Rolling Stone ranks every SNL cast member ever...

Phil Hartman absolutely should be higher. Most versatile character skit performer the show's ever had. IMO, he's right there with Murphy and Belushi at the very top.

And as much as I like her no way Tina Fey should she be ranked that high. Appears she's getting a bump based on her post SNL career instead of her actual work on that show.

 

Does she get credit for being head writer? Rob Riggle also did more as a writer than a performer. That's fine, but there were a lot of other writers who probably deserve to be on the list then.

 

Apparently, for one episode.

 

Chase was the show's first breakout star. If you listed some of the most famous sketches in show history (Job interview with Richard Pryor, Land shark...) Chase is involved in quite a few of them and he was only on the show for a year. That's saying something...

Putting Myers ahead of Carvey is just absurd. I don't know how you justify that other than Myers having incredible success after SNL, while Carvey did not.

 

Like Jim Downey, who made occasional cameos in sketches (the newspaper salesman in "White Like Me" and the banker in "First CitiWide Change Bank"), but was better known as head writer. He was responsible for much of the political humor over the years (he coined "Strategery" for Will Ferrell's George W. Bush and also wrote most of the Weekend Update material for Dennis Miller and Norm MacDonald).

 

I love Fey, but she did Palin, Update and very little else as a cast member. Technically, she didn't do Palin as a cast member.

 

You're telling me Rachel Dratch is funnier than Adam Sandler? Rachel Dratch? Let me repeat that: Rachel. Fucking. Dratch. This list is DOA.

 

I loved, loved, loved Adam Sandler as a teenager, but his albums and HBO special and early movies stand out over his SNL work. He was pretty good on SNL, but middle of the pack all time.

Dratch was part of some classic recurring sketches.

 

I'm still trying to figure out how Victoria Jackson had a career.

 

I could listen to an argument that rates Sandler in the middle of the pack (I would disagree, but there may be some merits), but if he's middle of the pack, Dratch is in the lowest tier. Operaman, Schmitt's Gay, Cajun Man, the Chanukah Song, Red Hooded Sweatshirt, the Thanksgiving Song, The Denise Show, Lunchlady land ... all were more memorable than anything Dratch has done. Debbie Downer is one of the worst recurring characters, and I'm not sure anything else she's done is worth remembering.

 

She didn't.

I think she's picked on a bit because she's gone batshit nuts since she was on the show. She was the worst cast member the seasons she was on, but that was one of the best casts in show history with Carvey, Hartman, Lovitz, Miller, Nealon, Dunn, Myers, Hooks. For someone who supposedly sucked, they kept her around for awhile.

 

I remember Victoria Jackson in a movie with Lea Thompson I think. Showed her naked bum which I enjoyed. Also remember seeing her on Carson and thought she was a bit of a lovable dingbat type person, sort of entertaining.