"He's a friend, a neighbor, and a great Sodomite"
Cold Open: Nixon's Book
2 Stars
Richard Nixon wants you to buy his book and doesn't care what you do with it
Nixon has written a new memoir but it's not flying off the shelves. Apparently the American public doesn't want to support a corrupt politician. Nixon wants you to buy it though and if you don't want to read it, you can kick it. Take all your frustration out on him on the book. They demonstrate this by having Garrett punt the book into the audience. This was too short to truly dislike, I just wanted this to be funnier. The idea of beating up the book could have gone further, they could have had someone using the pages as toilet paper or have Garrett as Leon Spinx using it as a punching bag.
Buck Henry Monologue
4 Stars
Nixon has written a new memoir but it's not flying off the shelves. Apparently the American public doesn't want to support a corrupt politician. Nixon wants you to buy it though and if you don't want to read it, you can kick it. Take all your frustration out on him on the book. They demonstrate this by having Garrett punt the book into the audience. This was too short to truly dislike, I just wanted this to be funnier. The idea of beating up the book could have gone further, they could have had someone using the pages as toilet paper or have Garrett as Leon Spinx using it as a punching bag.
Buck Henry Monologue
4 Stars
Buck is in denial about his life
As Buck talks about how great things are going, he's working on a movie with Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, text scrolls in front of him saying the opposite. It's been 10 years since The Graduate and Buck is having a mid-life crisis. He doesn't even know Warren Beatty and he lives in a small apartment with a telescope. The show is letting him host because they feel sorry for him.
Nerd Prom
3 Stars
Todd and Lisa get ready for prom
Todd shows up to take Lisa to prom with his father, Buck. Mrs. Loopner gives Lisa a talk about the birds and the bees which turns into her egg salad recipe. Then the two parents start to hit it off and all 4 end up going to the prom. Bill and Gilda still get some mileage out of these characters but as they all left to go to prom I couldn't help but think that I was missing the best part of the sketch. Seeing Todd and Lisa at prom with their parents would have been more interesting than this.
Samurai T.V. Repairman
As Buck talks about how great things are going, he's working on a movie with Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, text scrolls in front of him saying the opposite. It's been 10 years since The Graduate and Buck is having a mid-life crisis. He doesn't even know Warren Beatty and he lives in a small apartment with a telescope. The show is letting him host because they feel sorry for him.
Nerd Prom
3 Stars
Todd and Lisa get ready for prom
Todd shows up to take Lisa to prom with his father, Buck. Mrs. Loopner gives Lisa a talk about the birds and the bees which turns into her egg salad recipe. Then the two parents start to hit it off and all 4 end up going to the prom. Bill and Gilda still get some mileage out of these characters but as they all left to go to prom I couldn't help but think that I was missing the best part of the sketch. Seeing Todd and Lisa at prom with their parents would have been more interesting than this.
Samurai T.V. Repairman
3 Stars
Samurai Futaba fixes TVs now
I do like Buck in these, he makes an excellent straight man, but I feel like this bit has run its course. John slams the TV on the ground, puts samurai swords on top to act as antennae and threatens harikari. The real star of this sketch is Buck and I don't think this interplay would have been fun with anyone else, see O.J. Simpson.
Sodom Chamber Of Commerce
4 Stars
The town of Sodom tries to fix their image
Sodom has a terrible reputation and it's mainly because they really advertise the sodomy. The Mayor has brought in a public relations expert to help class them up. He wants them to promote their hotels, restaurants and museums and let people find out about the sodomy through word of mouth.
"Anyone who's really interested in sodomy knows to come here. We don't have to bend over backwards to advertise it."
There were many funny lines here and the entire cast was good.
Weekend Update
We end the season with one final Point/Counterpoint, this one about jogging. Jane and Dan first decide who is taking which side and then hurl insults at each other, "overweight poker" and "ignorant slut", respectively. Dan also had a pretty amusing run about the alcoholism of the first ladies. After 20 episodes, I finally enjoyed a Weekend Update.
Laraine Newman reports from the trial of the Son Of Sam dog. Since cameras weren't allowed in the court room, the bit is told through artist renderings which seem to have been done by a child.
Bill Murray reviews The Greek Tycoon but since he didn't see the movie he instead reviews the clip sent over by the studio. He thinks the plot is too similar to the life of Jackie O, which the movie was loosely based on, so he calls her up to tell her about it. Of course, his call goes unanswered.
The Olympia Cafe
2 Stars
More cheeseburgers
This probably shouldn't have been recurring as this 3rd outing seems to be running out of steam. John wants to rent a guard dog for security so he has to fire Bill since he sleeps in the back. Bill is re-hired when the guard dog man wants too much money. Oh, and they say 'cheeseburger' a lot. The first one was good, they should have just stopped there.
Mr. Mike's Least-Loved Music
This probably shouldn't have been recurring as this 3rd outing seems to be running out of steam. John wants to rent a guard dog for security so he has to fire Bill since he sleeps in the back. Bill is re-hired when the guard dog man wants too much money. Oh, and they say 'cheeseburger' a lot. The first one was good, they should have just stopped there.
