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Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
43 Times Things Went Hilariously Wrong On "Saturday Night Live"
In honor of Saturday Night Live celebrating 50 seasons, I decided to round up the most unforgettable, iconic times things went hilariously wrong on air. From wardrobe malfunctions to character-breaking, here are 43 of those moments that live in my head rent free: Kristen Wiig almost ran Maya Rudolph over with a golf cart in "Super Showcase Spokesmodels" and literally everyone was losing it, but the show went on: Jason Sudeikis unexpectedly ate guacamole off of Fred Armisen's shoe in "New Girlfriend," thus making Fed absolutely lose it: Candice Bergen messed up her line in "Extremely Stupid" and couldn't stop laughing long enough to recover, so Gilda Radner delivered this gem: nobody could keep a straight face while delivering their lines in "The Love-ahs With Barbara and Dave," because Jimmy Fallon was snickering the whole time: "Africa Tourism" sketch, where you can quite literally watch Adele start to break, like, five times before she completely loses it: the whole first "Close Encounter" sketch, because Ryan Gosling is a millisecond from full-on laughing the entire time, and it's absolute perfection: In my humble opinion, this one goes down as one of the character breaking greats. 10/10, no notes. the second one — "Another Close Encounter" — where Kate McKinnon used Ryan for a ~demonstration~, and he literally forgot how to function: Alec Baldwin was genuinely surprised by Paul McCartney making an appearance in this "Platinum Lounge" sketch and went through every emotion in the span of five seconds: It's Martin Short's face of absolute delight here for me, TBH. any "Debbie Downer" sketch, but the way every single person breaks in "Debbie Downer: Disney World" (bonus points for Horatio Sanz literally hiding his face in a Mickey-shaped waffle) makes it the very best: Will Ferrell sent Sean Hayes and Jimmy Fallon into hysterics when he pulled out the tiniest flip phone known to man in "Jeffrey's": Aidy Bryant's wardrobe assistant made the best possible mistake and ran on set too early in "Inside the Beltway," thus making Aidy laugh so hard, she barely made it through the rest of the sketch: Bonus points for Cecily and Kenan similarly fighting for their lives not to break character, too: Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig spent a solid 20 seconds trying (and failing) desperately not to laugh when Kristen got a littttle messy in "Hollywood Dish With Scarlett Johansson": Christina Applegate and David Spade tried their best to hide their laughter in "Matt Foley: Van Down by the River," but Chris Farley was just too damn funny: Kristen Stewart accidentally dropped an f-bomb in her monologue and Kate McKinnon was positively delighted: Ego's line readings and over-the-top steak cutting in this "Lisa from Temecula" sketch made every single person at this table — including herself and Pedro Pascal — lose it: Bill Hader ran into the table and nearly took out Melissa Villaseñor not once, but TWICE in "Girlfriends Game Night": Will Ferrell's character in the "Dr. Beaman's Office: Test Results" sketch was so funny, it had him hiding a smile behind his hands and made Molly Shannon laugh so hard, she struggled to regain her composure for a hot minute: Shout out to "Dr. Poop" who made them all start cracking right before this, too! Brittany Murphy fell victim to a pair of noisy leather pants and couldn't help but laugh during "Leather Man": forever iconic "Californians" sketch, in which Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, and even Fred Armisen were constantly on the verge of breaking: Larry David gets the giggles in this "New Wife" sketch and ends up whispering his lines, which makes Kate start laughing, too: Adam Driver tried to hit a fake bird with his cane for ~emphasis~ in "Career Day" and accidentally skewered it instead, making us all crack up just as hard as Pete Davidson was: Janet Jackson couldn't control her giggle after this line in "Corksoakers:" Tracy Morgan and Kenan Thompson had every last person in the "Scared Straight: Underage Drinking" sketch fighting for their lives not to break (and, evidently, losing): Jimmy Fallon was all of us watching Will Ferrell be hilarious in the "More Cowbell" sketch: Emily Blunt nailed this line delivery a little too well and had to slowly lower this lampshade to hide her giggles: Kate McKinnon — QUEEN of not breaking character — was taken down by how gosh darn disgusting the basket of meat in the "Weekend Update: Smokery Farms" smelled: Beck and Kyle's physical