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Don Pardo has been the voice of Saturday Night Live pretty much my entire life. Last night he passed at the ripe old age of 96. I'll certainly miss his exaggerated cast introductions (I once said that he sounds like a constipated ghost, "Nooeeeel Weeeeellllls") I'd like to share with you one of the strangest bits he did on the show. This is from 1999 when host James Van Der Beek took the stage.

Finally got around to watching the latest SNL episode, hosted by Louis C.K. I love it when stand up comics use their opening monologue time to just do bits. Louis did more than that - he slayed it. Dig.

Lorne Michaels often gets credit for some of the memorable characters we see on Saturday Night Live but most of these bits are brought in by the talent themselves - having long refined them on smaller stages. Here's footage of Chris Farley doing his famous Matt Foley - Motivation Speaker bit in 1990 at Chicago's Second City. This entire skit was used verbatim on SNL when Christina Applegate hosted (peep).

Been thinking about PE a lot lately. Going to school in the late 80's/early 90's in middle America, we were never taught the whole truth. Our history has been conveniently rewritten in order to prop up a fascade. I had never heard about Farrakhan or Elijah Muhammad or Marcus Garvey. Who were these men and what did they do? PE were my personal urban culture professors prompting me to dig further, learn more. I remember seeing them do this song on SNL when Michael Jordan hosted. Big time.

Ready for the weekend? Me too. To help you get there, here's a supercut of SNL cast members breaking character. Enjoy.