Hammond’s impression of Connery sparred savagely and hilariously with Will Ferrell’s Alex Trebek across more than a dozen sketches from 1996 to 2015.
Easily one of the most popular recurring segments on “Saturday Night Live” of all time is Will Ferrell’s iconic “Celebrity Jeopardy!” sketches. And they wouldn’t have been nearly as successful without Darrell Hammond’s Sean Connery.
The prolific impressionist and long-time “SNL” cast-member — and current announcer — evolved the caricature into a belligerent, sex-crazed, misreading madman across nearly two decades and more than a dozen appearances.
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Aside from appearing in virtually every “Celebrity Jeopardy!” sketch during Will Ferrell’s tenure on the show, Hammond returned in 2005 and 2009 when Ferrell came back as host. His final appearance in the role came in 2015 for the show’s 40th anniversary special.
After news of the James Bond actor’s death was announced on Saturday, October 31, Hammond took to his Instagram page to pay tribute to the inspiration behind one of his most beloved and long-lived impressions.
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“Sorry to hear of the passing of Sean Connery,” he wrote alongside a picture of himself as Connery. “My condolences to his family.”
He went on to add, “Always loved doing my silly impressions of him on SNL, and I heard he once spoke highly of me on ‘The Tonight Show.’ Thanks for making me look better than I am man, RIP.”
He then shared one of the sharpest barbs his version of the actor said during one of those “Celebrity Jeopardy!” installments in response to Ferrell’s Alex Trebek telling him, “Mr. Connery you wear me out!
“You didn’t say that last night when I was pumping moo goo gai pan all over your tonsils!” Hammond’s Connery said.
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In most cases, Connery was mangling category names into something horrifically and inappropriately sexual (“Who Reads” becomes “Whore Ads”), and touting his sexual conquests of Trebek’s mother.
The main gist of the sketches, which were based on real “Celebrity” editions of the parent show, was that celebrities were generally not as smart as the traditional “Jeopardy!” contestant, leading to far simpler categories and question.
And yet, these celebs proved inadequate even to answer such simple “Final Jeopardy” questions as, “Write down any number.”
You can check out some of those classic “Celebrity Jeopardy!”sketches below:
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