Rolling Stone ranks every SNL cast member ever...

Chase was the fourth-best WU anchor out of the nearly-original cast: Aykroyd, Curtin and Murray, alone or in combinations, were all better.

And WU anchor was pretty much all he did.

 

That's just not true. Chase's anchoring might not have been your cup of tea, but it was one of the reasons he was the first true breakout star of SNL. And he also became the trademark opener with his pratfalls preceding "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night."

 

Not really. He also played Ford and on a show that has done political humor as often (and often well) as SNL, playing the President is one of the more important roles. His take on Ford defined Ford. People came to think of Ford as a klutz despite the fact that he was a former college football player who could have played in the NFL and falling down steps was an isolated incident.

 

Ford's rep got started when he beaned some spectators at a couple of golf pro-ams. This was totally not his fault. Fans think the amateurs are as accurate as the pros and get too damn close.

 

Beluishi at No. 1 is laughable. Sorry. No. 1? Not. Even. Close.

Farley at 15 is almost criminal.
And anyone who has a memorable, quotable, character or phrase, such as Breuer (who I can't stand) and Macdonald can't be ranked that low.

 

Totally agree! I seem to sing that to my wife once every week or two. And Mike Myers in the top five? Uh, no. I don't get that guy's appear on SNL.

 

Between Wayne's World, Sprockets and his playing of Steve Lawrence on The Sinatra Group, I could make the argument that Myers isn't over-rated. Wayne's World ended up having two movies made that probably rank 1 and 2 among the movies made based on SNL characters. If you factor that in, yeah, I could see it.

But I could also see the argument that many others were better because they were much more versatile and did many more characters -- even if those characters weren't as iconic as Wayne's World. I guess it depends on if you value 50 pretty good characters more than you value one or two great characters.

 

If forced to pick, I would probably have Murray at number one.

 

I think to do it right you'd have to use a panel of people of different ages and viewpoints. If you are going to attempt it as an individual you have to rely less on your personal taste -- these people have so many styles you are bound to like some that other people hate and vice versa -- and focus more on their how big a part of the show they were, how versatile, were people lining up to write sketches for them, were they popular or the "face of the cast" etc.

Just because I'm not a huge fan of Wiig doesn't mean she shouldn't be ranked pretty high and just because I think Jenny Slate is incredibly talented and funny doesn't mean she shouldn't be near the bottom. Chevy Chase has to rank high because he was the breakout star of the original cast and set the tone for a lot of what SNL became known for. Maybe he wasn't the best Weekend Update anchor, but he set a standard. His Ford wasn't even really an impression, but everybody who has done a president on SNL since has taken some of his approach.

 

One possible option is to try and remember their innumerable highlight shows and which cast members were featured in them. By that standard, Farley rates very high. He was in some legendary sketches.

 

The list looks bad enough that it doesn't need close examination, but Billy Crystal and Martin Short are way too low.

 

Not even close? That's crazy talk. You crazy!