I was struck by your argument that people have seen every great Chris Farley sketch, but there are great Vanessa Bayer sketches that people have forgotten. I'm not asking you to do it, and I'm not saying that I'm going to ever do it, but I did think that it would be an interesting thought experiment to work out what would be on a one-hour best of special for Bayer (and Sudeikis and Dratch and Thompson and Hader and McKinnon and Poehler and Forte and Wiig, who all didn't have a chance to have a best of DVD made with the way the home video market has vanished). [wanted to add that Piscopo and Crystal didn't have best of DVDs either, but surely that's because they are Ebersol years stars who could be glossed over, unlike Eddie Murphy].
I'm not critical of your lists. Lists a fraught with peril and no one is happy with them. But I would like you to address one point when coming up with your lists. In general, it seemed when you ranked cast members you tended to preference those cast member that had over-the-moon talent in very short spurts (think Farley, Chase, and Belushi) versus cast member that had extremely long runs on the show that may not have had as super high peaks (think Armisen, Hammond, Kazurinsky, Moynihan, Thompson). (A) Do you agree, and (B) can you all explain on a future episode how you worked through that issue in your heads?
Yeah, career vs peak value is the perpetual big question in making lists but usually it's 'somewhat better but for a clearly shorter period' (say, Belushi vs Keenan) like you ask about.
But I don't see the Ferrell vs Murphy faceoff as fitting that model. To me personally Ferrell vs Murphy is like kind of like Kareem vs Bill Walton (or Jordan vs Lebron) - the peak value is almost identical .....but one guy is at that peak a whole lot longer. In this case five MVPs vs less than a three year total career.
That's why for me it's always been a contest between Ferrell and Carvey. And why Kate is top 5.
[Sticking with the basketball analogies though, I *can* see elevating Murphy a bit for 'saving the show'. That would be like elevating Magic and Bird over Jordan because they got the Finals off of tape delay and saved the NBA]
Great episode though - love the discussions even when I as strongly disagreeing!
Solid arguments all around. And top to bottom a very good, well executed list. I think my take on ranking would be who had the biggest impact on the show, a little tricky considering the slate of fellow cast members, how popular (or more importantly how unpopular) the show was at the time, and the dynamics of writers/cast and format. Well done, gentlemen!
Will Forte in the Top Ten? A joke right? Besides a perfect whiney George W. Bush he did cringe characters like MacGruber trying to marry Grandma Betty White. Jane Curtin called SNL SE1-5 "boring" so rightfully out of this list.
Hmm. Presume this comment is from an avid Rolling Stone reader who is also somewhat miffed that Pamela 'Better than Forte' Stephenson's one and done status prevents her being stratospherically over-ranked again...
I was struck by your argument that people have seen every great Chris Farley sketch, but there are great Vanessa Bayer sketches that people have forgotten. I'm not asking you to do it, and I'm not saying that I'm going to ever do it, but I did think that it would be an interesting thought experiment to work out what would be on a one-hour best of special for Bayer (and Sudeikis and Dratch and Thompson and Hader and McKinnon and Poehler and Forte and Wiig, who all didn't have a chance to have a best of DVD made with the way the home video market has vanished). [wanted to add that Piscopo and Crystal didn't have best of DVDs either, but surely that's because they are Ebersol years stars who could be glossed over, unlike Eddie Murphy].
I'm not critical of your lists. Lists a fraught with peril and no one is happy with them. But I would like you to address one point when coming up with your lists. In general, it seemed when you ranked cast members you tended to preference those cast member that had over-the-moon talent in very short spurts (think Farley, Chase, and Belushi) versus cast member that had extremely long runs on the show that may not have had as super high peaks (think Armisen, Hammond, Kazurinsky, Moynihan, Thompson). (A) Do you agree, and (B) can you all explain on a future episode how you worked through that issue in your heads?
Yeah, career vs peak value is the perpetual big question in making lists but usually it's 'somewhat better but for a clearly shorter period' (say, Belushi vs Keenan) like you ask about.
But I don't see the Ferrell vs Murphy faceoff as fitting that model. To me personally Ferrell vs Murphy is like kind of like Kareem vs Bill Walton (or Jordan vs Lebron) - the peak value is almost identical .....but one guy is at that peak a whole lot longer. In this case five MVPs vs less than a three year total career.
That's why for me it's always been a contest between Ferrell and Carvey. And why Kate is top 5.
[Sticking with the basketball analogies though, I *can* see elevating Murphy a bit for 'saving the show'. That would be like elevating Magic and Bird over Jordan because they got the Finals off of tape delay and saved the NBA]
Great episode though - love the discussions even when I as strongly disagreeing!
Solid arguments all around. And top to bottom a very good, well executed list. I think my take on ranking would be who had the biggest impact on the show, a little tricky considering the slate of fellow cast members, how popular (or more importantly how unpopular) the show was at the time, and the dynamics of writers/cast and format. Well done, gentlemen!
Move Eddie Murray and Will Forte down, and bump up Kate M and Bill H.
Will Forte in the Top Ten? A joke right? Besides a perfect whiney George W. Bush he did cringe characters like MacGruber trying to marry Grandma Betty White. Jane Curtin called SNL SE1-5 "boring" so rightfully out of this list.
Wait - your argument is that Will Forte's BEST character was his George W. Bush? Have you checked the expiration date on the milk in your fridge?
Hmm. Presume this comment is from an avid Rolling Stone reader who is also somewhat miffed that Pamela 'Better than Forte' Stephenson's one and done status prevents her being stratospherically over-ranked again...