Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
host gets the It’s A Wonderful Life treatment from Mephistopheles
— Nice fake-out at the beginning with a Pat Stevens title card showing up, only to have the sketch’s usual voice-over (Mark McKinney) say “The Pat Stevens Show will not be seen tonight”.
— I really like that they’re opening the show with a meta sketch, immediately addressing the controversy regarding the boycotting of the show.
— Another “It’s A Wonderful Life” parody this season, even using the same bridge set they used in the last parody.
— Good joke about Dice’s fanbase still being in high school.
— Dice: “Man, look at all those homeless people. Did I have any effect on THEIR lives?” Mephistopheles: “No! (muttering) Idiot.”
— Another funny use of Dana’s Frank Zappa (another infamous host), this time having him hilariously go off on an anti-censorship rant that we’re told lasted for 70 minutes.
— Very surprised at the gag revealing that Nora was crushed by Sinead O’Connor’s amplifier, which even gets enthusiastic applause from the audience. I admit to getting a laugh from the gag, but I feel bad. I mean, the woman is still employed on the show at this point, and they’re doing a mean-spirited gag like this about her?
— Funny exchange after Mephistopheles brings up the name Jon Lovitz. Dice: “That Liar guy?” Mephistopheles, in an offended manner: “Wasn’t his ONLY character…”
— Great devilish smile from Jon as Mephistopheles after saying “Live from New York…” (screencap below)
STARS: ****
OPENING MONTAGE
— It sure feels odd seeing Nora Dunn still being credited and announced in tonight’s opening montage (I assume they left her in for contract reasons). IIRC, this is later lampshaded during the goodnights where Don Pardo’s voice-over comically addresses his confusion over the fact that he still had to announce Nora during the opening montage. As usual for Don Pardo’s goodnights voice-overs, that would later be removed in reruns.
MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up & announces he’s donating his pay to Comic Relief
— I admit to getting a laugh right at the beginning with Dice’s first words being a loud and hammy “HOW ARE YA!” and then following that up with “That’s about all I can say tonight.”
— Things go awry fast as a group of protesters in the audience are suddenly heard loudly heckling Dice.
— I’m a little torn on what to think of Dice’s responses to the hecklers. On one hand, he impressively handled it with complete ease (then again, he probably has a lot of experience dealing with hecklers), but on the other hand, his “clever” comebacks to the hecklers were pretty cringeworthy (e.g. “Just ’cause I don’t wanna go out with ya, pal, doesn’t mean that I don’t dig ya!”).
— The whole heckling portion of this monologue would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version, which goes along more smoothly without any audience interruptions. SNL would experience a very similar heckling incident two years later during Sharon Stone’s monologue (which would also be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns). For any of you readers wondering why Sharon Stone, of all people, would be heckled, I’ll go into more details when we reach that episode.
— Dice’s bus joke had a bad and baffling punchline. I did kinda chuckle at him punctuating it with a half-assed “Bada-bing!”, which sounded like even he was aware how bad his joke was.
— Interesting ending with him announcing he donated his SNL pay to the homeless, since he wasn’t able to appear at that night’s Comic Relief special.
STARS: **
DICEMAN EMPLOYMENT AGENCY
host’s employment agency offers jobs dealing with illegal activities
TV Guide “jeers” SNL for the sketch
— Funny brief appearance from Jon.
— A laugh from Dice offering Kevin a job as a crack dealer.
— This is starting to kinda drag.
— Okay, I finally got another laugh, from Dice offering Kevin a job where he just has to hold a guy while a thug beats him up.
— Mike’s threatening delivery of the line “The man wants his MONEEEEEYYYYYYY!!!” absolutely slayed me. The fact that it was followed by tense silence from the studio audience (I guess due to the fact that a non-comical fight scene had just occurred) makes it even funnier to me, for some reason.
— We get another TV Guide “Cheers and Jeers” sketch ending this season, leading us into a funny brief scene with Dana as a ranting Adolf Hitler spouting off Dana Carvey catchphrases (e.g. “Isn’t that special?”, “Wouldn’t be prudent”) among German gibberish.
STARS: **½
COOKING WITH THE ANAL RETENTIVE CHEF
anal-retentive Gene & his mother (JAH) prepare to make ladyfinger cake
— Nice addition of Jan as this character’s mother, to commemorate Mother’s Day.
