Will Ferrell's top 5 'Saturday Night Live' skits

“Saturday Night Live” has never been shy about parodying the presidency, with hits and misses along the way. But Ferrell’s George W. Bush captured the essentials of Bush’s personality as well as his speech patterns and mannerisms. Ferrell was just accurate enough to be biting, but different enough that it was always clear that this was a joke.

This was particularly tough given that the Bush presidency itself was among the most challenging and the controversial in recent memory, with dangers from abroad and detractors at home both making him a tricky candidate for comedy. Ferrell was equal to the task, capping it off with a brilliant return in 2008 to endorse a very reluctant John McCain. Though Bush 43 wasn’t always popular, Ferrell always made viewers laugh.

While many of his original characters were of the high-energy variety, playing the role of the “Jeopardy” host allowed Ferrell to be more of the straight man, having to remain calm while dealing with the idiocy and abuse of the “celebrity” contestants.

Of all of his impressions, the Alex Trebek ones remain the most timeless. That’s partially because “Jeopardy” is still on the air, and partially because Ferrell’s deadpan performance here never goes out of style.

In particular, the interplay with Darrell Hammond’s Sean Connery was always a hit. Connery heaped nonstop abuse on Trebek, to the point where if this had been a real program, the host would surely have snapped and attacked the actor with a telestrator. But watching Ferrell just stand there, steaming, made this the best game show sketch in "SNL" history.

The world of high school chess has never seen a better pair of cheerleaders that Ferrell and Cheri Oteri, who played Craig and Arianna, the most enthusiastic Spartans in the history of East Lake High.

Of course, they technically weren’t on the main squad. And they weren’t invited to most of the sporting events they attended. And the athletes and coaches were usually aggressively uninterested in having them there. That might have stopped less dedicated teenagers, but not Craig and Arianna! They took their talents to places like swim meets, bowling tournaments and ping-pong matches. With their creative cheers, unusual dance numbers and ever-present boom box, they surely gave nightmares to the cast of “Bring It On” and all of its subsequent sequels — and in the process, became seared in the memories of everyone who went through the following days singing things like “Who’s that doing [insert activity here]? It’s me! It’s me!” during math class.