comedy in this "Brothers" sketch was so exquisite, it had Aidy making this face the whoooole sketch and had Cecily struggling to say her lines altogether: the adorable pup in "Dog Court" got a little too wiggly, resulting in a good 30 seconds of Cecily Strong hilariously breaking and getting lots of puppy kisses: Billie Eilish makes it halfway through this "Hotel Ad" sketch before starting to lose it, only for Kate McKinnon to notice and go even harder: literally every time John Mulaney surprised Bill Hader with new lines when he played Stefon on "Weekend Update," giving us his iconic ~I'm definitely not laughing~ pose: Leslie Jones was laughing so hard over Jonah Hill's performance in "Benihana" he started laughing, too: Will Ferrell literally just started improvising in "Space, the Infinite Frontier: Dr. Kent Wahler," leaving Jeff Goldblum deeply but hilariously confused: Justin Timberlake literally mustered up all his energy to keep himself from losing it in "The Barry Gibb Talk Show: Bee Gees Singers": Pete Davidson was literally all of us watching Kenan Thompson and John Mulaney in "Diner Lobster," aka he was full out, not-even-trying-to-hide-it laughing when the camera switched over to him: Kenan Thompson and Pete Davidson simply couldn't take Leslie Jones breastfeeding Dave Chappelle's character in "Football Party": TBH, Pete's cookie deserves an honorary Emmy for the work it's doing to hide that laugh. Seann William Scott put up a good fight, but even he wasn't immune to cracking up over Will Ferrell's patriotic look in "Short Shorts for the USA": Megan Thee Stallion tried her best, but Kenan Thompson fighting off a deer had her giggling all through this "Deer" sketch: EVERYONE started cracking in this cut-for-time "Gus Chiggins, Old Prospector" sketch because, as usual, of Will Ferrell: Ryan Gosling couldn't help himself when Aidy Bryant went to pull a gun out of his dressed like this in "Henrietta": Kenan Thompson made such a bonkers face in the "So You're Willing to Date a Magician" sketch that Awkwafina and Leslie Jones couldn't get their lines out without laughing: Tim Robinson made the perfect entrance in "Barnes and Noble Firing," sending Kevin Hart into a fit of laughter that lasted through the end of the sketch: Fred Armisen improvised this bit with his jacket in "Short Term Memory Loss Theater" just to make Bill break: finally, this cut-for-time "Cast List" sketch that I recommend you watch twice — once for the actual sketch (which is peak theater kid drama), and a second time to watch each and every cast member fighting for their lives not to laugh (spoiler alert: they all do, more than once): You can watch SNL's 50th-anniversary celebrations — which include a concert on Friday, 2/14, a re-airing of its first episode on Saturday, 2/15, and a three-hour anniversary special on 2/15 — on NBC and Peacock.
Buzz Feed
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
43 Times Things Went Hilariously Wrong On "Saturday Night Live"
In honor of Saturday Night Live celebrating 50 seasons, I decided to round up the most unforgettable, iconic times things went hilariously wrong on air. From wardrobe malfunctions to character-breaking, here are 43 of those moments that live in my head rent free: 1. When Kristen Wiig almost ran Maya Rudolph over with a golf cart in " Super Showcase Spokesmodels" and literally everyone was losing it, but the show went on: 2. When Jason Sudeikis unexpectedly ate guacamole off of Fred Armisen's shoe in " New Girlfriend," thus making Fed absolutely lose it: 3. When Candice Bergen messed up her line in " Extremely Stupid" and couldn't stop laughing long enough to recover, so Gilda Radner delivered this gem: 4. When nobody could keep a straight face while delivering their lines in " The Love-ahs With Barbara and Dave," because Jimmy Fallon was snickering the whole time: 5. This " Africa Tourism" sketch, where you can quite literally watch Adele start to break, like, five times before she completely loses it: 6. Honestly, the whole first " Close Encounter" sketch, because Ryan Gosling is a millisecond from full-on laughing the entire time, and it's absolute perfection: In my humble opinion, this one goes down as one of the character breaking greats. 10/10, no notes. 