"Saturday Night Live" History (1992-2004) Quiz

Answer: Darrell Hammond and Phil Hartman

Some say Hammond had the more accurate impression of the former POTUS, but on the other hand Hartman captured something about Clinton that would reveal itself soon enough in the coming years. One of the best examples of that was in the December 12, 1992 show from season 18.

The sketch was positively prescient. In it, Hartman as Clinton jogs into a McDonald's fast food joint flanked by Secret Service agents. There are a bunch of funny policy-making jokes and the slapstick of Hartman grabbing other people's food and devouring it to illustrate his points.

But the craziest bit of all was at the close when one of the agents suggests not telling Mrs. Clinton about their side trip to McDonald's--Hartman says, "Oh there's gonna be a whole bunch of things we don't tell Mrs. Clinton..." Six years later, the Monica-Gate scandal would break.

Answer: Mike Ditka

Coaching great Mike Ditka of 'Da Bears' appeared with three of his biggest fans played by cast members: Chris Farley as Todd O'Connor, Mike Myers as Pat Arnold, and guest star George Wendt of "Cheers" playing a fan named Bob Swerski. Robert Smigel, a writer for the show, had come up with this recurring skit about Chicago Bears fans.

After dropping out of dental school, Smigel moved to Chicago and started getting involved with sketch comedy troupes. One skit he wrote was based on the "superfans" phenomenon of Wrigley Field in Chicago.

As he looked around in the stands, it seemed that an awful lot of the men had that same look as depicted by the "SNL" sketches: aviator sunglasses and thick mustaches.

Answer: Matt Foley

"Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker" debuted during season 18, on May 8, 1993. In that skit he fell on top of a table and the table was obliterated. But the audience laughed uproariously. From that moment on Chris Farley would seek any opportunity he could to body slam the prop furniture in sketches he appeared in. Bob Odenkirk had written the sketch and has said that despite the outlandishness of it, "there was an element of truth and humanity that Chris brought to it."

Answer: Molly Shannon

Actually, Molly Shannon's character had originated long before her tenure at "SNL". She had invented it while at NYU while playing around in a comedy show along with Adam Sandler, while both were students there. But when Molly was to audition for "SNL" one of the talent recruiters there advised her, "Whatever you do, don't do that disgusting little schoolgirl character--Lorne will hate it." So Molly didn't use it in her audition, but thankfully got cast on the show.

She would indeed however, pull that character out of her pocket, an awkward teenager with perhaps an over-inflated estimation of her abilities, and debuted it on the October 28, 1995 show.

Answer: Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri

When Cheri Oteri joined the cast for the 21st season, one day she was entertaining the gang by remembering some of her old cheers from when she was a high school cheerleader. On a lark, fellow castmate Will Ferrell who was also a rookie cast member that season joined in with her and the two started improvising some funny cheers.

It seemed to get laughs and so they worked up a routine and debuted it on the November 11,1995 show. One day much later, Cheri Oteri was thunderstruck while shopping at a Bed, Bath & Beyond store and saw her likeness along with Ferrell's on a refrigerator magnet.

She knew then she was famous.

Answer: Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell

While all these men auditioned for the show but did not get accepted, it was Colbert and Carell who caught the attention of writer Robert Smigel and got cast in "The Ambiguously Gay Duo". This was way back, before either of them even appeared on "The Daily Show" where they became famous. Debuting September 28, 1996 during season 22, the animated sketch was recurring and the two men played a pair of crimefighters who were possibly gay but it was never stated outright.

There had even been talk of turning the sketch into an animated movie as well, but that never materialized.

Answer: Alec Baldwin

Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon played the two hosts speaking in uber-mellow smooth voices as they parodied the NPR style of broadcasting. The episode aired close to Christmas (December 12, 1998) during season 24 and NBC pushed Lorne Michaels to air the skit after midnight because of its racy nature, in which baker Alec Baldwin (playing Schweddy) kept referring to his "Schweddy Balls".

The show ran the joke as far as they could, having the hosts comment on how they loved eating his Schweddy Balls and on and on, finding every hilarious way to exploit the joke. Gasteyer recalled the NBC concerns, "But Lorne argued, correctly, that the characters were naive, and that was the joke. Lorne gets behind a brave idea, always."

Answer: (Don't Fear) The Reaper

Will Ferrell was the studio musician playing the cowbell on "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" during the season 25 sketch on April 8, 2000. Christopher Walken was that night's host and he kept bursting into the room demanding that more cowbell was needed. How did the band that wrote the song, Blue Oyster Cult, feel about the skit? They were not in the scene, but when they saw it, guitarist and singer Donald Roeser who wrote the song said, "My reaction was hilarity. I have to be thankful: It really gave the song a different life."

Answer: Paul Simon played "The Boxer"

It was September 29, 2001, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared in the cold open alongside firefighters and first responders. The Mayor assured New Yorkers and the whole country watching for that matter that the city and its life would go on as normally as it had before. Lorne Michaels asked him, "Can we be funny?" and Rudy had the perfect rejoinder: "Why start now?" The show was underway. Host Reese Witherspoon told this joke:
"Baby Polar Bear: 'Mom, are you sure I'm 100 percent pure polar bear?"
Mother Polar Bear: 'Yes, you are 100 percent pure polar bear. But why do you keep asking me that?'
Baby Polar Bear: 'Because I'm freezing my balls off.'"
Witherspoon had actually substituted that punchline for the much more profane version that Lorne Michaels had wanted her to say.
And Paul Simon played a somber rendition of "The Boxer". Tom Hanks commented upon watching the show: "Lorne has a heavy responsibility to somehow encapsulate the mood of the country. That's pretty easy to do when a new guy is elected president; it's tougher when you're dealing with a national tragedy."

Answer: feline AIDS

Debbie Downer debuted on May 1, 2004 during season 29. Played by Rachel Dratch, Debbie's modus operandi is that no matter how pleasant and spirited a conversation everyone else is having, when it's her turn to chime in, she can't help but bring up a positively buzz-killing story.

The hardest part of the sketch she would say, was trying not to crack up. The camera tracking in very close to her face made that difficult, especially when a trombone accompanied the punchline with a "wah, wah waaaaaah." Debbie was especially concerned about the rate of feline AIDS, in the country, a subject that she would return to over the course of several episodes.