Mango (Saturday Night Live)

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For other meanings of "Mango", see Mango (disambiguation)

Mango was a character created and developed by SNL writer Scott Wainio, with initial creative contributions by Roy Jenkins, and performed by Chris Kattan on the American sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. Mango was an off-the-wall character who was sexually ambiguous (but ultimately male). He would always wear a spangled beret and extremely tight hot pants. Mango spoke with a foreign accent, but his nationality was never identified.

The concept was that Mango's sexual appeal was irresistible to anyone of either gender, though his admirer was usually a man, played by the host (the celebrity on the show for that week). The one woman attracted to Mango was Ellen DeGeneres, despite being a lesbian. The sketches would usually revolve around Mango being backstage at one of his "shows" (which were never defined but likely burlesque in nature). The host would then become obsessed with Mango, wanting to woo and make love to him, but Mango would resist until the host was driven insane. Part of this resisting usually involved Mango stretching out his arm towards the host in pose of acceptance as they turn away, only to pull it away a second later when they turn back around. A common joke involved Mango describing himself in ethereal terms, for example: "Can you know the mighty ocean? Can you lasso a star from the sky? Can you say to a rainbow... 'Hey, stop being a rainbow for a second'? No! Such is Mango!" Mango was also shown in one skit to have a wife and child, and always ended his skits by telling his admirer, "You can't a-have-a de Mango!" and slapping his own buttocks. Usually Mango would appear depressed at the end of episodes and say something similar to: "Oh, to be Mango! Why to be me?!" Though effeminate, Mango was adamant that he wasn't homosexual, claiming that he stripped to support his children as well as that he was 'not the homo-gay.' Mango's taunting of the hosts, and his often shattered spirit at the ends of sketches, was part of Mango's mystique regarding his true gender preference. (He did, however, have a crush on Chris Gaines as revealed on an episode hosted by Garth Brooks, only to have his dreams crushed when Gaines revealed himself as Brooks.)

During several of his fans' obsessive daydream sequences, Mango would commonly appear in a thought cloud over the person's head, dancing provocatively(in front of a mango) to "Missing" by Everything But the Girl. This song came to be synonymous with the character.

Though the character lasted for several years, he was never popular enough to spawn a feature film.

Catch Phrases:
• "No. Go away. I hate you!"
• "(No. Go away!) You can't-a-have-a de Mango!" (usually followed by a slap to his rear end)
• "No! Such is Mango"
• "What the Frick!?"
• "Oh, to be Mango! What to be me?!"
Mango often messed up names by adding in words like 'who' and 'what'
---David Duchovny = David Du-who-what-what?
---Ben Affleck = Ben Who-fleck-what?
• "Boobies give me the creeps!" (part of a song Mango sang to Gwyneth Paltrow's character about his high school love)

Trivia:
• In one episode, David Spade played 'Kiwi,' a rival male dancer.