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
Yes, whenever Eric Idle hosted, it’s obvious that the cast and writers stepped up their game, just as they did with Steve Martin or Buck Henry. He’s only one episode away from joining the “5-Timers Club” – too bad that it appears that he essentially retired from performing post-Spamalot!
Funny enough, a lot of viewers didn’t get that Nasty was played by Neil Innes (despite performing the future-Rutles-track “Shangri-La” as himself) – this version of ‘Cheese and Onions’ was bootlegged for YEARS as “John Lennon live on SNL.”
(Oh, also – if you haven’t found it yet, the proper album recording of “Cheese and Onions” beats the pants off this one…. it goes from ‘funny Lennon pastiche’ to ‘damn near a Pepper-era masterpiece.'”)
The “American Dope Growers Union” ad was a spoof of the International Ladies’ Garments Workers Union ads that aired a good bit in the ’70s, like this one (sorry that the quality is so bad, but it’s the closest I could find to the episode’s air date):
I’m actually old enough to remember those ILGWU theme song commercials as a pre-teen child during the late ’70s…
British vs Irish, wow that’s a brave premise to do considering what was going on in Northern Ireland at the time.