— Good callback to the tape dispenser cozy that Phil’s character showcased in an earlier Anal Retentive Chef sketch.
— The negative tension between both characters is pretty enjoyable, though this sketch is turning out to be a little too average. Perhaps they’ve gone to the “chef” well a little too often for this character. I liked it when they kept changing his occupation in each installment.
— This would end up being the last time we ever see this character of Phil’s. They were actually going to bring both him and his mother back in the following season’s Kevin Bacon episode, but the sketch got cut after dress rehearsal. IIRC, in the Shales/Miller “Live From New York” book, there’s a story from Jan about how during that Kevin Bacon dress rehearsal, she broke out into emotional tears shortly before the Anal Retentive Chef sketch started, because Rockefeller Center had been receiving terroristic bomb threats or something like that (this was during the Gulf War). As she was crying, Phil went over to her and comforted her, giving her the courage to go ahead with the sketch.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Spanic Boys perform “Keep On Walking”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Annoying Man previews a free symphonic concert held in Central Park
Michael J. Fox (DAS) discusses his planned sequels to Casualties Of War
— This is the very first Weekend Update that opens with a dancing Statue of Liberty during the Update intro sequence, which would go on to be a tradition for the remainder of Dennis’ tenure as anchorperson. When I was younger, I used to think most of Dennis’ Updates had that dancing Statue of Liberty intro. I was surprised to later learn that it wasn’t introduced until the end of his penultimate year as anchorperson.
— Ha, while I have no idea what was up with Annoying Man taking a red ball thing and squeezing it under his neck while screaming twice (does anyone know what exactly was he doing?), it had me laughing so much.
— Annoying Man’s zit-popping sequence was hilariously gross.
— Hmm, this is unfortunately another Update this season where Dennis is relying on a few too many corny “misinterpreting a photo” jokes for my likes, though not too much so in tonight’s case.
— I liked the meta joke about Andrew Dice Clay being the first male enrollee at an all-women’s college that’s now gone co-ed.
— Writer David Spade gets his first big onscreen SNL role, playing Michael J. Fox in his own Update commentary. Since the audience would’ve had no idea who David Spade was at this time, as this is a good while before he gets added to the cast, I have to wonder what was going through their minds during this commentary. Were they all wondering “Is that Carvey???”
— Fantastic Michael J. Fox impression from David.
— I liked David-as-MJF’s random “Mallory?” at the end of the commentary, as a Family Ties reference.
— Dennis’ Pepsi joke completely bombed.
— Good ending to this Update with Dennis making a mock announcement that he’s going to boycott next week’s Candice Bergen episode (“And I think you know why”).
STARS: ***
DAD, WHAT’S SEX?
(host) uses slang to teach son (MIM) about birds & bees
(PHH) of Planned Parenthood critiques language used in “Dad, What’s Sex?”
TV Guide is tricked into giving SNL “cheers” for “Dad, What’s Sex?”
— I got a pretty good laugh from Dice’s line to Mike about “popping a boinger or two”.
— The muting-out of dirty words during Dice’s sex talk is coming off VERY sloppy in the live version I’m watching. Instead of only muting the dirty words, they mute almost the entire sentences he says them in, which is hurting the joke. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the rerun version of this episode, so I have to ask: do they censor the dirty words in that version, and if so, how? Do they add bleeps over the dirty words instead of just sloppily muting them out?
— Heh, now the timing of the word-censoring has gotten even worse, with them not muting the word “poontang” in time. NBC censors must’ve been sweating over the fact that “poontang” got out on the air uncensored in 1990.
— Cute ending with Mike jokingly asking Dice about the Mets.
— Ah, we get a rebuttal from Phil as a Planned Parenthood member.
— Phil’s suggestions for naughty word substitutes are very funny, especially his use of the term “the silk igloo” as a euphemism for the vagina.
— The TV Guide “Jeers” bit at the end was awful. It made no sense and fell completely flat.
STARS: **½
TALK RADIO
deejay Tony Trailer’s commentary cuts into songs, ads, guests
— This is using the same joke as the last appearance of this character, which was fine as a one-off sketch but I’m not sure lends itself well to a recurring sketch.
— Never mind, it turns out there’s an actual escalation to the joke this time, with Kevin going so far as to interrupt non-music things like a George Carlin comedy album excerpt, an Emergency Broadcast Test, and the report from his guest Victoria.
