Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
PRESS CONFERENCE
Joycelyn Elders (ELC) gets the hook after too much masturbation talk
— Nice to see Ellen’s Joycelyn Elders impression again after the funny Show & Tell sketch from the preceding season. The “masturbation in school” topic is a funny premise for this cold opening.
— Elders, on her masturbation instruction book: “It does not take long to read. Step 1, step 2, then repeat.”
— Great turn with a giant hook entering the shot and trying to decide whether to yank Elders off the stage or not.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
ADS & host relate positives caused by Canteen Boy-scoutmaster skit outcry
— Alec says that with this hosting stint, he joins the prestigious five-timers club.
— I like Alec addressing the Canteen Boy controversy from his last episode, especially how he’s exaggerating the outrage over the sketch, such as saying Sinead O’Connor ripped up a picture of Canteen Boy at a concert.
— I love how they’re now doing a “politically correct” version of the Canteen Boy sketch. This is very funny.
STARS: ****
LEXON PARADOX
Rerun from 10/1/94
PARENTS BELIEVE IN SANTA
Santa-believing parents (host) & (JAG) puzzle over their lack of presents
— A great part with Alec showing different types of milk (e.g. moose milk) that was left out for Santa, and saying “What does this fat sleigh-riding son of a bitch want from us?!?”
— I like the gradual reveal that Alec and Janeane still believe in Santa. This is a solid premise that’s being executed very well.
STARS: ****
L.A. BREAST AND PENIS
hospital’s catch-all solution is cosmetic surgery
— Alec’s usual delivery is perfect for a sketch like this.
— The opening credits sequence is a decent parody of frantic hallway scenes in medical shows like this.
— “Nurse Sheila Ten Bears”?
— This feels like typical season 20 low-brow humor, but I’m not finding it TOO bad in this sketch. There are some laughs from how the doctors’ only way of tending to train-accident victims is to give them genital enhancements.
— Funny part with Elliott handing Mike and Laura a bag with their son’s penis in it.
STARS: ***
JAPANESE GAMESHOW
American tourist (CHF) is contestant on a high-stakes Japanese game show
— A very well-remembered sketch from this season.
— (*sigh*) Mike’s streak of playing Asian stereotypes every week continues. At this point, I lost count of how many episodes the streak has been going on.
— Farley’s confusion as the only American contestant is fantastic.
— This sketch is so good, even Mike’s Asian stereotype routine is coming off tolerable to me. He’s actually really good at making all of the Japanese dialogue sound real.
— I love the disturbing turn with contestants cutting their own hand off with a knife as punishment for getting an answer wrong, much to Farley’s horror.
— Good ending bit with Farley being hooked up to a machine and then being electrocuted when getting an answer wrong.
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sure Shot”
WEEKEND UPDATE
— During the set-up to the joke about what to do with Jeffrey Dahmer’s dead body, I like one audience member being heard yelling “Burn it!” This has been a very responsive audience in general tonight.
— We get our very first Norm mention of Duh Magazine, which would go on to be one of his running jokes on Update.
— Norm: “A one-legged goose with a dart in its head. And I complain about my life.”
— No guest commentaries in tonight’s overall Update, but I certainly have no complains. Just 5 pure minutes of uninterrupted Norm telling news jokes.
STARS: ****
ROOKIE COP
barfing NYC policemen set off a vomit cascade in the city
— Here comes a sketch that’s always been one of my guiltiest of guilty pleasures. I’m aware that I’m probably in a very small minority in liking this, as this sketch is generally considered to be a representation of so much that’s wrong with this season. It’s hard to defend this sketch, but I think part of the appeal for me is that they take this sophomoric premise to such a ridiculous extent that it becomes funny to me.
— Some amusing malfunctions during Adam and David’s scene, with their puke initially coming out too early, then stopping too late.
— I love how they’re not even trying to hide the hose that can be seen coming out of everyone’s pant leg.
