Saturday Night Live: Difference between revisions

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** '''Tony Rosato''' and '''Robin Duke''' are also the first former cast members of ''[[SCTV]]'' to be on ''Saturday Night Live'' (though the ''[[SCTV]]'' cast member who crossed over to ''SNL'' most people remember is '''Martin Short''').

* '''Danitra Vance''' (a little-known cast member from the same cast as Terry Sweeney [1985-1986]) is not only the first black female cast member who was hired as a repertory player ('''Yvonne Hudson''' is technically the first black female cast member ever to be hired on ''SNL'', but Hudson was only hired as a feature player -- during Jean Doumanian's notoriously bad sixth season -- and not much is known about her either, besides the fact that she was on ''SNL''), but also the only ''SNL'' cast member who had a learning disability (she was dyslexic), the only black female ''SNL'' cast member who is deceased (Vance died of breast cancer in 1994), and the first female cast member who was a lesbian (though her sexual preference wasn't made known until after she died).

* '''Joan Cusack''' and '''Kristen Wiig''' are the only female cast members to be nominated for [[Academy Award|Academy Awards]]; Cusack, twice (for Best Supporting Actress in ''[[Working Girl]]'' and ''In & Out''), and Wiig, once (for Best Original Screenplay, as the co-writer of ''[[Bridesmaids]]'').

* '''[[Al Franken]]''': The first -- and so far only -- ''SNL'' cast member who is now a U.S. Senator.

* '''Christopher Guest''' (from the 1984-1985 season -- season 10): Is the only ''SNL'' cast member who is a member of British nobility (his real title is, "Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest," or "Lord Haden-Guest" for short).

* '''Brad Hall''' and '''Julia-Louis Dreyfus''': The only ''SNL'' cast members to be married to each other.

** Conversely, there are a handful of ''SNL'' cast members who almost died, but didn't:

** '''Joe Piscopo''' and '''Julia Sweeney''' survived cancer (Julia Sweeney's brush with uterine cancer is covered on her tragicomic stage special "God Said, 'Ha!'").

''SNL'' has essentially become a New York City treasure, but even more importantly, ''[[Once Per Episode|Live from New York]], [[Title Drop|it's Saturday Night!]]''

 

 

In 2011 there were several [[Spin-Off]] series, most notably ''SNL Japan'' (June 2011) and ''SNL Korea'' (December 2011).

** The end of the Season 20 (1994-95 season) episode hosted by Bob Newhart was revealed to be this, mimicking the [[All Just a Dream]] ending to ''[[Newhart]]''.

* [[The Announcer]]: Don Pardo, still holding the job well into his 90s.

* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: feature player Taran Killam (pronounced Tear n' Kill em'). His first name is also a [[Bilingual Bonus]], as it's Sanskrit for "heaven".

** Charles Rocket also counts. He may have been on a lousy cast, but he did have a cool name (other names he went by outside of ''SNL'' include: Charlie Hamburger, Charlie Rocket, Charlie Kennedy, and his real name, Charles Claverie).

* [[Sketch Comedy]]: Not the first of its kind, but definitely one of the most popular.

* [[The Teaser]]: The cold opening. Usually, it's a political sketch (like a fictitious message from the President of the United States [or any government official] or a clip from a Congressional meeting or press conference as seen on such cable news channels as C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News), but there have been cold openings where it shows the cast backstage before the show (often with Lorne Michaels appearing as himself), cold openings featuring recurring characters, recurring sketches as cold openings, or one-off sketches about a current event.

* [[Turn Your Head and Cough]]: One skit involved a doctor performing this test on a male patient, asking him to cough over and over again. Another doctor soon enters the picture and both continue to perform this one part of the exam over and over. Then, a third doctor enters not recognizing the other two doctors already in the room, revealing the first two doctors to be impostors who just like to sneak into examination rooms and feel people's balls.

=== Individual sketches on the show are examples/subversions of common Tropes such as: ===

* [[Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male]]: The Tiger Woods press conference sketch on the episode hosted by Blake Lively (who played Tiger Woods' ex-wife Elin Nordegreen). [[Harsher in Hindsight|It doesn't help that the musical guest for that episode (Rihanna) is the same Rihanna who was beaten up by her now ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown (who would later be the musical guest for the season 36 episode hosted by]] [[Russell Brand]]).

