Classic SNL bloopers?

August 30, 2008 3:50 PM

SNLfilter: what are the classic Saturday Night Live sketches where the actors mess up and/or uncontrollably start laughing?

Watched it mostly in the late 80s/early 90s, so the ones I know are

Chris Farley losing his wig when talking to Adam Sandler
The Cowbell Sketch (Chris Kattan laughs I think)
The first Matt Foley sketch (CF falls, and David Spade laughs a lot)
I think there was one where CF was supposed to be carried away on some ropes, but the ropes stuck so Kevin Nealon helped unstick them

Would love to know the rest, before and after. Thank you!

posted by Melismata to media & arts (37 answers total)

Debbie Downer. The first one, with LiLo as host. The entire cast starts breaking up. Also, Britney has trouble keeping a straight face when Kattan and (Parnell?) play the two guys who dance out the lyrics to people's songs.

That's off the top of my head, there's plenty of others. Fallon lost it all the time, especially in sketches with Will Ferrell.
posted by Ndwright at 3:59 PM on August 30, 2008

The first one that springs to mind is Eddie Murphy doing Black History Minute.
posted by jrossi4r at 3:59 PM on August 30, 2008

If any sketch where the actors can't keep a straight face fits the bill, then look for any sketch with Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz together.
posted by mrnutty at 4:07 PM on August 30, 2008

- Massive Headwound Harry where the dog starts eating the "headwound" and whatever headpiece the actor is wearing starts to come off and it goes all wacky.
- Bill Murray in an early episode talking about VD. He goes to the bathroom and howls like a badger is eating his nether regions and then comes out and has to say the line "my penis really hurts when I urinate" or something and has a hard time delivering it with a straight face
posted by jessamyn at 4:10 PM on August 30, 2008

Adam Sandler can barely hold his composure in this scene of the Gap Girls skit. Sorta hard to tell on YouTube, but he's definitely repressing some laughter.
posted by nitsuj at 4:12 PM on August 30, 2008

Phil Hartman as Frankenstein in "Succinctly Speaking", uncharacteristically losing it while saying "FIRE BAD!"
posted by stefnet at 4:14 PM on August 30, 2008 [2 favorites]

The first Debbie Downer as mentioned above.

I don't know if I'd call it a classic, but there was a skit a few years ago called Riding my Donkey Political Talk Show, in which everyone sits on donkeys and has a roundtable discussion about politics. And the donkeys are just being themselves, and it goes hilariously awry.

Not sure if this the same skit you're referring to, but the one where Matt Foley talks about "rollin doobies" cracks up David Spade and Christina Applegate.
posted by O9scar at 4:36 PM on August 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

Barry Gibb Talk Show
posted by beachhead2 at 4:37 PM on August 30, 2008

My 7 year old has become obsessed with the More Cowbell sketch, and I can tell you that it's Jimmy Fallon who loses it.
posted by Lucinda at 4:59 PM on August 30, 2008

Three that come to mind immediately are toward the end of More Cowbell, the Hot Tub Lovers sketch with Drew Barrymore, and Cork Soakers. I can't find video for it, but there was a really old one with Candace Bergen and Gilda Radner, too - Google tells me that it's called 'Right to Extreme Stupidity', which is pretty hilarious.
posted by mewithoutyou at 5:17 PM on August 30, 2008

And really, Will Ferrell could always be counted on to break character (and to cause others to lose it). here's a collection that someone cut together.
posted by mewithoutyou at 5:26 PM on August 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

Charles Rocket saying the word fuck.
posted by filmgeek at 5:28 PM on August 30, 2008

Jerry Seinfeld was the guest in a skit with Will Ferrell as a sadistic torturer and Horatio Sanz as his assistant. "I can keep you alive for weeks if I want to!" By the end of the skit, Jerry (who's supposed to be finally dead) breaks up.
posted by ostranenie at 5:31 PM on August 30, 2008

There's a small problem at the end of Mike Myers' Middle-Aged Man in which Myers is evidently supposed to run across the corner of the bed on his way out, but can't manage to step onto it in the Middle-Aged Man costume with its fake gut. After trying a couple of times, he just says (in character) "Ah, forget it" and runs out across the floor.

Janet Jackson kept coming close to losing it during Coak Sorkers.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 5:53 PM on August 30, 2008

Back in the watchable days, there was a sketch about cops who vomited upon seeing a dead body. One actor vomited uncontrollably and put his hands up to his mouth. When he put his hand down, vomit continued to pour out of his wrist (obviously b/c the "vomit" was coming through a hose hidden in his sleeve). i think one or more of the actors started to lose it at that point.
posted by drjimmy11 at 6:04 PM on August 30, 2008

First thing that came to mind was the Billy Crystal "Fernando" sketch with Hulk Hogan and Mr T from '85. Can't seem to find any actual video of it online, though.

