Saturday Night Live: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''"Live from New York, it's '''Saturday Night'''!"''}}

'''''Saturday Night Live''''' is a ground-breaking [[NBC]] sketch comedy/VarietyShow, broadcast live from New York City in what had been, up until its premiere in 1975, TVs "graveyard shift" slot.

 

 

Reveled during its early years in a feeling of being just shy of completely out of control, and pushed the boundaries of television far beyond what anyone had ever seen before. The cast is continually shifting, with veterans departing for solo careers and young performers being recruited regularly.

 

 

Every episode features the guest host deliver an opening monologue and participate in most of the evening's sketches. Actors, musicians, and comedians are the most common selections. They have always had a standing band for various musical numbers, but often with a guest musician to perform a piece or two in the middle of the program. If the host is a well-known musician, they will often fill both roles, and sometimes guest musicians participate in skits too, though not as often as the host.

 

* '''[[Harry Shearer]]''': the only cast member to be such for two non-consecutive seasons (1979-80 <ref> season 5</ref> and 1984-85 <ref> season 10</ref>), making him the [[Grover Cleveland]] of ''SNL''. Also the only cast member to be a regular cast member on another long-running American comedy show that heavily influenced modern pop culture, is considered a goldmine of modern satire and memorable catchphrases, memes, and comic moments in the pre-Internet era, and whose humor and quality has been called into question in recent years — ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''<ref>(Phil Hartman, while a memorable and endearing cast member of both ''SNL'' and ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', doesn't count since he wasn't credited as a regular on ''The Simpsons''.)</ref>

* '''Anthony Michael Hall''' -- [[Name's the Same|no relation to Brad or Rich Hall, and those two guys aren't related to each other, either]] (the youngest male ''SNL'' cast member. Hall was only 17 when he joined the 1985-1986 cast)

* '''[[Abby Elliott]]''', the first (and so far only) cast member who is the child of another cast member (her father is Chris Elliott, who was on ''Saturday Night Live'' during its 20th season [1994-1995]). Chris' own father was Bob Elliott of [[Bob and Ray]] (who appeared on a Christmas episode of ''SNL'' in 1978), making it three generations of Elliotts who have appeared on the show in some capacity. Elliott is also the youngest female cast member in the show's history (21 and five months when she first appeared as a cast member in 2009), beating out Julia Louis-Dreyfus (21 and eight months when she first came on the show in 1982).

* '''Tim Meadows''', the longest-serving black male cast member (1990-2000). He wasn't that popular in his early years on the show, but became popular in the mid-to-late 1990s when Lorne fired most of the season 20 cast and revamped the show for season 21.

* '''Tony Rosato''', '''Pamela Stephenson''', '''Morwenna Banks''', '''Horatio Sanz''', and '''Nasim Pedrad''' are the only cast members to be born outside of North America (Rosato was born in Italy before his parents emigrated to Canada, Stephenson was born in New Zealand and is now an Australian citizen, Banks was originally from England, Sanz was born in Chile, and Nasim Pedrad was originally from Iran).

* '''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:

 

''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).

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* [[Ambiguously Gay]]: ''The Ambiguously Gay Duo'', and "Lyle, the Effeminate Heterosexual".

* [["El Niño" Is Spanish for "The Nino"]]

* [[Every Year They Fizzle Out]]

* [[Happy Fun Ball]]

* [[The Thing That Would Not Leave]]

* [[The Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer]]

* [[Why We're Bummed Communism Fell]]: From a ''[[Wayne's World]]'' sketch.

{{tropelist}}

* [[All Just a Dream]]: To make people forget about the disjointed lousiness of Season 11 (1985-86) and to start fresh with a new and better cast, ''SNL'' used this Trope by having Madonna (who hosted the Season 11 premiere) announce during the cold opening of Season 12 premiere that Season 11 was all "a dream...a horrible, horrible dream."

** 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.

** 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).

* [[Broadcast Live]]: From New York (only on the Eastern and Central timezones, tape delayed for all others).

* [[Corpsing]]: It's live comedy, after all. It was prevalent when [[Jimmy Fallon]] became a Weekend Update anchor (which most fans declared was distracting).