** Then there are the many sketches where Fred Armisen plays a character who ends up getting beaten by a woman (the Annuale commercial from season 33 had him getting kicked in the groin and punched in the face by Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig punched Fred during the mosh pit riot on the "Death Metal ''[[Golden Girls]]'' Theme" ''SNL'' Digital Short, and the "Flags of the World" Digital Short had Nasim Pedrad hit Fred in the head with a "[[Menstrual Menace|Girlfriend on the Rag]] Flag").

* [[Accidental Athlete]]: "Waikiki Hockey" from the Wayne Gretzky/Fine Young Cannibals episode of season 14.

* [[Adam Westing]]: Any celebrity portrayed on ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' is a moron. [[Tom Hanks]] played...[[Funny Moments|himself -- as a moron]].

* [[Affectionate Parody]]: "I'm ON A BOAT!"

* [[The Ahnold]]: Hanz and Franz, Arnold Schwarzenegger's less-famous cousins. The real deal appeared in one of their sketches.

* [[Alien Among Us]]: "The [[Coneheads]]". Also, Bill Hader's Greg in "Game Time with Randy and Greg".

* [[Ambiguous Gender]]: "It's Pat".

* [[Amusing Alien|Amusing Aliens]]: "The [[Coneheads]]", again.

** Another sketch, spoofing John McCain ads in 2008 made countless [[You Fail Logic Forever|flawed arguments]] against his opponent [[Barack Obama]].

{{quote|"Barack Obama says he wants universal health care. Is that so? Health care for the ''entire universe''? Including ''Osama bin Laden''?"}}

* [[Casanova Wannabe]]: Chris Parnell's "Merv the Perv" (and his brother, Irv, played by episode host Johnny Knoxville), Christopher Walken's "The Continental" (mixed in with [[Handsome Lech]]), The Roxbury Guys (Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan), and The Wild and Crazy Guys (Dan Aykroyd and Steve Martin).

* [[Catholic School Girls Rule]]: Molly Shannon as Mary Katherine Gallagher.

* [[Comically Small Bribe]]: In one early episode, Lorne Michaels came on to offer [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]] a check for $3,000 to reunite on the show. Lennon and McCartney, who both happened to be in New York that night and saw the bit on TV, nearly went down to the studio for a surprise visit.

** Later sketches featured both McCartney and Harrison, when appearing as solo acts, trying to claim part of the money.

* [[Cue Card Pause]]: Prevalent in the "[[Jimmy Fallon]] cracking up" era. Not so much now, unless you count the many times that a newbie host has trouble with his or her lines.

* [[Cut Himself Shaving]]: The "Tiger Woods Press Conference" sketch on the Blake Lively/Rihanna episode where every time Woods (Kenan Thompson) apologized for his affairs, something he said or something that happened (like his cell phone ringing or saying that [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|he can "get rid of this old thing and get a new model"]] ([[Don't Explain the Joke|referring to his damaged car, not his wife]]) would get him beaten by his wife, Elin (Blake Lively) and he would explain away the injuries as an accident (Woods even uses the old excuse that he "fell down the stairs").

** Now [[Defictionalization|Defictionalized]], pop [https://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/09/07/140266537/yes-its-true-ben-jerrys-introduces-schweddy-balls-ice-cream-flavor?sc=emaf Ben & Jerry's Schweddy Balls] in your mouth any time you like!

* [[Drop the Cow]]: Zigzagged. Some seasons (and episodes within seasons) will have overly long sketches; others will have sketches that know when to stop.

* [[The Eeyore]]: Rachel Dratch's "Debbie Downer".

* [[Emergency Presidential Address]]: ''Saturday Night Live'' routinely parodies [[Real Life]] Emergency Presidential Addresses of this type. Often the skit will be at the beginning of the episode, and end with the leader in question declaring "Live from New York, it's Saturday night!"

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: Jason Sudeikis as The Devil on "Weekend Update." Even though he's the embodiment of all that's wicked and corrupt in the world, The Devil does not support priests who molest children or the decision to have the Westboro Baptist Church protest at military funerals and use their religion to discriminate against homosexuals. And now, thanks to Penn State's molestation scandal involving Jerry Sandusky, The Devil has quit his job as the Lord of the Underworld and went back to his old job as Time-Warner Cable's customer service rep.

** On the Season 27 episode hosted by Jack Black, there was a sketch where a knight set out to rescue his lady love from a monster who had demanded that a virgin be sacrificed to him once a year. However, it turns out he's fed up with the virgin's lack of skills. When the knight asks if that's why he released a previous victim, the monster angrily declares that it's because {{spoiler|she was 13 years old and, even though he's a monster, he's not into banging a girl who's not legal}}.

