Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
IT’S A WONDERFUL NEWT
Richard Nixon (host) shows Newt Gingrich (CHF) a liberal future
— The debut of Farley’s Newt Gingrich impression, which isn’t so much an impression as it is just Farley in a wig. Still, at least it’s a subdued, mature role that keeps Farley restrained for once this season.
— John Turturro’s Richard Nixon impression is great and fun. Considering how rarely hosts appear in cold openings and the fact that John looks unrecognizable here, I wonder if SNL fans at the time were racking their brain trying to figure out which cast member that is playing Nixon.
— Interesting and very biting political satire, with lots of harsh digs at Gingrich. The political humor here has a sharpness that feels atypical of this season.
— Very funny reveal that Hillary Clinton is the president, sending Gingrich into a long horror scream of “noooooo!”.
— A quote Gingrich’s wife reads from Nixon’s book: “Every time a bell rings, I get poked in the ass with a pitchfork.”
— Overall, a very promising start to tonight’s episode.
— This ends up being Farley’s only appearance all night.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
LOM rigs a Quiz Show to let host do SNL instead of Joey Buttafuoco [real]
— Pretty fun premise.
— The overly simplistic questions themselves aren’t the funniest, but John and Kevin are making this work.
— Joey Buttafuoco?!? Joey Fucking Buttafuoco?!? Is SNL kidding me with this cameo? Only in season 20 would you see something like this.
— I love how poorly Mike is hiding how genuinely uncomfortable he is talking to Buttafuoco. I’m sure it’s stuff like this that had Mike wondering at this point of his SNL tenure “Why the hell am I even still on this show?”
— Kevin: “Lorne Michaels, the producer, is a (blank).” Considering the ire that lots of people had towards SNL at this time in 1994, I’m sure there’s some colorful words some of them would have inserted into that blank in Kevin’s statement.
— Lorne being shown feeding John the answer, “genius”, is funny.
STARS: ***½
EYCH
Rerun from 5/14/94
CHRISTOPHER WALKEN’S CELEBRITY PSYCHIC FRIENDS NETWORK
Celebrity Psychic Friend Gary Busey (MMK) joins Christopher Walken (JAM)
— The return of this great sketch from the preceding season.
— Michael’s Gary Busey impression is cracking me up.
— What was with the interaction between Walken and Busey?
— Boy, so far, this has not been working anywhere near as well as the first installment of this sketch. And so many lines are falling flat.
— Interesting inclusion of John as Walken’s similar-talking brother.
— John’s Walken is okay, but I’m not liking it as much as Jay’s impression. I’m hearing too much of John’s real voice in there.
— This overall sketch was a very poor excuse for a follow-up to the great first installment. Should’ve left that sketch one and done.
STARS: *½
SHARING THE PHONE
(JAG) repeatedly hangs up the phone before (host) gets a chance to talk
— Nice slice-of-life premise, especially for this season’s standards.
— Ehh, as much as I like the slice-of-life aspect, it turns out that I’m not crazy about the execution of it so far. It’s being performed a little TOO straight to be comical, and is suffering too much from season 20’s typical habit of taking one joke and repeating it over and over for four minutes.
— Oh, god, this sketch ends in one of the worst possible ways, with a cutaway to Mike doing his Asian stereotype routine for the second goddamn week in a row, this time dragging along Spade with a stereotypical Asian routine of his own.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You Don’t Know How It Feels”
WEEKEND UPDATE
publicity has gone to the head of self-styled superstar Judge Ito (MIM)
after much prodding, David Hasselhoff [real] confirms NOM’s German theory
— Here comes Mike “Honorary Asian” Myers bringing his Judge Ito impression to the Update desk.
— I know a lot of people are tired of Mike Myers by this point of his SNL tenure (I certainly am too), but I’m actually finding this out-of-the-ordinary characterization of Judge Ito to be fun.
— I remember when Comedy Central used to air this episode, they edited out a small portion of the Judge Ito commentary where he dances on the Update desk to the song “I Got the Power”. Music licensing issues is obviously the reason for that edit.
