Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
hosts tell embarrassing stories about each other’s childhood
— Strangely, this begins with Jeff and Beau being announced by Pardo, followed by them making their entrance on the home base stage. Uh, shouldn’t this be happening in the MONOLOGUE, not the cold opening? Ebersol’s toying around with SNL’s format yet again, I see.
— I like where this is going, with Jeff and Beau telling embarrassing childhood stories about each other.
— Some good laughs from their dad Lloyd Bridges scolding them over the phone and then encouraging them to fight each other.
— What was with that loud buzzer sound when Beau was doing the “Hey, look over there” trick on Jeff?
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
hosts duke it out on-stage, egged on by Lloyd Bridges [real] in L.A.
— Some technical errors when the thought bubble of Lloyd Bridges first shows up.
— This is the second time this season where a legendary actor makes his cameo in the form of a pre-taped thought bubble giving advice to his son, after Andy Griffith did the same to his TV son Ron Howard in the “Opie’s Back” sketch.
— The Jeff/Beau fight is fairly fun, though nothing great.
— How are Beau and Jeff applying the fake blood on their mouths after each of them gets punched?
— Pretty funny conclusion with both brothers coming together to agree that they hate their father.
STARS: **½
TEXXON
“Do what we say, nobody gets hurt”
— The return of SNL’s fake sponsor Texxon Oil, after those frequent “disclaimer gag” cold openings from the first half of season 7.
— The guilt trip messages from the old man, black guy, and little girl are funny.
— Love the ending slogan “Do what we say and nobody gets hurt”.
— Overall, pretty biting satire.
STARS: ***½
PIMPLE
a huge pimple causes many embarassing moments for (JLD) on prom night
— I like the randomness of Julia’s name being “Cynthia Marie Laboof”.
— When Julia comes downstairs in her prom dress, you could hear wolf-whistles from someone in the audience before Julia reveals her huge pimple.
— Speaking of that reveal, I saw it coming from miles away.
— Hmm, Beau and Jeff randomly appearing as themselves.
— Great ending with Eddie.
— Overall, the premise of this sketch was too predictable, and I feel like I’ve seen this whole thing (someone having a comically-oversized pimple) pulled off better somewhere else, but I’m not sure where.
STARS: **
RICK’S CAFE
it’s Casablanca in a ski lodge & Rick (EDM) controls the lift tickets
— Interesting with Eddie as a Humphrey Bogart “Casablanca”-esque character. Between the Gas Station/Elvis sketch from the last episode and now this sketch, SNL seems to be getting a lot of mileage lately out of Eddie’s knack for doing dead-on impressions of white celebrities.
— A good laugh from Tim’s initial walk-on as a guy impaled with a ski pole. He’s doing a decent Peter Lorre-esque voice too.
— Haha, the Shaft part is freakin’ hilarious.
— A good laugh from Eddie’s big sticking-out tongue.
— I like how Joe’s long listing-off of random minorities eventually led to one of the listed minorities being “Jew albinos with brunette hair”.
— Eddie to the camera: “My, this is a long sketch.”
— While Eddie wasn’t kidding about the length of the sketch, I still found it pretty enjoyable overall, and damn, what a strong performance from Eddie. Probably one of his more underrated, forgotten performances. If the writing of this sketch were up to the same level as his acting, this might’ve turned out to be a classic.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Love L.A.”
CHEAP HUNT
Mike Nelson (Jeff) keeps costs down by staying out of water
— I like the detail of Jeff having comically-big furry fake eyebrows while playing his father Lloyd.
— I’m not liking where this sketch has been going. Some of the groanworthy random gags are bringing back unwanted memories of that infamous Sunken Submarine sketch from last season’s Robert Culp episode. What is it with the Ebersol era doing bad sketches that have a nautical setting?
— Funny unscripted moment with Jeff pointing out that Tim’s tie is hanging in the bucket of water he’s holding.
— Okay, I am starting to kind of like the meta premise, but the overall sketch just isn’t coming off all that well.
