Day: July 17, 2019

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Louisiana governor’s race loser David Duke (DAC) gives concession speech

— Interesting how this is starting off with a Kevin Nealon Weekend Update report.
— Kevin breaking down various voting patterns has some pretty good laughs.
— Funny little bit that Kevin does with his finger after holding it up to his “earpiece” like news anchors typically do when receiving breaking news.
— After a promising start, this cold opening has unfortunately gone downhill with the David Duke speech. There’s not many laughs in that portion of the sketch, and it’s coming off too dull.
— Melanie Hutsell makes her SNL debut (last screencap above).
— Overall, the first subpar cold opening of this season.
STARS: **

OPENING MONTAGE
— Beth Cahill and the aforementioned Melanie Hutsell have been added to the cast tonight as featured players.

That raises the already-large number of cast members this season to EIGHTEEN, officially making this the all-time largest number of people who were in the cast at the same time. Season 39 also has 18 cast members total, but they weren’t all on at the same time. Colin Jost joined right after Seth Meyers’ mid-season departure.

MONOLOGUE
film clips tell the story of host’s explosion-filled life

— A one-joke bit, but a funny one-joke bit. The stock footage explosions representing Linda’s “average American life” are entertaining, especially the clip of her high school sweetheart running while being on fire and the “Scanners” clip of a man’s head exploding.
— It’s also fun recognizing some of these stock footage explosions from other sketches. The first shot of an exploding house was used at the end of the Tom Hanks sketch where he has a habit of repeating things as a double take, and I think the exploding car footage was used in both Shannen Doherty’s wedding monologue and the end of season 20’s Sparklebrite sketch.
STARS: ***½

LEEVI’S 3 LEGGED JEANS
the latest in strange denim legwear

— I’m loving the very early 90s aesthetic to this commercial. I also like how this is utilizing the large group of newer cast members (oh, and Victoria).
— The three-legged jeans reveal is priceless, as is the various displays of people doing physical actions in the jeans.
— Very catchy jingle.
— Tim’s one-liner “It’s not any dumber than acid wash” was perfect.
STARS: *****

TOONCES, THE CAT WHO COULD DRIVE A CAR
Sarah (host) & John (Edward Furlong) Connor try to escape The Tooncinator

— I like the “Bad joke” bit shown from Terminator’s perspective.
— Surprisingly, this is the first Toonces sketch in an entire year.
— Very creative use of Toonces and a great twist with him as a Terminator-type character.
— Awkward long delay before the first cutaway to Toonces crashing his car off a cliff. This would later be fixed in reruns.
— I’m really liking how Toonces keeps forming into different versions of Terminator each time he gets destroyed.
— I got a good laugh from Phil’s Terminator saying “I’m scared!” in that Arnold accent.
STARS: ****

IT’S PAT
health club employee (host) tries to tailor a workout for androgynous Pat

 

— Good set-up to Pat’s appearance here.
— Starting with this installment, the “It’s Pat” opening title sequence and theme song would be shortened.
— Funny scene with Linda using a tool to try to pinch Pat’s body fat.
— Didn’t care for the exercise bike scene. That could have easily been removed from this sketch.
— I enjoyed Pat’s line “This place is so kinky!”
— An absolutely classic and famous part with the men and women’s locker rooms, where Pat’s decision on which locker room to go to gets interrupted by a brief special report from Weekend Update anchorman Kevin Nealon. When they return to the sketch, we find out we missed Pat’s big gender reveal.
STARS: ****

MASSIVE HEADWOUND HARRY
Massive Headwound Harry’s (DAC) scalp gore ruins (host)’s cocktail party

— Oh, as if this episode weren’t already strong enough, now here comes one of my favorite sketches of all time.
— Third sketch in a row tonight starring a character with their own opening title sequence.
— A freakin’ priceless and outrageous visual of Dana casually entering the party with that gruesome huge head wound.
— I loved Farley’s reaction to the head wound, screaming “OH MY GOD!” while spitting out his food.
— Hilarious part with Dana unknowingly rubbing his head wound all over the bowl full of shrimp, sending a disgusted Phil running towards the bathroom while trying to hold in his vomit.
— There’s the legendary moment that puts this sketch over the top, where a dog begins licking Dana’s wound and then pulls at the wound with his teeth, nearly yanking off Dana’s wig in the process. After an uproarious response from the audience, Dana memorably says “He probably smells my dog!”
— Here’s something I never understood: what’s with the huge red stain on Siobhan’s shirt before she makes her exit (last screencap above)? It’s never explained. Did she or one of the other performers accidentally spill punch on her shirt off-camera while reacting to the dog incident? I recall one SNL fan having a theory that a portion of this sketch was removed from reruns in which Dana’s head wound comes into contact with Siobhan’s shirt, leaving blood stains on it. However, I’m watching the live version of this episode, and that never happened.
— Very funny ending regarding Dana putting on Kevin’s hat.
— And thus ends an all-time SNL masterpiece.
— They made the right decision to never turn this into a recurring sketch. Though I swear I remember reading a false claim at one time, back in my early SNL fandom days, that SNL supposedly did end up doing a follow-up to this sketch a season or two later, only with DAVID SPADE(!) in the Massive Headwound Harry role (because Dana Carvey was no longer in the cast by that point).
STARS: *****

DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the sky as a metaphor for a salmon

