I think we need a female. The only one worthy IMO is Tina Fey. Unfortunately not enough time has passed to give it to her. I never really found Gilda Radner particularly funny. I know that’s blasphemy in SNLism, but there you have it.
Eddie Murphy gets a bad rap for some of his not-so-great movies, but the fact is, he was great on SNL. Also, while many of his movies are sub-par, he has in fact been extremely prolific when compared to any other SNL member. I’ll give Adam Sandler a few movies, but most of them are just asinine, and completely below most of the worst Eddie Murphy movies.
So I go with John Belushi, Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey and Joe Piscapo.
I suppose you might make the case that Phil Hartman ranks above Joe, but I don’t see it.
If it sounds like the wind just picked up, it didn’t. Actually, I remember Joe being pretty funny on SNL, but I can’t for the life of me remember what his funny bits were. He definitely changed direction though. At least it was a successful change, and he didn’t half ass it.
Sorry, I’d have to nix Tina Fey. She really didn’t do anything besides the Weekend Update. No memorable ‘original’ characters in reoccuring skits. I’d be more likely to go with perhaps Molly Shannon (Mary Katherine Gallagher & Sally O’Malley) or Cheri Oteri (Arianna, Althea McMhaonman, Collete Reardon). They were both good enough to get the leads in reoccuring skits.
It’s true, Tina Fey really didn’t blossom until after SNL. She was great on Weekend Update though. I can’t remember any Tina Fey skits. Mary Katheryn Gallagher was terrible. I can’t remember any decent character except the NPR host and Tina Fey’s Weekend Update beats that by a mile. Cheri Otteri is better. I loved the Cheerleading skits, but I think that was mostly carried by Will Farrel. I certainly remember enjoying her in skits though. I still think you need to look at post SNL careers though. She’s basically done nothing notable since SNL. Maybe she was only good in that type of environment. I think SNL Monument should consider career accomplishments rather than just the show.
Of course it is all opinion, and I understand that reasonable people can disagree here. I just don’t think that either of those SNL members really broke out and became something.
I included Tina Fey not just for her very memorable Weekend Update stint, but because she was head writer for several good years prior to leaving the show.
Well I tallied up the responses above and so far the Moutain is looking like
John Belushi
Dan Ackroyd
Eddie Murphy
Phil Hartman
Good choices, but I will say I have a tough time leaving Will Farrell behind. He’s one of few “recent” SNL cast members that were awesome. He had a ton of hilarious and memorable scenes!!
Ewwww. Ugh blech barf.
SNL was so male-dominated for so long that it isn’t really necesary to have a female representative—after all, the real Mt. Rushmore doesn’t have one. But if you are going to put a woman on there, I’d go along with Gangster Octopus and vote for Amy Poehler. I agree that she’s the best female cast member in the history of the show, and was the show’s MVP for a while.
Not a bad choice, if you want the various eras represented. I’d be hard-pressed to decide between Carvey and Hartman.
John Belushi
Gilda Radnor
Eddie Murphy
Dana Carvey
I am surprised Dana Carvey is getting little support here. I think the Church Lady is the funniest character in SNL history and his George HW Bush impression was the best impression of all the presidents.
I think we need a SNL elimination game (like the one Greatest American Elimination that is going on in the Game Room). Maybe one for both characters and the comics.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Tina Fey, but most of her best work on SNL was behind the scenes. Doesn’t anyone remember Cheri Oteri? She was Will Ferrell’s better half during their age, and at least she never participated in those horrid Dog Show sketches.
I would say
Belushi - 70s
Hartman - 80s
Ferrell - 90s (as much as I hate to give it to him, based on his post-SNL work, he, along with Cheri, totally owned that show in the late 90s)
Forte - 00s (assuming the MacGruber movie doesn’t throw him off track)
The rest are skewed based on age. (To me, I think Farley and Ferrell are the two most iconic members. To others it’s Aykroyd and Radner.) However, I don’t think Eddie Murphy deserves to be on this list. Mr. Robinson was great, buckwheat was good, and gumby so-so. Plus he was only on for 4 years and i think his standup and movie career is buoying his SNL legacy. To me he’s on par with Tim Meadows or Tina Fey.
I think it’s also reasonable to expect that they are more than a forgotten footnote. Does anybody actually remember that he was on the show? Same with Julia Louis Dreyfus. Every time I’m reminded that Julia was on SNL, I don’t even have a vague memory of it.
Anyway, I think it’s still a bit early to put Tina Fey in the top four SNL members. She just has the path pretty well laid out right. Amy Poehler is pretty good too. They are both funny, but I think Tina Fey has a subtlety to her humor that Amy Poehler doesn’t.
Again, the other two slots are WIDE open for fun debate, but these two were so drop dead hilariously into their characters, we hardly know who they really were. Whereas, say, I feel I have a pretty good idea of who Tim Meadows is.
The SNL format does Farrell a huge favor by limiting him to five minute sketches. He’s great in small, measured doses, but I can’t stomach him in anything longer than that.
That being said, he still falls short of Mt. Rushmore.
In coming up with my choices I thought back at the most memorable sketches or roles and who played them. So …
John Belushi – He’ll always be the Sushi Samarai and half of the Blues Bros to me.
Dan Ackroyd – The other half of the Blues Bros and a hilarious Julia Child.
Phil Hartman – To me, the best Reagan in the show’s history, and overall versatility when the show recovered from near cancellation.
and … this will be different …
Steve Martin – He has hosted the show more than anyone to date and to me he’s as much SNL as the other three above.
And if there’s a 5th head, I’ll add Darrell Hammond, the anchor for the show in its current version and the best Clinton.
hammond is a shapeshifter when it comes to impersonations, especially his clinton. However, why does his presidential mimicry trump carvey’s Bush, or Farrel’s Bush jr?
Eddie Murphy who was one of the best on the show and by far the best off.
Phil Hartman to represent the 90’s resurgence.
Will Ferrell to represent the relevance of SNL during the Bush electoral cycles.
Funny, I was going to start a thread earlier today about where does Tina Fey rank with respect to POST SNL careers (some good movies and 30 Rock is an Emmy darling). Think I will start it now. Link to follow.