What happened to SNL Chris Kattan star?

Although it has never been as tall as Will Ferrell or Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan was a major actor on “Saturday Night Live” from the moment he signed. He was famous for playing nervous characters, perhaps especially for the monkey Mr. Peepers. He is an aggressive character, weird and overflowing with confidence. If Kattan even wobbled a moment here, if he had even shown the slightest sign of self -doubt, the sketch would not have worked. Instead, he became one of the most famous “SNL” characters to get out of the 90s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f06cegwry

But despite the popularity of Kattan in the late 90s and early 00 years, he rarely returned for the “SNL” cameo these days, and he does not seem to be in many television or films. How could the guy behind Mango and Gay Hitler become such reflection in the history of “SNL”? Officially, Chris Kattan left “SNL” because it was time to continue and do bigger things. In May 2003, he had been in the series for eight seasons, which was considered a lot in the days of Pre-Kinge Thompson. As Weekly entertainment reported it at the time:

“” All the big things should end, and it seemed to be the ideal moment to leave, “said Kattan.” You cannot do seven college seasons, and you always want to leave when you still love the show and not bitter. “In addition, on” SNL “, he did everything:” I was able to spit Apple on the face of Tom Hanks and Swatied J.lo’s Butt.

But despite Kattan’s framing of “SNL” as a college, which implies that his real career was just beginning, “SNL” is always the point of view of the undisputed comedy of Kattan. The absence of an impressive next phase of Kattan’s career was a source of confusion among many fans of “SNL”, at least until his brief appearance on “Dancing with the Stars” in 2017 pushed him to explain what had been wrong.

As a competitor on “Dancing with the Stars”, Kattan was quickly eliminated and criticized by judges for his strangely steep dance performance. Shortly after the broadcast of this episode, Kattan revealed that he had broken his neck during a “SNL” from 2001. The sketch, where Kattan played an impressable child who is injured while trying to identify the character of Betty White of “The Golden Girls”, presents a moment when Kattan falls and hits his head on the ground.

The clip is not on YouTube, but you can find it on the “SNL” NBC page. The fall does not seem so serious, and Kattan himself did not realize how serious it was in the moment. “I think that when you break your neck, at least in my experience, you do not know what it looks like because you have never broken your neck before,” he explained in a 2019 interview. “So, it’s just atrociously painful. Even Buster Keaton, he broke his neck and didn’t even know. […] Nevertheless, you must undergo surgeries and repair, and you cannot live in this way. Otherwise, you go to the atrophy of your whole arm and your whole leg. “”

Because neck injuries can be complicated, doctors had trouble understanding exactly what was wrong with his neck and exactly how to fix it. As he explained in his book, “baby, did not hurt me”, he had to undergo five neck surgeries before he even feels a little return to normal. The pain of experience has also led him to be addicted to pain relievers, which contributed to the destruction of his first marriage.

And even after all this, he was still not back to his old self: even until 2017, the injury hampered his dance skills. Some may say that Kattan is just trying to save his face by blaming the neck injury on his bad dance, but let’s be real: we have seen how energetic and fluid’s physical performance on “SNL” before the injury. There is no way that he dances so badly in a world where he never injured himself in the neck.

The neck injury was detrimental to Kattan’s career, not only because it cost him constant pain and lost a lot of time to him, but because they were expensive and that it tense his relationship with NBC. Of the five surgeries he had, Kattan said that NBC had paid for two of them, and they then denied any official file to breaks his neck. “It was not something they wanted to conclude an agreement,” said Kattan. “And also, I am not surprised that they say that it did not happen, because it is a very small moment for them, someone who is injured, an injury in the cast. And for me, it’s like 20 years of my life.”

Kattan was not too upset by “SNL” and “NBC” for that, however, because he also wanted to minimize the injury during his stay in the series. As he explained:

“I didn’t want to do stories. They are family, you know.” SNL “is not like a show for me. … It becomes very personal, and you don’t want to fuck with it, just like your family. You don’t want to say to your father” I will continue you. “” [laughs] I was told of never crying Wolf, you know. It was all my thing in life, never cries Wolf. And that’s something I should probably cry, but I didn’t do it. “”

In 2025, for the 50th anniversary of the show, Kattan clearly indicated in an entertainment interview this evening that he still considers the spectacle favorably despite all the difficulties resulting from it. When he was asked what he thought that the heritage of the show will be, he replied: “The heritage is in the whole incredible talent and where they come from. The most talented people you have ever seen in your life came from the same place, and it is” Saturday Night Live “.”

Chris Kattan did not return to host “SNL”, but he returned to the series on a few special occasions. He made several cameos in the years immediately after his departure, followed by three others in 2006, 2011 and 2012. In these latter appearances, Kattan remained in relatively stationary roles, and in some of them (like his reprisals of the song “I hope that it is Christmas today”), he seemed definitively stronger than before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=892xpkb5-ku

“Each time I go back to visit, everyone opens their arms and is so sweet,” Kattan said in this variety interview ’19. “It is an energy different from that when you are in distribution. It is healthier. For a moment of reason, you leave and you come back to visit or come back on the spot, Lorne [Michaels] And everyone is missing. And you miss the show. This is one of the healthiest relationships you should have with the show, when your test is over. “”

Kattan also returned to the 50th anniversary of the series, where he spoke positively about the showrunner Lorne Michaels. He said that he had had a lot of sketch ideas during his mandate which did not happen as well as he thought, but he had gained comfort knowing that “Lorne knows what he is doing.” When he was asked if he could remember good advice that Michaels had given him, Kattan replied: “No, he just said” good work “, he is the best thing he said to me.”

Although Kattan’s neck injury launched a massive heels key in his post-“SNL” career, he still enjoyed substantial comedy roles over the years. He was a regular character during the first three seasons of the sitcom ABC “The Middle”, with the sweet but lonely colleague of the main character Frankie. When Frankie lost her job in season 4 and had to change his career, the character of Kattan quietly abandoned the show. However, Bob remembers emotionally by fans of “The Middle”.

Around the same time, he played in “The Middle”, Kattan appeared in “How I Met Your Mother”. There he played an actor in a film on the main character of Ted Mosby. The name of the character was Jed Mosley, and it is essentially what Ted would look like if he was a total imbecile. The joke is that even if we know that Ted is not so bad, all the other characters act as if Jed was a perfect impression of him. The character was memorable enough for “Himym” to brought him back four seasons later:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad6ru2tGytq

Kattan’s post-“SNL” may not have been as impressive as his fans could have hoped in 2003, but it was certainly not without his jewels.