Funny thing is, Prager actually does turn up on SNL on several occasions as an extra (the earliest being a half-second-or-so appearance in the "Hey You!: The Perfume for One-Night Stands" ad parody) - she was close friends with O'Donoghue, as my rumpy doppelganger @avclub-cfe912f5cb3aa572bd1c9ae2a9b82207:disqus said,…

Metcalf was in a taped bit during Weekend Update asking people if they'd take a bullet for the President.

Metcalf was in a taped bit during Weekend Update asking people if they'd take a bullet for the President.

Here it is, read it and weep (for a faded talent): 
http://www.terrysouthern.co…

Here it is, read it and weep (for a faded talent): 
http://www.terrysouthern.co…

@avclub-c23ab0f8f4837620c95c9972a9bd51fb:disqus Bill Murray didn't drop the pipe - Berle told a stagehand to do it during his monologue so he could "ad-lib" the line "Oh, NBC just dropped another show."

@avclub-c23ab0f8f4837620c95c9972a9bd51fb:disqus Bill Murray didn't drop the pipe - Berle told a stagehand to do it during his monologue so he could "ad-lib" the line "Oh, NBC just dropped another show."

@avclub-d7f43e1fb2d4977c86163d9b0cb07814:disqus Here's a transcript of that alien sketch for you: 
http://snltranscripts.jt.or…

@avclub-d7f43e1fb2d4977c86163d9b0cb07814:disqus Here's a transcript of that alien sketch for you: 
http://snltranscripts.jt.or…

Ahem, I believe the line is "Yoko is just loco for my cocoa."  Yes, I'm an SNL pedant, even when it comes to this season (I acquired bootleg DVDs of all thirteen shows in full, and I'm not ashamed.  Not that much.  I guess).

Ahem, I believe the line is "Yoko is just loco for my cocoa."  Yes, I'm an SNL pedant, even when it comes to this season (I acquired bootleg DVDs of all thirteen shows in full, and I'm not ashamed.  Not that much.  I guess).

I'm so glad Roth rewrote this book. The first draft was far less daring - the title character was originally a Presbyterian with no particular hang-ups who was extremely agreeable and acquiescent and basically went along with whatever he was told.  Oh, and it was entitled Portnoy's Compliant.

I'm so glad Roth rewrote this book. The first draft was far less daring - the title character was originally a Presbyterian with no particular hang-ups who was extremely agreeable and acquiescent and basically went along with whatever he was told.  Oh, and it was entitled Portnoy's Compliant.

Absolutely - his diatribe at the end of the "Architect Sketch" proves that abundantly - but it just doesn't scan in the original "Cheese Shop" is all.

Absolutely - his diatribe at the end of the "Architect Sketch" proves that abundantly - but it just doesn't scan in the original "Cheese Shop" is all.

The album version is definitive, if only because Cleese is allowed to say "I don't care how fucking runny it is" rather than the really weak replacement they had to use on TV, "excrementally."  And it has a better ending.  And their timing is machine-precise.  I do miss the bowler-hatted dancers, though, and the…

The album version is definitive, if only because Cleese is allowed to say "I don't care how fucking runny it is" rather than the really weak replacement they had to use on TV, "excrementally."  And it has a better ending.  And their timing is machine-precise.  I do miss the bowler-hatted dancers, though, and the…

I had to trawl madly through my copy of The Pythons Autobiography by the Pythons, but there it is, in Terry Jones' own words, on pages 268-269: basically, he was tipped off that the BBC was going to wipe the first series, so he conspired to have the tapes illegally transferred onto his own cassettes (very early home…

I had to trawl madly through my copy of The Pythons Autobiography by the Pythons, but there it is, in Terry Jones' own words, on pages 268-269: basically, he was tipped off that the BBC was going to wipe the first series, so he conspired to have the tapes illegally transferred onto his own cassettes (very early home…

@avclub-a6c2f1d0e96d6d65d15d1d54eb0953c4:disqus Idle was known as a good one-liner writer (he wrote a lot of the monologue jokes on The Frost Report), but his specialty when he got to Python was the strictly verbal sketches, the ones heavy on the wordplay (like The Man Who Talks in Anagrams), the bits that…