In the sketch, performed on the British TV show Saturday Live, which ran from 1985 to 1987 and was heavily influenced by the U.S. show Saturday Night Live, Meat Loaf and Fry poke fun at the massive gap between the wild American lingo of the new generation and the proper diction of a Cambridge graduate of the Stephen Fry mold. Fry’s punctilious manner is as much a part of the joke as the manic style of Meat Loaf, but Fry was on “home turf” if you will, so he had something of an advantage.

What becomes evident mere seconds into the sketch is that Meat Loaf is reading from cue cards, and Meat Loaf’s obvious reliance on the cards becomes part of the fun—Fry even begins to prompt him after a while.
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Not Meat Loaf
Fry and Hitchens Slam the Church