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Any consideration of Molly Shannon's fame is not just a story of one woman, but of two. In fact, any consideration of Molly Shannon's fame must be prefaced with a series of questions that don't even directly concern Molly Shannon. Specifically:
What ever happened to Cheri Oteri?
Where is Cheri Oteri, anyway?
Did anyone even notice that Cheri Oteri left Saturday Night Live? Were we asleep when they broadcast the gala Cheri Oteri send-off? The subsequent "Best of Cheri Oteri" episode? The news of the impending Cheri Oteri cinematic star vehicle?
And why, oh why, is Molly Shannon turning up in every other movie these days, when we're not even sure if Cheri Oteri is still in show business?
Okay, that last question did directly deal with Molly Shannon. You see, Molly Shannon is funny enough, and we've enjoyed her in small, controlled bursts over the years, and far be it from us to point out that she only does one character with several different wigs, and that that character invariably involves a lot of yelling and kicking. And if Lorne Michaels and Rolling Stone want everyone to believe that Mary Katherine Gallagher is a classic SNL character that will go down in history with John Belushi's Samurai and Eddie Murphy's Gumby and Dana Carvey's Church Lady, then we don't want to be the ones to pipe up and point out that there's only so much humour to be mined from falling over tables and smelling your armpits, as was made amply evident in the near-unwatchable Superstar. (We say near-unwatchable because...well, we watched it. Yes, the whole thing, right to the end, and it was bad, bad, bad, and we only made it all the way through out of deference to Will Ferrell.)
And if Lorne Michaels wants to send off Molly Shannon from SNL with a big to-do, and then air a "Best of Molly Shannon" special, like, two weeks later, even though it consists mostly of yelling and kicking, then we say fine -- despite the fact that he didn't see fit to include a single "Dog Show" sketch, which was the only funny sketch she did in her whole damn tenure on that show. But we say fine. Fine fine fine. Because people out there like Mary Katherine Gallagher and they like the Joyologist and they even like the "I'm fifty" woman, even though they're all the same character, just wearing different wigs.
And now Molly Shannon is fashioning a very nice post-SNL film career for herself. Which is also fine. In fact, she's even turning up in stuntcasting cameos, like her bit at the start of Shallow Hal as Hal's distraught mum, where you're meant to think "Hey, look -- it's that Molly Shannon from SNL!" Which is also fine. And she was steady if unmemorable in The Grinch, and she was pretty funny in Wet Hot American Summer, even if, again: same character. But at least she wasn't yelling "I love it! I love it!" and hoofing people in the neck.
But in 1995, the year that Molly Shannon joined a rejuvenated Saturday Night Live cast, another spirited female comedian also joined the cast: namely, Cheri Oteri. And where in the world is she? Wasting away in Scary Movie? Why isn't she in every other movie these days? Because she was actually really, consistently funny, and could do lots of different characters, and didn't rely on falling over set pieces for yuks, and was always the snappier half of any sketch in which she was paired with Molly Shannon, such as "Leg Up!" And because watching Molly Shannon specials and Molly Shannon cameos and Molly Shannon movie roles would be a lot easier if each one wasn't a sharp reminder that somehow the second-funniest woman from the last five years of SNL is now the only one we ever get to see.
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