Bob Odenkirk's Favorite Unaired SNL Sketch
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2024
- Bob Odenkirk tells Tom about his favorite SNL sketch that never aired - now available to watch!! - featuring Dana Carvey as Charlie Chaplin, Jon Lovitz, Phil Hartman, written by Robert Smigel
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Honestly, feels way more like a Mr. Show sketch than an SNL one, no wonder Bob liked it.
I'm personally reminded of Armisen and Hader's "Kanuk" sketch in Documentary Now! Worth a watch if you haven't seen it and enjoyed this sketch.
Like you can see Bob narrating David Cross as Chaplin with pre-hipster Paul F.Tompkins as the waiter, giving both of them a chance to play Chaplin.
The Birthday Boys's "Pioneer of" skits
th-cam.com/video/j5TSdk4AA5Y/w-d-xo.htmlsi=bX-hDAef3Mqo8wSO
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@@gabbygator1637100%!!!
"Counterfeit money machine, counterfeit money machine, baby loves counterfeit money machine...."
It is truly a comedian's sketch, made by comedians for comedians. Anyone that writes or performs stand up knows about joke thieves. Simply making the greatest silent film star a thief would have been amusing enough, but his cornerstone character of the Little Tramp was so iconic that the thought of it being stolen hook line and sinker from a hapless background character makes it all that much more ironic.
Thank you for accompanying me on this journey, and please join me next week for another exciting episode of, "Spanky Weezl Explains the Joke", where we will be discussing the intricacies of Abbott and Costello's famous Who's on First sketch, and explore the pitfalls and highlights of the Knock-Knock joke premise.
Oh thank god, finally. I've never been able to figure that fucking thing out. Like, why won't the skinny guy just tell the fat dude the name of the guy on first? People must have really thought it was funny to just be mean back in the Vaudeville days. I'm really looking forward to your lecture.
Also, that nice little touch at the the with "next week: Robin Williams"... Brutal. 🤣
True. But I don’t think you have to care too much about joke thievery to find it funny. The way documentaries ignore certain aspects of creation to create an idol that’s larger than life is a great target to attack in my opinion. I can hardly sit through most documentaries, even people I idolize, just because it’s so often obvious how over the top the praise is.
Well they’re not completely wrong, Chaplin’s Tramp costume was made from hand-me-downs from his fellow Keystone Studio alumni. The pants were Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s (which explains why they are so baggy) and the shoes were Ford Sterling’s. Only the cane was his own
@@aeschafer1
Kevin: Say Mr. Green, I hear you manage a baseball team.
Dave: No. I’m a vaudevillian.
Kevin: No, I think you manage a baseball team!
Dave: Yes, of course, yes, I do manage a baseball team.
Kevin: Well, I hear the players nowadays have rather strange nicknames, rather silly pet names the players have nowadays.
Dave: Yes, that’s true. Oh, as a matter of fact, I have the team roster with me right here. Ahem. For example, Hu is on first base, Watt is on second, and Iduno is on third base.
Kevin: Who’s on first?
Dave: Yes.
Kevin: Who?
Dave: Yes, Hu is the man on first base.
Kevin: Why ya askin’ me; I’m askin’ you! What’s the name of the guy on first base?
Dave: No no, Watt is on - oh, I see what your problem is! Look, you’re confused by their names because they all sound like questions.
Kevin: I dunno! (whispers) third base.
Dave: Well, I’ll explain it to you.
[Kevin hangs his head.]
Dave: You see, on first base is Hu, Samuel Hu, and you’re probably not used to that name because his grandfather was Chinese. And on second base is Hector Watt, W-A-T-T Watt…
[Kevin’s face in his hand.]
Dave: …and that’s not so unusual because James Watt invented the steam engine. And on third base is Phil Iduno, I-D-U-N-O, Iduno, but if you say that fast, it does sound like the phrase ‘Gee, I dunno’. But it’s actually Iduno, Phil Iduno.