— Norm is on fire with a lot of his jokes tonight.
— A visit to the Update desk from one of Norm’s favorite subjects, David Hasselhoff.
— I absolutely love Norm’s various frustrated ways of trying to get Hasselhoff to say Germans love him. This is a classic segment.
STARS: ****½
TAXI DRIVER, THE MUSICAL
Robert DeNiro (host) stars in the musical version of Taxi Driver
— John’s Martin Scorsese impression is a riot.
— I like that we’re seeing two different impressions from John in one sketch. He’s been showcasing a lot of impressions tonight in general.
— Nice performances, but the musical numbers are getting increasingly boring to me and contain no apparent humor.
STARS: **
BAND SHOT
musical guest plays guitar while his doppelganger (DAS) mumbles along
STOP THAT
(host) mimics his show’s guests until they get annoyed & leave
— Here comes a sketch that I’ve always considered a big guilty pleasure. The sketch is very stupid and childlike, but John is so damn fun in it and makes this material hilarious to me. I always love watching this.
— This sketch is a great use of the energy that we’ve been seeing from John throughout tonight’s episode.
— Even Farley’s southern accent over the phone cracks me up.
— I love how John is even imitating non-talking sounds, such as a phone dial tone and Kevin’s guitar playing.
— Solid bit with a returning Elliott getting revenge by turning the tables on John, only for John to do a turnaround on him.
STARS: ****½
JAMAICA
tourism-dependent Jamaicans (ELC) & (TIM)- “go ahead, treat us like dirt”
— A good showcase for two underused performers (especially Ellen).
— A lot of funny lines from Ellen and Tim’s joy in being treated poorly by tourists.
STARS: ***½
DR. IRA RESNICK
Ira Resnick (host) doubts credentials of fellow dentist Josh Levine (CSE)
— Ehhh, this whole thing just came and went for me, without giving me any real laughs.
STARS: *½
THE MOVIE CLUB
brothers (host) & (ADS) recommend tapes to rent
— Adam makes only his second and final appearance tonight. A surprisingly very light night for him, Farley, and Spade. Considering how stale and shtick-y all three of them often come off this season, not to mention how heavily all three of them tend to get associated with the awfulness of this season, their lack of appearances tonight is probably a good thing.
— I like the pairing of Adam and John here.
— Adam seems to be playing a variation of his Audience McGee character. His character here has the same look and is using a similar voice.
— Pretty dull sketch so far.
— Overall, yeah, I wasn’t crazy about this, even if there was a bit of a goofy charm (something that Adam pulled off much better in his earlier seasons).
STARS: **
DR. JOSH LEVINE
Josh Levine’s retaliatory ad- “Ira Resnick uses unsterilized instruments”
— Okay, the idea of showing a series of political-type attack ads between two dentists is funny, but man, the execution of it is BORING. I feel like an actual good season of SNL would’ve done more with this idea and made these ads work.
— Poor Chris Elliott has been wasted on a lot of weak stuff so far this season. I’m eager to reach the point in this season where they finally start letting him do sketches with his oddball brand of humor.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Honey Bee”
DR. IRA RESNICK
more Ira Resnick mudslinging- magazine & hygienist age, novocaine use
— This one is a little funnier, mainly for the “I won’t feel you up when you’re unconscious” line at the end.
— A fourth installment of this runner, starring Tim as an additional rival dentist, didn’t make it on the air due to the show running long. It would later be inserted into reruns of this episode.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Certainly an improvement over the notoriously dreary episode that preceded this, though I still didn’t find this episode to be all that great. The show started out well with a strong cold opening and a good monologue, but then tapered off afterwards with a lot of meh sketches dominating the remainder of the night. Nothing particularly horrible tonight, though, and there was a brief upswing in quality with the Stop That and Jamaica sketches. Also, Weekend Update was particularly strong. John Turturro was a fantastic host who added a fun energy to the show, gave committed and funny performances, had some shining moments, and even made some of the weaker material more tolerable. You can definitely put him on the list of “SNL one-timers who deserved to come back”.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sarah Jessica Parker)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Roseanne