Cast Chronology: Maya Rudolph

As I was writing this entry/looking for ways to kill time before I returned to my proper office next Spring (OY!), I watched something that I haven’t seen in years—“The Critic”, the Al Jean/Mike Reiss/James L. Brooks joint that turned Jon Lovitz into an even bigger cartoon than he usually is (Note to self: “Hidden Gems” on him eventually…love the guy, but how He got a “Best of” DVD, I’m still trying to figure out). On one of those episodes, they do a quick spoof of SNL, which they call “Yesterday Night Live”—and considering the show signs off at 1AM on Sunday, that tile isn’t exactly untrue—In the parody, they mock the credits of that era, and their Not!Don Pardo introduces the cast not by name, but by characteristic; I.e. “The Fat guy, The Crazy Woman & The token black guy”…as stinging as that joke may be, prove me wrong that it isn’t the truth. That joke was made around 1995, but it still has a sense of Timelessness–there have been some heavyset gentlemen on the show since then (Sanz, Moynihan); and certainly far less tokenism when it comes to minorities in this day & age (Tracy, Kenan, Che, Ego Nwodim, Chris Redd, Finesse Mitchell, Nasim Pedrad, Sasheer Zamata, Leslie Jones, and most recently, Bowen Yang & Punkie Johnson). But I wouldn’t exactly call the women on the show “crazy” (save for Cheri Oteri), there may be some who confuse “Crazy” for “Versatility”, and the show has ushered in many of them for 5 decades—let alone since 1995…which brings us to Maya Rudolph, who will always be one of those cast members I’ll be forever “On the fence” towards; I know she is enormously talented and easy on the eyes; On the other hand, she did a handful of things that made you wonder “Why?”—at least on SNL, anything else she does outside of 30 Rock, I legitimately have no problem with—which, incidentally, I can say the same things about Molly Shannon, Kristen Wiig, Rachel Dratch and (to a FAR Lesser extent) Amy Poehler…Of course, one just doesn’t Become the “Crazy Woman” cast member at the drop of a hat—it has to be earned over time, and the lady who plays our current Vice President is no exception…

It’s been about a year since we last did a cast chronology, so here’s the reminder on how this works:

*This is NOT—I repeat, NOT—a “Best Of” or “Favorites” list by any means. This is really more to show how certain cast members evolved over a period of time, and what ultimately brought them to where they are now. So this will mean that I will more than likely include sketches that the common consensus of SNL fans might consider to be collateral dog shit.

*Since Maya (SHOCKINGLY) doesn’t have a “Best Of” DVD, any sketch in her time frame is fair play.

*The sketches they appear in are either Lead or Supporting roles; no bit parts.

*Since Maya is one of our more “Tenured” cast members; she’ll have One sketch per Calendar year featured—but ONLY as a Cast member; Cameos since she left the show will not count. However, due to the circumstances of which she joined the cast, I will do a double-up on some years.

*Finally, I lift the “Non-recurring” rule for these, partly because a cast member’s run would’ve been incomplete/impossible without mentioning At Least a few of them.

SPRING 2000

CALGON (5/20/2000) – Officially, Maya’s first sketch was in an all-too-brief portrayal of former MTV personality/Talk Show host Ananda Lewis on May 6^th, 2000; but since that’s a sketch with music, fat chance of finding that one anywhere (no transcript either). So instead, with very little recourse–and a LOT of hesitation–I present the next “best” thing I could find since she didn’t appear anywhere in the following episode. This parody of the classic Calgon “Ancient Chinese Secret” commercial may not be the best way to start things off for Maya (Hell, I’m more amazed that [host] Jackie Chan agreed to do it), but it does raise an interesting point on the outset—the fact that thanks to her unique and diverse background, Maya’s best characteristic was to turn herself into a Chameleon of sorts during her run; being able to portray a wide series of ethnicities without the PC police butting in…Of course, this wasn’t the only thing that people noticed about Maya in the year 2000…

FALL 2000

GEMINI’S TWIN (12/16/2000) – I mentioned this Particular sketch what seemed like Centuries ago in 2016, but it’s worth noting a 2^nd time here for a few reasons—first, this was Maya’s first major sort-of-recurring character (I believe there were 5 of these total); but more importantly, these sketches helped introduce the audience to her occasional ability to sing things—which stands to reason considering she is the child of a legendary singer, Minnie “Loving you” Ripperton. The singing she did in other sketches further down the line may be a bit of a contentious issue for some fans—at least when she did an “exaggerated” version of it (See: 2006), but when she uses her regular voice, she’s not bad. As far as These sketches go, they cashed in on “Destiny’s Child” just slightly before Queen Bey realized she was too good for them, as evident by the constant group changing—depending on who hosted that week…I would also be lying through my teeth if I didn’t think, while watching this at age of 16, that Maya looked kinda hot whenever she did these sketches.

