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"Bill Swerski's Superfans" is a recurring sketch aboutChicago sportsfans on the Americansketch comedy programSaturday Night Live. It was a prominent feature from 1991 to 1992, and its characters have made various other appearances since its inception. The sketch is notable as a media portrayal of theInland North dialect ofAmerican English that predominates in Chicago, most famously through the distinctive pronunciation of the phrase "Da Bears" ([ˈd̪ʌːbeɻs]).
Shortly afterRobert Smigel moved from New York to Chicago in 1983 to start his career in comedy, he made his first visit toWrigley Field to see theCubs play. He noticed a prevalence of large men who worewalrus mustaches and aviator sunglasses, a look similar toMike Ditka, who had been hired to coach the city'sNFL team, theChicago Bears, the year before. "There was just a swagger among these very virile-looking men", he recalled. "All sports fans kind of have it."[1]
In the following years, that swagger was rewarded as the fortunes of the city's teams improved. The Cubs and theWhite Sox both made theplayoffs for the first time in decades, theNational Basketball Association'sBullsdraftedMichael Jordan and in 1985 the Bears cappeda 15–1 regular season with a victory inSuper Bowl XX. Smigel began conceiving of characters based on that sort of fan, and the line "Da Bears!", but could not imagine asetting that would work. He told animprov classmate,Bob Odenkirk, a native of nearbyNaperville, about his idea, and Odenkirk reminded him to includethe slight hiss with which the word ends when pronounced with a strong enoughChicago accent, something only natives ofthe area would appreciate.[1]
Smigel and Odenkirk eventually joined the writing staff ofSaturday Night Live (SNL) but did not write the sketch untilthe 1988 writers' strike, when they returned to Chicago to stage the improvisationalHappy Happy Good Show, as "Chicago Superfans".[2] At that time, played by Smigel, Odenkirk andDave Reynolds (with an occasional appearance byConan O'Brien as one of the fan's sons), they were simply sitting onlawn chairs and drinking beer, but making the wild imaginative leaps by which they could assume the Bears would handily win another Super Bowl. The sketch drew considerable laughter, but when it came time to stage the show inLos Angeles, Smigel cut it, believing audiences there would not understand it. "I'd never thought of it as something that could work on national television," he said, "because it just felt so regional."[1]
In January 1991, Chicago nativeJoe Mantegna hostedSNL. Odenkirk suggested to Smigel that they pitch the premise to him. Mantegna liked it, and the writers finally came up with a setting, parodyingThe Sports Writers on TV, a long-running Chicago-area radio show that had been adapted for television by localUHF stationWFLD-TV in 1985, featuring three veteran local sportswriters, including Bill Gleason, known for his thick Chicago accent, andRick Telander, a relative newcomer, sitting around a table and discussing Chicago sports. Odenkirk imagined what the show would be like if its panelists were average fans rather than sportswriters. "The key was that table", saidSports Writers producer John Roach. "Men gathered at a table talking about the shit in an unscripted way that lets you eavesdrop on it." The name "Bill Swerski" was a play on the name ofChuck Swirsky, a Chicago sportscaster.[1]
The sketch premiered on January 12, 1991, hours before the Bears were to play theNew York Giants ina divisional playoff game atGiants Stadium, a few miles from NBC'sStudio 8H inRockefeller Center. Mantegna starred as Bill Swerski, along withChris Farley as Todd O'Connor,Mike Myers as Pat Arnold, andRobert Smigel as Carl Wollarski, a part that the writer had intended forPhil Hartman but was assigned by the show's head writer,James Downey, because Downey believed Smigel's accent was more authentic. Smigel said it was easy to play, as the sunglasses allowed him to read thecue cards without anyone noticing, and he could eat during the sketch, which helped him relax.[1]Kevin Nealon also made a brief appearance as oddsmaker Danny Sheridan in the first sketch—he is promptly sent away by Bill after giving the Superfans an honest assessment of the prospect ofMike Ditka single-handedly defeating the Giants.[3]
Subsequent sketches starredGeorge Wendt as Bill's brother Bob, with occasional appearances byBeth Cahill as Bob's daughter Denise.Macaulay Culkin appeared as Tommy Arnold, Pat's young nephew, who played a Pilgrim in a short school program about Thanksgiving, saying that the first Thanksgiving had Indians giving gifts of Polish sausage, in which an Indian (played by Culkin's brotherKieran) predicted the Bears would lead theDetroit Lions 96–14 at the half.John Goodman played Pat Arnold upon Myers's departure from SNL; the change in Pat Arnold's appearance was attributed to "massive weight gain." Mantegna's absence was invariably explained away by Wendt, saying his "brudder Bill" had just "had anudderheart attack." One sketch briefly had Todd's wife wearing a frumpy dress (also played by Chris Farley).
