Disclaimer – “The Boy In The Plastic Pants Suit” is being
preempted. This is accompanied by a picture of young John Travolta in a plastic
see through shirt. This would be the last disclaimer ever and thankfully it was
a silly one. C+
Nixon’s Book – Richard Nixon (Aykroyd) plugs his memoirs and
encourages the American public to buy them despite the fact that they hate him
too much to do so. He even brings out the “Don’t Buy Books by Crooks” shirt he
wore during last week’s goodnights. He then encourages people to buy the book
not to read, but to kick around as you don’t have him around to do that to
anymore. He even enlists the help of his Marine Corps honor guards Gerard
Wagner (Morris) and Ron Quinn (Doyle-Murray) to show us this with a place kick.
This was a decent cold open even though it felt like there was one joke to it.
I did like his line “Pat’s already on her fourth copy”. C+
Monologue – Buck comes out and says that SNL keeps asking
him back to host because they feel they get a sense of class from him. He then
goes on to describe bonding with the likes of James Mason, Julie Christie and
Warren Beatty during filming of “Heaven Can Wait”. Meanwhile, the crawl at the
bottom of the screen tells us that he doesn’t know any of those people and he’s
going through a mid-life crisis because his career has been in the toilet since
“The Graduate”. This was a pretty harshly funny text heavy monologue that
showed Buck to be a great sport. I especially liked the line about how he lives
alone without furniture and just a few magazines and a telescope. B-
Nerd Prom – Lisa Loopner (Radner) and Todd DiLaBounta
(Murray) are preparing for their prom. Before Todd shows up, Mrs. Loopner
(Curtin) gives her a “heart to heart” talk about the birds of the bees. Todd
shows up with his father/chauffeur Marshall DiLaBounta (Henry). As the parents
go to get Tang, Todd gives Lisa a wrist corsage that turns out to be a can of
spring snakes. This is the first Nerds sketch to acknowledge the death of Mr.
Loopner. I thought it was funny that he was born without a spine, invented the
slinky without getting a patent and lost his lawsuit. They invite Mrs. Loopner
to ride along with them. This was pretty funny. I really liked the snakes gag
followed by Bill’s usual noogie shtick and jokes about Lisa’s small breasts. I
also liked how Curtin stated that her marriage grew out of mutual dislike. This
and the sketch from the Rolling Stones and Richard Benjaimin episode the
following season have to be the most famous and memorable Nerds sketches of all
time. The Rolling Stones one was included on the best of either Aykroyd or
Radner and this sketch made it onto the box of next seasons DVD set. B-
Samurai TV Repairman – Mr. Dantley (Henry) brings his set to
Samurai Futaba (Belushi) to get it fixed in time for the NBA playoffs tomorrow.
He fixes it by hitting it with a sword and installing two knives as antennae. I
liked Belushi threatening hara-kiri when discovering that Inspector 69 is his
mother and then Henry saying it was actually Inspector 89. This was a funny,
but largely derivative and forgettable Samurai sketch. B-
Sodom Chamber of Commerce – Sodom Mayor Abanasher (Henry)
reports from a trip that Sodom has a terrible reputation for sodomy, but the
rest of the board of commerce (Belushi, Aykroyd) don’t see what’s so debauched
about sodomy. Abanasher invites Noab the Hittite (Murray) to persuade the board
to play down sodomy in their image for tourism purposes and not play them up as
attraction. He even invites Curtin, Radner and Newman to sing a little jingle
about Sodom he’s prepared. This seemed like an underwritten one-note sketch to
me. The only thing that stood out as funny to me was the comparisons to other
biblical towns. C-
Weekend Update w/ Curtin and Aykroyd – Best Jokes:
McDonalds, Charlie Chaplin. Aykroyd is wearing sunglasses for some reason.
