It was December 17, 1977 that Saturday Night Live’s Not Ready For Prime Time Players were joined by perhaps the most unusual guest host ever: Miskel Spillman.
If you just said “who?” well, that’s kind of what the show was aiming for.
They’d just held the first, and only, “Anyone Can Host SNL Contest.”
The show asked non-celebrities to send in a postcard explaining in 25 words or less why they should get to be host for a night (and earn the $3,000 hosts received).
Reportedly 150,000 people entered.
It was Spillman, an 80 year old grandma from New Orleans, who caught the show’s eye.
She wrote on her postcard, “I need one more cheap thrill since my doctor told me I only have another 25 years left.”
Spillman did ok, given the situation.
But today her episode is best remembered for its musical guest.
That was the night Elvis Costello stopped live in the middle of the song he’d planned to play and started another song, which neither the show nor the network had expected or approved.
He got banned from the show for a number of years.
Spillman never made it back on the show, but she kept watching SNL.
And she said that yes, she’d come back if they ever wanted her to host again.
Our intelligent friend Ryan in Minnesota has let us know that the world record for loudest burp ever has just been broken.
Australian Neville Sharp burped at 112.4 decibels, the loudest on record, and then thanked his sister for teaching him how to burp at age six.
Saturday Night Live’s Anyone Can Host Contest (Mental Floss)
The World’s Loudest Burp Record Has Been Broken. Hear It. (K102)
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