** It also happens ''every time'' Bill Hader appears as Stefon on Weekend Update ([[That Other Wiki]] and most late-night talk show interviews even claim that Bill Hader has ''never'' got through a Stefon segment -- both in dress rehearsal and on the live show -- without cracking up <ref>Though that may be an exaggeration, as there are actually four segments in which Bill Hader has played Stefon and not cracked up once -- the first sketch that introduced Stefon as Ben Affleck's estranged brother, a Weekend Update segment that had Stefon, Boby Moynihan as Snooki from ''[[Jersey Shore]]'', and Fred Armisen as David Patersen singing "O, Christmas Tree," another Weekend Update segment with [[Seth Meyers]] announcing to the audience that he's going on summer vacation with Stefon, and in the monologue of the Maya Rudolph episode, where Stefon appears as a background singer for Maya Rudolph. Still, the four times Hader hasn't cracked up compared to the ten times that he did -- as of May 2012 -- isn't really considered a good track record</ref>), though, unlike Jimmy Fallon's cracking up <ref> which is usually blamed on Fallon's lack of professionalism by his detractors. On the 2011 Christmas episode, Fallon himself even admitted that his cracking up ruined a lot of good sketches</ref>, there's a reason why it happens to Bill Hader. According to [[That Other Wiki]] and an interview on ''The Late Show with David Letterman'', John Mulaney (one of the show writers) changes some of the lines without Bill Hader's knowledge and Hader is reading and reacting to them for the first time. Other contributing factors include the cue card man laughing (along with other crew members) and how absurdist the whole thing is.

* [[Deadly Delivery]]: In season 1, a recurring character is a "land shark" (Chevy Chase in a cheap shark costume) that tries to get people to open their door. He always gets in when offering a candygram.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Most Weekend Update anchors, the snarkiest of which being Chevy Chase, Dennis Miller, [[Tina Fey]], Norm McDonald, and Seth Meyers (both with and without [[Amy Poehler]]).

** Denny Dillon: Performed a stand-up routine on the Rob Reiner episode (season 1). Despite unsuccessfully auditioning for the show in 1975, Dillon was chosen for the 1980-81 cast.

** Ann Risley: Had a small speaking role in a pre-taped sketch called Mobile Shrink during season 2's Dick Cavett episode. Like Denny Dillon, Ann would be chosen for the 1980-81 cast.

** Terry Sweeney: Originally hired as a writer for the 1980-81 season, five years before he was hired as a castmember by [[Lorne Michaels]]. He makes one on-screen appearance that season, in the cold opening of the Sally Kellerman/Jimmy Cliff episode where [[Ronald Reagan]] (played by Charles Rocket) celebrates his 70th birthday.

** [[Tina Fey]]: Back when she was the first female head writer of ''SNL'' <ref>(which, back then, was considered groundbreaking as ''SNL'' has always had men as head writers; there '''were''' women writers -- including Jean Doumanian during her disastrous tenure as executive producer, but no woman before Tina Fey was a head writer)</ref>, Fey appeared in some sketches as an uncredited extra and even had a celebrity impersonation ([[wikipedia:Kathleen Willey|Kathleen Willey]]) before she became a cast member/Weekend Update anchor in Season 26.

** Jason Sudeikis: Had a lot of bit roles in Seasons 29-30 until he was hired as a cast member near the end of Season 30.

* [[Guest Host]]: Some of which are fan favorites and come back to host, like Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, Christopher Walken, Tom Hanks, John Goodman (though he hasn't hosted since 2001), Buck Henry (from the 1975-80 era), and Drew Barrymore (who first hosted when she was only seven years old). Some new fan favorite frequent hosts as of the 2008-2009 season include Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm, Scarlett Johanssen, and Justin Timberlake.

** All hosts of five or more episodes are part of a special Five-Timers Club, as demonstrated in a mid-1990s sketch (which included then-writer and pre-''Late Night'' Conan O'Brien as a servant). The club also includes musical guests with similar records, with Paul Simon as having the most appearances of any musical guest.

* [[Live but Delayed]]: Three episodes were put on seven-second delay, all of which were hosted by controversial comedians — Richard Pryor (Season 1), Sam Kinison (Season 12), and Andrew "Dice" Clay (Season 15).

