its a live show, the last sketch is ALWAYS very strange, so that they can cut it down or streach it out without anyone nodiceing… the easiest way to make a varrible length skit is to make it make little sense to start with so no one watching can tell how long it ‘should’ be
Why? What happened?
IIRC, Tim Meadows’ character’s name was Dr. Poop. That was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on television.
Damon Wayans was playing a small part in a sketch starring John Lovitz, in which Lovitz played Mr. Monopoly, the mustached, top-hatted character from the boardgame.
From Live From New York, by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller:
[QUOTE]
And this is how he quit. During the live show, he made his entrance in the sketch not as a cop but as his flamboyant queen gay character that he later did on In Living Color. He came in prancing and delivered “Your lawyer’s here to see you” very swishy. He totally derailed the skech, derailed the sketch completely. The audience was completely thrown – What’s a gay cop doing in there? Is it about the cop or is it about Lovitz? It was just stunning. Lorne turned to me and said, “That’s it. I’ve got to fire him.” Lorne had no choice. Damon had sabotaged a sketch live on-air and Lorne fired him that night, which is what I think Damon wanted anyway.
[QUOTE]
That was producer Andy Breckman speaking. The book is almost entirely reminiscences from writers, producers, performers and Lorne Michaels himself.
BTW, whenever I see episodes from the 70’s – aside from the classics like the Coneheads or anything with Steve Martin – it seems to me the only reason the sketches are succeeding is that both the performers and the audience are high.
JasonG
Ah, I didn’t think it had occured when he was a cast member. Lorne must not have held much animosity as Wayans hosted at least once. Thanks for the info though, that books sounds really interesting.
Well, I’ve been watching the reruns on E! when I’m home during the day…and I love them. I laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh through the whole hour.
One of the characteristics of the episodes in the 70’s is that they often had no ending. In fact, it became a running joke. More than once, the skit would just meander to a halt, and the performers would break out of character and say something like, “Lorne, get me out of here”, or some similar sentiment.
I agree that there were lots of skits in the early days that weren’t that funny. Many of them were saved only by the raw talent of the players. I remember one killer bee episode that was pretty bad, but John Belushi saved the day by doing nothing more than spinning his antennas in a circle while Jane Curtin was talking.
I agree. Fallon and Fey are as good as anyone since the original cast to do Weekend Update. And I like Fallon a lot more than Sandler. Fallon actually uses jokes, not schtick, to get laughs.
Am I the only one who also thinks Tina Fey is kind of cute, too?
**
Classic example: the very first “Matt Foley: Motivational Speaker” sketch that Chris Farley ever did. Christina Applegate and David Spade played pot smoking children. If you watch them, they keep covering their faces with their hands throughout the sketch because they are on the verge of cracking up. Spade actually starts laughing after Farley picks him up, but turns his face away from the camera.
Some of the best SNL moments not in the script:
[ul]
[li]John Belushi as the Samarai, accidently cutting Buck Henry with his sword --on his forehead! Ow. Buck turns away from the camera, which he later regrets doing. He later said he should have walked right at the camera to show that anything can happen on live television, including bloodshed.[/li][li]Michael Palin dumps seafood salad down his pants, then sticks several cats down there. Unlike rehearsal, they crapped in his pants, leading to…[/li][li]…the next sketch, where he’s confessing to a priest Dan Aykroyd. You can see Danny almost lose it because of the stench.[/li][li]Gilda, in her Candy Slice the punk-rocker character, spits a mouthful of whisky in Belushi’s face. You can see he’s simultaneously pissed and impressed.[/li][li]Paul Shaffer’s accidently “floggin this and fuckin’ that” slip[/li][li]Candice Bergen totally losing it in a sketch with Gilda, some sort of American Stupid People Foundation psuedo-commercial[/li][li]Elvis Costello stopping the song he and his band were doing, launching into “Radio Radio” which was satirical of mass media to say the least.[/li][li]Right after the horse that played Mr. Ed died, Weekend Update did an interview with “Mrs. Ed.” Of course, the horse they got wouldn’t stay still, so half the time we had an interview with Mrs. Ed’s ass.[/li][li]Somebody throwing whipped cream or shaving cream at Eddie Murphy, and he finally yells, “this is live television, stop it!”[/li][/ul]
I remember a sketch in December of 1991 that did not get one laugh. I mean, IIRC, and I think I do, not a peep.
It aired on Dec. 7th, 1991, and was called “Pearl Harbor Headline”. Unfortunately, the site doesn’t have a transcript, but I remember the gist of it. The male cast members were portraying editors of some podunk newspaper, and debating how much prominence they should give to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Phil Hartman kept acting flabbergasted at the idea of putting anything besides the attack on page one, while the others kept saying, “Nnnnnnnnah…the school board voted for new uniforms for the high school basketball team,” “Pearl Harbor’s just a military base, and not even part of the US,”, and so forth. It ended with a display of the headlines: M&P stuff on the first few pages, “Japanese Attack ‘Base’” on page 12 or so, and last of all, a headline about Hartman’s character’s suicide.
And I swear, the audience was utterly silent throughout the entire thing. Perhaps there was a weak chuckle, but not much more than that.
Re. the OP: I remember that sketch clearly. I seem to be the only person here who laughed like a howling monkey at it. It’s a blind date between two people who’ve both obviously got MAJOR issues working: He suggests the airport bar for a blind date, and she completely flips out when he asks any remotely personal question.
It was the awkward pauses that really struck me as perfect, when you can almost SEE both of their life-histories and irrational impulses struggling beneath the having-a-wonderful-time pleasantries. It was a brief setup that clearly shows us two bizarrely warped personalities trying to “act normal” and follow societal rules about small talk and how to behave on first dates.
I also thought Chris Kattan did a lot with a small part, in his ability to ground the scene (and the audience) by being the voice of Normal People. His tapping the bar was brilliantly mundane (man, I sound like a fathead).
Maybe I read too much into it. I do that sometimes. But I loved the skit.
Okay, is it just possible that the character played by Ferrell wasn’t really Rick Jennings but just some fellow at the airport bar killing time until he could board his flight? It’s not like he seemed to know anything at all about Ray. Could he just be amusing himself (or trying to) with this woman who mistook him for her blind date?
Either that, or maybe it was funny in some sort of Douglas Adams sort of way. Kind of like every date Arthur Dent ever was on?
High Concept? Time Filler? Lord knows, over the years SNLs done both. Some worked, some didn’t. On the first show, no one knew what to make of Andy Kaufman’s immigrant man till he started his record player and lipsynced “Mighty Mouse.”
SNL does have a habit of stretching out sketches way too long. There was that “Belissimo” (so?) sketch where all the staff at an Italian restaurant strip down to their skivvies and try to boff Kirsty Alley. It continued long after it stopped being funny. On the other hand, John Belushi could keep everyone watching rolling on the floor by just wiggling his bee antenna or for that matter, with just a timely raising of an eyebrow.
I think some of the best sketches were:
Madeline Kahn performing “I Feel Pretty” as the Bride of Frankenstein.
Lily Tomlin performing “St James Infirmary” in a nurse’s uniform.
Elliot Gould in the “Killer Bees From Mexico” and “Last Episode of Star Trek” sketches
Lorne Micheals offering the Beatles $3,000 to perform on SNL. “If you want to give less to Ringo, that’s up to you… I’d rather not get involved”
Actually, a sketch with that intended premise would be funny.