Funny moments from years 1980-1989 of Saturday Night Live. For the main index, see here.
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- The several times
on Weekend Update when Dennis Miller sat next to Dana Carvey...dressed up as Dennis Miller. He seemed to enjoy the satirical image of himself.Miller: You know...I'm just narcissistic enough to love that.- And then Tom Hanks joined the act.
- And then Tom Hanks joined the act.
- The short film starring Martin Short, Harry Shearer, and Christopher Guest about aspiring synchronized swimmers. Short grooving to Staying Alive's "Far from Over" is even funnier in hindsight because it's a tune by you guessed it: Frank Stallone!
- The Amazing Alexander, a Broadway hypnotist! "I loved it. It was much better than ''Cats''. I'm going to see it again and again", a paraphrase from a commercial for an actual Broadway show, was a national Memetic Mutation for years afterward.
- The famous sketch where William Shatner tells a group of nerds at a Star Trek convention to "Get a life!"
- From the same episode: The "lost" ending to It's a Wonderful Life, in which Mr. Potter finally gets what he deserves since the real movie doesn't show that.
- The "Jackie Rogers Jr.'s $100,000 Jackpot Wad" game show sketch with Martin Short as Jackie Rogers Jr. Billy Crystal as Sammy Davis Jr., James Belushi as Captain Kangaroo, Christopher Guest and Mary Gross as the contestants.
- All of the Mister Robinson's Neighborhood sketches.
- The fact that Mister Rogers himself saw the parody and laughed out loud at it!
- Eddie Murphy as Stevie Wonder collaborating with Frank Sinatra (Joe Piscopo) on a new version of Wonder's hit duet with Paul McCartney, "Ebony and Ivory" for the upcoming album Frank Sings Songs the Young People Will Enjoy. Sample Sinatra lyrics include:Sinatra:(singing) You are black and I am white/Life's an Eskimo pie/Let's take a bite!Side by side you are my amigo, negro/Let's not fiiiight!
- Six words: James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub Party.
- Phil Hartman as President Ronald Reagan. He's all Obfuscating Stupidity in public, but in private with his staff he's the Evil Genius and the mastermind behind the Iran-Contra scandal.
- When being told he has to do a photo-op with a Girl Scout who had sold the most cookies, Reagan is practically pissed with the interruption.Ronald Reagan: This is the part of the job I hate!
- When being told he has to do a photo-op with a Girl Scout who had sold the most cookies, Reagan is practically pissed with the interruption.
- From the Season 12 premiere hosted by Sigourney Weaver: Dana Carvey as a hack British rock piano ballader improvising the song "Choppin' Broccoli" on the piano in front of his record execs.
- Eddie Murphy as Buckwheat singing his "Greatest Hits". Even the Subtitler Is Stumped when he belts out "Bette Davis Eyes", with the song being listed as "????"
- Tom Hanks showing Deleted Scenes from his movie Big where he plays a 13-year-old whose wish to become a 30-year-old man comes true. The cut scenes show his character deciding to stay and attend school where he bullies the other kids.
- When Eddie Murphy returned to host in the 1984-85 season he did a short film called "White Like Eddie" where he is made up to look like a white man. First he learns how to act white by watching episodes of Dynasty (1981) and reading Hallmark cards. Once in public he makes the discovery that when white people are alone "they give each other things for free." When he goes into a bank to apply for a loan without any collateral, the black loan officer refuses, then his white bank manager tells him he can go to lunch. When he leaves, the bank manager laughs and tears up the loan application and actually offers to give "Mr. White" (Eddie) whatever amount of money he wants."Eddie as "Mr White": (laughing) "What a silly negro!"
- Also Eddie's closing speech at the end of the skit when the camera reveals other black men and women getting made to look white:
Eddie: We got a long way to go before this country is equal but I'll tell you something: I got a lot of friends, and we've got a lot of makeup. So next time you're hugging it up with some groovy white guy or you met a really great, super keen white chick, don't be too sure. They might be black. - From the episode hosted by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana and Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton:
- In the cold open, Payton presents a countdown of rap songs by various NFL teamsnote : "We Are the Giants," "We Are the Rams," "Alright, We Are the Colts, We Admit It," "[Satisfy My] Physical Needs" by Cowboys coach Tom Landry... and finally, we get to see exactly how inept a "rap" song by non-musicians can be when the all the kickers in the NFL get together to do one of their own. "We are kickers, we kick ball!"
- Phil Hartman has Jan Hooks over to his place and they each think things while saying the opposite. Montana comes in as Hartman's roommate and he is shown thinking something and then says the exact same thing.
- "Waikiki Hockey", a spoof of Elvis Presley movies with hockey legend Wayne Gretsky as a waiter in a Hawaiian nightclub and Jan Hooks as Ann-Margaret.
- "A Holiday Wish", a sketch where Steve Martin had a few wishes he starts with the children of the world to hold hands and sing together. Then he says he wants $30 million dollars, and it only escalates from there.Steve: If I four wishes, first would be the crap about the kids, second the $30 million, the third would be for all the the power, and the fourth would be to set aside one month each year for an extended 31-day orgasm.
- A sketch where host Robert Wagner is on a date and characteristically debonair — but is also the world's sloppiest eater.
- The infamous "Attack Of The Masturbating Zombies" skit, meant as a parody of Grade-B 1950's horror movies, but generating such controversy that numerous advertisers yanked their commercials from the episode.
- Mark Harmon doing his opening monologue in a towel, and the "pageant" in which he was awarded People Magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive'' title. Particularly him acting like a typical pageant contestant — strutting and preening, then weeping and shrieking when he won.
- Wilson Trap Doors. Who hasn't wished for one of these?
- "Somewhere between cleanliness and godliness lies Compulsion." What makes this skit so special, however, is that it barely exaggerates the insanity of the original "Obsession" commercial.
- John Malkovich stars as Johnny Canal, legendary frontiersman with a bizarre fixation on canals, a poor aptitude for thinking his proposals through, and a Hair-Trigger Temper, leading to this:
- In season 12, Robin Williams gets to show off his own Reagan impression opposite Phil Hartman in a sketch where Williams's Reagan gets advised through a press conference by Hartman, but it goes off the rails.
