The Church Lady
Encyclopedia
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
from 1986 to 1990, with later appearances in 1996, 2000, and 2011. "She" also appeared on The Dana Carvey Show
The Dana Carvey Show
The Dana Carvey Show is an American sketch comedy television show that aired on ABC during the spring of 1996. Dana Carvey was the host and principal player on the show while Louis CK served as head writer....
in March 1996, reading a Top Ten List, "New Titles for Princess Diana
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
."
About the character
Created and played by Dana CarveyDana Carvey
Dana Thomas Carvey is an American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for playing the role of Garth in the Wayne's World movies.-Early life:...
, The Church Lady is an elderly woman named “Enid Strict”, who is the uptight, smug and pious host of her own talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
, Church Chat. Enid is a spoof of “holier-than-thou” Christian churchgoers. On her show (which only lasts the duration of the sketch itself) she has multiple guests, usually celebrities of the time played by other cast members of SNL or by the actual celebrities themselves (usually whoever is guest-hosting that week's SNL episode, appearing as themselves), who appear to be interviewed by her. However, the interviews are only a guise for her to call the celebrity guests out on their various alleged sins (which are often publicly known news events of the day). They initially receive sarcastic praises from her, until the interview eventually degrades into a tirade against their apparent lack of piety and their secular lifestyles, culminating with her judgmental admonishments and damnation
Damnation
Damnation is the concept of everlasting divine punishment and/or disgrace, especially the punishment for sin as threatened by God . A damned being "in damnation" is said to be either in Hell, or living in a state wherein they are divorced from Heaven and/or in a state of disgrace from God's favor...
. She often takes others to task for following the desires of their “naughty parts”.
The Church Lady is known for always wearing a purple dress, a sweater, visible knee-high stockings, and a pair of cat's eye
Cat eye glasses
Cat-eye glasses are a form of women's eyewear. They are horn-rimmed glasses with flared outer edges where the arms join the frame. They were mainly popular in the 1950s and 1960s among fashionable women. They preceded the large bug-eye glasses of the '70s, '80s and '90s...
horn-rimmed glasses
Horn-rimmed glasses
Horn-rimmed glasses are a type of eyeglasses. Originally made out of either horn or tortoise shell, for most of their history they have actually been constructed out of thick plastics designed to imitate those materials...
. She was known for the catchphrases, “Well, isn't that SPE-CIAL?!”, "How con-VEEN-ient!", and “Could it be...SATAN?” (in later years, the latter would always end with a haunting echo). When sufficiently satisfied with herself, she would mug for the camera, while twitching the corners of her mouth from one side to the other for an indefinite length of time. She also gave advice in response to letters she ostensibly received. Furthermore, whenever she felt that she had demonstrated her superiority, she would do her "Superior dance" in which she would rhythmically strut to organ music (played by an organist named Pearl) in front of her alleged inferiors. Like her actor and several of his well known characters, she is a proficient drummer although this is only seen once.
Carvey said he based the character on women he knew from his church growing up, who would keep track of his and others' attendance. The Church Lady became immediately recognizable and played an important role in SNLs resurgence in the mid-1980s. She made numerous appearances on SNL; Nora Dunn
Nora Dunn
Nora Eloise Dunn is an American actress and comedian, perhaps best known for her work on NBC's Saturday Night Live.-Early life:...
recalled that "everybody loved that character and [Carvey] was pressured to do it so, so often", and The Church Lady reappeared even after Carvey's departure from the show as a regular cast member. She was never incorporated into a feature length film, however, as many of SNLs other recurring characters were.
Memorable moments
Dana Carvey recalls that he was prompted by executive producer Lorne MichaelsLorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.-Early life:...
to introduce the character (when it was still in SNL rehearsals) at a Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
concert at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
, which Church Lady interrupted, fussing and fuming: "What are we doing here? What's all this noise?"
During the first season Dana Carvey appeared as a cast regular on Saturday Night Live, Joe Montana
Joe Montana
Joseph Clifford "Joe" Montana, Jr. , nicknamed Joe Cool, Golden Joe, The Golden Great and Comeback Joe, is a retired American football player. Montana started his NFL career in 1979 with the San Francisco 49ers, where he played quarterback for the next 14 seasons...
and Walter Payton
Walter Payton
Walter Jerry Payton was an American football running back who played for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League for thirteen seasons. Walter Payton was known around the NFL as "Sweetness". He is remembered as one of the most prolific running backs in the history of American football...
co-hosted the show and both appeared in a Church Lady skit for a game of football with Church Lady. Montana throws a touchdown pass to Church Lady after she distracted Payton (who was playing defense against her) and hid in the audience. At the end of the sketch, all three did the "superior dance".
