November 20th, 1976: Host Paul Simon and Musical Guest George Harrison

Here's some stuff that happened in the past

The last time Paul Simon hosted Saturday Night Live, the show was in its infancy. The legendary singer-songwriter turned the second episode of his best friend Lorne Michaels' comic institution into The Paul Simon Show. 

Instead of being a comedy show with music, Simon's first episode as host became a music show with comedy. Nabbing a figure as iconic as Simon was a coup for the raunchy new sketch comedy show. It was even impressive that Michaels secured a Simon & Garfunkel reunion for Saturday Night Live as well.

When Simon first graced the show with his regal presence, it was still trying to find its personality, tone, and format. His episode was much different from what would follow in its hushed intimacy, mellow vibes, and all-around tastefulness.  

Simon is a class act who made Saturday Night Live feel classy, at least for the duration of his episode. 

When Simon returned to host the show early in its second season, a lot had changed. The show had found its personality, tone, and format, but it was more than willing to fiddle extensively with that format for the sake of its superstar host and his even bigger musical guest. 

The first time around, Simon reunited with Garfunkel. To put things in Ron Burgundy terms (and I am officially allowed to do that because Ferrell is a Saturday Night Live alum), that was kind of a big deal. 

How do you top a Simon and Garfunkel reunion? Bring a Beatle with you. For all of their power and influence, Michaels and Simon could not score a full-on Beatles reunion despite generously offering them three thousand dollars to play a few songs. 

Simon got the next, or, to be honest, second next, or even third next best thing. Saturday Night Live didn't get Paul, the Cute One, or John, the one with glasses who was addicted to heroin and beat his first wife. 

Garfunkel's more talented former partner nevertheless got a Beatle bigger and better than Ringo Starr. Simon got the quiet, spiritual one: George motherfucking Harrison of The motherfucking Beatles. 

Not bad, eh? Simon talked Harrison, who belonged to a band I loved, The Traveling Wilburys, into performing "Here Comes the Sun" and "Homeward Bound" with him on acoustic guitar on acoustic guitar. 

How can some half-assed sketch possibly compare to two of the greatest and most important musicians of the past century coming together to perform their most beloved songs? 

In another happy concession to the musical guest, Saturday Night Live features short films featuring Harrison's recent hits "Crackerbox Palace" and "This Song."

These are what are now known as music videos. Like many an early music video, the promotional clip for "Crackerbox Palace," which was directed by Harrison's good friend and recent Saturday Night Live host Eric Idle,is goofy in its purposeful absurdity without ever being particularly funny.  

This episode is unsurprisingly more music-heavy than most. In the perfect fusion of music and comedy, Paul Simon performs "Still Crazy After All These Years" dressed up like a turkey. 

My wife, who is not a fan, said, "I don't get it. What's supposed to be funny about that?" I replied, "What do you mean? He's dressed up like a turkey! A turkey! And he's singing a quiet song. What's not funny about that?" 

In its early years, Saturday Night Live experimented with many different styles of comedy, from Andy Kaufman's pioneering anti-comedy to Chevy Chase's crowd-pleasing slapstick and pratfalls. 

But having good, sound, fundamentally traditional taste in comedy, Lorne Michaels understood that putting a dignified man in a silly, undignified costume was just plain funny. 

Simon conveys dignity even while portraying Billy Jack, the peace-loving ass-kicker in a series of films that were wildly successful and influential in their time but have been all but forgotten by history. 

This very special episode of Saturday Night Live opens with a curious disclaimer that portions of the episode were taped in advance. That seems odd, considering that the show regularly runs taped segments and short films, but people have certain expectations when you have live in your title. 

The proceedings begin with tongue-in-cheek references to the show's recent past. On his way to studio 8H at 30 Rock, Simon runs into his good friend and future music video costar, Chevy Chase, who has been reduced to busking for change in the weeks since he left the show. 

It's a self-deprecating turn from a man not exactly known for his humility or ability to take a joke. It's followed by Harrison, who is strikingly handsome in his moody English intensity, trying to score the three thousand dollars Michaels pledged to give the Beatles to reunite on the show. 

Michaels explains that the three thousand dollars is for the whole group, not just the third most popular member. Then Simon comes out in a turkey suit and sings, "Still Crazy After All These Years." 

People like to talk about peak TV and prestige TV, but to me, television peaked with Paul Simon in a turkey suit. It was all downhill from there. 

When Chevy Chase was the "Weekend Update" anchor, he'd begin every segment by talking very briefly on the phone to a woman in a way that conveyed that he was talking about sex in general and oral sex specifically. 

Chase wanted the world to know that he was a very handsome man who fucked constantly and was regularly getting blow jobs, sometimes even from his girlfriend. 

That understandably did not continue when Jane Curtin took over. Like Simon, Curtin conveys a lot of innate dignity. That's part of what made her so valuable. She was like Grace Kelly crossed with Lucille Ball. 

So the boys who wrote "Weekend Update" seemed to relish giving her jokes that ran the gamut from dirty to unspeakably filthy. Curtin ad-libs an apology to her mother, explaining that she's just doing her job, but her bone-dry delivery makes the raunchiness much funnier. 

John Belushi and Gilda Radner bring back their funny-talking signature characters when Radner's Barbara Walters parody Baba Wawa interviews Belushi's Henry Kissinger for more lisp-based comedy done right. 

The episode's comic centerpiece is a lengthy parody of Billy Jack with Simon as "Billy Paul," an iconoclastic half-Native American who uses his fists and feet to help hippies, Native Americans, the downtrodden, and everyone else being oppressed by "The Man." 

As someone obsessed with Billy Jack, I was just excited to see it being spoofed. Satirical targets don't get bigger or easier than Billy Jack, yet the sketch only intermittently scores partly because it relies upon Simon's shaky Billy Jack impression. 

Simon met Saturday Night Live halfway during his second visit, and while he didn't exactly establish himself as a funnyman here, I once again suspect the audience didn't mind a bit. 

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