That, and the Matt Foley one.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 6:05 PM on August 30, 2008

Frank Zappa starts cracking up in the middle of this Coneheads sketch.
posted by Maxwell_Smart at 6:07 PM on August 30, 2008

The Massive Headwound Harry sketch with the dog can be found at Hulu.

Alec Baldwin's Glenngarry Glennross Christmas sketch can be found there also, but it helps if you've seen the original movie. Instead of using the "elf" variation of a routine from the movie, Baldwin accidentally recites the original line until he corrects himself.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 6:33 PM on August 30, 2008

I seem to remember other cast members barely holding it together in a sketch where Will Ferrell is wearing an American flag thong in a business meeting. He keeps thrusting his crotch right at people while pouring coffee, etc. Sorry I don't know the name of the skit.
posted by peep at 6:39 PM on August 30, 2008

Candice Bergen, "Extremely Stupid," 1976 surely qualifies as classic.
posted by lampoil at 7:05 PM on August 30, 2008

Oh! Here it is. Didn't think I'd find it.
posted by lampoil at 7:06 PM on August 30, 2008 [3 favorites]

The Candice Bergen one has to be the THE CLASSIC. Watch and you'll see why.
posted by xammerboy at 7:28 PM on August 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

Debbie Downer
posted by cazoo at 7:31 PM on August 30, 2008 [3 favorites]

I recall one with Sir Ian McKellan in which Daryl Hammond's fake mustache refused to stay attached to his upper lip. If I remember correctly, all three actors sort of limped to the end of the sketch giggling helplessly.
posted by EarBucket at 8:03 PM on August 30, 2008

Well hell, any skit that had both Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz. Those guys couldn't hold it together to save their lives when they were in the same skit together.
posted by mcstayinskool at 8:33 PM on August 30, 2008

In the Xena: Warrrior Princess sketch in this episode, Molly Shannon accidentally rips off Brendan Fraser's Xena wig, which sends the cast into spasms of laughter. Fraser quickly whips the wig back on and gamely tries to continue, but it's way too late to save the sketch in its original form.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:53 PM on August 30, 2008

Sean Hayes, Jimmy Fallon and Will Ferrell in Jeffrey's II.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:29 PM on August 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

Frank Zappa starts cracking up in the middle of this Coneheads sketch.

If I remember right, Zappa broke character, flubbed lines and mugged for the camera for that entire episode (it was definitely one of the episodes he was on). It pissed everyone else off and he was never invited back.
posted by DecemberBoy at 10:41 PM on August 30, 2008

Don Rickles made lots of the players break character in his appearance, especially a late sketch with Joe Piscopo, who just about completely loses it.
posted by dhartung at 11:16 PM on August 30, 2008

I seem to remember other cast members barely holding it together in a sketch where Will Ferrell is wearing an American flag thong in a business meeting. He keeps thrusting his crotch right at people while pouring coffee, etc. Sorry I don't know the name of the skit.

here it is
posted by milkrate at 12:00 AM on August 31, 2008

Eddie Murphy Black History Minute
posted by kimdog at 9:17 AM on August 31, 2008

In an early Lisa Loopner sketch, Gilda and Bill Murray were supposed to be doing homework at the kitchen table while Dan Aykroyd, the refrigerator repair man, arrived to fix the Norge. His tool belt was weighing his pants down, but apparently Aykroyd was letting much more buttcrack show during the broadcast than during dress rehearsal, because Gilda and Bill had trouble saying their lines several times as they struggled to stifle their laughter.
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:20 AM on August 31, 2008

My favorite is the one where Will Ferrell plays The Old Prospector, Gus Chiggins. The only place I've seen it was on the Will Ferrell DVD, pretty sure it was unaired.
posted by Kupo? at 3:42 PM on September 1, 2008

John Belushi cut open guest host Buck Henry's head with a samurai sword near the end of a sketch. Buck Henry had to get a huge bandage on his head, the rest of the cast added them over the course of the show so that eventually everyone had them and buck blended right in.
This is the wikipedia entry, episode 30. I've seen it online before, but I can't seem to find it now. Definitely one that's worth watching the whole episode for.

IIRC, Andy Kaufman had a sketch that completely melted down.
posted by Four Flavors at 8:25 PM on September 1, 2008

IIRC, Andy Kaufman had a sketch that completely melted down.

He sure wasn't having that low brow humor!
posted by self at 11:28 PM on September 2, 2008

Justin Timberake: hip hop kids: http://www.planetvids.com/html/SNL-Hip-Hop-Kids.html

on the real, real, real, real, real.........
posted by anitanita at 12:57 AM on September 3, 2008

One of my favorite sketches was where Molly Shannon and Chris Parnell play a couple seeing Will Ferrell about their newborn's test results. Halfway through, Tim Meadows comes in as Dr. Stephen Poop and you can see both Shannon and Ferrell lose it.
posted by sambosambo at 6:35 PM on September 3, 2008