The characters were typically shown inMike Ditka'ssports bar, drinking large amounts of beer, smoking, and gorging themselves on ribs,Polish sausage, and similar foods. All the characters wore dark sunglasses and thick mustaches to resemble Ditka, the Superfans' idol. In addition to discussing Ditka and the Bears, another frequent topic of discussion was theChicago Bulls and their star player,Michael Jordan, who were winning their first threeNBA Championships at the time. Both Ditka and Jordan made appearances (playing themselves) in episodes of the sketch.
Early sketches had posters in the background with the call lettersWBBM, the CBS corporate-owned and -operated TV, AM and FM stations in Chicago, though later sketches changed the call letters to WBCM.
The group would discuss upcoming sporting events and inevitably predict a huge victory for the Chicago team, using an exaggerated Chicago accent—a variety ofInland Northern American English—normally culminating in a uniform toast to "Da Bearss" and "Da Bullss", although "Da Cubss" was heard on at least one occasion, although they seldom talked about ice hockey, or "Da Blackhawks" or made mention of "Da White Sox". Their predictions were likewise exaggerated and their topics of conversation often ludicrous. Typical debates involved Mike Ditka versus ahurricane—in this particular debate, the Superfans believed that Ditka could defeat the hurricane, until it was revealed that the name of the hurricane was Hurricane Ditka, at which point Todd O'Connor had aheart attack out of confusion; who would win in a competition for World Domination—"Da Bearss" or "Da Bullss"; Ditka winning theIndianapolis 500 driving the Bears' team bus; or how many points Jordan could score if he played an entire game by himself while lounging in arecliner.
One episode asked the outcome of the Bulls/Pistons game where Todd said the Bulls would win 402–0—but Jordan would be held to under 200 points. Todd usually predicted shutouts. During the first episode, he predicted that the Bears would defeat the Giants 79–0, claiming that "the Bears' defense is like a wall. You can't go t'rough it." (The Giants won the actual game, 31–3.) Pat once predicted the Bears would win their game by a score of 31 to -7. When asked how a team could end up with negative points, Todd replied, "Ditka'll find a way." One episode featured aJeopardy!-likegame show preempting theBearless, and therefore unimportant, Super Bowl, starring Bob Swerski as host and the other Superfans as contestants. All the questions dealt with the Bears, Chicago, or Ditka. The Final Jeopardy! question was "Bears vs. Bulls," which produced hilarious responses from the contestants. The correct answer was revealed to be that such a match-up would tear the fabric of thespace-time continuum and destroy the planet, meaning theUnited Nations would have to step in prior to the match to prevent the destruction.
The characters appeared in nine episodes in two years. The January 9, 1993 cold open featured Mantegna's return as Bill Swerski since the character's debut, as well as a pre-taped cameo from Mike Ditka, who had recently been fired as Bears' coach. The sketch only appeared two more times after this episode: March 1995 – following Myers' mid-season departure from the show and during Farley's final months as a cast member – and again when Farley hosted in October 1997. This final sketch (actually a taped segment narrated byBill Kurtis, ostensibly a TV documentary piece) featured the second appearance by Ditka, though he was at the time coaching theNew Orleans Saints, which resulted in a schism among the Superfans (Carl had taken up with the Saints, Bob had moved toJackson, Tennessee—halfway between Chicago and New Orleans—and Todd believed it was 1986, and had a heart attack if told otherwise). Farley's death two months later seemed to preclude the possibility of any future Superfan sketches onSaturday Night Live.
In 2025, the "Da Bears" phrase experienced a brief resurgence in popularity following the election of Chicago-born Catholic prelate Robert Francis Prevost asPope Leo XIV. Drawing on Prevost's Chicago roots, social media users began sharing the graphic "Da Pope" in the style of the jerseys worn by the panelists.[13]
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