Saturday Night Live - Game Show Parodies

This thematic video, featuring the best game-show parodies presented by Saturday Night Live, concentrates mostly on the later years, with regulars Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Julia Sweeny, and Chris Farley dominating the proceedings. And though some of the skits have their moments, such as when guest host Joe Pesci menaces seriously out-of-place contestant Chris Rock on "Bensonhurst Dating Game," an inevitable feeling of sameness can creep in. Perhaps that's mostly forgivable, as the individual sketches were not written or acted to be seen one after another. Besides regular cast members, guest hosts were regularly put to work in game-show skits, with varying degrees of comedic success--Garth Brooks (in drag in a misbegotten parody titled "Old French Whore"), Jerry Seinfeld, Tom Hanks, and Quentin Tarantino. Gilda Radner and Bill Murray appear all too briefly in a snippet of a sketch from the early years, but seeing Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, Laraine Newman, and Chevy Chase in "Jeopardy 1999" from the show's first season is a treat. For a fan of 1990s vintage Saturday Night Live, this tape does have its winning moments, but it may be best watched in small doses. --Robert J. McNamara

Customer Review: Well it wasn't bad

Overall it was just an average video. The title is somewhat deceiving since not all the skits were game shows. What was disappointing was in some sections they didn't show all of the game shows they were parodying.

Customer Review: Varies wildly from hysterically funny to downright awful.

As you might expect, this "Saturday Night Live" tape is a lot like the show. Some of the skits are fantastic while others fall flat on their face.

The tape both starts and ends on a high note. The first skit is one that skewers our characterizations of French prostitutes. Garth Brooks (whom I didn't recognize at first) is in drag and is very funny. The final skit is the classic "Celebrity Jeopardy" episode where the contestants are supposed to be Tom Cruise, Adam Sandler (played FLAWLESSLY by Jimmy Fallon) and Sean Connery. Will Ferrell, playing Alex Trebek of course, delivers some of his best dry humor ever.

Regarding the rest of the tape, it's interesting to note that the best clips are those that shouldn't even be included...skits that have nothing to do with game shows. The best of the bunch is a mock promo advertising a new show coming to NBC called "Princess & The Homeboy". Tim Meadows is completely outrageous as G-Dog. It's some of the edgiest stuff that the writers of SNL ever came up with.

It's true that most of these SNL tapes don't seem to be chock full of the best that the show has had to offer. However, at least this one is able to provide a fair share of laughs and is worth a rental or a purchase at a cheap price.
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