SNL: S18E15... HOST: JOHN GOODMAN... DATE: MARCH 13, 1993
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One More Show And It’s A Five-Timers Coat For The Big Guy
This being John Goodman’s visit number four, I’ve already covered how much of a fan of I am of this man as well as his connection with the show. Like Alec Baldwin, I almost consider Goodman to be an honorary cast member of the show over being your average host so my expectations were still high for this appearance even though I’ve been constantly dealt a good but not great season.
Also like Alec, Goodman was one of the few hosts this year to put on a great show that holds up against many episodes from much better overall seasons. Other than the Sinbad episode, this is the second show this year that I liked from the opening sketch all the way to the goodnights without once getting bored to the point where I turned to my phone for a quick distraction.
In fact, this episode actually has two of my all-time favorite sketches that I’m really struggling to figure out which one that I like the best because I would love to have both of them near the top of my overall favorites list. The first one being the Soylent Green sketch that I thought was hilarious when I first saw it even though I had no idea that it was referencing an existing movie. The second sketch is one that I’ve been trying to find for years where we went to a corner Turkish run store that continually gets vandalized over the decades due to troubles in the Middle East that Turkey had nothing to do with. I like this sketch because I’m obsessed with history repeating itself and how much people like to point this out without ever seeing the signs that it’s happening.
To top off my complications, it was almost damn near impossible to narrow down my number three because almost any of the other sketches, other than Coffee Talk could have easily won the spot. If only there was an entire season that lived up to this level, I’d be a very happy camper for the entire month that it would take me to get through the year.
With all of that said, it’s now time to shift gears and move on to share what I saw, as I give you…
The Wicker Breakdown:
This week's show started with Richmeister In Waco where our favorite Copy Guy plays his famous name game at the David Koresh compound while making fun the fearless cult leader for thinking that he’s the reincarnate of Jesus. Of course, this being the opening sketch it eventually built to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
John Goodman then officially opened the show by singing the classic ‘60s hit So Much In Love with The Bravados singing backup after sharing a story about how he didn’t feel that the monolog that was written for him fit with his sense of humor.
This was followed by a fake ad for Wilson Countersink Flanges which focused so much on engineering jargon it was hard to tell what the commercial was actually for but whatever it was, it seemed kind of important.
Bear And The Brain was a college-themed sketch where John Goodman just got accepted into the same school as his best friend played by Rob Schneider. Goodman played a big jock named Bear with Schneider being his brainy friend who helped him get into the school. After a quick reunion, Chris Farley entered the room as a guy named Ox who became Schneider's new big jock friend that he connected with while Bear was still at home. At first Bear was destroyed by this discovery until his overreaction led David Spade to enter the room to get him to quiet down only to become Bear’s new brainy friend.
Let's Talk And Talk And Talk About The Movies was as the title implies a movie talk show here Julia Sweeney interviewed John Goodman as a movie producer who made a huge series of Soylent Green sequels where the story is exactly the same only the Soylent is different colors and serve different need other than just replacing food.
We then got another Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey where Jack shared why he can’t stand people that he owes money to because he finds them to be super cheap.
Mary J. Blige then took to the stage to perform Reminisce.
Once again, Kevin Nealon gave us the news. This week, Kevin Nealon interviewed Chris Farley who played The Storm Of The Century the hit New York that year. Chris Rock introduced a new character named Buster Jenkins who shared his crazy old man ideas about how NASA spaceships are to blame for the latest economic crisis. Adam Sandler also introduced his Sleepyhead character who tried to share his views on a situation taking place in Russia only to end up rambling in his sleep.
How'd You Do That? was a talk show sketch with Kevin Nealon as the host who simply asks his panel of guests who have all been in freak accidents the simple titular question, How’d you do that? They then had a plastic surgeon come in to share his crazy solution to the guests’ problems.
We then got another installment of Coffee Talk with Linda Richman On A Cruise where she and John Goodman went through the normal Coffee Talk routine only this time they were on a boat only it wasn’t actually the show, it was just Linda on vacation.
Cantina Boy Attends A Block Party was the debut of Adam Sandler’s naïve adult Boy Scout character who over embellished all of his achievements in a way that annoyed all of the guests.
Mary J. Blige then returned to the stage to perform Sweet Thing.
Turkish Storekeeper was a sketch that took place in a corner store in New York where John Goodman threw a brink through the window because he was pissed off over an incident that took place in Egypt. Rob Schneider played the Turkish store owner who had to remind Goodman that he has made this mistake before which sent us back in time for a montage of moments where he threw bricks through the window in the past due to his racist confusion.
This was followed by another Deep Thoughts By Jack Handey where Jack shared the difference between a wise man and a stupid guy.
To Be Sure, It's Time to Rock! was a fake ad for an album full of rock and roll songs sung to an Irish drinking song melody.
The Man Without A Shout was a sketch where John Goodman killed a group of his friends when his shout caused a massive avalanche and from that moment on he swore that he would never shout again which ruined his career as an umpire.
Finally, John Goodman closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.
As I said up above, this might be the hardest episode to narrow down my top three favorite moments because this was such a solid episode but here’s what I managed to come up with. First, I loved the Turkish Storekeeper sketch because as I said up above I’m obsessed with the idea of history repeating itself and found this to be a funny example of how people ignore the signs. Next, I really liked the Soylent Green sketch because also as I said up above I loved this sketch even before I knew that it was referencing a real movie. Finally, I was a fan of the opening sketch because I was obsessed with the David Koresh story when all of that stuff went down.