SNL: S20E19... HOST: BOB SAGET... DATE: MAY 6, 1995

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Bob Saget Unleashed… Well... Sort Of…

 

I always like how even to this day, people love to say, “Did you know that Bob Saget was actually a filthy comedian and not the family man dad from TV?” As I often point out, I was a stand-up fan since I was a little kid, so I always thought this was common knowledge which was why I was excited about the potential of this episode.

Unfortunately, this was right after the announcement of Full House being canceled where Saget was extra intent on reminding his fans that he was filthy after being contractually clean for so long that it felt a little forced. Not only that but he opened the show sharing how excited he was to work dirty only to put on a pretty tame show when all was said and done.

In fact, the only thing that I felt was even close to filthy was when he was cursing in front of a kid during his opening monolog. That’s not to say that this episode had to be super offensive for me to consider it to be good, but when you start with a promise that doesn’t pay off it can leave the audience rather confused.

Also, like with last night’s show hosted by Courtney Cox, I feel that the order of this season's hosts really screwed these final first-time guests by having them follow two hosts who clearly had the two best shows of the year. Sure you could say, “How could they know this would happen since any host can put on a hell of a show even when you don’t expect it?”

This may be true in general, but in this case, I’m just playing the odd. I mean, one of the hosts was John Goodman who entered the Six-Timers Club during his visit, giving him the advantage of experience. While the second guest was Damon Wayans, who had his In Living Color characters to excite crossover fans.

Of the hosts following this killer combo, my hopes were the highest for Bob Saget’s appearance, but again, in comparison, the show came off rather bland, which I genuinely think is too bad. Now I’ve just got David Duchovny left, who I know can be funny, but my expectations are very low. Thankfully, my expectations reset with the start of every new season.

With that said, it’s now time to move on from sharing my opinions and share what I actually saw, as I give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

  1. This week's show started with A Message From Tony Vallencourt where Adam Sandler played the titular wicked huge Boston Celtic’s fan who shared a few of his crazy drunken memories from the Boston Garden arena following the team’s final game in their old home before they moved on to a brand new venue. Of course, with this being the opening sketch, it eventually built to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”

  2. Bob Saget then officially opened the show with a monolog about how he needs more work on television since Full House was recently canceled. He then went on to reassure the audience that he was still doing fine thanks to his job on America’s Funniest Home Videos. The monolog then evolved into a bit of a stand-up routine which included a description of the craziest home video that he’s ever seen involving a monkey that the network deemed to be too obscene to air. Most of his other jokes highlighted how he is not the clean father figure type like his character Danny Tanner.

  3. This was followed by a repeat of the fake Amazin' Laser commercial from earlier in the year where Chris Elliott pitched a powerful laser to help expedite your efforts while doing yard work.

  4. We then went to a locker room for the halftime break of a track meet where Bob Saget played the Track Coach whose coaching technique was simply to tell his athletes that their goal is to be Fast no matter what they do.

  5. This was followed by the parody, America's Funniest Hate Videos were, as the title suggests, Bob Saget shared a collection of some of the funniest videos from hate groups.

  6. Fashion Designer was a sketch that introduced Chris Farley’s character, Dante who was an over-the-top flamboyant designer who acted almost like a supervillain who had no time or respect for his competitors, especially his arch-nemesis who was played by Bob Saget.

  7. TLC then took to the stage to perform Creep.

  8. Once again, Norm MacDonald gave us the news. This week, Morwenna Banks dropped in as a British child character simply called “the little girl” to share how she thinks the American media collects and distributes its news. Ellen Cleghorne also dropped by to share how sad she is over the fact that Full House was being canceled even though she had no idea who Bob Saget was when he stepped in to cheer her up. The news the ended on a clip of Howard Cosell from when he hosted the show in the ‘80s to honor his recent death.

  9. We then got the parody Where In The World Is San Diego, California? that tested the child contestants to see if they could find my hometown on a map through a series of clues. This was supposed to be the premiere of a spin-off of the show with a very similar name which led the cast, producers, and crew to be highly disappointed when Molly Shannon figured it out before a single question was asked.

  10. This was followed by another parody only this was a parody of Boyz II Men as a band where three white guys and Tim Meadows played the all black band intercut with clips of women reacting to their music.

  11. We then got a segment of Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey where Jack shared advice to vampire children.

  12. Karl's Video Store was a sketch where Bob Saget and Kevin Nealon dropped by a video store to rent a movie only to be bombarded with recommendations from David Spade who played a movie nerd of a cashier. He doubles down on the pestering when it was revealed the Saget was playing himself only to get sent away to bother the other customers. Of course, with this being a video store sketch, it also included a moment where they joked about titles of porn.

  13. This was followed by a new Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey where Jack shared a story about finding a human skull in the forest and how he thought it was strange that it had deer horns attached.

  14. TLC then returned to the stage to perform Red Light Special.

  15. We then got another installment of Daily Affirmation where host, Stuart Smalley shared how his new movie, Stuart Saves His Family, turned out to be a complete flop and then spent the rest of the segment trying to cope with his disappointment in order to put on his show.

  16. Pacemaker was a sketch that took place in a sweatshop where David Spade played the stingy shop owner who went cheap when he purchased his pacemaker to where he needed help from his mistreated staff in order to keep it running. Only it turned out that it wasn’t a sweatshop at all and Spade wasn’t actually the owner but instead was a jerk supervisor who didn’t grasp that no one would help him wind-up his heart management device since he treated everyone like such a jerk.

  17. We then got yet another Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey where Jack share why he thought it would be cute to have a movie about a parrot who was raised by a bunch of eagles.

  18. Finally, Bob Saget closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

The real sign that this episode was a letdown is the fact that there were eighteen segments that made up the night (which is a lot, if you’re not playing along at home) and it was still a struggle to track down these three of my favorite moments of the night but here’s what I managed to come up with. First, I loved America's Funniest Hate Videos because the parody home video clips were a crack up. Next, I really liked the Where In The World Is San Diego, California? parody not only because I’m from San Diego, I thought it was funny how the show was ruined before it got a chance to official start. Finally, I was a fan of track and field sketch called fast because I found it funny that run real fast was the only instructional information from the track coach plus it was funny when everyone admitted to being too old to play high schoolers.

 
 

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