In Tom Schiller’s 1978 short “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” John Belushi plays an elderly version of himself visiting the graves of his fellow Not Ready for Prime Time Players. The joke is that the supposedly reckless Belushi has outlived them. When the film returned during SNL’s 50th-anniversary special in 2025, the real-life reversal gave that comic premise a melancholy edge: Belushi died in 1982, before most of the performers whose graves his character visits.
What happens in “Don’t Look Back in Anger”
The short was part of “Schiller’s Reel” in the March 11, 1978 episode hosted by Art Garfunkel. The transcript archive credits it as written and directed by Tom Schiller. Read the transcript.
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Belushi appears as an aged man riding a train. He gets off, walks through a cemetery, and introduces it as the “Not Ready for Prime Time Cemetery.” His character visits the graves of castmates and imagines what their lives became after the show, turning a familiar comedy ensemble into a memorial.
At the start, Belushi’s character remarks: “Yeah.. they all thought I’d be the first one to go. I was one of those ‘Live Fast, Die Young, Leave a Good-Looking Corpse’ types, you know? But I guess they were wrong.” This is scripted dialogue from the character, not a statement about the real Belushi’s intentions.
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Why the joke feels different in hindsight
The short’s comic conceit is that Belushi, despite his wild reputation, survives his castmates and visits their graves. The later facts turned that setup around: Belushi died in 1982, before most of the performers whose graves appear in the film. The Atlantic and Georgia Public Broadcasting both note the irony between the imagined future and what happened. The Atlantic’s review and Georgia Public Broadcasting’s recap.
That reversal is retrospective irony, not prophecy. Belushi’s character is performing a fanciful future; the audience watching decades later knows that Belushi did not become the last survivor. The gap lets the short remain funny while making it sadder than its original premise alone.
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Why SNL50 brought the short back
During the February 2025 anniversary special, original cast member Garrett Morris introduced the film. TVLine reports Morris’s introduction, while TIME describes the cemetery visit and Belushi laying a wreath at his co-stars’ graves among the special’s closing moments. TVLine’s recap; TIME’s account.
For The Atlantic’s reviewer, the short was one of the special’s most poignant segments. That is a critical judgment, not evidence that every viewer responded the same way. Its emotional force comes from seeing the original joke with the intervening decades in mind.
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What to remember about the sketch
- “Don’t Look Back in Anger” is a Tom Schiller short from “Schiller’s Reel,” broadcast on March 11, 1978.
- Belushi plays an elderly version of himself at a cemetery for his castmates.
- The sketch imagines Belushi outliving the ensemble; his death in 1982 made that premise ironic in hindsight.
- Garrett Morris introduced the film when it was shown during the SNL50 special in 2025.
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