April 17, 1982 – Johnny Cash / Elton John (S7 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
host sings while his younger self (TIK) has character-forming experiences

   

— Looks like we’re getting a straight musical performance as the cold opening.
— Oh, turns out they’re doing a sketch during the performance after all, with Tim playing Johnny’s younger self acting out the song Johnny’s singing.
— The extra who’s playing Tim’s cellmate looks like the same guy who played Sinatra’s mean-looking bodyguard in an earlier SNL Newsbreak where Mary interviewed Joe as Sinatra. I think I heard he’s writer Nelson Lyon.
— LOL at Johnny receiving a rough back massage while singing in his trademark vibrato.
— Funny story from Johnny about how he gained the last name Cash.
— Why did the screen randomly turn black-and-white for a few seconds? (screencap below) Technical error?

— This is a very charming opening so far.
STARS: ***½

TALENT ENTRANCE

— Where’s Joe? I guess he’s going to be at the beginning of the sketch that follows this.

THE HONEYROONEYS
Andy Rooney (JOP) plays Kramden & makes observations

   

— Yep, there’s Joe. Still don’t see why he couldn’t have been with the cast in the Talent Entrance and then ran over to the Honeymooners set; he had enough time considering how long the opening credits of this sketch were.
— I guess the black-and-white filter used for this sketch explains the aforementioned technical error in the cold opening.
— A fairly funny concept, combining The Honeymooners and Andy Rooney, though they’ve really been going heavy on Joe’s Rooney impression this season.
— Christine does a good Alice, which is no surprise as she seems like a natural for that role.
— Good laugh from Joe’s Rooney pointing out the fake backdrop outside the window.
— Great Norton impression from Eddie. I always like seeing Eddie do dead-on impressions of white celebrities/characters.  The man is so talented.
— Overall, despite the somewhat promising concept, this sketch didn’t come off all that funny in execution and kinda ran out of steam halfway through. The studio audience wasn’t very into this either, only really responding to Eddie’s impression.
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Empty Garden”

LAST REQUEST
a death row inmate’s (EDM) last wish- host sings “99,999 Bottles of Beer”

   

— Second time we’re seeing that prison set tonight. I think the cellmate is also the same one from the cold opening. Funny to imagine that he just stayed in that same jail cell set during all the time between the cold opening and this sketch.
— Eddie’s funny requesting that the priest read entire Old Testament, just so his execution will be stalled.
— Great use of Johnny in this.
— This is getting even funnier with Eddie requesting that Johnny sing the “original uncut version” of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.
— Eddie’s gleeful dancing during Johnny’s perfectly deadpan singing is hilarious.
— Loved Tim’s angry delivery of “You had your last request; now move it!”
— Very fun sketch overall.
STARS: ****½

SNL NEWSBREAK
MAG asks a Japanese tourist (Leo Yoshimura) if he’s seen Leonid Brezhnev
BDM examines world leaders’ predilection for salutes
Dr. Jack Badofsky lists varieties of amputations
EDM gives a Larry the Lobster update- a viewer letter prompted boiling

           

— I must have Elton John on the brain after having just seen his musical performance, because when they first showed the picture of John Hinkley in this Newsbreak (screencap below), I honestly thought it was Elton at first. Hinkley’s a dead ringer for a young Elton John in that picture.

— Ha, I like how it’s become a running joke for Mary to interview Akira Yoshimura as the wrong person. Yoshimura’s monotone delivery never fails to amuse me.
— Aw, geez, here comes another “long series of pictures” gag, this time showing various dictators doing a hand salute. Again, NOT FUNNY.
— As a Three Stooges buff, I did like how during the Mussolini salute picture, Brian made a reference to “Curly of the Three Stooges”.
— Also a reference to the original SNL era’s classic “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead” running joke.
— Are they freakin’ kidding me with this?!? This “dictator salute” photo montage is going on even longer than the “waving Reagans” photo montage from the last episode, and that’s saying something! There were about four times where I thought this dictator montage would finally end, only for it to continue. Why do they consistently waste so much time on SNL Newsbreak with unfunny stretched-out segments like this?
— Finally, 100 years later, the montage has ended.
— Another appearance of Dr. Jack Badofsky. At least they waited a few episodes after his last appearance.
— I liked Badofsky’s opening trick with his “cut-off” finger.
— What in the world was the point of Badofsky’s “stamp in the mouth” bit?
— Bah, none of the corny puns on Tim’s cards have been making me laugh so far tonight.
— Okay, after a very slow start, Tim’s puns are getting funnier. “Diaphragmputation” got a pretty good laugh from me just now.
— Ha, Tim has started cracking up after the “Diaphragmputation” one.
— I got another good laugh from Tim’s “Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma’amputation” card.
— Brian’s George Foster/black superiority joke was actually really funny.
— Ah, a callback to the famous Larry the Lobster gimmick in the last episode.
— I like how Eddie’s reading what we’re told is a real letter that SNL received from a viewer objecting to Eddie’s manhandling of the lobster throughout the previous week’s episode. The random racist part of the letter is hilarious (“I thought those people didn’t like seafood”, referring to black people).
— Ha, great ending with Eddie sticking it to the letter-writer by eating the now-cooked Larry the Lobster (though I assume, or at least hope, that that’s just some random lobster they cooked, and not Larry).
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “I Walk The Line” & “Folsom Prison Blues” & “Ring of Fire”