STARS: **
BATTERED HUSBAND
male domestic violence victim (GAK) gets little sympathy from other men
— SNL seems to be going to the “the usually meek, soft-spoken Mary Gross playing an aggressive character” well a lot lately.
— Yeah, not too sure about this premise with everybody ridiculing Gary for being beat up by his wife.
— Strange how the two sketches that have used this same living room set tonight (this and the Pimple sketch) both deal with characters entering the house one-by-one and adding ridicule to a character in an embarrassing situation.
— WTF at the ending? Good pratfalls from Gary as usual, though.
— A really weak sketch overall.
STARS: *½
SAUNDRA’S HOUSE OF MASSAGE
(Beau) is surprised to find that masseuse Saundra (Jeff) is a man
— Heh, this is getting creepy with Jeff oiling himself up.
— Geez, the increasingly-homoerotic nature of this massage is disturbing when you remember these two guys are BROTHERS in real life.
— LOL at Beau’s sudden jumping-up reaction when Jeff’s hands “slip” down to Beau’s crotch area.
— Overall, very mixed feelings about this. I spent portions of the sketch being really creeped-out by the incestuous undertone of it, but I suppose I got enough laughs from the overall piece. I really have to wonder, though, how the Bridges brothers agreed to perform this.
STARS: ***
SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
TIK uses New York Post headlines to tell a story
Howard Hesseman [real] is disappointed by poor response to “moon Reagan”
Dr. Ruth Westheimer (MAG) takes a call from an aroused teenage admirer
JOP asks big-necked Herschel Walker (EDM) about his decision to turn pro
— Barely any audience applause for Brad during his intro. Is the audience as consistently bored with him as an anchorperson as I am?
— Tim’s Salute to Journalism commentary so far is an improvement over his disappointing last one from earlier this season. I especially liked the “They’re Free!” headline bit.
— Strong ending to Tim’s commentary, with his displaying a New York Post toilet paper roll.
— Hey, it’s last week’s host, Howard Hesseman! He must be here to do a follow-up to the “moon President Reagan’s face” mail-in contest.
— Yep, he is.
— Howard’s getting some laughs from his perverted desperation to see more mooning pictures, but the material itself isn’t all that funny. Kind of a waste of him.
— Gary’s increasingly-obscene phone call to Mary’s Dr. Ruth is very funny.
— It was unnecessary to repeat the finger-in-hole gesture bit from Mary’s last Dr. Ruth commentary. Are they going to do that gesture bit EVERY time she’s on?
— Speaking of unnecessary, Brad’s addendum to Dr. Ruth’s commentary was pointless and fell flat.
— Wow, this is one long Saturday Night News. Feels like there’s 50 guest commentaries.
— Eddie’s fake neck as Herschel Walker is a good sight gag.
— Unfortunately, the rest of the Eddie/Joe commentary didn’t go anywhere beyond the sight gag, which lost its novelty pretty fast.
— Lately, Brad seems to have made “Right on!” his new ending tagline. Yeah, not sure I can say that’s a good decision.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Real Emotional Girl”
GUY CRAZY
National Organization For Women members are “Guy Crazy” for Jeff
— A musical sketch. If you’re familiar with how I usually feel towards this type of sketch, then you’d know what my initial reaction is to having to sit through this one. (*hint: it ain’t a pleasant reaction*)
— That being said, I am kinda liking the energy here, and at least Robin is getting a rare big showcase. It’s a shame how incredibly underused that woman’s been this season.
— Jeff: “(singing) I’ll take you to the woods and play ‘house’ in your nest.” Uh, whoa…
— After the dream sequence has ended, the camera cuts back to Jeff continuing to give the speech he was giving before the dream sequence started, but he’s seen re-applying his tie. I don’t know if that’s just a delayed costume change, or if it’s an intentional meta joke.
— Overall, despite me being a little more lenient on this than I usually am towards musical sketches from this era, this still wasn’t anything special.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very “meh” episode. Absolutely no sketches stood out as particularly strong, and quite a lot of the show was forgettable. There were a few pretty good things, but not enough to make this an overall passable episode.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Howard Hesseman):
— a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Bruce Dern, a.k.a. the famous “Buckwheat gets shot” episode