Kevin: That’s it! You’re hopeless, you’re pathetic, you’re the worst straight man I’ve ever seen. I quit! I shoulda never saved you from those seals.
Dave: What seals? I auditioned for this job.
Kevin: Bastaaaard! Get off the stage, Green!
Lol the Robin Williams burn at the end
it was over the audience's head, the jab at Robin Williams at the end is funny too.
I could listen to Bob Odenkirk talk about sketch comedy all day
“Next week, Robin Williams”, haha. That was a great sketch. Scary to think how many sketches got the axe because of a lame crowd.
It wasn't change that landed Johnathan Winters a role on Mork n Mindy. Skiable stole his entire career
Its terrifying
I admire the specificity of the sketch, and the details it gets right, down to the "Chas. Chaplin" written on the slate. Clearly the people who made this had watched the Unknown Chaplin documentary and seen the behind-the-scenes footage of his work, and the unused outtakes.
Chas was an oft used abbreviation of Charles that’s seldom ever seen today if ever.
The end line is funny. Its funny because Chaplin was probably glad the guy died because he took his character from him, but he even took from him in death, the " modern machine " that killed him influenced Chaplin to make "Modern times" genius sketch.
no one mentions Dana carvey's acting in this. very underrated. this was like time travel back before the horrible things that happened to Phil Hartman and back when that Cast was Young.
That's because Carvey stole every lick of it from Jon!
(Oops, sorry. I'm confusing fiction with reality again...)
Reminds me of how mike Myers appropriated Dana's impression of Dr evil based on Dana's impression of Lorne Michaels.
Nice callback
there's another Dana Carvey-related sketch I've heard about that sounds legendary yet never made it to air. I saw Bill Hader talking about it on Kevin Pollak's chat show years ago, it was when Dana returned to host. Hader & John Mulaney wrote it, it was Hader as Casey Kasem's estranged, strung out son coming to see his father (obviously Dana) in the middle of the night begging him for help because there's a drug dealer after him and his boyfriend. basically competing Casey Kasem impressions. Hader said it absolutely killed in the writers room and for the crew when they were establishing camera blocking during the week. But at saturday's dress rehearsal, it inexplicably bombed so hard you could hear a pin drop. Every single one of them (including Lorne Michaels) were just stunned at the response, and it got cut. like Hader even said it took them longer to write it than usual because he and Mulaney were cracking themselves up so hard in the office with it. Even just hearing him recite the premise and doing the impression from his side was amazing, but I've never heard of a bootleg version of it being out there at least.
Yes! Even Bill's small recreation is tear-inducing hilarious.
The younger generation probably had no idea who Casey Kasem was.
@@2buxasliceand, how young are they, Boomer?
@@davidthedeaf Y'know, the Boomer thing is getting old. As old as the Boomers themselves. But you do have them to thank for the internet. And you can thank Gen X for TH-cam, so you can make your stupid comments dragging other generations needlessly. P.S. the OP is likely Gen X.
As Bob was describing the sketch I was laughing, so glad I got to see it.
The silent film recreation is pretty spot on. And seeing Chaplin deleted behind the scene footage, this feels very authentic.
It's actually brilliant and probably a bit too subtle for a typical SNL audience. I'm so glad it still exists and we can watch it now.
Well, it's not at all subtle, but it requires a familiarity with Chaplin's work that this audience didn't have. The punch line at the end about falling into the gears of a machine is hilarious if you can recall Modern Times, obviously this audience couldn't.
Thanks for saying it so I don't have to.
Also a dead-on lift from Unknown Chaplin (BBC doc from mid-80’s) which featured the only known outtakes from Chaplin’s early shorts. In a lengthy bit it shows Charlie doing just this in creating The Cure. I’m a Chaplin geek and I was howling…but I’m not sure anyone beyond geeks would get it. God bless TH-cam for showing this.
