Saturday Night Live can get pretty edgy at 11:30 p.m., but it’s still on NBC. They can’t violate FCC obscenity standards, but they sure try to push it. Dana Carvey remembers his Church Lady character testing some of the boundaries. When the network censor asked him to change some lines, Carvey ended up making the Church Lady even dirtier.
Carvey and David Spade now host the Fly on the Wall podcast where they reminisce about Saturday Night Live with former guests and cast members. Head Writer Jim Downey appeared on their May 11 episode and Downey reminded Carvey of his Church Lady battles.
The NBC censor said Church Lady couldn’t say ‘penis’ on ‘Saturday Night Live’
The Church Lady hosts the “Church Chat” segment. Carvey wears a dress and wig and purses his lips in a disapproving voice. Church Lady is pious but Carvey is satirizing those who consider themselves morally superior by dismissing them with “isn’t that special” or suggesting any minor mistake is the work of Satan. When Church Lady debuted, Bill Clotworthy was the censor.
“He had a little bow tie and he was very stern, but sweet,” Carvey said on Fly on the Wall. “Clotworthy wouldn’t let me say, when I first did Church Lady, she had a couple penises in there. ‘You’re a penis.’ He said no so I put in more stuff. I cut penis and I put in throbbing engorged bulbous…”
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The ‘Saturday Night Live’ censor didn’t realize Church Lady was dirtier without saying ‘penis’
The word ‘penis’ has a controversial history on Saturday Night Live. One sketch set at a nudist colony said the word more than 40 times, including in a song. That came two years after The Church Lady’s 1986 debut and Clotworthy was already wary of the word. But, the implications of Carvey’s rewrite flew over his head.
“Clotworthy’s like, ‘Well, this is terrific,’” Carvey said. “‘My throbbing Satan stick bulbous and engorged.’ He goes, ‘I love this, just don’t say penis.’ Much dirtier, much more pornographic.”
Bill Clotworthy replaced a much more lenient censor
Downey explained the history of the Saturday Night Live censors. Before Clotworthy, SNL got away with murder verbally. Downy haggled over sketches with Clotworthy too.
The very first guy who was great was a guy named Jay Ottley who had been literally a former male model. He looked like those guys in the 60s cigarette ads, extremely handsome man, very distinguished, middle-aged guy. Nothing bothered him at all. I don’t remember being told there was anything that we couldn’t do. Jay Ottley was magnificent. Everything, he would just kind of [say,] ‘No, that’s fine. Don’t worry about it.’ He was an out, out gay man. He was just incredibly just a super cool guy. He strikes me as a Fred Astaire type but had seen everything. Nothing bothered him. Then he was replaced by Bill Clotworthy.
Jim Downey, Fly on the Wall, 5/11/22
Just think, thanks to Clotworthy, Church Lady history was born.
