Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE
Bill Clinton (MMK) unveils his scaled-back universal health care plan
— As this opens, you can hear the very end of someone in the studio exaggeratedly yelling “FIVE SECONDS!!!”, which is a traditional thing SNL does right before the start of every live episode to get the audience laughing as the cold opening starts. In recent years, audio of it is played during the opening sequence shown before every “SNL Vintage” airing on NBC.
— After the preceding week’s Clinton Auditions cold opening, we get SNL’s official new Bill Clinton: Michael McKean.
— Early on in this, Michael already flubs a line, but then seems to try to save himself a few seconds later with an apparent ad-lib: “That’s why I’m nervous.”
— A minute into this sketch, and I have to ask, is too late to bring back Chris Elliott’s W.C. Fields take on Clinton? Michael’s impression is not good AT ALL.
— A few laughs here and there from the medical props.
— The health phone bit is falling pretty flat.
STARS: **
OPENING MONTAGE
— Don Pardo still seems to be having some trouble with the name “Kightlinger”, as he pronounces it a bit funny tonight. That would later be fixed in reruns.
MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)
— Lots of applause-pandering in this monologue so far, and not in the intentionally comedic way like Karen Black’s season 6 monologue or Chevy Chase’s season 3 monologue.
— Marisa’s coming off likable here (which is a big contrast to negative stories I’ve sometimes heard about her), but this monologue is kinda dull to me.
— I’m not sure, but I think they use the dress rehearsal version of this monologue in reruns. I recall her delivery being a little more exciting at parts than it is in this live version I’m watching.
STARS: **
LEXON PARADOX
teams of engineers worked to make the Lexon Paradox a contradictory car
— Very accurate parody of the style of a certain series of car commercials from this era (I forget which car brand).
— A clever commercial, and the conflicting car features are increasingly funny, especially the one with no brakes, and the one that makes the car shatter on impact.
STARS: ****
THE SIMPSON TRIAL
Mona Lisa Vito (host) testifies on behalf of O.J. Simpson (TIM)
— A very inspired and solid idea to have Marisa reprise her Mona Lisa Vito character from My Cousin Vinny in an O.J. Trial sketch.
— Judge Ito’s fawning over Mona Lisa Vito is entertaining.
— This sketch feels surprisingly high-energy for this season’s standards.
— Ito’s angry “SHUT UP, MS. CLARK!” outburst gave me a big laugh.
— Odd how they haven’t shown Tim’s O.J. until the very end, and even then, he doesn’t have any lines. At least they put a wig on his O.J. this time, unlike in the season premiere.
STARS: ****
PIERCING TODAY
various punctured people compare notes on body adornment
— An interesting time capsule of the piercing craze from this time around the mid-90s.
— Quite a visual of Farley with all those piercings.
— Funny story from Kevin about his rod-through-the-head “piercing” being a freak accident when walking past a construction site.
— Towards the end of this sketch, Marisa’s delivery is starting to become oddly exaggerated.
— I’m now starting to realize that Kevin’s been providing most of my few laughs during this sketch. I liked his answer when the guests are all asked what the downside is to their piercings: “The crippling pain and the blurred vision.”
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Love Sneaking Up On You”
WEEKEND UPDATE
MIM thinks that the hockey strike is stupid
TIM says that the hockey strike is bad for African-Americans
Cool Guy’s (DAS) week-in-review is accomplished via facial expressions
— A change has been made to the Weekend Update logo on the front of the Update desk.
— I liked Norm’s “The crowd is torn” ad-lib after the mixed reaction to the O.J. “Dorf on Stalking” joke.
— Mike making a rare visit to the Update desk.
— Mike’s “detailed” hockey analysis turning out to be a ridiculously brief bit was funny. Norm is helping sell it with his confused facial reaction when the camera pans back to him after Mike leaves.
— Norm does a lottery joke about a man named Dale Sturtevant. Isn’t that the same name SNL would later use for Will Ferrell’s character in the memorable Dissing Your Dog commercial from Season 27?
— A solid overall commentary from Tim, being overly passionate about his and other black people’s love for hockey.
