Ranking Each Vinny Vedecci Sketch (Worst To Best)

This "special edition" blog post is meant as a companion piece to the latest episode of me and Deej Barens' podcast "We Heart Hader" which I, as always, will encourage you to go listen to if you're reading this.

9. Drew Barrymore - 10/10/09

• This may have been the weakest of all the Vinny Vedecci sketches for me, personally.

• The "et/E.T" and "Whip It" jokes were real low points (as sad as that is to say about a Devo reference). Drews' line about how "this must have never happened before" was an even more tired button on a lame tired trope.

• The Letterman/Mrs. Vedecci references and "female director/speaking of your breasts" jokes were OK but they felt a little too telegraphed for my liking. The Letterman jokes at least added a nice topical wrinkle to these.

• On the plus side, we at least get to see Vinny Jr as a belligerent drunk now.

8. Catherine Zeta Jones - 10/23/05

• This is the characters' first appearance in SNL. He doesn't host a talk show yet, but he does run a hotel in Italy. Rather than playing herself, Catherine is playing Vinnys' wife. She, Beppo (Armisen) and Sanz all run the hotel together.

• Sudeikis, Poehler & Thompson are three American tourists who enter asking to use their phone because their bus broke down. Sanz tells them the bus will not work so they are forced to stay the night.

• This sketch plays upon a well worn comedy trope of foreigners making numerous references to '70s/80s American pop culture as if they just got them there.

• Vinny and his wife frequently fight (especially when he tries to hit on Poehlers' character) but quickly make up. Hader treats "ma bella" as something of a catchphrase.

• They also do imitations of the tourists in nerdy, nasal voices (especially Armisens character). This also plays upon some slight racial tropes with Hader making an out of nowhere Rodney King reference to Kenan and at one point simply saying "we are not afraid of you".

• The tourists all leave by the end with the reveal that Sanz has stolen their passports.

• This wasn't the best debut for this character so it's probably for the best that the setting is changed and the writing is focused and tightened up. Hader undeniably brings a fresh new energy and charisma to the show that was sorely needed at this time.

7. Robert Deniro - 12/04/2010

• Same old intro but even the stiff Walken-lite presence of latter day Deniro on SNL really adds something to this and Bill plays off him greatly with his abundant energy.

• Deniro killing the "deer" from Deer Hunter, angry drunk Vinny Jr and the "you talking to me?" gag were the highlights of this.

6. John Malkovich - 12/06/08

• Armisens' character lies and says Malkovich told him he could speak Italian. Vinny mimics Malkovichs' voice expertly.

• Vinny plugs his own film similar to "Being John Malkovich" titled "Being Vinny Vedecci" which is 20 hours of pornography spread across an 8 DVD box set.

• Naturally, with this being Bobby Moynihans' first season, we are introduced to his character of Vinny Vedecci Jr. A small boy who smokes just like his proud papa.

• Not the strongest of these sketches but the impression and "pornography is sex film?" joke may be the highlights of this one.

5. Seth Rogen - 04/04/09

• The "glasses" gag with Armisen was just an unnecessary button on a tired intro trope of these sketches.

• Here Seth Rogen learns that he is known in Italy as " The Bear Man" and all his films are part of the "Bear Man" series of Horror films. 

• "Super Bad" being known as "Bear Man And A Very Very Handsome Gentleman" was cute.

• Vinny imitating Seth's voice (dead on of course) may have been one of my biggest laughs of the tail end of season 34. Glad to see that still holds up today.

4. Zach Braff - 05/19/07

• Set is more minimal as it would be for other installments. Columns and reflected light are removed.

• Vinny does Peter Falk/Columbo impression after learning Zach Braff made his acting debut in "Manhattan Murder Mystery" (which Peter Falk was NOT in).

• Zach learns that Scrubs is dubbed over to be very intense as it is shown as the #1 drama in Italy. The Italians do not find this show funny. The edited out of context Scrubs clip might have been the comedic high point of this. The editing made it obviously better, I'm sure.

• Zach is then asked to kiss a puppet that sprays "vomit" on him which highly amuses the crew. Karate Gorilla is bumped, much to his frustration. That got a laugh out of me.

• Zach Braff seemed an odd fit for this sketch in the first part, but they made it work. This wasn't as good as the JLD installment, but far from the worst of these.

3. Shia LaBeouf - 05/10/08

• Refreshingly, this is the only Vinny Vedecci sketch NOT to begin with the hassle over the host revealing they do not speak Italian followed by Vinny getting into a shouting match with his spaghetti chomping producers (Armisen and a silent Forte). They immediately clear up the confusion by having Vinny explain that he speaks English.

