"Just remember, comedy is not pretty"
Cold Open: An Oval Office
2 Stars
Jimmy Carter's budget director is forced to resign
I should have assumed this would happen. I was born in 1982 so I have no idea as to the political minutiae of 1977, nor do I really care to research it. Luckily, this isn't an election year so hopefully this season is free of a lot of timely political comedy. Jimmy Carter is apologizing to Bert Lance for having to fire him for corruption. Bert turns to the camera and shows off his National Express card. Judging by the wild applause this reveal gets, this must have been a timely reference but it flew over my head.
Steve Martin Monologue
I should have assumed this would happen. I was born in 1982 so I have no idea as to the political minutiae of 1977, nor do I really care to research it. Luckily, this isn't an election year so hopefully this season is free of a lot of timely political comedy. Jimmy Carter is apologizing to Bert Lance for having to fire him for corruption. Bert turns to the camera and shows off his National Express card. Judging by the wild applause this reveal gets, this must have been a timely reference but it flew over my head.
Steve Martin Monologue
5 Stars
Steve does a stand-up monologue
Steve starts by singing Mack The Knife but just keeps repeating the opening line over and over again. I really enjoyed this bit of stupidity and repetition and respected Steve's commitment to such a dumb joke. He then shows off how much of a rebel he is by wearing loafers and asks where he can find a pair of handcuffs for his cat who has been embezzling from him.
Kromega III
4 Stars
Steve starts by singing Mack The Knife but just keeps repeating the opening line over and over again. I really enjoyed this bit of stupidity and repetition and respected Steve's commitment to such a dumb joke. He then shows off how much of a rebel he is by wearing loafers and asks where he can find a pair of handcuffs for his cat who has been embezzling from him.
Kromega III
4 Stars
A watch so state of the art it takes 3 hands to operate
O Fortuna from Carmina Burana plays as a wrist watch hovers in space. The new Kromega III watch is so high tech that you will need an extra hand to make it functional. One hand wears the watch while another operates one mechanism and yet another one operates another. A quick and simple visual gag, almost funnier now when you think that people in the 70s were complaining about how complicated their watches were getting. If they only knew the horrors that awaited them.
Festrunk Brothers
4 Stars
O Fortuna from Carmina Burana plays as a wrist watch hovers in space. The new Kromega III watch is so high tech that you will need an extra hand to make it functional. One hand wears the watch while another operates one mechanism and yet another one operates another. A quick and simple visual gag, almost funnier now when you think that people in the 70s were complaining about how complicated their watches were getting. If they only knew the horrors that awaited them.
Festrunk Brothers
4 Stars
2 brothers from Czechoslovakia hit on women
Check it out, the first appearance of The Festrunk Brothers. I was wondering why the audience was pretty quiet for this. They had no idea who the characters were. I have to get myself in a different mindset from the last season I watched. I'm used to the studio going cuckoo crazy nutso as soon as Wayne and Garth show up. Georg and Yortuk Festrunk are two immigrants who happen upon two swinging chicks playing ping pong in their apartment. They speak in broken English and are very blunt with their sexual advances.
"You American girls have such big breasts all the time."
"And your tight American blue jeans think us have making sex."
Jackson Browne
Check it out, the first appearance of The Festrunk Brothers. I was wondering why the audience was pretty quiet for this. They had no idea who the characters were. I have to get myself in a different mindset from the last season I watched. I'm used to the studio going cuckoo crazy nutso as soon as Wayne and Garth show up. Georg and Yortuk Festrunk are two immigrants who happen upon two swinging chicks playing ping pong in their apartment. They speak in broken English and are very blunt with their sexual advances.
"You American girls have such big breasts all the time."
"And your tight American blue jeans think us have making sex."
Jackson Browne
"Running On Empty"
Cool tune. Not much more to say about it but it got my toes tappin'.
Weekend Update
Dan and Jane read tonight's top news stories. The Surgeon General announcing that there is a definite link between fire and third degree burns made me chuckle but this segment was more about the desk pieces are nearly the entire cast made a commentary.
Laraine Newman talks about her recent trip to China where she picked up a commemorative Chairman Mao snowglobe. The audience liked this bit of prop comedy more than me.
