"It's hard to describe really, partly because I'm drunk"
Cold Open:Church Chat
4 Stars
Church Lady and her mother tackle Saddam Hussein, literally
Church Lady's show is brought to you by Church Lady Canned Ham, which has its own jingle. Her guest this week is Saddam Hussein. Wow, Church Lady's booking agent is incredible. She calls him 'Sodomy' and 'Satan' before bringing out her mother, Goodman in drag. They both call him Satan and before long they are tag team wrestling him. Goodman slams his head on the table and knees him in the crotch. This was fun. The first Persian Gulf war is probably gonna be the last war with overwhelmingly positive support. In 1990, Saddam was the enemy and we wanted to see Church Lady body slam him on TV. Goodman's energy was well used here and seeing him wrestle in a dress and pantyhose was fun.
John Goodman Monologue
Church Lady's show is brought to you by Church Lady Canned Ham, which has its own jingle. Her guest this week is Saddam Hussein. Wow, Church Lady's booking agent is incredible. She calls him 'Sodomy' and 'Satan' before bringing out her mother, Goodman in drag. They both call him Satan and before long they are tag team wrestling him. Goodman slams his head on the table and knees him in the crotch. This was fun. The first Persian Gulf war is probably gonna be the last war with overwhelmingly positive support. In 1990, Saddam was the enemy and we wanted to see Church Lady body slam him on TV. Goodman's energy was well used here and seeing him wrestle in a dress and pantyhose was fun.
John Goodman Monologue
4 Stars
Goodman is excited about his new daughter
Goodman's life has been really good since the last time he's hosted. He's been in some movies, starred on Roseanne, got fired by Tom Arnold, got rehired, got fired again and just now got news that he's been rehired. None of that matters as the best thing that's happened to him is the birth of his lovely daughter. He hasn't lost all the pregnancy weight yet but he's been dealing with all the crying and the pooping, most of which have been from the baby. Since the baby can't be here, Goodman does an impression of her for us. Opening his mouth and eyes wide and trying to eat his hand.
Rerun of Bad Idea Jeans
Goodman's life has been really good since the last time he's hosted. He's been in some movies, starred on Roseanne, got fired by Tom Arnold, got rehired, got fired again and just now got news that he's been rehired. None of that matters as the best thing that's happened to him is the birth of his lovely daughter. He hasn't lost all the pregnancy weight yet but he's been dealing with all the crying and the pooping, most of which have been from the baby. Since the baby can't be here, Goodman does an impression of her for us. Opening his mouth and eyes wide and trying to eat his hand.
Rerun of Bad Idea Jeans
Mister
3 Stars
People in a store have very appropriate names
John and Julia are working at a store. When John tells her to do something he calls her "Miss I only do things when they're convenient" she responds by calling him "Mr. I check up on everybody like I'm their mother". It turns out that these are actually their names though as a salesman comes in and asks for Mr. I Check Up On Everybody Like I'm Their Mother.
"And who can I say is here?"
"I'm Mr. I Barge In Whenever I Feel Like It"
"You wouldn't be related to Bob I Barge In Whenever I Feel Like It?"
"No. It's a common last name."
We're also introduced to the replacement plumber, Mr. I Don't Have To Do A Good Job Because I'm Just Filling In and a guy who gets murdered outside the business, Mr. Hiding From The Mafia Under An Assumed Name. The sketch ends with Phil coming in as Officer I Let My Imagination Run Wild to report the murder. The assailant was 35 feet tall and driving a blue UFO with Michael Jackson and Marlon Brando. This was cute but not really strong enough to start the show. This would fit better near the end of the night.
