Mediaite Presents: 35 Great SNL News Spoofs

Oprah’s Favorite Things
Does Maya Rudolph do an especially convincing Oprah impression? Not really, but what’s great here is the audience’s increasingly insane reaction to Oprah’s 50th birthday presents to all of them. Who knew that free “C&B macaroons” could cause women to make out and/or rip each other’s arms off?

Fred Armisen’s Governor Paterson
Some would call Fred Armisen’s turn as New York’s blind governor David Paterson crass or insensitive, but really, isn’t that what this show is all about? Playing Paterson as inept and befuddled, the “governor” calls his confessions of infidelity and drug use “crimes of the heart” before barreling forward into a series of jokes about handicaps and New Jersey. Richard Pryor would be proud.

Norm MacDonald Blasts O.J. Simpson
“A down-and-out O.J. Simpson, depressed that all of his moneymaking ideas have failed, has decided to go back to doing what he does best: killing people.” MacDonald claimed that his daring anti-O.J. jokes ultimately got him fired from SNL; Don Ohlmeyer, an NBC executive who was personal friends with O.J., led the crusade against MacDonald, though he said MacDonald’s firing was for different reasons.

Casey Wilson Does Rachael Ray
It’s super brief here, but Casey Wilson’s Rachael Ray should’ve gotten more play. Remind us why they got rid of her again?
The “fondue/fondon’t” joke made its way into the premiere of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, but it just wasn’t the same.

The Palin/Couric Interview
The skit that arguably sunk a presidential campaign! It says something about the trainwreck that was the original interview that Tina Fey could just quote Palin, verbatim, and pull it off as comedy. But Amy Poehler’s Katie Couric is not to be misunderestimated; she doesn’t quite look or sound like her, but she totally pulls off the cool professionalism/veiled disgust vibe.