— For some reason, Victoria’s appearance here is where I start to really notice Nora’s absence tonight. Having an episode with only two female cast members is something I have to get used to, as we’re going to be seeing it for quite a while early on in the following season (and it even gets briefly addressed in a certain famous Kyle MacLachlan-starring sketch), before Julia Sweeney gets hired in November.
— Is that Spade I hear as one of the callers?
— Funny read-off statement from Kevin: “Sorry about last night, but those were my sister’s panties.”
STARS: ***
PROTEST
JAH reveals she’s been giving a lackluster performance to protest host
— Nice, well-deserved applause for Jan after introducing herself. The applause is especially coming off nice to hear after the amazing episode Jan just had in the preceding episode (Alec Baldwin).
— Funny reveal that Jan’s subtle way of protesting tonight’s host is by not giving 100% in the sketches.
— Amusing turn with Jan trying to take advantage of this extra time by breaking out into a Sweeney Sisters-esque song.
STARS: ***½
COOL MITE
tiny troublemaker (host) tells buddies of his latest exploits
— Another uncredited appearance from writer Rob Schneider. We’re clearly at the beginning of a transition into the many big changes we’re soon going to gradually see over the course of next season.
— This sketch feels like a precursor to the Tiny Elvis sketches from the early 90s. Considering Rob Schneider would play the title character in the second of the two installments of that sketch (the first installment had host Nicolas Cage playing the character) coupled with the fact that Rob has an onscreen role in this Cool Mite sketch, I have to wonder if he’s the writer behind both Cool Mite and Tiny Elvis.
— The scene with Victoria was executed too awkwardly.
— The dog attack was the first actual laugh I got from this sketch.
— I like Phil’s brief appearance as a wiseguy cop.
— When Cool Mite is supposed to suffer a second attack from the dog, the dog apparently misses its cue, resulting in dead air and leaving Dice to awkwardly break the fourth wall by ad-libbing in character “Hey, where’s the dog? It’s supposed to bite me!” SNL would later fix this in reruns by showing the dress rehearsal version of this portion of the sketch, where the dog attacks Cool Mite on cue.
— Weak sketch overall.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Julee Cruise performs “Falling”
RIDICULOUS BULL
Jake La Motta (host) asks brother (JOL) to beat him up
— Jon’s been getting tons of airtime tonight (serving as a sad reminder that we’re in the homestretch of his SNL tenure).
— A fairly thin, one-joke sketch, but I’m kinda enjoying the escalation of the type of objects Dice requests to be hit with, and I actually feel Dice’s performance is complimenting the material nicely. This sketch has a type of silliness that you often hear me say I always love to see in this SNL era.
— I like the looseness of the sequence with the sledgehammer.
— In the recording I’m watching of this episode, the visual quality of this sketch is strangely choppy and wonky. It causes a particularly bad glitch at one point during the part where Jon is asked by Dice to hit him with the microwave; the glitch causes us to miss a joke where Jon’s character was seemingly going to address the anachronism of a microwave being available in this old-timey setting. Jon began incredulously saying “Microwave?!? It’s 194–”, but whatever 1940s year he was going to say suddenly got cut off as the scene abruptly jumps to him walking over to pick up the microwave.
STARS: ***
PROTEST
KEN says his lack of inclusion in sketches is his protest of host
— After Kevin introduces himself, you can hear one sole audience member try to start a round of applause like Jan got earlier, but it doesn’t take because Kevin immediately continues speaking.
— Funny reveal of Kevin refusing to appear in all but three sketches tonight, which he feels would make more of a statement against tonight’s host than Jan’s making.
— I was expecting a little more from this overall piece, but this was a decent display of the type of humor that Kevin is always great at selling and making relatable.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— As no surprise, this was a pretty meh episode, especially for this era’s standards. I didn’t HATE this episode like I’m sure some people do based on their general dislike of Andrew Dice Clay (I personally have never had an opinion of him either way; I’ve always been completely neutral towards him), but I wasn’t crazy about the episode either. It began strongly with the meta cold opening, but immediately went downhill starting with the monologue and, despite some highlights here and there in the remainder of the show, the episode as a whole never fully took off. Aside from the cold opening, there was nothing in this episode that I feel stands out as strong, and we got a higher number of tepid material than we’re used to seeing this season. As for Andrew Dice Clay himself, much like my feelings of the episode, I didn’t HATE him as the host, but I didn’t exactly laugh all that much at him either. One problem I had is that he never stepped out of his comfort zone; he basically just played himself all night. He could have at least TRIED to play against type in one sketch, by comically doing a character that’s pretty much the exact opposite of his famous stand-up persona.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Alec Baldwin)
a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Nora Dunn returns to the cast for what ends up being her, and Jon Lovitz’s, final episode, which itself ends up being the final episode of the 1986-1990 renaissance years. Season 15 comes to an end with host Candice Bergen, the second consecutive host to have the word “dice” in their name.