— Norm’s jokes tonight have thankfully been a lot more Norm-esque than in his debut the preceding week. Even though he’s still using a bit of the professional, straitlaced anchorman delivery he used the preceding week, his natural Update style is gradually starting to form. Very nice to see.
— David Spade trying out a new character, I see.
— Norm to Cool Guy, a few minutes into his commentary: “Is this the whole joke, you don’t talk and just make funny faces?” Took the words right out of my mouth, Norm.
— Norm’s David Hasselhoff theory now officially becomes a recurring Update gag. I love that the audience never knows quite how to react to it.
STARS: ***½
MAKING BETTER LOVE WORKSHOP
voyeurs (ADS) & (CHF) ruin adult education sex demo done by (CSE) & (JAG)
— I was wondering where Chris Elliott was tonight.
— Surprisingly, this is also Adam’s first appearance of the night.
— All I can say about Adam and Farley’s obnoxious, juvenile, loud performances here is, it perfectly sums up what their dominant output will be this season. And I really could do without that in this particular sketch. Can’t I just enjoy a sketch with Chris Elliott being his usual funny oddball self without Farley and Sandler hijacking it with their tired shtick?
— Elliott’s seduction dance is hilarious.
— I’m enjoying the way Elliott and Janeane are playing off of each other. Speaking of Janeane, it feels weird seeing her so upbeat in some of her performances so far this season, knowing how miserable she would soon start coming off in many of her performances. I think the turning point where that onscreen misery of hers officially starts showing is the infamous Sarah Jessica Parker episode. There’s an interesting backstage anecdote that sheds a little light on her misery in that episode, but I’ll save it for that review.
— This is a tale of two sketches. We get an unusual, sloppy mix of Chris Elliott doing his fresh, quirky, weird brand of humor and Sandler and Farley doing their trademark fratboy routine. This sketch alone sums up what an awkward, bad mishmash this season’s cast is.
— Elliott: “We are simply two people trying to make love in an elementary school cafeteria!”
— Mike and Marisa’s mix-up with a beer bottle is pretty funny.
STARS: ***
DAILY AFFIRMATION WITH STUART SMALLEY
Michael Jackson (TIM) & Lisa Marie Presley (host)
— For some reason, it feels weird to see a Stuart Smalley sketch in this season. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, though.
— This sketch was actually cut from the preceding week’s season premiere. In that version, Janeane was the one who played Lisa Marie Presley (pic here).
— I liked the reveal that the letter Stuart has just read is from O.J. Simpson.
— Even though I’m not sure if it was intended to be funny, Tim’s Michael Jackson saying “Girl, you wake up the devil in me” cracked me the hell up.
— What’s with Marisa’s coughing after she kisses Tim? Is that an intentional bit?
— A good laugh from Stuart quoting a radio announcement of “Elvis Presley died today, straining at his stool.”
— Lisa Marie’s various random one-liners about Michael’s lifestyle (“He has a monkey”, “I’m not Macaulay Culkin”, etc.) started out funny, but are now doing nothing for me.
— Another gripe of mine regarding Marisa’s Lisa Marie Presley is that I could do without the constant repetition of “Yum, yum, gimme some.”
— Okay, I did get a laugh just now from Lisa Marie interrupting Stuart’s sign-off to say another one of her random one-liners about Michael’s lifestyle. I love how Stuart responds to that by just speechlessly looking around in confusion, never finishing his sign-off.
STARS: ***
MONSTERS OF MONOLOGUE ’94
a face-off between monologists Eric Bogosian (ADS) & Spaulding Gray (MMK)
— Not having much familiarity with Eric Bogosian, I can’t rate the accuracy of Adam’s impression of him. Adam’s “impression” just seems to be a variation of a certain voice that Adam has a tendency to fall back on too much (you know the one).
— Michael’s Spaulding Gray, on the other hand, is absolutely spot-on. And he’s delivering his fast-paced lines perfectly and brilliantly.
— This is another sketch tonight that shows what an awkward mishmash this season’s cast is. Sandler doing his loud, hammy, broad shtick and McKean doing some smart, low-key humor. I feel it’s all actually coming together fairly well in this sketch, though.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Storm Warning”
BOBBY CAMILARRI’S BRIDAL FAIR 2000
discount nuptial vendors will be at Bobby Camilarri’s Bridal Fair 2000
— Not a bad premise, advertising a bridal fair in a monster truck ad-type of way.