Bill Murray gives a review of the new Jacqueline Bisset film The Deep. He missed his screening though so he's just gonna review the clips the studio provided. He thinks Nick Nolte should lose the mustache and he's not sure where Robert Shaw is from but he wishes Jacqueline would stretch herself more as an actress. It was a little hard for me to focus on this as Bill kept banging his hands against the desk which I found slightly annoying.
Bill then throws to Garrett Morris with the sports report. After a preview of the upcoming Muhammad Ali fight he shows a clip of an interview given by a Japanese baseball player who broke Hank Aaron's home run record. The Japanese player admits that he'd only be hitting around .203 if he was in the United States and considers himself lucky to not be playing in a league with black people.
Finally, John Belushi tells us who was selected for the Weekend Update journalism scholarship. Many were considered but John decided to give the $2,500 to the illiterate Carlos Santangelo. Other applicants had better grades but Carlos had connections that John couldn't pass up.
Mike McMack, Defense Lawyer
1 Star
A lawyer grills a witness on the stand
Well...this hasn't aged well. Not sure how good it was at the time either. Steve plays a lawyer who is questioning a woman who was raped. The accused rapist is his client. He asks her what she was wearing and how many times she's had sex in past 5 years, accusing her of being a cheap tart. The witness breaks down and the prosecutor congratulates Steve on being such a good lawyer. After the trial, Steve asks the woman on a date. I guess it's just a sketch about lawyers being scumbags but turning the act of rape on the victim was hard for me to laugh at.
Keypunch Confession
Well...this hasn't aged well. Not sure how good it was at the time either. Steve plays a lawyer who is questioning a woman who was raped. The accused rapist is his client. He asks her what she was wearing and how many times she's had sex in past 5 years, accusing her of being a cheap tart. The witness breaks down and the prosecutor congratulates Steve on being such a good lawyer. After the trial, Steve asks the woman on a date. I guess it's just a sketch about lawyers being scumbags but turning the act of rape on the victim was hard for me to laugh at.
Keypunch Confession
4 Stars
The Catholic church gets a modern upgrade
Garrett comes to priest Dan to confess his sins. He has been having an affair with a married woman. Dan turns to his Trinity 300 Central Processing Unit to calculate his penance. The church has gone through a technological upgrade and now does everything through a computer which recommends 10 Hail Marys. Garrett's problems are not over though as the woman's son is looking for him and he needs a place to hide out. Luckily, the church's computer can also book a flight out of the country. A simple premise with a nice punchline.
Great Moments In Rock & Roll
Garrett comes to priest Dan to confess his sins. He has been having an affair with a married woman. Dan turns to his Trinity 300 Central Processing Unit to calculate his penance. The church has gone through a technological upgrade and now does everything through a computer which recommends 10 Hail Marys. Garrett's problems are not over though as the woman's son is looking for him and he needs a place to hide out. Luckily, the church's computer can also book a flight out of the country. A simple premise with a nice punchline.
Great Moments In Rock & Roll
3 Stars
A profile on Roy Orbison
Laraine intros this as Alice Sloan, a rock and roll groupie who has met a lot of musicians in her day. We flashback to Roy Orbison, played by John, on stage being told by his manager that he needs to lose his girlfriend. A very long and pointless sketch follows where they keep repeating that Roy Orbison wears dark sunglasses and stands perfectly still when he sings. Then Roy launches into Pretty Woman. I kept asking myself, What the hell am I watching, until John started to perform. This was great. John removes his sunglasses to reveal a tinier pair of sunglasses and then falls backwards as he remains perfectly still. The performance by John was fantastic but there had to be a better way to get to it. They could have just said, "Here's a performance from Roy Orbison". Instead they put a real stinker of a sketch to lead in to a fantastic performance.
The Franken & Davis Show
Laraine intros this as Alice Sloan, a rock and roll groupie who has met a lot of musicians in her day. We flashback to Roy Orbison, played by John, on stage being told by his manager that he needs to lose his girlfriend. A very long and pointless sketch follows where they keep repeating that Roy Orbison wears dark sunglasses and stands perfectly still when he sings. Then Roy launches into Pretty Woman. I kept asking myself, What the hell am I watching, until John started to perform. This was great. John removes his sunglasses to reveal a tinier pair of sunglasses and then falls backwards as he remains perfectly still. The performance by John was fantastic but there had to be a better way to get to it. They could have just said, "Here's a performance from Roy Orbison". Instead they put a real stinker of a sketch to lead in to a fantastic performance.
