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Another Solid Show From The Good Man Goodman

I always look forward to a John Goodman visit because he's just one of those guests who seems like he should have started his career as part of the cast because, no matter the year, he always feels like a natural fit. He's just below Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, and Alec Baldwin while being just above George Wendt, particularly at this time, as guests that just might appear randomly on any given night and you wouldn't think twice about it.

The problem with these pseudo-cast members/hosts is that they all seem to eventually fall into the trap of growing overconfident as they land themselves in too much of a comfort zone. I'm not surprised this often happens during their sophomore show... wait, no, this normally takes place during their third visit which would technically be their junior visit but that just doesn't roll off the tongue.

During their first visit, they do good enough to be called back. Having learned from their past, their second show is often better than the first, which is again what gets them invited to come back. It's this third show where they often slip but not to the point where they are horrible. I feel this is because they become overconfident in their connection with the show that they seem to just expect the laughs while they have fun with the cast.

Thankful, there's the "not to the point where it's horrible" clause that I mentioned but there is almost always a dip which was the case tonight where the first half was fun but I struggled to even summarize the second half of the night due to some second-half slump brand of writing. Even then, watching the show was fine, I just felt very uninspired as to what to write to share what was going on.

Now that I mention it, I think most of my frustration comes from being annoyed by having to summarize a sketch that's uninteresting to me over being annoyed by the actual sketch. I think this is why I constantly find that I often back-peddle when I feel a show is just sort of good that just doesn't inspire me to write about it, kind of like the show tonight.

So, if you want to watch a fun show, this could be one for you but if you want something to write home about, I'd recommend you go back to the season opener, hosted by Michael Jordan. And now that I've shared my point of view, it's time to move on and share what I actually viewed, as I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with "C-SPAN coverage" of a Star Trek Convention that the Democrats hijacked in order to campaign against George Bush Sr. for President in order to lock down the nerd vote. Of course, this being the opening sketch all of the Trekkie political talk built to the announcement of, "Live from New York..."
John Goodman then officially opened the show with a monolog about how this is his third time hosting but this is the first of his visit to promote a film which happens to be the movie, Babe. He then went on to share a few "clips" where we learn that it's a musical with a French Connection-style car chase, and a scene where Babe Ruth grew to the size of Godzilla.
This was followed by a fake ad for an album called Unforgivable making fun of Natalie Cole's duet album with her late father Nat King Cole. In the ad, Natalie sings more duets "with her dad's dead old friends," which is actually the tagline for the album.
My 75 Kids was a fake sit-com sketch that made fun of a fertility doctor who was in the news at the time who was using his own semen to impregnate all of his patients by showing his life at home if he had to actually raise all of the kids that he had helped to produce.
We then got a Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey where Jack shared his anger over aquarium employees taking issue with his attempts to feed fried chicken to dolphins.
Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer returned for another installment where the Caveman Lawyer was responsible for pitching a land development deal where there were environmental concerns that just didn't exist at the time when he was frozen in ice which is the focal point of his argument.
Garth Brooks then took to the stage to perform Rodeo.
Once again, Kevin Nealon gave us the news. This week, Chris Farley dropped in for his first news segment where he discussed gays wanting to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade by taking an unintentionally ironic stance against advertising being gay since it's more of a personal trait when the whole point of the day is for people to advertise the fact that they are Irish. Cajun Man also dropped by for an editorial on Spring Break. Finally, the news ended by sharing footage from "Ed McMahon's" latest marriage.
Theatre Stories also returned for another installment where Mike Myer's old actor British host character interviewed a collection of theatre stars where once again my main interest was Dana Carvey who played Mickey Rooney who is continually emphatic that he was once, "The number one star IN THE WORLD."
Anton Mesrobian: Teen Dermatologist was a sketch where Chris Farley dropped by the doctor to get help for his "Zit Goatee" which John Goodman, who played the titular role quickly determined was caused by his football chin strap. Julia Sweeney is the next to drop in and again we witnessed another instant diagnosis only this one was a little sexist. Goodman then got a house call to help Chris Rock with his hat line zits where this time it got a little racist as Goodman suggests that these zits stem from the stress of being the only black kid in a white community to which he suggested that they move back to the hood.
Garth Brooks then returned to the stage to perform The River.
Schlomo Fuchs was a sketch where John Goodman played an up and coming country star who was meeting with a potential agent that suggest Goodman change his name from Bob Wilson in an effort to broaden his audience only to find out at the end of the sketch that the agent’s name is Schlomo Fuchs which might be why he was so interested in the name change.
This was followed by another installment of Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey where Jack admitted that he hates to be accused of fearing one thing when he actual fears another.
Caesar's Sauna was a sketch where the politicians of Rome met in the sauna to discuss their plan to assassinate Caesar only to be continually interrupted by John Goodman who played just an average citizen who was trying to take advantage of the public amenity.
We then got yet another Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey where Jack shared why he wished that there was such a thing as a golden skunk.
Finally, John Goodman closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

As I said up above, the first half of this episode was super fun and actually contained all three of my favorite moments of the night that I am about to share. First, I loved My 75 Kids because not only do I remember this story, I also laughed out loud at the room full of fat little boys and girls all wearing middle-aged men's glasses. Next, I really liked John Goodman's opening promotion of the movie Babe because of the fact that a Godzilla joke will never go wrong with me. Finally, I was a fan of the opening sketch where the Democrats tried to hijack the Star Trek convention, especially when Phil Hartman as Bill Clinton finally listened to the crowd only to realize he was in a room full of nerds and his expression alone was enough to get me to laugh out loud.