Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Jerry Brown (DAC), Paul Tsongas (ALF), Bill Clinton (PHH) court Trekkies
— Very funny and dead-on Jerry Brown impression from Dana, especially all of his endless ranting.
— When Dana’s Jerry Brown displays his 800 number, does anyone know what the “not flaky” bit is a reference to? I never understood that part of this sketch.
— Even though I have no familiarity with what Paul Tsongas sounds like, I’m finding Al Franken’s Tsongas voice to be an absolute riot. The occasional cough he does is very funny too.
— Funny bit with Mike as a Trekkie speaking in the exact same voice as Tsongas.
— A significant moment right now, as we get the debut of a Bill Clinton impression on SNL. Phil Hartman gets the honors here.
— Phil’s spot-on Clinton voice is immediately getting big laughs from the audience.
— The whole Clinton portion of this sketch is great, especially him destroying the podium in a tantrum at the end.
— According to GettyImages, Rob Schneider was cut from this sketch as a Trekkie standing next to Phil’s Clinton (pic here).
STARS: ****½
MONOLOGUE
musical, car chase, monster movie clips from host’s movie The Babe
— I like how John’s frequent hosting has gotten to the point where he opens tonight’s monologue by saying a lighthearted “It’s great to be hosting blah blah blah!”
— A laugh from him referring to his movie King Ralph as a “fat little turd”.
— The clip of John as Babe Ruth doing a cheesy upbeat “I’m the Babe” musical number is cracking me up.
— The other fake movie clips with John’s Babe Ruth, one involving a car chase and another with him as Godzilla, are decent, though nothing particularly great to me.
— Good callback to the beginning of this monologue, with John ending this by saying “Stick around, cause blah blah blah!”
STARS: ***
UNFORGIVABLE
album of Natalie Cole (ELC) “duets” with deceased singers
— I really like the idea of this parody of Natalie Cole’s “Unforgettable” album, by having her singing with her father’s dead friends and titling the album “Unforgivable”.
— This is getting increasingly fun with the more and more outlandish celebrity choices they’re throwing in, such as Mama Cass, a not-dead-yet Tammy Wynette, and John as old fat Elvis (after Rob played young thin Elvis earlier in the sketch).
STARS: ****½
MY 75 KIDS
sperm doctor Cecil Jacobson (host) deals with his offspring
— An inspired and funny idea for a parody of an infamous then-topical story.
— The opening credits to this sitcom has lots of hilarious images, especially the kid-filled bus called the “Spermmobile”.
— Great visual of a living room full of chubby little John Goodman lookalikes.
— I love John reminiscing which Sports Illustrated swimsuit magazine he looked at when “conceiving” each child, and him telling one kid “You were an accident; I was reading Newsweek.”
— Dana’s Uncle Charlie is always hilarious (even if I have no familiarity with My Three Sons), and he had a lot of great lines at the end of this.
STARS: ****
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on feeding drumsticks to the dolphins
UNFROZEN CAVE MAN LAWYER
Cirroc feigns naivete in front of City Council
— Second sketch in a row tonight to open with a screen crawl explaining somebody’s backstory. Both screen crawls even use the same font.
— This wonderful sketch officially becomes recurring.
— As usual, top-notch fake sponsors from Jack Handey, with my favorite tonight being Dog Assassin.
— Victoria makes what turns out to be her only appearance all night, and it’s just a very minor role with no lines. More and more as this season goes on, it truly feels like her presence on the show is disappearing right before my eyes. As I said in my last episode review, it’s gotten to the point where I kinda forget she’s even still in the cast.
— Phil-as-Cirroc’s lines in this installment are even funnier than his lines in the first installment from earlier this season.
— Very funny “next week’s episode” preview at the end, with a drunk Cirroc on a plane.
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Rodeo”
WEEKEND UPDATE
CHF objects to St. Patrick’s Day parade gays, points out audience Irish
KEN asks Cajunman about his spring break trip to Daytona Beach
footage shows Ed McMahon (PHH) getting married to third wife Pamela (BEC)
— Kevin’s usual dark suit has been replaced tonight with a much lighter-colored one.
— Not sure what exactly the point is of Farley ranting against gays in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, but I’m enjoying the random brief interludes with him calling out Irish-named friends in the audience.
— Cajunman officially becomes recurring, giving Adam what I believe is his very first major recurring character.
— Unlike his first appearance, Adam’s Cajunman delivery tonight sounds more like how it’s remembered today.
— The usual good laughs from Cajunman’s shtick, especially him detailing the “hallucina-shown” he experienced when drunk.
