Saturday Night Liveparodies Richard Lester’s 1980Superman IIwith an awkwardDCsketch starring John Mulaney as Superman and Sarah Sherman as Lois Lane. Donner’sSupermanis a momentous landmark in comic book movie history, as it established Superman as a believable yet lighthearted superhero long before the golden age of superhero films began. Out ofall live-action Superman actors, Christopher Reeve remains the most iconic forty-seven years later.
Shortly after Christopher Reeves' legacy was homaged in the DC Studios documentarySuper/Man: The Christopher Reeve Storyand a few months before James Gunn’s DCUSupermanmovie hits theaters,Saturday Night Liveunveils a “Cut for Time” sketch that pokes fun at Richard Lester’sSuperman II. In the sketch,John Mulaney’s Superman and Sarah Sherman’s Lois Lane attempt to have a sweet moment together, but they’re interrupted by Lois' nosy roommate Glenn Bechamel, who insists on testing Superman powers. When Zod arrives, Glenn scares him off with her awkward comments. Watch the sketch below:
What The SNL Superman Sketch Means
Christopher Reeve’s Superman Is A Timeless Portrayal
Saturday Night Live’s “Cut For Time” Superman sketch providesan alternate take onSuperman II’s Zod ending, this time defeating the Kryptonian villain with the sheer power of awkwardness. While the sketch is quite short, it nails the look of all threeSupermanIIcharacters. That’s because Christopher Reeve’s classic Superman suit is perfect in its simplicity, and both Lois Lane and Zod’s wardrobe is emblematic of Margot Kidder and Terence Stamp’s portrayals.It may be inevitable for every live-action iteration of Superman and his supporting cast, parody or not, to haveSupermanandSuperman IIas a reference.
Our Take On the SNL Superman Sketch
Christopher Reeve’s Superman Achieved The Right Tone In 1978 And 1980
Richard Donner’sSupermanand Richard Lester’sSuperman IImake it look effortless, but the 1978 and 1980 Superman movies faced a huge challenge in making the Man of Steel look and feel like a real, flesh-and-blood superhero at the time.SupermanandSuperman IIcould have easily come off as comedies, or at least as live-action recreations of Saturday morning cartoons likeSuper-Friends— which was mostly the case with the 1960s Adam West-ledBatmanseries and 1966Batmanmovie. But as lighthearted as they may have been,SupermanandSuperman IIachieved the right balance between realism and fantasyto establish characters like Christopher Reeve’s Superman, Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane, and Terence Stamp’s Zod as trailblazers of the superhero movie genre.
James Gunn’s Superhero History Proves The DCU’s Superman Can Fix A 47-Year-Old Movie Problem
James Gunn’s Superman movie seems to be on track to fix a big action problem that has been present in every live-action Superman film to date.
Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said about the lukewarmSuperman IIIandthe poorly-receivedSuperman IV: The Quest for Peace.Even without today’s superhero movie catalog as reference, it was evident thatSuperman IIIandSuperman IV: The Quest for Peacehad crossed the line at the time, as their plot, tone, and sense of humor tipped the scale towards parody at the time. The third and fourthSupermaninstallments weren’t bad enough to taint Christopher Reeve’s Superman legacy, but they’re now more widely regarded as something more akin to SNL’s Superman sketch than serious superhero movies like 1978’sSupermanand 1980’sSuperman II.
