Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Church Lady & mother (host) gang up on Saddam Hussein (PHH)
— This ends up being the final Church Chat sketch during Dana’s tenure as a cast member.
— Funny advertisement at the beginning with Church Lady’s Canned Ham.
— Funny “I’m going to keep it” bit regarding Saddam’s hat, as Church Lady’s way of imitating Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait.
— Great inclusion of John Goodman as Church Lady’s mother.
— A lot of laughs from Church Lady and her mother’s detailing of marines’ “bulbous buttocks” alternating back-and forth between aligned and askew during their desert training.
— Excellent sequence with Church Lady and her mother ganging up on Saddam and beating the hell out him, complete with cartoonish sound effects.
STARS: ****½
MONOLOGUE
host does an impression of his newborn daughter Molly
— When talking about how much his life has changed since hosting SNL just a year ago, he mentions Tom Arnold constantly firing and rehiring him from the show “Roseanne”. Is that true?
— I liked his bit about still having the pregnancy weight after the birth of his baby.
— His impression of his baby is very funny.
STARS: ***½
BAD IDEA JEANS
— Rerun
MISTER
people in (host)’s store are referred to by their annoying traits
— Funny reveal of John and Julia’s trait-based insulting names towards each other turning out to be their actual names.
— I like how the names are carrying over into other people at the store, particularly Farley’s substitute repairman character being named “Mr. I-Don’t-Have-To-Do-a-Good-Job-Because-I’m-Just-Filling-In”.
— Phil’s outlandish police report at the end was funny.
STARS: ***½
WEDDING DAY
Keith Richards (DAC) helps ease Mick Jagger’s (MIM) wedding day jitters
— Dana’s Mick Jagger impression is very funny and spot-on. Great Keith Richards from Dana too.
— It’s always interesting seeing Mike and Dana paired up in non-Wayne’s World sketches.
— Some really funny lines.
— Great touch with Keith’s tears at the end.
STARS: ****
PLAYER-WITH-YOURSELVES CLUB
Telly Savalas (PHH) touts Player-With-Yourselves-Club wanking privileges
— Hilarious reveal of the concept.
— Phil is priceless in this as Telly Savalas.
— Savalas: “Unlimited Kleenex. I’m talking two-ply, baby!”
— Savalas: “All the latest videotapes cued up to the good parts, baby, ‘cuz players don’t have time to fast-forward!”
— Loved Phil’s delivery of “Ohhh, yeah!” at the end.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Epic”
THE MCLAUGHLIN GROUP
controlling moderator McLaughlin (DAC) has all the answers
— I believe this ends up being the final occurrence of a sketch appearing in between the first musical performance and Weekend Update slot.
— The debut of a sketch that I’ve always loved from this era.
— I’m enjoying the hell out of how fast-moving this is, made even funnier with Dana’s McLaughlin frequently cutting off the panelists’ answers, and occasionally telling them “Wrong!” (though he’s not doing the latter as much as he would in future installments).
— Haha, this is killing me, especially the increasingly insane questions. This is a riot.
— Yet another aspect I love about this sketch is the nicknames McLaughlin gives to the panelists, especially the one long-winded name he gives to Jack Germond.
STARS: *****
WEEKEND UPDATE
DAS likens Iraq attacking Kuwait to his older brother picking on him
— David Spade in his very first Update commentary as himself.
— David’s overall dolls commentary was decent, though nothing memorable and very different from the type of Update commentaries that he would typically do later on.
— I loved Dennis’ friendly noogey-ing of David after his commentary ended. It’s interesting seeing how Dennis interacts with all the new kids in this season’s cast whenever any of them do an Update commentary, especially considering this ends up being the only season Dennis works with them.
STARS: ***
CHEW
flow of dinner table conversation is interrupted by the need to chew food
— Funny realistic premise with the timing of dinner table conversations constantly getting delayed as the people at the table take the time to chew their food before answering a question they were asked.
— A good laugh from John hesitating to insert food in his mouth while making sure nobody is about to ask him a question, only for him to immediately be asked a question by Kevin when finally inserting the food in his mouth.
— Loved John vengefully turning the tables on Kevin by asking HIM a question as HE’S eating.
— The look on Rock’s face while doing the waiting-to-chew-before-speaking thing is particularly funny.
— Hilarious when Farley does the waiting-to-chew-before-speaking thing even when recovering from the Heimlich Maneuver.
— It’s amazing how they’re able to mine this many laughs out of a simple premise like this.
STARS: ****
WAYNE’S WORLD
Madonna’s Justify My Love video is on at Garth’s house
— Surprisingly, this is the first time Wayne’s World has appeared all season. Wonder why they waited this long, considering the huge popularity of this recurring sketch.