The Franken & Davis Show
3 Stars
Men compete in a beauty pageant
Al Franken and Tom Davis introduce their new comedy duo as a unique team where neither of them is funny. They throw to a sketch where men compete in a Miss America style pageant. We see some writers like Jim Downey and Alan Zweibel competing as well as production designer Akira Yoshimura but Al and Tom are the main contestants. They both do choreographed dance routines, prance around in speedos and answer inane questions. It was hard to watch this and not keep staring at the future senator's junk. A fine concept but the joke of them being men didn't go much further than men acting like women.
Royal Deluxe II
Al Franken and Tom Davis introduce their new comedy duo as a unique team where neither of them is funny. They throw to a sketch where men compete in a Miss America style pageant. We see some writers like Jim Downey and Alan Zweibel competing as well as production designer Akira Yoshimura but Al and Tom are the main contestants. They both do choreographed dance routines, prance around in speedos and answer inane questions. It was hard to watch this and not keep staring at the future senator's junk. A fine concept but the joke of them being men didn't go much further than men acting like women.
Royal Deluxe II
5 Stars
A car with an exceptionally smooth ride
To demonstrate how well the new Royal Deluxe II handles, a rabbi performs a circumcision in the back seat while the car drives down an extremely bumpy road at 40 mph. The car hits potholes, brakes suddenly and swerves as the Mohel delicately performs the operation. A very funny sight gag.
Jackson Browne closes the show with "The Pretender", a slower jam than the first one but a nice song. I've always been a fan of Jackson's voice.
FINAL ANALYSIS
To demonstrate how well the new Royal Deluxe II handles, a rabbi performs a circumcision in the back seat while the car drives down an extremely bumpy road at 40 mph. The car hits potholes, brakes suddenly and swerves as the Mohel delicately performs the operation. A very funny sight gag.
Jackson Browne closes the show with "The Pretender", a slower jam than the first one but a nice song. I've always been a fan of Jackson's voice.
FINAL ANALYSIS
"Well, this is sure a swinging rap session in America"
Average
3.4 Stars
MVP
Dan Aykroyd
An Oval Office, Festrunk Brothers, Weekend Update, Franken And Davis Show, Royal Deluxe II
An Oval Office, Festrunk Brothers, Weekend Update, Franken And Davis Show, Royal Deluxe II
Best Sketch
Festrunk Brothers
Worst Sketch
Mike McMack, Defense Lawyer
How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It
Mostly everything flowed well this episode. The worst sketch was right after Update, which is where it should be. The only thing I would really cut would be the lead up to Great Moments In Rock & Roll. Just have Steve come out and say, "Ladies and gentlemen, Roy Orbison" and let John do his thing.
Host Analysis
I was once in a trivia contest where the final round was going back and forth naming SNL cast members (I won). One of the contestants was eliminated when they named Steve Martin, an honest mistake as the guy hosted 8 times in the first 5 years and 3 times this season alone. He's one of the best and he seems to fit in perfectly with this cast. If he wanted to be part of the show he could have slid in without anyone noticing. He was funny in all of his sketches and commanded the stage.
Final Thoughts
This is not my cast. I'm a child of the 90s and got into SNL when it was Chris Farley, Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey and the rest. I am only passably familiar with this era. I've seen the best ofs and the classic sketches but have never watched the entire episodes. I'm excited to see what I think of these but fear that a lot of the topical humor will be lost one me. I did really enjoy this episode though. It had a really fun and loose feel to it. I felt like I was experiencing something that was raw and real. They didn't really seem to care, but in a good way. They were just a group of comedians and writers trying to put together a funny show. I liked the flow to Weekend Update (one of my least favorite segments of SNL), the jokes were pretty lame but seeing almost everyone come out as a correspondent kept it moving even though it was a lengthy 11 minutes long.
Up Next
The wonderful and fantastic Madeline Kahn hosts with musical guest Taj Mahal. Both of those names excite me.
Up Next
The wonderful and fantastic Madeline Kahn hosts with musical guest Taj Mahal. Both of those names excite me.
It's doubly weird that the'd go through all that trouble to set up the Orbison sketch, because when Belushi did his Joe Cocker act in season 1, they did exactly as you suggested, just introducing him and had him perform With a Little Help from My Friends on the musical guest stage.
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