* [[Everything Explodes Ending]]: [[MacGruber]].

* [[Evil Twin]]: Jay Leno (before he went on to host ''[[The Tonight Show]]'' in the 1990s) hosted a Season 11 (1985-86) episode where, in one sketch, he played his own evil twin.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: The whole point of the "Jingleheimer Junction" sketch from Season 24, in which the four members of the "Junction Gang" {{spoiler|each have a letter on their sweater correlating to their name: only the letters end up being F-U-C-K.}}

** To count the many times ''SNL'''s humor has successfully (and unsuccessfully) gotten past the radar would need a wiki all its own.

* [[Hands Go Down]]: From an early 1990s sketch, a classroom full of not-so-bright students.

{{quote|'''Teacher:''' How many people here have seen ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]''?

* [[Hot for Student]]: The Season 35 classroom sketch with Tina Fey and Justin Bieber.

** A Season 32 sketch where episode host Annette Bening plays a teacher who's in love with an apathetic student (Andy Samberg) who doesn't realize that he's in a relationship with his teacher.

* [[Hulk Speak]]: The team-ups of Tarzan (Kevin Nealon), Tonto (Jon Lovitz), and Frankenstein's monster (Phil Hartman) had great fun with this. One sketch revealed the monster had a completely articulate [[Evil Twin]] played by [[Mel Gibson]].

* [[I Banged Your Mom]]: In the ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' skits, this is Sean Connery's favorite type of insult to use against Trebek.

* [[Kill the Poor]]: Referenced in the "[http://bcmoney-mobiletv.com/view/371/Will%20Ferrell:%20Wake%20up%20and%20SMILE/ Wake Up & Smile]" sketch. It was about the cheerful hosts of a morning news show who start having breakdowns on-air when the teleprompter breaks. Trying to improvise, Will Ferrell's character says that someone should get a bunch of guns to "sweep out those ghettos". Cut to commercial.

* [[Kitschy Local Commercial]]: A staple in recent years, often relegated towards the end of the episode.

* [[Left Fielder]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu46A69a1TE "OVER THE WEEKEND, YOU STUPID BITCH!"] Complete with [[Chris Farley]] ''daring'' his co-stars to start [[Corpsing]].

* [[Loads and Loads of Characters|Loads And Loads of Recurring Characters]]: Some well-remembered. Others, either long-forgotten or not that well-known.

* [[Lounge Lizard]]: Bill Murray's Nick the Lounge Singer, who may have been the [[Trope Codifier]] for the stereotypical lounge singer.

* [[Mercy Kill]]: In a sketch making fun of Gov. Rick Perry's blanking during a debate, Mitt Romney comes over and tries to shoot Perry through the head in a [[Homage]] / [[Parody]] of ''[[Of Mice and Men]]''. [[Hard Head|The bullet bounces off.]]

* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Played straight (and lampshaded a few times) with Victoria Jackson's appearances on the mid-1980s Weekend Update with Dennis Miller, where she did headstands, bent over backwards, or danced on the Weekend Update desk in high heels, pantyhose, and a skirt. Parodied with Kristen Wiig's Shana character who, despite being a drop-dead gorgeous redhead with a cooing baby-voice, has a lot of...unfortunate internal bodily issues.

* [[Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant]]: Bill Hader's Stefon, a [[Camp Gay]] culture correspondent who recommends vacations and nights out at the strangest underground clubs filled with freaks and weirdos. [[Take My Word for It|The descriptions have to be heard to be believed]].

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: [[Sean Connery]] in the ''[[Jeopardy!|Celebrity Jeopardy!]]'' sketches at first appears to be just as mind-numbingly idiotic as all the other contestants, but over time it becomes clear that he's actually quite smart - he just ''pretends'' to be stupid in order to annoy Trebek.

* [[Oh Crap]]: While Alex Trebek feels this way every time Sean Connery buzzes in, he gets a big one when the producers decide to play along with Sean's shtick for one Final Jeopardy round...

'''Sean Connery''': Hahahaha! My day has come! Ahahahahahaha!}}

* [[Overly Long Gag]]: "It's Pat", the whole point of which was [[The Un-Reveal]] as to which gender Pat was. Turned [[Up to Eleven]] when the sketch got a ''film adaptation'' that did pretty much the same thing. {{spoiler|(Can we just say Pat's a very confused bisexual?)}}

** [[Daniel Radcliffe]] appeared as Harry Potter in a Hogwarts sketch that showed Harry Potter as a washed-up wizard who still lives at Hogwarts while all the other characters have moved on with their lives.

