My list of the best Saturday Night Live cast members

The following list is my ranking of Saturday Night Live's best cast members:

1. Will Ferrell
2. Phil Hartman

There is almost no doubt in my mind that these two are the two best cast members; whether Ferrell was in fact better than Hartman is debatable, but my gut instinct says that Ferrell was better. I could go on for volumes as to why I feel Hartman was so great and perhaps the more I think about it, the more I will want to flip the order.

3. Eddie Murphy
4. John Belushi
5. Chris Farley

These next three are, like the two above, clearly better than the rest, but how exactly each should be ranked in relation to each other is not so clear.

6. Mike Myers
7. Dan Aykroyd

8. Molly Shannon
9. Cheri Oteri
10. Jan Hooks

All three of these girls were terrific and, yes, to preempt your next thought, all three were better than:

11. Bill Murray
12. Chevy Chase

They were even better, dare I say, much better than any of the girls of the original cast, including Gilda Radner.

Other groups in the ranking include:

Adam Sandler, David Spade, Rob Schneider

Chris Kattan, Tracy Morgan, Chris Parnell

Jon Lovitz, Kevin Nealon, Dana Carvey

As far as those cast members that were primarily Weekend Update anchors, the ranking is as follows:

Best- Norm McDonald
Worst- Brian Doyle Murray
Mediocre at best- Tina Fey