7. And the second one — " Another Close Encounter" — where Kate McKinnon used Ryan for a ~demonstration~, and he literally forgot how to function: 8. When Alec Baldwin was genuinely surprised by Paul McCartney making an appearance in this " Platinum Lounge" sketch and went through every emotion in the span of five seconds: 9. Truly any "Debbie Downer" sketch, but the way every single person breaks in " Debbie Downer: Disney World" (bonus points for Horatio Sanz literally hiding his face in a Mickey-shaped waffle) makes it the very best: 10. When Will Ferrell sent Sean Hayes and Jimmy Fallon into hysterics when he pulled out the tiniest flip phone known to man in " Jeffrey's": 11. When Aidy Bryant 's wardrobe assistant made the best possible mistake and ran on set too early in " Inside the Beltway," thus making Aidy laugh so hard, she barely made it through the rest of the sketch: Bonus points for Cecily and Kenan similarly fighting for their lives not to break character, too: 12. When Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig spent a solid 20 seconds trying (and failing) desperately not to laugh when Kristen got a littttle messy in " Hollywood Dish With Scarlett Johansson": 13. When Christina Applegate and David Spade tried their best to hide their laughter in " Matt Foley: Van Down by the River," but Chris Farley was just too damn funny: NBC / Via 14. When Kristen Stewart accidentally dropped an f-bomb in her monologue and Kate McKinnon was positively delighted: NBC / Via 15. When Ego's line readings and over-the-top steak cutting in this " Lisa from Temecula" sketch made every single person at this table — including herself and Pedro Pascal — lose it: NBC / Via 16. When Bill Hader ran into the table and nearly took out Melissa Villaseñor not once, but TWICE in " Girlfriends Game Night": NBC / Via 17. When Will Ferrell's character in the " Dr. Beaman's Office: Test Results" sketch was so funny, it had him hiding a smile behind his hands and made Molly Shannon laugh so hard, she struggled to regain her composure for a hot minute: NBC / Via Shout out to "Dr. Poop" who made them all start cracking right before this, too! 18. When Brittany Murphy fell victim to a pair of noisy leather pants and couldn't help but laugh during " Leather Man": NBC / Via 19. The forever iconic " Californians" sketch, in which Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, and even Fred Armisen were constantly on the verge of breaking: NBC / Via 20. When Larry David gets the giggles in this " New Wife" sketch and ends up whispering his lines, which makes Kate start laughing, too: NBC / Via 21. When Adam Driver tried to hit a fake bird with his cane for ~emphasis~ in " Career Day" and accidentally skewered it instead, making us all crack up just as hard as Pete Davidson was: NBC / Via 22. When Janet Jackson couldn't control her giggle after this line in " Corksoakers:" NBC / Via 23. When Tracy Morgan and Kenan Thompson had every last person in the " Scared Straight: Underage Drinking" sketch fighting for their lives not to break (and, evidently, losing): NBC / Via 24. When Jimmy Fallon was all of us watching Will Ferrell be hilarious in the " More Cowbell" sketch: NBC / Via 25. When Emily Blunt nailed this line delivery a little too well and had to slowly lower this lampshade to hide her giggles: NBC / Via 26. When Kate McKinnon — QUEEN of not breaking character — was taken down by how gosh darn disgusting the basket of meat in the " Weekend Update: Smokery Farms" smelled: NBC / Via 27. When Beck and Kyle's physical comedy in this " Brothers" sketch was so exquisite, it had Aidy making this face the whoooole sketch and had Cecily struggling to say her lines altogether: NBC / Via 28. When the adorable pup in " Dog Court" got a little too wiggly, resulting in a good 30 seconds of Cecily Strong hilariously breaking and getting lots of puppy kisses: NBC / Via 29. When Billie Eilish makes it halfway through this " Hotel Ad" sketch before starting to lose it, only for Kate McKinnon to notice and go even harder: NBC / Via 30. Like, literally every time John Mulaney surprised Bill Hader with new lines when he played Stefon on " Weekend Update," giving us his iconic ~I'm definitely not laughing~ pose: NBC / Via 31. When Leslie Jones was laughing so hard over Jonah Hill 's performance in " Benihana" he started laughing, too: NBC / Via 32. When Will Ferrell literally just started improvising in " Space, the Infinite Frontier: Dr. Kent Wahler," leaving Jeff Goldblum deeply but hilariously confused: NBC / Via 33. When Justin Timberlake literally mustered up all his energy to keep himself from losing it in " The Barry Gibb Talk Show: Bee Gees Singers": NBC / Via 34. When Pete Davidson was literally all of us watching Kenan Thompson and John Mulaney in " Diner Lobster," aka he was full out, not-even-trying-to-hide-it laughing when the camera switched over to him: NBC / Via 35. When Kenan Thompson and Pete Davidson simply couldn't take Leslie Jones breastfeeding Dave Chappelle's character in " Football Party": NBC / Via TBH, Pete's cookie deserves an honorary Emmy for the work it's doing to hide that laugh. 