Bill Hader, the Saturday Night Live oddball who's best known for his giggling turn as Weekend Update's flamboyant city correspondent Stefon, announced today that he will depart SNL after this season (his last episode will be this Saturday's season finale). "It was a hard decision, but it had to happen at some point," Hader told The New York Times. But instead of wondering how we'll find out about New York's hottest club without Stefon, let's take a look back at some of Hader's funniest characters:
1. Stefon
While Hader hardly made it through a single Stefon sketch without choking back laughter, it never really mattered. Because how do you not laugh at the idea that one of New York's hottest clubs has dance music that sounds like "Donald Duck's Vietnam nightmare?"
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2. Aging reporter Herb Welch
Hader is perhaps at his non-Stefon best when channeling senility as the microphone-bumping reporter Herb Welch.
3. A Vietnam War veteran in a puppeteering class
This sketch was likely supposed to be a vehicle for host Seth McFarlane to show off his many voices. But Hader is a scene stealer as a gruff Vietnam war veteran who can't help but use his felt friend to tell brutal war stories.
4. Horror movie actor Vincent Price
This good, weird, and only somewhat exaggerated impression of a horror-movie icon shows off Hader's strange tastes. And who can resist adding in a little Kristen Wiig as a woozy Judy Garland?
5. A heavily-accented British leading man
With some superb support from Fred Armisen and guest Russell Brand, this faux trailer for a British crime movie is perfectly incomprehensible.
6. Italian talk show host Vinny Vedecci
Hader's Vedecci is certainly an Italian stereotype, but his mishmash of fake-real Italian is pretty impressive.
