Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) doesn’t gloat; host worries about reaction to sex tape
— Hilarious pronunciation from Dana’s Bush of “Not gonna gloat” as “Nah gah glah”.
— Some very funny lines from Bush as usual.
— Interesting deviation from the usual Bush cold opening format by cutting to Rob Lowe backstage.
— Everybody trying to convince Rob that nobody cares anymore about the sex tape scandal is pretty funny. A good way for SNL to address the elephant in the room, and a nice set-up for what’s to come in the monologue.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
host gets cool response from audience still upset about sex tape
— For some reason, G.E. Smith is noticeably wearing a headset tonight (screencap below), which he usually doesn’t.
— I love how after the theme music ends, there’s absolute silence in the studio and we see an unhappy, non-applauding audience.
— Some good laughs from the one unseen audience member constantly yelling “I have a daughter!”
— Good ending with crowd-pleaser Jon Lovitz taking over Rob’s duties for the remainder of the monologue.
— Kinda disappointed this monologue ended so early. I wanted them to take this into further places.
STARS: ***½
IRISH DRINKING SONGS
album features lots of inebriation & vomiting
— Ah, the sketch that features Conan O’Brien’s most prominent on-camera role during his tenure as an SNL writer.
— All of the drunk Irish songs being advertised are priceless, with my favorites so far being “The Incoherent Song” and “The Drinking/Fighting Song”.
— Not sure what Mike said at the very end regarding a compact disc, as his line was mixed very poorly among the background singing (at least in the live version I’m reviewing of this episode).
STARS: ****½
CHURCH CHAT
Church Lady stays off tape topic, paddles host
— Oddly, this is the second episode in a row with a Church Chat sketch.
— I liked Church Lady’s little line, referring to her upcoming guest Rob Lowe as “a hair in my Cream of Wheat”.
— Love Church Lady’s sarcasm over how much of a stretch it is for Rob to play a villain in a movie.
— Absolutely hilarious part with Church Lady using initials for terms that she agreed not to use during the interview (“Tingly Naughty Parts”, “Bulbous Buttocks”, etc.)
— Love the turn with Rob willingly receiving a prearranged spanking from Church Lady with a wooden paddle.
— Haha, Rob saying “Thank you, Church Lady, may I have another?!?” after every strike he receives with the paddle, and Church Lady screaming into Rob’s butt “Get out of his buttocks, Satan!!” This is all absolutely CLASSIC.
STARS: *****
GOVERNOR WADE HAMMOND
Texas governor Mark White (PHH) stresses death penalty in re-election bid
— Funny reveal that Phil’s governor character is cruelly sitting on the coffins of men he’s executed.
— Phil is great in this, especially his joking behavior towards asking questions to the dead bodies in the coffins.
STARS: ***½
SPROCKETS: DIETER’S DANCE PARTY
trendsetter (host) unveils Trout Dance
German teens learn how to “mach das pimplen kaput” with Clearasil
— Love this deviation from the normal Sprockets format.
— The German music video showing a beating human heart is humorously disturbing, as is one of the accompanying lyrics: “(sung in a deadpan manner) That’s not a nun’s laugh; that’s a whore’s laugh.”
— Dana’s dancing is cracking me up.
— Love Victoria’s insanely tall hair.
— One song title Dieter mentions is “Mummy’s With the Angels” by Simon. Ah, an early reference to a certain bathtub-dwelling child character of Mike’s that will make its debut next season.
— The mid-sketch commercial for a German version of Clearasil is very funny.
— Great sequence with Rob’s bizarre dance interspersed with footage of a fish flopping around in water.
— Ha, a mention of the famous Lambada dance (a.k.a. “The forbidden dance”) that was very popular at the time. Wonder if this is the only time SNL ever referenced it.
STARS: ****
HARBAUGH
Mark White’s opponent (JOL) promises to make capital punishment painful
— Some really good laughs from Jon’s gruesome delight in detailing the painful suffering he wants criminals to experience.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “White City”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Energizer Bunny & Energizer Annoying Man interrupt newscast
AWB talks about Lithuanian independence & other Eastern Bloc troubles
— Great opening line from Dennis: “You know, I love The Pogues, but I’ve always been a sucker for lyrics”, as a dig at the unintelligible singing we had just heard from the The Pogues’ lead singer minutes ago. I remember hearing somewhere that the lead singer was supposedly drunk in this episode (after all, it IS St. Patrick’s Day and The Pogues ARE Irish).