Mr. Mike's Least-Loved Music
1 Star
Mr. Mike sings a song about baby ghouls. Laraine translates the song into sign language, turns into a vampire and bites Mike. I didn't get this at all.
More Insects To Worry About
4 Stars
Dr. Bedanza explains the Bedanza Mite
Didn't expect to see this sketch again. Joan Face, once again great name, interviews a bug expert who tells us about a new terrifying insect. The Bedanza Mite likes to burrow into people's skulls and hide household objects in their brains. Car keys, checkbooks, jars of cold cream, anything you might lose around your house ends up in your head and is turned into artwork. Buck and Jane end up making a date to see a gallery opening of the mites inside Don Ho's ass.
Stunt Puppy
3 Stars
Another one I didn't expect to see again. The last time Buck hosted he punched a baby in the face, this time he swings a dog around the room by its leash. Not as good as the first time because all the surprise was gone. Also, it didn't go far enough. Let me reiterate, the last time we saw this sketch Buck punched a baby in the face. You really have to go big to top that.
Bad Conceptual Art
2 Stars
Leonard Pinth-Garnell shows us a terrible experimental theater piece
Gilda walks around like a chicken on a circular platform while Laraine speaks nonsense and we see a closeup of Garrett's eye on a TV. Leonard describes it as stunningly pointless, absolutely meaningless and really sucky. These sketches are making fun of bad performances but not really doing anything other than showing you a bad performance. With no real joke other than that, the joke is on us for watching it, and it's just kind of bad.
The Franken And Davis Show
3 Stars
Al and Tom are outed
Before the can do their sumo wrestling routine, Al introduces his wife and child in the audience and Tom introduces the girl he is living with. Tom can't hide from the truth anymore and reveals that he and Al are actually homosexual lovers. Al gets upset and ends up shooting himself. This was the weakest of these pieces but still had some good bits. I liked Al's son looking like him and leaving during the reveal with a "I hate you, daddy" but I wasn't a fan of the joke being that these two guys are gay and ashamed of it.
Sun Ra
Before the can do their sumo wrestling routine, Al introduces his wife and child in the audience and Tom introduces the girl he is living with. Tom can't hide from the truth anymore and reveals that he and Al are actually homosexual lovers. Al gets upset and ends up shooting himself. This was the weakest of these pieces but still had some good bits. I liked Al's son looking like him and leaving during the reveal with a "I hate you, daddy" but I wasn't a fan of the joke being that these two guys are gay and ashamed of it.
Sun Ra
"Space Is The Place / Space Loneliness
No sir, I don't like this. I'm sure there's a story behind this but I found this unlistenable. Like watching a 4 year old give a piano recital, they're just banging on keys and you have to pretend you like it. At one point the guy on keyboards slams his elbows into the instrument while people scream incoherently, this is music?
FINAL ANALYSIS
"You have to be crazy to live in Sodom, crazy about sodomy"
Average
Average
2.8 Stars
MVP
Bill Murray
Nerd Prom, Sodom Chamber Of Commerce, Weekend Update, The Olympia Cafe, Stunt Puppy
Nerd Prom, Sodom Chamber Of Commerce, Weekend Update, The Olympia Cafe, Stunt Puppy
Best Sketch
Sodom Chamber Of Commerce
Worst Sketch
Mr. Mike's Least-Loved Music
Mr. Mike's Least-Loved Music
How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It
First off, thank you, thank you, thank you for only giving Sun Ra one song in the show and sticking it at the end. I don't think I could have had a lot of goodwill if they were before Update. With almost everything in this episode being recurring, it doesn't really matter what order you put the sketches. Usually I would say something like Olympia Cafe should come in the front but then you would either have the nerds or the samurai in the back half, so you just gotta throw everything in a blender and see where it ends up. I probably would have started with Stunt Puppy but putting Sodom Chamber Of Commerce in the mix early was a nice break from the onslaught of recognizable stuff.
Host Analysis
Buck is a terrific straight man. He's funny while not saying anything funny. He can even make throwing a puppy out a window or punching a baby in the face amusing. They also seem to like giving him the weirder stuff like praising sodomy and talking about bugs that crawl in your head. Outside of SNL I'm only really familiar with Buck through movies like Heaven Can Wait, The Graduate and Grumpy Old Men but looking through his Wikipedia page made me realize that this guy has been a big influence on me without me even knowing it as he co-created Get Smart.
Final Thoughts
A pretty satisfying finale. Bringing in Buck made it feel like a family show and not just another episode. The abundance of recurring bits also made it feel like a Best-of episode for the season. If you hadn't been watching season 3 you could tune into the finale and get the gist of what the show was up to.
Up Next
Lists, lists and more lists. The best, the worst and a cast ranking.
You should do season 13 next.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Season 7?
ReplyDeletePretty average one IMO. Starts well but quickly loses its course in the second half.
Delete