Skip to main content

Joe Pesci's Hilarious "Pinky Ring" SNL Sketch | Screen Rant

Joe Pesci's Saturday Night Live sketch "Pinky Ring" finds a gangster having a tough time picking a new ring. Prior to becoming an actor, Joe Pesci worked as a musician and was one half of comic duo "Vincent and Pesci" with The Sopranos' star Frank Vincent. It was thanks to his role in the obscure Mafia thriller The Death Collector that he came to the attention of Robert De Niro and Martin Scorcese, who cast him in Raging Bull. In the majority of his work with Scorcese, including Goodfellas, Pesci is depicted playing temperamental, violent gangsters.

Despite this being his most famous screen persona - especially thanks to his iconic "Funny how?" scene from Goodfellas, he's appeared in a variety of lighthearted fare. He was comic relief Joe Getz in Lethal Weapon 2 to 4 and was praised for his work in My Cousin Vinny. Pesci retired in the late 1990s but has returned occasionally in the years that followed. His most high-profile comeback was Scorcese's acclaimed gangster drama The Irishman in 2019, though he seemingly has no further plans to act again.

Related: A David Spade Gag Made Eddie Murphy Boycott Saturday Night Live For Decades

In 1992 - which was the year Lethal Weapon 3, My Cousin Vinny, and Home Alone 2 were all released - Pesci put his comic chops to good use when he hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live. One of the highlight sketches from this Joe Pesci SNL skit is "Pinky Ring," where his gangster character is looking for a fancy new ring for his little finger. While modern sketches from SNL - whose skits have spawned several movies - rely on performers going over the top, "Pinky Ring" - for the most part - works because it's fairly subtle while allowing the central gag to build up to a hilarious climax.

Watch The Video Here

Throughout Saturday Night Live's "Pinky Ring" sketch, Joe Pesci's indecisive gangster tries on several rings. He stands in front of a mirror, miming conversations or seeing how the ring looks as he's smoking a cigar, as he's looking for a ring that really sells his power. This allows Pesci to be both reserved and hammy, and he even gets to swear up a storm - which SNL gets away with since he's only mouthing the words.

Given that Joe Pesci's Goodfellas performance was still fresh in the minds of viewers, Saturday Night Live's "Pinky Ring" skit has fun playing with that kind of persona. Joe Pesci's "Pinky Ring" isn't exactly a classic from SNL, but it took a solid hook and expertly developed it. Had the same sketch been performed in modern-day Saturday Night Live, it would likely be much louder and more obvious in its execution.

Next: SNL Has To Stop Picking Non-Actors To Host



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CBS' Ghosts: Every Main Ghost Time Period & Backstory Explained

One of CBS' newest sitcoms,  Ghosts , features a cast full of spectral characters that each hail from a distinct time period and come with their own unique backstory and death. Though each of the eight ghosts has a wildly different perspective based on their different experiences throughout history, they nonetheless form a sort of family, which is one of the show's greatest charms. After all, being stuck with the same people for all of eternity allows for plenty of time to get to know each other. Ghosts , which is an adaptation of a BBC show of the same name, stars Utkarsh Ambudkar and Rose McIver (who played Liv Moore on five seasons of  iZombie ) as Jay and Sam, a young couple who inherit a mansion in upstate New York. To their surprise, however, the house also comes with several ghostly inhabitants, who Sam is able to see after a near-death experience. These are Thorfinn (Devan Long), Sasappis (Román Zaragoza), Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones), Hetty (Rebecca Wisocky...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Hateful Eight's Original Ending Explained (& Why Tarantino Changed It)

The Hateful Eight has an ending full of blood and betrayal, as expected from any Quentin Tarantino movie, but this wasn’t the original ending – here’s why he changed it. Tarantino has explored different genres throughout his career; though he’s best known for his crime movies like Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction , he's also visited genres like martial arts (with both Kill Bill  films) and black comedy ( Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ). In addition, he's shared his version of westerns with Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight , with the latter going through some problems and creative changes even before it began shooting. Set in 1870, Tarantino's The  Hateful Eight follows eight strangers, all with different (and secret) motivations, who end up in a stagecoach lodge after seeking refuge from a blizzard. These characters are Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), John “The Hangman” Ruth (Kurt Russell), Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), Chris Mannix (Walton Gog...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why Spider-Man 3's Uncle Ben Retcon Doesn't Change Peter's Origin

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 is often criticized for a major retcon made to Uncle Ben’s death , but this retcon ultimately doesn’t change Peter Parker’s classic origin story. Raimi’s third film in the iconic Spider-Man trilogy is often criticized, perhaps unfairly. While the film suffers from too many character arcs and plot threads and would have been better as two or three separate films, it does a more than adequate job adapting the Spider-Man comics and telling a sincere story about relatable, flawed, characters who are intertwined with the extraordinary, just as Stan Lee and Steve Ditko intended when co-creating the character. Uncle Ben’s retconned death may alter classic elements from the comic version, but it retains its most important aspects in regards to Peter’s characterization. 2002’s Spider-Man is, for much of the film’s first half, a faithful adaptation of Spider-Man’s 1962 origin story in issue 15 of the Amazing Fantasy comics. An awkward social pariah, Pete...
Post a Comment
Read more