— Also strange that this is buried so late in the show, though the reason for that is because they’re going to air a racy Madonna music video that MTV refused to play.
— Wayne: “Madonna is such a babe… she’d give a dog a bone.”
— Love Wayne and Garth’s commentary during the Madonna music video. Some of the funniest lines include “There’s Prince!”, the reference to the famous “Three Men and a Baby” urban legend of a ghost appearing in the background, and “Look at the unit on that guy!”
— Nice to see John reprising his cop character from a previous Wayne’s World sketch.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “From Out of Nowhere”
DAVY CROCKETT
Davy Crockett (host) doesn’t know what to make of his bookish son (MIM)
— Pretty funny nerd characterization from Mike.
— I laughed at the cutaway to Phil’s puzzled face during Mike’s long-winded intelligent spiel (second screencap above).
— The result of the overall sketch wasn’t particularly interesting, though not particularly terrible either. The sketch had a strange charm that made it a little more likable than it normally would be.
STARS: **½
PAT
(KEN) tries to figure out the sex of androgynous co-worker Pat (JUS)
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Viewers at the time probably had a hard time telling who that was playing Pat in this sketch, especially considering how new Julia Sweeney is at this point. The mystery is answered during the goodnights that follow this sketch, where Julia still appears in her Pat costume, but sans the wig, glasses, and eyebrows.
— Feels a little odd in hindsight seeing a Pat sketch without the opening credits and theme song. That wouldn’t be introduced until the third installment.
— This being the first time Pat has ever appeared, Julia’s characterization is coming off funny and fresh. I also like how the voice is a lot less high-pitched and whiny than it would be in later installments.
— Some really funny fake-outs with it seeming like Pat’s going to answer a question that will reveal Pat’s gender, only for Pat’s answer to be something gender-unspecific.
— A good laugh from the reveal of Pat’s ex-fiancee having the unisex name Chris, as well as Chris being involved with someone with the equally-unisex name Terry.
— Pat: “I guess it’s that time of the month.” Kevin (thinking THAT reveals Pat’s gender): “Oh, okay.” Pat: “Bills.”
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
— This is Adam Sandler’s first episode as a writer. He will begin making uncredited appearances in bit roles very soon.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid episode. Aside from the Davy Crockett sketch, everything worked for me, and several of the sketches were particularly strong. We also got a memorable debut of two sketches that would go on to become recurring (McLaughlin Group and Pat). Much like his first time hosting, John Goodman did another great job as host, though he seemed a little underutilized at times tonight.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dennis Hopper)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Tom Hanks joins the Five-Timers Club
Great episode. I LOVE Dana in the McLaughlin Group. So incredible.
Good-bye to the Church Lady (who won’t return until Carvey hosts in 96 or 97). I think you could make a good argument that Church Lady single-handedly saved SNL from cancellation. Well, maybe not by itself, but certainly a big part of it. She played a huge role in SNL’s renaissance in Season 12. I’m glad the writers did not run her into the ground (frankly, I think Dana got a little tired of playing the role as he entered the second half of his tenure). It’s pretty amazing that Dana would be on the show for another 2+ years and not perform her again. I feel like the show today is not that judicious in reigining in recurring characters.
I think SNL back then was ran differently than today. My guess is the cast are on longer contracts because Lorne doesn’t want to go through talent like he did at the time in the early to mid-1990’s, when it was hard to replace the solid hires that came in ’86.
I agree about the Church Lady helping revive the show. Just thinking about what kind of “buzz” the show had in the ’80s, there was a lot with Eddie Murphy, some for Billy Crystal and Martin Short during their year, and then nothing until the Church Lady. She was getting real laughs and getting people talking about the show again. And the rest of the show was then good enough to get people to sit through it again. Hartman never generated “buzz,” at least not until his Clinton impersonation, but he was reliable and solid and made the show consistently watchable, just as Miller, Hooks and even Lovitz for a time were.
I think Carvey’s Bush impersonation was another big shot in the arm soon after that. And the addition of Mike Myers, most notably for Wayne’s World, was another major boost. Then, when the “new generation” cast of Farley, Spade, Rock, Sandler, etc. was introduced the show became a major cultural touchstone again with a firm grasp on an older and younger audience. Quality issues aside, the show has never really lost its sense of importance in the culture since then. The Carvey/Myers era proved the show was not a one-cast wonder and had the power to reinvent and reassert itself when necessary.
