airwaves and the public awareness as to become noxiously, nauseatingly not-funny) on a stage set full of tacky Egyptian tchotchkees – especially when the sax player pops out of the mummy case
The Bush/Clinton/Perot debate sketch with Carvey playing both Bush Sr. and Perot
I don’t know how many people will remember this one, but my all time favorite is Dan Ackroyd (as a guest) playing Bob Dole during the 1988 Republican Primary in a Republican Debate sketch. I think it had Carvey as Bush, Al Franken doing a pretty good Pat Roberston, Mark McKinney as Steve Forbes and somebody or other (Nealon maybe?) playing Pierre “Pete” DuPont. The sketch basically consisted of Ackroyd’s Dole ripping the other candidates to shreds.
“Your name is Pierre. Don’t go around saying it’s Pete when it’s Pierre.”
“I’ll beat you with my one good arm, George Bush.”
“Pat Robertson, you’re an old revival show con artist from way back. I know it. You know it. The American people know it…if you want to impress me, why don’t you reach out and heal my right arm, Pat Robertson.”
It was a brilliant, tour de force by Ackroyd, but the others were good too. Ackroyd made Dole so likeable I almost wanted to vote for him.
Heh. I just quoted this in another thread (on best TV and movie insults).
Jeez, so many good skits already mentioned. I’d add:
Dan Ayckroyd as the lugubrious Leonard Pinth-Garnell, hosting “Bad Conceptual Theatre” or the like. “Deliciously bad!” he’d say, relishing its sheer awfulness.
Dan A. again, pitching the Bass-O-Matic. “Mmmm, that’s good bass!”
Happy Fun Ball, with its ridiculously long list of disclaimers (“Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball!”)
Clownpenisfart.com, the website for the brokerage that was too late getting in on the Internet boom, so all the good names were taken.
The Swinging Czechoslovak Brothers (Steve Martin and Dan A.), on the prowl for “foxes with their big American breasts!”
Dunno why so much Dan Ayckroyd. He just makes me laugh!
The one I always loved was the People’s Court with Lovett as the devil suing the hairdresser who sold her soul to give better cuts. “Mr Mephistopheles, you may be the ruler of the Underworld, but I am the ruler in this courtroom!”
I remember both of these (transcript of the Dole one here); and I’m glad someone posted examples of some of the brilliant political humor (with wonderful performances) SNL has done. I also liked the Clarence Thomas hearings sketch.
Jimmy Carter (Dan Akroyd) on a call-in show expertly talking a teenager down from an acid trip.
The yuppie couple who have to politely get rid of their unwanted houseguest Idi Amin (Garrett Morris).
Or, the episode in which Jimmy Carter is exposed to radiation and grows to 200 feet (so tall Rodney Dangerfield must explain how large he is to Rosalind [“I"m talkin’ BIG! He could have an affair with the Lincoln tunnel!”).