I misunderstood your point, and I thought you were saying something about how Robert Smith of the Cure is actually a Charlie Chaplin character.
@@kingbeauregard I think I can see Robert in the early scenes in Easy Street, but Charlie took the spotlight. Once again.
Im also a Chaplin fan and I think this was spot on, more impressed that SNL accurately showed Chaplin's working methods as a director. They probably watched that documentary for this.
I think probably some of the early The Cure material before Tolhurst left owes a lot to Chaplin's 1920s silent work.
@@blockygamer1 Absolutely! The slate boards are the giveaway, plus the tiny in between shots. Dead on
Wow this sketch was actually too smart for the audience
It was too smart for me, too. I didn't like it.
@@wadebarnett2542It's admirable when someone owns up to an IQ defiency.
Yeah, and that never happens.
Phil's hushed play-by-play like a sportscaster would speak on a golf match broadcast is brilliant.
It's his "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey" intro voice.
Good sketch, but what made it. For me was seeing and hearing Phil Hartman....greatly missed!
Thank you for showing the clip!!! This is amazing!
Man, I miss Phil Hartman. I know that's not supposed to be my take-away. I'm so glad you somehow managed to get this lost sketch. I love the "Modern Times" reference of O'Reilly's death! I almost didn't get that.
The little jab at Robin Williams is funny, too.
I gotta say, this level of comedy is usually british, Im very impressed, its monty python-esque
This was the era of SNL with Smigel and Odenkirk, Conan and Greg Daniels, George Meyer, Jack Handey, Franken and Davis, and Jim Downey. Before the show became pretty much exclusively aimed at teenagers.
yeah, right now its atrocious, but seems had good times that i wasnt aware of@@fdsfsdfsd1552
That's why I think that was the best era for SNL. There's was always some concept behind the sketches; not just people doing silly things with no point. It all started to feel like frat boy humor by the mid-90s.
And no discernable response from the audience that O'Reilly's tragic death in a giant machine would be Chaplin's "inspiration" for the opening scenes in "Modern Times".
It's a hilarious sketch with a brilliant concept.
It might've worked with the audience better if the setup by Hartman was stronger. Had he stated flat out, "We see take by take how Chaplin created and developed the character of the Little Tramp." That would've put the audience right in from the start.
Instead, his introduction was about the skit Chaplin was doing and I think it took a little time for them to realize what was happening.
For us watching on screen, it was easier I think to get into the sketch. It helps if you've seen the documentary "Unknown Chaplin" which does the same approach.
That Williams dig at the end is the perfect inside-baseball capper
That was great. That closing... 😂
So great to be able to watch this rare clip with a fantastic back story to boot. Thanks Bob! Also the tag line in the skit relates to another famous Chaplin movie to cap the thread. Sweet!
It isn't a laugh out loud sketch, but it's smart and it's well-executed. If it had aired in the day, it'd be a favorite by now.
yeah it's weird, did Bob really expect uproarious laughter from the audience for this one?
@@michaelhudson2912 I'm guessing he personally found it hilarious, which I can get. You write comedy and are immersed in comedy, you're looking at it very differently, and things that stand out to you are going to fly right over the average viewer's head.
@@kingbeauregard I guess. Even if you're a weird comedy nerd, it's still more of a chuckle sketch than a lol sketch to me haha
@@michaelhudson2912it’s funny and clever enough, even if it’s not laugh out loud hilarious. There are def other sketches like that on SNL. Therefore, I can see bob’s point. It should’ve aired. He’s remembering it as being this lost classic, which he might even now take back after seeing it again. But it’s good! Not slapstick hilarious but certainly good enough and memorable.
The narrator being Phil Hartman made this even better! Love this skit! Well played to all who made it. This should be preserved in the LOC.
His insight into comedy is unparalleled.
HAH, Goddamn, I love Dana Carvey's impressions and Jon Lovitz's ham impressions ("Hey, I'm Piccasso!!!!!) Great to see this "lost" sketch!
