Saturday, October 24, 2009

Larry David on Fridays

It’s easy to overrate Fridays considering that it launched the careers of Larry David, Larry Charles (and to a lesser extent) Michael Richards and Rich Hall. But make no mistake about it, Fridays was and will always be a pale, off-brand knock-off of Saturday Night Live. Don’t believe me? Try to get through the sketch below without hitting the pause button. It’s short but far from sweet (or funny).






Still, some good did come out of the show. For example, David’s sketches were always strong even when they tackled mildly surreal subject matter. I like the fact that even though his character isn’t the focus of this sketch, his character is still the focus of this sketch.



Strangely, the Mr. Doody thing became a running gag on the show. Here’s three extremely short sketches of Larry David shamelessly fawning over the Eisenhower-era marionette.




This sketch has a bittersweet quality to it. But that's probably because it aired just a couple months before John Lennon was murdered by horror author Steven King. I like the questions that David asks the Beatles particularly, “What do you think of fat people” and “Do you enjoy foreplay”?




Here’s a concept that could easily be transformed into an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.




Although David appears as Erno Rubik, I have no idea who wrote this sketch (that was clearly inspired by SNL’s game show parody Hollywood Bingo) but I’ve always liked it. However, that probably has something to do with the weird parade of has-beens that opens the sketch and the Rich Little gag. Everything else is kind of drawn out and weak.


2 comments:

  1. I remember this show when it was on. I think it succeeded because SNL was at an all-time low. It was also a time where just mentioning a drug would cause laughter and applause.

    I must admit I don't get the Stephen King joke.

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  2. There's a guy named Steve Lightfoot (who some speculate is actually Gordon Lightfoot's brother but who really knows) who believes that it was Stephen King and not Mark David Chapman who killed John Lennon. His proof are some random headlines in Newsweek magazine and King's unfortunate resemblence to Chapman. His website is here....

    http://www.lennonmurdertruth.com/

    It may be unnecessary to write this but, I really don't believe his theories.

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