The Continental (Saturday Night Live)

"The Continental" is a recurring skit on "Saturday Night Live" featuring Christopher Walken. It is a parody of Renzo Cesana, who starred in a 1952-53 CBS series, "The Continental". The series used a subjective camera, and Cesana spoke directly to women in the viewing audience. Cesana's show was subjected to many parodies, including Mad's "The Countynental", which was also the name used in a parody by Ernie Kovacs, and Red Skelton's "The Transcontinental".

The premise of the "SNL" sketch is that Walken is a "suave " who in reality can't say or do anything to keep women from giving him the cold shoulder, typically due to a number of perverse actions that often border on behavior for sexual predators. For instance, he invites a woman to wash up in his bathroom. Once she is inside, it becomes obvious that the bathroom mirror is a two-way mirror when the Continental is seen lighting up a cigarette.

The Continental has both a periscope with which to “spy” on his female neighbors and a collection of “erotic” Hummel figurines he acquired on eBay. These skits are always shot from the woman's point of view, so we never see her face, just her arms as she pushes him out of her way. Whenever he offers her a glass of champagne or, as he calls it, "champagna", she invariably ends up throwing it in his face. The character also has the catchphrase of "Wow! Wowie-wow-wow-wow!" which is usually said at some point when the woman has physically shown she has no interest in him, only for him to become even more aroused by her "tempestuousness".

In 2002 Walken was quoted as saying that he would like to do a "Continental" movie. "The problem with the Continental is that he never leaves his house. But it might be interesting to see the Continental go out and nothing works. He's a social catastrophe. I think that would be interesting.Fact|date=July 2008"

Phil Hartman

The voiceover at the beginning of the sketch is provided by Phil Hartman and has been used three times since his 1998 murder.

Appearances

* [http://snltranscripts.jt.org/89/89k.phtml January 20, 1990]
* [http://snltranscripts.jt.org/92/92d.phtml October 24, 1992]
* [http://snltranscripts.jt.org/95/95j.phtml January 13, 1996]
* [http://snltranscripts.jt.org/99/99p.phtml April 8, 2000]
* [http://snltranscripts.jt.org/00/00t.phtml May 19, 2001]
* [http://snltranscripts.jt.org/02/02m.phtml February 22, 2003]
**It should be noted that Christopher Walken's appearance on April 5, 2008 did "not" contain a Continental sketch.

ee also

* Recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches