Recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced 1996–97

The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between September 28, 1996, and May 17, 1997, the twenty-second season of SNL.

The Ambiguously Gay Duo

A cartoon by Robert Smigel, part of the Saturday TV Funhouse series. Originally appeared on the Dana Carvey Show. Debuted September 28, 1996.
;Appearances

Season	Episode	Host	Notes
22	September 28, 1996	Tom Hanks	It Takes Two To Tango
22	November 2, 1996	Chris Rock	Queen of Terror
22	December 14, 1996	Rosie O'Donnell	Don We Now... Or Never
22	April 19, 1997	Pamela Anderson	Safety Tips
23	November 15, 1997	Claire Danes	Blow Hot, Blow Cold
23	May 9, 1998	David Duchovny	A Hard One To Swallow
24	November 21, 1998	Jennifer Love Hewitt	The Ambiguously Gay Duo Fan Club
24	May 8, 1999	Cuba Gooding Jr.	AmbiguoBoys
25	May 13, 2000	Britney Spears	Trouble Coming Twice
28	October 19, 2002	John McCain	The Third Leg Of Justice
33	September 29, 2007	LeBron James	First Served, First Come
36	May 14, 2011	Ed Helms	The Dark, Clenched Hole Of Evil

Mr. Peepers

Mr. Peepers was a part-monkey/part-human character created and portrayed by Chris Kattan. His signature bits of physical comedy involved eating apples one after another in rapid succession, and spitting out the pieces machine gun style. Often he would spit the apple chunks directly at characters in the scene. His other physical act was dry humping other characters, with the recipient of the act getting reprimanded when they tried to push him off.
Mr. Peepers was first introduced as an animal act brought out by John Barbary on a parody of The Tonight Show. In an episode in the 25th season, "Papa Peepers" was revealed to be Mr. Peepers's father. Another memorable sketch was a parody of an episode of Dawson's Creek, featuring Katie Holmes as Joey, the character she played on that show. On the Weekend Update segment of the May 17, 2003 episode, Chris Kattan performed a lightning-round montage of his most popular characters, and assumed the character of Mr. Peepers for a brief moment during that bit. It was the final episode of the 2002–2003 season, and also Kattan's last episode as a cast member.
;Appearances

Season	Episode	Host	Notes
22	September 28, 1996	Tom Hanks
22	January 11, 1997	Kevin Spacey
22	March 15, 1997	Sting
23	November 15, 1997	Claire Danes
24	October 3, 1998	Kelsey Grammer
24	December 5, 1998	Vince Vaughn
25	November 20, 1999	Jennifer Aniston
25	December 11, 1999	Danny DeVito
25	March 18, 2000	The Rock
26	November 4, 2000	Charlize Theron
26	February 24, 2001	Katie Holmes
27	April 6, 2002	Cameron Diaz

Kincaid

Played by Ana Gasteyer, Kincaid was a fast-talking MTV VJ. Sketch debuted September 28, 1996.

Gene, the Ex-Convict

A Colin Quinn sketch. Debuted October 5, 1996.
;Appearances

Season	Episode	Host	Notes
22	October 5, 1996	Lisa Kudrow
23	December 6, 1997	Nathan Lane

The Quiet Storm

The Quiet Storm was a radio show hosted by Chris "Champagne" Garnett. Debuted October 19, 1996.
;Appearances

Season	Episode	Host	Notes
22	October 19, 1996	Bill Pullman
22	February 22, 1997	Alec Baldwin
23	December 6, 1997	Nathan Lane

Ruby Daly

A Molly Shannon character that debuted in the October 5, 1996 episode. She was a victim of an accident that waken up in her a complete obsession for Natalie Wood.

The Culps

The Culps, or "The Culp Family Musical Performances", were recurring characters that appeared on SNL between 1996 and 2002, and were portrayed by Will Ferrell, and Ana Gasteyer. Marty and Bobbi were an awkward, unstylish, married couple who served as music teachers at Altadena Middle School. In the sketches, they would perform prim, conservative medleys of modern pop, R&B or rap songs at various school functions, much to the embarrassment of their unseen son who attended the school; when Claire Danes hosted, she played their college-student daughter, embarrassed beyond words when her parents performed during Career Day.
Marty played the keyboard and sings backup, while Bobbi was the lead vocalist, who sang in a high-pitched, operatic style. In between medleys, the Culps make comments to the audience of middle school students, often implying that the children are mocking them, most often by showing them the finger. Debuted November 2, 1996.
The Culps followed in the tradition of earlier skits that began with 1970s sketch Nick The Lounge Singer and continued in the 1980s with The Sweeney Sisters. The basic premise being that the singers, who usually perform in bottom-of-the-barrel gigs, sing modern songs in their own unique style, but are totally oblivious to how unstylish and "cheesy" their performances are.
Ferrell and Gasteyer reprised their roles in 2012 when Ferrell hosted the May 12th episode. The couple had a gig at an LGBT prom. They later returned for the 40th anniversary special on February 15, 2015, in a tribute of musical sketches, and at SNL50: The Homecoming Concert in 2025.
;Appearances