** The show also airs on a delay in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones.

* [[Long Runners]]: Has 36 completed seasons, is almost done its 37th season, and will most likely come back for a 38th. It has survived cast and crew turnover, seven U.S. Presidents (starting with [[Gerald Ford]]), harsh critics, low ratings, threats of cancellation, fickle fans, radical (and not-so-radical) social and cultural shifts, and all of the [[Dueling Shows]] that have aired as alternatives.

* [[The Movie]]: Many characters have been spun off into feature films. Although some spinoff movies (such as ''[[The Blues Brothers]]'' and ''[[Wayne's World]]'') have become classics in their own right, most range from [[So Okay It's Average]] (the ''[[MacGruber]]'' movie and ''Stuart Saves His Family'') to completely awful (''It's Pat'', ''A Night at the Roxbury'', ''The Ladies Man'', and ''Blues Brothers 2000'').

* [[New Season, New Name]]: When this show first started, it was called "NBC's ''Saturday Night''" because there was already a show on ABC called "Saturday Night Live" (this one had Howard Cosell as a permanent host). The NBC version wouldn't be officially called ''Saturday Night Live'' until season three (in season two, the "NBC" part of the title was dropped and the show was called ''Saturday Night'').

** The 1980-81 season was renamed "Saturday Night Live '80" in order to differentiate it from the five Lorne-produced seasons before it. The "80" was dropped in January 1981 (and the rest of the Jean Doumanian season was dropped a month later).

** Musical guest Sinead O'Connor was banned after ripping up a picture of the Pope and calling him 'the read enemy' after her second song (the segment was banned as well).

** The most famous was probably [[Elvis Costello]], who in a 1977 appearance defied Lorne Michaels' order that he was not to play "Radio Radio" on air. The ban was in effect until 1999, when Elvis was allowed to disrupt a [[Beastie Boys]] performance to play the song again.

* [[The Pratfall]]: a slapstick staple used by many of the more physical comedians on the show.

** Chevy Chase regularly used them when playing President Gerald R. Ford.

* [[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: ===

* [[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.

* [[Amusing Injuries]]: Dana Carvey's "Massive Headwound Harry" (which went straight into [[Nausea Fuel]] when {{spoiler|a dog was shown chewing off the head wound prosthetic on Carvey's head}}) and the recurring sketch, "Appalachian Emergency Room" (where rednecks come into a backwoods doctor's office and tell the receptionist how they got injured).

* [[Ascended Meme]]: The whole point of the 100th Digital Short is basically cramming in every [[Memetic Mutation]] permeated by previous [[Lonely Island]] digital shorts.

* [[Attack of the Political Ad]]: After the US 1988 Presidential Election, [[George Bush|George H.W. Bush]] was still running new anti-Dukakis ads, even though he had already won, just because he had some campaign money left over. Content of the post-election ads would criticize Dukakis for being shorter than Bush.

** 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.

*** And then the end-the-skit-on-a-high-note episode, in which Pesci![[Jim Breuer]] and Deniro![[Colin Quinn]] were treated to two very special guests--the ''real'' [[Joe Pesci]] and [[Robert De Niro]]. Pesci very calmly and eloquently deconstructs the skit's premise, with Deniro adding his two cents when appropriate.

{{quote|'''[[Robert De Niro]]''': ...who are ''you'' supposed to be?

** A fantastic variant of this came in a Season 18 episode, featuring Mike Myers doing a Mick Jagger impression alongside the ''real'' Jagger, who was doing ''his'' impression of '''Keith Richards'''.

** On one Weekend Update segment around Christmas, Dennis Miller was reciting The Night Before Christmas alongside [[Dana Carvey]] ''doing a [[Dennis Miller]] impersonation'', trading lines, with Carvey riffing on Miller's long-winded and vocabulary-intensive speaking style. Miller had trouble keeping it together.

** When Jesse Eisenberg hosted, he, Mark Zuckerberg and Andy Samberg doing a Mark Zuckerberg impression were all on stage together during the opening monologue.

* [[Chekhov's Gag]]: On the Jon Hamm episode from Season 35, there was a fake commercial for a product called The Closet Organizer (a man in a blue, Spandex suit who catches and organizes anything you throw at it). One sketch and a musical performance later, there was a sketch where there are two guys in a bar (episode host Jon Hamm and cast member Will Forte). Guy #1 (Hamm) tries to figure out where he has seen Guy #2 (Forte) before...until it hits him — {{spoiler|Guy #2 is the actor who plays The Closet Organizer}}.

