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!
I’m glad you like “Santa Believers” because one reviewer absolutely hated it, I have no idea why, it was a funny concept. While I have issues with CC’s sketch cuts, they really had it tough due to the number of great sketches. They could’ve left out the “Celeb Memorabilia” sketch, but the Slater cameo forced their hand.
Janeane went through a lot of wigs in this ep, but was still able to use her real hair at the end, no self wigs back then I guess. She has said that her parents were in the audience for this one, and her father remarked to her that the episode “Insulted his intelligence.”
Gary Sinise was supposed to host this episode but had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict, which makes the quality even more amazing.
I could be wrong, but I think her dad liked this episode. From LFNY:
“There were nights where I had a really nice time. Actually, I had a really great night the night Alec Baldwin hosted. My family was in the audience. It was super fun. … It was very exciting. My family was super pleased. But I was usually embarrassed. My family did not like the show that season. My father felt that his intelligence was being insulted, and I was always embarrassed by that too at that time.”
I’m going to guess Chris Smith’s time at 30 Rock (for the legendary-infamous New York article) began with the week of the Foreman show.
Here’s a tiny bit on Janeane and the amount of sketches she was in.
http://nymag.com/arts/tv/features/47548/
“Apparently the pods couldn’t grab a secure hold on Garofalo. In December, newly re-demoralized, she tried going to Michaels with her complaints, and in the next show Garofalo appeared in half the sketches.”
As for this episode, I’ve only watched it twice (once years ago and then earlier this year) as I don’t care much for Alec (it’s not about the Trump parody – never been a big fan) and the vomit and breast and penis sketches just got on my nerves, but I do enjoy the Santa sketch and the one with Janeane and Alec driving. That’s the main memory I have of this episode from my first viewing.
Sorry, I meant Michael, not Alec.
Somebody on the old SNL Forum had a thing for the way Alec said “Yummy Chocolate Pudding” in the Soap Opera sketch, making it into a YTMND clip.
There was also a very heated debate about that sketch, due to a reviewer giving it a low rating.
The second Beastie Boys performance is really cool here, probably my favorite of the season. I love that transition from it being an instrumental jam to suddenly being hardcore punk.
Is this the first time a TV show ever referenced the stereotype about Japanese gameshows being really crazy?
At this point, I don’t think anyone would have pronounced this season an abject failure or a candidate for all-time worst. (I mean, they might have or I’m sure they did, but there’s not much evidence to support that). Aside from the season opener (shockingly bad considering Steve was the host) and the atrocious SJP episode (which at least has a lot of other factors that could explain why things are so bad), at least the other episodes range from solid to promising–and in a number of them, like Turturro and Travolta, you have some really strong host performances.
Even looking at the list of episodes this season, is there a point of no return? I’m surprised that I like at least portions of a lot of episodes all the way until about February 1995 (and then I just don’t remember many of them). The season feels like a lot of mixed to good episodes being interrupted every so often by a truly awful episode.
I feel like spring 1995 is a bit flat to poor (although Morwenna, Mark and Molly – three Ms, how weird – add some new life to the show, as does Chris Elliott being unleashed), but I don’t think there’s ever a certain period where the season is damned. It goes up and down and down and up. I imagine it’s the culmination of a years-long decline, the heavy media coverage of that season, the overexposure and backlash over Farley/Spade/Sandler, and the high-profile comedy casualties of McKean, Janeane and Elliott that all overshadow the season.
I’ll reassess when the season is over but for now I still tend to feel like 93-94 is worse overall than 94-95, between seeing Phil Hartman have to wade through such dross and also having that really really soul-crushing period of Baldwin & Basinger/Lawrence/Kerrigan.
Off the top of my head, we’ve got “Gay Stripper Theater” (since Fred Wolf appears in it, I’ll guess that he wrote it) and “Juggernaut Force” (then again, they all strip for that one) left on the “Tim’s Body” tour.
Chris Elliott says “Dry Heaves” in the version of the sketch I have seen. Maybe the same issue happened in dress and Kevin put the line in his back pocket if it happened during the live show?
I saw the live NBC version back in 1994: Nealon was the one who said “dry heaves” pretty clearly, because I remember thinking afterwards “hey, Kevin, good line!”
