Saturday Night News with Brad Hall

The usual mix of silly pictures and jokes; nothing really came across as particularly strong, although the Tylenol Pollution Alert (in reference to a recent string of deaths from cyanide-laced Extra Strength Tylenol in Chicago) and Liberace/Scott Thorson jokes had groan-worthy punchlines. Small tech issue: at the beginning, the screen fades to black to remove the segment title before fading back in on Brad Hall. Tim Kazurinsky does his first "Salute To Journalism", a sarcastic salutre to Rupert Murdoch and the sensationalized screaming headlines on the New York Post. It's a smart piece and Kazurinsky has some good lines ("Wow, three days of dead gays!" in regard to one story that plays out over several days, a store owner saying he didn't stock the Post because "their readers are our shoplifters"). With the expansion of Rupert Murdoch's empire over the last few decades, as well as the current state of the news media in general, Kazurinsky's examples almost seem quaint. Julia Louis-Dreyfus makes her newsdesk debut (introduced by Brad Hall as his "favorite correspondent") by plugging a ficticious "Save The World Contest", where the viewer who sends a workable solution to the Middle East Crisis on a postcard can win big prizes (including dinner "at the Chinese restaurant of your choice" and SNL tickets). She holds her own, and I thought the smiling delivery of "governments are stupid" and "for big prizes, silly!" made the piece work. Andy Kaufman is listed on the tickets for tonight's show, which also show that they are for the Studio 3A audience. Joe Piscopo is back as the Sports Guy, discussing the St. Louis Cardinals' Game 7 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers the past Wednesday. He blaming the Brewers' loss on their being slobs, which is an excuse to show tape of players spitting chewing tobacco and scratching their crotch; Piscopo declares them his kind of team before spitting chaw himself and holding the wad in front of Hall's face. The interaction at the end (which reminded me of Piscopo upstaging Charles Rocket two years before) made this more fun.

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