Favorite SNL "Weekend Update" Anchor(s)

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

Personally, I liked Dennis Miller the best, although Akroyd & Curtin gave us "Jane, you ignorant slut!" and Fallon & Fey are the best since Miller.

[Guest Black Lushus]

You left off Kevin Nealon...he wasn't the best, but he certainly wasn't the worst...

[Guest starvenger]

I liked Norm's sarcasm, but Jimmy and Tina seem to really click.  Tina's definitely the cutest WU anchor they've had, and that probably helps.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I like Dennis Miller.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

I hate Dennis Miller, but his Weekend Update was good. However, I have to go with Norm on this one. There was one bit he did involving OJ that I'll never forget. "OJ" called up Norm and kept telling him that he was innocent since the jury let him off the hook. This went on for several minutes. After this was over, Norm's next story was about how OJ told the police that he never laid a hand on certain parts of Nicole's body. Then Norm said, (I'm paraphrasing) "Too bad the police never asked him if he ever cut her head off with a knife."

 

Then the phone rings again

 

One of my fav. lines of all time.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

D'oh!  You're right, forgot Nealon.

 

Norm is OK, never really got into him.

 

I liked the bit where Miller was renewing his Weekend Update vows, so he had Dana Carvey come out as Miller to do it w/ him.  Carvey did a dead-on Miller.

[Guest teke184]

The problem is that some of the good Update anchors didn't have a lot of good material and that the bad anchors did.

 

Example:  Norm Macdonald had good delivery, but was given some real crap to work with in the season where he was later fired.  Colin Quinn, Norm's replacement, had some good material but a HORRIBLE delivery and a penchant for randomly ranting for no reason (didn't make a point and wasn't funny).

 

As for my choice, I went with Norm because he was the best of the "modern" anchors, which I consider to be post-Miller.  Miller was good but always made jokes that were FAR above SNL's target audience.  Dan and Jane were great, but I've only seen a few of their routines, with the Lee Marvin Point-Counterpoint being the best.  

 

The others besides Norm, Miller, Dan and Jane, and Chevy Chase were pretty forgettable, such as Kevin Nealon (bad delivery) and Charles Rocket (The only thing he's known for is dropping an f-bomb during a live broadcast).

[Guest Army Eye]

Dennis Miller was definitely the best.  

 

I like Chevy Chase a lot but haven't really seen his Weekend Updates at all.  Colin Quinn and that duo that does the updates now are all really, really bad.  Nealon wasn't bad, he's a funny guy but sometimes his delivery would cause a joke to fall flat.  Norm was pretty good but suffered from the absolutely terrible writing.  To his credit, I think he was able to get a few decent laughs from his reactions more than Miller or Nealon could have.  I can't imagine Nealon telling all those jokes, getting zero laughs and not looking completely terrified.  Also some of his OJ stuff was so tasteless that you had to love it.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Gotta go with Norm on this one.

[Guest imajackoff?]

1.Dan and Jane

2.Miller

3.McDonald

 

the 2 worst were Kevin Nealon and Colin Quin IMO

[Guest converge241]

Norm was always my favorite.

Kevin Nealon would be second (methinks there may be some nealon write-ins)

worst goes to Colin Quinn

[Guest DerangedHermit]

Here's my list in order:

 

1) Dennis Miller - The best, hands-down.

2) Chevy Chase - Hey, without him...

3) Norm MacDonald - his jokes were almost always funny...

4) Jane Curtin/Dan Aykroyd - Of course, Point/Counterpoint ruled...

5) Kevin Nealon - I don't know why he gets such a bad rap. Colin Quinn and most of the '80's people were far worse than him...

6) Jane Curtin/Bill Murray - not as good as it was w/Dan Aykroyd...

7) Jimmy Fallon/Tina Fey - If Jimmy Fallon didn't laugh during every joke...

8) Christopher Guest - Does anyone even remember this?

9) Brad Hall - Such a poor pitiful man should not be shagging Elaine.

10) Colin Quinn - (Colin Quinn pops in and says "C'mon!")

11) Charles Rocket - Who gives a crap?

[Guest The Electrifyer]

Norm MacDonald was a great WU anchor, but like the guy previously said, he didn't have much to work with. My favourite though, is the current anchors, Fey & Fallon. These two just seem so good at it and they are hilarious at the desk.

[Guest Shaved Bear]

fallon and fey are horrible, i voted for norm

[Guest Negative Five Stars]

1) Kevin Nealon (Vastly underrated. He had great material and delivery.)

2) Dennis Miller (Did he ever do anything on SNL besides Weekend Update?)

3) Chevy Chase (That and Land Shark were the only things I liked when he was on SNL.)

4) Jane Curtin/Dan Aykroyd (Set the standard for duo teams.)

5) Norm MacDonald (C'mon, talking about crackwhores and Frank Stallone gets tiring after a while....)

6) Jimmy Fallon/Tina Fey (In a few years, they'll be closer to the top.)

7) Colin Quinn (Would have been higher if he learned how to deliver a joke right.)

8) Christopher Guest (He's married to a now Voicestream spokeswoman Jamie Lee Curtis.)

9) Brad Hall (The guy's a tall freak and he's married to Julia-Louis Dreyfus.....)

10) Jane Curtin/Bill Murray (Quite unspectactular.)

:::Tie:::11) Charles Rocket (Only known for dropping the f-bomb in a totally horrible season.....)

:::Tie:::11) The forgettable "anchors" of the early 1980's: Gail Matthius, Brian Doyle-Murray, Mary Gross, and Christine Ebersole.

[Guest teke184]

Crack whores, Frank Stallone, Note-to-self, and OJ jokes didn't get old until the 97-98 season, where the material Norm had to work with was REALLY thin and he started relying too much on his trademark bits.

 

What's funny is that he was improving by the time that Don "I'm a f'in idiot" Ohlmeyer had him canned and replaced by Colin Quinn, who took grade A material and flushed it down the toilet with a horrible delivery.  

 

The best of the later Norm stuff is his Abbot and Costello routine with Nathan Lane on his last Update ever.

[Guest MDH257]

2) Dennis Miller (Did he ever do anything on SNL besides Weekend Update?)

Dennis was a part of the regular skecthes all the time.

 

BTW how long until we have a Poll for the Best Poll?

[Guest dreamer420]

Kevin Nealon was always my favorite anchor.  I liked his interaction with the special guests on Weekend Update and his reading of the "news" was brilliant.  Too bad his career has flopped since leaving SNL.