SPRING 2001

WAKE UP WAKEFIELD (3/17/2001) – Maya’s next major recurring character was further proof of her Chameleon-like qualities (Though not Half as good as Dratch is at playing boys…but I digress); not only could she play people of certain ethnic groups without anybody batting an eye, but she could also play people ages 9 to 90—or in this case, an awkward Teenager hosting a school TV show the only way an awkward teenager knows how…awkwardly. The “wakefield” sketches ran about 3 years, and as someone who was, himself, an awkward teen when he first saw this, a lot of these sketches felt a little painfully accurate—From teachers stepping in and trying to act “Cool”, to the “Unrequited Crush” part a la Maya fawning over Jimmy Fallon’s character, and failing miserably each time. Truth be told, I used to find the sketches slightly annoying due to how shrill Maya could be sometimes, but after looking at some of these again, maybe that was the point.

FALL 2001

VERSACE’S HOT TUB (12/8/2001) – This is one of those characters that I almost feel obligated to mention; even though the character has its fair share of fans, I Personally wanted to throw a brick into my TV every time it came on (Different strokes for different folks)…….and YET, It’s hard to stay mad at the portrayal (even though it’s clear as day that Penelope Cruz did a far better impression of her years later on ACS: Versace). Of course, SNL is a satire first and foremost—accuracy in an impression means little if the portrayal isn’t “funny” to begin with (If that makes sense). The fact that Rudolph and the Real Donatella did a bit together at a fashion awards show many years ago is just enough proof that something good came from doing the impression. All of that said, this may be the most tolerable (or at least MY most tolerable) of the Versace sketches—use of a Jagger in this one is a plus—but also because of the way she delivers some of her lines in that exaggerated Versace voice of hers, coupled by the inevitable GET OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUTTTTT!!!

2002

THE BARTENDER KNOWS THE SKINNY (11/2/2002) – I’ve mentioned these pieces a time or two before; ones where Maya & Tracy Morgan practically stare down the barrel of the camera and deliver us a slice of life or two either in song, or as (arguably) performance art…while there wasn’t anything inherently “funny” about these pieces, perhaps that was the point. Yes, it’s a comedy show, but the show originally made its bones by putting on a blend of things that are funny with things that are also poignant and thought provoking at the same time (shout out to Messer’s Weis, Schiller and Madame M. Suzanne Miller). But perhaps because the gulf between sketches like these gets wider by the years, maybe that’s why the audience (both at home & in studio) isn’t quite sure how to react to them when the main objective of the show is still to attempt to invoke laughter. In this particular piece, Maya manages to do something that’s pretty hard to do while Tracy is doing the talking in the first minute; she’s emoting without saying a single word—which is a lot harder than it looks—then she sets the record straight on Tracy’s story, twice, and it helps turn a slice of life into a dose of urban pathos—something I WISH the show did more of in this day and age.

2003

TENNIS TALK W/SCOTT JOPLIN (11/8/2003) – I mentioned the first one a while ago covering Brittany Murphy’s sole hosting gig, but I think this bears repeating that way back in my youth, I didn’t quite grasp the notion that “humor” can take many shapes or forms other than it being simply “funny” or not—in other words, my “Suspension of Disbelief” reflex didn’t quite kick in just yet…Personally, I thought the two instalments they did of these sketches made Zero sense whatsoever, but years later I realized that I missed the point entirely and that sometimes Nonsense makes the best sense…as is the case when Maya is portraying Ragtime piano player Scott Joplin as a Time Traveler who enjoys Tennis…I know, typing that out loud, it feels like playing a game of Mad Libs. And yet, Somehow, the absurdity of the premise just Works, even though this was only done twice (I’m guessing due to lack of relevant tennis stars to parody). Not only that, but this is probably one of Maya’s more subtle performances; she doesn’t do any “wacky” things with her voice or her face, she’s just there to guide things along in spite of an otherwise head scratching premise.