Lots of Janeane in this episode – I remember someone on the old SNL newsgroup saying afterwards it was the most one particular cast member had been used since the days of Jan and Phil!
Inam watching on Peacock and it was Elliot that said it.
Yeah, reading these reviews make me think this season wasn’t as bad as I remembered or as most think. But still a lot to come. Foreman, Sanders, and Reiser I’m looking at you.
Foreman, Sanders and Reiser, yes – but everyone keeps glossing over Bob Saget.
“America’s Funniest Hate Videos,” people. Come on. And “Fast” being the lead-off sketch!
Saget’s pretty rough, although I find the hate videos more lazy than terrible. His monologue is awful though. One of the all time worst for me.
Sanders has some unintentionally wonderful moments for me – the “Must be the Money” number is a real classic of sheer badness, far more than Ashlee Simpson doing a jig could ever be.
Foreman I would say is more flat than anything else, with mostly just two moments of sheer awfulness (Matt Foley and the Hulk sketch).
Are you kidding? I love the Hate Videos sketch!
Same, I love it.
I was gonna say, judging from the reviews so far, you’re making s20 look a lot better than s11.
But what do I know. I was hardly paying to new SNLs by this point.
Japanese game show sketch is fantastic. I’d say it’s the best sketch of the season.
I had meant to respond to this when the review came out, and completely forgot… Stooge says about Mike in the game show sketch, “He’s actually really good at making all of the Japanese dialogue sound real.”
When the best of Chris Farley aired, I was watching it with people in my dorm, including a Japanese exchange student. He said Mike was actually speaking passable Japanese for most of the sketch. Maybe someday, someone out there can translate what he’s saying.
Somebody tried to translate it a few years ago…
https://snltranscripts.jt.org/94/high-stakes-japanese-game-show-revised-and-translated.phtml
I have the exact same memory of Chris Elliot being the one to ad-lib “dry heaves” in the rookie cop sketch, and was equally surprised that Kevin Nealon said it in the copy I recently watched.
Your memory isn’t deceiving you, there was indeed an alternate version of the Rookie Cop sketch in which Elliot delivers the “dry heave” line. That’s the version NBC has on their site:
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/rookie-cop/2868167
I like the Santa sketch but it would have been even better with Julia. Janene did a good job but this is exactly the kind of role Julia could absolutely nail, and she always had great chemistry with Alec. The show sorely misses Sweeney’s professionalism in this season.
Interestingly enough, the “I just peed my pants!” ending of Rookie Cop is omitted on Peacock despite being uncut on NBC’s website. Was that the version shown in syndication?
I *think* I remember Comedy Central’s version leaving that ending in, but I can’t say for sure.
What makes Japanese Game Show work for me is that it has great restraint that the show doesn’t really display in similar sketches this year. In a year where fluid spurting was a go-to conceit this season, I’m always pleasantly surprised that when they get to the finger cutting, we don’t get gushing blood drenching Farley. It’s subtle. Plus the sketch really takes its time getting to the twist, there’s dynamics to it. Farley is briefly back to his peak form, playing his befuddlement with perfect restraint. Kanooka, SNL. Kanooka.
Japanese Game Show was written by SNL vet (1983 – 1987) Andy Breckman. Mike Meyers loved the sketch so much he asked that his dialogue be actual Japanese which he learned phonetically.
Reading this review reminds me of what Janeane said about Alec Baldwin in her Half Hour Comedy Hour from 1995 (skip to 15:00, she talks about SNL, Alec, and George Clooney): https://youtu.be/9qr6BUNYQJE
I keep reading about how underused JG is used and am so confused because from all the episodes In this season this far, she shows up in most of them, as there’s only 2 lead females, and despite what others also say, I think Laura Kightlinger has gotten a very fair amount of screen time, in contrast to the previous season where Sarah Silverman seemed to make a tiny appearence every few episodes. So I would highly disagree, I think if anything JG is being overexposed, and wouldn’t hurt to have LK fill in for more of the roles In which JG really hated…
I know the material they were given wasn’t really something g I’d brag about if I were a cast member at that time, so I can see what JG says about being happy at times but also embarrassed and the quote her father said.
