Behind the Comedy: SNL

The best thing about Virginia Heffernan's New Yorker profile of Tina Fey, besides feeding our Tina-Fey-starved minds, is the breakdown of the different comedy styles of SNL performers and writers:

Second City (Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler, Horatio Sanz) - known for their aesthetic perfectionism
Groundlings (Laraine Newman, Chris Farley, Will Ferrell, Julia Sweeney, Maya Rudolph, Chris Kattan) - creation of vivid and eccentric characters
Harvard Lampoon (Dennis McNicholas, Michael Schur, Conan O�Brien) - emphasis on the conceptual premise of a sketch

Then Jimmy Fallon sums up the current writing staff well: �[Fey]�s Chicago. Dennis is Harvard. She�d do more jokes about having sex with a hobo, and he�d do more jokes about robots and sharks."

Gothamist on Tina Fey. And we like the book, Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, as Told By Its Stars, Writers and Guests.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in Arts & Entertainment on October 29, 2003 3:24 PM

Comments [rss]

jkottke

Conan was at the Lampoon before the Groundlings and Farley performed with the Groundlings and SC (not clear what the order was here).

Bob

The weird thing about the breakdown is that:

1) Chris Farley is from Second City, not hte Groundlings.

2) Conan O'Brien is also from the Groundlings.

adrian

I heard she had a run in with a fence as a child. Tina is up there with the best head writers from SNL. Last year the Post put her in their "Hot Singles" list - only to crush me when it was revealed she's happily married.

X.O.

Where is the scar? I've never noticed it.

Jen

She never talks about the scar...I think something happened in her childhood. She's still great, though.

karatechimp

Scar or no scar, Tina Fey is soft on the eyes.

Alex

Sadly, no. If she won't tell the New Yorker, what hope is there for finding out? Myabe it has something to do with the fact that she was a "victim of a violent street crime" as well? AVB