JAY CLAY GETS DEPRESSED
by Timothy Hittle- suicidal claymation

   

— A follow up to Timothy Hittle’s previous claymation short from earlier this season, featuring the same clay character.
— This is really weird so far, and hard to figure where it’s going.
— I got a laugh from the clay character using a Marlboro cigarette box to boost himself up to the noose.
— WTF at the random “I lost mah head!” part.
— This overall short was just plain strange. I didn’t like this one anywhere near as much as the last short with this character.
STARS: **

TEGRIM
see if you have dandruff by shaking your head over host

  

— I think this is Robin’s first appearance of the whole night.
— Robin’s face (especially her eyes) looks kinda different in this sketch, for some reason.

— Hilarious concept, with the dandruff test being to shake ones head over “The Man in Black” Johnny Cash. This is helped even more by how Johnny is just sitting there deadpanly, and then apathetically brushes Robin’s dandruff off of his shoulders.
STARS: ****

HAIL TO THE CHIEF
Ronald Reagan (JOP) suggests Margaret Thatcher (MAG) kiss an Argentinian

    

— Now it’s Tony who’s making his first appearance of the night, very late in the show. I guess between all the musical performances from Johnny and Elton, not to mention the super-long SNL Newsbreak, there’s not much airtime left for some of the cast.
— Amusing hearing Joe’s unseen Reagan voice-over happily singing “Day-o”.
— Interesting how we can now actually see Joe’s Reagan as a “reflection” in the (fake) mirror. He kinda looks creepy in this, for some reason.
— Pretty good laughs from Reagan making Mary’s Margaret Thatcher and Brian’s character romance each other as part of a “movie”. Some funny facial expressions from Mary during the hesitant kiss too.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
(I just HAD to make a separate section for this just to show the priceless screencap of Johnny’s intro below)

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ball & Chain”

— It’s probably just me, but I can’t help but notice that without glasses, early 80s-era Elton John kinda resembles future cast member Taran Killam. Elton would actually later end up working with Taran when hosting SNL decades later in 2011.

TRAIN POET
train commuter (host) waxes poetic about his preferred mode of transport

— Johnny doing a bizarre poetic spiel in a typical Johnny Cash-esque way about riding trains is strangely tickling me a lot.
— Overall, wow, it’s hard to explain why this sketch was so funny to me, but it just was. Johnny did a really good job in this.
STARS: ***½

BLACK TALK
(EDM) & (Clint Smith) engage in some of the show’s title

— Clint!
— Eddie’s still wearing the outfit he had on in SNL Newsbreak.
— Haha, this was a funny quick fake-out sketch, with “Black Talk” just turning out to be Eddie and Clint in the middle of a jive-talk conversation with each other while not even acknowledging the camera.
STARS: ***½

REACH OUT
parents “reach out & touch” elderly couple

— Aw, man, yet ANOTHER rerun of this. Boy, am I beyond sick of seeing this commercial so much while reviewing this season over the last few weeks, especially since this commercial isn’t as funny when you already know what the big twist ending is going to be.
— If I see this or that Khaddaffi Look commercial one more time before I reach the end of this season, I think I’m gonna snap.
— Strangely, there were no audible audience sounds at all during this particular airing; no laughter during the reveal of the big twist, and no applause at the end. Is the audience as sick of seeing this commercial as I am, or were they just not mic’ed during this?

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE / GOODNIGHTS
host performs “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”

  

— Nice to see the cast sitting around Johnny during this.
— Really cool how the show is now segueing into the goodnights right in the middle of the performance.
— This is one of the rare episodes in SNL history that doesn’t end with traditional goodnights music.

---

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A solid episode. Despite the decreased number of sketches and cast appearances, this episode was fun, enjoyable, and had a certain feel that made it stand out from other episodes in the second half of this season. Part of what gave this episode such a good atmosphere was Johnny Cash, who was a surprisingly fun host, despite (or maybe because of) basically playing himself all night. Something about his style and personality just worked really well in SNL’s format. He’s the first host I was impressed by in a LONG time this season.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Daniel J. Travanti):
— a step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Robert Culp