Editing Will Ferrell (section)

=== 1994–2001: ''Saturday Night Live'' ===
Before joining The Groundlings, Ferrell's attempts at standup comedy had little success. He started in the advanced classes and grew to love improvisation. He realized he also liked to impersonate people, and one of his favorites was [[Harry Caray]], the [[Ford C. Frick Award|Hall of Fame]] baseball announcer. Soon he began to create original characters, and by 1994 he had joined The Groundlings. With fellow Groundlings member [[Chris Kattan]], he created the Butabi Brothers, who go out to dance clubs to try to pick up women but are constantly rejected. While taking classes, Ferrell got a job at an auction house via his friend Viveca Paulin. The job was ideal as it was flexible enough for him to audition and go to rehearsals while also being employed. By 1995 he was receiving small roles, including appearances in TV series ''[[Grace Under Fire]]'' and ''[[Living Single]]'', low-budget films such as ''[[A Bucket of Blood (1995 film)|A Bucket of Blood]]'', as well as commercials. One winter, he served as a mall Santa Claus.{{sfnp|Abbey|2007|pp=56–57}}

After SNL's decline in popularity in [[Saturday Night Live (season 20)|1994–1995]], and in need of new cast members for the next season, a producer saw ''The Groundlings'' and asked Ferrell, Kattan, and [[Cheri Oteri]] to audition for SNL's main producer, [[Lorne Michaels]].{{sfnp|Abbey|2007|p=58}} Ferrell joined ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' in 1995 and left in 2002 after a seven-year tenure. He has hosted the show five times, thereby becoming a member of the show's [[List of Saturday Night Live guests#Five-Timers Club|Five Timers Club]].<ref name= "4thHostingReviewAV">{{cite news|last1=Perkins|first1=Dennis|title= Will Ferrell does what he can on an indifferently written ''Saturday Night Live''|url=https://www.avclub.com/will-ferrell-does-what-he-can-on-an-indifferently-writt-1822487552 |access-date= April 14, 2018|work=[[The A.V. Club]]|date=January 28, 2018}}</ref>

During his time on ''SNL'', Ferrell made a name for himself with his impersonations, which included US President [[George W. Bush]], [[Chicago Cubs]] announcer [[Harry Caray]], singer [[Robert Goulet]] ([[crooner|crooning]] [[a cappella]] pieces of music by [[Sisqó]], [[Baha Men]], and [[The Notorious B.I.G.]]), singer [[Neil Diamond]], ''[[Inside the Actors Studio]]'' host [[James Lipton]] (who favored Ferrell's impersonation), Massachusetts Senator [[Ted Kennedy]], United States Attorney General [[Janet Reno]], convicted Unabomber [[Ted Kaczynski]], game show host [[Alex Trebek]], fictitious private detective [[John Shaft]], professional wrestler [[Jesse Ventura]], US Vice President [[Al Gore]], Iraqi President [[Saddam Hussein]], and Cuban President [[Fidel Castro]].

His original characters included ''Morning Latte'' co-host Tom Wilkins, [[Mister Ed]] the Horse's twin brother Ned, fictional [[Blue Öyster Cult]] member Gene Frenkle (physically modeled after the band's vocalist [[Eric Bloom]]),{{citation needed| date= November 2019}} music teacher Marty Culp, cheerleader Craig Buchanan, Dale Sturtevant from ''Dissing Your Dog'', Hank of the [[Bill Brasky]] Buddies, David Leary from ''Dog Show'', angry and inattentive Dr. Beaman and [[night club]]ber Steve Butabi in sketches that were turned into a feature film in 1998's ''[[A Night at the Roxbury]]''. Although a one-shot character, one of Ferrell's most memorable ''SNL'' characters is Dale McGrew, a "highly patriotic" office worker who comes to work wearing a half t-shirt and [[short shorts]] that Ferrell improvised into a [[thong]] just before the skit aired live, leading to genuine laughter from the cast and guest host [[Seann William Scott]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Seann William Scott Looks Back on 'SNL's Classic "Patriotic Shorts" Sketch" |url=https://www.vulture.com/2015/04/seann-william-scott-looks-back-on-snls-classic-patriotic-shorts-sketch.html |work=Vulture |last=Wright |first=Meg |date=April 24, 2015 |access-date=December 7, 2023}}</ref> Ferrell became the highest paid cast member of ''Saturday Night Live'' in 2001 with a season salary of $350,000.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://webcenters.netscape.compuserve.com/celebrity/package.jsp?name=celebrity/content/bsf_carreyvsfarrell |title=War of the Funnymen – Netscape Celebrity |website= compuserve.com |access-date= September 11, 2010 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101003054217/http://webcenters.netscape.compuserve.com/celebrity/package.jsp?name=celebrity%2Fcontent%2Fbsf_carreyvsfarrell |archive-date=October 3, 2010 }}</ref> Ferrell returned to ''Saturday Night Live'' as a guest host on May 14, 2005; May 16, 2009; May 12, 2012; January 27, 2018, and November 23, 2019. For the first two hosting appearances, he reprised his role as Alex Trebek in the "[[Celebrity Jeopardy! (Saturday Night Live)|Celebrity Jeopardy]]" sketches. On the May 14 appearance, Ferrell reprised his role as Robert Goulet in a fake commercial advertising a series of [[ringtone]]s and, during the performance of the song "[[Little Sister (Queens of the Stone Age song)|Little Sister]]" by musical guests [[Queens of the Stone Age]], Ferrell came on stage playing the [[Cowbell (instrument)|cowbell]].