Unpleasant Stimuli


On Dec. 8, 1990, Chris Farley played a sweaty teenager named Kevin in a sketch called “Unpleasant Stimuli.” This was only Farley’s eighth episode of SNL, but  Tom Hanks’s fifth turn at hosting. In the skit — which he totally steals, by the way — Farley enters through an upstage kitchen door, slams it and causes a prop spice rack to fall (like true professionals Jan Hooks, Farley and Hanks  simply look at the fallen spice rack and move on. Now, I don’t believe the prop fell from the wall because Farley slammed the door so hard. Rather, I believe that wherever Farley went he was surrounded, at all times, by an invisible whirlwind of physical chaos. And this chaos was the source of a lot, a lot, a lot of comedy. The spice rack hitting something on its way down, followed by the bric-a-brac shattering on the stage floor sounds like an announcement of Chris Farley’s walk-on in the scene.

This entry was posted in Mike Tee-Vee!, Sketch. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Unpleasant Stimuli

  1. Ryan Ray says:

    I teach a 9th Grade Drama Class in Holt, MI. We do alot of Improv and SNL scenes. I really want to have them do the Tom Hanls/Chris Farley “Unpleasant Stimuli” sketch from Dec. 8, 1990, but I can’t find a working video or a script for it anywhere on the Internet. I found your post here on Improv is Good for You and I am hoping that you might be able to help me.
    Peace.
    Ryan Ray

  2. keithhuang says:

    hi ryan, send me your email address

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