Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Operaman comes within one number of hitting the lottery jackpot
— HUGE extended applause (albeit delayed) after Phil mentions the name Operaman. I love how after the applause died down, Phil just says “Indeed!”
— A great change of pace to see Operaman outside of Update. This is a very creative use of him.
— This is a fun bit that’s giving me really good laughs, especially Operaman’s “no more masterbato” promise to God if he wins the lottery.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
videotape of host’s recent wedding shows there was plenty of fighting
— Odd how both monologues so far this season have relied heavily on a pre-taped video package.
— New SNL writer and soon-to-be-added-to-the-cast Norm Macdonald makes his onscreen SNL debut here, playing a caterer arguing with Shannen. It’s just a straight role, but he even manages to make his repeated line “The deal… was cash!” funny with his delivery.
— A lot of big laughs throughout this wedding video. I especially like Shannen and the reverend’s shoving match and the random exploding car stock footage (the latter of which was previously used in Linda Hamilton’s season 17 monologue and will later be used at the end of a notoriously bad season 20 sketch called Sparklebright Toothpaste).
STARS: ****
CRYSTAL GRAVY
the latest in the clear food craze is a transparent sauce
— I love the reveal of Crystal Gravy after such a serious beginning. This is an absolutely priceless subject matter for a fake ad.
— Every single aspect of this is an eerily spot-on, detailed, and well-done parody of the real Crystal Pepsi commercial from this time.
— The shot of Kevin splashing his face with the Crystal Gravy is especially giving me a good laugh.
— Overall, one of the most memorable fake ads from this era.
STARS: *****
THE REAL WORLD
diverse young adults are sensitive to perceived prejudice
— I get what the opening Jim Downey-read disclaimer (the first two above screencaps for this sketch) is going for, comically overemphasizing the show’s genuine reality, but it’s going on way too long.
— I love the opening intros, where after each roommate mentions what type of people they hate, the next roommate shown is the exact type of person who was just mentioned. The bit with Rob as an Eskimo is especially funny.
— Pretty lousy English accent from Tim.
— Boy, Adam’s constant, repetitive, exaggerated yells of “Shaddap, you (insert words here)!” are kinda annoying me. In all of my previous viewings of this sketch, I had always found those lines from Adam hilarious, but watching it now, not only do I find it unfunny and repetitive, but I see it as an early sign of a lot of bad and obnoxious things to come from the Farley/Sandler/Spade group both this and next season.
— The sketch as a whole was okay and was an accurate Real World parody, but I’m not quite as big on this anymore as I used to be.
STARS: ***
THE DENISE SHOW
jilted Brian (ADS) is obsessed with ex-girlfriend (host)
— Lots of Adam Sandler tonight.
— I really like the format of this sketch, and Adam is solid as this obsessed, heartbroken character.
— All the various little segments within this show (e.g. “The part of the show where I call Denise and hang up on her”) are really funny, as is Adam always ending them with an “Okay, that was great.”
— I love Phil as the voice of Adam’s dad screaming at him over the phone.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Insane In The Brain”
WEEKEND UPDATE
ROS narrates some wacky sports bloopers that are actually quite mundane
Ike Turner (TIM) hits KEN with a cake, then tries to make up with him
— After his “I’m Kevin Nealon” sign-on, Kevin just bizarrely pauses while staring at the camera for a long time, to complete silence from the audience, then he finally moves on. Ugh. This unfortunately ends up becoming a thing he often does at the beginning of his Updates this season, and I’ve always hated it.
— Boy, that “Jury retires in Denny beating case” bit from Kevin was just plain stupid, not helped by his bad delivery of it.
— Rob’s sports “bloopers” bit is a fairly cheap premise, but Rob is making it fun with his amusing and dead-on imitation of a cheesy announcer’s voice.
— At the end of Rob’s commentary, I love Kevin’s exaggerated amusement at the sports “bloopers”.