He reeeeeally has been pushing for this scene. This isn't the first time I heard him talk about the best sketch that never was. I am really thankful he has been because it's now out there for us to enjoy. SNL needs to release more cut sketches. Sometimes the audience was bad, or the sketch didn't fit with the current sensibility and it's great seeing new material from folks we lost. It's great seeing a "new" Phil Hartman performance.
Hahaha the burn on Robin Williams at the end
Why was that a burn???
I think it’s because he was known to have stolen jokes…But I don’t want to speak ill of the dead.
@@JoeLink56because his whole persona was stolen from Jonathan Winters
It used to be hip to rag on Robin Williams. I don’t know about joke theft, but Williams was famous for bumping other performers to do a surprise set at at comedy clubs or a surprise appearance on Johnny Carson, which created ill will. It didn’t help that Robin was also famous for "improvising" the same jokes in each appearance. If I had a nickel for every time I saw Williams talk about "Mr. Happy" or mention someones pant's being tight enough "to see what religion he is" Id have a lot of nickels.
One of the last great episodes of Family Guy (from about ten years ago now) had Peter turning everything he touched into Robin Williams. He wound up chopping his arms off by the end of the episode.
The gears of a modern machine is in reference to another Chaplin film: Modern Times.
If you've seen the first ten minutes of, "Modern Times," that last joke is a BANGER.
Phil Hartman! You guys made my night!
If NBC took SNL off the air and didn’t release it to the press hardly anyone would notice. It’s a shame what has happened to the show.
Maybe too brilliant for a typical audience. I’d be proud to have written this sketch.
Congrats to Tom for asking the question that started the ball rolling so we can now see this awesome sketch. That’s why it’s The Best Show.
I think I know why the audience didn't laugh at the sketch (which is funny btw). One: You get the joke on take one, but the segment goes on after you know the joke. It also breaks the rule of three. Plus most of the sketch was pre-recorded for a show where they have a live audience. Lastly, it isn't exactly like Charlie Chaplin is timely, even back then. So I think multiple factors led it to be axed. TBH I think the sketch works better now, given most people consume sketch comedy online these days and don't need a studio audience. I still the punchline is given away a bit too soon, but that's not a deal breaker.
The preview of coming attractions was the funniest part of all!
This is brilliant. I don't even think Bob described it that well but it's amazing
It was funny to see Jon Lovitz before he could afford to look at a menu but that's all I got.The best part of the movie CHAPLIN is where we see Downey creating his character in the props department.
You can tell Robert Smigel was a Chaplin fan. Part of the joke is based on knowledge of Charlie Chaplin trivia. It is a well known story that he did hundreds of reshoots for City Lights. And at one point he figured one scene wasn't working because of the actress. So he fired her, only to hire her again.
And the last joke about the extra's death is an obvious reference to Modern Times. Perhaps the audience didn’t laugh because they just weren't familiar enough with this info. I think this sketch would kill with an audience full of film students. Also, Dana Carvey's facial expressions are spot on.
That last joke was when I laughed the most -- at the idea that Chaplin would "steal" a colleague's excruciating death! I guess it helps that I never found Chaplin that funny, either playing or directing. Just about any other performance from that era, I find funnier.
Thanks for sharing this story & clip.
I thought this would be intercuts like they do with Reese De'what, but this production is even funnier than what Bob described. Hartman was so good.
Where did Chaplin get the Tramp character? I do not know, that is not why I'm here. I am a bad guesser. Just ask my wife........
Next week Robin Williams lmaoooooo that is brilliant
This is great. I would love to see more sketches that were rejected by SNL because it probably includes some of the funniest.
The skit is a great concept but the performances really knock it out of the park.
Comedy for comedians 👏👏👏
Awww! Phil Hartman! ❤❤❤
Always thinking. Always creating.
ha, how you'd get the video?!
not sure if this show got it directly from there, but I know that Dana Carvey himself tweeted out this video with a brief description of the story just a couple days ago.
