‘SNL’ round 4 recap: Belushi’s rock ’n’ roll spirit endures
Well isn’t this special. We’re down to the final four, and they reach from the beginning of “Saturday Night Live” to its most recent star player, Kate McKinnon, who won two Emmys during her 11-season run on the show, from 2012 to 2022. Recency bias does not appear to be in play in this particular competition.
1. Not surprisingly, John Belushi remains in the game. He’s legendary, not just for his work on the show, where he successfully transferred his rock ’n’ roll energy to the small screen, but for his dramatic rise and fall. There’s a tragic romance about him that continues to thrive, just as the early, uneven episodes he was showcased in have been romanticized over the decades. Belushi has a star power that is almost unmatched by anyone else in the history of the show, except perhaps Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray ,or Gilda Radner.
Belushi beat Dana Carvey with 56.8 percent of the vote, which is closer that I’d been expecting in their face-off. In what was, to some extent, a contest between anarchic energy and a more polished approach, the former won. Carvey is a technical genius, comedy-wise, and he has a gleeful approach to his work that can be irresistible. But he doesn’t have the kind of larger-than-life persona withvote, in pop culture that Belushi has, and he hasn’t had the kind of post-“SNL” movie-lead career that gave Belushi a huge popularity bump before he died.
2. The Round 4 winners are equally divided between men and women. Long considered a guys’ club, “SNL” has slowly but surely altered that reputation and developed some astonishing female comics in the process, including Kristen Wiig, Aidy Bryant, Cecily Strong, Leslie Jones, Maya Rudolph, and Amy Poehler. The two women remaining in the competition, Tina Fey and McKinnon, are strong examples of exactly how far the show has come in terms of its cultivation of funny women.
It was painful to see Fey going up against Poehler; along with their individual accomplishments, they are extraordinary as a team. They ushered in a wave of excellence during their 2000s tenures, and they both elevated the “Weekend Update” desk. Fey’s win, with 72.1 percent of the may speak to her power as the show’s first female head writer, as well as her unforgettable turn as Sarah Palin. She wasn’t as potent a sketch player as Poehler, but her spirit and perspective carried the show.
3. I knew McKinnon was beloved, but I also knew that Gilda Radner was BELOVED. I was picturing Radner, whose early work helped determine the tone and blueprint of the series, sailing forward into the No. 1 spot. She was a great sketch player, and her recurring characters — the hard-of-hearing Emily Litella, the brash Roseanne Roseannadanna, the nerdy Lisa Loopner, and, of course, Baba Wawa — remain classics. Her influence was massive, and her work no doubt inspired many of the women who came after her on the show, including McKinnon. Ultimately, though, McKinnon won with 53.5 percent of the vote.
4. Dan Aykroyd and Murray were neck in neck, but Aykroyd squeaked by with 50.8 percent of the vote. Aykroyd, as much as anyone, defined the series, with his Wild and Crazy Guy, his male prostitute Fred Garvin, and his Julia Child. He was just the right partner for Belushi, his energy more contained and his approach a little brainier. In the next round, he and Belushi are up against each other.