** Will Ferrel's final episode had Alex Trebek and Janet Reno breaking into the final sketches of his impressions of them.

* [[Peking Duck Christmas]]: The TV Funhouse sketch/song "Christmastime for the Jews".

* [[Perfume Commercial]]: Spoofs include Hey You ("The perfume for one night stands") and Compulsion by Calvin Kleen (a cleaning product presented in the style of the commercials for Calvin Klein's Obsession perfume).

* [[The Power of Acting]]: Master Thespian aspires to this, but his mentor (episode host John Lithgow) surely has it.

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: Charles Rocket's "I wanna know who the fuck did it," during the Charlene Tilton/Todd Rundgren and Prince episode from Season 6 and Jenny Slate's "You know what? You stood up for yourself and I fuckin' love you for that!" on the Season 35 premiere hosted by Megan Fox. Note that both of these instances are accidental, caused a lot of controversy for the show, and led to the cast members who uttered the lines to be fired and forgotten.

* [[Subverted Kids Show]]: Many, from "The Mr. Bill Show" to many of the "TV Funhouse" shorts...and the live-action ones are worse (the one-shot sketch "The Happy Smile Patrol", recurring sketch "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood", and the Digital Short "The Tizzle Wizzle Show").

* [[Take That]]: Sometimes ''SNL'' will dish out a [[Take That]] against something (cf. the "Really?! With Seth and Amy" segments, the "Bronx Beat" sketch with Katy Perry as a busty teenage librarian {given that the episode premiered the same week as news of a ''[[Sesame Street]]'' sketch featuring [[Katy Perry]] being banned because of Perry's allegedly risque dress}); other times, someone will issue a [[Take That]] against the show itself (cf. New York governor David Paterson's description of ''SNL'' during his surprise appearance on Weekend Update to confront Fred Armisen's insulting impersonation of him when compared the show to being governor: "It has a lot of characters, it's only funny for ten minutes, and then you just want it to be over") or a cast member (cf. David Spade's description of Eddie Murphy: "Look, kids, it's a falling star. Make a wish!").

* [[They Killed Kenny]]: Bobby Moynihan's Ass Dan character on the Kickspit Underground Rock Festival sketches. When the sketches first started in 2009, it was established that Ass Dan was dead at the age of 28 (Ass Dan was born in 1981). In 2010, another sketch (this time, an Insane Clown Posse music video parody) had Ass Dan alive and well -- until Jason Sudeikis's character, DJ Supersoak (who also was said to be dead at the end of the sketch at age 36 [DJ Supersoak was born in 1974], then brought back later without an explanation]) stated that "Ass Dan did just die when we were playin' that video there," moving Ass Dan's age of death to 29 (it was also confirmed on the "Crunkmas Carnival" sketch that Ass Dan was dead and he was finally going to get the wake he deserves -- until Ass Dan popped out of the casket and shouted, "''Yeah!'' You ''know'' I'm still alive, [[This Is for Emphasis, Bitch|bitch]]!" and before saying, "[[Tempting Fate|I'm gonna live forever]]!", was cut off by a memorial still that read, "Ass Dan: 1981-2010." Recently, there was a Kickspit Underground Easter Festival sketch that, once again, has Ass Dan alive again and cut off with a memorial still that now reads, "Ass Dan: 1981-2011," making Ass Dan 30 years old.

** [[Fridge Brilliance]] and [[Fridge Horror]]: The recent Kickspit Underground sketch reveals that {{spoiler|Ass Dan is susceptible to heart attacks, meaning that Ass Dan is, in fact, alive, and all the years he supposedly died was when he suffered a heart attack}}.

* [[We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties]]: Parodied on the banned TV Funhouse cartoon "Mediaopoly"; late in the song, after exposing many dark secrets about General Electric, a "technical difficulties" title card appears, implying GE censored the sketch. However, it's actually part of the sketch, since the chorus keeps singing afterwards. The singers even lampshade the fact that [[We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties]] is used as a cheap way to censor out anything that the sponsors or network may find controversial.

* [[When I Was Your Age]]: Dana Carvey's "Grumpy Old Man" segments on Weekend Update.

* [[Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?]]: Mr. Sluggo.

* [[Wild Card Excuse]]: The Coneheads handwave their weirdness by claiming to be from France.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Seventies]]

[[Category:American Series]]

[[Category:Sketch Comedy]]

[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]

[[Category:TV Series]]