The Complete History of SNL Celebrity Jeopardy: May 14, 2005

The Complete History of SNL's Celebrity Jeopardy
By Megh Wright @ 10:50 am

"These days Norm MacDonald is all over the place ? he has a Comedy Central special, a Twitter feud with Steve Martin, a profile in the New York Times, and a new show that premieres tonight. So what better time to revisit one of his most hilarious achievements ever: creating the original Saturday Night Live Celebrity Jeopardy sketch, which is one of the funniest and most enduring in the show?s history. Thanks to Funny Or Die, all 14 sketches are available online. Here they are from start to finish."


1. December 7, 1996

The first SNL Celebrity Jeopardy

Norm MacDonald (Burt Reynolds)
Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond)
Jerry Lewis (Martin Short)

"The first Celebrity Jeopardy sketch aired on December 7, 1996 with Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek, Norm MacDonald as Burt Reynolds, Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery, and host Martin Short as Jerry Lewis. The categories weren't as absurdly juvenile as the later sketches (?Potent Potables,? ?Movies,? ?U.S. History,? ?Popular Music?) and Hammond's Sean Connery was cooperative and inoffensive. Norm MacDonald?s 70?s-era Burt Reynolds is the star here, and after all, MacDonald has admitted to creating the sketch simply to get his Reynolds impression on the show."

It's Ferrell that made these sketches funny. Fabulous straight man talents.

 

"Burt Reynolds, you put down ... my name, that's nice; and you wagered ... is a--ok obviously that's some kind of swear word."

 

"I'm not paying this fine I've incurred. It's injust!"

 

I think my favorite line has to be:

"I'd like to inquire about the Penis Mightier"

"That's the Pen is Mightier Mr. Connery"

 

I love Sean Connery in Celebrity Jeopardy. This one was a good start, with much better ones to come.

 

"What the hell, let's go crazy. I'll take 'Swords' for 48,000."

Norm and Hammond are both great. Martin Short is a pretty terrible Jerry Lewis. Great concept though and Ferrell is about as good at Trebek as he has ever been at anything. I'm not usually a fan, but Trebek is one of his greatest performances. This one's a little weak, but they're just getting started.

 

May 10th, 1997

Burt Reynolds (Norm MacDonald)
Phil Donahue (Darrell Hammond)
Marlon Brando (John Goodman)

"Unlike the first sketch, this one starts to integrate scoring and categories more into its humor. The contestants all start with negative scores, and even though the categories are still a bit dry (?Three Letter Words,? ?Colors,? ?U.S. States?), the contestants either ramble about unrelated topics or choose non-existent categories, so Trebek has to choose everything for them. This is also the only Celebrity Jeopardy sketch where the celebrities mention the charities they?re playing for ? Reynolds plays for the Palm Beach Golf and Tennis Resort."

I've never seen Phil Donahue on TV, so I have no clue what that's about. OTOH, John Goodman is quite brilliant as Marlon Brando. MacDonald is as obnoxious as ever, and Ferrell's slow burn is getting faster.

 

I never realized that Hammond played somebody besides Connery in these sketches.

 

October 4th, 1997

Burt Reynolds (Norm MacDonald)
John Travolta (Darrell Hammond)
Michael Keaton (Matthew Perry)

NBC executives fired MacDonald in early 1998...and he was only in a few sketches for the remainder of the season, so the third Jeopardy sketch is the last time MacDonald plays Reynolds as an SNL cast member. Up until now, most of the categories have been pretty standard, but now they get notably stupider with ?Words That Rhyme With Dog? and ?Shapes,? and from this point forward the sketch brought us some great ones, like ?Ponies,? ?Foods That End In ?Amburger,?? and ?Black Comedians Named Whoopi.?

October 4th, 1997

John Travolta seems to be a variation of last episode's Marlon Brando; Keaton's not good at all. But Burt Reynolds goes out in glory.

 

May 10th, 1997

Epic. That was brilliant. Far better than the first one. It's odd to see one without Connery, but I didn't miss him. Goodman's Brando is unbelievably wonderful: "I was riding on a bicycle . . . I made myself . . . with Wally Cox . . . God, I miss that . . . wonderful man . . . *coolly lays pants on console*" Hammond's Donahue is also pretty good and Ferrell about knocked me out with his absolutely perfect delivery of the line, "Mr. Donahue appeared to write way too much." That's really great.

October 4th, 1997

Perry's Michael Keaton is . . . absolutely horrible. Hammond's Travolta is occasionally cute. But Ferrell owns this one: "And . . . The Renaissance. Actually, let's just replace that last one with Shapes." "And time has run out. The answer was Asia." "That's very nice. Good job, Burt." I still say Ferrell's Trebek is by far the best thing about these sketches and this one is the perfect example. Every time I laughed in this one, it was at Trebek. And I don't even like Ferrell most of the time. Norm does appear to be about to crack up when he does his bit about fixing the buzzer: "Yeah, I think I fixed it. *dweet dweet dweet*" But, yeah, Ferrell killed one this one.

