Ana Gasteyer's Parents Loved the Schweddy Balls Ice Cream the SNL Classic Inspired
Margaret Jo McCullin and Terry Rialto were obliviously racier than ever in SNL's "Schweddy Balls" sketch.
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 24: "NPR's Delicious Dish: Schweddy Balls” starring SNL cast members Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon, along with Host Alec Baldwin.
You can always count on “good times” with Margaret Jo McCullin and Terry Rialto, the stars of Saturday Night Live’s “The Delicious Dish” sketches. In the 1990s, SNL alums Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon transformed into two NPR hosts who love an innocent pun and never seemed to notice an obviously-suggestive innuendo. While the sketch made its debut in 1996, the “Schweddy Balls” edition remains the most memorable of the series.
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As Pete Schweddy, December 12, 1998 Host Alec Baldwin joined Gasteyer and Shannon for a holiday segment of SNL's "Delicious Dish," resulting in one of the show's most naively naughty sketches.
Margaret Jo McCullin and Terry Rialto chat about Pete's “Schweddy Balls” in SNL’s “Delicious Dish” Christmas sketch
In Season 24, Episode 9, Gasteyer and Shannon reprised their roles as soft-spoken and easily amused NPR hosts Margaret Jo McCullin and Terry Rialto, respectively. This time around, they welcomed Pete Schweddy, played by Baldwin, who owns a bakery with a “very, very clever name”: Seasons Eatings.
The sketch kicks off rather innocently with Margaret Jo and Terry discussing their holiday wishlists. Margaret Jo says she feels “like a glutton” after asking “Kris Kringle for a wooden bowl, some oversized index cards, and a funnel.” Terry’s list, however, is a bit more practical. “I’m only asking Santa for one thing — a big box of glue traps to help me deal with my excessive rat problem,” she says. Yum!
The ladies then welcome Pete Schweddy to the show to talk about his famous holiday treats. “There are lots of great treats this time of year — zucchini bread, fruit cake,” Pete says. “But the thing I most like to bring out this time of year are my balls.”
“Mmm, balls. Mmm,” Terry says in a breathy voice. “Tell us about your balls, Pete.”
As Pete tells the hosts how he has “balls for every taste,” Margaret Jo says that her “mouth’s watering just thinking about those balls,” while Terry admits it’s been years since she’s seen “any balls” at all.
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By this point in the sketch, the live audience has lost it as the trio continues to talk about Pete’s baked treats with a slew of double entendres. Things really go off the rails when Margaret Jo notes how they “glisten” and are “bigger than I expected,” while Terry asks Pete if she can touch them.
“Go ahead, but be careful. They’re very delicate,” Pete advises the ladies before adding, “No one can resist my Schweddy Balls.”
And just like that, Pete’s Schweddy Balls made SNL holiday history. (Fun fact: The word "balls" was said a total 24 times in the sketch.)
SNL’s “Schweddy Balls” sketch inspired an ice cream flavor
Over a decade after the sketch aired in 1998, Ben & Jerry’s unveiled a limited edition "Schweddy Balls" ice cream flavor, appropriately made with “vanilla ice cream with a hint of rum and loaded with fudge covered rum and malt balls.”
Gasteyer told NPR’s Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me! in a 2012 interview that she had “pints and pints” of the ice cream in her freezer and her parents stocked up on the flavor too.
“My parents tried it, which I thought was the funniest thing in the world. My mom called. She said, ‘Dad laid in a supply of Schweddy Balls,’” Gasteyer recalled. “And this is embarrassing about my parents. They're so sweet and so supportive. They were so excited, they like ran out to Jewel-Osco and loaded up on all of the Schweddy Balls. And they're both violently lactose intolerant.”
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Ana Gasteyer says “Schweddy Balls” will be engraved on her headstone
From the countless laughs the sketch has gifted us to a decadent ice cream flavor, SNL’s “Schweddy Balls” certainly has reached legendary status. So much so that Gasteyer once said the sketch will follow her to her grave.
“Yeah, [Schweddy Balls] is gonna be on my gravestone,” the SNL alum told TODAY in 2015, adding that it was “a really fun sketch” to perform with Shannon.
Gasteyer previously shared with NPR that the idea behind SNL’s recurring “Delicious Dish” sketch came from her time at The Groundlings. “I was a part of and [the idea] came with me when I went to the show,” she said in 2012. “So Molly was gracious enough to do it and heightened the comedy by being there.”
Unsurprisingly, Gasteyer told NPR she’s a “big fan” of public radio and “The Delicious Dish” was based on two different radio food shows: American Public Media’s The Splendid Table and KCWR’s Good Food.
While she doesn’t have one source of inspiration behind Margaret Jo and Terry, Gasteyer and Shannon absolutely nailed the public radio vibe. “I think you have to really not worry about anyone interrupting you, ever,” she told NPR when asked what her “secret” is to portraying a public radio personality so accurately. “You don't need to leave, you just need to take your time and explore a subject to the point that people want to weep with boredom.”