I suspect the crowd, even 30 years ago, didn't really know anything about Chaplin. How many people have even seen a Chaplin film? For instance, unless you saw "Modern Times" you wouldn't have gotten the humor in Hartman's last lines.
My thoughts exactly. Probably very few people back then even saw *any* silent movie.
I've never seen Modern Times, but I've been exposed to enough pop culture to make the final joke pretty damn obvious. I think most kids know what "You talkin' to me?" or "Squeal like a pig!" are referring to long before actually seeing Taxi Driver or Deliverance.
It's a great sketch, historians often turn a blind eye to the human aspects of historical figures they see as otherworldly
This sketch reminded me of SNL's early days, those 1970s sketches that were smart and weird and sometimes played to only scattered laughs. (You watch reruns of those old shows and it can be kind of startling how quiet the audience is during some sketches that are now seen as classics.) There was a genuinely defiant quality to it, like, "We're gonna make a show we think is funny and cool, and if you don't like it, too bad." By the time this sketch was written SNL was a very different show and that snotty '70s attitude was all but gone.
It's mildly amusing. The audience would have had to have seen the documentary Unkown Caplin to get the reference. It's also a bit "inside baseball" in that it's also about the comedy writing process.
Its a funny skit, just not "laugh out loud" funny. Its one of those skits I silently enjoyed, its more clever than it is funny.
Once upon a time, when SNL was in it's first few years, they would have
gotten a laugh at this. It's up there with some other greats, like Eddie Murphy's, "Kill My Land Lord" et al.
It's delightfully subversive.
While brilliant, it doesn't have the necessary relationship dynamic between Chaplin and the waiter. Without any verbal interaction between the two characters there's no build up of tension or conflict. Without the narrator providing any direction that Chaplin is stealing his character from the waiter, it actually detracts from building of humor.
I'm not sure what could've been done to make the main premise funnier. The tragic ending tagged on at the end was expected.
Nice little dig at Robin hahahaha
I agree that it isn't the kind of sketch that's going to get big laughs. It's funny but in a more understated way. Brilliant, though.
The reason this was so genius, is because this was a mockery, of the entertainment industry.
Absolutely LOVE it... probably too subtle for the SNL crowds of the day.
That is brilliant.
Yes, I have to agree this sketch is too arcane. More like an insider joke among Chaplin fans and Hollywood historians, SNL fans gravitate to the absurdist humor.
The sketch is ok and it's funny right up to the last punchline the punchline kills...
That’s why that one was canned 😂
I'd like to see the same sketch with Paul Simon when he steals songs from other musicians like Los Lobos.
This is great. Who provided it to you? Also, someone should post it again, but add a laugh track.
It was more cynical than funny, I think. Smigel’s comedy senses are brilliant, but occasionally they’re too dark to be fun. For example, take a look at the “Shazzan” Saturday TV Funhouse cartoon.
Yeah, watching it, I feel about Smigel the way the kids feel about Shazzang.
In theory I love the idea of doing it on film, but I think it would've worked better on tape. The shot was too wide and film too grainy for Dana and Lovitz to sell it with their faces. When most of the audience doesn't get the reference (Sprockets, Vincent Price Chrismas, etc...) the cast needs to really sell it to the normies.
I really thought I was watching Chaplin the whole time. Great sketch...
Hearing Phil Hartman refer to someone being "tragically killed" - good lord!
Loved you in NOBODY. Great movie.
Uh....great in concept but I can see why it was cut. It pretty much delivers the punch line in the first line. You know what's coming. Unlike some of the other cut sketches. Al Frankin's Fart Doctor comes to mind. Or perhaps it was the way he told it after the fact.
It’s not really funny, but it is humorous. And brilliant.
