Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
cartoonish nude (LAN) poorly recites some of Playboy’s Party Jokes
— Whoa at Laraine in that flesh-colored skin-tight outfit!
— Laraine’s pretty much just using her Sherry voice, despite the fact she’s playing a different character.
— Overall, I didn’t really get this cold opening at all. What exactly was this?
STARS: **
OPENING MONTAGE
— Unlike the preceding episode, tonight’s jumbotron montage takes place at night.
— The animated graphic of a hand pulling a mouse’s tail has been removed.
— The cast shots are the same as the last episode.
MONOLOGUE
host sings “Thank Heaven For Little Girls” as explanation scrolls by
— A fairly funny line from Hef about being okay with hosting the show because his friends say he’s “almost as funny as Ralph Nader”.
— Please don’t tell me him singing “Thank Heaven For Little Girls” is going to be the main “joke”.
— Ah, another scrolling disclaimer gag, which is always reliable.
STARS: ***
ANGORA BOUQUET
vacant (JAC) uses Angora Bouquet soap to wash her face & her brain
— The concept is very funny, and this is a great showcase for Jane.
— The rake ending was hilarious and caught me off-guard.
— This season is on a roll with great fake ads.
STARS: ****
PLANET OF THE MEN VS PLANET OF THE WOMEN
spaceships use sexual weapons
— The characters’ sexual names (e.g. “Lieutenant Areola”) are pretty funny.
— I liked the bit with a mouse being sent to the Planet of the Women to scare them.
— Admittedly, I’m getting laughs from the cheap innuendos (e.g. one of the girls saying the men’s ship is “not as big as we had hoped”).
— Overall, a pretty obvious sketch with easy jokes but this was pulled off the right way and was the perfect length.
— The mention of the next episode being titled “Escape from the Planet of the Gays” brings to mind those awful “Gays in Space” sketches SNL would later do in the mid-2000s.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
ANYONE CAN HOST
GAM reminds viewers of the Anyone Can Host Contest
— Another straightforward Anyone Can Host announcement. I do like Garrett’s delivery here, however.
STARS: N/A
X-POLICE
vigilante X-Police (BIM) & (DAA) terrorize pot smokers (JOB) & (JAC)
— X Police! I had been looking forward to revisiting this sketch (I previously saw it many years ago) after recently discovering that hilarious Dan/Chevy “Police State” sketch from season 1.
— John’s facial expression after taking a toke from his joint was hilarious.
— Dan and Bill’s rough manhandling of Jane and John is very funny.
— I got a big laugh from Jane panicking and jumping out the window.
— LOL at the blooper with Bill having trouble opening the door
— Funny touch with a woozy Jane having a gigantic bandage covering most of her face during the epilogue.
— Overall, I liked this a lot. As I was expecting, it had a lot of the type of humor I loved about the “Police State” sketch.
— I’m not 100% sure if X-Police becomes a recurring sketch, but if it does, I’m looking forward to future installments.
STARS: ****
CIRCULAR BED SEX RESEARCH
Jimmy Carter (DAA) interrupts circular bed sex research of host & (JAC)
— This seems like this might be going in an interesting direction.
— Nope, I was wrong. Overall, I didn’t care for this. Not even Dan suddenly appearing as Jimmy Carter could save it.
STARS: **
LISTENING TO GREAT MUSIC
JOB on images evoked by “Ride Of The Valkyries”
— Funny to see John as himself hosting a show like this.
— I’m loving John’s increasingly over-the-top interpretations while listening to “Ride Of The Valkyries”.
— Hilarious ending with him absolutely destroying the set.
STARS: ****
WEEKEND UPDATE
press conference footage of Anita Bryant [real] getting a pie in the face
(TOS) leads a tour group through the Weekend Update set
Nadia Comaneci (GIR) says “come see me perform while I’m still cute”
NBC Dancing N hands DAA a bulletin- cocaine & heroin don’t mix
— The opening gag with Don Pardo incorrectly announcing Dan as “Don Aykroyd” and Dan correcting him almost seems to be a dig at a blooper from the preceding episode’s Update, where Dan seemingly forgot his own name during the sign-on (“I’m Dan………. uh…………… Aykroyd”).
— The real-life clip of homophobic Anita Bryant getting a pie thrown at her face by a gay protester during a press conference was hilarious! I can’t believe that really happened.
— Tom Schiller leading an on-the-set tour right in the middle of Update? Well, this is random.
— And the tour bit has already ended. What was the point of that bit?
