Which SNL women group was the best?

I had to go for the originals. Gilda and Jane set the standard.

Fey et al, barely.

Gilda and crew next.

McKinnon and her ladies a surprisingly close third.

No love for Julia Sweeney? She was the only woman against Spade, Sandler, Schneider, Macdonald, and Farley.

Sweeney is a great writer, but when her biggest character is remember for being annoying and the star of one of the worst movies ever made...

None of them.

A little of Fey and Poehler go a long way, but I love Maya Rudolph

Nora and Jan would win if they weren't chained to Victoria in the poll.

R7 and they all three hated each other. In the SNL book, they said Victoria called Nora a bitch and Jan the devil in front of everybody. I think they said Victoria's only character was a Bible-thumping victim. Ouch.

Julia should be with Jan and Nora.

If you had Jan Hooks on her own she might get my vote.

I wouldn't doubt Jackson's contributions at the time, r7. She added something to the dynamics with Hooks and Dunn.

R11 Victoria was the weakest link in the sketch.

I thought she made an excellent Zsa Zsa, r12.

Victoria is a HUGE homophobe these days.

God hates f*gs kinda stuff.

[quote]Nora and Jan would win if they weren't chained to Victoria in the poll.

A lot of these cohorts are dragged down by one person. The Oteri/Shannon/Gasteyer trio was at least equally strong, though none of them are personal favorites. Not sure which group to give the nod to.

I know, r15. I decided to give it to Gilda, Laraine and Jane based on their laying the groundwork.

Give me Catherine O'Hara and Andrea Martin!

They had the advantage of not doing their shows live, r17.

How can you resist the Sweeney Sisters? At the 40th Emmy Awards?

I really thought Molly and Ana were just so amazing. Cheri was, too, though her energy level was different.

Impossible choice, but I'm leaning towards the current cast. I dislike Vanessa Blander but enjoy the other three a lot. I find Aidy Bryant consistently hilarious and I think Kate McKinnon is one of the biggest talents the show has ever had. Cecily Strong isn't on that level but she is very reliable. Bonus points for Leslie Jones, who had no range but was charismatic and could be very funny sometimes. (I'll take that over no range and bland.)

Victoria Jackson sang a hilarious song on the Tonight Show one time with her little guitar. It was called "Where do you draw the line between love and adultery" It was so hilarious to see Johnny Carson's reaction to her airhead song. I was a teenager at the time and i remember laughing so hard I pissed my pants!

There's at least one other — Christine Ebersole. Also Joan Cusack.

Christine wasn't a good fit for the format. They did let her sing, though, a Lovely Single Bars and Single Women on her second show in 1981.

Anyone who is picking this current crop is too young to have even seen the other choices live. I like Kate McKinnon in some sketches, but come on!

What a silly thing to say, R25.

I loved Gilda and Jane together. Jane is often credited as being the best straight woman in the business since Margaret Dumont, and her timing with Radner was just genius. As hilarious as Radner was, Curtin added so much to her Weekend Updates bits as Emily Litella and as Roseanne Rosannadanna. The Emily Litella bits with Chevy Chase aren't nearly as funny as those with Curtin because Curtin gets so hilariously disgusted with how stupid Emily is (always prompting the great final "...Bitch..." from Emily). Laraine wasn't as consistently funny as they were, but she could sometimes be quite good: I loved it when she would do Rosalynn Carter who would always appear slightly turned on by her husband (Dan Aykroyd).

I never liked Victoria Jackson, so I couldn't vote for her group. but Nora Dunn and Jan Hooks were hilarious both alone and even more so together. The Sweeney Sisters and the two "Attitudes" hosts were such favorites.

I love Fey, Poehler, etc., but they weren't always good as a group, and Dratch is very uneven. The 19th-century Boston society ladies sketch she did with Christina Aguilera where Dratch keeps expostulating made-up horrified words like "REVULSIVE!" and "SCANDALAMITY!" is one of the funniest SNL sketches ever (I wish i could find it online!), but she broke too often and was deeply annoying when she broke. Fey had superb talents within a very narrow range (basically only playing herself as a newsreader or Sarah Palin).

Rudolph is also uneven--she's never funny to me as Kamala Harris, but her famous sketch as a spokesmodel with Kristen Wiig on a "Price is Right"-like show (below) is one of the funniest sketches ever, even though both she and Wiig and Bill Hader keep breaking (they all break so rarely on the show that their breaking here is actually quite funny, unlike Dratch and Jimmy Fallon who did it far too often so it became annoying--it also helps that in the Spokesmodels sketch the writing is so good, and also that Vanessa Bayer barely breaks at all--Bayer is one of the great undersung stars of SNL).

