Comments on: Mediaite Presents: 35 Great SNL News Spoofs

By: Aaron Guzman

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:17:28 +0000

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.

By: Robert Quigley

Robert Quigley — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:23:02 +0000

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

By: Kevin Gotkin

Kevin Gotkin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:58:40 +0000

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.

By: Magister

Magister — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:03:53 +0000

@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.

By: CRZ

CRZ — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:17:48 +0000

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!

By: MarkEdwards

MarkEdwards — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:58:42 +0000

Completely.

Freaking.

Brilliant.

Thanxxxxxxxxxxxx for the laughs!

By: Robert Quigley

Robert Quigley — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:03:36 +0000

@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.

By: Magister

Magister — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:54:04 +0000

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

By: Magister

Magister — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:51:55 +0000

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.