The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between October 3, 1981, and May 22, 1982, the seventh season of SNL.
Tyrone Green, Prose and Cons
An Eddie Murphy sketch. Debuted October 3, 1981.
A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney
A parody of the "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" segments on the newsmagazine TV program 60 Minutes with Joe Piscopo impersonating Andy Rooney. Debuted October 3, 1981.
- Appearances
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | October 3, 1981 | none | |
| 7 | October 17, 1981 | George Kennedy | |
| 7 | January 23, 1982 | Robert Conrad | |
| 8 | February 5, 1983 | Sid Caesar |
The Bizarro World
A parody of the world of the same name featured in DC Comics, the sketch features characters who all have big ears and speak with a vocoded effect on their voices and everyone does the complete opposite (e.g.: "Goodbye" is "Hello" and vice versa)
List of appearances:
- October 10, 1981 "Bizzaro President" (Host: Susan St. James)
- February 20, 1982 "Bizarro Broadcasting Company" (Host: Bruce Dern)
Buckwheat
The Our Gang character of Buckwheat, portrayed as an adult by Eddie Murphy, sang current hits in garbled speech. His first appearance, on October 10, 1981, was in a commercial parody for an album titled, Buh-Weet Sings. Right before each song, subtitles on the screen would list the title, spelled phonetically exactly as Buckwheat would say it (example: "Lookin' for Love" became "Wookin' Pa Nub" and "Three Times a Lady" became "Fee Tines a Mady"). One song, "Bette Davis Eyes" is so poorly pronounced that the superimposed title is "???". Those who wanted to purchase the album were instructed to send money to "Bah Firty Fee, New Nork, New Nork".
The character was also the central focus of a series of sketches called "Who Shot Buckwheat?", which parodied the then-recent TV coverage of assassinations and attempted assassinations of public figures, such as the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan and the murder of John Lennon, as well as the "Who Shot J.R.?" storyline on the television series Dallas.
- Appearances
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | October 10, 1981 | Susan Saint James | Buh-Weet Sings |
| 7 | December 5, 1981 | Tim Curry | |
| 7 | January 30, 1982 | John Madden | |
| 7 | March 20, 1982 | Robert Urich | |
| 8 | November 13, 1982 | Robert Blake | |
| 8 | March 12, 1983 | Bruce Dern | Who Shot Buckwheat? |
| 8 | March 19, 1983 | Robert Guillaume | |
| 8 | April 9, 1983 | Joan Rivers | |
| 9 | October 22, 1983 | John Candy | |
| 9 | January 14, 1984 | Father Guido Sarducci | Taped September 1983 |
| 10 | December 15, 1984 | Eddie Murphy | |
| 45 | December 21, 2019 | Eddie Murphy | The Masked Singer |
Paulette Clooney
A Robin Duke sketch. Debuted October 10, 1981.
- Appearances
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | October 10, 1981 | Susan Saint James | |
| 7 | January 23, 1982 | Robert Conrad | |
| 7 | May 22, 1982 | Olivia Newton-John |
Velvet Jones
Eddie Murphy plays an entrepreneurial pimp and author of the book "I Wanna Be A Ho".
Debuted on October 17, 1981.
- Appearances
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | October 17, 1981 | George Kennedy | |
| 7 | November 7, 1981 | Lauren Hutton | |
| 7 | January 23, 1982 | Robert Conrad | |
| 8 | October 9, 1982 | Ron Howard | |
| 8 | April 16, 1983 | Susan Saint James | |
| 45 | December 21, 2019 | Eddie Murphy | Appeared on "Black Jeopardy" |
Vic Salukin
A Tony Rosato sketch. Debuted October 31, 1981.
Pudge & Solomon
In this 1980s sketch, two grizzled barflies were played by Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy. Piscopo's character played the piano. Debuted January 30, 1982.