— Eh, turns out this commercial is starting to bring back unwanted memories of that terrible Super Sports Tours commercial from the season premiere, even if this one isn’t quite as one-joke.
— Didn’t we already get an “All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt” gag earlier tonight?
— The brief shot of Marisa at the end came off pointless. It’s almost laughable in itself that they went through the trouble of getting the host into costume for a useless two-second shot that provided no payoff to the sketch.
STARS: *½
FALL MIXER
’70s high schoolers (ADS) & (host) engage in small talk while dancing
— I like the interesting and unconventional structure to this sketch, with Adam and Marisa each taking turns speaking whenever they face the camera while slow-dancing with each other in circles. A creative, slower, softer sketch like this feels refreshing in this particular season. A refreshing use of Adam too.
— I like the random choice to give this sketch a 70s aesthetic without actually calling attention to it.
— The whole bit regarding a guy off-camera who Marisa complains is staring at her is really funny.
— When Marisa asks if there’s any way Adam can make his erection go away, I love Adam responding “Yeah, start talkin’ about your shampoos again”.
— A good laugh from Adam suddenly donning a fake mustache to hide his identity.
— Do we really need TWO sketches tonight ending with a homoerotic turn?
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not too bad for this season’s standards. In fact, I was surprised to find this episode to be better than I ever found it in past viewings. There was barely anything I hated tonight, a lot of stuff was okay, and there were about three strong pieces (Lexon Paradox, The Simpson Trial, Fall Mixer) that had a style completely different from the typical output this season. If I wasn’t already aware of how this season turns out, tonight’s episode might’ve given me false hope that maybe the bad season premiere was just a fluke.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steve Martin)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
John Travolta
Not counting the opener, this season starts off pretty well, as this is a step up and the Travolta episode is (famously) good.
There’s still some of the warning signs–the Sandler/Farley appearance in the sex ed sketch gave me horrible memories of how many seemingly promising sketches in more recent eras were ruined by a terrible Wiig or whoever recurring character suddenly showing up. Also, the new people aren’t used well at all, and the lack of a Hartman-esque glue remains distressing.
If I remember Jay Mohr’s book right, I think he accuses Marisa Tomei of kiboshing some sketch he thought was funny. Unlike some of the other stories in the book, I’m not totally sure if I believe Jay here though.
It’s been a while since I read Gasping for Airtime, but I think the sketch was Good Morning Brooklyn. Marisa allegedly didn’t want to co-headline a sketch with a mere featured player, Jay implied.
Good Morning Brooklyn was (to me) mostly hot garbage, so I wonder if she was just being polite about the real reasons she didn’t want to do it.
Co-signed on the Lovemaking Seminar. It’s bipolar, Chris/Janeane’s humor vs Sandler/Farley’s humor.
Love how Janeane gives Marisa a big hug at the goodnights.
I’m curious as to what bad satires you’ve heard about Marisa.
According to Jay Mohr, Marissa asked him “are you in the cast?” In a demeaning type way as I guess she didn’t know what a featured player was
Stories, not satires. Jesus.
“I’m curious as to what bad [stories] you’ve heard about Marisa.”
In addition to the Jay Mohr story mentioned by several commenters here, there’s also a story I once read about her asking an autograph-seeking fan to follow her where she was going, only for her to slam the door in the fan’s face and run away.
Whoah.
For me it’s between this or Bob Newhart as the best episode of the season. Nothing in this episode completely tanks; the stuff that isn’t great kinda washes over you, as opposed to being aggressively horrible like in the upcoming Sanders or Saget shows. Fall Mixer is one of my sketches of the season too.
The light and fun energy that Tomei brought seemed to help. She’s what made most of the O.J. trial sketch and Piercing Today work. Piercing Today in particular made a lot of randomly interesting choices that this season wouldn’t do much of: it mostly features women, the lesbianism isn’t played for cheap laughs, Farley plays restrained, and Kevin is actually used in a funny role again.
If they had managed to keep an upward momentum instead of plummeting after the SJP show bombed, this season could’ve been much better.
