The Boston Teens

The Boston Teens
The Boston Teens
Saturday Night Live characters
	Denise and Sully
First appearance	November 13, 1999
Last appearance	April 15, 2017
Created by	Rachel Dratch ; Tina Fey
Portrayed by	Rachel Dratch ; Jimmy Fallon
In-universe information
Occupation	High school students (later dropouts)
Spouse	Married (2011 episode)
Children	5 (2011 episode)
Relatives	Danny "Dadu" McDenna (Denise's brother); Bernadette Sullivan (Sully's sister)
Religion	Irish Catholic
Nationality	Irish American

Last updated November 18, 2024

The Boston Teens are fictional characters featured on the American television show Saturday Night Live . "The Boston Teens" debuted in 1999 and have appeared in 14 sketches to date. TV Guide named The Boston Teens among Saturday Night Live's 40 greatest characters in a list compiled in honor of the show's 40th anniversary in 2015.^[1]

About

Denise "Zazu" McDenna (Rachel Dratch) and Pat Sullivan or "Sully" (Jimmy Fallon)^[2] are a pair of Lexington, Massachusetts, teenagers in love.^[3] The teens and their friends speak in a highly affected Boston accent.

The sketches are presented in the format of home video footage filmed by their unseen friend Tommy.^[4] They have a torrid relationship, often arguing and making up in the same sentence. A prime example of this is Denise's tendency to say, "You're retarded!" or "You're so queer!" to which Sully replies, "You are" and immediately starts making out with her.^[5] The sketches usually end with one of the participants making a Freudian slip and Sully hoping that Tommy caught it on camera.

The characters are very devoted fans of the Boston Red Sox. Sully typically wears a Boston Red Sox shirt, and Denise usually wears a blue and gold varsity jacket ^[6] and they use the name of former star shortstop Nomar Garciaparra as a catchphrase, though with their Boston accents, it is pronounced as "Nomah!"^[1] Garciaparra makes a cameo appearance in the October 14, 2000 sketch, in which he dates Sully's older sister Bernadette (played by Kate Hudson), who flunked out of cooking school.

Frankie Hilbert (Horatio Sanz), a long-haired, bespectacled burnout, features in all but the first and latest episodes. In one episode, Justin Timberlake plays Denise's younger brother, Danny, a pyromaniac who provided the family a large sum of money after the Boston Archdiocese paid them off to keep the family from suing a priest who molested him (though, according to Danny, he was "...only minorly diddled"). The episode aired hours after Game 3 of the 2003 ALCS, and Sully references a fight between Pedro Martinez and Don Zimmer early in the game.

Donnie Bartalotti, played by Ben Affleck, has appeared three times. In the third to last Boston Teens sketch, he marries Michael Smith or "Smitty", played by Seth Meyers, as a response to Massachusetts' recent legalization of same-sex marriage.

Unlike the previous sketches, which were made to look as if recorded on a camcorder, the last sketch was made to look like it was recorded on an iPhone.

In the December 17, 2011 episode (hosted by Fallon), it was established that Sully and Denise eventually married each other and have five children: Weezer, Chubbsy, Squeeze Box, Haggs and Baby Richard.

In the April 15, 2017 episode (also hosted by Fallon), Sully and Denise take their daughter (Kate McKinnon) on a tour of Harvard hoping to enroll.

Origin

The characters have their roots in a sketch called "Wicked" (an intensifier in the New England dialect, as in the expression "Wicked awesome!") performed at Chicago's Second City by Rachel Dratch and Tina Fey, playing an early version of the Denise character and her mother (or "mutha").^[2]

Appearances

November 13, 1999: host Garth Brooks
December 11, 1999: host Danny DeVito
February 19, 2000: host Ben Affleck
May 13, 2000: host Britney Spears
October 14, 2000: host Kate Hudson (featuring a cameo by Nomar Garciaparra)
March 10, 2001: host Conan O'Brien (featuring a cameo by Ben Affleck)
November 10, 2001: host Gwyneth Paltrow
March 2, 2002: host Jonny Moseley
October 5, 2002: host Matt Damon
April 5, 2003: host Bernie Mac
October 11, 2003: host Justin Timberlake
March 13, 2004: host Ben Affleck
December 17, 2011: host Jimmy Fallon
April 15, 2017: host Jimmy Fallon

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References

1 2 "The 40 Best SNL Characters of All Time". TV Guide . February 13, 2015. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
1 2 Wright, Megh (August 16, 2011). "Saturday Night's Children: Rachel Dratch (1999-2006)". Splitsider. Archived from the original on September 21, 2011. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
↑ Turchi, Megan (August 21, 2014). "Jimmy Fallon Makes Fun of Boston, But We Know It Was Out of Love". Boston.com. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
↑ Scheiber, Hope (January 5, 2015). "The Boston Teens (Rachel Dratch, Jimmy Fallon)". Complex Magazine . Retrieved May 7, 2015.
↑ Carbone, Nick (December 18, 2011). "Sully And Denise, The Boston Teens". Time Magazine. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
↑ Angelo, Megan (February 13, 2015). "19 SNL Secrets and Stories From Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Others". Glamour Magazine. Retrieved May 7, 2015.

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[tvguide-1] 1 2 "The 40 Best SNL Characters of All Time". TV Guide . February 13, 2015. Retrieved May 7, 2015.

[splitsider-2] 1 2 Wright, Megh (August 16, 2011). "Saturday Night's Children: Rachel Dratch (1999-2006)". Splitsider. Archived from the original on September 21, 2011. Retrieved May 7, 2015.

[3] Turchi, Megan (August 21, 2014). "Jimmy Fallon Makes Fun of Boston, But We Know It Was Out of Love". Boston.com. Retrieved May 7, 2015.

[4] Scheiber, Hope (January 5, 2015). "The Boston Teens (Rachel Dratch, Jimmy Fallon)". Complex Magazine . Retrieved May 7, 2015.

[5] Carbone, Nick (December 18, 2011). "Sully And Denise, The Boston Teens". Time Magazine. Retrieved May 7, 2015.

[6] Angelo, Megan (February 13, 2015). "19 SNL Secrets and Stories From Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Others". Glamour Magazine. Retrieved May 7, 2015.

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