36. When Seann William Scott put up a good fight, but even he wasn't immune to cracking up over Will Ferrell's patriotic look in " Short Shorts for the USA": NBC / Via 37. When Megan Thee Stallion tried her best, but Kenan Thompson fighting off a deer had her giggling all through this " Deer" sketch: NBC / Via 38. When EVERYONE started cracking in this cut-for-time " Gus Chiggins, Old Prospector" sketch because, as usual, of Will Ferrell: NBC / Via 39. When Ryan Gosling couldn't help himself when Aidy Bryant went to pull a gun out of his dressed like this in " Henrietta": NBC / Via 40. When Kenan Thompson made such a bonkers face in the " So You're Willing to Date a Magician" sketch that Awkwafina and Leslie Jones couldn't get their lines out without laughing: NBC / Via 41. When Tim Robinson made the perfect entrance in " Barnes and Noble Firing," sending Kevin Hart into a fit of laughter that lasted through the end of the sketch: NBC / Via 42. When Fred Armisen improvised this bit with his jacket in " Short Term Memory Loss Theater" just to make Bill break: NBC / Via 43. And finally, this cut-for-time " Cast List" sketch that I recommend you watch twice — once for the actual sketch (which is peak theater kid drama), and a second time to watch each and every cast member fighting for their lives not to laugh (spoiler alert: they all do, more than once): NBC / Via You can watch SNL 's 50th-anniversary celebrations — which include a concert on Friday, 2/14, a re-airing of its first episode on Saturday, 2/15, and a three-hour anniversary special on 2/15 — on NBC and Peacock.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Do It for Gilda
Before John Belushi, before Bill Murray or Chevy Chase or Dan Aykroyd—before any of them, there was Gilda. Gilda Radner was the first performer Lorne Michaels hired for the cast of Saturday Night Live when it launched, in 1975. She was, at the time, one of the stars of The National Lampoon Radio Hour, the only woman in a cast of men destined to be famous. 'I knew that she could do almost anything, and that she was enormously likeable,' Michaels once said of the decision. 'So I started with her.' Television audiences immediately fell in love with Radner. How could they not? She was magnetic. She sparkled with a kind of anything's-possible energy, and stole every scene she was in. She made everything hilarious, and more daring. That was Radner—the tiny woman with the gigantic hair having more fun than everybody around her. Radner's charm was so off the charts that practically every character of hers wound up with a beloved catchphrase. There was the bespectacled nerd Lisa Loopner ('So funny I forgot to laugh!'); the poof-haired newscaster Roseanne Roseannadanna ('It just goes to show, it's always something.'); and the little old lady Emily Litella ('Never mind.'). A typical Litella rant on 'Weekend Update' went like this: 'What's all this fuss I keep hearing about violins on television! Why don't parents want their children to see violins on television! … I say there should be more violins on television!' Chevy Chase eventually leans over and corrects her: Violence, not violins. Litella, sheepish: 'Never mind.' Radner based Litella on her own childhood nanny. And the portrayal, like everything she did, was shot through with love. Radner also appeared in the now-classic 'Extremely Stupid' sketch, which became one of the earliest examples of actors breaking—that is, breaking character and cracking up on live television—in SNL history after the guest host, Candice Bergen, flubbed a line. Radner used the moment to great comedic effect, turning directly to the camera to exaggerate the impeccable delivery of her own lines, while Bergen dissolved into laughter beside her. Almost every comic who came after Radner—and certainly the ones who wound up on Saturday Night Live—counts her as a formative influence. You can see Radner in the rag-doll chaos of Molly Shannon's character Mary Katherine Gallagher; in the total commitment to the bit of Adam Sandler's singsong gibberish; in the weird imagination of Kristen Wiig's universe of absurd characters (the mischievous Gilly and the tiny-handed Dooneese both come to mind); and in the master-class physical comedy of Melissa McCarthy. Radner herself was always drawn to classic physical comedy—among her idols were Charlie Chaplin, Lucille Ball, anyone who was, in her words, 'willing to risk it.' So it made sense that Radner parodied Ball—and the legendary chocolate-factory episode of I Love Lucy—in a sketch, alongside Aykroyd, that had her juggling nuclear warheads coming down a conveyor belt. Then there was Radner's wordless dance routine with Steve Martin—in which the pair toggles between all-out slapstick and total earnestness—that remains a higher form of comedy, even 50 years later. Radner's particular charisma came from this blend of bigheartedness and fearlessness. She always went for it. 