I always enjoyed Carvey’s Zappa impression. It was mean without going overboard.
Well…this episode was definitely not worth all the controversy. 🙂 What a failed experiment. They should have known Andrew Dice Clay was a flash in the pan who literally enjoyed 15 minutes of fame. 🙂
Looking back, the way the show treated Nora Dunn throughout this whole thing is pretty lame. Certainly emblematic of the boys club that SNL was for so many years and the “Bad Boys” era of SNL…which is officially about to start in a couple of episodes. 🙂
This episode is a real harbinger for where SNL ends up around 1993 or so – shock value material that treats women as objects and gives them no voice. I can understand why the cast felt betrayed by Nora, but the amount of material devoted to her, to the point of even joking about her death, makes the show feel incredibly defensive. The episode also has a very sour, flat mood. I mostly just enjoyed Jan’s little solo moment, and maybe the sketch with Jon and Andrew near the end (the radio DJ sketch was alright…I love anal retentive chef but this one wasn’t one of the best – I’m sorry it was the last as it felt out of place here).
You know, Andrew Dice Clay was, kinda before my time, and honestly, he just kinda gave off that “smug jerk” persona that i really don’t care for. Also why did they have to do Nora like that…
Would it be fair to say if a cast member would boycott a show today, he or she would remain in the cast? Lorne nowadays would be different than back in 1990.
You know, I wonder that too. I guess that last chance we’d likely have found that out was with the Trump episode in 2015.
I think if they went to Lorne privately rather than going to the press, they might, but generally I’d guess no.
I was thinking that during the 1986-90 period, SNL should have gotten Jackee to host, back when she was on “227.” She would have been great on the show.
I’m sure NBC was pitching her and others to Lorne as possible hosts. I was only commenting on that here because of potential “safe” if the network really did not want Dice on the show or anyone else the network didn’t like during those years.
Just be thankful that ALF never hosted! (You *know* they “pitched” him …)
I was in 7th grade when this episode aired, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t allowed to watch much of it. I vaguely remember the beginning of “Dad, What’s Sex?”, but I think my parents made me fast forward through it and may have even made me stop watching at that point. (We taped every episode to watch the next morning at the time).
On a side note, the completely uncensored version of “Dad, What’s Sex?” is streaming on the NBC website. Not sure if it’s included on the Peacock version.
I’d kill for a copy of the live version of this show.
Doesn’t David Spade make a joke about people mistaking him for Dana Carvey in a Weekend Update commentary next season?
Here’s my review of the musical performances
Keep on Walking
— Nice old school rock n roll beat to the intro
— Lead singer seems to be going for a Buddy Holly look
— The rhythm guitarist/backup singer looks like Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys, LOL
— Nice interplay between the two guitars during the solo break.
— Not sure about the lead singer’s voice, it sounds a bit like an affectation. Still it’s not too bad — he is singing clearly and carrying the tune well.
— Oh wow, some nice rockabilly-esque fireworks during the outro on the guitars.
— Well done, definitely a rockabilly/classic rock n roll revival sound from these guys. Kind of similar to Marshall Crenshaw.
STARS: ***1/2
Falling
— Whatever you might think of him, I do think Dice Clay’s intro here is enthusiastic and unique.
— Pretty cool to see GE Smith playing the twin peaks theme on his guitar
— Julee’s voice is quite good here in her signature breathy style
— This performance has the same haunting, eerie quality that the song has on Twin Peaks. Real good job of recreating this piece live by the SNL band and Julee
— Julee looks very classy in her black dress with the red flower pin. Matches the atmosphere of the song quite well
STARS: ***1/2
I think this is one of the last times SNL had two different musical guests. Seems to happen very rarely beyond this season. It was never common but it would happen occasionally in the 70s and 80s.