Wedding Day
3 Stars
Mick Jagger is nervous about his wedding
It's Mick Jagger's wedding and his best man, Keith Richards, is giving him advice. Mick is scared about his wedding night. Even though he's been dating Jerry Hall for 12 years and had fathered 2 children, he's worried he won't measure up to all the other nights they've slept together and all those videos of him having sex with other people. Keith consoles him by saying that marriage is worth it when the guy you pay to remember everybody's names tells you that your wife is on the phone. Mick goes to the altar and Keith shed a tear. Both Mike and Dana are really fun together. The sketch is very dated but there is the perfect amount of set up so even if you have no familiarity with the events you can still understand the sketch.
Player-With-Yourselves Club
3 Stars
Telly Savalas promotes a card for masturbators
I don't have any context for this. I'm assuming Telly Savalas was a spokesman for a Player's Club card and they turned that into a big wanking joke. The Player-With-Yourselves Club gives you masturbation privileges at hotels all over the world, unlimited Kleenex, custom made squeak-free beds and access to skin magazines and videos cued up to the good parts.
"Who loves yourself baby?"
Faith No More
"Epic"
I always liked this song but found this live version close to unlistenable. The performance was fun though as the lead singer at one point climbed the scaffolding on the set to play with the big industrial fan. If I didn't know that the album version was eerily beautiful I would write Faith No More off as an energetic but terrible band. I can imagine my dad watching this and saying, "What the fuck is this?" and young me going, "You just don't understand my music, dad!".
The McLaughlin Group
5 Stars
John McLaughlin seems to go insane during his show
McLaughlin poses a question to the panel but cuts off everyone's answers with a loud "Wrong!". The questions get more and more absurd starting with topical political questions and transitioning to 'Is there an afterlife?', 'What number am I thinking of?' and 'What did you have for breakfast?'. The answer to the last question is that they all had Special K with banana. He also starts giving everybody nicknames. Pat Buchanan becomes 'Patty Patty Buke Buke', Morton Kondracke becomes 'Mortiny Tiny Tabletop' and Eleanor Clift is 'Eleanor Gee, I Think You're Swell-anor'. When Jack Germond, or Mondo! as McLaughlin calls him, says he is insane, McLaughlin fires back, "Wrong! I'm perfectly sane. Everyone else is insane and trying to steal my magic bag". I loved every second of this. Dana was on fire here and everybody else played perfect straight men to his insane old man. I'm only passingly familiar with The McLaughlin Group but you need absolutely no context for this to be funny.
Weekend Update
McLaughlin poses a question to the panel but cuts off everyone's answers with a loud "Wrong!". The questions get more and more absurd starting with topical political questions and transitioning to 'Is there an afterlife?', 'What number am I thinking of?' and 'What did you have for breakfast?'. The answer to the last question is that they all had Special K with banana. He also starts giving everybody nicknames. Pat Buchanan becomes 'Patty Patty Buke Buke', Morton Kondracke becomes 'Mortiny Tiny Tabletop' and Eleanor Clift is 'Eleanor Gee, I Think You're Swell-anor'. When Jack Germond, or Mondo! as McLaughlin calls him, says he is insane, McLaughlin fires back, "Wrong! I'm perfectly sane. Everyone else is insane and trying to steal my magic bag". I loved every second of this. Dana was on fire here and everybody else played perfect straight men to his insane old man. I'm only passingly familiar with The McLaughlin Group but you need absolutely no context for this to be funny.
Weekend Update
Miller starts the segment by headbanging in tribute to Faith No More's performance. When he stops he explains that he had something in his eye. Stories this week include Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry doing drugs, George Bush going on a foreign tour, 3 Men And A Little Lady and Pete Townsend admitting that he had homosexual encounters.
David Spade is here to explain how the war in Iraq affects the youth. He demonstrates this by bringing out some dolls. Kuwait is like him and Iraq is like his older brother always picking on him. The U.S. is like his mom coming to break it up. Not the strongest bit to start out your SNL career and it reminds me of a bit Eddie Murphy did on SNL News in season 10.
