Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Five Easy Pieces ’89- Jack Nicholson (PHH) collects his Batman royalties
— Phil-as-Nicholson’s ridiculous, complicated requests of how he would like his payment split are really funny.
— Loved Nicholson’s sarcastic “I want you to hold [the money] between your knees” remark to Nora.
— Excellent sequence with Nicholson suddenly tearing the desk apart to bits in such a short amount of time.
— The live version I’m currently watching of this episode has a different take of Phil saying “Live from New York…” than the rerun version does. The reruns must use the dress rehearsal version of Phil’s LFNY, but I’m not sure why, as the rest of the cold opening appears to be the same in both live and rerun.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
host plays guitar & sings thesaurus-inspired “Pretty Lady”
— Loved his way of mispronouncing thesaurus as “THESS-er-iss”.
— Hilarious how the lyrics to his Pretty Lady song are just using a long string of synonyms for “pretty” that don’t fit the song’s style.
— Very interesting how after this monologue ended, the camera follows Woody as he leaves the home base stage and walks right over into the next sketch. I love that, and wish SNL did that more often.
STARS: ***½
WHO’S DUMBER?
VIJ & host compete to be stupidest person in America
— Interesting change of pace with a gameshow host being played by Jon instead of Phil or Kevin.
— Great concept and a good way to poke fun at Victoria and Woody’s onscreen personas.
— Very funny reveal that the questions are ones that Victoria and Woody picked out themselves three months ago.
— Hilarious how Woody wins one round for being dumb enough to whisper the answer to Victoria while being mic’ed.
— Love Victoria’s very delayed answer to the question of which celebrity Woody is related to: Woody Allen.
STARS: ****
PUMPING UP WITH HANS & FRANZ
Roseanne Barr (VIJ) undergoes liposuction
— They’ve been doing creative things with the last few Hans & Franz sketches, and now we get yet another one with this liposuction premise.
— A surprisingly big night for Victoria so far, now getting to showcase her great Roseanne impression in a Hans & Franz sketch.
— In the shot right now, I noticed that on the left end of the screen, you can unintentionally see the long hair of someone standing next to the camera. (third screencap above)
— Funny visual of the “flab receptacle” jar slowly being filled during the liposuction process.
— An epic and hilarious disgusting sequence with the jar overflowing, causing Hans and Franz to slip all over the place.
STARS: ****
ATTITUDES
maker of food miniatures Paul Tinso (host) displays his work
— Hmm, they updated the opening credits sequence.
— Amusing visual of Woody’s tiny clay food figures.
— I liked Woody’s line about how making tiny clay rice is almost not worth it.
— Good part with Woody eagerly writing down Jan and Nora’s clay food ideas as if they were suggestions for him.
— As usual, this overall sketch provided some good laughs from so many mundane details.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Dirty Old Town”
WEEKEND UPDATE
footage of Lech Walesa being a little too affectionate with a blonde
Connie Chung (Leo Yoshimura) says her show won’t do any more re-creations
— I love Dennis’ “Gobble, gobble, gobble” runner throughout this Update (especially him going “Gamble, gamble, gamble” when a Pete Rose picture shows up, and going “Gullible, gullible, gullible” when a Dan Quayle picture shows up).
— A great brief bit with Akira Yoshimura as a comically-unconvincing Connie Chung announcing that her show wont have any more news recreations.
— Nice ending bit regarding German high schoolers having written “Live from Berlin, it’s Saturday Night” on the Berlin Wall.
— No desk pieces in tonight’s overall Update?
STARS: ***½
COWBOY SONG
(host) & fellow lonesome cowboys (PHH) & (DAC) sing about range life
— The debut of what will be an occasional recurring sketch the next few seasons.
— The song has a nice, charming melody.
— A good laugh from Woody’s “See a whore” lyric.
— Kinda surprised by how short this sketch ended up being.
STARS: ***
THE HERO
WWII soldier (host) receives bad news about his body from doctor (KEN)
— I liked Kevin’s line about how an arm is just for clapping, when he’s going on about how important the leg is.
— Hilarious gradual reveal that everything below Woody’s head is missing, as well as the back of his head, meaning he’s just a face.
— This sketch is perfect for Kevin’s usual delivery. I wonder if he wrote this one himself.
— Funny rundown on the current state of Woody’s fellow solders.
— Strong ending with another soldier having been reduced to just a leg.
STARS: ****
THANKSGIVING GOOD, FIRE BAD
Frankenstein doesn’t want to kill the turkey
— Hmm, I have no memory of this sketch from my past viewings of this episode.
— An okay sequence with Dr. Frankenstein bringing the dead turkey back to life.
— This overall sketch seemed to be trying to be more charming than funny. Despite the nice charm, I still couldn’t help but find myself a little bored at times. Not one of my favorite sketches featuring this trio of characters.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Loco De Amor”
SPROCKETS
dark East German filmmaker (host) has rapidly Westernized
— I like the look of Woody’s character in the interview clip they showed of him.
— The utterly bizarre film clip was quite a laugh.
— Dieter, in a deadpan manner: “You have disturbed me almost to the point of insanity. (*very brief pause*) There. I am insane now.”
— Something about this overall Sprockets installment felt a little empty, like some things were missing. The lack of audience laughter may have contributed to that empty feel, as much as I usually try not to have my opinion of a sketch be swayed by audience reactions (or lack thereof). These early Sprockets sketches so far have surprisingly been kinda hit-and-miss. I wonder when this recurring sketch starts to officially take off, because I’m a fan of its later installments.
— The next time Woody hosts SNL in season 17, they would also do a Sprockets sketch (a much better one, in my opinion), though Woody plays a completely different character than the one he played here.
STARS: **½
THANKSGIVING GREETINGS
Tonto, Tarzan, Frankenstein say what they’re thankful for
— We just saw a musical holiday piece with these characters two episodes ago. Plus, we’re obviously going to see another one a mere three episodes from now (with that being the Christmas episode and all) and I know for a fact we see yet another one three episodes after that (Quincy Jones episode). I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining, though, because I always like these pieces.
— At least we get a promising change of pace with each character saying what they’re thankful for.
— This overall piece ended up being fine, though I didn’t like it quite as much as the earlier musical holiday pieces with these characters.
STARS: ***½
GETTING ACQUAINTED
adult education students make dumb assumptions about each other
— Some good laughs from Woody and Kevin’s friendly characters making idiotic incorrect assumptions of each other based on what they’re wearing or doing.
— Victoria’s big night continues with yet another appearance from her, which makes me realize how surprisingly very little we’ve seen of Jan and Nora in this episode. It’s like the tables have turned tonight with Jan and Nora taking a backseat to Victoria being the most prominent female.
— I liked the ending “Are you a shepherd?” question to Phil’s wool sweater-wearing teacher.
— Overall, a simple premise that was executed well.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not quite as strong as most of this season has been so far, but still a pretty good episode. Though some of the recurring sketches had fairly disappointing outings, this episode still had enough stand-out solid sketches, particularly in the first half.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Chris Evert)
a mild step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
John Goodman makes his hosting debut