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Rolling Stone ranks every SNL cast member ever...

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by RecoveringJournalist, Feb 13, 2015.

  1. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    Yeah, I've heard that. Kept waiting for him to smooth it out on SNL, but he never did.
     
  2. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    1. Murphy. 2. Belushi. 3. Ferrell. 4. Hartman. 5. Radner.
     
  3. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    This list should really be limited to what the did ON THE SHOW which is the point. What happens afterward is sort of irrelevant. It's funny though, Lorne gets a lot of credit for the show, but he's managed to misuse a lot of really talented people over the years. Rock, Sandler, Farley, Spade, etc.

    If I had to make a list:

    1. Eddie Murphy: The most important cast member in the history of the show. Rock was right in his intro. There would be no SNL for the last 30-plus years without Eddie just destroying it every night. It's also fascinating that he didn't overdo his characters and those skits still became legendary.

    2. Phil Hartman: The most versatile character the show has ever had. I'm still a little heartbroken when I think about where I was when I heard he'd been murdered. The only reason I put him ahead of Ferrell is because he so rarely missed. Ferrell did stuff sometimes to push the edge of weirdness, and sometimes it flopped hard. But Hartman could save any sketch he was in. He could be the star, and he could be a bit player. What a loss.

    3. Will Ferrell: Gave the show new life and relevance after Carvey, Hartman, Meyers were gone. Probably the most fearless cast member ever in terms of going for it to get a laugh. You could argue his impression of George W. Bush defined his presidency in a pop culture sense the way that no other actor had ever satirized a president.

    4. Dana Carvey: People forget how much he carried the show in the 80s. Some of he and Meyers humor seems dated now, and maybe it was a little too earnest and not edgy enough to be iconic, but he was so versatile and worked so hard. I think the measure of a comedian is often how well they connect with youth culture, and for my generation, Carvey was the guy we were laughing about every Monday in homeroom for about four years.

    5. Dan Aykroyd: I think the desire to canonize Belushi has overshadowed how important Aykroyd was to the show early on.

    6. Amy Poheler: I think she's the funniest, most versatile female cast member ever. She never grated on me the way Wiig did. Tina gets all the love now for being a badass, no-apologies feminist and a writing goddess, but Amy carried sketches.

    7. Chevy Chase: I think he's more important than Belushi. That fact that he's such a miserable piece of shit now shouldn't detract from what he meant to the show.

    8. Mike Meyers: Again, his humor seems a little too corny now, but it was really good for its era. A ton of iconic skits.

    9. Belushi: Some of his greatness is overstated because of his death, but he sort of established the "go for it" style that was so important for the next 39 years. Hard to dismiss that.

    10. Gilda Radner: If you look back at a lot of the clips, Murray was only kinda funny on SNL. He never really found his stride. I think Gilda would close out my top 10 because of how important she was in establishing that female comedians could be such an important part of the show. She was warm and goofy and maybe her humor hasn't held up quite as well, but to me, she's super important.

    HM: Murray, Wiig, Lovitz, Hader, Fey, Farley, Sandler, Rock.
     
  4. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    NYers would remember but I bet many did not know that

    Roseannadana was actually based on a real local ABC news anchor in NYC.

    "Rose Ann Scamardella" Video | Interviews

    Never heard what the real Roseann thought.
     
  5. Boom_70

    Boom_70 Well-Known Member

    To me Murray has always been "kind of funny" . His style seemed to work better in his movies than on SNL or
    guest appearances on talk shows. A real talent but just not as funny as some of the other SNLers.
     
  6. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    Sheffield claimed he was ranking only on their SNL work.

     
  7. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    Tina Fey was in like 10 sketches her whole career. How in the world is she third and Ferrell is 11th in that calculus?
     
    RecoveringJournalist likes this.
  8. RecoveringJournalist

    RecoveringJournalist Well-Known Member

    1. Carvey
    2. Murphy
    3. Hartman
    4. Belushi
    5. Aykroyd
    6. Ferrell
    7. Radner
    8. Poehler
    9. Murray
    10. Chase
     
  9. RecoveringJournalist

    RecoveringJournalist Well-Known Member


    He's full of shit.

    He had people who were on for 5+ years behind people who were in the cast, but never appeared in a sketch and were fired, or left after one show.
     
  10. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    1. Palin. 2. WU.

    That said, the two should probably be transposed.
     
  11. HejiraHenry

    HejiraHenry Well-Known Member

    I have no great complaint with the list.
    I watched religiously from the start but wandered off a decade or so ago.
    I'd probably rank Hartman higher and Fey rather a bit lower, but the list was very well thought out and defended.
     
  12. BDC99

    BDC99 Well-Known Member

    Posted this on the other SNL thread. Norm joking about the rankings, and telling a story about trying to get Eddie Murphy to do the Cosby impression. How great would that have been? I wonder if that bit was part of the reason for his disinterest. Not that he would mind taking a shot at Cosby, I suppose.

     
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