I’ve watched this episode a few times over the last year (until then I hadn’t seen it in probably 15-20 years) and I enjoy most of it – like you I enjoyed it more on rewatch. For me it’s one of the best season 20 shows, if not the best. Tomei is a good host – she doesn’t have a lot of range, but she does well within that range, with a consistent energy level and commitment (similar to Shannen Doherty, who like Tomei hosted the second episode of her troubled season and was something of a whipping girl at the time). The audience also seem pretty into the show, which helps add to the atmosphere for Update in particular.
I enjoyed the cold open more than you did. McKean’s impression isn’t much to write home about, but the material itself amuses me, especially when Clinton dials the hotline and we get a lengthy audio of The River Wild (“we have to pay for it somehow”). The political material feels much more focused here than it would for most of the rest of this season.
Farley and Sandler and the rape joke at the end made the sex sketch so repulsive to me it took a while for me to appreciate other elements, like the performances from Chris and Janeane.
The piercing sketch is probably the most restrained Farley performance we’ll get all season, an example of what he could still bring to a piece when he tried. He’s genuinely amusing here, although Kevin’s role is the best, I agree. I also liked that Ellen and Janeane being a couple wasn’t used as the butt of the joke. The whole thing has a very different energy for season 20.
I really like the school dance sketch. It’s one of the few of this season I might give ***** too. It’s such a nice character piece, and so well-paced, which is very rare for this period. I also like, as you mention, how it’s set in the late ’70s without trying too hard to wink and joke that it is – instead you get little moments like the joke about Sandler’s character wearing BSG pajamas. Tim’s involvement at the end initially seems like another homophobic jibe, but somehow ends up fitting into the mood of the piece (with the tables being turned on Sandler’s character, only for him to enjoy the role reversal). Sandler sometimes leaned into a more ambiguous type of material about sexuality rather than just cheapness – I wish he’d done it more often as it’s something the show has rarely expressed well.
Myers and McKean are very muggy in the OJ sketch, but it’s a good concept, well-performed by Tomei, and thankfully not padded out.
I liked the bridal sketch – it’s a lazy roll call, but some of the names are pretty funny.
Another terrific fake ad, and another unintended (?) microcosm of modern SNL – trying to be everything and being nothing instead.
The Stuart Smalley sketch in this episode is one of those I didn’t realize had stayed in my head for many years until I watched it again. I probably shouldn’t have laughed at Tim’s “I’ll marry you!” comment to Stuart, but Franken’s thrown reaction as Stuart realizes once and for all just what a pathetic sham the whole thing is amused me. Tomei’s dead, halting “yum yum gimme some” has never left me – I’ve always wondered where I first heard that line, and then I knew when I saw this again. There’s another sketch coming up, involving Chris Elliott, that gave me the same unsettling realization. After all the things I’ve forgotten, this is what I remember…
You have to wonder how monsters of monologue got on the air (I assume Sandler pushed it through), but it’s so fascinating in how they aggressively pursue material they must have known would lead to a dead audience. This sketch would probably get more of a response today, as Bill Hader played Gray on Documentary Now.
Bonnie Raitt – always a classy and classic musical guest. “Storm Warning” is perfect for this type of stage and is beautifully performed.
Cool Guy feels like a discarded Sandler concept Spade decided to run with. Compared to some of the Spade Update horrors to come this season, it’s not that bad.
Poor Laura Kightlinger looks absolutely miserable in the goodnights. McKean isn’t far behind.
Downey wrote “Dissing Your Dog,” so it makes me wonder if perhaps he wrote the lottery joke as well.
Back in 1994, I bailed on this season after this episode, but I agree a recent rewatch proves it to be not wretched. That’s the best I can say for any episode from this season. That and every episode is delightfully Melanie Hutsell-free!
“For some reason, it feels weird to see a Stuart Smalley sketch in this season. I’m sure I’ll get used to it, though.“
Probably not considering the next one is not until Paul Reiser
Surprised Franken stuck around for this season at all after losing the WU bid. I remember this Stuart sketch pretty vividly, now, given the description. The other one from this season is his bitter waxing over this piss-poor reception of the SS movie (which, I guess, is why he was only in a handful of season 19 episodes).
