Want to hear a cheerleader confession?

"The truth is I had no team spirit," said former cheerleader Cheri Oteri, who last season created the probably insane wannabe cheerleader Arianna for the revitalized Saturday Night Live. "I was kind of in it for the fluff."

   The cheerleaders sketch, co-starring Will Ferrell as Arianna's equally
bonkers cheermate Craig, has become a dependable laugh-generator for the show,
which was desperate for just such a franchise.

   Fittingly enough, the cheerleaders are desperate characters. Evidently
unable to make the real cheer squad, they voluntarily show up at lesser
sporting events (gymnastics and swim meets, for example) in full bootleg cheer
drag to do their twisted thing.

   On Saturday, Oteri and Ferrell and the rest of SNL team show up for the
show's 22nd season. Tom Hanks is guest host. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
are the musical guests.

   Reached in her SNL office earlier this week, Oteri said the almost-creepy
cheer duo was born during an improv session with Ferrell.

   "Will and I were just improvising one night, and I started doing a stomp
on the wooden floor," she said. "He started doing it with me, and we started
laughing at each other.

   "Then we said, 'Wouldn't it be funny if these people didn't make the squad
and still had to cheer?'

   "The very first time 'cheerleaders' went well, I was so happy. There is so
much work we put into the choreography and remembering the cheers. It's so
funny that it took off."

   The characters became such a sensation that several guest hosts, including
Jim Carrey and Teri Hatcher, asked to be written in last season. (Oteri said
Alec Baldwin also asked to work with the cheerleaders but got too busy with
other sketches.)

   "We're really flattered" when that happens, she said. "It forces us to
build a story. It's good. It kind of takes the cheerleaders to another
level."

   Of course, Oteri is equally proud of her other recurring SNL characters,
including her Debbie Reynolds, who duels with Molly Shannon's Ann Miller
impersonation in the "leg up" sketch. ("The joy barometer in my heart -
smoke was coming from it," Oteri said about the first time that sketch went
well.)

   Loyal viewers also might know her Rita (a neighborhood watchwoman) and
Althea (a spazzy 7-year-old).

   A Philadelphia native, Oteri came to SNL from the Groundlings, the LA
improv troupe that also produced Phil Hartman, Pee-wee Herman, Jon Lovitz,
Ferrell and many others.

   Oteri, who spent her summer hiatus doing small parts in a couple of movies
(including Carrey's current project, Liar Liar, due out in the spring), said
she has only recently begun to get the star treatment in public.

   "It's funny, I'm just starting to get recognized so it doesn't bug me,"
she said.

In fact, she added, "It makes me feel wonderful."