December 21, 1985 – Teri Garr / The Cult, Dream Academy (S11 E6)

Cold Open – Rapping Wrapper

• Blah. The premise of a rapping wrapper is weak, and it feels like something someone probably just came up with after hearing that pun for the first time. Not to mention the fact that Damon’s rapping early on isn’t all that great.
• Rhyming “wrap it” with “wrap it”, and then again with “wrap it”? Geez, were the writers lazy or what?
• At least this overall open was short. If it were any longer, my rating would’ve likely been lower.

Rating: **

Monologue

• Right off the bat, Garr comes out dressed as a Pope. This is probably more understandable when you’re aware in hindsight of what this leads to.
• And now we find out that this is a continuation of the Father Guido Sarducci commentary from the Pee-wee Herman episode. Yeah, why don’t you just shoot me now?
• Garr’s talk praising Pope Maurice is making me groan, mostly due to the various words she’s using.
• As usual, Sarducci is boring me to death with his ramblings. His talk about paying money in particular is INSUFFERABLE.
• I feel like Father Guido Sarducci has been talking FOREVER at this point.
• (*sigh*) As if this monologue couldn’t get any worse, we now have Garr and Sarducci breaking out into a duet of “I Got You, Babe”. I don’t even like this song! What did I do to deserve this punishment?!
• (*groan*) Listening to this number is almost as torturous as listening to that new David Guetta song that samples “Blue (Da Ba Dee)”.
• Overall, I didn’t get any enjoyment out of this monologue. Between this and the cold open, tonight’s episode has ALREADY been off to a bad start.

Rating: *

Critic

• Rerun from 11/9/85

A Dozen Eggs

• I don’t know how or why, but the combination of the mustache and that voice Jon’s using makes it very easy for me to believe that he’s older than Randy in this sketch.
• The opening conversation between Randy and Jon is kinda funny, mostly due to Randy’s dumbfounded portrayal of his character.
• Man, this first stock footage transition is going on way too long for my likings. Being an editing buff, I can tell you that that needed some serious trimming.
• Randy and Garr’s talk about eggs is confusing, and not even in the intentional way.
• I’m pretty certain that the music that plays once Randy and Garr kiss is the same music that plays whenever Alec Baldwin kisses someone in the Greenhilly sketch in S15.
• How exactly did we get to the hospital bed? This sketch is just getting confusing.
• WTF at that random ending?

Rating: **½

Hildy

• I recall hearing that this is supposedly parodying something from the 60s, but I don’t remember what.
• Speaking of the 60s, the theme song at the beginning seems to be emulating other theme songs from that time period. It’s such a shame that the audio quality in my copy sucks.
• Another drag role for Sweeney.
• I’m about a couple minutes into this sketch, and I’m having a very hard time trying to find the supposed comedy here. I kinda get what it’s going for, but this overall sketch feels like it’s missing something, not helped either by the lack of audience response.
• And now the sketch has just ended minutes after writing that last statement. Yeah, this was pretty blah, and tonight’s episode continues to not work for me

Rating: **

Weekend Update

• Ah, here comes Dennis to hopefully give me something to like in tonight’s episode.
• The usual funny opening ad-lib from Dennis.
• Hmm, I hate to say it, but a lot of Dennis’ jokes tonight have been below par for his standards, despite his always-reliable delivery.
• The gag with the censor bar having a hard time following Don Novello around is kinda funny, though I’m a bit worried that it won’t be able to sustain this entire commentary.
• Yeah, just as I thought, the main gag has lost its steam as this commentary progressed. It also doesn’t help that the actual commentary has been going on for a very long time.
• Tonight’s overall Update was the first one this season I wasn’t crazy about. It’s really saying something when even Dennis Miller can’t save this episode.

