Just like everyone else in the Internet world I’ve become used to laughing about the Snakes on a Plane title. It’s a nice cheeky deal with Sammy Jackson thrown in for good measure. It also seems like a pretty innovative idea too doesn’t it? OR DOES IT?? I’m going on record saying snakes have been seen on a plane before! On top of that, it was a full eight years ago by big name actors like Will Ferrell and John Goodman!
In my family we are religious “SNL” viewers and our favorite skits get quoted constantly. Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind something about Snakes seemed familiar. Then I remembered Will Ferrell’s voice in the darkness saying, “Ladies and gentlemen we are traveling at 32,000 feet, and oh by the way, I’ve released a live King Cobra on to the plane.” I did a little research on the episode and it turns out the skit is called “The Cobra” and John Goodman hosted that night back in 1998. Goodman was in a passenger seat and asked his wife (Cheri Oteri) if she’d heard what the pilot had said. She was watching a movie and blew him off, and then of course the snake started striking and people started flying around. Ferrell came back on a few times to say more snakes had been released, eventually capping off the skit by saying he’d been bitten and he was going to go toward the light. This is all from memory mind you, because no transcript of this episode exists. Also, the skit was next to last in the show (before TiVo), which means only the truly crazy “SNL” freaks (like me) would have guzzled it.
But here I am, preaching the truth. The Snakes on a Plane idea was done eight years ago in New York, New York. Whether or not it was actually stolen is up in the air. My assumption is that it may have been caught somewhere in the recesses of John Heffernan’s mind when he initially pitched the idea to Paramount Pictures-based MTV Films. Then again, the story did come from David Daleassandro, so maybe he is the one we should be talking to. Eh David?
Now, you can imagine how smart I felt after thinking this bad boy up, but then I threw it in the Google machine and did find some folks who were thinking the same way too. I guess a few others stayed up late in 1998 (hey, that rhymes), to check out their thoughts on the matter clicky on your choice of snakafied links below.
