Mediaite Presents: 35 Great SNL News Spoofs

Tracey Morgan is: Brian Fellow
Does Safari Planet host Brian Fellow really belong on this list? Debatable, but he’s one of Tracey Morgan’s great characters, and his egotism reminds us of just a few cable news hosts. Speaking of a parrot: “Did you see that loudmouth bird? I don’t know what he told you, but he is not Brian Fellow.”

Chris Farley Is No “Mannequin”
Chris Farley’s “alternative” commentator Bennett Brauer is so far outside “the norm” that he doesn’t “fall in line” or “own a toothbrush” or “wipe properly.” It is “hard” not to think of “air quotes” differently after you watch this “skit.”

Arianna Huffington on “Weekend Update:”
This Weekend Update visit by a heavily accented Arianna Huffington has the newly liberal blog editrix name-dropping her way through clumsy metaphors, including comparing the war in Iraq to unprotected sex. Michaela Watkins won’t be back on SNL this year after being suddenly fired, and considering the range she shows in this clip, she will surely be missed.

Fun with the CNN Election Board
Red state? Blue state? Green smiley face? Bouncing purple Michigan? Fred Armisen zinged the contextless wonkery that some critics attributed to CNN’s high-tech 2008 Election Board. And he didn’t even through holographic will.i.am into the mix…

Fred Armisen Does Joy Behar
Basically, the only joke in this skit is Fred Armisen in a red wig saying “so what? Who cares?” in a heavy Noo Yawk accent, but so what? Who cares? It’s great. Even real-life Joy Behar approves .



Next: Will Ferrell is scrumtrulescent, and Brian Williams seems like a good guy too

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9 comments

Magister says:

September 24, 2009 at 11:51 am

This looks like a good collection with lots of entertainment potential, but it might be better titled “35 Great SNL Spoofs Available Online” because just off the top of my head, Gilda’s “Emily Litella”; The “Al Franken Decade’”; Al Franken as one-person, self-contained reporting unit and Weekend Update’s memorable Three Mile Island coverage are overlooked.

Still, a good post with lots of entertainment value. It’s just that if you’ve watched SNL for thirty-five years, you can think of things better than some of those listed above.

Magister says:

September 24, 2009 at 11:54 am

Oh, and let me add A. Whitney Brown’s “The Big Picture” to my little list.

Robert Quigley says:

September 24, 2009 at 12:03 pm

@Magister: Emily Litella’s there, just on page six! Had to give some incentive to keep reading…

Good calls on Three Mile Island and A. Whitney Brown though. I also looked everywhere for John Belushi’s weatherman skit, but to no avail.

MarkEdwards says:

September 24, 2009 at 12:58 pm

Completely.

Freaking.

Brilliant.

Thanxxxxxxxxxxxx for the laughs!

CRZ says:

September 24, 2009 at 5:17 pm

Sorry, I’m too lazy to read more than one page.

Were you worried you were going to run out of Internet if you didn’t break it up into seven pages? I hate when websites do that. SHAME!

Magister says:

September 25, 2009 at 4:03 am

@Robert Quigley: Sorry about that. I must’ve inadvertently skipped page six, but thanks for pointing it out because not only do you have her, but you also have a couple of really good ones on that page.

Good post.

Kevin Gotkin says:

September 25, 2009 at 6:58 pm

This is such a great piece! But I must be annoying and write a totally distracting comment: each and every one of the videos won’t load because of “international copyright restrictions” (I’m in France)! Imagine me all ready to laugh and giggle to myself here in Paris and suddenly I’m robbed (of course, your words are almost as good, Mr. Quigley!). Seroiusly, WTF.

Robert Quigley says:

September 26, 2009 at 12:23 am

@Kevin: Drat! ‘Hulu?’ More like, ‘vermoulu.’

Aaron Guzman says:

September 29, 2009 at 8:17 pm

I am truly shocked that there was not a single mention of the “Assassination of Buckwheat.” No, honestly, I am shocked. For those too young to have seen it, when Eddie Murphy was on SNL during the early 80’s one of his recurring characters was an adult version of the Little Rascals’ ‘Buckwheat.’ During one episode, everything started normally but about 10 minutes into the show Weekend Update broke in with a special report about Buckwheat being shot while leaving a theater after a performance. The rest of the entire episode was a parody of the news reporting on the tragedy reminiscent of the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan, including constantly replaying the footage of Buckwheat being shot (in slow motion), corporate sponsorships of the special report (“The Death of Buckwheat: brought to you by …”) and the assassin’s high school yearbook photo where he was voted “Most Likely to Kill Buckwheat.” An article about the greatest SNL news parodies that lacks this masterpiece is an article written by someone who didn’t do much research on the subject.

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