A classic moment was in March 1987 when she interviewed Jim
Jim Bakker
James Orsen "Jim" Bakker is an American televangelist, a former Assemblies of God minister, and a former host of The PTL Club, a popular evangelical Christian television program.A sex scandal led to his resignation from the ministry...
and Tammy Faye Bakker (played by Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks
Jan Hooks
Janet V. "Jan" Hooks is an American actress and comedienne best known for her work on NBC's Saturday Night Live , on which she appeared from 1986 to 1991...
) at the height of the sex scandal involving Jim Bakker and Jessica Hahn
Jessica Hahn
Jessica Hahn is an American model and actress. She is best known for a sex scandal involving televangelist Jim Bakker while she was employed as a church secretary.-Jim Bakker scandal:...
. During the show the televangelists begged for donations, and a mascara-dripping Tammy Faye recounted her experience with "demonic raisins".
Another notable moment in October 1987 featured actor Sean Penn
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
, playing himself as a guest on the show. During the interview, the Church Lady (who calls him "Sin", and then quickly corrects her "mistake") makes numerous references to his then-wife Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, and her overt sexuality claiming Madonna "doesn't quite live up to her namesake." The more she goes on about his wife's "bulbous buttocks gyrating" and her displaying of her "chestal area", the more angered Penn becomes, until he eventually throws a punch, hitting her directly in the nose. Carvey recalls that he was genuinely scared because Penn (who was well known for losing his temper) came dangerously close to actually hitting him.
Jan Hooks
Jan Hooks
Janet V. "Jan" Hooks is an American actress and comedienne best known for her work on NBC's Saturday Night Live , on which she appeared from 1986 to 1991...
would appear again on the sketch in December 1987, this time playing Jessica Hahn
Jessica Hahn
Jessica Hahn is an American model and actress. She is best known for a sex scandal involving televangelist Jim Bakker while she was employed as a church secretary.-Jim Bakker scandal:...
, of whom the Church Lady said in a sarcastic tone "Oh, sit right down, Jessie. Here we are not like those other talk shows that fawn all over you. No, siree!" Jessica Hahn claims that she is tired of degradation, to which the Church Lady produces the Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
which she posed for (only the cover is shown). Jessica Hahn says that that type of degradation had her authorization and "I am free to degrade myself only how I see fit! For once Jessica Hahn is in control of her life!" and then goes on to say "Being used and degraded in a hotel room in Florida was not my decision. Being used and degraded in the pages of this magazine, that was my decision. I am in control of being used and degraded!"
Though the sketch routinely mocked popular celebrity scandals, in 1989, guest host Rob Lowe
Rob Lowe
Robert Hepler "Rob" Lowe is an American actor. Lowe came to prominence after appearing in films such as The Outsiders, Oxford Blues, About Last Night..., St. Elmo's Fire, and Wayne's World. On television, Lowe is known for his role as Sam Seaborn on The West Wing and his role as Senator Robert...
managed to avoid having his various sex scandals of the day (including the leaking of a sex tape involving the actor) mentioned per a special deal he cut with the Church Lady. In return for her silence on his various sex scandals, Rob Lowe submitted to corporal punishment at the end of the interview. However, Rob Lowe began to enjoy being spanked by the Church Lady, who took this as a sign that Satan had possessed Lowe's butt and began screaming for Satan to leave the actor's body.
Another sketch in February 1990 found child actor Fred Savage
Fred Savage
Fredrick Aaron "Fred" Savage is an American actor, director and producer of television and film.He is best known for his role as Kevin Arnold in the American television series The Wonder Years and as the grandson in The Princess Bride...
playing the Church Lady's niece, Enid. Savage was dressed in a miniature version of Church Lady's outfit and glasses, and co-spoke all of the familiar admonishing catchphrases, as well as performing the "Superior Dance" at the beginning of the sketch. In the same sketch was a visit from Donald Trump
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...
(as played by Phil Hartman
Phil Hartman
Philip Edward "Phil" Hartman was a Canadian-American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and graphic artist. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Hartman and his family moved to the United States when he was 10...
), right after his legendary divorce. The Church Lady scolded him and his "Jezebel
Jezebel (Bible)
Jezebel was a princess, identified in the Hebrew Book of Kings as the daughter of Ethbaal, King of Tyre and the wife of Ahab, king of north Israel. According to genealogies given in Josephus and other classical sources, she was the great-aunt of Dido, Queen of Carthage.The Hebrew text portrays...
", to which Trump responded by frankly telling her that he "could buy and sell this freak show, or dog and pony act, or whatever". The Church Lady responded that "if you could do that then Enid is just some little boy in a dress".
In a teaser trailer
Teaser trailer
A teaser campaign is an advertising campaign which typically consists of a series of small, cryptic, challenging advertisements that anticipate a larger, full-blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event. These advertisements are called "teasers" or "teaser ads"...
for the 1990 film Opportunity Knocks
Opportunity Knocks (film)
Opportunity Knocks is a 1990 comedy film starring Dana Carvey. It was directed by Donald Petrie.-Synopsis:Con men Eddie Farrel and Lou Pesquino need cash fast and pretend to be repair men sent to fix a gas leak. The con fails, but they escape.Eddie and Lou find an empty house that they decide to...