As for Carvey cutting down on the Church Lady appearances, I do recall seeing him in an interview once say that he wasn’t all that thrilled with his most famous character being a woman. Carvey had a paradoxical combination of both power and insecurity at this time. There is no way Michaels could force Carvey to do the Church Lady if he didn’t want to do it. But Carvey was still facing tremendous competition for attention from the other great cast members of this era. And he had no clear path to a post-SNL career. This also explains why he almost quit the Wayne’s World movie over him not being thrilled with the part written for Garth. He had the power to walk away but was still insecure about wanting to define himself as a star and feeling he needed to do something that would make a lasting impact. Arguably, he was right to worry about all that, as he never found a glide path to a noteworthy post-SNL career the way almost every other significant, popular, long-running cast member did. He and Jon Lovitz are the two whose post-SNL career pales the most to their time on SNL. But I’m sure everyone agrees Carvey is more talented and appealing than Lovitz. The failure of Carvey’s career outside of SNL is still bizarre, inexplicable and hard to believe to me.
Don’t forget that Lovitz (along with Dunn, Miller, and Brown) also kept that one season afloat. If he was not in the cast during that season, could the show have been saved?
I forget what the source was, but I’d like to THINK that Tom Arnold Firing Goodman multiple times from Roseanne was a thing that actually happened–this was around the time Tom & Roseanne got married, and Tom started exercising (or inflicting) a lot of creative control over the show…but don’t quote me.
Are you not counting the “Church Lady/Misery” sketch from the Roseanne episode or is that too meta?
I would say too meta to count. 🙂 Ultimately, Dana is playing “himself” in the sketch. Furthermore, Jon Lovitz appears in the sketch as well and when Dana exclaims “I thought you we’re dead!” Jon replies “ACTING!” Would we count this as an appearance of Master Thespian? Certainly not. 🙂
1. Tom Arnold and Roseanne fired writers, producers, etc – not John Goodman.
2. The chewing family sketch was the first thing Adam Sandler wrote that got on air.
3. Roseanne saw this ep and like the Pat character so much she asked for a recurrence. It could have been a one time sketch. (Probably unlikely though).
This episode was a breakout for Julia Sweeney. She got a new character on the show that would later impact the show in a big way. It was a good way to start “Pat” before graduating it to where it ended up. (Did anyone see that movie by the way?) She also got a good amount of airtime in this week’s episode too.
I’m glad Julia was brought in for Season 16’s fifth episode rather than later, otherwise Jan Hooks and Victoria Jackson both would have burned out by New Years (more so Jan).
This McLaughlin sketch is my all-time favorite SNL sketch. I didn’t know it was the first one. It’s amazing they got it perfect right out of the gate. This has one of the best examples of building absurdity any SNL sketch has ever had. It’s amazingly fast-paced which helps it pack in such a variety of ideas. It’s perfectly performed, with every character making comments that distinguish them from each other and fit well with what I know about the real-life versions of these people. This is one of those parodies that would be extra funny for people who knew the real show but loses almost nothing for people who don’t.
Also really liked the debut of Pat. I like that it is a real writer’s sketch. All of the fun is in seeing how the writer figures out a way to keep Pat from revealing her sex while every other character is doing their best to figure it out. This sketch also works because it’s relatable. I know I have been in this situation of not being able to tell someone’s sex before. Obviously it’s usually someone you briefly encounter and not someone you work closely with.
Here’s my commentary and rating on the musical performances.
Epic — Ok, full disclosure, I’ve been a Faith No More fan for 25 years, so yeah I’m biased. However, I can honestly say this is perhaps the band’s best live performance of their big hit Epic ever, and certainly beats the studio version. It had been well over a year and a half since their album The Real Thing came out, and Mike Patton is gradually adding more dimensions to his voice. He’s relying much less on the annoying nasal whine than he did in the studio version, and I love his scream right before the guitar solo (WHAAATTT IIIIISSSS?!?), a skill he’ll be bringing a lot more of to the band in their next album, their masterpiece Angel Dust. The band as a whole sounds great, although Roddy’s piano solo at the end is a bit tentative. Jim’s tearing it up on guitar and the overall sound mix is superb. Mike’s got a flashy outfit on as befits a good lead singer, and his mid-song stunt of climbing up to the ceiling fan in the background and back down again just in time for his vocal part is surprising and inspired.
Stars: ****1/2
From Out of Nowhere — I’ve never been a huge fan of this tune, and though the band performs it reasonably well here, Mike’s vocals are a bit buried in the mix. I do like his “SEE YAH” ad lib at the end though and they’ve still got good energy. Just not as special or striking of a performance as their first number.
Stars: **1/2
This is the Vintage show this weekend.
Do you happen to know if the SEASON 16 | EPISODE 7 episode was re-run on July 6th, 1991? I could swear that is what I was watching when it was time to go to the hospital to have my first baby.
It’s good to see Pat because at least now Julia is getting something unique to do. Up to this point she doesn’t seem to have much variance from the kinds of roles Victoria got put in.