2004

GOODWIN WIG & TOY (10/30/2004) – Of course, Not EVERYTHING a performer does on the show is a masterpiece; nobody’s perfect, and naturally, there has to be a bump in the road or two for some. Maya played “Glenda Goodwin” a handful of times on the show—several fingers too many. It also may be here where some people’s appreciation of Rudolph may have begun to take a turn south; not just because of how bland and generic the character was, but…..that Voice she uses in the sketches…a voice that sounded like Marla Gibbs if she used a Kazoo that was clogged with noodles…a voice so off-putting that it could probably be used to re-shape diamonds…And Yet (Boy, I’m saying this a LOT here, aren’t I), TPTB thought it was just funny enough that it was done as many times as it was…Why? Who knows? It worked for Some reason, damn if I can figure it out.

2005

NUNI (5/14/2005) – I know I’m probably gonna get crucified among the Hardcore SNL fans for saying this, but I legitimately did not think that the “Nuni” sketches Maya did alongside Fred Armisen were THAT Bad—yes, the one joke they had in each sketch about how their names were supposed to be pronounced was funny exactly one time…AND YET…(*Drink*)…this too had some hidden charms to it; of course, that depended sharply on who the host was that week, which makes me feel all the more relieved that they did one with Will Ferrell. I’d like to think that these sketches fall under the “Scott Joplin” umbrella, in that they’re “weird” sketches, but it’s because of the weirdness that somehow makes them secretly charming. It also, once again, highlights just how Versatile Maya can be when it comes to accents and ethnicities—though Jury’s still out on which part of Europe EXACTLY that this voice comes from—I know it’s supposed to be Scandinavian, but which part?

2006

NATIONAL ANTHEM (10/28/2006) – This sketch is arguably Maya both at her best And her most irritating; because when I first saw this one Live, my immediate thought was “bathroom break”…Of course, I was Just becoming the legal age to drink at that time, my senses weren’t able to get dulled yet…fortunately, I seldom drink, and thanks to years of letting things marinate a little, the more I realized that this was Maya at her most natural element—funny and exaggerated in a needling enough way that it circles itself back to charming once again; it gets to you just enough that you still find her likeable…at the same time, I’d be lying if I didn’t think this was an accidental lifting of a classic Simpsons joke, or one of many other real-life incidents where the people singing the National Anthem milk it for all its worth (no matter what key they sing it in) because who knows when are they ever going to appear on TV again—yes, even the famous ones. Maya was no exception here, but at least the milking of the anthem in this case was fully intentional.

2007

SHIA & MAYA (4/14/2007) – I wanted to wrap this up with a piece that’s about as close as possible to Maya being a “Normal” person—or at least SNL’s definition of playing someone as Themselves. And quite honestly, compared to all the character work she put in up to this point in show history, this is easily a performance I not only enjoyed, but would act as a framework for what was to come in her eventual career outside of the show. In just 3 minutes, she runs the gamut from Quirky to flirty to Sultry to Intense, and she not only never loses a step, but she also shows she can be over-the-top AND Subtle at the same time—something Kristen Wiig Wishes she could do on her best day. Performances like this were few and far between during her run on the show; but the few times she was able to do so, it was magic.

FINAL VERDICT: As a Cast member, Maya Rudolph was good in Small doses. I can see why many others out there see her as a comedy goddess (and considering all the stuff she’s done since leaving SNL in Fall 2007, she’s earned that title), but I guess I will always be “On the Fence” about her time on the show—give or take the rare times she was able to do things as “herself” or as a seemingly normal person–hell, considering the shift in power that’s on the horizon, we’re gonna be seeing her more and more over the next 4 years at least (Which reminds me, they REALLY Need to bring back the “Special Guest” credit, especially if she’s gonna be doing sketches outside of playing Kamala Harris). Still though, in the roughly 7 or 8 years she was on the show, Rudolph carried the mantle that fellow “Crazy” cast members would be able to uphold today—without her, there would certainly be No Wiig, No Cecily, No Aidy, and DEFINITELY No McKinnon to act as future torch bearers of Crazy versatility. In short, Rudolph on the show certainly wasn’t a “glue” like Phil Hartman, but she certainly had the characteristics of a Swiss Army Knife—you never knew when you would need her the most, but she came in handy whenever she was on the screen.

NEXT TIME (Possibly in December): I Think—key word, “Think”—I may have one last Holiday themed retro review up my sleeve from the years when I didn’t have any idea what I was doing…If I don’t, I’ll just do a Non-Holiday episode that took place in December.

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