 

Yeah, Perry was pretty awful as Keaton, but the "Val Kilmer sucks, George Clooney sucks" bit was hilarious.

 

Everything about Keaton was abysmal. Hammond's Travolta was not a good impression, but he got some decent jokes. McDonald's Reynolds was great. Reynolds and Trebek are what really make the sketches. Reynolds's idiotic giggle, his complete indifference to everything, his pride in his juvenile kick-me signs -- great. Trebek's frustration and condescension, playing off that, just kill.

 

Burt Reynolds buzzes in three times in quick succession: I think my buzzer's broken.

lol

I thought the Keaton impression was pretty damn good. Have you guys ever watched his comedies?

 

Now that you bring it up, no.

 

4. May, 1998

May 9th, 1998

Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond)
Minnie Driver (Molly Shannon)
Jeff Goldblum (David Duchovny)

"Now that MacDonald was no longer a cast member, Hammond reprised his role as Sean Connery and became the sketch?s staple character known for tormenting Trebek throughout each episode. In Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, Hammond says when he first did Sean Connery, ?I had a really accurate Sean Connery. Now what I do is really a bastardization of who he is, because it just seems funnier to me and it?s funnier to the writers and it gets more of an audience response. Sometimes they just don?t want to see accuracy, they just want it to be funny.?

Connery is not yet up to cruising speed, but he's getting there. I don't know how anyone can imitate Minnie Driver--how do you imitate a hole in the screen? David Duchovny gets Jeff Goldblum's pleased self-absorption right for reasons I won't get into. Oh, hell, I will get into it--he's imitating himself. Easy.

Ferrell has a field day: "It's a frigging hammer!" "There's no reason for any of you to be writing that much!", "And the show has reached a new low."

 

"You wouldn't have known that if you didn't have that card in front of ya!"

 

Driver is a nonentity. She's just there to fill up a spot. Goldblum is at least doing something, though his mugging shtick isn't all that funny and gets less funny the longer it goes on. He's totally redeemed, though, by his meek, ashamed delivery of, "I, uh, I can't read or write." Great punchline. Connery is great -- not only The Rapists, but I love the whole random obsession with declaring himself to be winning. "Then I'm the cock of the walk!" He gets Reynolds's idiotic-statement shtick ("It's a man with a mustache."), but his manic intensity helps distinguish him from Reynolds's complete apathy. Trebek is the real killer here -- best he's been yet.

"Literature -- which is just a big word for books."

"And . . . you're . . . an idiot."

"It's a frigging hammer!"

"This guy reads from a card!" "What. Ever."

The best gag, though, might be the endlessly scrolling clue, followed by the shot of the wildly confused celebrities, followed by, "And the show has reached a new low."

 

5. October 24, 1998

Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond)
Tom Cruise (Ben Stiller)
Adam Sandler (Jimmy Fallon)

October 24th, 1998

"By now the sketch found a consistent format: open at the start of the Double Jeopardy round with most of the celebrities' scores low or in the negative. Already exhausted and annoyed, Trebek presents the categories to the celebrity contestants, which start with the standard "Potent Potables" then evolve into more childlike themes (?Colors That End In ?Urple?). All questions clearly give away the answers (?This Number Comes Between Five and Seven,? ?This Is The Sound A Doggy Makes?), but the contestants always fail to answer correctly and often fail to even choose a category. Connery turns at least one category into a sexual pun involving semen and/or having sex with Trebek?s mother, and eventually Trebek forces the game into the Final Jeopardy round. At least one of the contestants answers correctly but then makes an untranslatable wager, and Trebek ends the game with references to self-mutilation or suicide."

Stiller doesn't get Cruise's peculiar smug narcissism quite right; he's also too hyper to register in this context. The nervous giggle is accurate, however.

Fallon was too scattered as Sandler (but the song was brilliant);

And Hammond reaches cruising speed with Connery--the odd Falstaffian laugh; the sexual innuendos; the anti-Trebek aggression; the jokes at Trebek's expense (though no Mom jokes yet).

As Trebek, Ferrell's disdain and disbelief are hugely funny:

Fallon/Sandler: "Robert DeNiro, Bela Lugosi, Snuffleupagus, and...Parker *Posey*"

[brilliant pause]

Trebek: "And it's time for Final Jeopardy."

 

I don't think I ever watched the skits in chronological order. You get a good feel on how the concept morphed into its own beast and how certain jokes became central. I love every moment.

 

Yeah, Connery really gets into his groove here. I love how he blurts out "Dolly Parton!" and Trebek's weary "TITLES, Mr. Connery, not ******" Fallon was also brilliant as Sandler.

 

The great thing about the Connery character is how they evolved him from being a clueless boob like the rest into someone who is actively ruining the show with intentionally wrong answers.