'Wasn't That Special' Season 20 Clips Package

As always, for those who have signed up for the podcast at the Executive Producer level, we send out notable video and newspaper clips that aided us in preparing for the episode. Below are some of the Saturday Night Live sketches and media clips we reference throughout the episode, to enhance the listening process.

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Here are some of the materials we discuss throughout the Season Twenty episode:

Pepper Boy

The best sketch of the season that also caused the most controversy on the podcast. Scot doesn’t like it when Chris Farley shows up and tries to make Adam Sandler break out into laughter, thinking it was selfish on Farley’s part to try to sabotage a sketch that was cooking. (You can see Dana Carvey literally lean over to Sandler in character and say “don’t break.”)

Japanese Game Show

Chris Farley remained relatively understated in this one, until he has electrodes attached to his testicles. Mike Myers plays a Japanese host, which wouldn’t be done today, but he actually learned the Japanese lines for this sketch, so give him a little credit?

MLK Day

An understated performance by Sandler - the show needed more of this.

Self-Deluded Losers

A good sketch that is ruined at the end when Michael McKean comes on screen and explains the entire premise to the audience. We know what it was about, we just watched it!

The Polar Bear Pit

An important sketch in that it is the goodbye for Farley, Sandler, and Jay Mohr. While the show now has tear-eyed send-offs for its favorite cast members, back in 1995, it threw them in a bear pit to be mauled. It was a perfect metaphor for what the show had become.

The O.J. Simpson Jurors Tour His Home

Colin Ferguson

With so much drama in the SNL this year (Snoop Dogg reference alert), Tim Meadows could always be counted on to bring a professional performance. This is one of his best, playing a lunatic defending himself against murder charges.

Camp Ujaama

A precursor to the future Key and Peele “football names” sketch.

Nervous Habits

Top-flight escalation in this one.

Internet Chat

An extraordinarily prescient bit. Literally the first sketch SNL has about the internet, and it predicts what would happen when people began “catfishing” each other.

Louise Ingstrom

With most of the cast having one foot out the door and mailing it in, Molly Shannon joined the show and put them all to shame. She gave a damn, and it showed on the screen.

Dog Impersonators

This was rock-bottom for the show. Sandler humping dogs and peeing on people. This had to be the point where Lorne Michaels realized big changes were needed.

Of course, the reviews this season hammered away at the show, beginning with this one in the New York Times in October, 1994:

And then, in March 1995 came the famous New York Magazine piece that savaged what the show had become:

Lorne Michaels fired back at the criticism:

In his hometown paper, Farley said he was “undaunted” by the criticism:

One of the reasons cast members like Farley had one foot out the door was because movies like Tommy Boy and Billy Madison had been released during the season. Tommy Boy was actually well-reviewed, but still had its detractors:

Soon, Sandler and Farley were both fired, although they each told the media it was their decision to leave. (It was not.)

With Sandler and Farley gone, media outlets speculated that it was up to David Spade to resurrect the show.

But as we know, the answer to all SNL’s problems would come in the form of an unknown improv performer from Los Angeles’ Groundlings who would later go by his middle name, “Will.”