'There was just an abandon she had that was unmatched,' Martin has said. She'd keep going until she got the laugh, however far that took her. And she could make fun without being mean-spirited. (See: her impressions of Barbara Walters as 'Baba Wawa' and Patti Smith as 'Candy Slice.') In 1979, Radner gave the commencement speech—fully in character as Roseanne Roseannadanna—to the graduating class at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, part of which wound up on her comedy album Gilda Radner: Live From New York, released that same year. And while the delivery is pure Roseannadanna, listening to it today is also a reminder of the trail Radner herself blazed, along with SNL cast members Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman, as women in comedy in the 1970s. 'Imagine, if you will, an idealistic young Roseanne Roseannadanna, fresh out of the Columbia School of Broadcasting, looking for a job in journalism,' Radner-as-Roseannadanna says. 'I filled out applications, I went out for interviews, and they allll told me the same thing: You're overqualified, you're underqualified, don't call us, we'll call you, it's a jungle out there, a woman's place is in the home, have a nice day, drop dead, goodbye. But I didn't give up.' Radner didn't give up either. But her sense of purpose wasn't about proving a point or being a feminist, but something even more straightforward. If she wanted something, she went for it. Why wouldn't she? Radner was famously boy-crazy. (She used to joke that she couldn't bring herself to watch Ghostbusters because it starred all of her ex-boyfriends.) She had on-again, off-again romances with Martin Short and Bill Murray (and that was after she'd dated Murray's brother), among others. In her own telling of her eventual marriage to the great Gene Wilder, the two wound up together only because she pursued him so relentlessly. She knew from the minute she saw him that she wanted to be with him forever. He did not share this view, not initially. An interviewer once asked Wilder if it had been love at first sight. 'No, not at all,' Wilder said. 'If anything, the opposite. I said, How do I get rid of this girl?' He would come around. 'If I had to compare her to something I would say to a firefly, in the summer, at night,' Wilder recalled. 'When you see a sudden flash of light, it's flying by, and then it stops. And then light. And stops. She was like that.' What Wilder meant, in part, was that Radner could have the highest of highs but also the lowest of lows. In moments of lightness, the whole world was illuminated, and everything in sight seemed to bend in her direction. But other times she was anxious and sad. She grieved the death of her father, who died of cancer when she was a teenager, her whole life. She described herself as highly neurotic. She had had eating disorders more or less since she was 10 years old. And she suffered in other ways, too. She never got to be a mother, which she'd desperately wanted. And while she brought untold joy to millions of people, her short life ended tragically. At one point, toward the end, she looked back on the early SNL years and marveled. 'We thought we were immortal, at least for five years,' she wrote in her memoir. 'But that doesn't exist anymore.' Wilder and Radner were married for only five years before she died, at 42, of ovarian cancer. And today, she is remembered as much for the unfairness of her young death—like Belushi before her and Chris Farley after her—as she is for her originality and spectacular talent. In a gentler world, all three of them would still be with us. Radner and Belushi would be in their 70s, Farley in his 60s. In a gentler world, Radner could have had all the babies she wished for, made all the movies she never got to, and would still be making people laugh. When I think about Radner now, what I think about most is the way she lived, and how that ought to be a lesson to the rest of us. She had a sense of total urgency, and a willingness to do the things that terrified her. Somehow, she made it look easy. 