My imitation of Dave Thomas' imitation of Richard Harris basically ended my marriage. Hours of me walking through house saying "I want to be king...AND I WANT TO BE POPE...UH HUH HUH HUH." Then, his appearance on Mel's Rock Pile complete with dance moves. Don't regret a thing!!!
Joe Flaherty said that he never could do Peter O'Toole's voice, but he's got the facial and body language down so perfectly! The goggling eyes, stretched-out neck and sort of lunging walk. I've always loved this piece. And Eugene Levy has the best eyebrows in the business.
Seems Flaherty is doing a rather good Peter O'Toole voice impression here. At least it's closer than John Candy's Richard Burton. And yeah, he's got O'Toole's facial expression and body language nailed.
If I were to pick the top ten SCTV skits of all-time, then "The Man Who Would Be King Of The Popes" would easily make it there. This is as hilarious now as it was back then. "Classic"!
If I remember the back-story correctly, there was a bet that Candy could overact Burton better than Thomas could overact Harris and Flaherty could overact O’Toole, and vice versa. Then O’hara killed them all with her Hepburn.
@@scotiadragoon5974 Whatever the backstory, all four of them did some amazing impersonations. Anyone who watches this, without being first familiar with those classic actors, are wasting themselves by watching this ingenious/ hysterical skit.
A great way to remember wonderfully hammy actors who are great at over-emoting, and an odd bit of history when there really were three popes at once. A classic!
This is mainly a parody of the 1964 classic, Becket, starring O'Toole and Burton, with strong references made to Camelot and The Lion In Winter. This sketch is way funnier if you've seen those films, partly because Joe Flaherty's mimicking of O'Toole's over the top "heart attack" in that movie is pretty close to the original.
Well. What to say about this. It is "transplendent," as Shelley Duvall said in "Annie Hall." Eugene Levy's eybrows steal the show, but what I loved about the early SCTv's was, their deliberate misspelling of stars' names, thus, Peter O'Tule and Richard Berton, to name a couple of them. They are brilliant!
@@canaisyoung3601 I think it was more to do with the fact that at this time British film and TV culture was "mainstream" in Canada whereas it was "niche" in the U.S.
I remember this skit years ago. In NY SCTV was on Friday nights at 1AM. Had a little five inch TV under the bed covers as my mother wouldn't let me stay up in the living room. Such great memories!
Mother's Day weekend & thinking of burning one with Sandra all those times cracking up at SCTV. Back in the day. Miss you 😘 Love To All Reading This 💖♾️ Life Goes On Elle King "America's Sweetheart," Bob Dylan "Jokerman" READ MORE, MC5 "Kick Out The Jams"
Didn't Rockin' Mel Slurrup of Rockpile fame have the King of the Popes's Richard Harris on? in Edmonton mufti? warbling MacArthur Park? or was that on Dr. Tongue's House of Beef?
I miss John Candy. Who didn't get the credit for being the Sexy MF Jackie Gleason Energy of his Time. Just Sayin. Check him out as Freddie in Splash, you'll see what I mean. #Hot