(available on that film's DVD), Church Lady interrupts, warning viewers not to see the film and is punched in the face and knocked to the floor by Dana Carvey who introduces himself. Church Lady retaliates and the fight continues offscreen as the trailer ends.
Another notable sketch, in October 2000, featured The Church Lady interviewing Anne Heche
Anne Heche
Anne Celeste Heche is an American actress, director, and screenwriter. She started her career on the daytime soap opera Another World, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1991. Heche gradually landed supporting roles in feature films, and in 1997 appeared in I Know What You Did Last Summer,...
(played by Chris Kattan
Chris Kattan
Christopher Lee "Chris" Kattan is an American actor/comedian, best known for his work on Saturday Night Live.-Early life:Kattan was born in Sherman Oaks, California. His father, Kip King, was an actor and voice actor who appeared on the series Reno 911! as Larrie Plum. His mother, Hajnalka E....
), with the Church Lady teasing Anne about her bisexuality by offering her a snack and giving her the choice between a "wiener" and a "taco" (implying a choice between two obvious body parts) and referring to a bisexual as someone who "reaches down the front of somebody's pants and they're satisfied with whatever they find."
Sometimes the Church Lady was accompanied by a character known as "Minister Bob", played by Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
. He seemed to be the only person the Church Lady admired. During a church picnic an inebriated woman interrupted the gathering, shocking all the old ladies present, and saying how the Church Lady acts so high and mighty but is out of touch with the problems of people in everyday life. Minister Bob then acts more down to earth than the Church Lady, saying it is the responsibility of a pastor to deal with people with problems. When he seems to be leading the woman into why problem drinking is a bad idea, he ends with saying "...because of SATAN!", and joins the Church Lady in her superior dance.
Toward the end of the character's run, a parody sketch of the film Misery
Misery (film)
Misery is a 1990 American Psychological Horror Film based on Stephen King's 1987 novel of the same name. Directed by Rob Reiner, the film received critical acclaim for Kathy Bates' performance as the psychopathic Annie Wilkes...
aired in which Dana Carvey is doing a stand-up tour in Colorado, and announces to the audience this is a special day as it is the last time he will ever be doing a Church Lady sketch. He is then driving in a snowstorm with Jon Lovitz
Jon Lovitz
Jonathan "Jon" Lovitz is an American comedian, actor, and singer. He is best known as a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990.-Early life:...
, where Carvey says it was about time to put the Church Lady to rest and not make it a running gag. Lovitz (who played Satan in a December 1988 Church Lady sketch) pathetically asks if he can now play her (Lovitz' stalled career was a running joke on SNL the season after his official departure), but is interrupted by heavy snow flurries crashing the car. Carvey is rescued by guest star Roseanne Barr
Roseanne Barr
Roseanne Cherrie Barr is an American actress, comedian, writer, television producer and director. Barr began her career in stand-up comedy at clubs before gaining fame for her role in the sitcom Roseanne. The show was a hit and lasted nine seasons, from 1988 to 1997...
, playing the Church Lady's disturbingly obsessed Number One Fan, who is so gleeful at rescuing Carvey and buys him things such as "orthopedic shoes, just like the Church Lady wears!" However, she becomes furious when she reads a comedy review saying Carvey has stopped doing the Church Lady, and intends to hold him until he promises to resume playing her. Reciting the lines was not good enough either, as Roseanne holds Carvey at gunpoint forcing him to wear the Church Lady wig and get her facial expressions and voice just right. Lorne Michaels tries to find the missing Carvey, but becomes increasingly uninterested, deciding instead to promote the "Makin' Copies" character, played by Rob Schneider
Rob Schneider
Robert Michael "Rob" Schneider is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live, Schneider has gone on to a successful career in feature films, including starring roles in the comedy films Deuce Bigalow:...
. The skit ends with Carvey and Roseanne in a climactic fight scene, but Roseanne comically keeps getting back up. She and then Carvey are shot by the still-alive Jon Lovitz, who claims the Church Lady character for himself.
Carvey would reprise the character and sketch when he hosted the show in its thirty-sixth season, the Church Lady interviewing "the Kardashian Sisters", attempting to exorcise "Snooki", and notably becoming enraptured and aroused by Justin Bieber before being settled down by God.
Popular catch phrases
- “Well, isn't that special?”
- “Now, who could it be? Could it be ... Satan?” (During a Christmas-themed December broadcast, using a magnetic spelling board, she rearranged letters spelling “Santa” to reveal “Satan”.)
- "We like ourselves, don't we?" (Usually directed at a guest on her show)
- “How Conveeeenient.”
- “Fornicating?”
- "Ah yes, from the Chippewa word meaning, drop your shorts, we don't have much time." (Usually directed towards a guest)