Saturday Night Live (1975)

"Samurai Hotel," December 13, 1975 John Belushi plays Samurai Futaba, the sword-swinging samurai stuck in an ordinary job, here working a hotel front desk opposite host Richard Pryor as a bellhop and Chevy Chase as a customer. Belushi's grunted, half-invented Japanese and the real danger of that sword made the character a first-season favorite who kept turning up in new workplaces. Pairing him with Pryor gives this version an edge the later ones lack.