BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
(FOUR) CHICAGO SUPERFANS
I know this one would have been a bit rough to pull off They’d have to worry about licensing of “Da Bears!” and “Da Bulls!” and all that. It’s just these characters were great. It was mainly Farley, Myers, George Wendt, and writer mastermind Robert Smigel but Joe Mantegna and John Goodman also had involvement over the years. Being a fan of both teams and SNL made for a sketch that felt like it was written to entertain me personally. For a movie version they could have done something similar to a “Celtic Pride”. Surely they could have gotten Mike Ditka, Michael Jordan, and other famous Chicago sports figures in the movie as well. I’m just tired of New York and LA getting all the movie love. Chicago needs more representation that what it gets and this sketch was perfect to accomplish all of that and to make me laugh until I pee.
(THREE) THE AMBIGUOUSLY GAY DUO
Little do most people know, but the two lead characters in this TV Funhouse segment were Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell. Yes… that Stephen Colbert and that Steve Carell. I always thought they could have done more with this. Who said SNL couldn’t have an animated movie? Robert Smigel’s awesome creation was hilarious for the 10 or so times it was on. It follows Ace and Gary, a super hero duo, who are flamboyant to the extent that their sexuality is always in question. There are tons of double entendres, sight gags, and things like that. It was just funny stuff.
(TWO) THE SPARTAN CHEERLEADERS
I loved the Roxbury movie, but I tend to think that a Spartans Cheerleader movie would have been more accepted by fans and critics. Then again I’m pretty sure the idea of Glee came after watching this sketch. At least I’d hope so. Arianna, played by Cheri Oteri and Craig, played by Will Ferrell rocked the world. Appearing well over 15 times, this recurring sketch featured two very overzealous and nerdy cheerleaders. These two worked great together. I’d even go as far as saying that as far as male and female duos of SNL history that the Will and Cheri collaborations are the best. They’d cheer anywhere and everywhere. They did normal events like football games, swim meets, and basketball games… but also bowling, math competitions, and chess tournaments. Each skit would end with “The Perfect Cheer” and it would ALWAYS be funny. I can’t think of any Spartan sketches that didn’t have me rolling. I don’t get why they didn’t try to put this out there as a movie.
(ONE) MATT FOLEY, MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER
Chris Farley played Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker, on eight occasions on SNL. The character itself is credited to the awesome actor and writer Bob Odenkirk. Farley did the character before SNL and had time to polish it up before launching it in 1993. Farley was just on the cusp of doing some iconic stuff. It’s very easy to see. He gave us Tommy Boy, Black Sheep, Beverly Hills Ninja, and some other roles but this would have been his “Austin Powers” except funny. And there WAS plans to make this into a movie. David Spade, of course, was going to have a supporting role in the film version but it was cancelled due to Chris’s death in 1997. On the flipside, while we’re thinking about it I wonder what kind of role, if any, Farley would have had in Joe Dirt. How would an interaction between Matt Foley and Joe Dirt go down? Some things we’ll never know. This character was great and in retrospect maybe Farley’s best persona outside of just being his normal self. The lines from this recurring sketch are still as hilarious as they’ve always been. The “Well, la-dee-frickin-da!”’s and the “in a van... down by the river!”’s are always going to be classic.
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