It's April 17, 1976, the the host is Ron Nessen and the musical guest is The Patti Smith Group

Here's some stuff that happened in the past

Before I rewatched the Ron Nessen episode of Saturday Night Live I did not know whether it belonged in We've Got a Great Show For You Tonight or We've Got a Terrible Show For You Tonight.

I knew that the episode was historic but I did not remember whether it was historic in a good or bad way. Nessen, as only politics and/or comedy nerds know, was the press secretary for Gerald Ford and the first politician to host Saturday Night Live.

In Doug Hill and Jeff Winograd's essential Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live they write about how the Ford administration was terrified that the show's portrayal of Ford as an amiable goof who was always stumbling over his words or engaged in some manner of slapstick pratfall would cost him the presidency.

They consequently wanted to neutralize SNL as an adversary by pursuing a friendly relationship with the zeitgeist-capturing countercultural favorite.

The writers and cast of Saturday Night Live set out to embarrass Nessen, and by extension the Republican administration that he represented by putting on its raunchiest show to date.

The Not Ready For Prime Time Players mounted a sordid spectacle full of winking references to sex, drugs, profanity, female genital hygiene (somewhere a young Martin Lawrence was watching and taking copious notes) and, for good measure, MULTIPLE references to bestiality.

Was the Nessen episode a prank on the deluded square hosting or the audience? Did Saturday Night Live ruin itself in order to make a politician look foolish or did it perform a fearless and audacious act of culture jamming?

In my capacity as a man who delivers definitive judgments on Saturday Night Live, on both a micro and macro level, I am pleased to report that the Nessen episode will definitely be up for inclusion in We've Got a Great Show for You Tonight because it is an audacious delight.

Nessen's presence brought out the juvenile prankster in the writers. Michael O'Donoghue contributes Fluckers, a parody of the Smucker's ad campaign that promised, "With a name like Smucker's it's got to be good."

O'Donoghue's malicious imagination conjured up even less appealing names for consumer products to overcome like Nose Hair, Death Camp, Dog Vomit, Monkey Puss, Painful Rectal Itch, Mangled Baby Ducks, 10,000 Nuns and Orphans All Eaten by Rats and finally one with a name so repulsive it can't be uttered on television.

I'm guessing Nessen came to regret agreeing to appear on a show that contained phrases like "10,000 Nuns and Orphans All Eaten by Rats."

Elsewhere John Belushi plays a recruiter for a "New Army" whose spiel revolves around their willingness, even eagerness, to give primo mood-alterers to space cadets willing to enroll. Needless to say, Belushi brings an effortless authenticity to the role of someone who enjoys using drugs.

Even more audaciously Gilda Radner grins her way through a fake commercial for a line of carbonated douches available in a wide variety of delicious flavors.

Nessen doesn't get any laughs but he does stiffly recite a horse sex joke as Catherine the Great's press secretary and an incest gag as Oedipus' mouthpiece.

Even adorable little Emily Littela gets into the act, delivering a confused editorial on the subject of "Presidential erections."

That seems fitting. The Ford administration might have thought they could pull one over on the hip kids at 30 Rock but the result was less a triumph than a presidential boner for the ages.

This episode would be noteworthy even without a member of the Ford administration as host because it features an incendiary performance by the Patti Smith Group, who absolutely obliterate, as well as Billy Crystal's maiden appearance on the show.

If the Patti Smith Group's performance of "Gloria" and "My Generation" represents the single most punk thing that has ever happened on the Saturday Night Live stage special guest Billy Crystal's first appearance on the show is the least punk.

In it, Crystal talks about his family owning a jazz record label and befriending old black musicians as a boy. This leads inevitably to an only mildly racist portrayal of an elderly musician who could not be more excited to see his good friend Billy Crystal as an adult or more proud of his success as a comedian and television performer.

Here's the thing: Crystal obviously LOVES these men. He has nothing but the best of intentions but his shtick comes across as pretty damn racist all the same, albeit in the most benign possible way.

Can you dig that? I knew that you could! His routine is nostalgic and narcissistic and fundamentally dishonest in its portrayal of race.

Crystal is the anti-Andy Kaufman. If Kaufman set out to challenge his audience and make them uncomfortable Crystal aspired to soothe crowds with a warm bath of nostalgia.

The City Slickers star would eventually become a popular cast-member of the show but in his first appearance he's exactly the kind of cornball, narcissistic entertainer the show set out to eviscerate satirically.

By the time Billy Crystal was a star Saturday Night Live had gotten safe and predictable but it still had a thrilling element of spontaneity and unpredictability in its legendary first season.

neat, eh? Man, I LOVE this silly newsletter.