That piercing skit was cringe-worthy then and now it just looks like one of the worst bits of filler in SNL history. The placement of it here says all one needs to know about this season, quality-wise.
Of all the sketches from this season, I’m surprised you’re down on the piercing one. While it’s not laugh riot, it is the one sketch that feels like it would have been at home in the 91-92 season. It feels quaint more than anything to me.
It’s kind of amazing to me that even with the fact they went back to the well so many times, SNL never really had a full on dud Stuart Smalley sketch. In fact, that final edition from the Bob Saget episode may be one of my favorites.
I think aside from the genuinely great John Goodman episode, this is probably the most consistent episode of the season. It reminds me a bit of some of the better 85-86 episodes, no killers, but chugs along nicely. That said, there are other episodes I generally still like more, despite a higher frequency of dud sketches – Travolta, Pierce, Carvey and maybe the Baldwin episode too.
I haven’t watched the full Travolta episode in a long time (the cheap gay jokes are why) and I haven’t watched Duchovny’s, but for me the best episodes are probably Tomei, Goodman, and Newhart. Then I like Carvey, Daniels, and Hyde Pierce overall. I also have a real soft spot for the John Turturro episode in spite of some misfires, because he has so much charisma and energy, and the parts I enjoy I genuinely do enjoy a great deal.
Turturro’s episode features Dave Grohl playing drums for Tom Petty. So that’s fun.
I wish you luck on the Travolta episode. Apparently half of the sketches in there are about how John Travolta might be secretly gay.
It’s probably subtext in the Coffee Talk sketch, but it’s text in the Dracula sketch. Oh well, Welcome Back Kotter is a legit classic and the Larry King sketch is Nealon’s last great moment.
I always liked the Travolta episode and the crowd is surprisingly hot by this season standards but I haven’t seen it in years so maybe it doesn’t hold up.
Welcome Back Kotter is a legit classic though
Not the biggest fan of this show.. Marissa seems a little too arrogant for her own good here. For how she treated Jay, good skit or not, was awful. She was just a hot name then hence her picking, it says a lot she hasn’t been asked back since.
Masters of Monologue coulda been so much better.. a large part of it was due to the audience not getting it. Maybe I just expected too much. Sandler’s Bogosian’s awful but he makes it work, I do think Hader coulda done a better Grey. McKean has a rough show here, shows his faults quite a bit with his Clinton. Thankfully they dropped that and went with Farley’s Newt which was gold.
I like the next few shows. Travolta, Carvery, Turturo, and Roseanne’s shows I’ve rewatched quite a few times. Then comes Foreman’s show and it’s like a black hole, reminds me of Garr’s show from year 11, absolutely awful show and the year never recovers. Season 20 does in spaces but there’s some rough shows in between. I can’t wait to see how this year plays out on here.
If the “Marisa wouldn’t do a featured player’s sketch” story is from Jay’s book…. I mean, let’s be honest. Take it with a grain of salt.
Jay’s book tends to skew stories to the most ‘why me?’ interpretation possible – it was probably just a bad sketch she wouldn’t do. Why would she care what his rank in the cast was?
Re: Good Morning Brooklyn: Marisa was born and raised in Brooklyn, so she probably didn’t want to do any sketch that would paint her borough in a negative light
“We don’t need no Patti!”
To people that may now know, the 1st half of Marisa’s monologue is a reference to the unfair controversy that followed her Oscar win.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/02/27/one-unexpected-outcome-of-the-oscars-best-picture-blunder-vindication-for-marisa-tomei/
Janeane’s hat and wig are exactly the same as the ones she wore in a cut sketch from the preceding week.
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/episode-1-aired-pictured-chris-elliott-janeane-garofalo-news-photo/138228221
Cold opening – I agree that the material is good. It’s pretty biting satire about all the “great” things in the universal health plan…the problem is McKean. His Clinton impression is so dry, bland, and toothless…it really bogs down the sketch. It makes no sense because McKean is otherwise great at impressions, and let’s face it, Bill Clinton is an easy impression. Why his he so off here? it’s like he’s not even trying.