— Some of the last few Update jokes have been pretty weak. At least Dan’s not as awkward as his disastrous last Update.
— Okay, the abortion joke was really funny.
— Good to see the return of Gilda’s Nadia Comaneci impression.
— Gilda’s Comaneci commentary is pretty funny, especially her line about her mother having a mustache.
— The return of the gag with an NBC Dancing N handing the anchors a bulletin, which I guess will be a recurring bit this season.
— The punchline of the ‘cocaine and heroin do not mix’ joke was great: “If you must snort, don’t shoot.”
STARS: ***
SEX IN CINEMA
love scene actors obey letter but not intent of Hays Code
— Funny part with the “PLEASE STAND BY” graphic showing up after Hef simply said “penis”.
— We’re in for a Cary Grant/Katherine Hepburn parody? I’m guessing Dan will play Grant and I can’t figure who in the female cast will play Hepburn.
— Oh, Bill is actually playing Grant and Laraine is Hepburn.
— Funny payoff with the wild movements of Bill’s foot during the bed scene.
STARS: ***
3 R’s
catatonic Colleen’s father (JOB) seeks damages from educators
— I think that’s the “How Your Children Grow” theme music that this sketch opened with.
— And Jane’s playing the talk show host again. Judging from how this sketch looks like it’s going to go, they might as well have just presented this as another “How Your Children Grow” installment.
— The return of Gilda’s catatonic Colleen character.
— John is very good as the Greek father.
— What the heck? Colleen dropping character and talking normal?
— The turn with Jane suddenly joining in on berating and physically abusing Gilda was kind of a weak joke, but I liked the way Jane pulled it off.
— Overall, despite some funny parts and good performances from everyone, this sketch didn’t really work too well as a whole.
STARS: **½
THE STORY OF H
host provides autobiographical narration
— Kinda interesting to see pictures of young Hef growing up, and the editing of this whole photo montage is very well-done.
— The humor of Hef’s narration treating his glorious lifestyle as a curse is falling flat.
— I think I just saw Buck Henry for a split second in the photo montage.
STARS: **
THE PLAYBOY PHILOSOPHY
host introduces The Playboy Philosophy to Socrates (JOB) & Plato (GAM)
— ANOTHER Playboy-related sketch??? This is getting tiring. Hef doesn’t have to play himself in EVERY sketch.
— John to Hef: “You have traveled wisely and visited all the topless resorts.”
— John is pretty stumbly with his lines in this.
— Overall, this was very weak and uninteresting.
STARS: *½
FUNERAL MAGICIAN
eulogist (BIM) cheers mourners by performing magic tricks during funeral
— This feels like the first regular, non-Hefner-type role that Hef has played all night.
— I’m really liking this. This sketch has a great concept that’s being executed very well by a perfect Bill Murray performance.
— Much like his friendly “now get out of here” catchphrase, Bill playfully saying “you knucklehead” is another funny Bill Murray-ism we’ve been seeing a lot this season.
— Hef is coming off weird in this role; he’s largely silent, almost as if the writers were afraid to give him any dialogue in a role where he’s not playing himself.
— I liked Dan managing to slip in his usual fast-paced commercial pitchman delivery during the ‘sawing the coffin in half’ part.
— On a similar note, Bill seemed to slip into his Nick the Lounge Singer character at the end, the way he led everyone into a “Put on a Happy Face” singalong.
— Overall, a lesser-known Bill Murray gem that I wasn’t even aware existed until now.
STARS: ****½
ANDY KAUFMAN
Andy Kaufman [real] sings “Oklahoma” & farm animal song, apes Elvis
— Not sure what the joke is so far. We’re just seeing straightforward singing of “Oklahoma”.
— Okay, the bad tap-dancing is kinda funny.
— Hmm, the song has now ended and there has yet to be any real jokes. I know this can’t be the entire segment.
— Oh, now he’s at the piano.
— The audience participation bit with the crowd repeating Andy every time he says “okay” is pretty funny.
— Now he’s doing another Elvis bit.
— As usual, very fun and energetic Elvis number.
— Overall, this was all over the place and was not one of Andy’s better SNL appearances. However, it was still pretty entertaining, even if it was low on actual humor.
STARS: ***
THE FARBERS AT THE PLAYBOY CLUB
the Farbers run into host while spending an evening at the Playboy Club
— I like this concept of the Farbers at the Playboy club, even though this counts as YET ANOTHER Playboy-related sketch.
— I like this part right now with Dan telling stories of Hef breeding his Playboy bunnies and killing them when get too old.
