The Daily Feather — Until the Church Lady Sings
Before there was Wayne’s World, there was the Church Lady. Of course, we refer to Dana Carvey’s iconic Saturday Night Live (SNL) character. The actor merits full credit for developing Enid Strict, the character in his stand-up comedy act. A mature, uptight, smug, and pious host of her talk show Church Chat, Enid was based on women Carvey knew growing up who busily tracked parishioners’ church attendance. SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels prompted Carey to introduce the character at a Neil Young concert at Madison Square Garden. Backdrop envisioned, said Church Lady interrupted, fussing and fuming: “What are we doing here? What’s all this noise?” A legend was born. Infamy arrived in October 1987 when actor Sean Penn withstood numerous references to his then-wife Madonna, who didn’t “quite live up to her namesake.” The more ‘she’ went on, the more enraged Penn became, until he eventually threw a punch. Carvey recalls that he was genuinely scared because Penn, well known for losing his temper, came dangerously close to hitting him.
As you hopefully recall, the Church Lady’s catchphrase was, “Well, isn’t that special?” Echoing the Dallas Fed’s enlightening special questions, we were doubly struck by yesterday’s Conference Board special queries in its March consumer confidence survey. Conveniently, if your name is Jerome Hayden Powell, they centered on consumer spending plans on services, the makeup of his fascination with ‘supercore’ inflation. To quote: “Over the next 6 months, do you expect to spend more or less on the following activities/services?”