Enid Strict, better known as The Church Lady, is a fictional character portrayed by Dana Carvey on American sketch comedy television show Saturday Night Live. The character appeared on the show from 1986 to 1990, and again in 1996, 2000, 2011, and 2016. She also appeared on The Dana Carvey Show in March 1996, reading a Top Ten List, "New Titles for Princess Diana."[1]
Dana Carvey developed the character in his stand-up comedy act prior to joining SNL.[2][3] He said, "At one point it was a schoolteacher being very condescending to kids as they made sailboats."[4] Carvey decided to make the character a religious figure when his mother said his impersonation reminded her of women from their churchgoing days who would keep track of people's attendance.[4][5] "Mom would bring a casserole to potluck dinners, and then feel inferior. I remember walking into church after our family had missed a few Sundays, and their turns of the heads, that 'Well! Good to see they finally made it!' attitude."[4]
Writer Rosie Shuster helped Carvey develop the concept of the Church Chat talk show.[6] Carvey recalled that he was prompted by executive producer Lorne Michaels to introduce the character (when it was still in SNL rehearsals) at a Neil Young concert at Madison Square Garden, which Church Lady interrupted, fussing and fuming: "What are we doing here? What's all this noise?"[7]
The Church Lady made numerous appearances on SNL, and Nora Dunn recalled that "everybody loved that character."[8]
The Church Lady is a mature woman named Enid Strict who is the uptight, smug, and pious host of her talk show Church Chat.[9] Her show includes guests, usually celebrities whom she interviews, played by other cast members of SNL or by the celebrities themselves. However, the interviews are only a guise for her to call out the guests on their various alleged sins, which are often publicly known news events of the day. They initially receive sarcastic praise from her, until the interview degrades into a tirade against their apparent lack of piety and their secular lifestyles, culminating with her judgmental admonishments and condemnation. She often takes others to task for following the desires of their tingling and/or engorged "naughty parts."
Sometimes the Church Lady was accompanied by a character known as "Minister Bob," played by Chevy Chase.[3] He seemed to be the only person the Church Lady admired. During a church picnic an inebriated woman interrupted the gathering, shocking all the old ladies present, and saying how the Church Lady acts so high and mighty but is out of touch with the problems of people in everyday life. Minister Bob then acts more down to Earth than the Church Lady, saying it is the responsibility of a pastor to deal with people with problems. When he seems to be leading the woman into why problem drinking is a bad idea, he ends with saying "...because of SATAN!", and joins the Church Lady in her Superior Dance.
The Church Lady made her first appearance on the season premiere of season 12.[4] It was not until the twelfth episode of that season, where Willie Nelson performs a duet of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" with the Church Lady, that the character became more popular.[4] The Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker scandal was parodied multiple times in sketches and helped make the Church Lady one of SNL's signature characters.[4]
In a teaser trailer for the 1990 film Opportunity Knocks (available on that film's DVD), the Church Lady interrupts, warning viewers not to see the film and is punched in the face and knocked to the floor by Dana Carvey who introduces himself.[13] The Church Lady retaliates and the fight continues off-screen as the trailer ends.
The Church Lady appeared on ABC's The Dana Carvey Show as part of a larger sketch where a viewer letter asked whether Dana Carvey's SNL characters were to appear on the show. The sketch responded by claiming that ABC used Disney's high-profile lawyers to engage NBC in a hostile takeover, gaining the rights to Carvey's SNL characters, as well as some of the IPs of David Letterman's show on CBS.[14] It then cuts to the Church Lady reading David Letterman's Top Ten List.