Every Movie Based On A Saturday Night Live Sketch - Ranked From Worst To Best

6. Mr. Saturday Night

Buddy Young, Jr. was a Borscht Belt comedian character that Billy Crystal threw into the mix in recurring Weekend Update spots during his only season with SNL. The character was largely hit or miss, with his Jackie Mason style of comedy often drawing groans or, worse, confused silence from the audience. But since Crystal was such a pro, he could effortlessly draw them back in by firing off one-liners at them and working the room until they were ready to follow along again. The problem with translating that type of character to the big screen is that you sacrifice his loose, off the cuff nature. Suddenly, Crystal-as-Young's crowd work is being scripted beat by beat, rehearsing every line and, in the process, sucking most of the energy right out of him. The other major difference between the Weekend Update spots and the film is that seven years had passed since audiences knew or cared who this character was. To combat this, Crystal made Young a much older, soured comedian with more of an edge. Oddly enough, this kinda worked. But whereas Crystal was all about reeling the live crowd in on SNL, he purposely gives the character little self-awareness and a resentful standoffishness in the movie. That makes certain scenes pop (as a warm-up act for a game show, he gets the crowd excited for the show by asking them to repeat to the host upon his entrance, "Fred, what's with your f*ckin' hair?"), even if it does grow a little weary by the film's end.