Bill Swerski's Superfans

The characters appeared in nine episodes in two years. With Ditka's departure from the Bears in 1993 and significant cast changes on SNL, the sketch and characters all but disappeared. They made a special appearance at the celebration of the Chicago Bulls' 1991–1993 "Three-peat" championship victory. NBC interrupted daytime television to broadcast the short speeches made by the Superfans. Bob Swerski and Carl Wollarski also made a special appearance during Jordan's original jersey retirement ceremony at the United Center in 1994. The final sketch (actually a taped segment narrated by Bill Kurtis, ostensibly a TV documentary piece) featuring the original Superfans was on October 25, 1997, in an episode hosted by Farley. This featured the second appearance by Ditka (he had appeared on an episode of SNL after his firing by the Bears), though he was at the time coaching the New Orleans Saints, which resulted in a schism among the Superfans (Carl had taken up with the Saints, Bob had moved to Jackson, 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.

Other appearances

• One of Bob, Carl and Todd's first appearances outside of Saturday Night Live came in a skit during the introduction of NBC's introduction^[4] for the November 24, 1991, game between the Bears and the Miami Dolphins at Soldier Field.
• Later in 1991, Wendt, Smigel, and Farley appeared in character during the halftime show of the Bears wild card playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys. The show ended with the trio attempting to kick field goals with Todd falling flat on his face while running up to kick, Carl drilling a field goal after taking a bite of a hot dog and a sip of beer, and Bob turning his try into a fake field goal ending with him scoring a touchdown.^[5]
• In 1992, Bob, Carl, and Todd appeared in a skit that aired before
  Washington Redskins are the NFC representative and the Bears had actually lost to both them and the Buffalo Bills in the regular season. The group dismisses all of his claims with Todd in particular becoming more agitated. Eventually, Bob and Carl take O'Brien aside and explain they know the Bears aren't playing and are just pretending because they're afraid Todd will suffer another heart attack if he finds out the truth. O'Brien plays along thereafter, but slips up when signing off and Todd clutches his chest in pain.^[6]
• In
  speech impediment. The same year, sports journalist Jay Mariotti decried the negative reactions of Chicago Cubs fans to the Steve Bartman incident, which went as far as sending Bartman and his family death threats, remarking that they were making Cubs fans look like "those mopes from the Superfans skits on Saturday Night Live."^[7] (The Superfans themselves could be considered part of that group: Bart Swerski claimed during the Update segment that the desire to exact retribution on Bartman had united the people of Chicago as never before, and Uncle Bob said he arrived late because he had been at church, praying for divine assistance in hunting him down.)^[8]
• In 2006, George Wendt returned in Superfan garb alongside Ditka for a sketch prior to Super Bowl XL.
• In a 2007 SNL sketch, Donatella Versace said to David and Victoria Beckham, "If you guys were a football team, you would be Da Bores." The episode aired the night before Super Bowl XLI, in which the Indianapolis Colts beat the Bears. Following the Bears' loss, the Superfans Bill Swerski, Bob Swerski, and Carl Wollarski returned in a TV commercial for Reebok, alongside Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri; this was the first time the Swerski brothers appeared together. A variety of Superfan-themed fan sites also sprang up during this time, including DaSuperfans.com, which gained significant media attention in Chicago and beyond.
• In November 2008,
  won the seat
  .)
• On September 11, 2011,
  NFC Championship game
  .
• The
  GEICO Gecko performed an impersonation of the Superfans in a March 2012 commercial (complete with "Da Bears"), in which the gecko, who is in Chicago, demonstrates his efforts to make his cockney
  accent more understandable to the populace.
• In 2012, Old Navy introduced a commercial with the Superfans, including Ditka.
• In 2013,
  State Farm Insurance introduced a commercial with Superfans Bob Swerski and Carl Wollarski interacting with Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, though they recognize him only as the "Discount DAAA-ble Check" guy—a reference to a series of commercials Rodgers made for State Farm (the Packers are the Bears' biggest rivals). This has led to a series of short weekly State Farm ads featuring the Superfans during the NFL regular season that features "Double Down Challenge" wagers for fantasy football.^[9]
• In a 2019 NBC football promo Bob Swerski and Carl Wollarski are sitting in front of Soldier Field and Bill hands him a Bear doll sold in Green Bay. Carl says it appears to be a cute Bears kicking doll. When given a squeeze it says "Double Doink" referring to the infamous missed Cody Parkey field goal in the 2019 playoffs. A follow-up promo features the two eating with former Packers quarterback Brett Favre and debating the two teams' histories, and it is revealed Favre is behind the kicking dolls. The promos were created for the Bears and Packers September 5 NFL season opener.^[10]
• Also in 2019, Bob Swerski and Carl Wollarski made a guest appearance on the
  ESPN Plus series Peyton's Places. Former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning
  hangs out with them as part of his trip to Chicago to discuss the league's history in the city. The duo end up baptizing Manning into the Bears superfandom using a vat of beef juice and Manning emerges dressed like them.