Page "Chicago Bears" Paragraph 10

In addition to the " Super Bowl Shuffle " rap song, the Bears ' success in the 1980s – and especially the personality of head coach Mike Ditka – inspired a recurring sketch on the American sketch comedy program Saturday Night Live, called " Bill Swerski's Superfans ".

The sketch featured Cheers co-star George Wendt, a Chicago native, as host of a radio talk-show ( similar in tone to WGN radio's " The Sportswriters "), with co-panelists Carl Wollarski ( Robert Smigel ), Pat Arnold ( Mike Myers ) and Todd O ' Connor ( Chris Farley ).

To hear them tell it, " Da Bears " and Coach Ditka could do no wrong.

The sketch stopped after Ditka was fired in 1993.

The sketch usually showed the panelists drinking lots of beer and eating lots of Polish sausage, and often featured Todd getting so agitated about what was happening with the Bears that he suffered a heart attack, but quickly recovered ( through self-administered CPR ).

The sketch also features the cast predicting unrealistic blowout victories for Bears games.

Da Super Fan sketch has not been brought back by SNL, with the exception of a single appearance by Horatio Sanz as a Super Fan for the Cubs on Weekend Update in 2003.

Outside of SNL, George Wendt reprised his role of Swerski in the opening promo of Super Bowl XL on ABC.