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Welcome To The Six-Timers Club Mr. Goodman

Now, this is what I would expect from a season finale. Unfortunately, however, there are still four more episodes to get to the actual season closer. The night started off with a special appearance from an alumn when Dan Aykroyd kicked off the night by impersonating Bob Dole in the opening sketch. This was the first special twist that I’ve grown to expect from first, last or holiday episode but the show has yet to establish this tradition so far.

The next thing that made the night special was a twofer in that John Goodman’s announcement that he’s now in the Six-Timers Club led to a performance from him and Aykroyd who joined forces as the new Blues Brothers with Goodman taking over the Belushi role. Keep in mind this was three years before they made it official with the release of the sequel Blues Brothers 2000 which actually came out in 1998.

Right after their performance, we got our next surprise with that Bill Swerski’s Super Fans sketch returning following what seemed to be a pretty long hiatus. Not only was it fun to see this classic sketch return, but it was also pretty exciting the way that the sketch reveals several cameos in a row. First, there was George Wendt who played the titular Bill Swerski with John Goodman playing Mike Myers’ role claiming to have put on weight since the last installment, but this was expected since he is the host after all.

More surprises were dealt out throughout the rest of the Swerski sketch. Next, Dan Aykroyd returned once again to revisit his Irwin Mainway character from the good old days who’s still selling dangerous toys to the kids. Just when I thought that was all, Brian Dennehy dropped in for a super quick cameo to announce that, including him, the sketch just broke the world record for the most fat guys in one sketch all at the same time.

Dan Aykroyd continued to appear in many sketches which also helped the show feel a little more special, even though, at times it felt like it was more Aykroyd’s show with Goodman as his guest. Even when the two shared a scene, Aykroyd delivered a bulk of the lines, but that seemed to be the case no matter who he was acting against. Either way, it was a fun night with both.

Finally, the night ended with Chris Elliott performing a sketch where he jokingly announced that this would be his last episode with the show in order to venture out and invent a penis measuring machine. I don’t know whether or not this is true that this is his last show, but I do know that he doesn’t return which only added to the finale feeling that I was getting from this show.

Hopefully, this is the point where these types of episodes are held for special occasions rather than wasting them on an average Saturday night because I can’t wait for the seasons to open and close with a spectacle instead of an ordinary episode.

We’ll soon see if this happens at the end of this year, but until then, it’s now time for me to shift gears to share what I saw, as I give you…

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with a parody of This Week With David Brinkley where they already began to discuss the lineup of Republican hopefuls for the ’96 election which at the time was over a year and a half away. In the sketch, Dan Aykroyd made a special appearance as Bob Dole, to share why he should be the Republican’s pick, while the angle and demon that live on his shoulders steer his side of the conversation. Of course, this being the opening sketch, it eventually led to the announcement of, “Live from New York…”
John Goodman then officially opened the show with a monolog about the added benefits of being a rare member of the Six-Timers Club and how he was allowed to do what he wants including the ability to join the Blues Brothers. Dan Aykroyd then joined him on stage and the two performed a song that I’m guessing is called One Last Kiss.
Bill Swerski's Super Fans returned after a long break. This time, the beer-loving Bears fans, donned their Bulls’ attire to wish the team luck during this year’s NBA Championship. This sketch was filled with special guests… well… George Wendt and eventually also Dan Aykroyd who brought back his sleazy toy salesman from back when he was on the cast. Then just when you thought that was it, Brian Dennehy dropped by to announce that with him, they’ve broken the world record for the most fat guys in a single sketch at the same time.
This was followed by a parody of The Late Late Show With Tom Snyder where Dan Aykroyd revisited his Tom Snyder impersonation to make fun of the meandering host interview John Goodman as himself to promote his show, Roseanne. Snyder got so caught up in rambling on about himself that he barely even acknowledged John Goodman and cut him off by taking calls whenever Goodman attempted to talk.
The Tragically Hip then took to the stage to perform Grace, Too.
Once again, Norm MacDonald gave us the news. This week, we saw clips of David Spade as Kato Kaelin to show how bad his acting was during his time in the witness box during the O.J. Trial.
We then went to an NYC Dog Park where John Goodman and Laura Kightlinger had a chat why watching their dogs play. This seemed like a typical situation until it was revealed that Adam Sandler was playing Goodman’s dog that kept trying to have sex with the real dogs in the park. It was unclear at first whether or not Sandler was supposed to be a real dog since Kightlinger played along in an effort to make this seem reasonable. It then became clear that in the world of the sketch he was a human in a dog suit when he went to hump Laura’s leg and she stopped playing into Goodman’s and Sandler’s delusions.
Rush Limbaugh Vs. Howard Stern was a sketch where Dan Aykroyd played Rush, and Michael McKean played Howard who dropped by Limbaugh’s studio with Cleghorne as Robin to apologize to Rush for all of the horrible things that he said on the air. Adam Sandler also dropped in as Bababooey as we learn that Rush had not only stolen Howard’s routine, but he stole his crew and sponsors as well with Rush claiming to be the conservative’s king.
Self-Deluded Losers was a sketch were Chris Elliott was having dinner with friends to discuss his latest job interview. Not only does he believe the polite but cliché way they said no but his friends believed it as well. We then went around the table where the rest of their friends truly believed all of the compliments given during various forms of rejection.
We then got a parody of Unsolved Mysteries where the mystery of the night was the Big Bang explosion, complete with reenactments and interviews. The segment started back in 1956 when Molly Shannon found a mysterious message in a bottle which drove her absolutely nuts. The sketch then got extremely convoluted to the point where I didn’t really get the joke because it seems like they were tieing a bunch of unrelated Unsolved Mysteries-style stories to this mystery bottle with was supposed to hold the answer to what started the big bang. That said, Aykroyd’s impersonation of Robert Stack was spot on.
The Tragically Hip then returned to the stage to perform Nautical Disaster.
We then met up with a bunch of Coal Miners for their lunch break where the filthy miners shared crazy tales of mining gigs from their past that all ended with cave-ins and death even though they made it seem like it was fun.
Penis-Measuring Device was a sketch that took place at the new (at the time) Denver Airport where Chris Elliott played an employee who had the task of polling travelers if they would be interested in the air port’s idea to add a device that would measure their penises for free. Chris Elliott ended the sketch by breaking the scene to announce that he will be leaving the show after being a cast member for ten years in order to build this penis measuring device. The sketch then ultimately ended with Chris Elliott getting assassinated for even thinking to dream of creating such a magnificent invention for the world.
Finally, John Goodman closed the show by thanking the audience and saying his goodnights.

This episode was so strong that I can’t wait to see how the rest of the year plays out but until that happens, here are my three favorite moments of the night. First, I loved the return of Bill Swerski's Super Fans because the ramping up of guest dropping by for special visit actually made this sketch as exciting as it was funny. Next, I really liked the Penis-Measuring Device because I love the idea of this being Chris Elliott’s Swan Song of a way to say goodbye as he winded out his last day as part of the SNL cast. Finally, I was a fan of the Dog Park sketch because I found it funny how it triggered a Family Guy moment where I couldn’t figure out the reality of the sketch so I couldn’t tell if Adam Sandler was supposed to be a real dog then laughed my ass off at the reveal.