“I’m the Pillsbury Dough Boy”
3 Stars
Gilda talks about the colors of her dress and Garrett hits the TV sending Gilda into a pseudo-pratfall before saying “Live from New York…”. I’m guessing this is a reference to something over my head but I liked that it was brief. Our first Chevy-less cold open went off without a hitch.
Dick Cavett Monologue
Gotta admit, I wasn’t looking forward to a Dick Cavett episode. It kinda feels like homework. I gotta watch Dick Cavett AND write about it? Do I get extra credit at least? While I’m not laughing that much, there’s something about his vibe that I dig. I don’t think it fits for this show but I can definitely see why he was a successful talk show host. He’s dryly funny. I was confused why they bothered mentioning that Elliott Gould was originally scheduled to host, other than to bring down my expectations, but it became a runner during the monologue.
Puppy Uppers & Doggie Downers
A speed like snack to perk up your pup and the inevitable depressant you’ll need to calm him down. I can’t quite explain what I loved about this but it’s immediately earned a spot in my favorite commercial parodies of all time.
Blonde Ambition
Well, when a sketch opens with Dick Cavett at the Watergate hearings I’m like “Sign me up for the greatest sketch of all time!”. I didn’t think my doggie downer would kick in so quickly but here comes a Nixon sketch. I like Dan’s impression and John’s kinda fun as Kissinger but there’s no way you can get me on board for this. Around the time Dan as Nixon started singing “High Hopes” into the microphone he had hidden in a lamp I realized that I’m not really giving this a chance. But also, this sucks, right? It’s Dick Cavett in a Watergate sketch and the punchline is about Hubert Humphrey. Does anyone like this? When I started this blog I never intended to cover the first five seasons because I have no relation to it. It’s before my time and they didn’t really rerun these during my days of watching Comedy Central so I have no nostalgia for them. So I don’t want to be the guy that says this sucks, but this sucks.
Ry Cooder
“Tattler”
Next Week
Gilda tells us that Paul Simon will be hosting next week so I got that to look forward to? I guess he’s slightly funnier than Dick Cavett
Weekend Update
Laraine Newman reports about Smokey The Bear in front of a forest fire. This may be the weakest one of these yet.
The Marines
Garrett picks up a guy on the street and we get the title card that the marines are looking for a few good men. Because gay, get it?
Crossroads
Dick Cavett sets the scene for us in the most heart-pounding and exciting way he can. I enjoyed the monologue but this guy has just been an instant buzzkill every time he’s showed up since. The sketch involves John getting slapped by his father, then his mother, then his priest and that’s basically the whole joke. At least John is the one getting slapped around this time instead of Gilda, but it might actually be less funny. The audience seems to agree as each time John gets slapped it barely gets a reaction. He tries to sell it by writhing around in pain but he’s getting nothing from the crowd. For a second I thought maybe that was the point, that a family would just casually beat their son and nobody would care, but I think they wanted some laughs. Maybe it’s anti-comedy? If so, it might just be the purest example.
Mobile Shrink
You know, this is the first show without Chevy in the cast. It’s probably a bad sign that the thing with the most energy is a pre-filmed bit he stars in. My biggest laugh was from the audience’s awkward reaction to seeing him as they didn’t know whether to applaud or not. It’s not a bad sketch either as Chevy gives free mental health advice to people on the street including one guy operating a jackhammer.
How Things Work
I liked the concept of Dick being a guest on a talk show due to a bogus letter writing campaign he started but then this just turned into a bunch of Serbo-Croatian jokes and your guess is as good as mine. Then it’s used as an intro to this week’s Gary Weis film…
Which is a rerun of The Paramount Novelty Store. Do you want me to watch this show? Like, I’m in this deep now. I feel I need to finish this episode because the secrets of the universe are buried at the end. You hid them in something so dull and boring so nobody would ever find them, didn’t you? Well I called your bluff. I’ll sit through this. I’ll listen to this old lady talk about fake dog shit again. Rerun that Taylor Mead “film” again too while you’re at it. Test my patience. Push it to the limits. You ante Dick Cavett then raise me a Gary Weis rerun? Fuck, I love this torment. Squeeze my balls while I watch this old lady in Groucho glasses. See, if I get pleasure from the torment it can’t hurt me. Now who’s laughing? Well, not me. It’s a Gary Weis film. Shit, the joke was on me the whole time, wasn’t it?
