Which SNL writer created the animated 'TV Funhouse' segments?

Robert Smigel created the animated “TV Funhouse” segments for Saturday Night Live.

“Saturday TV Funhouse” was a recurring animated feature that began appearing on SNL in the mid-1990s. Smigel wrote, produced, and supplied voices for many of the cartoons, which parodied television genres, public figures, advertising, and familiar animation styles. The show’s announcer often introduced each segment as “A cartoon by Robert Smigel.”

The feature grew out of Smigel’s work on The Dana Carvey Show, where he developed the animated short “The Ambiguously Gay Duo.” After that program ended, he continued making cartoon pieces for SNL under the TV Funhouse banner. The segments’ deliberately rough, retro, and irreverent style made them distinct from ordinary live sketches.

TV Funhouse eventually produced more than 100 SNL segments and inspired a Comedy Central spinoff that premiered in 2000. The other choices were prominent comedy writers, but they were not the creator of the TV Funhouse animated franchise. Jim Downey was a major SNL political and satire writer, Jack Handey created Deep Thoughts, and Adam McKay wrote and performed other SNL material.