I like John Belushi because my dad likes John Belushi, and he likes him because Belushi is a Chicago guy, like my dad. Belushi brought the Second City to the Saturday Night Live stage, with sketches about Chicago's famed burger-and-beer joint the Billy Goat Tavern and musical performances from Rock Island, Illinois, orphans Jake and Elwood Blues. In fact, the first car-chase scene in Blues Brothers roars past the small real-estate company my old man owns, a stroke of luck he ranks between grandchildren and owning a speedboat.
Among his sketches for SNL, Belushi played a gold medal decathlete. But after seeing him run around a track and execute a pole vault, the sketch jumps to Belushi seated at a table with a bowl of mini chocolate donuts in front of him. He's also clutching a cigarette. Suddenly the sketch comes into focus, it's a cereal ad.
"I logged a lot of miles training for that day, and I downed a lot of donuts," he says. "They taste good, and they've got the sugar needed to get me going in the morning."
Considering the elite athletes in this year's Olympics will end up endorsing junk food dealers like McDonald's or Coca-Cola—if they aren't already—Belushi's send up from the 1970s is masterful.