Bee History
Fuck you, you even put on the stupid bee heads. This is corny and I can’t believe how un-hip it is. Sometimes this show is so cutting edge and then they’ll do something so cheeseball that I can’t believe it was ever considered hip. Maybe I’m not hip, maybe I don’t get it, maybe it’s hip because it’s un-hip. They’re doing bee puns, and not for the first time. “I’d like to dip my spoon in her honey” is not as clever as you think it is. I did love that Dick ran a literal sweat shop and sweat production is down because space is not used efficiently, but aside from that this was long, patience testing, and builds to the most groan-worthy punchline I think I’ve ever heard on the show with “You’re not just a lousy son of a bee”. Fuuuuuuuuuck yoooooooooou.
Ry Cooder
“He’ll Have To Go”
Mr. Mike’s Least-Loved Bedtime Tales
Mr. Mike tells a story about an alligator and a chicken. This doesn’t feel like part of the same show I’ve been watching but I would like to watch more of this please.
What Makes People Laugh
Tom and Al play scientists doing a laugh response test, which is kinda ironic that this is the first time humor has been mentioned. They claim to be able to get laughs scientifically but remove their costumes to reveal themselves to be none other than comedy duo Franken and Davis. So it’s meta, I guess.
I’ve seen a lot of episodes of Saturday Night Live at this point. I may be exaggerating when I say that this is my least favorite of all time, but it’s certainly up there. And at the Goodnights, Dick tells us that they still have a minute and a half to kill?!?! Great, let’s keep this fun train a-rollin’! Choo Choo!
FINAL ANALYSIS
“Are you hung in proportion to your height?”
2.1 Stars
MVP
Chevy Chase
Mobile Shrink
Best Sketch
Puppy Uppers & Doggie Downers
Worst Sketch
Bee History
How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It
Do I give a pass on the assumption that there was really an issue with Elliott Gould and Dick was a last minute fill-in? No. Because if that was the case why not do another cast showcase sketch like you did with the Beatniks sketch in the Steve Martin episode? You could have just had Dick intro everybody’s oddball character and let everyone shine instead of whatever this was. And how the hell did you run short on time!? The bee sketch alone was 75 minutes.
Host Analysis
Honestly, I have little memory of his first outing but I recall enjoying his presence even if it made for a more low key episode. I was almost put to sleep every time he showed up here and I’m so glad we’re never seeing him again.
Final Thoughts
It’s grandiose to say this is the worst episode of SNL I’ve seen. And to be fair, it’s not technically SNL yet, so I can’t really say that at all. I did hate this though. It had an almost immediate feeling of homework and I treated it as such. There were multiple times where I felt like a kid throwing a temper tantrum as my patience was being tested and I think that came through in my writing. I don’t want to be negative but I didn’t like any of this. A 2.1 sketch average is low but that feels to generous. It’s only inflated due to Mr. Mike and a classic commercial. Those don’t even feel like they’re part of this episode so we can take them out of consideration. That brings us to a 1.6, which still doesn’t feel bad enough. That’s better than Neon Deion Sanders and that episode is at least ‘fun bad’. You know what? Now that I think about it, a lot of the 1 Star sketches are just that because I don’t like giving out the goose eggs. I only gave one this episode to the bee sketch but that’s mainly because I was already over the episode by the time it began. In reality, it’s no worse than Blonde Ambition, Crossroads, or How Things Work so let’s lower those to 0 Stars as well, now we’re at a 1.3, that seems appropriate. But we can also deduct points for Ry Cooder and a weak Update. Let’s say we’re sitting at a generous .5 star. But then wait, ya’ll forgot about a Gary Weis repeat! 0 Stars, hopefully the commercial gets rerun in a better episode.
Up Next
Paul Simon with special guest George Harrison
Thanks for getting through this one. If it's any comfort at all, I really enjoyed your review. I've never seen this one myself, hope to do that soon.
ReplyDeleteTrivia about the Mobile Shrink sketch: the lady in the therapist chair is future cast member Ann Risley.
ReplyDeleteNice to see you back briefly
ReplyDelete