Saturday Night Live Samurai
In the early years of Saturday Night Live, John Belushi portrayed a samurai—he had a dedicated concept of honor, spoke only (mock) Japanese, and wielded a katana. Each sketch had him located in a different place and time that was typically inappropriate for a samurai, yet he performed his tasks perfectly, despite scaring his clients quite a few times. The character was modeled after Toshiro Mifune's character in Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo.
Samurai Futaba would probably not have become a recurring character if not for Buck Henry's insistence that there be a second sketch featuring him when he first hosted on January 17, 1976. It is perhaps due to these origins that it became standard practice on SNL to feature a Samurai sketch every time Henry hosted, up until the time Belushi left the cast. (And except for "Samurai BMOC", each time Henry would play the same character, Mr. Dantley.)
In issue #74 of Marvel Team-Up (cover dated October, 1978), Belushi (in character as Samurai Futaba) dueled Marvel Comics supervillain Silver Samurai, who believed that Belushi was disgracing the history of the samurai. He also appears briefly in issue #54 of The Sandman.
Read more about Saturday Night Live Samurai: List of Saturday Night Live Episodes Featuring Samurai Futaba
Famous quotes containing the words saturday night, saturday, night, live and/or samurai:
“Saturday night is the loneliest night in the week.”
—Sammy Cahn (1913–1993)
“The return of the asymmetrical Saturday was one of those small events that were interior, local, almost civic and which, in tranquil lives and closed societies, create a sort of national bond and become the favorite theme of conversation, of jokes and of stories exaggerated with pleasure: it would have been a ready- made seed for a legendary cycle, had any of us leanings toward the epic.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“St. Teresa of Avila described our life in this world as like a night at a second-class hotel.”
—Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990)
“Everything I do is done within sight of the Führer, so that my faults or mistakes are never hidden from him. I do my very utmost to live and act in such a manner that the Führer should remain satisfied with me; I am hard-working; but whether I shall always be able to cope with the tasks entrusted to me in the future as well, is an open question.”
—Martin Bormann (1900–1945)
“I am the scroll of the poet behind which samurai swords are being sharpened.”
—Lester Cole, U.S. screenwriter, Nathaniel Curtis, and Frank Lloyd. Prince Tatsugi (Frank Puglia)