Chucky Discusses Clinton’s Impeachment on SNL
I have not been keeping up with American Crime Story this season, which covers President Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, which helped stoke the fires for impeachment while revealing the ravenous, sexist impulses of a country to destroy lives for entertainment. But, and please feel free to spoil—is there a segment where Monica Lewinsky is watching Saturday Night Live and then Chucky the killer doll shows up to make awkward commentary and even more awkward jokes? Because that…would be stellar. And because it really happened.
It was October 17, 1998. Lucy Lawless was the host (she does an AMAZING Stevie Nicks impression in a genuinely hilarious sketch) with musical guest…Elliott Smith!
BRIDE OF CHUCKY had just been released the day before—after seven years of the franchise laying dormant. Oh sure, people were all SCREAM-happy then, and now Chucky is crushing it on his own TV show (jury seems still out on the movie reboot), but folks were probably thrown by the appearance of the jigsaw-faced killer doll.
It doesn’t help that the usual voice of everyone’s favorite Good Guy (Doll) Gone Bad, Brad Dourif, is clearly not who is speaking here. Dourif is credited on IMDb for this performance, but that sounds more like Dana Carvey trying to do John Mulaney than it does the Nicholson-esque snarky timbre of the plastic slasher. If I had to guess, I would assume it’s Darrell Hammond, as he was the resident impressionist for SNL at the time.
Even before the bit starts, the audience is chuckling as they set up the puppet. Then Colin Quinn speaks to travel-sized Charles Lee Ray about the pearl-clutching hypocrisy that surrounds the sexual liaison aspects of the Clinton Impeachment proceedings. (Sidenote: Colin Quinn is far too underrated a Weekend Update anchor)
It’s honestly a pretty clever bit that subverts expectations and then has some truly decent throwaway gags. (The “when are we getting a beer?” thing was a running joke that started when Quinn would show up as a guest on Weekend Update while Norm Macdonald was the anchor).
I’m assuming this was just corporate synergy, as Universal put out BRIDE OF CHUCKY (still a terrific film) and is merged with NBC. But part of me hopes that it was a personal request by Quinn.
We know from the 2002 documentary COMEDIAN that he and Jerry Seinfeld are good friends. And we know that CHILD’S PLAY 2 VHS always had a prominent spot on the set of Seinfeld. So I’m hoping the Seinfeld and Quinn are just Chucky mega-fans and this strange little moment was a dream come true.