SNL did “Let’s Be a Lesbian Christmas Party” in the 90s

Complicit.

Who’s the dude with the glasses?

Glen does a mean lesbian, it has to be said!

Gosh, I didn't know those holidays vs Xmas neuroses were so old! I thought it was a recent thing.

Glenn Close ever attempting to portray humor, becomes unfortunate.

Glenn or Glenda?

Everyone in the comments who’s a lesbian or was raised by lesbians is confirming how accurate this portrayal is.

Who is that, R6? Where?

What's a new Saturn?

Holy shit that was excruciating. The audience is dead silent. Truly gruesome work by Hutsell and Cleghorne, especially.

Why preserve this skit? It should never waste another person's time and attention.

Yikes it must be so hard to write this type of comedy. The “uncomfortable pause” is a hard gag to pull off. The pace and conviction of performers’ reactions/inertia are really critical. The cast of Larry David’s program Curb Your Enthusiasm, particularly guest performers, manage humorous discomfort pretty masterfully.

Kevin Nealon was a really handy straight guy and “resident goober” during this period of SNL. They could put him in sketches like a matte finish behind some really “sparkling”odd characters, and he had the ability to play convincingly against them. I remember him in some sketches featuring the androgynous “Pat” character, and he was really stoic. He elevated the performances of others in that way.

One really odd but really cool sketch, set in a Diner, featured a waitress played by Jan Hooks who goes through all these wildly comic responses to a cocky character played by Alec Baldwin (“sittin’ on that stool like he’s doin’ it a FAVOR!”). They added Nealon and Phil Hartman as resident dimwits each besotted with Hooks’s explosive manic waitress character. They each had only small reactive parts, but drew a lot from the audience through them. It’s hard to do that. They added giant teeth and hunched up posture, halting speech and these really creepy submissive voices. The humor was all really “concentrated” into details like these. I always admired that, even as a young teen staying up late to watch it.

Some of these sketches are the most interesting failures. They’re so interesting to watch after three decades. You notice new things in them.

Hutsell, Cleghorne and Sweeney were all great in flashes, but got eclipsed by hungrier and more fearless performers. But there performances have aged better in many cases.

I think this was a pretty dark, complex time in SNL’s history. I haven’t read the volumes written about the show, but I suspect there was a lot of ego, cronyism, coke, misogyny and insecurity behind the scenes. I wonder how the performers who “orbited” or came close to real fame and recognition feel about those whose fame translated into “fuck you” money, like Murphy, Sandler, Myers.

I think part of HBO’s series The Comeback explored comedy “writers room” psychology pretty honestly.

^^”their performances “, d’oh.

Melanie Hutsell needs to be canceled.

Blossom "released" Jan Brady/Tori Spelling