Dana Carvey Performed "Choppin' Broccoli" on His First SNL Episode
Carvey played Derek Stevens, a musician angling for a comeback, in the sketch with Phil Hartman and Sigourney Weaver.
In the weeks leading up to February 16's three-hour 50th anniversary celebration on NBC, the team behind Saturday Night Live has selected one sketch from every single season — 50 seasons in 50 days — to reflect the show's rich legacy across five decades. Presenting the sketch chosen to represent Season 12: "Derek Stevens Audition” starring Host Sigourney Weaver and Season 12 cast members Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman.
"Derek Stevens Audition" — aka "The Comeback" — aired on the October 11, 1986 episode hosted by Sigourney Weaver. Aside from debuting the enduring earworm that is "Choppin' Broccoli," SNL's Season 12 premiere is doubly significant because it happened to be Carvey's very first episode (and that of the sketch's costar, Phil Hartman).
Though he actually first performed the tune at his SNL audition, Dana Carvey is still "mystified" by the continued love for his famously silly song almost 40 years later.
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Dana Carvey sang "Choppin' Broccoli" song during his SNL audition
Carvey first sang "Choppin' Broccoli" in his audition for the show, and performed it on the SNL 40th Anniversary Special in February 2015.
"This is my impression of a very pretentious rockstar. I think all of us at one time in our lives wanted to be a rockstar," he said in the introduction to the song during his audition. "All you have to do is flare your nostrils, look like you're about to vomit. Everything you say is suddenly terribly important, it doesn't have to make any literal sense."
In the sketch, Carvey plays Derek Stevens a burned out British rocker summoned to the office of two record label executives Michael and Paula (played by Weaver and Hartman respectively) to give them a preview of his new songs.
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Derek explains to Michael and Paula that the new tracks are still "a work in progress" — and as he sits down to play at the piano, it is obvious he is clearly making them up as he goes along.
The first number he sings is "The Lady I Know" which is about a woman who buys some broccoli, goes home and chops it. He finishes the song by repeating the chorus over and over: "She's choppin' broccoli / She's choppin' broccoli..."
After finishing "The Lady I Know," Derek launches into two other tracks, "New Beginnings" and "Going to the Club." But Michael and Paula are taken by "that broccoli tune" — and it turns out the viewers were, too.Carvey appeared as Derek Stevens three more times on SNL, in Seasons 12 and 13.
Dana Carvey is "still mystified" by the popularity of "Choppin' Broccoli"
"Choppin' Broccoli" is ridiculous, but an earworm — one that fans still quote to Carvey all these years later, as he revealed on Fly on the Wall, his podcast with fellow SNL alum, David Spade.
Former SNL cast member Alex Moffat was a guest on the October 9, 2024 episode of Fly on the Wall, and during the conversation he brought up how singing "Choppin' Broccoli" was "one of the first laughs" he ever remembered getting in his life.
"I was just imitating 'Choppin' Broccoli' to my parents and sisters, and them being like, 'Look at this precocious little ham singing 'Choppin' Broccoli,'" Moffat told Carvey and Spade.
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"When I hear other people do it, it makes me laugh but... I'm still mystified by how long people... it may be the thing I'm referenced to most, in many ways," replied Carvey. "I don't know what it is about it."
Spade had a theory on why the silly song endures, "It's so dumb and stupid, Dana," he told his co-host. "It's not funny at all, so it's funny."
Dana Carvey performed "Choppin' Broccoli" with an orchestra on The Tonight Show
Carvey performed the Derek Stevens classic on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in July 2014, this time accompanied by an orchestra — giving the song the lush and dramatic backing it deserves. "Choppin' Broccoli" has also received a new life on TikTok, as a soundtrack for when people are cutting up the green veggie.
All these years later, the song still gets stuck in Carvey's head, as he revealed to Yahoo! Entertainment in 2017.
"I’ll tell you what: I eat a lot of broccoli. I’m not kidding, my wife and I sauté it with olive oil and garlic. So at least three or four nights a week... I am chopping broccoli, and every time I do it that song goes through my head," he said. "So I think, unintentionally, that piece of comedy will never go away, as long as broccoli is chopped in America."
When did Dana Carvey first perform "Choppin' Broccoli?" on TV?
Dana Carvey first performed "Choppin' Broccoli" during the "Derek Stevens Audition" sketch from the Saturday Night Live Season 12 episode hosted by Sigourney Weaver, which aired on October 11, 1986.
"Choppin' Broccoli" lyrics
There's a lady I know
If I didn't know her
She'd be the lady I didn't know
And my lady, she went downtown
She bought some broccoli
She brought it ho-ome...
She's choppin' broccoli
Choppin' brocco-li
Choppin' brocco-la
Choppin' brocco-laa-aa
She's choppin' brocco-lay
Choppin' brocco-lay
She's chop-eah-un!
Choppin' brocco-loco -lay -eaa -eaa -eeee
