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A Night Of 100 Fake Ads

Once again we have a host that I'm aware of, yet I have no significant memories of her career. Also, once again, she is a host that seems like she would be a better fit later on in the season as part of the second half slump. This episode was just as good as all the other shows from the season, but that's not really saying much.

One thing that I noticed about this episode was just how much this batch of writers seemed to love the fake ads. I swear, 90% of this episode was a pitchman promoting something. This episode leads to a curious coincidence.

A couple reviews ago I was talking about how the episode brought up a lot of old memories only to share one flashback that took us back to the day when I had an innocent yet embarrassing "N" word incident.

During that review, there was also the premiere of the Velvet Jones line of ads. This triggered a memory that I didn't get to that I'm about to get to right now.

Though I wasn't a fan of how many fake ads made up this episode, I do have a special place in my heart for this genre of sketch. Back when this episode aired, all it took was a thirteen-year-old in the family to have an on-call babysitter.

I, my older sister, and two older cousins spent a lot of time together because of this babysitting plan. I have fond memories of going with the older kids to babysit the children of my second cousin once removed, whatever that means.

These kids were babies when I was five or six, so I was technically still the youngest of our group plus I also got to stay up as late as the big kids. This was at a time before electronics ruled the world so we would perform our own improv shows since Saturday Night Live was a big part of the entire family.

One of the games I distinctly remember was inspired by all of the fake ads. What we would do is take the yellow pages, open it to a random page, point and whatever business we landed on would be the business we would have to come up with an ad for. We'd then go into the room, come up with a story and recruit any additional characters and then act out the ad.

Now that I reflect of this, it seems odd to me that I never had an interest in any form of improv or sketch comedy acting.

Alright, there goes my walk down memory lane. Now it's time to share what I saw as I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show starts with another thirty-second jab at Exxon where we see the Exxico logo as the announcer reads the tagline, "Stay out of our way, or we will kill you." Once again there is no, "Live from New York..."
Also, once again, there is no monolog. Instead, everyone rushes the stage and pose like the picture is going to end up in some sort of yearbook. I hate this approach to opening the show.
This was followed a fake ad for a compilation album made up from all of Bill Cosby's guest hosting spots on The Tonight Show and the album is called Here's Cos.
We then go to Lauren's dressing room because she wants to talk to Eddie Murphy about how great he is and then goes on to ask him to do his Buckwheat impersonation for her and goes on to may more requests for her personal entertainment. She then tells him to wait while he changes when Eddie is joined by the ghost of Joe Piscopo who warns him against trying to hook up because she is way out of his league.
Next, we go to the White House where we see through Reagan's point of view as his people prepare him for everything he has to say in an upcoming speech because he thinks he's acting in a movie called Hail To The Chief.
We then get a fake ad for TransEastern Airlines that jokes about how horrible airlines treat people while smiling.
We get yet another fake ad for Whisper Bubble Bath the bubble bath that's powerful enough to allow you to do dishes while you bathe.
Rick James And The Stone City Band then hit the stage to perform Give It To Me Baby.
This week's Cheap Laffs rejected sketch is American Jigaboo that was thought up because Lauren Hutton was in American Gigolo, but it's an ad for toilet paper that I don't really get
Once again, Brain Doyle-Murray give us the news without Mary Gross, though it's sort of sad to see the change, it is a bit of an improvement. This week, Brian interviews Lady Diana who is too far along in her pregnancy for having just gotten married a month ago, Ted Koppel drops in for a segment about troubles in the Middle East and interviews the Prime Minister of Israel, and Eddie Murphy discussed his new experience of living out on his own in his brand new apartment. (Clip 2) (Clip 3)
We then get yet another fake ad for Harlequin Romances For Men. We then see the story as it's acted out where the women act like men and the men like women, so it's not technically role reversal.
We then get a break from the fake ads when we get a fake talk show called Reach Out where celebrity guests reach out to the audience to offer advice, only the guest's lives are too "Hollywood" to be able to relate to anyone.
Then we go back to the fake ads for Velvet Jones School Of Technology where Velvet Jones pitches his new program for pimps called 12 Easy Ways To Stomp A Ho.
We then go to a science lab where Piscopo talks about the good days when there was actual cocaine in Coca-Cola and gives what seems to be a pretty accurate breakdown of why this changed while stock footage play to make it funny.
William Burroughs then give a spoken word performance about a visit to the hospital. Though I know Burroughs came first, it reminds me of Spalding Grey.
We then get a repeat of Push Button To Explode Building which is pretty self-explanatory.
Bitter People is another fake talk show where Mary Gross interviews Piscopo and Pat Cooper as he bitches about the pecking order in Vegas.
Rick James And The Stone City Band return to the stage to perform Super Freak.
Art Is Ficial is a black and white short film that follows some guy in Europe as he goes about his bizarre day, mainly making fun of the conventions of the foreign genre.
Finally, Lauren Hutton closes the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

Once again, I do like the fact that these sketches are short, but even with the larger quantity I still ended up struggling with the list I am about to share with you. First, I loved Joe Piscopo's sketch about how the original Coca-Cola was made with cocaine because I how they made it both funny and factual. Next, I really liked the Reagan POV sketch because of how it makes me feel like we are living in a rerun from that time. Finally, I was a fan of the TransEastern Airline sketch because again, it could still be referencing event from today.