— As I said in my review of the classic Greenhilly sketch from Alec’s season 15 episode, the dog puppet vomiting in this Rookie Cop sketch has always reminded me of when Alec kisses a dog puppet in Greenhilly. And like I promised in the afore-linked Greenhilly review, here’s a side-by-side comparison between the dog puppet in both sketches, even though I’m now sure they aren’t the same puppet.
— I like how they’re using multiple sets and are involving every cast member (even Norm), giving this sketch an epic feel.
— For some reason, Elliott’s character being named Red Skeffington cracks me the hell up.
— When Kevin’s fake puke fails to come out, he ad-libs “Dry heaves”. I’m surprised to see it’s Kevin who says that line, because I swear I used to remember that line being from Elliott. I wonder if the version of this scene that would later be shown in reruns is the dress rehearsal version.
STARS: ***½
THE YOUNG AND THE YOUTHFUL
(host)’s idiot evil twin (host) replaces him
— This is the second episode in a row involving twins being played by one performer (after Elliott’s Funny Strange sketch in the last episode), pulled off with clever editing and the use of doubles.
— Alec’s performance as the mentally challenged evil twin is funny, though I feel wrong for laughing at it.
— Is showing a scantily clad Tim Meadows becoming a weekly thing now (much like Mike doing an Asian stereotype)?
— The ending could’ve been funnier.
STARS: ***
BACK SEAT
(MMK) & (JAG) issue empty threats to very unruly kids during a long drive
— I’ve always hated this sketch in past viewings. I’ll try to keep an open mind during this viewing, as I feel this probably isn’t as bad as I previously made it out to be.
— A pretty good laugh from the part with a bong, which used to be the only part I liked in past viewings.
— Going into this with an open mind definitely seems to have helped, as I’m not hating this anywhere near as much as I used to. While I still find this far from a particularly great sketch, it’s enjoyable enough.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
— Why is Alec dressed as a cop, when he was in a sketch between Rookie Cop and this musical guest intro? And this is the live version I’m watching of this episode, so this isn’t a case of sketches being reshuffled from their original order.
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ricky’s Theme” & “Heart Attack Man”
BAD STRIPTEASE
(JAG) is scarred for life when unsexy exotic dancer (CSE) gyrates for her
— Very funny use of Chris Elliott and his delightfully weird sense of humor. I’m loving his disgusting striptease routine.
— Good reveal of Elliott having extensive body hair.
— I like the turn towards the end with us being taken to a courtroom scene.
STARS: ****
CELEBRITY MEMORABILIA AUCTION
(host) & (CSE) auction stolen celebrity items; Christian Slater cameo
— I think Janeane has appeared in literally EVERY SINGLE sketch tonight (not counting the cold opening). I recall once reading a theory that this was SNL’s way of responding to complaints in the media about how underused and misused Janeane has been this season.
— A fairly dull sketch with not much laughs, but I’m enjoying the sleaziness that Alec and Elliott are bringing to their performances.
— When Michael says “Meryl Streep isn’t dead”, what was up with an off-camera Ellen being heard starting to say the exact same line at the same time? She read the wrong line off the cue card, I take it? Michael gives her a bit of a puzzled look.
— Christian Slater cameo. Some girls in the audience can be heard screaming like crazy.
STARS: **
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
— Surprisingly, this is the first Deep Thoughts all season. They’ve really been phasing these out since the preceding season.
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I feel this is definitely one of the better episodes of this troubled season. The quality of this episode had a good stability that I’m not used to seeing this season. We got one classic (Japanese Gameshow), a few really solid things, a guilty pleasure sketch for me (Rookie Cop), some pretty good stuff, and absolutely nothing that I hated; even the weaker sketches had some okay qualities. Having the always-reliable-as-a-host Alec Baldwin certainly didn’t hurt, either. It also helped that this episode had a very lively studio audience.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Roseanne)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
George Foreman hosts the Christmas episode. Happy birthday, Jesus, hope ya like crap!