— Interesting bit with footage of Phil’s Ed McMahon getting married. Though it’s a thin premise, there’s still pretty good laughs from the use of Phil’s typical McMahon-isms as answers to questions the priest asks him.
— Not sure we needed Kevin’s “When asked if he was nervous, Ed said ‘Yes!’” addendum after the Ed McMahon segment ended.
STARS: ***
THEATRE STORIES
Katharine Hepburn (SIF) & others recall performances
— This sketch officially becomes recurring. Mike’s character looks a bit different tonight compared to the first installment and all subsequent installments.
— We get the birth of a running gag in these sketches, with Mike’s character referring to himself by the nickname Cucumber Jones.
— Dana’s Mickey Rooney has interesting new additions of tiny legs and old man make-up (the latter of which is actually the same old man makeup Dana wore earlier tonight in the My 75 Kids sketch).
— This would turn out to be the only Theatre Stories sketch they would ever do without Julia’s Dame Sarah Kensington character.
— Hate to say it, but after two installments of this sketch, I’ve gotten tired of Dana-as-Mickey-Rooney’s endless repetitions of “I was the number one staaaaarrr….. in the wooooorrrrld…..” I used to love Dana’s Rooney impression, but I didn’t realize until now how overly reliant on the same catchphrase it is. Dana does have a tendency sometimes to go a little overboard with the catchphrases of some of his characters and impressions, though most of that doesn’t bother me. I recall an online SNL fan once referring to Dana, Jon Lovitz, and Mike Myers as the “Catchphrase Bullies” of the late 80s.
— I’m enjoying Siobhan’s Katharine Hepuburn impression.
— Funny random bit with Mike telling us how he “often says things twice, only the second time much slower”, which he proceeds to prove by repeating that exact same statement… only much slower.
STARS: ***½
ANTON MESROBIAN, TEEN DERMATOLOGIST
teen dermatologist Anton Mesrobian (host) divines true causes of acne
— Some laughs from John being able to tell so many details of what secret is causing the blackheads on Julia’s nose.
— John’s dangerous, ill-fated advice to his patients is pretty funny, especially him advising Rock to join a gang.
— Overall, John played his role very well and there were some laughs, but I felt the material was fairly dull in some spots.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The River”
COUNTRY SINGER NAMES
country singer (host) seeks catchier name from agent Schlomo Fuchs (PHH)
— Phil has some funny reveals of famous country singers’ real names, such as Eddie Rabbit really being named Eli Rabinowitz.
— The ending reveal of Phil’s name being Schlomo Fuchs was merely okay; I don’t feel that punchline landed quite as well as it should’ve.
— The overall sketch had some charm and chuckles throughout, but something about the sketch felt a little empty.
— This sketch kinda felt like it was setting up an appearance from tonight’s musical guest Garth Brooks, but he was nowhere to be seen here. In retrospect, knowing what a surprisingly strong two-time host he would turn out to be later in this decade, I wish they did give him a role here or in any other sketch tonight.
STARS: **½
SIDE NOTE: A strange gaffe just now. Right after the preceding sketch ended, the camera shows the SNL Band about to play the show to commercial, but G.E. Smith immediately raises his hand in the air to signal the rest of the band not to play yet (screencap below). Then a Deep Thoughts segment awkwardly begins playing (with some audio glitches at first). I wonder what went wrong.
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on running like an angry rabbit
THE IDES OF MARCH
sauna-goer (host) interrupts a meeting about the assassination of Caesar
— Pretty weak sketch so far, with a dull main joke consisting of John repeatedly interrupting the guys’ secret plan to assassinate Caesar.
— I am getting some good laughs from how Farley’s solution to every problem is to stab it.
— Weak ending.
STARS: **
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on being sprayed by a golden skunk
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An episode with a very strong first half, a pretty good middle, but an unremarkable ending with the final three ho-hum sketches. Overall, though, the highlights in the first half were strong enough to make this episode worth watching. John Goodman, by this point, has become official as a sure-fire solid and fun host who can handle anything he’s given with total ease.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Roseanne and Tom Arnold)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Mary Stuart Masterson
The Babe would go on to be one of the various flops of Goodman’s film career, if memory serves.
I don’t remember a fair amount of this episode, but I certainly remember the cold open. You could tell that the writers were chomping at the bit for some fresh political material (unlike more recent years where it’s clearly a chore). Hartman’s Clinton is simply masterful – to me no one else has ever compared in that role.
