February 21, 1981 – Charlene Tilton / Todd Rundgren, Prince (S6 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Rocko Weineretto & Weindulah weigh in before their upcoming bout

  

— Immediately, we’re already opening with Joe’s SNL Sports persona.
— He sets up the Rocko Weineretto and Weindulah boxing match that’s happening later in this episode.
— The weigh-in part is pretty funny.
— Overall, this was a very short, straightforward cold opening just here to set up the upcoming match.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)

MONOLOGUE
upon discovering girlfriend ANR was with CHR last night, JOP vows revenge

   

— Fun entrance from Charlene.
— This girl’s got energy and bubbliness for miles. I can see why it would annoy some viewers, but honestly, I’m finding it kinda endearing.
— The LFNY part was weird.
— That’s it? That’s the whole monologue?
— Oh, never mind, we get what appears to be a continuation of the monologue (or at least, I’m COUNTING it as a continuation), with Charlene meeting Charles backstage after having just talked about him when she was onstage.
— There’s another appearance of the “backstage SNL locker room” that we used to see all the time back in the original era.
— Joe “(menacingly) I’ll get that Charlie Rocket if it’s the last thing I do.” And tonight’s running premise is officially off. Unfortunately, it’s also not very funny so far.
STARS: **

GREATEST RECORDS OF ALL TIME
albums contain unlikely make out music

  

— Ann sure got changed fast from the monologue.
— LOL at “An evening with Hugh Downs”
— Not much to say here. Some laughs, but once you got the joke, there wasn’t much else to this.
STARS: **½

MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
Mr. Speedy (GIG) delivers a package

     

— The debut of a legendary recurring Eddie Murphy sketch!
— I’m loving his version of the “won’t you be mine” opening song.
— Immediately, we get “bitch” as our very first “special word of the day”. Man this sketch is already starting hot.
— Classic bit with him asking viewers to test the word of the day on their mothers.
— We get the deep-voiced “Who is it?” door-answering bit, though I recall his delivery of it sounding a little funnier in some of the later installments of this sketch.
— Hilarious passing reference to Richard Pryor’s infamous freebasing accident.
— Overall, this was freakin’ great, and feels like such a breath of fresh air in a season like this. This sketch alone really embodies how much Eddie was the savior of this season. I’m looking forward to future installments of this sketch.
STARS: ****½

PORK PARADE
the Pork Queen (host) & her subjects get ready for the big parade

 

— Denny looks even tinier than usual, making her entrance through that little door at the beginning of this sketch.
— Okay, I finally got one laugh out of this dull sketch so far, at the reveal of Yvonne being known as the “Chitlin Princess”.
— Is Yvonne going to have ANY lines in this? Speaking of whom, what the hell has happened to her these last few episodes? It’s funny how back in my Karen Black episode review, I went on about how all the claims that Yvonne was a glorified extra during her featured player stint were exaggerated, as she had been getting a surprising amount of noteworthy speaking roles. I seem to have spoken too soon, as that Karen Black episode was followed by a long string of episodes where Yvonne either didn’t appear in or only appeared in a non-speaking bit role, including this sketch. She hasn’t gotten anything noteworthy to do since that Karen Black episode. This must be where her reputation nowadays for being such an underused cast member comes from.
— (groan) What in the world is this sketch going for?
— What’s with Gail occasionally making random pig snorting sounds? If that’s her attempt to save this awful sketch, it ain’t workin’. You know, I’ve liked Gail for most of this season, but I can’t help but notice that in the last few episodes, she’s begun resorting to playing some of her roles a little TOO cartoonish and over-the-top (e.g. Where’s Cooter, Was I Ever Red), which isn’t working for me. I can’t help but wonder if that’s an act of desperation from her, due to how badly this season has been bombing lately.
— Overall, boy, was this a bad, sloppy sketch. No idea why they thought this would be funny. This is exactly like the type of sketch that used to immediately come to my mind when thinking about how bad this season supposedly is.
STARS: *

ROCKET REPORT
CHR takes host for her first NYC subway ride

     

— Fun premise with Charles and Charlene at a subway, where Charlene is going to take her very first subway ride.
— Hey, Charles is actually interviewing people! This is the true strength of the Rocket Reports.
— Ha, the lights in the train suddenly going out brings back childhood memories of when that often happened when I rode on the New York trains as a kid.
— Overall, a pretty solid edition of Rocket Report. I’m guessing this ends up being the last-ever appearance of this segment. At least this ended on a good note.
STARS: ***½

A FIDDLER BE ON THE ROOF
a movie starring Stevie Wonder (EDM) as Tevye

 

— Funny visual of Eddie as Stevie Wonder singing Yiddish lyrics in Eddie’s now-famous old Jewish voice.
— Very short, and I would’ve liked to have seen them do more with this, but this was still fine for what it was.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Todd Rundgren performs “Healer”

WEEKEND UPDATE
David Stockman (GIG) prefers “Catch a crook, eat a meal” to food stamps

   

