SWEET SASSY MOLASSY!
ESPN's Stuart Scott passed away Sunday (1/4) after a long bout with cancer and testimonials to his breakthrough broadcasting style were many over this past weekend during the wild-card football playoffs. Starting on ESPN in 1993, Scott's pop culture references and his "Booyah!" catchphrase helped break open the usual vanilla sportscasting style that was the norm up to that point. SNL observed how natural it was for Scott – and how awkward for the more traditional sports guy trying to adapt to Scott’s style – in this 1999 sketch featuring Ray Romano as the hapless new guy trying to keep up with Tim Meadows playing Scott. All Romano's character can devise are non sequiturs like "Get out the checkbook and pay Grandma for the rubdown!" and the third-rate exclamation, "Sweet Sassy Molassy!" What we take for granted today as familiar in sports voiceovers, Scott helped pave the way. -- Eric Gould