Jesse and Sammy – In a slightly Godfather-esque opening, the
Reverend goes to Sammy Davis Jr. (Crystal) for advice on hosting SNL as he has
advised presidents and represents “the whole rainbow coalition.” Sammy tries to
get him to sing and loosen up as a speaker. They sing “Red Rubber Ball” by The
Circle. This was a rather convoluted opening and it just seemed like a cheap
excuse for Crystal to trot out his Sammy impression again, but at least it let
the audience know Jesse was comfortable enough in a live setting and had a
sense of humor. The only really funny parts were Jesse’s imitations of Bush Sr.
kissing up to Reagan and Reagan falling asleep in the middle of a press
conference. He also made a funny casual remark about taking Dick Ebersol’s job.
C+
Monologue – Jesse admits he’s a little nervous and that he’s
doing SNL because a friend convinced him he needed to “get a last shot at America’s
minds” through the show’s political satire. He then makes some self deprecating
comments about his campaign and how impossible it is to satisfy the press
because they keep dogging him. Although he is well known as a great public
speaker, this part was just barely coherent and seemed like he was rambling a
bit. Jesse then mentions how NBC and SNL employ a lot of black people as a
buzzing noise is heard. He goes into the control room where the director and
several black stand in a rush to switch places before he walks in. This last
part was pretty funny, although the line “and I’ll bring the car around” made
me cringe just a little. C+
Willie and Frankie – Crystal and Guest debut these rather
loathsome characters. They meet in the elevator which gets stuck, Crystal
mentions how the last time this happened he just started pounding on the sharp
metal part of the door until his hand started to hurt and from there they
launch into more descriptions of their masochistic tendencies in excruciating
detail. I can see why some hate these sketches and say they’re immature or
juvenile. They do have pretty irritating voices and this sketch is just subtle
gross out humor. Still, they sometimes have their moments when they get just
too ridiculous. I did chuckle at Guest putting his head in a vice and stapling
his lip as well as Crystal pouring paint thinner into his eye. C-
Wrong Voice, Right Face – Billy Idol (Pamela Stephenson)
advertises this record as Shearer does the voice over. Idol is singing about
how he has the punk rock look of the 80s and the voice of an old crooner from
the 40s (“though I look like Sting/I still sing like Bing”). This was a funny
brief commercial. Stephenson had the impression down well. The voice may have
been a little too high, but the fist moves and the facial expressions were dead
on. B-
Refrigerator Magnet Safety Advisory Board – Mary Gross plays
a concerned parent who brings her child to the emergency room because he had
been eating refrigerator magnets that are made to look like cookies and
candies. The kid complained of mild stomach pains and had accumulated metal
objects around his midsection. Rich Hall plays a doctor warning kids not to eat
magnets and parent to look for symptoms such as attraction to metal objects and
an annoying tendency to point north. This was another brief fake commercial
with a rather lame premise, but it was still worth a couple of laughs. C+
The Question Is Moot – Jackson hosts this game show where he
would simply give a lengthy explanation on why the question is totally
irrelevant and somehow place the blame squarely on Reagan before any of the
contestants (Kroger, Drefyus, Gross) could even answer. Although I can’t really
describe this sketch any further, I still have to say it was very funny and
executed very well if not just a little preachy at times. Jackson played his
part well and they also knew exactly where to end this. This was possibly one
of the best sketches of the night. B+
First Class Flight/Tippi Turtle – This is the second
appearance of Short’s Ed Grimley character that ends up on a plane in the seat
right next to Jackson. Grimley is just getting back from the vacation he won on
“Wheel of Fortune” and will not stop talking to Jackson about it in great
detail. This aggravates Jackson as he is just trying to get some sleep. As if
that weren’t enough, this sketch turns into a parody of the Twilight Zone’s
“Night mare at 50,000 Feet” as Grimley starts raving about a monster he sees on
the wing of the plane. Jackson decides this sketch is just too stupid and
simply walks out. He tells the guys in the control room he is going to lie down
as the switch takes place once again. They decide to go the cartoon which is
the second installment of Tippi Turtle where the title character shows us how
to take the mechanism out of musical greeting cards and hide them in random
places to torment others. This was an okay segment. Jackson walking out as
Short was just starting to play it too big was pretty funny. It kind of gave me
flashbacks to the Hulk sketch from the horrendous George Foreman/Hole episode,
but this had much funnier writing behind it and it was a pretty creative way to
segue between segments. B-
Larry’s Death – Stephenson and Belushi are Larry’s parents
and Crystal is his friend from work who comes to their house to deliver the
news that their son was killed in an accident at the mill. He claims that
Larry’s severed head is in his bowling bag. Crystal then says he was just
kidding and then goes back and forth between the two stories much to the confusion
of Larry’s parents. They later find a Styrofoam head in the bag and Belushi
shoots Crystal at the end. This sketch was pretty funny and well acted by
everyone even if Crystal wore a bit thin. B+
Saturday Night News w/Rev. Jesse Jackson – Jackson comments
on nukes coming into New York and Bishop Tutu winning the Nobel Peace Prize. He
then does a lengthy last Reagan/Mondale debate. He basically plays clips of
Reagan’s statements and explains what he really meant to say and exposes him as
a hypocrite. This bit was also pretty funny. Jackson then explains that NBC
asked him to give equal time to someone with opposing viewpoints of his and
brings out Young Republican Bob James (Martin Short) who very nervously reads
an editorial that viciously attacks Jackson and his policies with Jackson
sitting right next to him. Short was really funny here and didn’t go too over
the top. Belushi attempts to bring back his rap routine and Jackson stops him
and gives him what for. Jacksons diss against Belushi was great. B+
Jeane Kirkpatrick – Jackson professes his “love jones” for
Jeane and confesses the only reason he decided to get into politics was to get
closer to her. There really wasn’t much to this but Jackson listing her
political accomplishments. C-
Saturday Night News pt. II – Hall talks about undecided
voters and mentions that he was to meet with the chairman of the League of
Undecided Voters, Barry Moss (Guest). They were supposed to meet for lunch, but
it took a long time for him to pick a restaurant. He wavers on everything from
what to order to where to sit. This really went nowhere. It was really a one
joke sketch and Guest really bought it down. I did like his line about how the
undecided voter knows who he is going to vote for but doesn’t know if they’re going
to vote. Hall introduces Mr. Blackwell (Shearer) who merely talks about what
David Hasselhoff , Joan Collins, and Tony Geary wore to the Soap Opera Awards.
One dry humorist (with a more limited appeal) follows another, I guess. I’m
sure Shearer’s impression was great and I liked this delivery, but this really
didn’t land with me. The Geary comments were just funny enough. C-
Rainbow Coalition – Jackson come out on the home base stage
to deliver another monologue. This time, he merely lists those select groups
excluded from his coalition including Dick Cavett, fan club founders, mini golf
proprietors, female tennis dress shoppers, guys with side burns longer than
their hair and those who advised Jesse to host SNL after Eddie Murphy left.
This was worth a few chuckles and wasn’t totally dry or preachy. C+
Funny Black People – Jackson mentions that Ebersol (who is
shown)told him he couldn’t find and “qualified” funny black people to be on SNL
and laments how blacks were told they weren’t “qualified” to do anything for
decades. Jackson mentions that there are in fact plenty of funny black people
out there and encourages any aspiring black/Hispanic/minority comedians to
write to Dick Ebersol care of NBC. This can only be seen in the Netflix edit of
this episode. I appreciate Jackson wanting more funny minorities to be on SNL
(we all know they could’ve used some between 84-90) but this bit fell kind of
flat. It came off pretty preachy and Jesse started to ramble again. C-
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