— What the hell at the sudden smoke rising from off-camera when Dennis is in the middle of a joke? (second screencap above)
— Oh, so THAT’S where the smoke came from. Hilarious bit with the Energizer Bunny unintentionally walking its way into a smoky bin of sulfuric acid, much to the delight of the audience.
— Much like Church Lady, Annoying Man appears for the second episode in a row tonight.
— An overall short and sweet appearance from Annoying Man.
— Wow, where has A. Whitney Brown been lately? This is surprisingly the first time we’ve seen an Update commentary from him since way back in October. He usually appears much more frequently than that.
— A. Whitney, on the poor current state of the communist world: “All they need is crack and they’d be as bad off as the Bronx.”
— Another reference to The Lambada.
— An overall pretty hit-and-miss Update from Dennis tonight. After being consistently strong in his first four-and-a-half years at the Update desk, Dennis’ Updates have been slightly unstable and shaky lately, I’m noticing. It only gets worse in the second half of next season, where he practically sleepwalks through his Updates.
— I remember in Comedy Central’s old 60-minute version of this episode, they actually inserted a commercial break into the middle of this Update. The only other time I remember Comedy Central doing that to a Weekend Update is in the Kyle MacLachlan season premiere from the following season.
STARS: ***
THE ARSENIO BECKMAN SHOW
interaction with audience dominates
— Right off the bat, I’m absolutely LOVING this Arsenio Hall take-off.
— Great detail of Rob having long fingers.
— The frequent cutaways to the hooting-and-hollering studio audience is another aspect of this that’s a hilarious and dead-on parody of the real Arsenio’s show.
— Rob’s performance here is freakin’ priceless, especially the part with him curling into an odd posture on the chair (third-to-last screencap above).
— Haha, as if this couldn’t get any funnier, now the audience is throwing around dummies.
STARS: *****
MACE
pretty boy (host) agrees to be personal trainer for cellmate Mace
— The first in a long time we’ve seen Phil’s Mace character and his catchphrase “I”m a bad, bad mutha!”
— Haha, yet ANOTHER Lambada reference. I guess this is what I get for wondering if the Sprockets sketch earlier tonight featured SNL’s only-ever Lambada mention.
— Most of this sketch has been just average. I think I prefer Mace when he’s fighting with Kevin Nealon.
— The ending was funny with Rob messing with Mace’s head by flirting with him.
STARS: ***
RANDY X FOR GOVERNOR
executioner (DAC) says experience makes him the best gubernatorial choice
— Funny follow-up to the earlier vote ads, with the executioner asking viewers to eliminate the middleman by voting for the guy who actually pulls the electric chair lever.
STARS: ***½
HELMET HEAD
Helmet Head (host) lives his life with unremovable wartime equipment
— Funny opening theme song.
— There’s the Jack Handey trademark of fake sponsors. I particularly like the one for the world’s cheapest caviar (“Damn, that’s cheap!”).
— Rob’s sudden angry “soapy water” rant was great.
— Jon’s insane “helmet-ectomy” procedure is very funny.
— This sketch is featuring the type of silly Jack Handey humor I always love.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Body”
ALEXANDER’S FUR WORLD
fur merchant (JOL) says animals that became pelts are better off dead
— Due to some network glitches during the preceding commercial break in the copy I’m reviewing of this episode, this sketch was abruptly joined mid-progress as Jon Lovitz began talking about “retarded beavers”. Not sure how much of the sketch I missed.
— Tons of airtime for Jon tonight.
— I’m liking Jon’s snooty voice in this.
— An overall okay commercial from what little I saw of it.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
host shoves CHC off stage
— Haha, what the hell? Chevy??? What’s he randomly doing there in the background (first screencap above)?
— And now Rob Lowe brings Chevy to the front of the stage and joking yells “Somebody get this guy outta here!” before playfully shoving him off the stage.
— Why was Chevy randomly dressed in a tuxedo? Was he still in his formal attire from SNL’s 15th Anniversary Special from months earlier?
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty strong episode, and yet another episode from this season where I liked everything in it. Rob Lowe did a great job, was a good sport, and the Arsenio Beckman sketch in particular solidified him as a reliable semi-recurring SNL host. I’m looking forward to reviewing his subsequent hosting stints.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Fred Savage)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Debra Winger
Stars of “The Grinder” hosting back-to-back
G.E. usually wore the headset when Leon Pendarvis was out for the show and he was subbing as conductor.
Thanks for the info, CR86.
G.E. was acting as conductor that night in the absence of Leon Pendarvis, explaining the headset. Occasionally Pen would have a night off here and there, leaving Cheryl Hardwick to cover all the keyboard parts herself including the closing theme piano solo. They didn’t always have keyboard fill ins but two I remember from this era were Rusty Cloud and Bob Christianson.