— John repeatedly calling Hefner “Ner” is pretty funny.
— Overall, these characters are always enjoyable in a relatable way.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A decent episode. However, almost all of the stronger segments of the night were ones that had little-to-no involvement from Hugh Hefner, while a lot of the weaker sketches were the Playboy-related stuff that focused heavily on Hef. As a host, he didn’t stretch at all at any point during the episode, and there was way too much of a sameness to his sketches. Luckily, the good non-Hefner pieces of the night kept this episode entertaining.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Madeline Kahn):
— a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Charles Grodin
I remember that hilarious “Angora Bouquet” spot from the “SNL Goes Commerical” special from 1991, I think!
No on can break things like Belushi. Hahaha I’m serious, he truly makes it into an art form.
Given how John Belushi died (speedball, if memory serves) that WU joke was eerily prescient. 🙁
I think this might have been the first time anyone said, “penis” in a non -medical TV show.
After watching that A&E “Secrets of Playboy” nightmare I can’t quite see this the same way. Hef should’ve never been given an ounce of pop culture spotlight, the old creep. All praise to Gilda, Jane, Lorraine & all the other women who had to put up with males like him: low on talent but rich in power & clout.
OK, just to explain the cold open – Playboy’s Party Jokes was a feature that was usually on the flipside of Playboy’s centerfold. Anyone familiar with the magazine in the 70s would have recognized this. Larraine is dressed as the black & white cartoon Playmate featured on that page, so she is intended to look as if she’s nude (the cartoon only wore stockings and gloves, and was usually positioned around a oversized martini glass, party noise maker or the like). The jokes she tells are typical of what appeared on that page (“Our unabashed dictionary defines….”). The backdrop she’s in front of is what the Party Jokes page actually looked like. When I saw this as a kid, I was stunned not only see this on TV (I had to find them buried in my dad’s closet, after all!), but thrilled to see how accurate Lorraine played it up! Lorraine, if you ever see this, thank you very much!
Apparently, the character Laraine played in the cold open is called a “femlin.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femlin
I think the joke about calling Dan “Don” had more to do with the blunder in the previous episode’s Update when Dan addressed Jane as “Joan” (which shocked me so much I had to rewind to make sure I heard it correctly.) Based on the way the joke is handled here, I wonder if Dan had tried to blame the mistake on the teleprompter (not that it would excuse messing up the name of someone he’d been working with for over two years, but he was clearly having a beyond disastrous night, so who knows WHERE his head was at.)
speaking of Playboy Party Jokes, in the early 70s, Playboy’s jokes editor was … Harold Ramis!
Watched this again last night. A few observations….
Younger audiences may not be aware of the place Playboy held in the culture, nor how risque it was. For me, growing up in the Chicago area, maybe it was even more alluring (my dad was a club key holder at one time, which of course made my imagination run wild). I was just a child when this show aired but remember how exciting it was to imagine how SNL might push the sexual boundaries this night (the space bit was loaded with innuendo, Larraine in the cold open…even the Hef biography piece may include a momentary peek of a boob or two. These things were not easy to access for a kid in the 70s!).
To me, Kauffman is always hilarious; the abstractness of his comedy wasn’t too far removed from Steve Martin’s, but Andy didn’t mind testing the patience of the audience. The fact that the Oklahoma song was done completely straight is exactly part of the joke. I thought it melded perfectly into the piano bit (“hey, here’s an idea. Why don’t you sing along!”). I think Andy would find these old albums from the 50s and just transcribe them verbatim. Remember also that Elvis had just died two months earlier and here Andy is still continuing his imitation. I don’t recall if that was seen as bad taste at the time, but he does a great job (apparently, Elvis himself got a huge kick out the impression).
During X-Police (one of my favorite obscure bits), does Belushi roll and smoke an actual joint? He’s obviously quite adept at doing so. We get a closeup of Murray crushing it at the end and it looks like real pot to me.
Speaking of obscure, musical guest Libby Titus is not well-known, but she is married to Donald Fagen of Steely Dan, who was arrested for assaulting her a year or two ago. Reports are that they have since reconciled.
I agree that a number of the sketches fall flat this night, but Murray’s funeral magician is indeed terrific. It’s not a far cry from Nick the Lounge Singer, which had debuted towards the end of the previous season.
RIP Libby Titus (who also turns up as one of the Andy Kaufman supporters in a Man On The Street piece on the show 5 years later).
https://variety.com/2024/music/obituaries-people-news/libby-titus-dead-singer-songwriter-wife-donald-fagen-1236178028/