Ahhhh 7B Bar..ya might catch Paul Newman there too 😉
These are the kind of videos that a friend will send me where I say "lol" even though it isn't funny
When it comes to the greatest comedy writer thats ever lived some might say Larry David, and they'd be close, but it would only be because the name Robert Smigel is unknown to them.
I was hoping Phil played the announcer!
Dana Carvey. 👍🏻
It was amusing until the ears. That got me laughing out loud.
Love these guys, but you get where this sketch is going within the first 30 secs. No surprises
Brilliant
The audience didn't even catch the sketch's punchline which references the famous scene from Modern Times. Not a single laugh.
This was an audience from the 80's...
The concept of this sketch was brilliant but a little too high minded for that time.
I'm not calling them dumbasses, but many did vote for Ronald Reagan...
In the 80's unfunny skits did not get claplause.
Picasso said: good artists imitate, great artists steal.
Amazing artists create.
So so so subtle
Imma be honest, without that intro of Bob Odenkirk hyping this video, that skit would get very little traction.
Odenkirk's description is better.
Honestly... i have heard bob tell this story for years and now that i have seen the video of the skit.... He's wrong... that audience was right.
I didn't think it was funny either, but what do I know? I'm just a simple caveman, who fell in some ice, and later got thawed out by some of your scientists.
Was this released as a bonus on those dvd sets?
Okay, so I get it in terms of the craft and purpose of this sketch. It's very smart, but the audience did not laugh because, well, it's not all that funny. A couple of knowing smiles and maybe a chuckle towards the end, but that's all. Part of the problem is that the point of "he stole the character from an extra" was clear early on.
This is different than, say, the unaired Casey Kasem sketch that Bill Hader described to Kevin Pollak that is laugh out loud funny just based on the description and didn't connect with the rehearsal audience because likely that audience was made up of people who had no idea who Casey Kasem or America's Top 40 were. This sketch, while well-conceived and really well performed, has more of an "I see what you're doing" effect. But laughs? Not really. Of course, there are the requisite comments here of "it's too smart for the audience" from people who want to project some kind of comedic sophistication but, come now, you didn't really laugh. Just because it's smart doesn't make the sketch funny.
The sketch was funny but I wonder if the audience was unsure if this was an attack on Chaplin and if there was any basis for it. I think it was more of a comment from the writers of something that does happen in show business. The final line of the sketch was a great pay off.
You're overthinking it.
@@wyskass861
Maybe. But I think it's interesting to consider why it got a bad live response.
@@presto709 Ya, you're right. I was more referring to understanding the motivations of the writers as social commentary.
In terms of audience, I think the humor is a bit too meta in how it contrast the serious tone of a documentary and significance to a hypothetically banal occurrence, which is the joke.
So on second thought, maybe you were right about the creative motivations too. Maybe making fun of how audiences when looking inside the comedy industry expect some significant "method" or creative process, is often just, Oh that's funny, I'll do that.
It's definitely more a Mr. Show or Python sketch than SNL style. Where absurdity and deconstructing seriousness is the humor.
@@wyskass861
You are right on the money. Especially the part where you say I am right. :)
@@presto709 And another thing, is I think for this and other deconstruction type sketches, the audience needs to be keen on the base material to see the contrast as funny, and the joke doesn't work in isolation. So you need to know the characteristics of showbiz documentaries.
For example, Documentary Now series. When I've seen the original source doc for the satire, the episode was hilarious, but for those which I haven't, there is very little funny about it without the contrast.
Better Call Saul
Bob wasn't kidding. That got zero laughs.
I see why it didn’t make the cut
😂 hilarious
4:37 was funny,
if all the stealing was done like that while the other guy solemnly comments to the contrary it wouldn't have bombed
Ha. The best bit is the genius of Robin Williams. During that time period it was a well known fact that Robin ripped off every comedian he saw.
I had forgotten about that. Were there any notable jokes or comedians he stole from?
Wouldn’t be surprised if it were true.