50 ‘Saturday Night Live’ Catchphrases We Say Now

Molly Shannon on Kicking, Stretching and Getting Physical

It was never my experience that anyone was like, “OK, let’s get a character with a catchphrase.” I personally think that if you’re manufacturing a catchphrase, trying to push it, people will smell the lack of authenticity. When it’s organic and it feels real, people are going to latch onto it. It has to start with the depth of the character, and then the catchphrase has to fit in an authentic way with that character.

With the characters I created, I was just writing from myself, and sometimes I would just write stuff that was fun to say. [In the Sally O’Malley voice]: “I like to kick, stretch and kick!” It feels musical. Then I added a physical thing with it, and that was also fun. That’s a good thing because maybe other people can have fun saying it, too.

But I’m not really thinking all that when I’m writing it. I’m just thinking, This is fun.

You get an instant feel for when [a character or phrase is catching on] because you’re living in New York City, so people will come up to you on the street right away like: “Oh my God, Mary Katherine Gallagher! She reminds me of my sister! Oh my God, my cousin!” With Sally O’Malley, people started saying: “Could you leave my friend a message? She just turned 50.” I still get that constantly. I do backyard Sally O’Malleys for friends a lot, where I’ll wish people happy birthday doing the character.

I originally did Mary Katherine Gallagher in my stage show, and she was similar then: She’s trying out for something; she hopes she gets it; she acts out a little bit, and then she behaves very badly and gets sent away. But then she ends up getting the part, and she celebrates. My good friend Debra Palermo, who I grew up with in Cleveland, used to come to all my stage shows in L.A. where I did that character. She would always see me before my show and be like, “There she is, my superstar!” So I threw “superstar” into that first sketch with Gabriel Byrne for Debbie — to make her laugh because I knew she was watching.

That’s how not thought out it was. In the moment, I felt like saying it. And then it became a thing.

But what was so cool is I was writing from within. I’m writing an exaggerated version of how I felt as a little girl — anxious, accident-prone, hopeful, nervous, excited. It’s beautiful that when you write from within, people relate to it.

And again, it’s a word, and then it’s physical: It’s “Superstaaaar!” You feel an energy. You lift your arms up into the sky — who doesn’t feel good saying that? As a performer, I do it right now while I’m talking to you. I’ll never get sick of it. It’s joyful, celebratory, fun.

I’m so glad I got the job because “S.N.L.” is the one place where you can think of an idea Monday, write it up Tuesday night, and then it’s live on-air Saturday. It’s like a comedy school where you can just get your ideas live on TV. Where else would you be able to do that? Lorne created a place where comedians get to think stuff up and then produce their own sketches, and then develop it in front of an audience at dress rehearsal. So I just think the show was set up for [minting characters with catchphrases]. “Saturday Night Live” gives those characters life. — As told to Austin Considine