Rating: **½

A Roy Orbison Christmas

• The opening text crawl feels like something we saw earlier this season, but I can’t remember what sketch.
• I admittedly don’t know too much about the real Roy Orbison, so I can’t judge the accuracy of Randy’s singing impression of him.
• I kinda want to like this “Santa’s Little Surfer Girl” number, but…where exactly are the jokes in this number? Or, for that matter, the humor in this sketch?
• During the aforementioned number, it feels like we can hear singers who aren’t really there.
• Meh, now this number is starting to drag.
• I was surprised that they let Randy say the n-word (the nicer version of it), but then I remembered that this is supposed to be a TV special from 1965.
• I absolutely love Danitra’s dramatic reading of a letter from a mental patient, especially her facial expressions during said reading.
• Overall, I wanted to like this sketch, but something about it felt off. Maybe it has something to do with the lack of proper jokes throughout.

Rating: **

Guest Performance – Penn & Teller

• Penn & Teller, save me from this episode!
• As usual, Penn’s making me laugh with his delivery of his complicated spiel, which itself has a decent handful of funny lines.
• The part with Penn getting shocked is pretty surprising, as is his fire-eating stunt.
• Funny turn with Penn calling out Teller for ruining the trick, and then proceeding to talk about how it would feel more like an SNL sketch.
• Interesting part with Penn now doing Teller’s part of the trick.
• Overall, this was fine, but felt below par compared to their first performance in the premiere. Still the best thing to air in tonight’s episode so far, though.

Rating: ***

The Big Tree

• “Corona Pictures”? Well, THAT certainly won’t sound odd 37 (or 38) years from now.
• Do we really need this long opening credits sequence? It would be a lot better to not have it open up by having all the cast members’ names in the credits.
• Odd voice that Nora’s using.
• I find it really hard to buy Robert in this particular role, as he doesn’t look old enough to be the owner of a business company.
• Randy’s delivery of his first line made me laugh.
• Not entirely sure if I’m caring for where this sketch has been going in general.
• Yeah, the more this sketch goes on, the more I’m losing interest. They’re really overdoing it with the dramatic reactions, and in doing so practically leaves me bored.
• And now we get to the main comedic conceit of the gigantic tree falling down. I will admit that the initial cutaway to it made me chuckle, though that was only because said tree was represented with a miniature prop.
• The role Anthony’s playing is just as hard for me to believe as Robert’s.
• Yikes, Anthony isn’t even TRYING to hide the fact that he’s looking at the cue cards during his ranting towards Robert. He keeps looking in the direction of the cards instead of, y’know, at Robert himself.
• After the initial chuckle from the cutaway to the prop set, the second cutaway with tectonic plates separating didn’t elicit a smirk from me.
• (*sigh*) Not even an angry rant from Randy is working for me, and that guy can easily get laughs out of me.
• Overall, aside from a couple chuckles here and there, this sketch was awful.

Rating: *½

Musical Performance Intro

• We’re comically told that a lack of audience interest has led to Part 2 of The Big Tree being cancelled. I know that’s just a joke, but I’m so glad we don’t get to see that sketch continue.

Time Machine Trivia Game

• Funny premise for this sketch, with Anthony’s time-travelling causing the questions in his family’s trivia game to be altered.
• A laugh from I Love Lucy suddenly being changed to I Love Ike.
• A funny part with Nora now being the person who broke Babe Ruth’s record, despite her not playing baseball.
• Great bit with one question Nora reads constantly being changed as another result of Anthony’s meddling with time.
• Anthony’s delivery during his apology isn’t working for me at all.
• Funny reveal of Anthony now being the President of the United States.
• An overall pretty good sketch, though the execution could’ve been a little better.

Rating: ***½

Final Thoughts

• A very rough Christmas episode, and a poor way to end the first half after the one-two-three punch of Pee-wee Herman, John Lithgow, and Tom Hanks. Barely anything in tonight’s episode worked for me, and even those that did didn’t rise above average. Even usually dependable segments like Dennis Miller’s Weekend Update and Penn & Teller couldn’t be up to par tonight. It also didn’t help that tonight’s episode felt dead, with plenty of sloppiness throughout and a very quiet studio audience. All in all, this is an episode to make you weep. Easily another entry into my list of least favorite Christmas episodes the show’s ever done.

Up Next:

We enter the year 1986, with host Harry Dean Stanton, musical guest The Replacements, and special guest Sam Kinison