John Belushi didn’t do impressions quietly.
When he transformed into another performer, everything became bigger.
The voice.
The movements.
The expressions.
The energy.
So when Saturday Night Live decided to let Belushi become Elvis Presley, the result was never going to be an ordinary celebrity impression.
It became pure John Belushi.
In May 1977, during the second season of Saturday Night Live, Belushi appeared as Elvis in a sketch called “Viva Las Vegas II.” The episode aired on May 14 with Shelley Duvall hosting and Joan Armatrading appearing as musical guest.
The premise was wonderfully ridiculous.
Belushi’s Elvis isn’t simply standing onstage performing his greatest hits.
Instead, he’s presented as a busboy who dreams of becoming a serious Shakespearean actor.
That’s already a very SNL idea.
Take one of the most recognizable entertainers in America.
Put him in a completely inappropriate situation.
Then let John Belushi loose.
Belushi Becomes The King
Celebrity impressions have been part of Saturday Night Live since its earliest years.
But Belushi’s approach was distinctive.
He didn’t necessarily try to reproduce every detail with perfect accuracy.
He searched for the characteristics audiences immediately recognized — and then pushed them.
With Elvis, there was plenty to work with.
The voice.
The swagger.
The physical movement.
The larger-than-life persona.
By 1977, Elvis was already more than a singer. He was an American cultural symbol.
That made him perfect material for parody.
Belushi understood something fundamental about impressions: audiences don’t always need photographic accuracy.
They need recognition.
The moment the performer moves or speaks, viewers should think:
That’s Elvis.
Then the comedian can begin exaggerating.
From Shakespeare to Jailhouse Rock
The strangest and funniest part of “Viva Las Vegas II” is the collision of two completely different worlds.
Elvis Presley…
and Shakespeare.
The sketch presents Elvis as an aspiring Shakespearean performer before eventually abandoning any pretense of seriousness and moving into “Jailhouse Rock.” Contemporary recaps of the episode specifically note that the sketch concludes with Belushi performing the song.
That transition is exactly what makes the premise work.
No matter how seriously this version of Elvis tries to pursue dramatic acting, eventually Elvis has to become Elvis.
And once the music starts, Belushi gets to do what he did best.
Explode.
Belushi Was More Musical Than People Remember
John Belushi is remembered primarily as a comedian.
But music was an enormous part of his career.
That becomes especially important when looking at performances like this.
Belushi wasn’t simply a comedian pretending to sing for a punchline.
He genuinely loved music.
That passion eventually became central to his partnership with Dan Aykroyd and the creation of The Blues Brothers.
By 1978, the Blues Brothers had developed into a genuine musical act, and Briefcase Full of Blues became a major commercial success. Belushi’s discography also includes lead vocals on several soundtrack recordings, including “Jailhouse Rock.”
His interest in blues music was especially serious.
Musician Curtis Salgado later recalled introducing Belushi to artists such as Howlin’ Wolf, Magic Sam and Sonny Boy Williamson. Belushi eventually began sitting in with musicians and performing songs himself.
So underneath the comedy was genuine enthusiasm.
That’s one reason his musical performances have so much energy.
He wasn’t mocking music itself.
He loved it.
Before The Blues Brothers Movie
Watching this 1977 footage is especially interesting because of what happened next.
Just a few years later, Belushi would be standing beside Dan Aykroyd as Jake Blues in The Blues Brothers.
The 1980 movie combined comedy with performances rooted in blues, soul, R&B and rock and roll. Belushi and Aykroyd’s musical partnership had grown out of their Saturday Night Live years before becoming something much larger.
And there’s a particularly satisfying connection between this Elvis sketch and the movie.
“Jailhouse Rock” returns.
At the end of The Blues Brothers, Jake, Elwood and their band are behind bars.
Instead of ending quietly, they perform “Jailhouse Rock” for the prisoners.
IMDb’s documentation of the film’s ending confirms that the song accompanies the final prison performance and continues through the closing sequence.
So Belushi performing the song on SNL in 1977 now feels almost like a preview of what was coming.
The Andy Kaufman Connection
Your clip also contains a particularly interesting line.
Belushi references Andy Kaufman.
That makes perfect sense in the context of early SNL.
Kaufman was already closely connected to the program. He appeared on the very first episode of Saturday Night Live in October 1975, performing his famous Mighty Mouse routine.
Kaufman’s comedy was radically different from Belushi’s.
Belushi was explosive.
Kaufman could be deliberately slow, awkward and confusing.
Belushi often wanted an immediate reaction.
Kaufman sometimes seemed fascinated by making audiences wonder whether they were supposed to laugh at all.
Yet both became important figures in the experimental atmosphere surrounding early SNL.
That makes Belushi casually invoking Kaufman a wonderful little piece of comedy history.
Early SNL Was Willing to Be Weird
Modern viewers sometimes forget how experimental the original Saturday Night Live could be.
The first episode alone included George Carlin, musical performances, Jim Henson’s Muppets and Andy Kaufman doing an unconventional Mighty Mouse routine.
John Belushi fit perfectly into that environment.
He could play a samurai.
A bee.
A strange foreign student.
A blues singer.
And apparently Elvis Presley attempting Shakespeare.
There wasn’t necessarily a requirement that everything make conventional sense.
The show was young.
The performers were young.
And they were discovering what late-night television comedy could become.
That creative freedom helped establish Belushi as one of the program’s defining original performers.
Why the Clip Still Works
Nearly fifty years later, the joke remains immediately understandable.
You see John Belushi.
You realize he’s doing Elvis.
Then he starts performing “Jailhouse Rock.”
You don’t need an elaborate explanation.
The entertainment comes from watching Belushi throw himself completely into it.
That’s the key.
John Belushi rarely looked like a performer worried about appearing foolish.
If a joke required him to move ridiculously, he moved ridiculously.
If a character needed an absurd voice, he committed to it.
If he was going to impersonate Elvis Presley, he wasn’t going halfway.
That commitment turned even strange premises into memorable television.
Belushi Being Belushi
Perhaps the best way to understand the performance is that it isn’t really about creating the definitive Elvis Presley impression.
It’s about seeing what happens when John Belushi collides with Elvis Presley.
Elvis provides the voice, movements and musical mythology.
Belushi supplies the chaos.
Put those two forces together and you get something that belongs unmistakably to the wild early years of Saturday Night Live.
A busboy.
Shakespeare.
Elvis.
“Jailhouse Rock.”
Andy Kaufman somehow getting mentioned along the way.
It shouldn’t fit together.
But that’s exactly why it feels so perfectly SNL.
And decades later, it also offers another glimpse of the enormous comic and musical energy that made John Belushi unforgettable.
Before Jake Blues rocked a prison in The Blues Brothers, John Belushi was already turning “Jailhouse Rock” into comedy on Saturday Night Live. 😂🎤🔥