Chew
3 Stars
A family tries to have a conversation between bites
Victoria has brought her new boyfriend, Goodman, over to a family dinner. Every time he takes a bite of steak he is asked a question and needs to pause to swallow before answering. Everybody else gets to do the same bit as Rock comes to the door selling raffle tickets but has to wait for Jan to swallow before her response. Rock also has a hard time chewing on a candy. Farley and Sweeney pause to chew before answering and then Farley starts choking. Everyone has to finish chewing their steak to ask if anyone knows the Heimlich Maneuver. Nealon performs it on Farley who spits up his food and then chews it back up and swallows it. This got a smile from me but it was pretty stupid. Everyone here did really good physical work as they were able to get laughs by just chewing food slowly.
Wayne's World
4 Stars
Wayne and Garth watch the new Madonna video
Wayne's World is being brought to you for the first time from Garth's house. They're gonna be watching some adult films and Wayne's mom would never let him do that at his house. Since Garth's parents are gone for the evening they will be watching Bright Lights, Big Titties, Field Of Reams and the Madonna video that MTV won't play because it's too sexy. They start with the Madonna video and do some Beavis And Butthead style commentary while they watch it. The video makes Garth feel funny, like when he had to climb the rope in gym class. Goodman comes in to break up the party but promises not to tell their parents. He also starts to get a little horned up at the video.
Faith No More return for more indecipherable screaming and head banging with a song called "From Out Of Nowhere". This is obviously a band that was enhanced by studio engineers. The performance is again very fun though. After a particularly vicious round of head banging, the lead singer collapses on the drum for about 10 seconds only to leap back up in time for the next verse. At the end of the song he stabs the drum with his mic stand like it killed his pa.
Davy Crockett
Wayne's World is being brought to you for the first time from Garth's house. They're gonna be watching some adult films and Wayne's mom would never let him do that at his house. Since Garth's parents are gone for the evening they will be watching Bright Lights, Big Titties, Field Of Reams and the Madonna video that MTV won't play because it's too sexy. They start with the Madonna video and do some Beavis And Butthead style commentary while they watch it. The video makes Garth feel funny, like when he had to climb the rope in gym class. Goodman comes in to break up the party but promises not to tell their parents. He also starts to get a little horned up at the video.
Faith No More return for more indecipherable screaming and head banging with a song called "From Out Of Nowhere". This is obviously a band that was enhanced by studio engineers. The performance is again very fun though. After a particularly vicious round of head banging, the lead singer collapses on the drum for about 10 seconds only to leap back up in time for the next verse. At the end of the song he stabs the drum with his mic stand like it killed his pa.
Davy Crockett
1 Star
Crockett's brainy and nerdy son is an embarrassment to his father
Davy Crockett comes out of a general store to find Jim Bowie and his son bragging about how he got stung by bees trying to steal some honey. Then Kevin comes out with his son and brags that he broke his knife wrestling with a bear. Then Crockett's son comes out and it's Myers with glasses and he can't figure out which bottle to get to send messages to faraway lands. Waldo Crockett is not that big on hunting and would rather spend his days reading books and discovering planets. All is forgiven when Waldo stares down a cougar as he's been learning hypnosis. I appreciated that Myers was trying to create a new character but this wasn't working for me at all.
Pat
3 Stars
A man's new boss is of an unknown gender
I don't think the character of Pat would be accepted today. The main joke is that nobody knows what Pat's sex is. Today, with gender fluidity being what it is, it should be socially acceptable to label yourself however you want. The key to the Pat character that makes it kind of okay is that Pat is also the most annoying person in the world. Pat needs to people to question Pat's identity or else nobody would ever talk to Pat. This is on display in the It's Pat movie where people are throwing parties for Pat just so they can try to find out Pat's sex. Nobody would be friends with Pat if it weren't for the mystery. None of that is really present here but this is only the first appearance for Pat so I'm curious to see how the character progresses. For the record, I am a fan of the movie "It's Pat". It's not one of my favorite films but there are some really funny gags in there and I find the Pat character pretty ingenious. Pat is the annoying person at your office that normally you would try to avoid but there is something so alluring about Pat and Pat is completely oblivious to it. Pat thinks people like Pat and has no idea that they just want a peak at what's between Pat's legs. This sketch introduces Pat as Kevin Nealon's boss. Kevin is unsure if Pat is a man or a woman so he keeps asking questions that hint at Pat's sexuality and Pat deflects with vague answers. One more quick Pat story. When I was a kid I didn't know if Pat was played by a man or a woman. It was slightly before I became obsessed with the show so I didn't see Pat as a character that one of the cast members was playing. I just saw Pat. It wasn't until the Steve Martin monologue where Julia Sweeney ripped off her Pat wig that I went, "Oh my god! They did it! They revealed who plays Pat!". I was a stupid kid.