Julia Sweeney should be paired in the poll with Melanie Hutsell and Ellen Cleghorne, both of whom were quite good but ended up suffocated by the douches (Sandler, et al).

Curtain and Hooks for all time. Aidy Bryant for the current crop.

Debra Wilson from Mad TV is my favorite female comic from any sketch show, overall.

It's *still* CURTIN, you fat whores!

Was Julia alone because all those guys played so many of the female parts in drag during those years? I especially remember the Gap girls.

Why did so many of the early years skits end with footage of cars going over cliffs? Was that just lazy writing and them not know how to end a skit? As I recall it was especially true on the Toones sketches.

[quote] Was that just lazy writing and them not know how to end a skit

That's most of their skits

Which other ones ended that way besides the Toonces bits, r32?

It’s time for androgyny - It’s just Pat!

Only the Toonces skits ended that way, and they were supposed to--the joke there was the inevitable repetition of the (obviously) stock footage.

Where's Gail Matthius, Denny Dillon and Ann Risley?

Victoria Jackson always seemed like a half-baked SNL sketch character come to life, Dunn and Hooks are goddesses though.

Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer are goddesses too, but felt more like actresses than they did sketch players. Cheri Oteri leaned more into the “develop some original characters that scream catch phrases and do some credible celebrity impressions” approach to SNL but there was always a seething misanthropic undercurrent to all her work that I was weirdly into as a gay 13 year old. Kristen Wiig is interesting as she seems like the most “actressy” performer SNL ever had but carried the show for years doing impressions and catch phrase sketches.

Fey, as others have said, is deeply funny but can really only play Tina Fey and her polar-opposite Sarah Palin. Amy Poehler only has a shade more range than Fey - so many of her characters are extensions of her own “stymied type A woman” persona that reached its culmination in Leslie Knope. Maya Rudolph best stuff was when she was allowed to get weird, she was over-praised as an impressionist though -I think her Beyonce and her Phylicia Rashad as Michelle Obama were the only two that ever landed for me.

Kate, Cecily and Aidy are all brilliant. Leslie was ill-moored 85% of the time, but is so loveable you can’t help but warm to her. I agree that Vanessa Bayer is the most criminally underrated performer on SNL in the show’s recent history - she and Cecily are both masters of satirizing millennial pre-frau tropes.

R38 Your statement about Leslie is laughable, she is repulsive.

So interesting to see the love for Beyer. I often find her stiff and/or unconvincing. I always remember the time she delivered her last line in the sketch and her eyes remained glued to the teleprompter for another minute.

I do like her sometimes, like in the porn star bits.

Lots of love of the actresses, but criticism of my listing.

I did not add Denny Dillion or Christine Ebersole or Ellen Cleghorn because they were only around for one or two seasons.

I think each women group were different for certain reasons. In the early years, Gilda, Lorraine, and Jane had to work harder and fighter their way to the top. I think Gilda and Jane succeeded, but Lorraine was not as smart or cutthroat as them. Ergo, not as remembered.

Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Robin Duke, and Mary Gross are just a weird pairing. I remember Mary Gross more from her sitcom appearances than SNL, and Julia's SNL time was overshadowed my Seinfeld.

Nora Dunn and Jan Hooks were good actresses/impersonators first and comedians second. Victoria Jackson was used as the bimbo. Hence the major differences/unevenness in their time.

Julia Sweeney was against Farley, Sandler, Spade, Rock, and Schneider. She deserves more credit than Pat.

Molly Shannon is the best female physical comedian SNL ever had. Ana Gasteyer was the quintessential mom, Martha Stewart, etc. Cheri O'teri was not scared to do anything. Very 1990's.

The Fey, Poehler, Rudolph, and Dratch years were when women were more respected. They took over the show and were the funniest ones during their tenure. Poehler's Hillary is the best. Dratch deserves more credit for being the kooky one. She did an American Idol sketch with a baby doll arm attached to her head the entire time. Hysterical.

Kristin Wiig is a chameleon.

Kate McKinnon is the best thing about SNL right now. Aidy Bryant and Cecily Stron have their moments, but they are on the show less and less. Vanessa was the straight one.

Disagree?

I do disagree. I think Aidy Bryant, Cecily Tyson, and Vanessa Bayer are all better than Kate Mckinnon. Kate is good, no doubt, but you can see the cogs working hard..and all her performances seem to be variations of the same, which is fine if SNL hadn't overused it.