What Happened To SNL Star Chris Kattan?

Although he never loomed quite as large as Will Ferrell or Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan was a major player on "Saturday Night Live" from the moment he signed on. He was famous for playing jittery characters, perhaps most of all for the monkey Mr. Peepers. It's a character that's aggressive, weird, and brimming with confidence. If Kattan faltered for even a moment here, if he'd shown even the tiniest sign of self-doubt, the sketch wouldn't have worked. Instead, it became one of the most famous "SNL" characters to come out of the '90s: 

But despite how popular Kattan was in the late '90s and early '00s, he rarely returns for "SNL" cameos these days, nor does he seem to be in many TV shows or movies lately. How could the guy behind Mango and Gay Hitler become such an afterthought in "SNL" history? Officially, Chris Kattan left "SNL" because it was time to go on and do bigger things. By May 2003, he had been on the show for eight seasons, which was considered a lot in the pre-Kenan Thompson days. As Entertainment Weekly reported at the time:

"'All great things must come to an end, and this seemed like a great time to leave,' Kattan said. 'You can't do seven seasons of college, and you always want to leave when you're still loving the show and not bitter.' Besides, on 'SNL,' he's done it all: 'I got to spit apple in Tom Hanks' face and swatted J.Lo's butt. It's time to move on."

But despite Kattan's framing of "SNL" as college, implying that his real career was just beginning, "SNL" is still Kattan's undisputed comedy high point. The lack of an impressive next phase in Kattan's career was a source of confusion among many "SNL" fans, at least until his brief appearance on "Dancing with the Stars" in 2017 spurred him to explain what had gone wrong.

As a contestant on "Dancing with the Stars," Kattan was quickly eliminated and criticized by the judges for his oddly stiff dancing performance. Soon after that episode aired, Kattan revealed that he'd broken his neck during a 2001 "SNL" stunt. The sketch, where Kattan played an impressionable kid who hurts himself trying to impersonate Betty White's character from "The Golden Girls," features a moment where Kattan falls over and hits his head on the floor. 

The clip is not on YouTube, but you can find it on the NBC "SNL" page. The fall doesn't look that serious, and Kattan himself didn't realize how serious it was in the moment. "I think when you break your neck, at least in my experience, you don't know what it feels like because you've never broken your neck before," he explained in a 2019 interview. "So, it's just excruciatingly painful. Even Buster Keaton, he broke his neck and didn't even know it. [...] Nonetheless, you have to have surgeries and repair yourself, and you just can't live that way. Otherwise, you're going to atrophy your whole arm and your whole leg."

Because neck injuries can be complicated, doctors had a hard time figuring out exactly what was wrong with his neck and exactly how to fix it. As he explained in his book, "Baby, Don't Hurt Me," he had to go through five neck surgeries before he felt even a little bit back to normal. The pain from the experience also led to him being addicted to painkillers, which contributed to the destruction of his first marriage. 

And even after all that, he still wasn't back to his former self: even as late as 2017, the injury was hampering his dancing skills. Some may argue that Kattan is just trying to save face by blaming the neck injury on his bad dancing, but let's be real: we've seen how energetic and fluid Kattan's physical performances were on "SNL" pre-injury. There's no way he'd be dancing that badly in a world where he never injured his neck. 

The neck injury was damaging to Kattan's career, not just because it cost him constant pain and lost him lots of time, but because they were expensive and it strained his relationship with NBC. Of the five surgeries he had, Kattan said that NBC paid for two of them, and they later denied any official record of him breaking his neck. "It wasn't something they wanted to make a deal out of it," Kattan explained. "And also, I'm not surprised that they would say it didn't happen, because it's a very small moment to them, someone getting hurt, an injury in the cast. And to me, it's like 20 years of my life."

Kattan wasn't too upset with "SNL" and "NBC" for this, however, because he too wanted to downplay the injury during his time on the show. As he explained:

"I didn't want to make a fuss. They're family, you know. 'SNL' is not just like a show to me. ... It becomes very personal, and you don't want to screw with it, just like your family. You don't want to tell your dad 'I'm going to sue you.' [laughs] I was brought up being told to never cry wolf, you know. That was my whole thing in life, don't ever cry wolf. And this is something I probably should have cried about, but I didn't."

In 2025, for the show's 50th anniversary, Kattan made clear in an Entertainment Tonight interview that he still views the show favorably despite any hardships that came from it. When asked about what he thinks the show's legacy will be, he replied, "The legacy is just overall just incredible talent and where they came from. The most talented people you've ever seen in your life came from the same place, and that's 'Saturday Night Live.'"

Chris Kattan hasn't returned to host "SNL," but he has returned to the series on a few special occasions. He made several cameos in the years immediately after leaving, followed by three more in 2006, 2011, and 2012. In those latter appearances, Kattan stayed in relatively stationary roles, and in some of them (like his reprisal of the "I Wish it was Christmas Today" song), he definitely seemed stiffer than he used to be:

"Whenever I go back to visit, everyone opens their arms and are so sweet," Kattan said in that '19 Variety interview. "It's a different energy than when it was when you are in the cast. It's healthier. For some reason moment you leave and you come back to visit or come back guest spot, Lorne [Michaels] and everyone, they miss you a great deal. And you miss the show. That's one of the healthiest relationships you should have with the show, when your trial is done."

Kattan also returned to the show's 50th anniversary special, where he spoke positively about showrunner Lorne Michaels. He mentioned that he'd had a lot of sketch ideas during his tenure that didn't land as well as he thought they would, but he'd taken solace in knowing that "Lorne knows what he's doing." When asked if he could recall any good advice Michaels gave him, Kattan replied, "No, he just said 'good job,' that's the best thing he said to me."

While Kattan's neck injury threw a massive wrench in his post-"SNL" career, he still enjoyed some substantial comedy roles over the years. He was a regular character on the first three seasons of the ABC sitcom "The Middle," starring as the sweet yet lonely coworker of main character Frankie. When Frankie lost her job in season 4 and had to switch careers, Kattan's character quietly dropped out of the show. Still, Bob is fondly remembered by "The Middle" fans. 

Around the same time he was starring in "The Middle," Kattan appeared in "How I Met Your Mother." There, he played an actor in a movie about the main character Ted Mosby's life. The character's name was Jed Mosley, and he's basically what Ted would be like if he were a total jerk. The joke is that even though we know Ted isn't this bad, all the other characters act as if Jed is a perfect impression of him. The character was memorable enough that "HIMYM" brought him back four seasons later: 

Kattan's post-"SNL" might not have been as impressive as his fans might've hoped back in 2003, but it was certainly not without its gems.