#Willem Dafoe Brings His Wild Eyes To A Surprisingly Horny Saturday Night Live

Office Song – In what is absolutely a 10-to-1 sketch, it’s not clear where this bit is heading, and that’s a big part of what makes it so good. It’s a minute and a half of set-up for what is hilarious physical gag. Even when you see that pivotal moment happen, you’re probably not even sure why it’s happened. Aside from being immediately amused by Willem Dafoe as a temp, seeing him so desperate to join in with the office song in such a misguided fashion absolutely cracked me up. But it gets even sillier when the office gives him a second chance at breaking into the song, and it ends in an even more absurd way, with a paper hole punch being thrown and knocking Heidi Gardner out the window with an incredible pratfall. I loved this pure nonsense.

Beauty and the Beast: The Mirror – Even if you’re keyed into where this sketch is heading as soon as Willem Dafoe enters the cottage as Belle’s father Maurice and asks whether anyone is home, it’s the escalation that follows which makes it even funnier. From the steps that Maurice takes to prepare for his personal intimate moment to the fact that Pete Davidson totally abandons the deeper, regal voice he was putting on as Beast, this sketch is one of the prime examples of “SNL” pushing the boundaries of sexual humor on network television. Watching Dafoe emotionally break down when he talks about “so many wonderful things with my ass” sealed the deal. That’s comedy.

Good Morning Columbus – As if Maurice preparing to pleasure himself weren’t enough, we get this sketch where a self-help book called “Knowing Yourself” is accidentally retitled to something rather inappropriate, especially for a morning new program. Admittedly, the premise of the sketch isn’t exactly a logical one, because an on-air gaffe would not result in the graphics (created far in advance) having the same blunder. Even so, it’s a hilarious comedy of errors where the exercises from “Knowing Yourself” fit into this misunderstanding and make it infinitely worse. It’s not quite as great as something like the Colonel Angus or Corksoakers sketches, but it’s still great.