5 Worst 'SNL' Recurring Characters

by Julian Spivey
There have been dozens of great recurring characters in the 50-season history of “Saturday Night Live.” But there have also been characters we loathe. The kind of characters we despise so much that we roll our eyes or even groan when they appear on our screens.

​Some characters probably should make this list, like Dana Carvey’s horrific racial stereotype Ching Chang, which appeared six times from 1986-1990 and then again in 2000 (how the hell did that happen?!). But I’ve never seen it for myself, so I can’t really speak to the horrors of it, though I certainly can imagine.

Here are my choices for the five worst recurring ‘SNL’ characters: 
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5. Joey Mack
Jimmy Fallon likely has two or three characters that could appear on this list, but the one I always hated the most was his morning radio show DJ Joey Mack of Z105, which appeared five times from 2002-2004, including three times over five months in 2004. Truthfully, Joey Mack may have been an accurate portrayal of radio morning show DJs and their hijinks, but that doesn’t make it any more palatable. It was a bit for Fallon to act wacky and use different voices, including some of his better impressions, but it was never actually funny, and the thing I remember most, more than 20 years later, are what seemed like never-ending fart jokes. 

Photo: NBC

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4. Richard Laymer
I have quoted this character within the last few weeks, so more than 30 years after leaving ‘SNL,’ Rob Schneider’s most memorable character still holds some pop culture cache. And I must admit there may be some slight bias here because I loathe the human Schneider has become (maybe he was always this way?). But Richard Laymer, who you probably wouldn’t even remember by that name, but more as “The Richmeister,” was a one-note, annoying character that somehow found its way onto the show 12 times in less than three years in the early ‘90s. I’m thankful the show doesn’t overdo recurring characters anymore. I’d be shocked if you remember anything besides “makin’ copies” from this character. 

Photo: NBC

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3. Jonathan Cavanaugh-san
I liked Taran Killam on ‘SNL,’ but he had some recurring bits that made me cringe each time they came on. I still have nightmares about Mokiki, which may have been on this list had it been a recurring bit. There’s a specific kind of person, usually white male, whom I’d rank very high had I a “most annoying persons” list, who is fascinated by Japanese culture to the point of cultural appropriation. I don’t know if Killam was one of those people or was just so good at mimicking or even mocking them that it was too believable. His Jonathan Cavanaugh-san, co-host of the J-Pop America Fun Time Now! show with Vanessa Bayer’s Rebecca Stern-Marcowitz-san, was that exact character. The bit only appeared four times, but I hated it every single second. If there was ever a recurring bit completely not for me as an ‘SNL’ viewer, it was J-Pop America Fun Time Now!

Photo: NBC

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2. Dooneese
Probably my most controversial ‘SNL’ opinion is that I didn’t like Kristen Wiig. I found most of her recurring characters to be derivative of each other, too annoying, and constantly shoved down our throats. But none of her characters come close to being as horribly unfunny as Dooneese, the ugly duckling of a sister who performs on “The Lawrence Welk Show,” which appeared 10 times on the show, most recently in February’s 50th anniversary special. Dooneese is a sight gag – she has tiny hands and a gigantic forehead – and the male singers in these sketches are always horrified by her. It’s the same joke every single time. 

Photo: NBC

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1. Pat
Pat is a character who would never make it to air in 2025. The show even remarked about how insensitive the character was in a bit on the 50th anniversary special in February. It’s a shame that it’s probably the only real thing Julia Sweeney is remembered for, not just on ‘SNL,’ but in her career. Pat was androgynous, and the entire joke of the character and every sketch was that nobody knew exactly what Pat was – male or female. That’s it. And for some reason, it was one of the most popular and most-used characters on the show during the early-90s, appearing a whopping 14 times from 1990-1994, and even spawning off a critical and commercial bomb of a feature film crudely titled “It’s Pat” in 1994. It’s not even just the crudeness around Pat’s gender that makes this the worst ‘SNL’ character, but the fact that Sweeney played Pat as such a whiny, grating personality.  

Photo: NBC