A Return to the Freaky, Awkward Glory Days of <em>SNL</em>
Thank goodness for Molly Shannon.
When Molly Shannon auditioned for in the mid-’90s, she received some appallingly bad advice. A scout warned her against doing the character Mary Katherine Gallagher—a geeky teenager who stuck her hands in her armpits and smelled them when she got nervous—because the show’s executive producer, Lorne Michaels, wouldn’t like it. “He’ll think it’s weird, that dirty little character,” Shannon being told. Despite listening to that guidance for her first round, Shannon surfaced Mary Katherine, we got to see Shannon ashost teaching the Jonas Brothers how to smell their armpits. And though Mary Katherine didn’t make a full appearance, Shannon’s episode was a striking reminder that character work was once essential to ’s success.
