.

On this irreverent version Rickey was a rat from Harlem and Mr. Mike
(Michael O'Donoghue) was their leader. Each member wore a rodent snout and hat
with ears. Their program signed off with "See you in the sewers, suckers! Why?
Because we're vermin!"
Club members included:
- John Belushi as Sleezeball
- Gilda Radner as Annette
- Garrett Morris as Ben
- Bill Murray as Willard
- Buck Henry as Bucky
- Jane Curtin as Phlegma
- Dan Aykroyd as
Scumbo
- Laraine Newman as Stinky
Excerpt from original sketch on SNL (11/19/1977)
Bucky: Hiya, Rat-keteers!
Rat-Keteers: HIYA, BUCKY!
Bucky: Do you all know what today is?
Rat-Keteers: ANYTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN DAY!
Bucky: That's right, Rat-keteers, and why do we have Anything Bad Can
Happen Day?
Rat-Keteers: SO SOMETHING BAD CAN HAPPEN!
Bucky: Thaaat's right! And why is it good for something bad to happen?
Phlegma: 'Cause real life is full of horrible things and the faster we
learn to like it, the better!
Bucky: That's right, Phlegm-o[sic], it's a dog-eat-dog jungle out there,
and I'm training you kids to come out on the top of the heap, just like Rickey
did!
Stinky: Oh, Bucky? Some of us who've never been Rat-keteers before were
wondering what happened to the Rat-keteers from last year!
Bucky: Well, Stinky, remember when we helped science by confining all the
Rat-keteers in a small, dark closet to see if they'd turn homosexual?
slezeball: Ohhh... You mean on, uh, Overcrowding Day!
Bucky: That's right, Slezeball! Well, the experiment was a big success,
and almost all of them came out of the closet!
Rat-Keteers: YAAAAYYY!
Phlegma: Anyway, it's FUN being a Rat-keteer!
Annette: Yeah, we love Rickey, 'cause he's not some cute, stupid cartoon
mouse like Mickey!
Ben: We love Rickey 'cause he's a rat, and he's real, and he's from
Harlem!
slezeball: Yeah! Well, we love him 'cause he came up the hard way, just
like Rocky, y'know?
Rat-Keteers: Yeah!
Stinky: Hey! Where IS Rickey?
Rat-Keteers: Yeah! We wanna see Rickey!
Bucky: Okay, Scumbo, Bring out Rickey!
[SCUMBO hands BUCKY a small cage containing a live rat]
Bucky: [attempting to make the rat talk via ventriloquism] "Hiii, Rat-keteers!"
Rat-Keteers: HI, RICKEY!
Scumbo: Wait a minute, Bucky! This isn't the same Rickey from last week!
Stinky: Yeah, this doesn't look like Rickey!
Willard: Well, this ISN'T Rickey! Our Rickey had progressive tail mange!
Bucky: (groping for an alibi) Uh... well! Uh... yeah, that's right! Uh,
this is... This is Rickey's twin brother, DICKEY! This is DICKEY Rat!
Rat-Keteers: Ohhhhh...
Scumbo: What happened to Rickey, Bucky?
Bucky: Uh, this week Rickey's been helping science!
Scumbo: Doing what?
Bucky: Testing cyclamates!
Ben: Is that where he is now?
Bucky: No, actually, he's... he's in rat hospital. And he says to say
hello, and that you should all make Dickey here feel welcome!
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