** From the premiere (October 11, 1975), Weekend Update features a report of "Murder at the Blaine Hotel", with a correspondent describing "#38 in a series of grisly and bizarre murders...in the Blaine Hotel". There's no joke until after Update breaks for a fake commercial and then comes back with announcer Don Pardo saying "Guests of ''NBC's Saturday Night'' stay at the fabulous Blaine Hotel...."

* [[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.

* [[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!"

* [[Enfant Terrible]]: Kristen Wiig's Gilly, a sociopathic schoolgirl.

* [[Epic Fail]]: On the Charles Barkley/Alicia Keys episode, there was a parody of the Golf Channel's ''The Haney Project'' where Hank Haney (Jason Sudeikis) tries to help Barkley with his golf swing (which is said to be like he "had a heart attack mid-swing and then miraculously recovered"). When it's made clear that Barkley's golf swing hasn't improved, Haney then reveals that Barkley's bad golf swinging stems from his inability to perform even the most mundane of tasks, like sweeping a floor, brushing his teeth, flipping burgers, putting a magnet on a refrigerator, and even ''opening and closing a door''.

* [[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.

* [[Fake in the Hole]]: A Deep Thoughts segment covered this, suggesting that if you're even in a war zone, you should shout "GRENADE!" and throw a miniature pumpkin at the enemy. When they see the pumpkin, it'll make them stop and ponder how senseless war is, and while they're pondering, you can throw a real grenade.

* [[Fictional Political Party]]: A sketch during the campaign season for the 1996 US Presidential Election was modeled as a ''Larry King Live'' broadcast giving third-party candidates the opportunity to voice themselves in the media. Along with Ross Perot and the Libertarian nominee, opinions were also heard from the Totalitarian Dictatorship Party and the Female Circumcision Party.

** On the Molly Shannon/Linkin Park episode from Season 32, there was a political debate sketch filled with representatives from fringe political parties — some real (like the Whig Party and, unfortunately, ones like the Nazi Party and NAMBLA), some fake (like the Wig {as in "fake hair"} Party and the Dance Party).

* [[The Fun in Funeral]]: Some sketches depicted bizarre, shocking behavior and wacky characters attending funerals and/or will readings. All a part of the show's [[Refuge in Audacity]].

* [[Fun with Foreign Languages]]

* [[Gainaxing]]: Extremely busty Rachel Dratch as a children's show castmember who had a "growth spurt" (on the Season 28 episode hosted by Ray Liotta).

** Katy Perry as a busty teenage library assistant wearing a low-cut [[Sesame Street|Elmo]] shirt on the Season 36 premiere hosted by Amy Poehler. Also counts as a [[Take That]] since the episode premiered around the time Perry's ''Sesame Street'' sketch with Elmo was banned because [[Moral Guardians]] thought Perry's dress was too risque for kids' TV (when really it had a flesh-colored mesh top and hardly anything was shown). The [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|dialogue in the sketch even imply that the children's show (or, in this case, "the library") was wrong to ban Perry's appearance, as there are worse things to expose children to than a woman wearing semi-revealing clothing]].

** 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]]''?

(''one hand goes up'')

'''Teacher:''' Besides the snakes.

* [[Handsome Lech]]: Christopher Walken's "The Continental".

* [[Hide Your Pregnancy]]: Averted with Ana Gasteyer, Maya Rudolph, and Amy Poehler who all appeared pregnant in ''SNL'' sketches before going on maternity leave (some of which had their pregnancies written in the sketches, such as the case with Amy Poehler in the "I'm No Angel" [[Perfume Commercial]] parody on the Josh Brolin/Adele episode of Season 34 and a sketch where Ana Gasteyer played Elizabeth Hurley, who was also pregnant at the time). Tina Fey, however, didn't appear in any sketches for the first couple episodes of Season 31 because of maternity leave.

* [[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...

* [[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?)}}

** The [[Overly Long Gag]] is often one of the things people complain about when they talk about how far ''SNL'' has fallen from it glory days, at least in the 1990s. It was even lampshaded a few times back then (not so much now, but it does exist in some of the recent sketches).

