“All white people are crazy”
3 Stars
Lorne is refusing to put Belushi on the air but his doctor insists. Turns out if Belushi doesn’t perform he doesn’t get paid and he won’t be able to afford his medical bills. He gets wheeled out in a stupor but snaps to attention when the threat of cutting of his drugs comes up. Kinda feels like we did this same bit last season with Chevy but it’s cute.
Ruth Gordon Monologue
A big old “Huh”? Rambling, incoherent nonsense but she seems in good spirits and it was short, whatever it was.
Rerun of The Marines
Me
Laraine as Barbra Streisand sings a song. It’s not funny, it’s way too long, and all the references are over my head. I can’t hate it though. Laraine’s got some pipes. It’s pleasant.
The Litella Sisters At Home
How many other Update characters have we followed home? I know Stefon and Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy started as sketches but I can’t think of any others that went the other way. We never saw Queen Shaniqua’s home life and I think we were robbed of something. I kinda like that she’s working on her Update editorial to keep the character in universe and the idea of pairing her with Ruth is pretty inspired. It’s just not that funny and Ruth mumbles some of her lines to ruin the gag of saying the wrong thing. It doesn’t work if you can’t understand it. “It was a different time” alert with confusing air bags with air f-slurs then finding out that Emily isn’t a fan of the ‘homos’. That kinda killed it for me.
Tomorrow
Tom Snyder interviews Dino De Laurentiis about King Kong. John is still in his wheelchair so I guess the injury is legit. Wonder if that’s to blame for his performance in this one. I can’t understand half of what he’s saying and he keeps repeating the same lines making me wonder if he’s ad-libbing. This also goes on way too long and isn’t very interesting outside of Dan’s amusing Snyder impression.
Chuck Berry
“Johnny B. Goode”
This was pretty rad.
Weekend Update
Crazy Frank
Crazy Ernie is crazier than you think and that has led to savings. In fact, he’s not Crazy Ernie but his cousin Crazy Frank who’s still mad that Ernie ran off with his wife. You don’t want to be left alone with Crazy Frank but you can take advantage of his cheap stereos. Dan builds this beautifully, I loved this.
We return to Update to get Emily Litella again. As we learned in the earlier sketch, she doesn’t have an editorial this week. She’s just here to waste time and call Jane a bitch. Has any other character completely run their course only to get a new hook and also run that into the ground?
Night Moves
I guess we gotta start with Garrett’s rambling introduction that puts our host to shame. He says something unintelligible then we fade into the film as he’s still talking. This is a music video for Bob Seger’s Night Moves that includes a woman writhing in bed and a television with Garrett’s face on it. It’s interesting in the fact that it’s a pre-MTV music video but uninteresting in every other aspect.
Little Old Ladies Of The Night
I loved the premise of this, a sketch about elderly prostitutes that has Garrett as a pimp tricking out Ruth Gordon. Unfortunately it doesn’t go anywhere after that. Dan gets some laughs from his screaming of “Johns!” and “Pimps!” but since nothing else is getting laughs it almost comes off desperate. I did enjoy Ruth calling the cops “honky pigs” as she gets arrested.
Chuck Berry
“Memphis Tennessee / Carol”
Babysitter
One of them sweet sketches not big on laughs. Ruth answers questions about the birds and the bees from a young Gilda. It’s cute and has some good lines. This is also the best Ruth’s been all night and Gilda is always great in these kind of roles.
Mr. Bill Goes To A Magic Show
What’s there to say about Mr. Bill? He gets tortured at a magic show by Sluggo. I think I’ve said this before but these do nothing for me now but I thought they were brilliant when I was a kid.
Ricky Jay
I like that this was paired with the magic themed Mr. Bill short. I can’t say I was too impressed with this act though. I’ve certainly seen much better and more entertaining ones on SNL. The highlight was the ending when an audience member says “7” and he starts producing a whole bunch of 7s.
The Last Days Of Howard Hughes
A very thin Laraine plays Howard Hughes. Dan and Bill give him fake airplane rides and walks in the park while a confused Garrett looks on. I wasn’t getting much from this and I was a bit distracted by Laraine’s frail frame but Garrett’s punchline about white people was worth it.
World Of Adventure
The debut of E. Buzz Miller. I think I get what’s going on but only because of future sketches with this character. He’s interviewing Ruth about an anthropological expedition but is only interested in the footage of topless African women. Ruth keeps talking over him so much that it muddles the whole sketch. If you didn’t know Dan was playing a creep I don’t think you’d know what was going on.
Mr. Mike’s Least-Loved Bedtime Tales
Mr. Mike tells the tale of Willy the Worm who got hit by a truck, twice.
FINAL ANALYSIS
“Why do girls have more dirty parts than boys?”
2.7 Stars
MVP
Dan Aykroyd
Tomorrow, Crazy Frank, Little Old Ladies Of The Night, The Last Days Of Howard Hughes, World Of Adventure
Best Sketch
Crazy Frank
Worst Sketch
Tomorrow
How I Would Have Lorne Michaels-ed It
Feels like we could have done more with the Belushi in a wheelchair runner. It accumulates with him getting up during the Goodnight but by that time I kinda forgot about him. Seeing that all did was anchor my least favorite sketch he probably could have sat this one out. I wouldn’t have started with Laraine singing. Maybe move that after Update and replace it with E. Buzz Miller, although they probably couldn’t have so many breasts that early in the night.
Host Analysis
I liked her attitude if not her performances. She had an exuberance that I enjoyed but she kinda brought down some sketches with her delivery and stepped on a lot of lines.
Final Thoughts
Not a great episode but not a terrible watch. The pacing hurt this a lot. It’s such a slow start that’s livened up by Chuck Berry only to be halted by the ever present time filler that is Weekend Update. There’s some fun stuff in the back half minus the Bob Seger music video. Nothing great but it passed the time. Can’t say there’s much to recommend here but I’ve always heard this one was a bomb. I guess low expectations helped but it’s still a below average show.
Up Next
Comedy legend Fran Tarkenton
No comments:
Post a Comment