I recently watched this and while I have never been much of a fan of his I was impressed at just how hard Rob Lowe worked through the episode – he had several big solo showcases (which is somewhat rare for this era) and more than delivered in terms of performance. This period is a bit uneven for the show and at times hard to watch, with Nora being phased out and a general in flux feeling, but he definitely helped (other than his big sketches I think the only part that really registered with me was Phil’s section of the execution runner – he’s just fantastic). He talks here about the major role he tended to take when he hosted, about Phil, and also about a cut sketch he had with Will Ferrell later on (based on the description it sounds like the type of stuff Will was doing around season 26).
Rob’s had a up and down career–I wish he would have stuck more to silly comedy, as almost all of his appearances in this vein have been amusing to me. I also think he was a very reliable SNL host who didn’t come off as too “cute” (like Timberlake). I wouldn’t mind seeing him host again–he’s starring in some Fox show, right?
White City
— Huge that SNL was able to book these guys for St. Patty’s Day. Few acts suit the holiday better.
— Quite the beard that Shane McGowan is rocking here
— The audio mix is well balanced considering the large number of instruments that are contending with each other. I can hear them all clearly though. Great job by the sound guys.
— Rather short song, but sweet. Shane’s vocals are as gritty as they always should be.
STARS: ****
Body of an American
— Beautiful intro
— Nice tempo increase midway through the first verse, deftly handled.
— Yeah! Great crescendo as the song moves forward, and the energy and intensity is now off the charts.
— Shane is again delivering a stout vocal performance, which is exactly what you’d want from him.
— This song is making me long for a nice cold glass of Guinness to chug.
— Whoa, what a cool outro they’ve got going on here. Love the double drumming with a continuous roll.
— Instrumentation is top notch as usual with the Pogues.
— Extended length of this number makes up for the brevity of the first song.
STARS: ****1/2
This episode is special to me because I was in the audience as a teen. After waiting all night on the floor of 30 Rock (as was the procedure back in the day), my family were rewarded with tickets. Got to meet Dana Carvey and Mike Myers afterwards. Pretty damned cool.
On his podcast, Rob buried the Pogues as the musical guest for this show. Said he wanted a cooler or more well known/regarded group or something like that
Mike said in the Irish Drinking Songs sketch something to the tune of: “oh, you’ll be wanting the compact disc; ye can’t fall down and break it!” which is a bit confusing as a CD is more breakable than a cassette tape is.
Brings back great memories. Thanks for sharing.
I had been an intern at SNL in ’89, and they would throw me some “extra” work, for which I took part in this episode: “Arsenio Beckman” (I was one of the audience members tasked with throwing a “floppy dummy”, and also “Irish Drinking Songs”, (I’m a redhead, but was not on camera).
The Pogues were fantastic, but Shane was markedly more sloshed during the live airing, rather than the rehearsal, where his performance was less seemingly drunken. I recall being in my “Arsenio Beckman” audience seat for this, as it was set stage right (in front of where the guest bands perform).
Was the Arsenio Beckman sketch pre-taped or did they shoot that live?
Live. The A.B. intro. was pretaped.
On Fly On The Wall, they mentioned Arsenio Beckman was Smigel’s.
I remember hearing that Rob Lowe came in with the idea, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Smigel was the one who wrote it with/for him. Smigel was a prolific contributor.
True, it may have been St Patty’s Day, but Shane Macgowan only ever drank before performances on days ending in Y.
R.I.P. Shane MacGowan.
Indeed. RIP.
Boy, was he sloshed on stage at that show. 🙂
Conan on his latest podcast with Wiig as guest revealed he wrote the “Mace in Prison” sketch. Apparently it bombed in dress.
I like they addressed the Rob Lowe issue head on. Get it out in the open and deal with it so you can remove the tension and prevent anyone from claiming you tried hiding or ignoring it.
Mike says “Only one thing wrong with a compact disc, you can’t fall down and break it”. Which makes no sense but the character is drunk, so it works.
A Whitney Brown is not funny. Stop putting him on screen. Helmet Head was a terrible premise, so obviously the jokes would not be funny. But overall the episode was good. Arsenio was great. Glad they actually let Rob Lowe do something good. Its also fun when they let the audience get in on the sketch.
So, frequently SNL alumni would stop in and watch the show, often from the seats. Chevy being on stage in a tuxedo is unusual, but not out of character for him. Maybe he just stopped in and someone thought it would be amusing to put the guy on camera?