** [[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".

* [[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.

* [[Pretty in Mink]]: The 1980s commercial parody "Fur: You Deserve It!"

* [[Race Fetish]]: In a sketch about a how-to-find-love seminar, Tracy Morgan's character is only into Chinese shemales.

* [[Refuge in Audacity]]: A lot of the sketch humor either takes something shocking and disgusting and makes it normal (i.e. the "Lord and Lady Douchebag" sketch from Season 5, the "Racial Slur Job Interview" sketch with Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor from Season 1, the "Bird-Feeder Family" sketch on the Season 25 episode hosted by Julianna Marguiles). Or, it shows a dark side to something innocent and sweet. The warped children's show sketches are the best examples: "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood", "The Happy Smile Patrol", or "The Tizzle Wizzle Show". There's also Digital Short where Betty White performs a death metal version of ''[[The Golden Girls]]'' theme after the entire cast and the guest stars sing it the traditional way). The TV Funhouse cartoons also count.

** Some of the sketches on the season 36 episode hosted by Jesse Eisenberg (with musical guest [[Nicki Minaj]]) were pretty out there, such as a fake commercial for estrogen medication for male-to-female transsexuals (one of which catches the eye of a TSA agent [played by Kenan Thompson]), a parody of ''Mr. Wizard's World'' where two sexually repressed teens (Jesse Eisenberg and Nasim Pedrad) warp a static electricity demonstration into their first mutual masturbation session ({{spoiler|ending with the two of them getting each other off on a Van de Graaff generator}}), an ''SNL'' Digital Short about stalking and [[Abhorrent Admirer|AbhorrentAdmirers]] (featuring John Waters and musical guest [[Nicki Minaj]]), and a Blaxploitation Horror parody ("Bride of Blackenstein") that carries the aesop, "A man will put up with a bitchy woman, so long as she's hot."

* [[Refuge in Vulgarity]]: The show doesn't revel in it as much as [[Refuge in Audacity]] (though some of ''SNL'''s rival shows did), but there have been moments where ''SNL'' really gets disgusting (whether this is good or bad is [[Your Mileage May Vary|up to the viewer's tastes in humor]]).

* [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]]: The Merryville Brothers (a trio of amusement park robots played by Taran Killam, Bill Hader, and an episode host [so far, they've had Jim Carrey and Justin Timberlake as the third robot]). Also counts as [[Uncanny Valley]].

* [[Ridiculympics]]: The All-Drug Olympics.

* [[Running Gag]]: ''Many'', some more pervasive than others. By the way, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

* [[The Runt At the End]]: The reoccurring ''Lawrence Welk Show'' sketch involves the guest star singing with four sisters: Three normal ones and a girl with a huge forehead, tiny plastic limbs, a tendency to stuff birds in her mouth, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|no sense of meter.]] Naturally, she always sings after her sisters.

* [[Self-Deprecation]]: A lot of the sketches in the early to mid-1990s were about how ''SNL'' was in a comedic rut, doing shock humor for cheap laughs, and the fact that viewers who haven't seen the show in ages are surprised to learn that it's still on the air and not as they remember it.

** On the second episode of Season 6, Gilbert Gottfried played a psychiatrist named Dr. Murray Abromowitz who, like many critics at the time, blasted ''SNL'''s season premiere featuring a new cast, new writers, and new producer for being low on laughs and bumbling their way through [[Dead Baby Comedy]] for chuckles.

** After the Ashlee Simpson lip-sync debacle in the Season 30 episode hosted by Jude Law, the episode after that (hosted by Kate Winslet, who refused to appear in a lot of sketches because of what happened in the previous episode) had a cold opening where Osama bin Laden (Seth Meyers) trashes ''SNL'' for being a live TV show that booked a lip-synching pop star.

*** Jude Law himself, during his monologue for the second episode he hosted (during the 2009-10 season), poked a little fun while delivering a sentence that was concluded by a lip-synched statement...though that part was clearly over the heads of the live crowd, since if they'd paid more attention (or at least remembered the episode), it would've gotten at least a chuckle.

* [[Severely Specialized Store]]: There were several sketches about a store that sells only Scotch tape.

** Another sketch featured [[Patrick Stewart]] as the proprietor of an erotic bakery that only sold cakes depicting women going to the bathroom.

* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]: The punchline to all of the MacGruber sketches.

* [[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").

* [[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}}.

* [[Those Two Guys]]: Jon Lovitz and Tom Hanks as The Girl Watchers, Chris Kattan and Will Ferrell as the two club-hoppers who dance to Haddaway's "What is Love?", Dan Aykroyd and Steve Martin as the "Wild and Crazy Guys" (aka The Czech Brothers or The Fenstruk Brothers), Wayne and Garth from ''Wayne's World'', The Blues Brothers — ''SNL'' has a lot of recurring characters that can be described (or dismissed) as "[[Those Two Guys]]".

** A lot of cast member pairings count as [[Those Two Guys]] (or Those Two Girls or That Guy and That Girl). Some examples:

*** Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo (a.k.a the [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]] who saved ''SNL'' from getting cancelled in the early 1980s),

*** Mary Gross and Christine Ebersole,

*** Billy Crystal and Martin Short,

*** Billy Crystal and Rich Hall,

*** Jan Hooks and Phil Hartman,

*** Dana Carvey and Mike Meyers,

*** Kristen Wiig and Nasim Pedrad

* [[Token Minority]]: ''SNL'' has a lot of them. Most were black (like Garrett Morris, Eddie Murphy, Ellen Cleghorne, Danitra Vance {the first black female repertory player; not to be confused with Season 6's Yvonne Hudson, who was only hired as a featured player/recurring extra}, Chris Rock, Tim Meadows {the longest-serving black male cast member as of 2012}, Jerry Minor, Dean Edwards, Finesse Mitchell, Kenan Thompson {first cast member to be born after ''SNL'' premiered and the first cast member from children's comedy shows to be on ''SNL''}, and Jay Pharoah), but there have been other cast members with different ethnic backgrounds:

** Horatio Sanz was the first Hispanic cast member (he was originally born in Chile).

* [[Trekkie]]: [[William Shatner]]'s famous "Get a Life!" skit.

* [[Trust Me, I'm an X]]: Parodies of ''The View'' with Tracy Morgan as Starr Jones would always see Ms. Jones begin every single sentence in a discussion noting "I am a lawyer" followed by an observation about the news story or subject being discussed that is [[Captain Obvious|completely obvious]].

* [[The Unintelligible]]: Shy Ronnie (Andy Samberg), a mumbling, redheaded nerd paired up with Rihanna (first seen in Season 35's Blake Lively/Rihanna episode; recently appeared in Season 36's Jon Hamm/Rihanna episode in a ''Bonnie and Clyde'' parody).

** Suel Forrester

* [[Vomit Indiscretion Shot]]: An infamous sketch where a murder victim is apparently so gruesome that all the cops/coroners/reporters/etc who see pictures vomit everywhere. It was later parodied on ''[[30 Rock]]''.

* [[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.

* [[Word Association Test]]: The seventh episode of Season 1, hosted by [[Richard Pryor]], had a sketch in which a prospective black employee (Pryor) is interviewed by a white boss (Chevy Chase). Everything goes normally until partway through the test, when Chase breaks out the black racial epithets. Pryor counters with white racial epithets until Chase uses the N-word and Pryor calls him a "'''dead honky'''". {{spoiler|(In the end, Pryor's character gets the job.)}} It should be noted that this sketch was cited (by Tina Fey, on a Season 31 episode that aired on the same day Richard Pryor died) as the sketch that solidified ''SNL'''s reputation as the "edgy, outrageous late-night sketch show".

* [[The Worst Seat in the House]]: There was a sketch on an episode hosted by Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees where Jeter in drag and the women of ''SNL'' played the wives and girlfriends of the players...and sat in the nosebleed seats.

** Another sketch from the early 1990s had four friends attending a Van Morrison concert, with one of the characters being stuck behind the one person in the crowd who would rather stand out of her seat and dance, thus blocking the character's view of the stage. After several failed attempts at trying to look around the woman and asking her politely to sit, the character admits defeat and decides to be content with having to miss seeing most of the concert. The segment ends with another song beginning and ''everyone'' in the audience getting up from their seat to enjoy the music.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Seventies]]

[[Category:American Series]]

[[Category:Sketch Comedy]]

[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]

[[Category:TV Series]]