OJ Simpson – having Marisa play My Cousin Vinny character at the trial makes this much more enjoyable than last week’s OJ sketch. This one is pretty good. One thing that strikes me about these sketches is Kevin Nealon’s host of the Court TV, they’re so utterly pointless and Kevin has a hard time getting through his lines in all of these sketches. I’m sure Nealon is thinking during these sketches “Man, I get canned from Update, but I stuck around another season to do this?” 🙂
Piercing Today – sorry, this sketch does nothing for me. Outside of Kevin Nealon’s pipe in the head, there’s really not a whole lot of laughs or humor. It’s not terrible, but it’s certainly not very creative and just kind of sits there.
Love Workshop – honestly, I think Sandler and Farley’s juvenile, bullying schtick works for me in this skit. It’s a funny contrast to Chris and Jeanane’s academic and measured approach to teaching sex. Again, it’s not a great sketch or anything, but it’s not too bad.
Stuart Smalley interviewing Michael Jackson and Presley is pretty entertaining. I must admit, the Masters of Monologue just went over my head. I had no familiarity with what their spoofing, so it didn’t do much.
Overall, I’d say it’s a pretty dismal episode. Since some here are putting it has best of the season?…we’re definitely in for a long year. 🙂
I remember watching Nealon halfheartedly stumble through the Terry Moran Court TV intros to the OJ sketches that year. Compare his delivery here to his perfect delivery as Doug Llewellyn in the famous “People’s Court” sketch in Season 12 (the Rosanna Arquette episode, back when he was just a featured player!)
Several weeks before Season 20 began (last week of August or so), TV Guide had a brief feature on upcoming changes on the show. Among the nuggets (from memory):
– Nealon hadn’t yet confirmed he was coming back for a ninth season (Lorne was quoted as saying “We’re talking to him”)
– Janeane had already been hired and was filming commercial parodies
– Rob Schneider “is gone”
– Julia Sweeney was “preparing to leave”
– Melanie Hutsell “has been forced out”
– Norm was preparing to take over Update
When Chris Farley returned to host in the 23rd season shortly before he died, Lorne said something about Farley screwing up something during this episode and Farley replied that he “had to go to the bathroom.” Any clue what Farley did wrong? Maybe almost missed appearing in a sketch?
That may have just been a “noodle incident” joke- it’s probably more humorous to think about what it could’ve been than what actually happened.
I haven’t watched the full episode yet but I saw the piercing sketch when NBC had it posted and thought it was really funny. The fact that they kept going back to the jokes about penicillin sold it for me. That joke needed to be repeated as much as it was to get the point across. And certain things like calling it the “piercing lifestyle.” The connected nose rings is a hilarious sight gag. This captured how crazy people can seem when they’re obsessed with something even though they think it’s perfectly normal themselves.
S20E02 Marissa Tomei
-Cold Open McKean as Clinton. To be fair, the audience really seemed into this whole sketch with only a slow down once we got to the phone. I didn’t think it was funny per se but it wasn’t completely unpleasant. Phone voice gets the 2nd “Live from New York” of the season.
– Marisa Tomei as the host eh? Fresh off an oscar 17 months earlier and it was well before that that My Cousin Vinny had come out and she had nothing going on at that time. I am sure there is some story as to why she is here randomly. She doesn’t have much to work with here but at least she seems into it and it is over soon enough
– Paradox commercial (not in Peacock version) Different but it works, and the audience is rolling along with it.
– Simpson Trial with Tomei reprising her Mona Lisa Vito. Pretty good use of her and topical of course since the whole nation was glued to the Trial at this point. Jay Mohr with a super solid bailiff performance going on.
– Piercing Today. I didn’t think it was that funny but there were some minor delivery wins. Garofalo and Nealon in particular. Tomei bringing the high energy at least makes it easy to swallow.
– Weekend Update: Norm delivers on 13 of 16 jokes (in my opinion) and I really was grinning throughout Tim Meadows on the hockey strike. Cool guy (not on Peacock version) was funnier than I thought it would–he and Norm stumbled at the finish line of it but it was amusing all in all.
– Making Love Better: This was way too long and of course the vitriolic performance from Sandler and Farley sounded the death knell of this sketch.
– Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley was fine. OJ letter was good, Meadows was alright as Michael Jackson, and Marisa Tomei was a confused Lisa Marie Presley. She was funny at times and at other times…she just wasn’t. Blame the writing I suppose. Obviously, this was after the kiss on the MTV awards show and the world knew/suspected it was all a ruse.
