Book Review: Chris Kattan “Baby Don’t Hurt Me”
In the late 90s, Saturday Night Live came back in a big way after some critically reviled seasons. That comeback was due in large part to the late 90s / early 00s cast. One of the standout SNL castmembers was Chris Kattan, who was in the cast from 1996 to 2003. Lorne Michaels once said circa 1997 of Kattan “ He’s got that same sort of feeling I felt from Mike Myers – total commitment to his work”. He had such a strong commitment to the joke and was a master of physical comedy. After he left SNL in 2003, I actually wondered why didn’t I see him in more films and TV shows? Many of his colleagues included Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, Molly Shannon and Tina Fey, who all remained active after SNL. In his new book Baby Don’t Hurt Me, co-written by Travis Thrasher and recently released by BenBella Books, Kattan tells his story, much of which he is telling for the first time.
The book cover is Mr. Peepers himself with the monkeys
The structure of this book is a little different than most bios in that the chronology is broken up with a chapter about characters and comedy then the next chapter is about his growing up. His father Kip King was one of the founders of the Groundlings comedy group and his mother Hajnalka was a model. After his parents divorce he lived with his mom and step-dad in Mount Baldy, CA and later Bainbridge Island, WA. The weekends with his Dad was highly influential on his getting into comedy and learning about the great comedians of all time. When he joined the Groundlings, that is where Kattan, developed and work-shopped so many characters he eventually brought to SNL, such as Mr. Peepers, one of the Roxbury Guys, the co-host of Goth Talk and Mango just to name a few. One of my favorite characters he did doesn’t even get mentioned in the book, Holly Wood. I wished he had talked about him as I laughed my head off many times to him. But I digress. Kattan didn’t make the cut for SNL’s 1995-96 season like his friends Ferrell and Cheri Oteri, but he was asked to join in the middle of the 1995-96 season.
Ferrell and Kattan as the Roxbury Guys
Kattan is brutally honest about his both good and bad experience on SNL. He takes you behind the scenes of how the show is prepared, what he brought to the table, advice he got, lessons learned and both friendships formed and destroyed. He also talks about relationships he had over the years and the films he made. There’s been a lot in the press recently about his relationship with director Amy Heckerling and whether he (as he said) slept with her to keep her happy on the movie A Night at the Roxbury which she produced, or if they began their relationship after production was already well under way (as her camp has reported). Either way, Kattan doesn’t paint a good picture of Lorne Michaels for encouraging the affair. The biggest reveal in this book is his injury he suffered during a 2001 SNL sketch that he needed five neck surgeries from. While SNL covered 2 of the 5, his career and physical comedy suffered.
Kattan (center) in the most recent “I Wish it was Christmas Today” performance
Not all SNL castmembers can go on to become Eddie Murphy or Bill Murray. Some struggle to find their post-SNL career path. This isn’t tragic in the way that John Belushi or Chris Farley died before their time after they left SNL. But he definitely struggled and felt abandoned by SNL (not being included in reunion shows, etc). I think Kattan’s story is fascinating and you get the sense he’s working through his past by re-telling it in this book. There’s also tons of name-dropping and celeb stories to keep casual fans interested. I learned a thing or two as well: i.e. Kattan went to high school with Soundgarden’s Ben Shepperd and - wait, what? - Paul Thomas Anderson and Richard LaGravenese did uncredited rewrites on Kattan’s film Corky Romano. It’s also a fast read too. Kattan is still acting and performing comedy to this day (he played in Boston with Jon Lovitz and Tim Meadows earlier this year). And hopefully this book is the intro to a career resurgence soon.
For info on Baby Don’t Hurt Me: https://www.benbellabooks.com/shop/baby-dont-hurt/