- Appearances
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | January 30, 1982 | John Madden | |
| 7 | May 15, 1982 | Danny DeVito | |
| 8 | December 4, 1982 | The Smothers Brothers | |
| 8 | January 22, 1983 | Lily Tomlin | |
| 8 | March 19, 1983 | Robert Guillaume | |
| 9 | December 10, 1983 | Flip Wilson |
Dr. Jack Badofsky
Dr. Jack Badofsky was played by Tim Kazurinsky in a series of appearances on SNL Newsbreak or Saturday Night News (the monikers for Weekend Update during the Ebersol years). The doctor would inform the audience about different strains of diseases like influenza or rabies, and each strain would be a rhyming pun (i.e. "Should you be bitten by an ownerless dog, that’s Straybies, and a foaming French poodle can give you Qu'est-ce Que-C'estbies"). Badofsky stuttered in a timid, wavering tone, suggesting the sort of "ultra uptight" and extremely introverted character he was supposed to be, when thrust into the spotlight. There is, indeed, a real Jack Badofsky. He collaborated with Kazurinsky in writing the sketches and—as a nod to Badofsky—Kazurinsky named the character after him. At the time, Badofsky headed up Smith, Badofsky & Raffel, a Chicago ad agency known for Badofsky's humorous radio commercials. Badofsky also has written many essays and humor for newspapers and magazines as well a material performed on the stage and TV.
- Appearances
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | February 27, 1982 | Elizabeth Ashley | |
| 7 | March 20, 1982 | Robert Urich | |
| 7 | April 17, 1982 | Johnny Cash | |
| 7 | May 15, 1982 | Danny DeVito | |
| 8 | October 2, 1982 | Louis Gossett Jr. | |
| 8 | November 13, 1982 | Robert Blake | |
| 8 | December 11, 1982 | Eddie Murphy | |
| 8 | February 5, 1983 | Sid Caesar | |
| 8 | March 12, 1983 | Bruce Dern | |
| 8 | May 7, 1983 | Stevie Wonder | |
| 9 | October 22, 1983 | John Candy | |
| 9 | December 3, 1983 | The Smothers Brothers | |
| 9 | January 21, 1984 | Michael Palin | |
| 9 | May 12, 1984 | Ed Koch, Betty Thomas, Father Guido Sarducci, Edwin Newman, Billy Crystal |
Gumby
Eddie Murphy impersonates the green clay character Gumby. Debuted March 27, 1982. This was the origin of the catch-phrase "I'm Gumby, dammit!", which has been called one of the show's "best catchphrases".[1][2]
- Appearances
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | March 27, 1982 | Blythe Danner | |
| 8 | September 25, 1982 | Chevy Chase | |
| 8 | December 11, 1982 | Eddie Murphy | Merry Christmas, Dammit! |
| 8 | March 12, 1983 | Bruce Dern | Competition |
| 8 | May 14, 1983 | Ed Koch | |
| 9 | October 8, 1983 | Brandon Tartikoff | Gumby and Pokey Reunite |
| 9 | November 5, 1983 | Betty Thomas | The Gumby Story Film. Taped September 1983 |
| 10 | December 15, 1984 | Eddie Murphy | |
| 45 | December 21, 2019 | Eddie Murphy | Weekend Update feature. |
The Whiners
Joe Piscopo, playing Doug Whiner, and Robin Duke, playing Wendy Whiner, speak all their lines in a whining, nasal tone, hence, a double meaning of their name. They both claim to suffer from diverticulitis, and neither eats anything but macaroni and cheese.
In 1998, writer Stanley Ribbles, in a Turner-Allan magazine article, said this of "The Whiners":
We weren't thinking, 'Hey, let's make characters that our audience is going to despise.' But we did like Joe [Piscopo] a lot for some reason, and we wanted to give him more air-time.... At the end of the night, you have the options of staying up or going to bed. We had a glass of milk and watched television.
- Appearances
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | April 10, 1982 | Daniel J. Travanti | "Whiners Anniversary" |
| 7 | May 15, 1982 | Danny DeVito | "The Whiners on a Plane" |
| 8 | October 9, 1982 | Ron Howard | "The Whiners at the Doctor" |
| 8 | November 20, 1982 | Drew Barrymore | "Whiners Adoption" |
| 8 | January 29, 1983 | Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas | "The Whiners Taken Hostage" |
| 8 | February 5, 1983 | Sid Caesar | "The Whiners in the Hospital" |
| 8 | April 9, 1983 | Joan Rivers | "The Whiners at SNL" |
| 8 | May 14, 1983 | Ed Koch | "Whiner in the War" |
| 9 | October 8, 1983 | Brandon Tartikoff | "Whiner Show Ideas" |
| 9 | May 5, 1984 | Barry Bostwick | "2 On The Town" |
References
- ^ "SNL's best catchphrases". USA Today. February 12, 2015. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
- ^ Zmuda, Bob (2000). Andy Kaufman Revealed!: Best Friend Tells All. Little, Brown, and Company. p. 181.