Saturday Night Live: Molly Shannon Reprises Two Surprising Characters

Saturday Night Live’s latest episode saw Molly Shannon’s return to Studio 8H and naturally she reprised not one but two of her characters, just not who you expected. In the first, a pre-recorded sketch lampooning Chris Rock’s recent live Netflix comedy special, Molly Shannon revived her dull stand-up comedian character Jeannie Darcy. Known for her signature catchphrase, “Don’t Get Me Started,” and that her jokes aren’t especially funny. Later at the end of the episode Shannon returned as her character Sally O’Malley, a proud 50-year-old woman with a penchant for dancing, leg kicks, and high-waisted pants. She appeared in a sketch with musical guest The Jonas Bros. to teach them some new moves. You can watch the first one below.

Though many expected Molly Shannon to reprise her classic Saturday Night Live character Mary Katherine Gallagher, it didn’t happen. There was a small reference to the fan-favorite in Shannon’s opening monologue however, as she fell to her knees and did the signature “Superstar!” motion with her hands. Even with that however, there was no return for the 1990s classic character.

“That was the hardest sell,” Shannon previously told The Hollywood Reporter about the Jeannie Darcy character. “I put it in the read-through. It did not get on. And you never ever put something through again. It’s embarrassing and you’re just not supposed to do it. But I think I asked Mike Shoemaker, and he was like, “Oh, well, all right.” It got on, but that was really hard because people were just like, “What is this?” That was my reaction to having to always get laughs. It was the end of when I was at SNL, and I wanted to do something really dull that got no laughs and just really play the realness of it. She’s just a girl who’s not talented who shouldn’t be in comedy, maybe on the spectrum, but she is driven and really sticking to it. I wanted to get no laughs except from Jimmy Fallon and Will Ferrell. It was just really for them.”

This has become a major trend for SNL this season has been the hosts reprising a key role from their filmography for a sketch. Dave Chappelle reprised multiple characters from his hit , Steve Martin & Martin Short reprised their Father of the Bride characters, Aubrey Plaza appeared as her Parks and Recreation character April Ludgate, with Pedro Pascal starring in a The Last of Us parody about Super Mario. 

How to watch Saturday Night Live

Throughout the remainder of Season 48, currently expected to run through May, NBC is simulcasting new episodes live on both NBC and Peacock. Peacock also serves as the streaming vault for all SNL episodes from its inception, with new episodes being added the day after they air.

Virtually every SNL episode, other than the select few locked away for good because of a variety of reasons, is now available to watch on the streaming service.