The 7 Best Physical Comedians in ‘SNL’ History
Over Saturday Night Live’s 50-year history, several types of comedians have graced the Studio 8H stage, including impressionists, straight men, oddballs and smartasses. But the comics who make the biggest impressions are the physical marvels who sacrifice their bodies for the sake of laughter.
Here, in no particular order, are seven of the most fearless physical comedians in the history of SNL…
Chevy Chase
Before he alienated his fellow Not Ready for Prime Time players with diva behavior, Chase became SNL’s first breakout star by opening every show with a comic fall. He paid the price for the violent flops, becoming addicted to the prescription painkillers he took for the subsequent back pain. The bits were so popular that Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin performed a girl-group tribute to Chase’s comic tumbles.
Chris Farley
Chase stopped by the studio one day when Farley was practicing his SNL pratfalls. Chase asked, “What are you breaking your fall on?” according to The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts. Farley was dumbfounded — he’d always bought the illusion of Chase’s stumbles, even though Chase always used pads to cushion the impact.
Farley had a different approach, according to Lorne Michaels. “You just fall on the ground and you don’t mind the pain, because that’s the price of doing it. So there was an honesty and a straightforwardness in him that people responded to.”
Molly Shannon
The popular Mary Katherine Gallagher sketches usually ended with Shannon hurling her body into a mess of folding chairs. Like Farley, safety wasn’t her first concern. “I would do wild stuff, physical stuff. It was like punk rock,” Shannon wrote in her memoir, Hello Molly! “I wanted to hurt myself. I was in a reckless stage of my life. Sometimes I would climb the walls, or cut my leg and bleed, and I would always bruise myself. I liked being roughed up. I would get so into the performance that I couldn’t feel any pain.”
Chris Kattan
From Mr. Peepers to Mango, Kattan’s physicality distinguished his breakout characters. But like Chase, he paid a price for his commitment to the bit. He threw himself off a chair during a silly Golden Girls role-play sketch and allegedly broke his neck. He took too long to get the injury checked by doctors, then complained that SNL wouldn’t help with the bills. “NBC had stopped paying my medical costs after the second surgery,” explained Kattan. “The SNL family I was part of had stopped taking care of me, and soon I wasn’t able to pay for everything myself.”
John Belushi
Belushi’s popular Samurai character spoke no dialogue, but got huge laughs through grunts, arched eyebrows and violent sword swings. It was the bit that he auditioned with, according to Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, “scratching and grunting, rubbing his chin and cocking his prodigious eyebrows as he paced around his imaginary pool table. By the time he was finished, the room was crowded with people watching. It was, everyone agreed, an absolutely unexpected and winning performance, a tour de force.”
Kate McKinnon
McKinnon’s alien abduction sketches grew into showcases for her physical comedy skills. During the SNL50 show, McKinnon turned Pedro Pascal and Woody Harrelson into her personal jungle gyms, navigating their crotches as they struggled to keep straight faces.
Kristen Wiig
Wiig wasn’t always falling down on the job, but she’d do anything for a laugh. Check her out as flirting expert Rebecca LaRue, flailing her hands as a “sexy” come-on, then sticking her derriere in the air to win the affections of Seth Meyers. Many of Wiig’s loopiest characters — tiny-handed Doonese, tipsy-drunk Kathie Lee Gifford, flatulent bombshell Shana — were based on absurd physicality.