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Wake Up and Smile

Saturday Night LiveSNL
SKETCH-O-VISION
A VERY GOOD USE OF YOUR TIME.

The setup

When the teleprompter breaks on a chipper morning show, the anchors can't function without a script and quickly descend into savagery.

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The premise

Here’s the bit.

Morning-show anchors Oliver and Dianne are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Wake Up and Smile with weatherman Tim Baker when the teleprompter fails. Unable to speak without a script, Oliver keeps repeating his last cue, the pair fill airtime with panicked and increasingly ugly ad-libs, and Tim falls apart in front of the weather map. Between a Dumongela commercial and a promo for Kerry and the Gang, the set collapses into chaos: Oliver barricades the couch, torches burn, and he strips off his shirt, paints a hand on his chest and founds the Order of the Hand. When Tim challenges his leadership, Oliver kills him and starts eating his severed head. Then an offstage voice announces that the prompter is fixed, and a sobbing Dianne goes straight back to reading her holiday casserole segment.

The funny people

Meet the cast. 6

Behind the scenes

The people who made it.

The rabbit hole continues

One more couldn’t hurt.

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