Julia Child, olive pits, cherry pits, redux

Cafe Society
1

Back in 2004 I mentioned this skit in response to another post, but I think it merits its own post. In particular: to determine where the hell I saw it. I watched a lot of late night weekend comedy in the late 1970s and early '80s, mostly SNL, SCTV, and-- during its all-too-brief tenure, Fridays.

Now, on to the sketch, which is a Julia Child spoof.

She’s preparing various ingredients, all the while explaining the procedure in that inimitable* early 1900s upper class Pasadena accent. Keep that accent on mind as you imagine her explaining the next steps, which I will paraphrase:

I had to paraphrase it, because it’s been so long since I last saw it, and I obviously can’t find a script anywhere.

I can’t have imagined this, because it was just too good. There may have been some cannabis involved, but still: I know I saw this.

Everybody remembers the SNL sketch where she “cuts the dickens out of her finger” and shoots blood all over her workspace.

Everybody remembers the SCTV “Battle Of The PBS Network Stars” sketch where Julia Child faces Fred Rogers in the boxing ring.

Neither of those is the one I’m looking for.

In fact, I’ve come to think I must have seen this on Fridays, because that series ran for only two seasons and has been mostly forgotten. As far as I know it never went into repeats or syndication, and all told not that many people saw it. This would explain why nobody except me seems to remember the sketch.

The other thing about Fridays is that their humor tended to be more surrealistic than SNL; it seems more likely that I would have seen the sketch on that show.

As you’re probably thinking right now, I hit upon the idea of googling for “Fridays Julia Child sketch”, but alas: As it turns out, Julia Child once had her own Friday night series on PBS, Dishing With Julia Child. So anything involving Friday and Julia Child, besides her show itself, becomes almost impossible to google. It’s like googling the 1980s band The The, or the neighborhood in L.A. known as Palms.

Is there anyone here who can help me with this?

I’ve asked about this all over the internet without success. I can’t believe I’m the only person in the world who remembers this. Even my brother who was with me at the time says he doesn’t remember it.

Is there anyone here who can help?

*Inimitable? Who am I kidding, of course it’s imitable. Comedians have been doing it as long as her cooking shows have existed.

2

I can’t help, but Fridays is now included on Prime. This was recent.

3

I’m pretty sure you’re referring to a sketch that’s in the movie " The Groove Tube".

Hey, here it is!

4

That is the first thing that came to my mind.

5

You are probably right. I would have sworn that the chef was supposed to be Julia Child and that she swapped the pits, but after this many years I’m evidently an unreliable narrator.

Strangely, though, I have no recollection whatsoever of watching the movie, and I remember none of the other dozen-odd sketches listed in the Wikipedia article.

Maybe Chevy Chase revamped it in the early days of SNL, but it aired on one of the episodes that Lorne Michaels pulled immediately after their first airings and were never seen again.

6

That’s great to know!

I’ve been wanting to watch that again for a long time.

7

I’ve also seen that sketch without having seen the whole movie. I assume I saw it on Youtube, but I really can’t remember.

8

Pasadena?

9

Paywalled, dammit.

Not only is everything SaaS nowadays, but then even when you do have the subscription the better and/or more pipular content costs extra.

10

It’s actually a Mid-Atlantic accent she picked up as a world traveler and a long association with members of the diplomatic corp.

11

Pasadena, or at least the rich part of it where Julia Child was raised, Is L.A.'s old money suburb. In her day, I strongly doubt she was the only Pasadenan who talked that way. The Mid-Atlantic accent was native to a small region of the country, but was widely learned and imitated by the upper classes generally, or those who aspired to be. This was further reinforced by Hollywood films.

12

Shouldn’t it be cherry stones?

13

In that case, why not olive stones as well?

And why do we call them pits when you still have pits after you remove the pits?

So many questions!