— (*sigh*) Here we go…
— As usual, a very tepid beginning with little-to-no reaction from the audience in response to the first few jokes.
— Oh, god, now Charles is resorting to repeatedly stomping his foot on the ground after a particular weak joke. Man, his increasing desperation for laughs these last few episodes is pathetic.
— Oh, great, now Charles is returning to the hyped-up, manic delivery he keeps falling back on these last few Updates.
— And now Gail has resorted to sheepishly repeating some of her punchlines after it bombs with the audience. God, Update is killing me with its sad desperation lately.
— The audience may not have seemed to mind that corny “Ragu music / Pastafarians” joke, but it had me groaning my head off.
— LOL, Gilbert looks like a little kid playing dress-up. What’s up with that? I guess his strangely-low chair has something to do with that, but seriously, if I had seen a screencap of this Update commentary without knowing that was Gilbert Gottfried, I’d probably think that was either a child or a woman under that wig and glasses.
— The “Catch a crook, eat a meal” program is a pretty funny concept in Gilbert’s commentary.
— The joke about President Reagan being a bad actor actually got a pretty good audience reaction.
— No idea how to respond to the bit with Charles delivering an exaggeratedly angry, manic rant towards President Reagan about saving money. Maybe I wouldn’t mind it if Charles hadn’t developed a tendency to randomly rely on hyped-up, manic delivery in general lately. This anti-Reagan/saving money rant also just seemed to be an excuse to receive clapter from the audience, which I probably wouldn’t have had a problem with back in those days, but our current Trump era has permanently burned me out on comedians relying on clapter in place of actual comedy.
— No Joe Piscopo SNL Sports commentary tonight, as Charles mentions that Joe will be hosting the aforementioned boxing match later in the show.
— An overall short Update tonight, which is one of the few saving graces of it.
STARS: **

LINCOLN BEDROOM
Lincoln Bedroom haunts Nancy Reagan’s (GLM) daughter-in-law Doria (ANR)

   

— Okay, this certainly looks like a weird sketch. I’m interested to see where this will go, though.
— What was with that random door-knocking sound when nobody was even knocking? Where did that come from?
— LOL at Eddie’s creepy entrance.
— Randomly throwing a Mary Todd Lincoln appearance into a sketch is usually always a sure-fire laugh-getter.
— Overall, despite an interesting premise and a good performance from Gail, this sketch didn’t amount to much.
STARS: **

GILLIE AND CHARLENE
rumors of CHR’s exploits lead both host & GIG to vow revenge against him

  

— Another instance of Gilbert being called by his backstage nickname “Gillie”.
— Gilbert’s sounding more sullen and bored than ever in this sketch.
— Now we’re resorting to a whole bunch of lazy gay jokes throughout this.
— Ha, that ending close-up of a sullen Gilbert Gottfried staring deadpan into the camera is a strangely classic image.
— Tonight’s “everyone wants to get revenge on Charles Rocket” throughline isn’t being pulled off well at all so far tonight. Only season 6 could manage to make a Dallas/“who shot J.R.?” take-off so dull.
STARS: *½

THE COMPETITION
a movie about finger-breaking piano rivals (JOP) & (GLM)

 

— This is a parody of a then-new Richard Dreyfuss/Amy Irving movie of the same title. The only reason I know that is because the copy I’m watching of this episode is the original live broadcast where, during one of the commercial breaks earlier in the show, there was actually a commercial for the Dreyfuss/Irving movie.
— Joe’s Richard Dreyfuss impression is fairly funny, though I’m guessing people who’ve seen this sketch without knowing what it was parodying have no idea he was even imitating Dreyfuss and they probably wondered why he was speaking in a high-pitched nasal voice.
— That’s it? Short, but kinda funny punchline, I guess.
STARS: **½

SPEAKING OUT
policewoman (DED) on unauthorized use of handicap toilets

— A very rare instance of Matthew Laurance starring in a sketch.
— Overall, this was a dull sketch that just washed right over me. I got a chuckle from one or two of Denny’s lines, but there was absolutely nothing noteworthy here.
STARS: *½

WOMEN BEHIND BARS
(DED) & (host) debate industrial revolution education

   

— The initial set-up to this is bringing back memories of that “Debs Behind Bars” sketch from season 5. It even looks like this is using the same set from that sketch.
— For some reason, it feels weird seeing Gail playing a tough, mean character.
— Yet ANOTHER silent role for Yvonne. Is that woman going to go through the entire second half of this season without speaking a single word?
— Never mind, Yvonne actually got one line just now. SHE SPEAKS!
— Pretty funny reveal that the dreaded “treatment” Charlene’s character will face is simply a debate involving the Industrial Revolution.
— Denny’s character pulling out a graph as a visual aid is kinda funny, and is the first noticeable laugh this whole sketch received from the studio audience.
— Overall, after taking a good unexpected turn mid-sketch, this unfortunately kinda petered out afterwards and was not as good as it should’ve been.
STARS: **½

SNL SPORTS
Weindulah outboxes Rocko Weineretto to win the title; Don King cameo

  

