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Dana Carvey 'still mystified' by love for 'Choppin' Broccoli' sketch

Dana Carvey's sleazy lounge singer character Derek Stevens became an instant hit after his 1986 premiere on 'SNL', and remains enduringly popular today. But Carvey doesn't quite understand why.

One of Dana Carvey's most enduring Saturday Night Live characters was Derek Stevens, the washed-up lounge lizard who sang over and over about "choppin' broccoli" to stunned record execs played by Phil Hartman and Sigourney Weaver. "'Choppin' Broccoli' was one of the first laughs I ever remember getting in my life," Carvey explained to his fellow SNL alum David Spade on a recent episode of their Fly on the Wall podcast. Stevens would return in 1986, 1987, and 1988 episodes, and Carvey would reprise the role on the 40th-anniversary special in 2015, alongside Fred Armisen and Kristen Wiig's Garth and Kat, Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer's Marti and Bobby, and Adam Sandler's Opera Man.

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