Father Guido Sarducci
From Free net encyclopedia
Current revision
Image:Father Guido Sarducci.jpg Father Guido Sarducci is a fictional character made famous by American comedian Don Novello. Sarducci, a chain-smoking priest with tinted eyeglasses, works in the United States as gossip columnist and rock critic for the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.
Novello created the character in 1973, after he purchased the outfit (consisting of big floppy black hat, white clerical collar, and a long, red-trimmed black coat with cape) for $7.50 at a St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop. The character was featured in 1970s cartoons by underground cartoonist Dave Sheridan, appearing in person in the 1975 Smothers Brothers' TV show. His most prominent appearance was on Saturday Night Live in the late 1970s, during which time Novello was also a writer for the show. During the 1980s and 1990s Sarducci appeared on other television shows, including Fridays, Married... With Children, Blossom, It's Garry Shandling's Show, and Square Pegs. In 1995, he appeared as a priest trying to perform an exorcism in the movie Casper. The same movie featured a cameo by fellow SNL alumni Dan Aykroyd as a "Ghostbuster".
While on SNL, he appeared in a commercial parody for tampons. He acknowledged in the commerical that is was strange for a man to be in a tampon commercial, but he decided to endorse the product because it promised that the user could jump on a trampoline while wearing this particular brand of tampons. Other tampons only promised that the user could run, swim, or play tennis.
In 1981 Novello made newspaper headlines when he visited Vatican City wearing the full "Father Guido Sarducci" costume. After taking snapshots in an area where photography was prohibited, he was arrested by the Swiss Guards and charged with "impersonating a priest". These charges were later dropped.
The character also appeared on the Handsome Boy Modeling School albums So... How's Your Girl? and White People, telling biographical stories of the life of a professional male model in the latter. Novello also released a comedy album as Sarducci titled Breakfast In Heaven.