• The Transformers/sex change joke annoyed me slightly back in 2008 but definitely wouldn't hold up today. The smoking arrest (especially with Lorne and Cue Card Wallys' cameos) and Indiana Jones dubbing jokes make up for that though.

• The "HE HATES SNAKES!!!" Joke with Sambergs' sudden appearance may be the high point of this episode. In fact, it almost seems like a gag taken straight out of a Vincent Price sketch.

2. Julia Loius-Dreyfus - 03/17/07

• This is the first sketch with Vinny in his new permanent setting as host of a Charlie Rose-like talk show (in all ways possible, apparently).

• Vinny gets into shouting matches with his spaghetti eating producer (Armisen) over JLD not being fluent in Italian. This will essentially be the opening of all but one installment of this sketch.

• JLD is plugging "New Adventures Of Old Christine" but Vinny does his impressions of Michael "Kramer" Richards (a strong one, reusing and improving upon the one he developed for the Matthew Fox monologue earlier in the season) and a squeaky high pitched barely accurate Jerry. He then reveals he does JLDs voice in the Italian dub of Old Christine. 

• He brings out his daughter (?) Fabiola (Maya Rudolph) to recite the days of the week in slightly broken English as Vinny asks "you put her on show?"

• Vinny then puts a foam cowboy hat on JLD and makes her join in on a song she does not know. She is pecked by a man in an ostrich costume. This continued the theme of 80s/90s pop culture references from the debut sketch as he mentions his guest on his next show will be Jan Michael Vincent of Airwolf fame.

• This character seems to still be finding its own identity and doesn't rely quite as much on stereotypical sex, wine and cigarette jokes as much as in later installments. It seems more occupied with mimicking the real life confusion and horror of American actors appearing in foreign language talk shows. This is reminiscent of "Weird Al" Yankovics' appearance on Japanese television in 1984 performing "Eat It".

1. Jon Bon Jovi - 10/13/07

• The traditional opening gag is made slightly funnier by Vinny outright stating there would be no translator because he assumed a man named "Bon Jovi" would be fluent in Italian. 

• Despite this being the fourth time we've seen this character, he visibly struggles to speak in English more than he has done previously.

• Vinny does his Silvio/Van Zandt impression and Armisens character does his Paulie Walnuts because Bon Jovi mentions he is from New Jersey which of course means...Sopranos reference. This is the last time he extrapolates or free associates to get to an impression or makes an American geography reference so Vinny feels a bit more removed from his original character here. 

• Bon Jovi is not pleased at all to learn he is spokesman of a tobacco brand that prominently features 7 & 8 year Olds (not kids...MEN!) smoking Blaze cigarettes.

• Vinny calls off the robot horse after learning that the "steel horse" he references in "Dead Or Alive" is merely a tour bus.

• Vinny singing "Living On A Prayer" in "Italian" was a cute button on this but having the real Bon Jovi call him out on not speaking REAL Italian was a funnier ending (despite it kind of selling the sketch out and breaking its own reality a but too much) but I can forgive that because I remember this sketch being one of two real bright spots in an otherwise underwhelming episode that showed plenty if evidence if Bon Jovi taking himself and his image too seriously to have much (if any) real fun.

...and, that's it for now. My next blog post might just be a mini-review of the upcoming SNL 50th Anniversary Special. If I have enough stray observations to share with you guys after watching it, I will post them here. 

If I do, in fact, post a whole new blog just about SNL50, you can expect something resembling my "mini-review" of Saturday Night (2024) from a few months ago (or my blog post about the SNL 40th anniversary special from a decade ago...but, y'know obviously a lot better written this time). 

Aside from that, the next episode of "We Heart Hader" will be released in two weeks. It will be another SNL related episode mainly focusing on Bills' assorted game show host parts in sketches over the years (aside from "Vince Blight" from "What's That Name?" who will, of course, be the focus of his own "character spotlight" episode some time down the road). Whether or not I will put together a new blog post to go with THAT one...well, I haven't decide yet but don't count on it.

I'd like to tell you about some more future plans for the blog and podcast, but I think it's best to wait until Deej and I have the next few episodes scheduled and planned out better first. 

For now, just count on my next blog post being a full length review of SNLs' next planned regular episode after the 50th anniversary special...whenever that may air. If I decide to suddenly change course and make another blog post related to the podcast, I will tell you here but you can always find out what my plans for this blog (and the podcast) are by following my three main socials where I regularly announce new blog posts and podcast episodes (Twitter, Bluesky & Threads).

See you again real soon!