When John Belushi drew blood from Buck Henry with a samurai sword on ‘SNL’
Throughout its run, beginning in 1975, the American late-night live television comedy show Saturday Night Live has seen many timeless moments in its blend of sketch comedy and political satire. The series invites America’s most famous celebrities of each decade to appear in hilarious and insightful sketches alongside its talented comedic cast, including actor John Belushi.
One sketch Belushi found SNL fame in was Samurari Futabi, a recurring feature and character beginning in 1976 that saw the actor embody an archetypal samurai with an SNL twist. Audiences roared with laughter as he appeared in situations unexpected for a samurai, including buying a wedding suit or shopping at a bakery.
Belushi’s character was inspired by Kuwabatake Sanjuro, Toshiro Mifune’s character in Akira Kurosawa’s acclaimed Samurai feature Yojimbo. The original role is characterised as a wanderer who is also an expert swordsman. SNL caricatured this through a dedication of honour, mocking Japanese in his speech and tossing around a katana as the parody’s tools.
The reoccurring sketch saw many acclaimed comedy actors and other celebrities join in on the fun, such as Everybody Loves Raymond star Peter Boyle and American sports icon O.J. Simpson. However, Buck Henry was one hosting guest who experienced an unforgettable time on the show’s skit.
The actor was known for writing credits on Mike Nichols’s The Graduate, for which he received an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ and his appearances in the director’s later projects Catch-22 and Peter Bogdanovich’s What’s Up Doc?
Henry is also part of SNL’s Five Timer’s Club, which he hosted ten times between 1976 and 1980. The actor is why the Samurai character became recurring, as he insisted there be a second sketch after his first time hosting on January 17th. “I did suggest repeating certain characters, which didn’t seem to me exactly revolutionary since every comedy I’ve ever been involved with, including movies, depends on repetition of a kind,” he told Vulture.
“John Belushi’s samurai character had been done before I got there; I think it was ‘Samurai Hotel’. When I came on the show, I said, ‘Let’s do ‘Samurai Delicatessen’ or something like that,'” the actor added. “And then came ‘Samurai Tailor’ and ‘Samurai Stockbroker’ and ‘Samurai Optometrist’, and on and on.”
However, his second time brought him close contact with death when he appeared in the Samurai skit.
On October 30th, 1976, during a sketch titled ‘Samurai Stockbroker’, Belushi accidentally struck the actor in the role as client Mr Dantley in the forehead with a katana. The tape shows Henry staggering back from the blow. Afterwards, in true ‘the show must go on’ style, Henry appeared on camera with a band-aid covering the cut on his forehead.
The rest of the cast (including a teddy bear in one after-show sketch) also wore band-aids as a show of solidarity, showing how humour can be utilised to deal with such mishaps and to roll with the punches.
Despite this disastrous and dangerous accident, Henry had nothing but nice things to say about his SNL co-star. “I thought of him as being very, very funny, but he was not the only one there that I thought this about,” he shared about Belushi. “They were all highly original minds. All of them had a wealth of characters they could do, and they were wonderful to work with.”
He adds: “In particular, Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase were two of the funniest humans I have ever known.”
Watch Belushi accidentally strike Henry here at the 0:55 mark.