The Only other times I can think of with two musical guest were in
December 2001 Derick Jetter with Shakira and Bubba Sparxx
May 2003 the Adrian Brody Episode with Sean Paul and Wayne Wonder (the episode where Adrian got banned for Jamaican stick intruding Sean Paul)
2006 Anette Benning With Gwen Stefani and Akon
2008 Tim McGraw with Ludacris and T-Pain (each did one song from there latest album for witch the other was featured)
and four that were an (*)
February 1995 Deon Saunders with Bon Jovi (Deon did a rap track off his latest album at the time at the end but was credited as musical guest)
March 1997 Sting with Varuna Salt (Sting sang one song at the end but was not mentioned as musical guest)
May 1998 Mathew Brodrick with Natalie Merchant (Tenacious D was credited as special guest not musical guest did one track as well)
last but not least
October 2007 Jon Bon Jovi with Foo Fighters (Jon’s band Bon Jovi did two songs alongside Foo Fighters One song, Lost Highway in the Monologue and Who Say’s You Can’t Go Home at the closing of the show)
I’m not counting Mick Jagger from May 2012 even though his backing bands were different and credited as such (Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters And Jeff Beck).
Goodbye, Julee, thank you for being a light of this ugly episode, and for making me smile and cry through my Twin Peaks watches.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jun/10/julee-cruise-singer-david-lynch-collaborator-dies-aged-65-b52s
I should have given her performance at least four stars instead of three and a half. There was nothing wrong with it.
In hindsight I would like to upgrade my review of Julee’s performance to
STARS: ****1/2
Not sure why I gave it three and a half; it is a more understated performance than some but that’s precisely its power.
Most of the cold open would use the dress rehearsal version in Comedy Central’s edit of the episode. The dialogue in Dana-as-Frank-Zappa’s monologue is slightly different, plus Lovitz’s makes a different facial expression after dropping the LFNY line. Most of it has been posted onto YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a4oQIXzvMaQ
The version on NBC’s website is sourced from the live version.
After finally getting around to watching this episode, I really didn’t see what the hype was, if anything it probably added to ADC fame at the time, not to mention made viewers more likely to tune in cause of the supposed controversy. Since dice was before my time, the only time I think I remember seeing him was later on In life when I was a teen or in college, i think watching sixteen candles for the first time on DVD, which he makes a cameo in. It wouldn’t be until his comeback in a small role, but great part in “blue Jasmine” in 2013/14 where it’s a much more matured Dice.
This episode did seem to highlight a lot of the qualities I feel like were mentioned in the review in later seasons. Especially the mini dice clay which seemed to be just like the mini Elvis that NC did the next season or two? Most of the sketches are kinda lazy, but find KN interruption radio guy to be funny.
I always really liked Hartmans Anal Retentive Chef. I don’t think I’ve seen all of them and wish they had done more, I much prefer this over caveman lawyer but obviously completely diff roles. I thought this was one of the better ones imo, I liked jan hooks playing his mom, but thought the ending of it was lacking and could have watched another couple minutes of this. I always enjoy the chemistry they shared, and mention in a later post how I felt it was always something more or could have been with the two of them romantically..
Weekend update was good as usual, just makes me think of how much none of the other anchors proceeding him are as good. I know Dana Carvey did a hilarious imitation of Michael J Fox in the Justine Bateman episode but I think that Spades might be equally if not better, and that’s saying a lot as I’m a huge Carvey fan and don’t have a lot of love for spade, but have began to appreciate him more as I watch the seasons later slowly deteriorate..
Nothing really stood out to me but will say that Back in 2021 or 22, when Elon Musk Hosted, Lorne gave the cast an option whether they wanted to be there to participate or not appear. From my memory I feel like I saw most of the cast, I can’t remember that clearly if anyone decided to sit that one out but def remember Pete Davidson and Beck Bennet, I wanna say Kate and Aidy were there too but can’t recall.
When is the last time Don Pardo said “This is Don Pardo saying goodnight”?
I think the last time was the Jimmy Smits episode from season 16.
This past season, Bowen, Molly Kearney, and Sarah Sherman (and I think Cecily) all refused to do sketches with Chapelle over his trans “jokes.” Don’t know if they all say out the show (Bowen and Cecily are in the cold open), but that’s the latest instance of cast members taking a Nora-esque stand against a host.
