Tom Brokaw Pre-Tapes - Saturday Night Live 

When Ford passed away in '06, I messaged my brother as soon as I got home from work. His response: "He was not eaten by wolves. He was not delicious."

As a historian, I can confirm that William Howard Taft indeed died after being viciously attacked by a pack of wolves. Senselessly.

I was a teenager when this sketch was done and I literally was crying laughing so hard on the floor.... "He's a former president, Tom. What are you saying, he's not delicious?"

I had the most hilarious experience meeting Tom Brokaw in the late nineties in West Cornwall, CT, where I lived and worked at the time. He was an avid fly fisherman and had a place there and another in Montana. I was working at one of the very few businesses in the tiny town, a pottery store that had gifts and furniture, and we had an extremely rustic grandfather clock right in front, easily visible through the front door. He popped in one summer morning, surprisingly tall and fair, sans makeup, and looking around nervously as if for paparazzi, inquired, in his inimitable, singular, hilarious way, "How much for the - cl000ck?". I almost fell over, laughing. He was a real life parody of himself. It was a priceless moment...

“Would I still be the anchor if Zimbabwe invaded us?” “Yeah, if you break the Gerald Ford story.”

For all those people that think they are going crazy from remembering this as a Dana Carvey Show sketch, you aren’t crazy (well not entirely). That episode never aired but later that year (1996) Dana hosted SNL and re-did the sketch with Robert Smigel reprising his role as the voice of the producer.

I remember seeing this sketch live on TV. At the end of the episode before the end credits, Dana Carvey iterated that Gerald Ford was in fact alive and well. Ford went on to live 10 more years afterwards.

"Gerald Ford is not gonna be eaten by wolves" "Taft was." "Really? Taft?"

"He was...delishus." Literally crying rn, one of their best ever skits.

Robert Smeigel probably wrote this as you can hear his voice! Greatest SNL writer of all time! Genius 🕺🏻

This is pure gold...I remember keeling over with belly laughter at this when I was a kid.

"Today, you're not gay, you know, then one day, you wake up, you like men, Gerald Ford dies and we're screwed!".😂 Greatest line I've ever heard.

To this day, one of the all time classic skits. We still quote this regularly. Priceless.

My favourite was "Gerald Ford shot dead today at the senseless age of 83." 😂😜

Dana Carvey is brilliant! What a great Brokaw impression! Thank you RU-vid for making this available so I can see it again.

"...at the senseless age of 83.". :D

Possibly the number one SNL clip of all time. Its impossible not to laugh

“Oh sure you’re not gay right now but then one day you wake up you like men, Gerald Ford dies, and we’re screwed.” 😂

I love the guy feeding him stories. “It’s a former President- what are you saying, he isn’t delicious?”

I love how Brokaw appears to find it more probable that Ford would be chopped into little bits by the propeller of a commuter plane versus being eaten by wolves.

This has been showing up on my suggested list for over a week and I have avoided watching it. Today, because there was nothing interesting to look at I, decided to try this. This is literally the funniest SNL skit that I have ever seen. And I go all the way back to the 70's with this show. this was a creative comedic masterpiece.

Lost it at "Taft was."

This is one of those skits that always stuck with me.

One of the best sketches ever from the Dana Carvey Show. Glad they redid it on SNL since it they didnt air the last DCS episode.

I keep telling you people, Dana Carvey is an f'ing genius.

"Gerald ford dead today after being senselessly mauled by a circus lion in a convenience store" is permanently etched into my brain from the first time I saw this 🤣

Robert Smigel is the voice of the producer. This was also an unaired sketch from the Dana Carvey Show and re-used on SNL.

This is easily one of my favorite SNL sketches of all-time. 😂

I'm going on record in saying this is one of the top 5 sketches ever by SNL. "Really Taft?".

"It's a FORMER PRESIDENT, Tom, what are you saying? He's *not* delicious?"

"Tragedy today as Gerald Ford was eaten by wolves. He was delicious." Still cracks me up after all these years XD

"Gerald Ford shot dead today, at the age of 83." "Add the word 'senseless' in there." "Gerald Ford shot dead today, at the senseless age of 83." My favorite part in the whole skit. I couldn't stop laughing.

For context this was based on an actual wild satellite feed where Brokaw was pre-recording obituaries.

Who would have ever guessed that Ford would really die ten years later at the senseless age of 93?

"Stunning news...as Richard Nixon's corpse climbed out of it's grave and strangled Gerald Ford to death" and "Gerald Ford was mauled senselessly by a circus lion in a convenience store" 🤣🤣 Thanks for the belly laughs Dana!

Well Tom Brokaw is now retiring, so I'm just here remembering this classic sketch.

"Gerald Ford was chopped into little bit by the propeller of a commuter plane"🤣🤣🤣

When Ford died, the announcement came at 1130pm on a Saturday. I was watching NBC. It took me a minute to realize it was real and not Dana Carvey!

