Guest Post: Multi-Impression Skits

Daniel is a good friend of the blog, and just like us, he likes TV.  He has signed on to be an occasional guest blogger for the site.  His posts will be begin with "Guest Post" in the title.  His opinions are his own and do not reflect the opinions of We Like TV.  Here is his first post as guest blogger:

SNL relies on its cast to be able to do good impressions and some impressions are so good that they write skits where the cast can parade these impressions. While some people find this to be lazy writing I love these skits. Here we are going to visit a few of my favorite multi-impression skits.

Bunny Business

This skit is just great. It’s a wonderfully absurd concept that allows the cast to trot out their favorite musical impressions. All the impressions are strong. Fred Armisen starts them off strong with a solid Randy Newman. Kristen Wiig then does a pitch perfect Natalie Merchant aka the singer from 10,000 Maniacs. Guest Host Taylor Swift then nails Shakira as Andy Samberg does a wonderfully goofy impression of Adam Duritz from Counting Crows. Abby Elliott and Bill Hader then come on as Christina Aguilera and Eddie Vedder who scream the song “The Bunny Merger Went Through.” Then to top it all off, Kenan Thompson as Jennifer Hudson. A really great skit.

Crazy Person Selection Sunday

Doing impressions of crazy people is always a good option and this premise, which featured a March Madness-like tournament to see who was the craziest person in the world, was just wonderful. Fred’s Muammar Gaddafi kills, Andy nails Dick Vitale, and Kristen does a very funny Melissa Leo. However the highlight of the skit came at the end in the form of Bill playing Charlie Sheen perfectly. Another great impression-heavy skit.

Knights Of The Realm

This one starts out as a TV show skit called “Fancy A Jar Do You”, when it was interrupted by a long named British newsman, reporting that a dragon was attacking London and that the “Knights of the Realm”, the group of celebrities knighted by the queen, had been activated. We then move to the home of Elton John where various British celebs have congregated. Andy Samberg’s Bono, Taran Killam’s Ian McKellen, and Fred Armisen’s Ringo Starr (who is not a bloody knight) are all solid but not outstanding. Despite not saying anything, Kenan as Sir Mix-A-Lot was very funny. However the two top impressions were far and away Tom Hanks’ slow-talking Michael Cain and Bill Hader’s hilariously hyper Richard Branson (WOAAA!). Host Elton John played himself and was serviceable, taking good-natured jabs at the Spider-Man musical, despite flubbing a main punch line.

Mort Mort Feingold: Accountant for the Stars

This skit features Andy as an accountant named Mort Mort Feingold, who does accounting for celebrities. The cast then goes forward with their wonderful parade of impressions. Paul Brittain did a good James Franco. Nasim Pedrad, Abby Elliott, and Vanessa Bayer played the Kardashian sisters with Pedrad and Elliott out shining Bayer. Taran Killam did a fun, just-out-of-the-closet, Ricky Martin. Jay Pharaoh does his rather generic Will Smith. Then comes my personal favorite part of the skit: Helen Mirren as Helena Bonham Carter and Bill Hader as Tim Burton. Both impressions are very strong but the best part of the skit is Bill as Burton handing over their receipts, which he made into a dream spider. Then Paul Brittain does his second impression of the skit when he shows up doing his spot-on Johnny Depp, whose watch got caught in Helena Bonham Carter's hair. The skit closes with Fred as Gaddafi, which was solid.

These are just a few of my favorite impression heavy skits. Feel free to tell me yours. Also thank you to Jason for allowing me to write this article for his blog. I really appreciate it.

Thanks for the great post, Daniel!