Season	Episode	Host	Notes
22	November 2, 1996	Chris Rock
22	February 15, 1997	Chevy Chase
22	May 10, 1997	John Goodman
23	November 15, 1997	Claire Danes
23	December 13, 1997	Helen Hunt
23	February 14, 1998	Roma Downey
23	April 11, 1998	Greg Kinnear
24	October 17, 1998	Lucy Lawless
24	January 9, 1999	Bill Paxton
24	May 15, 1999	Sarah Michelle Gellar
25	November 6, 1999	Dylan McDermott
25	February 5, 2000	Alan Cumming
25	May 20, 2000	Jackie Chan
26	November 11, 2000	Calista Flockhart
26	January 13, 2001	Charlie Sheen
26	April 14, 2001	Renee Zellweger
27	September 29, 2001	Reese Witherspoon
27	December 15, 2001	Ellen DeGeneres
27	April 6, 2002	Cameron Diaz
37	May 12, 2012	Will Ferrell

The Delicious Dish

The Delicious Dish is a culinary-themed radio show hosted by Margaret Jo McCullen and Teri Rialto. The show is presented as a parody of public radio, with very quiet, low-key hosts and dull, specialized subject matter. The pleasant, modest hosts are typically quite taken with the sometimes crushingly dry subject being discussed—albeit in an extremely reserved way. The SNL episode's host will play a guest appearing on "The Delicious Dish", who is typically portrayed as being just as uncharismatic as the hosts. When Molly Shannon left the show during the 2000–2001 season, Rialto was replaced by the new co-host Lynn Bershad, played by Rachel Dratch.
In an interview with the real NPR, Gasteyer cited The Splendid Table, and Good Food—a local program on member station KCRW—as influences on the sketch. She noted that because of the lack of commercials, a show could easily "take time and explore a subject to the point that people want to weep with boredom".
The most well-known edition of the sketch featured host Alec Baldwin as the chef Pete Schweddy—whose store sells the Christmas dish "Schweddy Balls". The two hosts remained consistently oblivious to the various double entendres being used by Schweddy to describe the dish, such as stating that the balls can be bought in a "sack", and boasting that "no one can resist my Schweddy Balls." In 2014, Rolling Stone named the "Schweddy Balls" sketch the 20th best SNL sketch of all time, noting that "those who didn't get the joke on first utterance would get multiple chances." So iconic was this simple bit of wordplay that Ben & Jerry's produced an ice cream in honor of the skit in 2011.
Gasteyer and Shannon reprised their characters in a one-off revival of the sketch during the May 8, 2010 episode, with host Betty White playing guest Florence Dusty—a baker famous for her "dusty muffins".
In 2024, Gasteyer and Shannon revived their characters for Capital One advertisements where they interview Samuel L. Jackson and "Capital One Bank Guy", in partnership with SNLs 50th anniversary.
;Appearances

Season	Episode	Host	Notes
22	November 16, 1996	Robert Downey Jr.
22	December 14, 1996	Rosie O'Donnell
22	February 8, 1997	Neve Campbell
22	May 10, 1997	John Goodman
23	October 18, 1997	Brendan Fraser
23	December 13, 1997	Helen Hunt
23	March 14, 1998	Julianne Moore
24	October 3, 1998	Kelsey Grammer
24	December 12, 1998	Alec Baldwin	The "Schweddy Balls" episode.
25	December 11, 1999	Danny DeVito
26	October 21, 2000	Dana Carvey
26	February 17, 2001	Sean Hayes
26	April 7, 2001	Alec Baldwin	First appearance by Dratch as Lynn Bershad. Baldwin reprises his character of Pete Schweddy, this time promoting his "Schweddy Wiener".
27	March 16, 2002	Ian McKellen
35	May 8, 2010	Betty White	Gasteyer and Shannon returned to their original roles for the sketch.