– Monsters of Monologue: Bogosian (Sandler) vs. Spaulding Grey (McKean) McKean wins…but we were the ultimate losers…
– Bridal Fair 2000 (not available on Peacock) is definitely another joke similar to the Baseball joke from episode 1.
– Fall Mixer (not available on Peacock) gets really good about halfway through starting with the “I don’t think he’s staring at you line” and only hits the road bump right at the end with the Meadows inclusion.
– During closing, the vibe still seems good to me. Janine and Marisa hugging, my boy Mohr cracking a joke with Spade…
– Best sketch(es) of the night: Weekend Update was super solid throughout and the OJ Trial with Marisa Tomei. Too bad that Fall Mixer ended so flat that could have taken it.
– Worst sketch of the night: Monsters of Monologue
– Best performer of the night: Going with Norm McDonald since no one else completely head and shoulders above the rest.
– Worst performer of the night: So many people did so very little in this episode. I didn’t love Farley in any of his bits, but I could just as easily say Ellen Cleghorne or Laura Kightlinger. For the official record let’s go with Ellen.
This episode is a slight step up from last weeks season premiere. I never saw the hype in Marisa Tomei, I think she was solid in the wrestler but that was during Mickey Rorukes big comeback over a decade ago…
Cold opening and Tomei’s monologue are unmemerable.
Highlight of the episode to me was the Lexon Paradox commercial. Thought that was extremely funny and reminded me of the better commercials they had in the end of the 80s and even better than the liquid gravy commercial which aired last season I believe? I really liked it, so that rates 5 stars to me. Thought that it had all the 90s vibes and i think it reminds me of some kind of Infiniti car commercial during that time, even though one would might think Lexus as that sounds very close to Lexon. 5 stars.
I didn’t care for the Marisa Tomei appearence in the OJ trial, thought last weeks was better.
I thought that Piercing Today was maybe the best sketch of the night. I thought it actually could have been something shown on Portlandia, as it didn’t seem like a super vintage piece as so many people now a days have piercings. I liked the JG & EC nose ring story of being asked any painful experiences and I think one of them responds to how one got on the metro and one missed so that was funny to me. It was also great to see Farley tame and not going over the top. I know he’s wearing a costume but to me he does seem like he has possibly lost a bit of weight this season (I read that they were doing Tommy boy and flying back but then another commentator said that was wrong and the movie had been pushed back, but either way, he seems clean and a bit more in shape, and even on WU, not sure if it was last weeks this weeks or next, when he talks about baseball I enjoyed him also not going over the top and just being Farley (calmly). Nealon was a nice addition to the piercing piece as well.
Between that and the fall mixer sketch, which I enjoyed, also with a toned down Sandler, I think it was remincient of an earlier SNL, from the early- mid 80s.
Weekend update was better than last week but was annoyed to hear the same “Hassellhoff is big in Germany” (unless that was next week, but either way, too redundant and not getting the joke. But felt like NM improved from last week, and didn’t seem as dragged out, better delivery.
The rest of the episode I have already forgotten, oh, that’s sad, Stuart Smalley slipped my mind. I always got excited when I saw him doing a sketch. But this was one of the worst I’d seen. Didn’t care for the repetitive Lisa Marie Presley character Tomei played, the thing I found funny was when Medows says I’ll marry you…and Smalley is confused. All and all not the old Stuart Smalley that was so great to begin with and always a must watch!
Also during the good nights I had to do a double take to see what Marisa Tomei was wearing. The dress was an odd wardrobe pick but more so, the mini tiara which is something that my mom would have put in my hair at the time as a child playing “princess” or to ballet recital. It just seemed like a really strange thing to wear, it didn’t go and she couldn’t pull that off (it would have been cute in the fall mixer sketch in the blonde wig, but not on her normal hair and weird dress choice for the good nights). Completely unrelated to the show as a whole but Fashion has always been a vice of mine from an early age to present.
Didn’t find Tomei to be that likable as a host and disagree with many that this will be the best of the season, I already saw the Travolta one and that is way better than this in my opinion.