— After a rough start early on this Update, Kevin’s jokes have thankfully gotten better.
— The debut of Tim’s Ike Turner, which we’ll be seeing A LOT this season. It is nice, though, to see the underused Tim Meadows being given a showcase.
— Tim-as-Ike-Turner’s love/hate behavior towards Kevin is giving me some laughs, and I’m really enjoying the way Tim and Kevin are playing off of each other here.
— I like how after the Ike Turner commentary ends, Kevin delivers the remainder of his Update jokes with cake still around his mouth and shoulder, from when Tim’s Ike hit him with the cake earlier.
STARS: ***
IS IT DATE RAPE?
(host) & (CHF) use Antioch College guidelines to decide
— I’m getting an unintentional big laugh from the opening theme music used for this sketch, because it’s the same music that would later memorably be used for Will Forte’s classic Dancing Coach sketch with Peyton Manning.
— Uh, wow. What a premise for a sketch.
— Spot-on casting of Chris as a rowdy fratboy, a role he was born to play.
— I’m very impressed by the part with Phil rapidly explaining the very lengthy gameshow rules in almost one breath without missing a single beat. Absolutely perfect, fast-paced, flawless delivery.
— A pretty good laugh from Shannen’s stern “Take your hands off me” to Phil during the “meet the contestants” segment.
— Despite the dodgy premise, I feel this sketch is being executed okay enough. However, sketches like this and the preceding episode’s What’s That show how downhill SNL’s gameshow sketches are going this season compared to earlier this era when gameshow sketches almost always ended up being a very memorable hit.
STARS: ***
THE RELAPSE GUY
Relapse Guy (CHF) says he’s changed, but he’s still unreliable
— Hoo, boy, speaking of sketches with dodgy premises…
— This sketch, based on Chris’ real-life addiction battles and constant rehab stints, is considered by a lot of SNL fans to be too uncomfortable to enjoy after Chris’ death from a drug overdose. Heading into tonight’s episode, I was conflicted on how I should handle reviewing this sketch, and ultimately, I decided to take the same approach I used when reviewing the Gun Safety sketch from a Fred Savage-hosted season 15 episode (a sketch that a lot of SNL fans find uncomfortable to watch after Phil Hartman’s tragic death, considering most of the sketch features him having a gun pointed at him), and that approach is to just watch this in the same innocent mindset that SNL viewers at the time would’ve when this sketch originally aired. I feel that’s the most fair thing I can do.
— Is the name of the rehabilitation center, Verdant Meadows, an inside reference to Tim Meadows? He does play the center’s counselor.
— I’m enjoying the running gag involving Mike’s healing arm.
— Seems kinda late in the sketch to be showing its opening title sequence, but I suppose it was necessary to have such long pre-credits scenes to set up the premise. I like how this opening title sequence is in the traditional style of some other sketches from the late 80s/early 90s era.
— Phil is very funny as the dad, especially his line about how he hasn’t liked his son for about “15, 20 years now”.
— The increasingly exaggerated “I love you!” reconciliation hugs between Phil and Chris are cracking me up.
— As I’ve mentioned a few times recently, I enjoy sketches that involve constant scene changes and set changes, and this sketch has PLENTY of that.
— The operation room scene is hilarious, with Chris trying to pass off a calves’ liver from the supermarket as the human liver he’s supposed to deliver to the surgeons, and then him suddenly falling and crashing over the breakaway operating table (which was funny because of the way it was executed).
— Okay, the running punchline of Chris falling through a breakaway prop at the end of every scene is now starting to get kinda old to me, and serves as an unfortunate reminder that the days of SNL’s bad overreliance on Chris screaming and falling down in a majority of sketches is approaching. (As I mentioned recently, I blame the first Matt Foley sketch on that. While an undisputed classic, that Matt Foley debut eventually created a monster when it comes to SNL having Chris constantly play screaming characters who fall through breakaway props.)
