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Let’s talk dirty to the animals

(Juli, this one makes me think of you.)

Once again, Mel is in my head. This is why she’s our den mother — she’s in everybody‘s head. She just gets people. She sees the gestalt of the puzzle while I’m still gathering the edge pieces.

With very little to go on, Melissa wins Round 4 of Lori’s Childhood Trivia. The category was Entertainer. The clues were “Unprepared” and “Infertile.” Future clues were going to be “NBC,” “Newswoman-gymnast-substitute teacher,” and “Mrs Wilder.” I could also have said, “ovarian cancer” and “SNL.”

I tuned into the Not Ready (get it? unprepared?) for Prime Time Players on Saturday Night Live just before the group dissolved. I became aware of Gilda Radner in high school, and once I found her, I listened to my Gilda Live! cassette tape until it eventually unraveled, some years later in college. Her song about Mick Jagger (Gimme Mick) and on the FDA’s banning of a synthetic sweetener (Goodbye, Saccharin) still make my cheeks hurt from laughing.

Remember Roseanne Roseannadanna (“It’s alllllways something!”? How about Babwa Wawa? Or Miss Emily Litella (“Nevermind,”). Or her Nadia Comenici?

For the sketch referred to in my title, click below (but — important! — make sure no kids, bosses, clients, or uppity or dignified people are around).

You 40-something readers, enjoy these memories of one of the finest comediennes of all time. You 30-something readers, discover something you may have missed. Everyone else, delurk and let me know you read.

Gilda Radner died in 1989 from ovarian cancer (this week, as a matter of fact). Prior to her illness, she and her husband, Gene Wilder, tried unsuccessfully to have children.

Her gravestone reads: Gilda Radner Wilder – Comedienne – Ballerina 1946…1989.

I love that she included ballerina.

18 Responses

  1. I’m old enough to remember watching some of the very first episodes of SNL… but didn’t really start watching regularly until the late 70s when I was in high school. Everyone would gather around the TV at parties to watch. I read Gilda’s book, & a quote from it is in the sidebar on my blog. She was waaayyyy too young when she died. 🙁

  2. I’m old enough to remember watching some of the very first episodes of SNL… but didn’t really start watching regularly until the late 70s when I was in high school. Everyone would gather around the TV at parties to watch. I read Gilda’s book, & a quote from it is in the sidebar on my blog. She was waaayyyy too young when she died. 🙁

  3. love her — mel and gilda. we just watched the whole second season of SNL. brilliant is right. and she died way too young.

  4. What a nice opening to the post–we had been talking this weekend about a teacher who used to always say, “you really aren’t as bright as your sister” to me. That sort of undoes a full year of hearing her sigh when she looked at me.I truly was about to go through all of the cast members of Saturday Night Live and only paused on Gilda until I found out if I was going in the right direction.I just bawled watching the first clip. Especially the wide grin and thinking about her dying so young. Do you remember when she came out on The Gary Shandling Show with the short, post-chemo hair and pumped her fist in the air? That’s the image I always have of her.

  5. I’m from the wrong part of the globe to know SNL, but it’s always very sad to hear of someone so talented dying so young,J

  6. love her — mel and gilda. we just watched the whole second season of SNL. brilliant is right. and she died way too young.

  7. What a nice opening to the post–we had been talking this weekend about a teacher who used to always say, “you really aren’t as bright as your sister” to me. That sort of undoes a full year of hearing her sigh when she looked at me.I truly was about to go through all of the cast members of Saturday Night Live and only paused on Gilda until I found out if I was going in the right direction.I just bawled watching the first clip. Especially the wide grin and thinking about her dying so young. Do you remember when she came out on The Gary Shandling Show with the short, post-chemo hair and pumped her fist in the air? That’s the image I always have of her.

  8. I’m from the wrong part of the globe to know SNL, but it’s always very sad to hear of someone so talented dying so young,J

  9. Gilda was an amazing woman. Such a fighter.(and, I wanted to let you know that I’ve left a pink rose for you on my blog…you’ll see more in my latest post.)

  10. In my 30s but still had a chance to see Gilda in all her hilariousness (is that a word?) I remember her as being one of the funniest women I had ever seen on TV but mostly, I remember, even as a teenager, being so jealous of her relationship with Gene Wilder because I don’t think I had ever seen 2 people so obviously in constant love with each other. I remember seeing Gene on a TV show after her death and he could barely speak without crying. Such a change from the face who you were so used to making you laugh. It was too painful to watch. Super O, you are right, there are so many similarities between cancer and IF treatments. Funny how one is seen as a real disease while the other is a “lifestyle choice.”

  11. Loribeth and Luna — I was so sad when I heard of her death.Geohde — I have half a mind to send you a boxed set of Saturday Night Lives featuring Gilda Radner. You know, for those sleepless nights you’re in for.Mel — that teacher was an idiot. Yes, I remember her Gary Shandling appearance. So inspiring.Claire — so true.

  12. Gilda was an amazing woman. Such a fighter.(and, I wanted to let you know that I’ve left a pink rose for you on my blog…you’ll see more in my latest post.)

  13. In my 30s but still had a chance to see Gilda in all her hilariousness (is that a word?) I remember her as being one of the funniest women I had ever seen on TV but mostly, I remember, even as a teenager, being so jealous of her relationship with Gene Wilder because I don’t think I had ever seen 2 people so obviously in constant love with each other. I remember seeing Gene on a TV show after her death and he could barely speak without crying. Such a change from the face who you were so used to making you laugh. It was too painful to watch. Super O, you are right, there are so many similarities between cancer and IF treatments. Funny how one is seen as a real disease while the other is a “lifestyle choice.”

  14. Loribeth and Luna — I was so sad when I heard of her death.Geohde — I have half a mind to send you a boxed set of Saturday Night Lives featuring Gilda Radner. You know, for those sleepless nights you’re in for.Mel — that teacher was an idiot. Yes, I remember her Gary Shandling appearance. So inspiring.Claire — so true.

  15. She was special!! Yes, I am old enough to have seen all the original SNL’s but did not; so I am a rerun fave.Thanks for the memories!Alyson LID 01/27/06

  16. She was special!! Yes, I am old enough to have seen all the original SNL’s but did not; so I am a rerun fave.Thanks for the memories!Alyson LID 01/27/06

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