Charles Rocket RIP

Thanks to the fact he was fired from SNL at the end of one season (he dropped the f-bomb on air) and they don't seem to show re-runs from his year on the cast (they don't even include any transcripts of his stuff), most people have no idea how friggen hysterical Charles Rocket was. My brother and I were lucky, our parents were crazy enough to let us watch SNL pretty much from the beginning and we loved to stay up on Saturday nights just to catch it. Most people try to blank out that 80-81 season, the first year after all the original Not Ready For Prime Time players left, because it pretty much sucked. The were occasional bursts of brilliance from Joe Piscopo, Eddie Murphy and, mostly, Charles Rocket. Rocket deftly took over Week-end update and, in a year that marked the release of John Lennon's first release after a self-imposed exile (and, sadly, his murder shortly thereafter) did such an outrageously funny "interview" with John & Yoko, that Lennon remarked about it in his last interview (with Playboy magazine). The season was also sprinkled with Rocket Reports that made tuning in to a show filled mostly with painful skits due to pitiful writing worthwhile (granted I was 14 so my tolerance for crap was much higher than it is now).

Due to being fired from (and the fact shows featuring him are not re-run), Rocket never made quite the splash he should have. He did eventually resurface in TV (Moonlighting) and some movies but, unfortunately, few people will know the comedic genius that flared that one season of SNL. Sadly, Charles Rocket committed suicide October 7, maybe now SNL will give him his due.

Tags: charles rocket; Saturday Night Live

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