"SNL" giggle fit unprecedented: Cracking up 'Live' on air

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http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...p-164211c.html

A very funny thing happened on last weekend's live telecast of "Saturday Night Live" - but it wasn't what you would expect.
Fact is, it wasn't even planned.

That's because during one skit, ironically titled "Debbie Downer," the entire cast fell victim to an infectious giggle fit.

This isn't a complaint, or even a criticism.

The studio audience responded with laughter, then applause and delighted hoots, as the repertory players and guest host Lindsay Lohan broke down, then fought their way to the end of the sketch.

It was lots of fun to watch on TV, too.

It was also rare. This sort of stuff doesn't happen on TV very often - not even on NBC's "Saturday Night Live."

In years past on this show, a few cast members have been known for making others laugh.

Prior to "SNL," the best place to find this sort of thing was on "The Carol Burnett Show," where Tim Conway knew Harvey Korman's comedic weak spots and hit them in almost every sketch. And back in the early days of television, when almost everything was live, "Colgate Comedy Hour" co-hosts Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis went off script with deliberate glee.

But in 28 years of watching "SNL," I don't think I've ever seen a laughing fit take hold the way it did Saturday.

The previous hour of that "SNL" was building, slowly but surely, to a giggle fit. Host Lohan giggled at the antics of the "SNL" rep company during her opening monologue, during a "Harry Potter" sketch built around her ample figure, and during a Billy-Joel-as-dangerous-Hamptons-driver sketch.

When "Debbie Downer" came around, there was no stopping it.

The sketch took place at a theme eatery at Walt Disney World, with Jimmy Fallon, Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler, Logan, Horatio Sanz and featured player Fred Armisen at a large round table. Whatever the topic of conversation, it would soon turn to Dratch's Debbie, who would spout some depressing comment, then stare into the camera for an extreme closeup, holding a sad face as the band played a cartoon-style trombone waaah-waaaah sound.

The first time the cast tried it, it worked fine. The second time, right after the cartoon sound, Fallon cracked up. Lohan and Sanz fought to keep a straight face, but Dratch flubbed her next line ("The media are so sensitive there," she said of Korea, before correcting it to "secretive"), and that was that.

Fallon was gone. Dratch, gone. Poehler, gone. Lohan, gone. Sanz was on the edge - but once Fallon noticed that, and started stuffing his mouth with a ridiculous amount of food, Sanz was gone, too, wiping his tears away with his shirt sleeve - then with a pancake.

Armisen, the least familiar of the group, earned his stripes by hanging on the longest, but eventually, the nationally televised giggle fit claimed him, too. Somehow, Dratch made it to the finish line, alone on stage to deliver her last downer line.

Whaaaat-whaaaaaaat fun. And the next time "SNL" does a Debbie Downer sketch, you better believe everybody involved will be trying not to laugh from the start. Which, as Harvey Korman knows, hardly ever works.

Originally published on May 4, 2004

[*Pleasant Tomorrow*]

I think that made TV history right there. I don't understand why people complain about the cast laughing, I think it just adds to it.