BACKSTAGE
Zoraida bothers host by confusing her past roles with real life

— This character officially becomes recurring.
— I’m getting some laughs from Zoraida comparing the beast from the “Beauty and the Beast” TV series to her boyfriend Enrique.
— The quality of this has fallen off a bit after the first minute.
— Yeah, I can tell it won’t be too long until I officially get sick of seeing these sketches.
— We get the very first utterance of Zoraida’s “What makes you think I won’t cut you?” soon-to-be catchphrase, but it was drowned out by the sketch-ending audience applause here.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Can’t Let Go”

WEEKEND UPDATE
Larry Roman (DAC) jokes about Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” video

— Fun segment with Kevin providing a “Louisiana Sports Update” for racist David Duke supporters.
— An amusing “metamorphosis” sequence, showing a montage of Michael Jackson’s physical changes over the years, ending with a future picture of him having a missing face.
— Interesting use of Larry Roman, an obscure recurring character of Dana’s.
— Loved Larry Roman’s description of the controversial ending of the “Black or White” music video, where Michael Jackson smashes a car and, as Roman says it, “proceeds to masturbate”.
— I like Dana’s ad-lib “I never know which ones you’re gonna go for!” when a joke of his gets a bigger reaction than he expected.
— Starting with the last episode’s Update, Kevin seems to have finally developed a niche. His Updates lately have had a nice consistent flow.
STARS: ***½

TOUGH GIRLS
(VIJ), (SIF), (BEC), (ELC), (JUS) challenge “buff” host to barroom brawls

— Surprisingly, this is the only appearance Mike makes in this entire episode, and it’s just a thankless small straight role.
— I’m really liking seeing Victoria playing this type of hard-ass, aggressive character. Very rare for her to be cast in a role like this. She’s giving a very good performance.
— Only one episode in, and Melanie Hutsell is ALREADY showing unfortunate signs of overacting tendencies.
— Good use of Beth Cahill in her very first SNL appearance.
— I like the increasing number of appearances from old-timey tough women challenging Linda to a fight.
— Ellen: “This Hamilton bitch is mine!”
— Weak ending.
STARS: ***

THE CHRIS FARLEY SHOW
CHF amateurishly interviews Martin Scorsese [real]

— This great sketch officially becomes recurring.
— Random Martin Scorsese cameo.
— Even though I know what’s coming, the set-up to Farley’s first “You remembeeerrrrr when…” in this installment is already making me laugh right before he’s even said it.
— Great part with Farley making Scorsese re-enact DeNiro’s famous “You talkin’ to me?” scene. I also love Farley excitedly mouthing things to the camera during that.
— A good laugh from how the caller (Melanie Hutsell) is doing Farley’s shtick.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “If It’s Over”

BABY TALK
at a restaurant, baby talk of (DAC) & (host) makes (JUS) & (PHH) uneasy

 

— Some good laughs from Dana and Linda’s exaggerated baby-ish, lovey-dovey treatment of each other.
— I liked Phil’s blunt “No we shouldn’t” response when Julia tells him maybe they should go to the same relationship seminar Dana and Linda went to.
— For once this season, David Spade has actually been in quite a lot of sketches tonight, though his roles have just been the usual forgettable bit parts that he’s usually stuck in this season. Just to show you how bad his airtime has been lately, this is only the sixth episode of this season and he’s already spent THREE episodes not being in any sketches at all (Jeff Daniels, Kirstie Alley, and Kiefer Sutherland). He’s also only had about three speaking roles all season so far, and only one of those speaking roles was noteworthy (his Matthew Broderick impression in the Christian Slater episode). This is Luke Null/Dean Edwards/John Milhiser levels of underusage.
— Another funny exchange between Phil and Julia, with a confused Phil explaining “We’re having the same thing!” when Julia tries to romantically offer him a bite of her meal just like Dana and Linda have been doing with each other.
— Dana’s increasingly baby-ish speaking and actions (e.g. “Baby want sauce”) are funny.
— Very amusing visual of Linda sincerely apologizing for her and Dana’s actions while still casually having her finger in Dana’s mouth.
STARS: ***½

HIDDEN CAMERA COMMERCIALS
(TOS) interviews angry victim of hidden camera ad (CHF)

 

— For some reason, I like the odd name of Tom Schiller’s character, Knorben Knussen.
— I love the sudden dark turn with Farley’s great slowburn after hearing his coffee has been switched.
— So many laughs from the insane, chaotic turn with Farley going completely berserk over such a minor thing, and doing things like throwing pies at customers and smashing everything in sight. He is killing me in this, and this is a perfect use of his knack for yelling, long before it became a tired weekly crutch.
— Great ending with a bruised and bandaged Farley explaining in a satellite interview that he’s “Aaaaannnnngrryyy…”
STARS: *****

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, and also a very memorable one that I’ve always felt is a good microcosm of this season as a whole. You have well-remembered installments of recurring sketches like Pat, Toonces, and The Chris Farley Show, you have beloved one-off pieces like 3 Legged Jeans and Massive Headwound Harry, and you finish the show with a great Schiller’s Reel that features one of Chris Farley’s greatest performances.
— Aside from the mixed Jeff Daniels episode, this season has been on an absolute roll so far. This is one of the hottest starts that I’ve witnessed a season have during this SNL project of mine so far.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kiefer Sutherland)
a very slight step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
An 11-year-old Macaulay Culkin