It’s not rare for a Saturday Night Live sketch to have one joke repeated endlessly, but literally having only one joke is rarer. And having only one joke and still being hilarious is rare enough that it may as well be mythological. But Fred Armisen pulled it off Saturday with “Farewell, Mr. Bunting,” a tribute to Dead Poets Society, the film that taught an entire generation to suck the marrow out of life and wear their hearts on their sleeves.
It’s not entirely true to say the sketch has only one joke, since it does feature a parody of the introduction to Understanding Poetry, but one moment really outshines the rest. It’s best unspoiled, but in this uncivilized age it’s so nice to see network television invoking Whitman. Specifically this line, from the preface to Leaves of Grass: “All beauty comes from beautiful blood and a beautiful brain.”