Maybe he was too high? Newman and the “Update Artist” deliver a report on the
“Son Of Sam” trial. As usual, the drawings look like they were drawn by a
child. This was too derivative of the bit that Chevy ran into the ground in the
first season. Murray (also wearing sunglasses, but doesn’t seem high at all)
comes out to deliver another review of “The Greek Tycoon” complete with a real
clip from the film and a summary of the plot because he didn’t have time to see
the film. He points out the obvious similarities to the film and the life story
of Jackie Onassis. He calls Jackie to see how she feels, but can’t get through
so he just addresses her directly as if she were watching the show about how
she has been robbed and her privacy invaded as well as how she deserves some
points and screen writer’s credit. Aykroyd’s Betty Ford commentary started out
kind of slow, but his Mary Todd Lincoln were funny. Finally, he and Curtin do a
point/counterpoint on jogging after briefly arguing over which viewpoint to
take. Curtin accuses Aykroyd of being an overweight alcoholic pig and Aykroyd
says jogging is just a cheap excuse for her to run around half naked. It’s good
to see the “ignorant slut” line comeback, but this felt shorter than the
others. B-
Olympia Café – Pete (Belushi) briefly haggles with Morris
and Curtin before chasing after a loose sheep in the basement. Al (Henry) from
the guard dog renters stops in on appointment to get a dog to guard the store
during closing hours. He must fire Nico (Murray) in order to have a dog around
at night because he sleeps in the back. However, Pete refuses to pay more than
$20 when a dog costs $55 so Nico gets to stay. This was one of the weaker
Olympia Café sketches. There wasn’t much in terms of humor except for Morris
and Curtin’s back and forth with Belushi. C-
Mr. Mike’s Least Loved Music - O’Donoghue sings (Baby
Ghouls) while a bloodied vampire (Newman) signs in the back ground while Mr.
Mike tells a vampire story. There wasn’t much to this either. It really felt
like Micheal O’Donoghue was phoning this in. B-
(Even) More Inescts To Worry About – Joan Face (Curtin)
interviews Dr. Russell Bedanza (Henry) on which insects pose the greatest
threat to the human species. He settles on his own namesake “the Bedanza Mite”
which burrows in to head openings and through the human brain and come out and
eats through household objects in there for the sake of “art”. Henry made the
most of the material given to him, but this just wasn’t as funny as the
previous sketch with Belushi. The “faggot/maggot” mix up did make me both
chuckle a bit and wonder whether it was really intentional. C+
Stunt Puppy – Director Brian Welles (Murray) is giving the
spoiled abusive girl (Radner), permissive mom (Curtin) and psychotic hateful
father (Henry) their motivations. The animal wrangler (Morris) brings in the
puppy who can defecate on cue. The stunt puppy is bought in on cue. Newman is
the voice of the dog. This is pretty much the same formula as the “stunt baby”
sketch from Henry’s last hosting gig in November. Seeing him swing around a
fake stuffed dog on a leash wasn’t as funny and he just didn’t seem as
committed as last time. Gee, I’m starting to notice a pattern here. C+
Bad Conceptual Art – Leonard Pinth-Garnell (Aykroyd) defines
“conceptual art” ambiguously and introduces “Pavlov Video Chicken #1”. This is
an exhibit featuring Helen Trouva (Radner) dancing around like a chicken for
hundreds of hours with two screens featuring Amos Haley’s (Morris) eye and
Elian Blazel’s (Newman) mouth spouting random sayings. The only thing that was
funny was when Aykroyd called the performance “stunningly pointless” saying it
had “absolutely no meaning whatsoever” and that it “really sucks”. This was a
forgettable “Bad” outing, but at least it got in, got its jokes and got out
unlike some of the previous ones. C+
Franken and Davis V – Al and Tom come out and announce that
they will be performing their famous sumo wrestling routine since they get so
many requests, but Al insists on introducing his “wife” and “son” as well as
Tom’s girlfriend in the audience. Tom objects and decides to reveal the truth
to the audience that he and Al are gay lovers. Al says he is joking and this is
a part of their routine which Tom denies. Al is upset that he chose to do this
in front of everyone, but Tom tries to convince him that the audience respects
him more because of this which they vehemently deny. His son storms out saying
he hates him and Al runs back stage and shoots himself. Watching this now in
the wake of Tom’s death is a little poignant, I’ll admit. Having Al’s fake son
“Al Jr.” in the audience was kind of cute. I also liked the end where Tom
explains to the audience that Al didn’t really shoot himself. This did fell
like a retread of the sketch with Al’s parents form the Christmas episode, but
this was just funnier and better executed. B-
Well, this was a weak finale that kind of fizzled out the
season. The previous episode would’ve been a much better one to end on. It’s a
little sad to see a show form this era tread too much on familiar ground the
way shows in more modern eras tend to do. In fact, this felt more like the
premiere with Steve Martin than anything with the show becoming really weak
after Update and Franken and Davis being the most worthwhile piece in the whole
show.
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