Jane Curtin hosts Weekend Update (1975)
Jane Curtin was brilliant as the first female host of Weekend Update, and never more so than when she was the liberal voice volleying against Dan Aykroyd’s overly conservative one in the “Point Counterpoint” skit. Even though he famously told her she was an “ignorant slut”, she served it right back by calling him a “pompous ass”, which is slightly more meaningful when you consider that they were still in the early days of the second-wave feminist movement. In 2008, Curtin revealed to Oprah Winfrey that SNL was a misogynistic environment, and that women’s lib wasn’t embraced by men. “Women writing on the show had a constant battle”, specifically fighting against John Belushi, who said that “women are fundamentally not funny”. She also noted that he tried to sabotage pieces written by women by whispering his lines at table reads. That she showed up at all, and so brilliantly, is a testimony to the tenacity of every woman on the show in those early days.
Pat gives a lesson in gender politics (1990)
Now that we have more comprehensive language for discussing androgyny, it doesn’t seem like Julia Sweeney’s Pat character is very feminist in scope, but in the early 90s she sort of introduced the concept of androgyny to a nation. Pat, with his (or her) chubby body, fluctuating voice and short, curly hair, was supposed to be the butt of a joke for being unidentifiably male or female, but instead wrested control of every sketch by forcefully confronting anyone who tried to figure out his (or her) gender. It was a weird and important way to learn that gender exists on a scale.
Sally O’Malley kicks, stretches and kicks (1999)
Molly Shannon added to the SNL canon when she debuted 50-year-old Sally O’Malley, the youthful middle-aged woman who liked to “kick, stretch and kick!” Even though she routinely auditioned for jobs with younger women in every sketch, her infectious energy and refusal to be treated like an old woman helped her get the gig every time.
Amy Poehler shakes up the writers’ room (2001)
In her 2011 memoir, Bossypants, Tina Fey relates a story about Amy Poehler that has since become legendary:
Amy Poehler was new to SNL, and we were all crowded into the 17-floor writers’ room, waiting for the Wednesday night read-through to start ... Amy was in the middle of some such nonsense with Seth Meyers across the table, and she did something vulgar as a joke. I can’t remember what it was exactly, except it was dirty and loud and “unladylike” ... Jimmy Fallon turned to her, and in a faux-squeamish voice said, “Stop that! It’s not cute! I don’t like it.”
Amy dropped what she was doing, went black in the eyes for a second and wheeled around on him. “I don’t fucking care if you like it.” Jimmy was visibly startled. Amy went right back to enjoying her ridiculous bit.
With that exchange, a cosmic shift took place. Amy made it clear that she wasn’t there to be cute. She wasn’t there to play wives and girlfriends in the boys’ scenes. She was there to do what she wanted to do and she did not fucking care if you like it.
Poehler and Fey take on sexism and Sarah Palin (2008)
Poehler and Fey shared the podium to portray Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin to convey a message about sexism that put the American public on blast (while also making fun of Palin by saying “I can see Russia from my house!”). They deftly discussed the double standards of sexism (Palin “upset” to be thought of as sexy, Clinton upset that she was considered a harpy, a shrew and a boner-shrinker) and made it obvious that it didn’t matter if any ol’ woman made it to the White House, but rather the right woman.
SNL skewers birth-control commercials (2008)
SNL originally aired the commercial parody for Annuale – the birth control that only gave you a period once a year – in 2008, when reproductive politics were swinging wildly towards the conservative side and women’s rights were squarely under attack (well, more than they usually are). The one side-effect of Annuale was a raging, psychopathic bout of PMS – think Fey swinging an axe, Casey Wilson diving face-first into a birthday cake, Poehler repeatedly kicking a guy in the nuts or Kristen Wiig making out with a dog. Side-effects included your baby turning into a firemonster, and the potential for you to grow a second vagina. Part parody of women’s birth control commercials, part statement about our cultural humour about women’s sensitivity, it was a fantastic sketch that went delightfully off the rails.
Fey rails against ‘bitch’ (2008)
Weekend Update guest Fey took everyone to task for calling Hillary Clinton a bitch, and, along with heavily pregnant feminist bestie Poehler, turned her rant into a legendary tirade. She said yeah, Clinton was a bitch, and so was she, and so was Poehler, because “bitches get shit done”, turning an insult into a rallying cry.
Zamata and Jones join the show (2014)
When SNL announced another round of all-white comedians would be joining the show in 2014, cast members Jay Pharoah and Kenan Thompson and a host of critics protested the ongoing lack of diversity on the show. After a second round of auditions, 28-year-old Sasheer Zamata was hired, becoming the fifth black woman to be hired in the history of the show. Leslie Jones joined the cast shortly after Zamata, and will join Wiig in the newly rebooted Ghostbusters franchise.
