With Adam Sandler coming back to host Saturday Night Live for the first time since he left the show (or was fired, as he sang about alongside Chris Rock in his monologue) nearly a quarter-century ago, certain things were a given. We got Opera Man, naturally, and the cast all did their best Sandler impressions in a Sandler family reunion sketch. Plus, noted nice guy Sandler was reliably effusive and gracious in praising his present-day SNL successors and former boss Lorne Michaels in the monologue and the goodnights. (It was NBC and not Lorne who really fired Sandler back in 1995, after all.) But it was the last bit of the night that was the biggest hit, as Sandler broke out his guitar for an encore of the tribute song he penned for his late friend Chris Farley.
Debuted in Sandler’s recent Netflix stand-up special, the song is Sandler at his most sweetly sincere, even when crooning in a touchingly unaffected voice about the infamously overindulgent Farley sticking an empty Jack Daniels bottle up his ass. (Before, as Sandler sang, always getting up early enough for the hung-over “Catholic boy” Farley to make it to Sunday mass.) For old pro Sandler to come back and host SNL was a mixed bag, sure. But, as he noted feelingly while addressing his wife and kids in the audience during the goodnights, Sandler never had more fun or was happier then when he was on SNL, and nobody made him happier there than Farley, who died young. In his song, Sandler related how he and others (Sandler, Rock, David Spade, and Farley all famously shared an office) warned their friend that his various addictions were likely to send him—like Farley heroes John Belushi and John Candy—to a too-soon grave. Sandler’s lyric about Farley thinking that was “just dandy” found Sandler giving the anecdote an achingly rueful tone matched only by the enthusiasm with which the SNL audience made enough noise, at Sandler’s urging, for the absent Farley to maybe hear them all the way from his old home in Studio 8H.
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Anyone else notice in the on-air version they crossfaded to hide the Conan clip?
No, why did they do that? Is there bad blood between Conan and SNL?
Conan interviewed Mulaney a few months ago and didn’t seem to have any bad memories of his time there. I wonder if it may be more down to issues between Conan and NBC.
Likely a rights issue for the clip. I remember something about Conan launching a site with all his old archival shows, so he may have bought it and NBC would’ve needed permission to use it that they didn’t bother getting.
Unfunny man uses dead funnyman to cling to relevance. Pass.
I was never a huge fan of Farley on SNL (he was very talented and charismatic but too often just resorted to yelling and throwing himself around – then by the end he would usually yell some profanity to try to wring out a chuckle), but many people dearly loved him and still do even to this day. And his death was a tragedy, all the more because of the inevitability. Seeing Sandler’s tribute, Sandler barely able to hold back the tears by the end, was genuinely moving. So was the sight of so many current cast members struggling to hold back tears. The performance also answered the question of what is the point of SNL when this talk show can talk about Trump and that sketch show can go crazy. What makes SNL unique is that poignancy and history that it is still unashamed of displaying, even in our endlessly cynical, glib, and hollow times. I didn’t think I’d ever be talking about the industry needing Adam Sandler, but sincerity and honesty in comedy and presentation, as he showed here (and in the episode as a whole) – yes, we need more of it. Much more.
Maybe the way Farley was used was generally a bit one-note, but he also still gave us, in my opinion, the single greatest SNL sketch, the Japanese game show.
Ah, second best to The Lunch Lady!
best farley on SNL: schmitt’s gay beer, the hidden camera decaf (“ANNNNNGRYYYYY”), good morning ft lauderdale (aka “over the weekend you stupid bitch”)
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! I DON’T SPEAK JAPANESE!!
C’mon man, him and Patrick Swayze’s Chippendale’s audition is a hall of famer.
I mostly enjoyed him on SNL, but it’s his performance in Tommy Boy that had a much bigger impact on me. His sweetness really does come through.
ps Candy didn’t die of a drug overdose like Belushi, and it’s not likely because of any other excess either – he died of the same heart condition as his Dad, at almost exactly the same age, so it was more likely gene’s not booze or drugs. Still: nice tribute from Sandler to his pal Chris. Sandler isn’t my thing, but this felt really genuine.
This isn’t exactly true. Candy never had an autopsy. We don’t really know. There is the history of heart problems, so that’s a logical conclusion; however, Candy was a heavy drinker and smoker, and weighed 370 at his heaviest. All of this contributed to his early demise. Aside from his drug use, Farley was heading down this exact path at 5’8″ 300 lbs.
you’re right, I didn’t make my point very clearly. Candy’s lifestyle certainly didn’t help his genetic disposition to heart problems, but it wasn’t the drinking/smoking/drug abuse alone that caused it.
Even though Candy had a family issue with heart problems, a history of booze and blow along with being morbidly obese aint exactly “non contributors” with that history.
I thought it was because he expressed an interest in starring in both Atuk and A Confederacy of Dunces.
yeah, that’s fair – I didn’t make my point very well. I meant that his date with a heart-attack was in his genes, but his excess certainly didn’t help and a healthier life-style certainly could have prevented it.
I’m not sure that is true. There were photos of he on his back in his foyer,sort of foaming at the mouth. I worked with him on his last appearance as host on SNL. He was in rough shape then. I believe his general health and drug and alcohol all played role. I even mentioned to the animal trainer who was supplying animals that I thought he was a dead man walking. I believed he died two to three weeks later.
yeah, you’re right, it’s not the whole truth – his life-style certainly contributed to his death, but he had some significant family history too. And yeah, he looked rough in his last few photos. (How did you know him on SNL?)
This kind of stuff from Sandler is why all those “Sandler sucks lol” comments ring so hollow to me.
RIP Chris! We will always love and miss you.