Danny DeVito has hosted 6 times. Let’s rank ‘em.
#7
Season 12 Episode 12
Willie Nelson with special guest Danny DeVito
Sketch Average: 2.3 Stars
So Danny doesn’t actually host this one but I figured I’d include it. He really should have hosted and we could have kept Willie Nelson as just the musical guest. Danny shows up in 3 sketches and they’re the best of the night. He has a superior dance-off on Church Chat, wears a Police Wire, and marries his cousin in part of Great Moments In The History Of White Trash. The rest of the show isn’t great but is pleasant. It’s got a down-home good-old-boy feel with 3 songs from Willie, plus a duet between him and Victoria, a visit to the Redneck Tanning Parlor, and a slice of life 10-1 where Willie hits on Jan in a Truck Stop Cafe. There’s also the 16th appearance of Tommy Flanagan who had officially been overplayed at this point.
#6
Season 18 Episode 10
Danny DeVito / Bon Jovi
Sketch Average: 2.4 Stars
One of the weaker episodes of Season 18 but no fault of Danny’s. There’s only so much he can do in a Simon or GAP Girls sketch. There’s also two sketches that just repeat the same joke over and over again. One where Danny keeps having Shifty Eyes every time he’s asked a question and one where he plays a Hitman who keeps telling his wife to stay out of his business. As for the positives, there’s a great sketch where Charlton Heston and Al Goldstein read Madonna’s Sex Book On Tape. There’s also a pretty fun runner about Amy Fisher TV movies on Fox, PBS, and BET. They do waste a Jan Hooks cameo, because apparently Melanie Hutsell was incapable of playing Mary Jo Buttafuoco.
#5
Season 7 Episode 19
Danny DeVito / Sparks
Sketch Average: 3.2 Stars
May 15, 1982 was a pretty important day in my life. I was born and Danny DeVito hosted SNL for the first time. When people ask me when I was born I tell them Danny DeVito / Sparks and they seem to know what I’m talking about. Fresh off the cancellation of Taxi, Danny brings his cast mates out for one final bow during his monologue and drives a cab to ABC headquarters to blow up the building. This is one of the better episodes from the weird Season 7 but since it’s Season 7 that means you’re getting a Brian Doyle-Murray SNL Newsbreak but other than that it’s pretty fun. Danny hangs out with Pudge & Solomon and The Whiners, Andy Kaufman retires and says No More Wrestling, plus there’s the uniqueness of Sparks.
#4
Season 13 Episode 6
Danny DeVito / Bryan Ferry
Sketch Average: 3.2 Stars
This one has some classic stuff. A quintessential Church Chat with Danny and Jessica Hahn as the guests, an excellent commercial in Handi-Off, and a very fun sketch where Danny and Jan play country bumpkins getting their treasures appraised including Hitler’s car and the Mona Lisa. Other than that it’s a fun but average episode. Siskel & Ebert reviewing gay pornos At The Movies is a fun idea but gets repetitive, the final appearance of Eddie Spimozo at the Jungle Room, and Danny going at it with Nora on Ann Landers’ Playhouse. Danny gets “Live from New York” honors in this one as he says the sign on as Mikhail Gorbachev.
#3
Season 9 Episode 2
Danny DeVito & Rhea Perlman / Eddy Grant
Sketch Average: 3.2 Stars
Danny hosts in Season 9 with his then-wife Rhea Perlman and didn’t you believe in soulmates a little less when they separated? Both are capable sketch performers and for my money this is the best episode hosted by a couple. It’s not a stellar group consisting of Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss, Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin, Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, and (shudder) Roseanne and Tom Arnold. We get a pretty classic Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood, a fun sketch where the Small World ride at Disney Land turns into a disaster movie, What Would Frank Do? where contestants guess Sinatra’s next move, Rhea teaches a Spanish Class, and Danny goes on Book Beat to promote books he’s written about his neighbor.
#2
Season 14 Episode 7
Danny DeVito / The Bangles
Sketch Average: 3.2 Stars
I recently rewatched this one specifically for this ranking because I didn’t remember it too well. I read my original review of it and think I was a little too hard on it. I picked on the Christmas themed Scrooge and Guardian Angels sketches for not being funny but they weren’t going for gut busting and on second viewing I enjoyed the muted tone of both. The repetitive You Shot Me! is still a bit of a stinker and casting Danny as a Mexican bandito was a choice. This episode has such a strong start though with Arnold Schwarzenegger showing up on Hans and Franz, a super high energy monologue from Danny, Big Red, and Sex Tonight where Casey Kasem counts down euphemisms for masturbation and Wilford Brimley sells sex chairs for the elderly. After that I can forgive a weaker back half.
#1
Season 25 Episode 8
Danny DeVito / R.E.M.
Sketch Average: 3.2 Stars
Danny hosted the last show of the millennium and do you like recurring characters? If so then this is for you. Mr. Peepers in the monologue, then The Delicious Dish, Mango, Sully and Denise, The Ladies’ Man, Sally O’Malley, even Tracy’s Claudine Parker makes her second and final appearance. Somehow it all works and a lot of it is thanks to Danny. He’s hilarious as Mango’s father (The Guava), spitting apples in Mr. Peepers’s mouth, and the chef on a post apocalyptic episode of The Delicious Dish. Plus there’s R.E.M. singing two songs dedicated to Andy Kaufman and Al Franken welcomes us into the Al Franken Millennium.
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