'I don't know why I'm doing it,' she once said in an interview, about why she'd chosen to take her act to Broadway, 'except that for some reason I've chosen to scare myself to death.' That was Gilda Radner. Gilda, who as a child once overheard her mother saying, 'Gilda could sell ice cubes in winter,' and so set up a little stand outside to do just that. Gilda, who loved work so much that she'd get impatient on the way to NBC Studios and ask her taxi drivers to speed up already. Gilda, who fell in love easily and often, and wasn't afraid to be weird, or look ridiculous. Gilda, who could make anything funny. But her real legacy, it turns out, is something much more profound than her comedy. This is the lesson of Gilda Radner's too-short life: For God's sake, don't bother with fear. Just go for the thing you want, with your whole heart. Each of us gets only so much time on this planet, and none of us knows for how long. Life can be terrible this way, and sad, and it isn't fair at all. But it is funny, anyway. Really, really funny. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
15-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
Do It For Gilda
Before John Belushi, before Bill Murray or Chevy Chase or Dan Aykroyd—before any of them, there was Gilda. Gilda Radner was the first performer Lorne Michaels hired for the cast of Saturday Night Live when it launched, in 1975. She was, at the time, one of the stars of The National Lampoon Radio Hour, the only woman in a cast of men destined to be famous. 'I knew that she could do almost anything, and that she was enormously likeable,' Michaels once said of the decision. 'So I started with her.' Television audiences immediately fell in love with Radner. How could they not? She was magnetic. She sparkled with a kind of anything's-possible energy, and stole every scene she was in. She made everything hilarious, and more daring. That was Radner—the tiny woman with the gigantic hair having more fun than everybody around her. Radner's charm was so off the charts that practically every character of hers wound up with a beloved catchphrase. There was the bespectacled nerd Lisa Loopner ('So funny I forgot to laugh!'); the poof-haired newscaster Roseanne Roseannadanna ('It just goes to show, it's always something.'); and the little old lady Emily Litella ('Never mind.'). A typical Litella rant on 'Weekend Update' went like this: 'What's all this fuss I keep hearing about violins on television! Why don't parents want their children to see violins on television! … I say there should be more violins on television!' Chevy Chase eventually leans over and corrects her: Violence, not violins. Litella, sheepish: 'Never mind.' Radner based Litella on her own childhood nanny. And the portrayal, like everything she did, was shot through with love. Radner also appeared in the now-classic ' Extremely Stupid ' sketch, which became one of the earliest examples of actors breaking—that is, breaking character and cracking up on live television—in SNL history after the guest host, Candice Bergen, flubbed a line. Radner used the moment to great comedic effect, turning directly to the camera to exaggerate the impeccable delivery of her own lines, while Bergen dissolved into laughter beside her. Almost every comic who came after Radner—and certainly the ones who wound up on Saturday Night Live —counts her as a formative influence. You can see Radner in the ragdoll chaos of Molly Shannon's character Mary Katherine Gallagher; in the total commitment to the bit of Adam Sandler's singsong gibberish; in the weird imagination of Kristen Wiig's universe of absurd characters (the mischievous Gilly and the tiny-handed Dooneese both come to mind); and in the master-class physical comedy of Melissa McCarthy. Radner herself was always drawn to classic physical comedy—among her idols were Charlie Chaplin, Lucille Ball, anyone who was, in her words, 'willing to risk it.' So it made sense that Radner parodied Ball—and the legendary chocolate-factory episode of I Love Lucy —in a sketch, alongside Aykroyd, that had her juggling nuclear warheads coming down a conveyor belt. Then there was Radner's wordless dance routine with Steve Martin—in which the pair toggles between all-out slapstick and total earnestness—that remains a higher form of comedy, even 50 years later. Radner's particular charisma came from this blend of bigheartedness and fearlessness. She always went for it. 'There was just an abandon she had that was unmatched,' Martin has said. She'd keep going until she got the laugh, however far that took her. And she could make fun without being mean-spirited. (See: her impressions of Barbara Walters as ' Baba Wawa ' and Patti Smith as ' Candy Slice.') In 1979, Radner gave the commencement speech—fully in character as Roseanne Roseannadanna—to the graduating class at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, part of which wound up on her comedy album Gilda Radner: Live From New York, released that same year. And while the delivery is pure Roseannadanna, listening to it today is also a reminder of the trail Radner herself blazed, along with SNL cast members Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman, as women in comedy in the 1970s. 