The other thing that gets me with this open is how they went right ahead and did the same “Trekkies are nerds” routine they’d done about 4 years earlier. I guess it was likely Shatner, not SNL, who got the backlash for the previous sketch. This one doesn’t focus on berating them of course. It just makes me laugh because last season SNL had a sketch that some took as a deep insult to D&D players, or Larpers, or what have you, and amidst all the usual clickbait fury and “this show has sucked since ____” macros, some people claimed to be longtime fans and seemed shocked at such imagery, that the show would make fun this way, they never would have before, said they were never going to watch again, and so on. All I kept thinking was – what show were you ever even watching back then? In years past, as shown here, SNL would have been merciless with mockery. That’s just how the cultural view of fans was – and in many cases still is.
Anyway…I love the Natalie Cole sketch in this episode. Ellen Cleghorne is wonderful. Also one of Hutsell’s best roles. That snarling, “I’m not dead yet!” and “Cut it out, you bitch!” Cleghorne trilling, “Cut it out…you biiiitch,” makes it all the funnier.
Was this Rob’s first appearance as Elvis? (I probably missed one) One of my favorite memories of this time period was when he sang a bit of an Elvis song with the band. Speaking of the band, something about that shot of GE Smith stopping them in their tracks feels oddly epic. While I know some critics at the time like EW felt that GE got way too much focus, I thought he added a real style and showmanship for those years. Those were “my” SNL years so I always associate the show with him, even though I know they had to eventually move on. I just wish the band got more focus and respect these days.
The band were not supossed to play yet, I think there was a misunderstanding there. Any way, I don’t think that GE “mugged” for the camera. they did actually “show” the band a lot more back then.
There is a Hobson’s choice regarding Dana’s Mickey Rooney impression. His impression is very one-note and reliant on the catchphrase. But to this day, I remember “I was the number one child staaaarrrr in the worrrlldd” and I remember nothing else about these sketches. So…
You forgot a BIG piece of Trivia on “My 75 Kids”; the fact that a very young Billy Eichner was one of them.
https://twitter.com/billyeichner/status/567075563350016000?lang=en
Who are those other guys performing with Garth in his second number?
This may be well-known already, but Dana worked with Mickey Rooney on the short-lived sitcom One of the Boys before he was on SNL, and he’s said in interviews that the “number one star in the world” phrase was something Rooney actually did go around repeatedly saying. The “I’m just glad I like women” line and the frequent mentions of Judy Garland were other things Dana says Rooney used to do as well.
While he does kind of ram the catchphrase down your throat, it apparently has some basis in reality, and since the other characters in the sketch acknowledge how annoying and repetitive it is, I suspect Dana may have been venting about his experience working with Mickey Rooney to some extent, as I get the impression he didn’t enjoy it all that much.
100% agree on Dana’s repetitive Mickey Rooney catchphrase…in this case, it works. Normally I hate cases where catchphrases are beaten to death, but this one is ALWAYS funny because it’s true and accurate. Several sources have reported that Mickey Rooney wouldn’t shut up about being “the number one star…” so it makes perfect sense that Dana’s Mickey Rooney would as well. Stooge and I tend to be very much on the same page with our SNL likes and dislikes, but we seriously disagree on this one. And apparently, I’m not alone.
And does the “Dog Assassin” play drums and go by the name Angel?
Dana said Mickey thought he was gay and he said no that’s not me it’s Nathan Lane,That makes me laugh.
Love the first appearance of Hartmans Bill Clinton impression. This man probably gave SNL more material to work with than anyone else, until they saw Donald Trump. The Babe spoof was great, and a nice use of pre-recorded material doing more than just filling time.
Nice to give the black cast members something good to do. They often get ignored thru the 90’s. Farleys Mama Cass was just great. Love the two versions of Elvis, Schneider is funny and it was nice Goodman could poke fun at his weight. The Cecil Jacobson thing was real. Its on Wikipedia. They only proved 15 kids, that 75 number was just a guess. I love they all have his hair, and Farley makes an awesome kid. Best part was when Carvey talked about spanking it into a test tube in front of 20 children. Like many other sketches this year, they had a good premise but probably could have let it run longer, this idea was full of good joke potential. He passed in 2021.
Caveman Lawyer was decent again. Kevin Nealon is not funny. His jokes and his delivery are terrible. And he keeps doing that “You know, its interesting.” bit which was never funny and more irritating. I miss Dennis Miller. Adam Sandlers cajun man is alright. Funnier than anything Kevin did. The joke about Rodney King getting beaten by cops is not so funny all these years later. As a mean spirited child I would have laughed at it. Adults should not. The ensuing riots were not a joke that’s for darn sure.
John and Chris are perfect together. I love Johns stentorian voice, same one he uses a year later in Matinee. Sketches were OK. John is always a great host. He more than any other host feels like he just belongs with SNL. He meshes so well you don’t see him as an outsider.