5 Iconic Characters Who Should Have Never Come Back for ‘SNL50’
SNL50 rolled out the red carpet for popular characters from the show’s five decades, from older classics like the Bronx Beat ladies and Sally O’Malley to newer faves like Chad and Domingo. But familiarity bred contempt for some beloved bits, botching their chance to recapture comedy glory.
Here are five iconic SNL characters who should have just stayed home and watched the show with the rest of us…
The Scared Straight Guys
The comedian with the longest tenure in SNL history is Kenan Thompson and his spotlight sketch is the ex-cons who scare kids with homophobic threats? Interesting choice. The sketch had the potential to be the evening’s highlight, if only for its dream-team cast of Thompson, Will Ferrell and Eddie Murphy. But in a bizarre move, SNL50 followed up its montage of questionable comedy choices with a sketch featuring gay panic as its primary joke.
John Mulaney’s Musical Street Vendor
I get why a Mulaney musical made sense for SNL50. The montage of Broadway parodies allowed the show to give brief moments of stage time to old cast members who otherwise would have sat on the sidelines, including David Spade, Taran Killam, Alex Moffat, Paul Shaffer, G.E. Smith, Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte, Beck Bennett, Kyle Mooney, Devon Walker, James Austin Johnson and probably others I couldn’t recognize beneath the grimy costumes.
But Mulaney’s recurring sketch got tired long ago on the regular show, out of obvious songs to parody and now scraping the bottom of the Broadway barrel. Throw in awkward shout-outs to Billy Crystal and Ben Stiller, audio problems that plagued the show throughout the evening and a butt-numbing running time of more than 10 minutes? Totally insufferable.
Debbie Downer
Nice to see Rachel Dratch get the spotlight, but you know a sketch ain’t that funny when it takes nearly the entire thing to get Jimmy Fallon to break character. This version of Debbie Downer never approached the heights of the character’s funniest bits, maybe because it recycled old punchlines from fresh versions. Fun to include Robert De Niro — I guess — but when was the last time anyone laughed at a “You talking to me” joke? Taxi Driver is also 50 years old. Let’s move on.
Doug
SNL50’s Black Jeopardy sketch was killing, at least when Eddie Murphy was doing his Tracy Morgan impression. But the air went out of the room when Tom Hanks put on his MAGA hat to recreate Doug, the white contestant who has more in common with his Black competitors than one would expect.
The sketch was a phenomenon when it first aired — it’s one of the show’s most replayed bits on YouTube — but on SNL50, the character just didn’t work. A few new jokes (versus running back the “Doug is afraid to shake Kenan’s hand” bit from the original) might have helped.
Any Character in a Commercial
A great way to tarnish the memory of classic characters? Employ them to shill for a monolithic bank. Cash those checks, Molly and Ana!
Even worse was Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig and Fred Armisen donning their Californians wigs for Volkswagen. The commercial made the absence of Hader from SNL50 all the more glaring. His schedule didn’t allow for a live show, but he could film a commercial? If Hader has some kind of yet-to-be-revealed problem with SNL, why recreate a sketch at all? The obvious answer is “money,” but shouldn’t Hader have plenty of that? Let’s hope the Californians jump on the 5, merge onto the 405 and just keep driving into the Pacific.