'Imagine, if you will, an idealistic young Roseanne Roseannadanna, fresh out of the Columbia School of Broadcasting, looking for a job in journalism,' Radner-as-Roseannadanna says. 'I filled out applications, I went out for interviews, and they allll told me the same thing: You're overqualified, you're underqualified, don't call us, we'll call you, it's a jungle out there, a woman's place is in the home, have a nice day, drop dead, goodbye. But I didn't give up.' Radner didn't give up either. But her sense of purpose wasn't about proving a point or being a feminist, but something even more straightforward. If she wanted something, she went for it. Why wouldn't she? Radner was famously boy-crazy. (She used to joke that she couldn't bring herself to watch Ghostbusters because it starred all of her ex-boyfriends.) She had on-again, off-again romances with Martin Short and Bill Murray (and that was after she'd dated Murray's brother), among others. In her own telling of her eventual marriage to the great Gene Wilder, the two wound up together only because she pursued him so relentlessly. She knew from the minute she saw him that she wanted to be with him forever. He did not share this view, not initially. An interviewer once asked Wilder if it had been love at first sight. 'No, not at all,' Wilder said. 'If anything, the opposite. I said, How do I get rid of this girl? ' He would come around. 'If I had to compare her to something I would say to a firefly, in the summer, at night,' Wilder recalled. 'When you see a sudden flash of light, it's flying by, and then it stops. And then light. And stops. She was like that.' What Wilder meant, in part, was that Radner could have the highest of highs but also the lowest of lows. In moments of lightness, the whole world was illuminated, and everything in sight seemed to bend in her direction. But other times she was anxious and sad. She grieved the death of her father, who died of cancer when she was a teenager, her whole life. She described herself as highly neurotic. She had had eating disorders more or less since she was 10 years old. And she suffered in other ways, too. She never got to be a mother, which she'd desperately wanted. And while she brought untold joy to millions of people, her short life ended tragically. At one point, toward the end, she looked back on the early SNL years and marveled. 'We thought we were immortal, at least for five years,' she wrote in her memoir. 'But that doesn't exist anymore.' Wilder and Radner were married for only five years before she died, at 42, of ovarian cancer. And today, she is remembered as much for the unfairness of her young death—like Belushi before her and Chris Farley after her—as she is for her originality and spectacular talent. In a gentler world, all three of them would still be with us. Radner and Belushi would be in their 70s, Farley in his 60s. In a gentler world, Radner could have had all the babies she wished for, made all the movies she never got to, and would still be making people laugh. When I think about Radner now, what I think about most is the way she lived, and how that ought to be a lesson to the rest of us. She had a sense of total urgency, and a willingness to do the things that terrified her. Somehow, she made it look easy. 'I don't know why I'm doing it,' she once said in an interview, about why she'd chosen to take her act to Broadway, 'except that for some reason I've chosen to scare myself to death.' That was Gilda Radner. Gilda, who as a child once overheard her mother saying, 'Gilda could sell ice cubes in winter,' and so set up a little stand outside to do just that. Gilda, who loved work so much that she'd get impatient on the way to NBC Studios and ask her taxi drivers to speed up already. Gilda, who fell in love easily and often, and wasn't afraid to be weird, or look ridiculous. Gilda, who could make anything funny. But her real legacy, it turns out, is something much more profound than her comedy. This is the lesson of Gilda Radner's too-short life: For God's sake, don't bother with fear. Just go for the thing you want, with your whole heart. Each of us gets only so much time on this planet, and none of us knows for how long. Life can be terrible this way, and sad, and it isn't fair at all. But it is funny, anyway. Really, really funny.
