Weekend Update has been a platform for Saturday Night Live characters to grow and gain popularity ever since Gilda Radner used it to create Emily Litella and Roseanne Roseannadanna. Many cast members have used Update as the primary vehicle for a certain character. Don Novello was featured almost exclusively on the news segment as his breakout character, Father Guido Sarducci, and Tim Kazurinsky, in the face of Eddie Murphy's overshadowing popularity, created characters almost exclusively for Update. Before becoming an anchor on Update, Colin Quinn used the segment as his main sounding board as well.
Significant characters who appeared chiefly on Weekend Update are listed here in chronological order of their first appearance.
- Emily Litella (Gilda Radner) – November 15, 1975
- Roseanne Roseannadanna (Gilda Radner) – January 21, 1978 (first overall appearance was in a fake commercial called "Hire the Incompetent" which aired on the season 3 episode hosted by Charles Grodin )
- Lester Crackfield (Al Franken) - February 18, 1978
- Father Guido Sarducci (Don Novello) – May 13, 1978
- Chico Escuela (Garrett Morris) – November 11, 1978
- Big Vic Ricker (Harry Shearer) – January 26, 1980
- Dr. Jack Badofsky (Tim Kazurinsky) – March 20, 1982
- Siobhan Cahill (Mary Gross) – January 22, 1983
- Dwight MacNamara (Gary Kroeger) – November 12, 1983
- Worthington Clotman (Tim Kazurinsky) – January 28, 1984
- Wayne Huevos (Tim Kazurinsky) – February 18, 1984
- Lew Goldman (Billy Crystal) – October 13, 1984
- Buddy Young, Jr. (Billy Crystal) – October 20, 1984
- Nathan Thurm (Martin Short) – November 17, 1984
- Tommy Flanagan, the Pathological Liar (Jon Lovitz) – November 16, 1985
- Babette (Nora Dunn) – April 19, 1986
- Mr. Subliminal (Kevin Nealon) – October 11, 1986
- A Grumpy Old Man (Dana Carvey) – February 11, 1989
- Annoying Man (Jon Lovitz) – November 11, 1989
- Queen Shenequa (Ellen Cleghorne) – October 26, 1991
- Jan Brady (Melanie Hutsell) – January 11, 1992
- Cajun Man (Adam Sandler) – February 8, 1992
- Buster Jenkins (Chris Rock) – February 15, 1992
- Opera Man (Adam Sandler) – April 18, 1992
- Hank Fielding (Robert Smigel) – November 14, 1992
- Bennett Brauer (Chris Farley) – April 10, 1993
- The British Fops (Mark McKinney, David Koechner) – November 11, 1995
- Joe Blow (Colin Quinn) – November 18, 1995
- Gary Macdonald (David Koechner) – December 2, 1995
- Lenny The Lion (Colin Quinn) – December 9, 1995
- Cinder Calhoun (Ana Gasteyer) – November 23, 1996
- Dominican Lou (Tracy Morgan) – March 22, 1997
- Gunner Olsen (Jim Breuer) – March 7, 1998
- Jacob Silj (Will Ferrell) – December 4, 1999
- Jasper Hahn (Horatio Sanz) – January 8, 2000
- Jeannie Darcy (Molly Shannon) – November 18, 2000
- Gay Hitler (Chris Kattan) – October 13, 2001
- Drunk Girl (Jeff Richards) – December 8, 2001
- Fericito (Fred Armisen) – October 5, 2002
- Tim Calhoun (Will Forte) – October 19, 2002
- The Kelly Brothers (Fred Armisen, Will Forte) – February 8, 2003
- Billy Smith (Fred Armisen) – October 18, 2003
- Jorge Rodriguez (Horatio Sanz) – May 1, 2004
- Jon Bovi (Will Forte, Jason Sudeikis) - October 7, 2006
- Two Gay Guys from Jersey (Fred Armisen, Bill Hader) - October 28, 2006
- Aunt Linda (Kristen Wiig) – December 2, 2006
- Nicholas Fehn (Fred Armisen) – October 13, 2007
- Roger A. Trevanti (Fred Armisen) – November 3, 2007 (was a one-shot character that gained a following on YouTube videos)
- Judy Grimes (Kristen Wiig) – April 12, 2008
- Jean K. Jean (Kenan Thompson) – March 8, 2008
- Garth and Kat (Fred Armisen, Kristen Wiig) – December 19, 2009
- Stefon (Bill Hader) – April 24, 2010 (first overall appearance was in a one-shot sketch on the season 34 episode hosted by Ben Affleck )
- Anthony Crispino (Bobby Moynihan) – October 2, 2010
Famous quotes containing the words saturday night, saturday, night, live, characters, appearing and/or weekend:
“Saturday night was for wives, but Friday night at the Copa was always for the girlfriends.”
—Nicholas Pileggi, U.S. screenwriter, and Martin Scorsese. Henry Hill (Ray Liotta)
“The return of the asymmetrical Saturday was one of those small events that were interior, local, almost civic and which, in tranquil lives and closed societies, create a sort of national bond and become the favorite theme of conversation, of jokes and of stories exaggerated with pleasure: it would have been a ready- made seed for a legendary cycle, had any of us leanings toward the epic.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“By night we lingered on the lawn,
For underfoot the herb was dry;
And genial warmth; and o’er the sky
The silvery haze of summer drawn;”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“I have to live for others and not for myself: that’s middle-class morality.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Trial. A formal inquiry designed to prove and put upon record the blameless characters of judges, advocates and jurors.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)
“It is thus that the few rare lucid well-disposed people who have had to struggle on the earth find themselves at certain hours of the day or night in the depth of certain authentic and waking nightmare states, surrounded by the formidable suction, the formidable tentacular oppression of a kind of civic magic which will soon be seen appearing openly in social behavior.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)
“Weekend planning is a prime time to apply the Deathbed Priority Test: On your deathbed, will you wish you’d spent more prime weekend hours grocery shopping or walking in the woods with your kids?”
—Louise Lague (20th century)