Carvey's delivery of the line "crack cocaine" is so on-point Brokaw.

When you start a propeller airplane engine, you always have to yell out "clear," like with a defibrillator. Just in case Gerald Ford is standing there.

One of the better skits on SNL I have ever seen. Great stuff.

This is comedy gold

This is one of the funniest sketches ever lol nice job of the writers, excellent delivery by Dana :-)

The narrator is Robert Smigel yes? One of the all time classics of sketch comedy whether SNL Or Dana Carvey show.

Those “alright, alright” transitions are perfection! 😂

2:36. “Tragedy today as former President Gharall Foard was eaten by wolves . . . he was delicious”. LOL 😂

2:26 - great. Now I have to look up if Taft was eaten by wolves (for the record - he died in his bed...eaten by podiatrists). This was one of those sketchs I had to pause because I was laughing so hard.

Pure genius from Robert Smigel, Stephen Colbert, and Louis C. K.

So funny. In his interview on the Late Show, Carvey credits Colbert with writing this sketch.

I remember watching this bit live when I was a kid, and I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe.

Comedy for me growing up wouldn’t have been the same without Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman. (Throw in John Ritter and Eddie Murphy). My skits, sitcom, and movies. My favorite Standup came later in life. Chapelle.

The off-screen director is hysterical.

I always end up in tears laughing watching these old SNL classics . Carvey, Hartman, Mc Donald, Nealon, Kittan, and all the women,,Otteri etc...funny as hell

This skit is one of the funniest skits ever produced! It never ceases to make me laugh hysterically, even though I've seen it dozens of times! Dana Carvey is brilliant and whoever wrote the script is outstanding! 😂

I wonder if Gerald Ford ever saw this.

Oh come on, Gerald Ford isn’t going to be eaten by wolves. Taft was. Really? Taft?

'Gerald Ford dead today from an overdose of crack cocaine.' Dead. 💀🤣 On another note, this video has been on RU-vid for almost five years as of 2018, and it only has about 7K views? That's a damn shame. Edit: Near the end of 2022 this video now had over 210K views. Good to see it's getting recognized for the brilliant bit of comedy that it is!

Is that Robert Smigel voicing the off-screen prompts? This sounds like a bit he would have written.

One of my favorite skits from SNL, great stuff!

To this day, I LITERALLY cannot think of Gerald R. friggin Ford without thinking of this sketch.

When gerald ford died, this is all I could hear. He was delicious.

I am not sure any SNL sketch has ever made me laugh this much. ✌️

"Gerald Ford" is the key to doing the Tom Brokaw voice

Really, Taft?

aparently this was co-written by Stephen Colbert as discussed on the strike force five podcast.

@1:59 master class in keeping it together

The Dana Carvey Show, anyone?

This is such a classic. To this day I always think of this skit when I see old Tom Brokaw clips

I frequently say “Gerald Ford” out loud in the voice and no one ever knows what I’m referencing

Gerald Ford really died on December 26, 2006, ten years after this SNL sketch and a day after Christmas 2006 making Christmas 2006 his last Christmas ever.

I remember crying with laughter while watching this sketch😂

I remember watching this live. It’s still a riot.

I think that voice is Robert Smigel 😂

That "he was delicious", nixon and gay part though

One of my favorites

I can't believe the view count. People still can' t appreciate Dana Carvey Show Humor.

“... Heighty-three.”

The straight man set ups and banter are as funny as Carvey!

I was a kid when this first aired. I didn't even know who Tom Brokaw was but thought this was funny as hell. Later, when I became aware if him I always thought about this sketch and realized he really did talk like that.

I love how the pictures change, i.e., wolves, lion, Nixon.

That sketch written by Stephen Colbert, no less.

Zherald Ford, dead da'day lol

Strike force five sent me here

Just found out that Stephen Colbert wrote this sketch 😄

"Today you're not dead, you know? Then one day you wake up, you like men, Gerald Ford dies and we're screwed!"

I can't stop watching this! One of the funniest sketches ever!

I found out today that Wolf Blitzer really ought to have banked a few "Joe Biden ends his campaign" announcements, instead of being caught on the hop having a cocktail, which he had tweeted! 😂

How does this not have more views??????

This is the funniest SNL sketch of them all. MacGruber comes close but this is the cat's ass.

This is my pick for best SNL sketch of all time.

Robert Smigel lol, you can hear his George W Bush impression from Conan in his normal voice.

I love that the wolves told whomever that he was delicious

I enjoyed this today, at the senseless age of 52.

I remember crying laughing when this aired.

In the top 5 funniest SNL skits of all time

Nick Mason of The Weekly Planet loves this sketch 😂😂

I had no idea this was first shown on Dana's show and redone on SNL when he guest hosted.

I remember first seeing this on the Dana Carvey SNL dvd set. Laughed til I cried

Pod Save America has me watching this for the first time. Amazing.

And now according to the Strike Force Five podcast episode 4, we learned that this sketch was written by Stephen Colbert and Louis CK.