April 23, 1977 – Eric Idle / Alan Price, Neil Innes (S2 E20)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Irishman (BIM) talks when British soldier (host) threatens potato torture
 
— I like whenever this era of SNL would do this type of cold opening with a random premise; something that would sadly go on to become unheard of in SNL’s more recent decades.
— Pretty funny premise with Eric using potato torture to get Bill’s Irishman to confess.
— I love the clever way they segued into LFNY, with Bill answering “live”, “from New York”, and “it’s Saturday night” in response to three questions Eric has asked him .
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host & Queen Elizabeth II (Jeanette Charles) emcee Save Britain telethon
     
— Great entrance from Eric, frantically and sloppily rolling out a red carpet.
— I got a big laugh from him quickly throwing an audience member out of their chair so he can give the chair to the queen.
— Judging from what Eric has said, I’m assuming this fundraising event will be a running segment throughout the episode.
— Very funny part with the queen kicking Dan in the groin as part of a “kick a Canadian” contest.
STARS: ****

AMERICAN DOPE GROWERS UNION
support home-grown homegrown
 
— The title sounds familiar; I must’ve heard about this sketch on an SNL board.
— I’m assuming this is a parody of a real commercial from the time. Despite being unfamiliar with the source material, I found this bit funny enough.
STARS: ***

THE NIXON INTERVIEWS
David Frost (host) gets little good material
     
— Eric’s intro alone is hilarious.
— Gilda’s back to playing Julie Nixon. It’s still unclear to me why Laraine took over the impression in the Broderick Crawford episode.
— This “temporary audio problem” portion with the sound being censored during a crucial revelation from Nixon is very funny, especially the exaggerated gestures Dan and Eric are doing during it.
— I’m loving the gradually ridiculous tone of the sketch.
— Overall, a fantastic, well-done sketch.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ALAN PRICE)

BODY LANGUAGE
by Gary Weis- host narrates a primer on the subject
     
— Love the format of this.
— A very fun short so far.
— I especially like the part with Bill shooting the foreigner in the head just because of his confusing gestures.
— “An Idle-Weis production”? Wait, you mean to tell me a short as hilarious as this was somehow directed by GARY WEIS???
STARS: ****½

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 1
bad childhood memories surface during BIM’s editorial on spanking
   
— They’re letting Bill do lots of Update commentaries lately.
— Bill’s personal childhood story is hilariously dark. His delivery is fantastic and the camera’s slow zoom-in on him is a great touch that’s adding to the grim vibe.
— And now, this has gotten even funnier and more disturbing with Bill’s overly-anxious, slow description of the spanking.
— Overall, this segment from Bill has got to be one of my favorite Update commentaries of this whole season.

OXXON
Oxxon blames rising oil prices on their own expensive commercials
 
— A decent fake ad. Can’t think of anything else to say besides that.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE, PART 2
Emily Litella sings “I Will Swallow Him” to show her love for Tom Snyder

— What was with the camera dissolve when Jane turned to the other camera to introduce the next commentator?
— Ohh, here comes yet another visit from Emily Litella…
— “Air ‘solution’”? THAT’S Litella’s “funny” mixed-up term of the night? Really?
— Ha, they actually made Litella self-aware of how incredibly lame the “Air ‘solution’” pun is, by having her stop in the middle of the bit and call it her worst one yet.
— And now, we find out who she was talking about a few cold openings ago where she revealed she’s in love with someone. Turns out it’s Tom Snyder.
— Overall, Litella’s commentary wasn’t quite as tiresome as usual. It was redeemed a bit by her actually calling out how bad that “Air ‘solution’” bit was, her “I Will Swallow Him” mix-up was fairly funny in a dirty way, and at least this commentary didn’t end with her usual “bitch” remark.
STARS (FOR BOTH WEEKEND UPDATE HALVES): ***

HEAVY WIT CHAMPIONSHIP
in the ring, (host) & (JOB) try to get laughs
   
— What was with the weird quiet beginning before Dan started speaking? Were we supposed to hear an opening voice-over that failed to be heard?
— Surprisingly, this is Belushi’s first appearance of the whole night. I was wondering where he was.
— The premise is pretty creative.
— Eh, I’m not really liking the execution of this idea all that much so far.  The idea of punches being replaced by joke punchlines is actually coming off kinda lame.
— I am, however, getting some laughs from Eric’s bad jokes, but I think that’s mostly because of his usual funny Brit delivery.
— LOL at Eric completely missing Garrett with the pie. I don’t think that was intentional.
— Pretty funny ending.
STARS: **

RON NASTY: “CHEESE & ONIONS”
Rutle Ron Nasty (Neil Innes) performs “Cheese & Onions”

— Good to see the return of The Rutles.
— Overall, pretty funny lyrics. I especially laughed at the part with him spelling out “cheese and onions”.
STARS: ***½

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
low-budget British war film has simple flashbacks
   
— I liked the pointlessness of that ‘goodbye’ flashback.
— Oh, they’re doing another comically pointless flashback. Not as funny this second time.
— I like how you could see Gilda rushing from one part of the set to another during the screen ripple effect at the end of one of the flashbacks just now.
— Okay, these flashbacks are getting less and less funny.
— Funny touch with Gilda actually “reading” the bullet sound effects in the letter.
— Ha, I like how they’re now re-doing the exact same flashback that had just happened.
— Dan’s way of walking is very funny.
— Overall, a very up-and-down sketch. I loved the premise of low-budget flashbacks, but the flashbacks kept going back-and-forth from being funny to being tiresome, to funny again, to tiresome again, etc.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (NEIL INNES)

PLAIN TALK
(host) & (DAA) understand each other’s nonsense sentences
 
— Second sketch tonight with Eric interviewing Dan.
— LOL at Eric’s nonsense-filled intro.
— Oh, they’re both saying nonsense words throughout their conversation. This is cracking me the hell up.
— Overall, a very funny and silly short sketch, featuring excellent performances from Eric and Dan. And it’s so impressive how they both managed to speak all those nonsense sentences rapid-fire with total ease without messing up at all.
STARS: ****½

TRANS EASTERN AIRLINES
flight attendant Sherry accommodates demands of gun-toting passengers
   
— Interesting premise with the casual gun use from non-threatening passengers.
— LOL at John asking if he can “smoke a joint in the can”.
— Overall, a pretty solid sketch that was pulled off well.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE (ALAN PRICE)

SAVE GREAT BRITAIN TELETHON
BIM attempts to chug a bottle of grape juice after the $20 is withdrawn
 
— Pretty funny bit with Bill trying to chug a bottle of grape juice but giving up after drinking only 1/3rd of it. I also liked Eric’s angry shoving of Bill afterwards.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS
$35,000,000 has been raised by selling the Queen
  
— Good conclusion to the telethon running segment.
— Eric makes some funny complaints about Daylight Savings Time always being on Saturdays.

---

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Another great Eric Idle episode, though I liked his first one from earlier this season a little better. This was still a strong, fun episode with very little to complain about.
— I like how both of the times Eric has hosted so far, the show seems to have a certain unique energy that you don’t see in other hosts’ episodes; the show has had an “SNL/Monty Python hybrid” vibe in Eric’s episodes so far.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Elliott Gould):
— a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Shelley Duvall