I’m trying to remember what one of the Pythons said about hosting SNL. I’m fairly certain it was either Michael Palin or Eric Idle. They would have been referencing a guest host spot in the early years, but talking long after the fact.
It was to the effect of having told the SNL cast, “You lot are so brave!” Not just because of performing live, in and of itself, but because of the restrictions of live TV. Python sketches could begin and end when and how they needed to. Sometimes they’d start with dialogue or action already in progress, and that was a large part of the joke: the audience didn’t know what the heck was happening. And when a sketch reached the end of its usefulness, they could switch to an animated bit, or Chapman would come on and say “This is silly,” or something would blow up…SNL couldn’t do that, of course: every sketch had to have a setup, it had to develop, and it had to come to some kind of conclusion. So whoever it was was highly impressed by this, and said so.
Does this ring a bell with anyone? I’m looking for either a direct quote or a close paraphrase. Either Palin or Idle; I think they’re the only two Pythons who guested on SNL.
I seem to think I recently heard Eric Idle say something along those lines. He was recently on Marc Maron’s podcast and I seem to recall him saying something very similar while talking about his experience hosting.
In the early days, SNL would often end a sketch by “dropping the cow,” inspired by Monty Python (specifically Holy Grail). Lorne Michaels, a Python devotee, felt that there was not always the need to invent an ending to a sketch; once the joke was told, just Drop The Cow and move on. So they dropped a stuffed canvas cow from the rafters, the actors would look disgusted or amused as need be, then fade out.
Another twist ending was during a “Killer Bees” sketch (“Your pollen or your wife, senor”!) where the camera goes awry in the middle of the sketch. Lorne appears, says he’ll take care of it, and another camera follows him to the control booth where the director is swigging Scotch and is completely drunk. All the while you hear John Belushi telling the host how Lorne is probably in there right now firing his own father.
