The Don Pardo Game

November 24, 2008 on 4:31 am | In Music, Television | 4 Comments

There is a new game. All-around funnyman Dun Dunford and I have invented a new game. It is called the Don Pardo Game.

This is Don Pardo. He is the announcer for Saturday Night Live.

Here’s the game:

In the voice of Don Pardo (you know what it sounds like), you need to create the oddest SNL musical guest/guest host combination you can think of. Now, SNL has had some amazingly weird guests in the past, so coming up with actual guests should be a snap. It’s always more fun when you use the actual guests they’ve had. But you have to put the names in the classic Don Pardo SNL announcement format.

“With musical guest _______! And your host, _______!”

F’r instance, “With musical guest Fishbone! And your host, Jeremy Irons!”
Or, “With musical guest Warren G featuring Nate Dogg! And your host, Ian McKellan!”

The more unlikely the better. And if you have a real loser of a pair, you can always do the highly unattractive “in two weeks” pairing:

“Saturday Night Live with return in two weeks with musical guest Fine Young Cannibals and your host, Wayne Gretzky!”

Makes you want to tune in, right? And to top it off, that one was a real combination that appeared in 1989. Some more actual pairings include such unlikely mash-ups as:

10. Robert Klein/ABBA
9. Ruth Gordon/Chuck Berry
8. Christopher Lee/Meat Loaf
7. Howard Hesseman/Men at Work
6. Ed Koch/Dexy’s Midnight Runners
5. Macaulay Culkin/Tin Machine
4. Justine Bateman/Terence Trent D’Arby
3. George Wendt/Philip Glass
2. George Steinbrenner/Morris Day and the Time
1. Wayne Gretzky/Fine Young Cannibals

The thing is, you HAVE to do this out loud, with the Don Pardo voice. It doesn’t work well at all in print. How do I know? Dan and I played the Don Pardo game for four hours while we drove around Westchester today. Here’s a hint: you can always lean on musical guest Puff Daddy featuring Jimmy Page or guest host Steve Forbes.

Have fun!