The eighteenth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 26, 1992, and May 15, 1993.
Long-term cast member Dana Carvey would leave midseason; he originally planned to leave in the fall of 1992, but he ended up staying until the February 6, 1993 episode.[2][1][3] This would also be the final season for cast members Chris Rock and Robert Smigel.
After three years with the show, Rock quit at the end of the season, joining the much more diverse sketch comedy show In Living Color.[4][5][6] Of his time on SNL, Rock had been frustrated with his lack of creative freedom and air time.[7] In the oral history Live from New York, Rock said, "The good thing about me being on In Living Color, I got things on that had nothing to do with race. On SNL, I either had to play a militant or a hip-hop guy. If you watch my stand-up, race is ten minutes of an hour-long show. I talk about relationships, whatever. And Living Color allowed me to talk about other shit. I could do sketches about, you know, funny stores I was in."[8] Writer and featured player Smigel left to become the head writer for Late Night with Conan O'Brien.[9]
Starting with the John Goodman-hosted episode, original-era writer Marilyn Suzanne Miller (who previously wrote for the first three seasons from 1975 to 1978; and again for the 1981-82 season) returns as a writer.
This season is more notable for being the final season for several longtime/veteran writers including Robert Smigel (who had been a writer for eight years since 1985), Jack Handey (who had been a writer for seven accumulative years since 1985, with the exception of season 12), Bonnie and Terry Turner, and Christine Zander (the later three of whom, had been writers for 6½ years since 1987).[13] (Although Smigel and Handey would return to the show in later seasons).
Then-head writer Jim Downey would blame the declining quality of the followingseasons on all of the veteran writers departing.[14]
One of the final sketches of the night is a satire of the famous Murphy Brown episode that aired that week responding to Dan Quayle's comments. Lorne Michaels does a cold open to the camera explaining that Dan Quayle had, during their summer hiatus, criticized the Rob Schneider running character "Mr. Casual Sex", and they would now like to respond – the joke being that this character had never existed until that moment, though he has an introductory theme song. This is followed by a sketch of Mr. Casual Sex being criticized for his morality, followed by endless pedantic jokes about the spelling of potato, and culminating in Mr. Casual Sex being joined by an array of men who like casual sex to proudly stand up to Dan Quayle (a la the ending of the Murphy Brown episode).
After four minutes of a capella during Sinéad O'Connor's second song, "War", she exclaims "child abuse" several times and then holds up a picture of Pope John Paul II, and says, "Fight the real enemy," tearing the picture to pieces. During the earlier rehearsal taping, Sinéad O'Connor held up a picture of a starving African child before leaving the stage. Director Dave Wilson gave the order to not light up the audience applause light following "War," as he felt she had "railroaded" the crew and producers.[18] The segment, which aired nearly a decade before the world became fully aware of the prolific sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church, marked one of only a few times that a sketch or performance ended with a quiet studio.[10] NBC received 4,484 complaints about O'Connor, and 725 calls supporting her.[19]
During his monologue, Joe Pesci displays the photo of Pope John Paul II that Sinéad O'Connor had infamously destroyed during the previous week's episode, now taped back together.
Madonna performs "Fever" and "Bad Girl".[15] During "Bad Girl," she imitated Sinéad O'Connor's actions from earlier in the season by ripping a photo of Joey Buttafuoco and yelling "Fight the real enemy". She additionally appeared in the cold open.
Mick Jagger performs "Sweet Thing" and "Don't Tear Me Up".[15] He also appears on "Weekend Update" as Keith Richards and during the "Tampon Prince" sketch.
Paul McCartney performs "Get Out of My Way" and "Biker Like an Icon" from Off the Ground, as well as The Beatles song "Hey Jude".[15] Paul McCartney appears during the monologue, the "Mimic" sketch, "The Chris Farley Show" sketch, and "Weekend Update".
Linda McCartney performs alongside Paul McCartney during the musical segments and appears during "Weekend Update".
This special featured some of SNL's best political sketches throughout its 18-year run. Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman hosted the special as George Bush, Ross Perot and Bill Clinton, respectively. Sketches include "The Pepsi Syndrome", "Ask President Carter", "Debate '92", and "Stockdale's Joyride".
"2nd Annual Saturday Night Live Mother's Day Special"
