December 8, 1984 – Ringo Starr / Herbie Hancock (S10 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
at a Beatle memorabilia auction, no one makes an offer for host

— I love the detail of Martin’s British teeth.
— Very funny concept of Ringo Starr himself being up for sale at a Beatles Memorabilia auction.
— Predictable but pretty funny how the people at the auction aren’t interested in bidding for Ringo, and slowly begin leaving one-by-one.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
Sammy Davis, Jr. (BIC) & host sing Beatles songs & Sammy staples

— Very energetic audience cheering at the beginning of this.
— It’s weird in hindsight hearing Ringo talking about how beloved singers like Mick Jagger, Elton John, and Bob Dylan aren’t legends (at the time). They certainly went on to be legends later in their careers.
— He’s coming off well here and is doing a pretty good job carrying this monologue.
— Fairly fun chemistry between Billy’s Sammy Davis Jr. and Ringo.
— Eh, the medley between the two of them isn’t entertaining me much and has started boring me.
— Overall, a very long monologue, and was basically a tale of two halves. I actually got more enjoyment from the first half with Ringo by himself.
STARS: **½

UNLUCKY MAN
at a bus stop, Ed Grimley watches (host) get hit by lightning repeatedly

— For some reason, Ringo’s simple “Bloody awful” line made me laugh.
— Ringo’s deadpan facial reactions to Grimley are pretty funny.
— Random repeated gag with Ringo constantly getting struck by lighting.
— I liked Ringo’s trick with making Grimley’s cup of tea warmer.
— Some good physical bit of business from Grimley after sharing a lightning strike with Ringo.
— LOL at Ringo suddenly getting hit by a car off-camera, followed by a dummy of him being thrown into the shot.
— Overall, despite some laughs and the usual good performance from Martin, this wasn’t one of the better Ed Grimley sketches. I did like Ringo’s deadpan unlucky man performance, though (I surprisingly spent most of the sketch review talking more positively about him than about Martin’s Ed Grimley performance).
STARS: **½

TEXXON
— Rerun from two seasons ago

LUNCH BREAK
among the girders, construction workers Willie & Frankie talk about pain

— Nice setting for these characters.
— I like how this has continuity from these characters’ last appearance, by mentioning their former job as night watchmen.
— Christopher’s wording of “shaving my heinie” has me laughing to no end.
— Some really good cringeworthy masochistic anecdotes here, especially the one about twisting nipples with knitting needles.
STARS: ****

RINGO’S BUYERS
(JIB) isn’t happy that his wife (PLS) bought host at the Beatle auction

— A rare instance of SNL actually doing a continuation of a sketch that aired earlier in the same night.
— Ringo’s silly characterization of himself here is pretty funny, especially his fascination with bubble wrap.
— I liked Julia offering to buy Ringo for $1700, and how it’s “the price of two deluxe La-Z-Boy lounge chairs”.
— The version of The Jeffersons theme song being heard from the TV clearly isn’t the actual theme, as this one noticeably has a different vocalist. What, SNL couldn’t get the rights to the real song?
STARS: ***

STRICTLY FROM BLACKWELL
Rajeev Vindaloo (CHG) gives wine tips

— I always like Harry’s Mr. Blackwell impression. The voice he uses alone never fails to crack me up.
— The debut of Christopher’s Rajeev Vindaloo character.
— Harry’s asides about Gary’s upcoming interview are pretty funny.
— Very amusing characterization from Christopher here.
— The speaking-while-laughing voice Harry’s doing right now is hilarious.
— So many good lines here between Harry and Christopher.
— Funny ending bit with Gary’s interview being bumped, after he didn’t get to say a word for the entire sketch. Reminds me of the misfortune that Bill Hader’s Lindsay Buckingham would later face.
STARS: ****

MASSACRE ON 34TH STREET
a movie featuring Santa The Terminator (JIB)

— Promising concept.
— Eh, contrary to what I initially thought, this concept hasn’t been playing out too funny so far.
— Boy, that is one terrible vocal Arnold impression from Jim.
— This overall piece felt like it could’ve been better.
STARS: **

REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY
Japanese colonel (BIC) tries reverse psychology on WWII prisoners of war

— Hoo, boy. I see Billy’s taking a break from his constant blackface roles to do an Asianface character now. (*groan*)
— A somewhat funny reveal that both sides are using reverse psychology on each other, though it felt like that was supposed to come off funnier.
— I got a laugh from Billy’s “English peppersticks” line.
— A fairly tepid overall sketch.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Junku”

FERNANDO’S HIDEAWAY
an interview with host & wife Barbara Bach [real]

— Fernando constantly sidelining Ringo to ask Barbara Bach questions is fairly funny.
— I liked the line “That Beatle thing really took off, didn’t it?”
— The current back-and-forths between Fernando and Ringo seem very loose, with a lot of ad-libbing.
— Speaking of ad-libs, good save from Billy in response to accidentally knocking over a cup with his elbow.
— Funny line with Fernando referring to the Sgt. Pepper album as “Dr. Pepper”.
STARS: ***

JOB INTERVIEW
to get a job, interviewee (JIB) tries to prove that he’s mentally ill

— I kinda liked how Jim’s “proof” of being crazy is simply saying “I hate my mother”.
— Christopher’s “You’re not insane; you’re an idiot” line kinda made me laugh, even though it didn’t really land with the audience. I think I’m just desperate to find SOMETHING to laugh at, considering how poorly this sketch has been going.
— Heh, WTF is with Christopher randomly removing his pants after Jim has left?
— Oh, turns out to be a set-up for Christopher to sexually harass his secretary. Yeah, not too funny and a weak way for the sketch to end.
— Overall, boy, this sketch was rough and died a painful death on-air.
— IIRC, this ends up being the last time we’re going to be seeing Jim Belushi for quite a while. Sometime between this and the next episode, Dick Ebersol fires Jim for constantly butting heads with him and being too temperamental and disruptive (I remember hearing about one particular incident where he angrily threw a chair down a hall after an argument with Ebersol). However, after some begging, Jim eventually ends up getting rehired after a few episodes. From some of the behind-the-scenes things I’ve heard about Jim regarding his SNL tenure, he definitely seemed like someone you don’t want to be around whenever he gets pissed off. Writer Kevin Kelton has some interesting stories about the times he got on Jim’s bad side.
STARS: *½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Rockit”

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Not a very good episode. In fact, it’s the first one all season that I felt was subpar (though the fact that it took this season three months to have its first weak episode is impressive). There were still a few pretty strong things tonight, but the show as a whole wasn’t too funny, some pieces were weaker than we’re used to seeing this season, and something about the episode felt kinda “off”.
— Holy hell, I just realized, this episode had no Saturday Night News AT ALL. While the Father Guido Sarducci-hosted episode from last season didn’t have one either, it did have several news-type segments throughout the show (for the Decision ’84 vote-in gimmick they were doing that night); tonight’s episode, on the other hand, had no news-type segments to speak of, which is a first in SNL history. I’d like to think that the reason for this is because Ebersol found Christopher Guest’s anchorman performance in the previous week’s episode to be so bad that it temporarily scared him away from continuing the segment. Haha, I highly doubt that’s what happened, but it’s funny to imagine.
— It felt like we barely saw some of the cast tonight (including Harry Shearer making his usual one appearance of the night; would it kill SNL to give him more than one sketch in an episode?). I’m having a hard time remembering what some of them did. In fact, I don’t think Rich Hall appeared AT ALL.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ed Begley Jr.):
— a fairly big step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Eddie Murphy hosts the Christmas episode