For me the prime examples of that are highlighted in this episode, not discounting other episodes as the humor has really just gone into bathroom humor a majority of the time.
In terms of Baldwin hosting, I thought he did better this season than last. I never minded him until he became the face of trump, and goodness, that wore out as much as any sketch people might have once liked or not minded, to the point of the most annoying song being played on repeat.
It’s also interesting to see how much Baldwin has aged since his first time hosting SNL back in the late 80s. It hasn’t even been ten years and he definitely looks older than I’d expect. Thought his monologue was ok but nothing memorable.
I need to rewatch the Japanese Gameshow, cause I wasn’t paying attention the whole time, and also was worn out of Myers playing that role, with the exception being JT in episode 6, when him and JG place a Chinese food order and on the other end Myers and Spade play similar characters mirroring the phone call incident sketch.
Aside from that, I watched the rest and nothing really stood out. I like Jay Mohr and think he has potential so I was happy to see him in Rookie Cop, but thought the whole vomit sketch throughout was really bad, on the level of 5th grace humor at best. Maybe what would have been better is if the props they used for vomit (lord knows this won’t be the first time in SNL to have someone fake throw up) at least seem like real puke and not come from the hand and be so noticeable with every character in the sketch. Was surprised at the end when I saw Norm, he looked emaciated and almost mistook him for a female, almost unregonizeable. But this sketch was my least favorite.
I didn’t mind the Christmas sketch, though I think LK would have been a better fit there instead of JG.
Boob & Penis Hosptial wasn’t bad either, there’s a line in the beginning where CE says to AB “damn it, mark! You’re playing god!” To which Baldwin character responds “when it comes to these womens breast, Ted…I am God!”
This seems like a reference to a previous movie In Which Baldwin & Kidman star in called Mallice, in which Baldwin plays a doctor, and there’s at least one scene about him having a god complex and how he “doesn’t play god, he is God” Though that movie was released in 93/94, still made me think of that…
The Young and the Youthful had promise and wanted to like it and it wasn’t awful, I actually got a kick of AB say how he wants more chocolate pudding. I thought the montage of characters in the soap was pretty spot on of those kinda soaps. Loved Medows soap name.
Best sketch for me was Bad Striptease, though I find CE so unattractive, to watch doing anything that resembles nudity or sexual acts, it is cringeworthy just cause he’s so gross. If it had been Baldwin (maybe 80s Baldwin) it would have been so much better but I get that the premise was that he was so repulsive, she couldn’t enjoy her honeymoon and thus went to court. This was a really good sketch overall.
Celeb memorabilia wasn’t terrible but just felt well too rushed and lacked substance, I think the wallet was the only thing that made sense. But also didn’t like having to see CE back to back, this could have been funnier if Norm had taken the role instead of a Elliot. Liked the Slater cameo.
Super interesting to watch the Beastie Boys perform, wasn’t sure at the goodnights who was smoking something, but I enjoyed t watching them play,I know my bro had been a fan of them when I was little. I didn’t know the second set but liked how it went instrumental only to get punk/rap vibes afterwards.
Also I know that the Lexon commercial reran, but the voice behind it is driving me crazy. It sounds like an actor who played a love interested in one of the characters on SATC, James Remar. I tried to google who is the voiceover for the commercial but can’t find anything, but did go to his wiki page and it says he’s been voicing Lexus commercials since 2009. And found a couple which sounds very identical to this voiceover, despite it being 16+ years later…
If anyone knows I’d be really interested in the voiceover!
Despite referencing The Young and the Restless in its title, the soap opera sketch is specifically parodying All My Children, and two characters played by David Canary for decades on the show: businessman Adam Chandler, and Adam’s mentally challenged twin, Stuart. Alec is dressed exactly as the two characters would dress, particularly the mentally challenged twin’s tendency to wear sweaters over a button up shirt, with one of the lapels peeking out over the top of the sweater. All My Children got an absurd amount of mileage out of the twins impersonating each other in one scheme after another.
Andy Breckman came in as a guest writer and singlehandedly wrote Parents Believe in Santa, Japanese Game Show, and Back Seat. This season could have used more Breckman but at least he comes back semi-regularly in the first half of the next season.