The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between September 25, 2010, and May 21, 2011, the thirty-sixth season of SNL.
The Miley Cyrus Show Vanessa Bayer plays teen Disney Channel star Miley Cyrus as the exuberant host of her own talk show. (Theme song: "I've got guests, and a show, and I'm ready to go! So I guess that's pretty cool! It's pretty cool!") Bryan Cranston played her father and house band leader Billy Ray Cyrus in the sketch's debut; he was replaced by Jason Sudeikis in later installments.
Bayer performed her impression of Cyrus during her auditions for SNL. She said in a 2011 interview that when fans recognize her, Cyrus is the character they most often mention.
Cyrus asking her guests extremely long, compounded questions is a recurring element of the sketch. (For example, to Katie Holmes (Anne Hathaway): "Like, how did you transition into doing more adult roles, and, like, what's the sexiest role you've ever done, and, like, how many boys have you kissed on screen, and, like, who's your best friend, and, like, who's Tom Cruise's best friend, and why does your baby wear high heels, and what does Jesus think of Scientology?") According to Bayer, the questions tend to change throughout the process from writing through rehearsal to the live performance. "That run is one of those things that is always changing up until the show. We'll take out one of the questions that didn't get a laugh and put a new one in."
Bayer and Cyrus first met in person when Cyrus hosted the March 5, 2011, episode of SNL. Cyrus described their meeting:I said, "You play me on TV!" And she said, "Yeah, I do." And I was like, "Oh, well that’s pretty cool." And she goes, "What?" And I was like, "Oh my God, I sound like you doing me!"
Appearances Season Episode Host Notes 36 October 2, 2010 Bryan Cranston Cranston appears as Billy Ray Cyrus. Paul Brittain appears as Johnny Depp. Miley shows a clip from her "really dramatic" movie, Goodbye, Jeff (featuring Andy Samberg). 36 November 20, 2010 Anne Hathaway Hathaway appears as Katie Holmes. Miley announces she's sexy now, and shows her screen test to play Batman's girlfriend in the next Batman film (featuring Samberg). 36 December 18, 2010 Jeff Bridges Bridges appears as Nick Nolte. 36 March 5, 2011 Miley Cyrus The real Miley Cyrus appears as Justin Bieber. Miley shows a home video of herself as an "already super talented" infant. 37 December 3, 2011 Steve Buscemi Buscemi appears as Jeff, whom Miley met at Burning Man. Maya Rudolph makes a cameo as Whitney Houston. 38 February 9, 2013 Justin Bieber Justin Bieber plays the president of the Miley Cyrus fan club.
Les Jeunes de Paris A French TV series about angry teens who break into dance to express their emotions and act out melodramatic plotlines. Taran Killam stars as François.
Killam co-wrote the first version of the sketch while working with The Groundlings, after being inspired by the Camille song "Ta Douleur": "We just were looking for a reason to dance around, really...It’s sort of just our exaggerated portrayal of our American interpretation of French youth culture, inspired by the song." He credits Emma Stone's support for making the sketch Killam's first written work to be performed on SNL.
SNL writer Rob Klein helped Killam with the "structure" needed to make "Les Jeunes de Paris" a recurring sketch. Following its second appearance, Killam said:The action of the sketch is whatever the tone of the song I chose inspires. "Tékitoi?" [the Rachid Taha song used in the second sketch] has got some of that combative energy because of the two voices going back and forth, so I wanted to involve some sort of love triangle in the plot. But it just becomes about how many times people can throw water in my face. It’s just really fun to do, to get as much of the cast involved to jump around and look like idiots.
Appearances Season Episode Host Song Used Notes 36 October 23, 2010 Emma Stone "Ta Douleur" by Camille François flirts with a French girl (Stone). 36 March 5, 2011 Miley Cyrus "Tekitoi" by Rachid Taha Two girls (Cyrus and Nasim Pedrad) fight over François' affections. 37 November 12, 2011 Emma Stone "A cause des garçons" by Yelle As François' lover Juliette (Stone) prepares to leave him, he convinces her, with a heartfelt dance, to reconsider; in the course of the dance, they are married (by Napoleon) and Juliette gives birth. The Tour de France and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame also make appearances. 37 February 11, 2012 Zooey Deschanel "Peppy and George" by The Brussels Philharmonic & The Orchestra of Flanders François competes with Jean Dujardin for the love of a girl (Deschanel), in a black-and-white spoof of The Artist. 39 April 5, 2014 Anna Kendrick "Louxor J'adore" by Katerine François meets a new girl (Kendrick).
"Sex" Ed Vincent Paul Brittain plays a creepy sex ed teacher.
Appearances Season Episode Host Notes 36 October 23, 2010 Emma Stone 37 December 3, 2011 Steve Buscemi
Laura Parsons Vanessa Bayer plays impassioned child actress Laura Parsons, who may have more energy and volume than actual talent.
Season Episode Host Notes 36 November 13, 2010 Scarlett Johansson Laura and rival actress Amanda Starr (Johansson) perform monologues from films such as Brokeback Mountain. 39 November 16, 2013 Lady Gaga In a commercial for Spotlightz Camp for Serious Child Actors, Laura and other child actors perform scenes from Academy Award-winning films such as Forrest Gump. 39 March 1, 2014 Jim Parsons In a commercial for Spotlightz!, Laura and other child actors perform scenes from 2014 Academy Award-nominated films such as Dallas Buyers Club. 41 November 21, 2015 Matthew McConaughey 41 January 16, 2016 Adam Driver 41 May 7, 2016 Brie Larson 42 October 16, 2016 Emily Blunt Laura dishes on Donald Trump and Billy Bush's 2005 Access Hollywood backstage conversation. 42 March 4, 2017 Octavia Spencer
The Essentials with Robert Osborne As the Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne, Jason Sudeikis introduces "a look back" at classic and not-so-classic films.