Aidy sat out Elon’s show.
>”no idea what was up with Annoying Man taking a red ball thing and squeezing it under his neck while screaming twice (does anyone know what exactly was he doing?)”
I dont remember the name of it, but I had that same toy as a kid and used to drive my mother nuts with it. I recognized that screaming sound effect instantly. Lovitz was holding it up to where he was miced and making it look like he was doing the scream, classic Annoying Man things I guess.
I really like that Spanic Boys performance, are they possibly the least famous band to ever MG on SNL? I with Sinead’s sudden dropping out they went and got a local Milwaukee band, looking them up they don’t have a Wikipedia page and there’s not much info out there about them other than they were one of the only father and son bands and this SNL appearance seems to be their big claim to fame.
RIP Sinead, who was much younger than I realized (only 56).
First, as a reference, I was born in 1970. I first starting watching SNL when Chevy was still in the cast. And was a die hard fan most of my life. So when this episode aired, I was already in college.
I remember, even then, thinking the controversy over Dice was ridiculous. To me, The Diceman was a character, much like Andy Kaufman’s wrestling persona. Andy was doing a bit that was all staged, and people fell for it. Same with Steve Martin’s persona in the 70s. I saw Dice like that. He was spoofing the Italian Goomba stereotype that he was always being cast as in tv shows and movies. It was just a character. So I never was offended by it. But, I never found it funny. I had friends who did. But even though I got it, I didn’t find it that clever.
So I don’t think I bothered watching this week. And I see now that instead of putting 100% effort into making this a truly memorable and possibly meta show, they played it safe. Which lead to a mediocre episode at best. Shame, because if they did this in the 70s, they may have been willing to go a little further with it (like the Grodin ep for example).
Just my two cents. Love these recaps! Really takes me back to watching these live as a kid. Great work!!!!
Victoria Jackson says in the “Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live “ book she thought Dunn was doing it for publicity. Because Kinison was also very degrading to women and she never boycotted. She further talks about how if Dunn had a problem with people being mean to women Jackson was a woman and no one has ever been meaner to her than Dunn so according to Jackson “she obviously doesn’t really love women.”
I am not a fan of Clay, but he was fine on SNL. I agree with what many said in the book that Dunn was trying to get attention more than anything. I am nit a big Dunn fan because I love Victoria Jackson so I migjt be biased but I am going by what I read ao trying not to be.
I don’t want to question whether a woman is a true feminist or not, but I think Victoria is right. Nora loves herself more than she claimed that she loves woman. It’s such a shame that people assumed Victoria was crazy all along just because of the things she said in recent years.
I mainly remember the “Dad, What’s Sex?” sketch in which the offensive words were muted during the original airing as well as all the references to Nora Dunn’s boycott of the show. I remember being surprised by Clay’s being announced as the next guest host in the previous show especially after hearing of his uncensored stint at the “MTV Video Music Awards” (I’ve yet to watch that bit online). Incidentally, the previous night “Nightline” had as guests both Lorne Michaels defending his decision to book the Dice and Andrew Rooney who had some trouble of his own because of his remarks of gays on “60 Minutes”. I switched between them and “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” which had Joe Piscopo as a guest. He made some remarks about Rooney and those comments on that show and who, of course, was one of the people he impersonated when he was on “SNL”…
Andrew Dice Clay isn’t particularly funny here. He needs swearing and crude anatomical references to reach his full potential. I wonder why they even had him on a broadcast network show.
Nice to see Rob Schneider before he was famous. I like Julee Cruise but this sounds awful. TV doesn’t transfer the audio properly. It was nice they let the regular SNL band play for her.
Lots of unfunny hosts have come before Clay. I don’t think Nora should have ruined her career for him. Or maybe she was already on her way out and knew it so she protested just for the hell of it. But in any case I don’t think another cast member would give ultimatums to Lorne for the rest of the shows existence.
It’s pretty well known that Nora was on her way out at this point. She had nothing to lose by boycotting the show, because the season was almost over, and her contract wasn’t going to be renewed, so what were they going to do? Fire her?
And I wouldn’t say she ruined her career with this move. I think Nora’s post-SNL career is right about in line with her talents. She never had the charisma to be a big star, but she’s a good ensemble player. And anyway, Nora doesn’t seem to have ever expressed any regret about her choice, so I guess it didn’t hurt her too badly.