STARS: ***
DRESSING ROOM
hairdresser Noah (MIM) & wardrober Frans (TIM) give host advice backstage
— This feels like it’s attempting to be this era’s version of Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo’s hairstylist characters, Dion and Blaire, from 10 years earlier. Problem is, this sketch is lacking the strength and great chemistry those Dion/Blaire sketches had. If SNL is setting this sketch up to become recurring, it doesn’t work, as we end up never seeing these characters from Tim and Mike ever again.
— I am liking the fact that the underused Tim Meadows has been getting more and more chances lately, though.
— I got some good laughs just now from Mike’s odd detailing of the chocolates he eats when he’s feeling blue.
— Why is stage manager Joe Dicso telling Shannen to get ready for introducing Cypress Hill’s second musical performance? After this sketch, there’s another sketch Shannen appears in before Cypress Hill’s performance. And this is the live version I’m watching of this episode. Reruns of this episode wildly scramble the running order of the second half of the show, where this sketch airs AFTER Cypress Hill’s second number, which causes Joe Dicso’s line to make even less sense.
STARS: **
SALEM BITCH TRIALS
early-American lynch mob wants to find (host) guilty at Salem Bitch Trial
— The bitchcraft reveal was worth a good laugh.
— Wait, Mike’s supposed to be playing a woman? Why???
— Kevin looks kinda cool and bad-ass in that wig and facial hair.
— I’ve never been able to look at this sketch quite the same way after reading a criticism from someone on the SNL newsgroup (alt.tv.snl) years ago about how he tried to enjoy this sketch, mostly because it features the great Phil Hartman in his final season, but couldn’t get past the fact that Chris and Adam’s performances in this are “so awful”. The newsgroup member who wrote that was someone who admittedly generally HATED the Farley/Sandler/Spade group, and he was kinda using this sketch as an example of how the unprofessionalism, hamminess, crassness, and lack of range of the Farley/Sandler/Spade group was such a downgrade from what the Hartman/Nealon/Carvey/Hooks/Dunn/Lovitz/etc. group was doing just a few years before. He certainly has a point there (I’ve been mostly positive towards the Farley/Sandler/Spade group so far in this SNL project, but that’s because I hadn’t gotten to the truly troubled part of their tenure yet; I’m of the popular opinion that THIS is the season where that group slowly started hurting the show, and then by season 20, they had gotten so bad that I find their shtick mostly UNWATCHABLE), and he’s definitely not wrong about Chris and Adam hamming it up in this sketch (David’s more low-key here, though), but I’d be lying if I said Adam’s bizarre-voiced “I guess everybody likes ye!” rant in this sketch doesn’t crack me up every time I watch this, even if his characterization feels very out-of-place for the tone of this sketch. (Besides, I personally feel that Adam’s performance in tonight’s Real World sketch is a better example of how the Farley/Sandler/Spade group could tend to be detrimental to the show.)
— I like how after Shannen’s speech defending her own bitchiness, Phil’s lengthy, calm, professional response ended with an unexpectedly stern “…if they hadn’t been delivered in such a bitchy manner!”
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That”
A MESSAGE FROM MICHAEL EISNER
Michael Eisner (PHH) assures tourists they’ll be safe in northern Florida
— This sketch was cut from the preceding week’s season premiere.
— The voice Phil uses as Michael Eisner is always pretty funny.
— Phil’s Eisner now translating his speech into German is making me laugh.
— I’ve never been all that crazy about these “message from Michael Eisner” pieces (which we’ll be seeing quite a bit this season), but I actually found this particular one okay overall.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode. It started very strongly with the cold opening, monologue, and Crystal Gravy ad, but then the quality cooled down, where most of the rest of the show was just in the “decent/pretty good” range. I can’t complain much, though some of the first few post-Update sketches had dodgy premises, and I’m still seeing early little signs of trouble for this and next season.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Charles Barkley)
a mild step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Jeff Goldblum hosts, and we get two new additions to the cast