Appearances Season Episode Host Notes 36 November 20, 2010 Anne Hathaway Deleted scenes from The Wizard of Oz featuring a new character, The Weather Vane (Armisen). Hathaway appears as Dorothy Gale. 36 January 29, 2011 Jesse Eisenberg Scenes from the blaxploitation horror film "The Bride of Blackenstein". Eisenberg appears as Igor. Musical guest Nicki Minaj appears as the titular Bride. 36 March 5, 2011 Miley Cyrus Deleted scenes from The Sound of Music featuring an excised character played by Hispanic comedian Richie Inez Jr. (Fred Armisen). Cyrus appears as Liesl Von Trapp. 37 October 1, 2011 Melissa McCarthy McCarthy appears in a series of clips as 1930s actress Lulu Diamonds, an extremely klutzy version of Mae West. 37 May 5, 2012 Eli Manning Manning appears in a series of clips as Richard Armstrong, an uptight nerd starring alongside the titular heroes of the Cheech & Chong films.
Visiting the Queen Fred Armisen and Bill Hader play Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and reveal themselves in private to be rude, nasty bullies with Cockney accents.
Appearances Season Episode Host Notes 36 November 20, 2010 Anne Hathaway Following the engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton, the Queen and Prince threaten Kate (Hathaway) that she'd better follow their rules if she wants to be part of the royal family. 36 April 2, 2011 Elton John The Queen and Prince pressure John (as himself) to play at William's upcoming wedding. 37 December 10, 2011 Katy Perry The Queen and Prince harangue Kate (Abby Elliott) for not being pregnant yet, but they take a liking to her more reckless younger sister Pippa (Perry).
Herb Welch Bill Hader plays an elderly, cantankerous news reporter who spews prejudice and insults while hitting his interview subjects in the face with his microphone. Nasim Pedrad and Jason Sudeikis play anchors Wanda Ramirez and Jack Rizzoli, while the episode's host appears as one of Welch's interviewees. Towards the end of each installment, Rizzoli announces to viewers that Welch has just died; but when they cut back to Welch, he's suddenly revived.
The Herb Welch character has been interpreted as a satirical take on former Good Day New York reporter Dick Oliver. However, Hader has said the character stemmed from a sketch with Emma Stone where he played a different reporter, Peter de Santos; during rehearsal, he "kept pretending to hit Kristen and Emma in the face with a microphone. And that's how we came up with Herb Welch. So we wrote Herb Welch into it the next week."
Appearances Season Episode Host Notes 36 November 20, 2010 Anne Hathaway 36 January 29, 2011 Jesse Eisenberg 36 May 21, 2011 Justin Timberlake 37 November 12, 2011 Emma Stone 37 May 5, 2012 Eli Manning 40 October 11, 2014 Bill Hader
Julian Assange Bill Hader parodies WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The Julian Assange sketches were written by Seth Meyers and Christine Nangle. Nangle said in an interview that the sketches "were super fun to work on, because we were allowed to play with it. Like, we would start other sketches and interrupt them with Julian Assange ... it was fun to mix up what the normal SNL way of doing things is."
Appearances Season Episode Host Notes 36 December 4, 2010 Robert De Niro Assange hijacks an address by President Obama to present new, more sordid information leaked from the government, in the format of TMZ on TV. 36 December 11, 2010 Paul Rudd The arrested Assange hijacks an announcement from MasterCard to make a series of threats about what will happen if he's not released from prison. 36 December 18, 2010 Jeff Bridges Assange, now released, hijacks a message from Mark Zuckerberg to outline why Assange, and not Zuckerberg, deserved to be named Time Person of the Year.
Principal Daniel Frye Daniel Frye (Jay Pharoah) is the wheezing, frustrated, stuttering, fast-speaking high school principal of Booker T. Washington High School who makes announcements during school dances and events where he starts off his announcements by quoting "Attention teachers and students." The announcements would revolve around the various antics that are happening at the school dances and events. Principal Frye refers to the mischievous students as "Jive Time Turkeys" and also insert the words "our beloved" before the name of the staff member (with their occupation being said before the staff member's name) when talking about what had happened to them. Other characters that appear in this sketch include the unnamed vice-principal (Vanessa Bayer) who opens up the dance and/or event announcements and the gym teacher Mr. Steve Kane (Kenan Thompson) who keeps the students in line when they start booing at the speaker (played by the Host).
He is based on Jay Pharoah's former principal Jimmy Frye at Indian River High School in Virginia who had the similar mannerism.
Appearances Season Episode Host Notes 36 December 11, 2010 Paul Rudd The math teacher Mr. Griggs (Paul Rudd) hosts Booker T. Washington High School's End of the Year Holiday Jam where the activities include dodgeball and pop-a-shot in the gymnasium, a holiday dance party in the library annex, and the appearance of the rapping rabbi Dr. Dreidel for those who celebrate Hannukah. The announcements from Principal Frye range from:
A toddler running around in the cafetorium who has apparently made a huge mess from B-Hall to D-Hall. Principal Frye demands that the parent of the toddler go pick it up for Booker T. Washington High School is a high school and not a day care center. The Christmas elf costumes that were ridden from last night's holiday show are infected with the Scabies and that those who have worn them have gotten itchy and have been rushed to the hospital. Principal Frye holds a moment of silence for the victims of the Scabies.