FINAL ANALYSIS
I don't think the character of Pat would be accepted today. The main joke is that nobody knows what Pat's sex is. Today, with gender fluidity being what it is, it should be socially acceptable to label yourself however you want. The key to the Pat character that makes it kind of okay is that Pat is also the most annoying person in the world. Pat needs to people to question Pat's identity or else nobody would ever talk to Pat. This is on display in the It's Pat movie where people are throwing parties for Pat just so they can try to find out Pat's sex. Nobody would be friends with Pat if it weren't for the mystery. None of that is really present here but this is only the first appearance for Pat so I'm curious to see how the character progresses. For the record, I am a fan of the movie "It's Pat". It's not one of my favorite films but there are some really funny gags in there and I find the Pat character pretty ingenious. Pat is the annoying person at your office that normally you would try to avoid but there is something so alluring about Pat and Pat is completely oblivious to it. Pat thinks people like Pat and has no idea that they just want a peak at what's between Pat's legs. This sketch introduces Pat as Kevin Nealon's boss. Kevin is unsure if Pat is a man or a woman so he keeps asking questions that hint at Pat's sexuality and Pat deflects with vague answers. One more quick Pat story. When I was a kid I didn't know if Pat was played by a man or a woman. It was slightly before I became obsessed with the show so I didn't see Pat as a character that one of the cast members was playing. I just saw Pat. It wasn't until the Steve Martin monologue where Julia Sweeney ripped off her Pat wig that I went, "Oh my god! They did it! They revealed who plays Pat!". I was a stupid kid.
FINAL ANALYSIS
"Gotta go, I gotta date with a Marilyn Chambers classic"
Average
3.3 Stars
MVP
Dana Carvey
Church Chat, Wedding Day, The McLaughlin Group, Wayne's World
Church Chat, Wedding Day, The McLaughlin Group, Wayne's World
Best Sketch
The McLaughlin Group
Worst Sketch
Davy Crockett
How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It
Everything worked in this episode (outside of Davy Crockett) so I'm not gonna touch it. If I were to armchair quarterback I would swap The McLaughlin Group with Mister and put Player-With-Yourselves Club after the monologue in the traditional commercial spot. It also felt weird to have Wayne's World so late in the show (this was the 10th appearance from Wayne and Garth) but it makes sense since they are showing the Madonna music video that was too sexy to play when the kids are still awake.
Host Analysis
Goodman is always good and the reason why he's so good is because he plays well with the cast. You can tell that he just wants to be part of the gang. He was in 6 sketches and only played the lead in 1. This is a recurring theme in the episodes I've watched with him as host. He doesn't shy away from playing the straight man or the thankless role that comes in at the end. Anyone could have played the cop at the end of Wayne's World but he gladly takes that part. He doesn't need to be the center of attention because he is a confidant enough actor to know you'll pay attention to him anyway.
Final Thoughts
Only 1 stinker sketch in the bunch this week which is a big step up in quality from the majority of this season. Also, nothing outstayed its welcome. Everything was concise and to the point. I didn't have to wait around to get the joke and once the joke hit it lasted just long enough that it didn't get stale.
Up Next
Tom Hanks joins the 5 timers club, which didn't really exist until this episode.
Those quotes under the host's picture where do they come from?
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