— Here’s the big boxing match the show kept hyping.
— Don King cameo.
— Weindullah’s various ways of taunting Weineretto are pretty funny.
— An overall decent bit, though I wasn’t laughing out loud and I almost started getting a little bored during some parts. But this had a goofy, fun charm to it, and I can appreciate all the commitment that went into this whole thing. I sure wouldn’t want to sit through another Weiner puppet fight, however.
STARS: ***

SUBMISSIVE SUGAR DADDIES
(host) shows why women should call Submissive Sugar Daddy Referral Service

 

— The visual of that jovial-looking old extra as a sugar daddy is kinda funny, I guess.
— That’s it? I didn’t care for this and it came off kinda pointless.
STARS: *

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Todd Rundgren performs “Time Heals”

PARTY
Mary Louise rules her birthday party with Sam The Snake & an iron fist

 

— Hmm, what’s this? Joe introduces Denny as herself. Am I in for a random Denny Dillon stand-up segment?
— Hmm, she’s doing a character, in a one-woman show-esque piece. This is reminding me of how she previously did a guest spot on the show way back in SNL’s third episode ever, where she and her comedy partner (Mark Hampton) did a nun act.
— Oh, this is the same character she played earlier this season in the Ellen Burstyn episode.
— No idea how to feel about this act so far.
— Overall, I liked this character much better in a sketch format. Her routine doesn’t work as well in a one-woman show setting.
STARS: **

AFTER MIDNIGHT
(CHR) & (GLM) arouse each other while bathing a dog
when CHR gets shot during a sketch, the question is “Who Shot C.R.?”

     

— Charles is coming off more Bill Murray-esque than EVER in this. I can totally picture Bill playing this character.
— Boy, is this a weird sketch. Hope it’s a good one, though, because I’m kinda tired of being so consistently negative in tonight’s episode review.
— A sudden cut to a crosshair first-person perspective aiming at Charles. I now see where this is going.
— And there’s the gunshot.
— I’m suddenly getting excited about this sketch now, as we’re seeing a whole bunch of cast and crew members panickedly rushing into the scene and freaking out.
— Funny bit with Gilbert asking out Charlene in the middle of all the chaos.
— “Who shot C.R.?”
— Nice seeing the whole cast gathered together in the ending shot.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Prince performs “Partyup”

— Okay, it’s always been said that Prince supposedly drops an f-bomb when singing the lyric “Fightin’ war is such a fuckin’ bore”. However, I heard the lyric just now, and I’m 99.9% sure I heard him say “freakin”, not “fuckin’”. Is it just me?
— We’ll be returning to the discussion of f-bombs with a certain upcoming segment afterwards (you know the one)…

GOODNIGHTS
gun victim CHR says “I’d like to know who the fuck did it”

  

— Well, here it comes, folks…
— Aaaaaand there’s the legendary notorious moment. Charles: “Aw, man, it’s the first time I’ve ever been shot in my life. I’d like to know who the fuck did it.”
— The reactions from everyone onstage are freakin’ PRICELESS. Writing this review in real-time as I watch the episode, I can’t rewind to focus on each person’s reaction, but I’m quickly looking back-and-forth at various individual people, and there are so many funny different reactions. Meanwhile, Charles is just sitting there with a laid-back smug grin on his face like he’s proud of himself for what he just did.
— Even though I knew the f-bomb was coming and I’ve watched it quite a number of times in the past, it’s a VERY different experience now seeing it in the context of the entire season, where I’ve been watching and reviewing each episode in chronological order on a day-to-day basis for my SNL project. Arriving at the infamous f-bomb just now, I felt genuine shock when Charles said it and when I saw the cast’s reactions. That shocked feeling of mine made me come to the realization that due to my daily watching and reviewing of this season, I’ve developed a strange attachment to this cast. Definitely a different feeling from the last time I watched this f-bomb moment, where I had no kind of connection to this cast or season at all.
— I think I remember hearing that as soon as Charles dropped the f-bomb, one of the people working in the SNL control room threw his hands in the air, said “Well, there’s goes the end of live TV”, whipped off his headphones, threw it onto the control board, and walked right off the show, as if he thought SNL would be canceled right there on the spot.

---

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Boy, am I getting tired of saying “another tepid episode”, but that’s become status quo for the show lately. Like I mentioned earlier, I kinda feel bad for being so consistently negative in my reviews these last few episodes, but I can’t help it if season 6 keeps handing me weak episodes lately. I’m starting to run out of different ways to say a sketch didn’t work. I loved tonight’s Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood debut, and about one or two other segments in this episode were fun (including Rocket Report), but there ain’t much else to praise here. At least the notoriety of the Charles Rocket f-bomb incident boosts this episode’s watchability, as otherwise, it would pretty much be indistinguishable from the rest of the string of mediocre episodes that began with Robert Hays.
— Needless to say, the f-bomb incident went on to cause a ton of controversy for SNL. The show (and particularly Jean Doumanian’s job as producer) had already been on thin ice with NBC brass throughout this troubled season, and the f-bomb incident is said to have been the final straw that would eventually lead to the firings of Jean Doumanian, Charles Rocket, and many of the remaining cast and writers. There’s still one episode left with everyone intact before the mass firings occur.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Deborah Harry):
— a very slight step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Bill Murray comes back to show them how it’s done