Gorbachev Translator Cold Opening - Saturday Night Live

A man is translating Gorbachev's speech for television, but his conversational Russian is a little rusty, and he's not good at faking it. Aired 12/12/87

[vijaynair]

Nealon was incredible in this sketch! 😂
Also…RIP Phil Hartman!

[tytipton]

One of my favorite skits they ever did. Thanks for posting 😂😂😂

[BobbyL]

"live out of new york.... it's night... this saturday!"

[osdahi]

This is one of the funniest snl sketches ever. Saw it many years ago glad to see it uploaded

[lwilliams]

In Kevin's defense, Russian is hard as hell to learn. Oddly enough, I just got done doing some revision on Russian and then YT suggested this video.

[FreedomMonky]

The FOX network. A punch line to jokes since 1987.

[raradis]

Live out of New York.. It's night! This Saturday!

[joecoffee]

Eesh, that was rough! Better go with Bae Sung next time.

[averagejobogio]

One of Neilans best skits, one of the only ones that played perfectly with his character, like his earliest sketches on SNL

[cedarbreaks]

I speak Russian. And this is exactly how I felt when I interpreted live.

[vikrantsubakade]

gorbachev sounds very classy in Russian :)

[KozenaDrzka]

Well if you have any Russian experience you should understand Gorbachev here very well.

[sulufest]

What makes this funnier and still relevant is that the joke on Fox is still applicable today, but for diff reasons. Back then (almost 40 years ago!) Fox was a brand new fledgling network in new competition with the big 3- CBS, ABC, NBC and they were having a rough time being the new kid on the block. Poor programming, bad ratings; far from the entertainment juggernaut they are today. Lolz 😅

[TheJasonaut]

Has that opening ever been said differently like this? I can't remember it ever happening unless someone accidentally garbled it.
Also, going with more realistic translation humor was the hard way to do this sketch, but so worth it, hilarious :)

[kailubbe]

Back when SNL made me laugh. -an old man

[adamodimattia]

Was this inspired by the real live translation in news back then?

[paulmarsh]

Hilarious skit, SLAVIC LANGUAGES ARE FREAKIN HARD TO DECIPHER AND COMPREHEND.

[averagejobogio]

Someone please translate the actual Russian or get a transcript cause I'd love to see the comparison

[douglasrose]

I figure that's the only way to tell everybody happy holidays without offending anyone! Yeaaaà!