Saturday Night Live: Word Association

Saturday Night Live, today in its 34th season, is a live, 90 minute sketch comedy show that appears every weekend on NBC. Created in 1975 by Lorne Michaels, the show is centered around a standard cast that appears every weekend and a guest host, who is a well-known celebrity, either in the entertainment or political sphere. This particular clip is from the 9th episode of the 1st season, which Richard Pryor hosted. The first black host for the show, Richard Pryor is seen in this particular sketch, sitting at a table with Chevy Chase, being interviewed for a job. The last part of the interview is a word association exercise, in which Chevy Chase starts off using very simple, non offensive terms. The exercise gets out of hand very quickly, with Chevy Chase using progressively offensive terms for blacks, while Richard Pryor fires back with progressively offensive terms for whites. Upon Chevy Chase's use of the "N" word, Richard Pryor calls him a "dead honky," which leads to Chevy Chase hiring Richard Pryor for $15,000 a year, the highest paid janitor in America, all after the initial offers of $5,000 and $7,500 per year garnered responses of "your mama" and "your grandmama," respectively.



Chase, Chevy, and Richard Pryor, perf. Saturday Night Live. NBC. 13 Dec. 1975. Hulu. 17 Feb. 2009.