Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
LATE NIGHT SNACK
approval-seeking Bill Clinton (DAH) makes late-night calls & pigs out
— Our very first instance of Darrell’s President Clinton impression leading his own sketch.
— Some pretty good laughs from Darrell-as-Clinton’s piggish eating during his various desperate late night phone calls. As I said in my review of an earlier and much more famous “Bill Clinton pigging out on food” sketch (Phil Hartman’s classic Clinton At McDonalds sketch), both that sketch and tonight’s cold opening always make me hungry whenever I watch them.
— Good drawn-out build-up to Clinton secretly spraying whipped cream in his mouth.
— I like how Clinton’s desperation has now gotten to the point where he’s calling up some random person he doesn’t even know.
— This is Tim’s fourth “Live from New York” in five episodes this season.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
to honor TV, host dances & sings “I’m Gonna Blow You A Kiss In The Wind”
— Funny turn with Quentin’s “See, there was this one episode of Bewitched…” after his very serious set-up about what the single greatest moment in TV history is.
— Oh my god, Tarantino singing?!?
— Jesus, this song performance from Quentin is INSANE, especially his, uh, dancing. No idea how to feel about this, though he’s certainly is giving it his all.
STARS: **
BUGOFF
the BugOff roach trap lets you watch as the caught insect is tortured
— Will plays his very first commercial spokesperson, a role that I’ve always felt he was underrated in.
— A lot of hilarious CGI details of the torture the roach suffers through BugOff, such as his reproductive organs being burned off and him being beat senseless with own severed limbs.
— Will: “True, none of this will actually kill the roach, but it will give him plenty to think about.”
STARS: ****½
FOOTBALL GAME
unofficial cheerleaders Craig (WIF) & Arianna (CHO) show their spirit
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Feels odd in retrospect seeing a Spartans sketch start without the usual applause that I’m used to hearing from the audience at the beginning of every Spartans appearance.
— Another oddity of this inaugural Spartans installment is that it’s set outdoors instead of inside a gymnasium like most of their subsequent appearances.
— As I said in my review of Mary Katherine Gallagher’s debut in the preceding episode, I’m going to approach the debuts of this era’s biggest and soon-to-be most annoying recurring characters by treating their respective first installment as a standalone sketch and pretending that I’m unaware it’s the first of a series of sketches.
— Tons of energy from Will and Cheri so far, which is coming off pretty fun. And like the prom sketch that Will and Cheri did in the Chevy Chase episode earlier this season, it’s interesting to watch an early display of their great chemistry.
— I like Will and Cheri’s dancing to “Everybody Dance Now”.
— Oh my god at Quentin’s batshit crazy energy during his brief appearance. I… I have no words.
— Overall, not too bad for the Spartans’ debut. If they kept these characters one-and-done, that would’ve been just fine. But Jesus Christ, not only do these characters end up becoming recurring, we end up seeing them about 20 times (I don’t even think that number is an exaggeration, BTW), most of those appearances being within both this and next season alone. The thought of having to review all of those Spartans sketches in such a short amount of time is just…. once again, I have no words.
STARS: ***
CLARA TURLEY’S BIBLE CHALLENGE
Stan Hooper (NOM) exploits trusting Christians on a bible quiz show
— The very first appearance of Norm’s Stan Hooper character. Now THIS is a recurring character debut that I’m excited about.
— Great intro shot of a cigarette-smoking, McDonalds-eating Norm.
— I love Stan Hooper always casually claiming he knew the answer.
— Writer Paula Pell playing a character with her own first name.
— Good line from Hooper about how he’s quit his job and is doing this show full-time now.
— Stan Hooper: “Praise the God!”
— A great blunt and deadpan “NO.” from Hooper when asked if he’s lying.
— The premise is starting to get a little one-note, but Norm has the great ability to maintain my goodwill towards this material.
— Great fast-paced bit with Hooper being handed money each time he claims in rapid succession that he knows the answer to the orders of angels that Nancy is listing off one-by-one.
— Overall, a classic and a quintessential Norm Macdonald sketch.
STARS: *****
DIRECTORS ON DIRECTING
to host, the best job perq is sex with actresses
— The opening applause for each director’s intro is coming off awkwardly timed.
— Quentin: “Directors, by and large, are the most butt-ugly motley group of geeks found this side of a Star Trek contention.”
— When grilling Tim’s Spike Lee, I love Quentin telling all of the directors “Everybody who didn’t shoot an extreme close-up of their lips sucking on Rosie Perez’s breast, raise your hand.”
— Quentin’s lines to Koechner’s Oliver Stone are cracking me up.
— Yikes at Quentin’s awful, exaggerated delivery during his rant “Back when I was working at a video store for FIVE YEARS!!! making MINIMUM WAGE!!! riding the BUS IN L.A.!!! living with MY MOM!!!… etc.” I know he’s emphasizing those words to make a point, but Jesus Christ, he is overdoing the fucking hell out of it and it is cringeworthy.
— Yeah, things have taken a turn for the worse in this sketch. Quentin’s delivery is starting to become too much for me, and now that he’s stopped making me laugh, I’m starting to see a very uncomfortable nature to this sketch’s subject matter, due to the unfortunate similarities to all the Harvey Weinstein/#metoo stuff from recent years. I still find some of Quentin’s earlier lines (before he stared going overboard with his delivery) funny in spite of this sketch’s bad taste.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Don King (TIM) sweet-talks NOM & laughs off allegations of wrongdoing
creepy obsequious fops Lucien (MAM) & Fagin (DAK) fawn over NOM
— I see they’re still experimenting with the opening theme music for Update. Tonight, we get a cool-sounding, laid-back theme that I don’t recognize. Is it from a Tarantino movie or is it just random stock music?
— When Norm is introducing the Don King commentary, you can hear the audience laughing out loud at the off-camera visual of Tim as Don King. We’ll see in a second why exactly they’re laughing at that visual.
— Great visual of Tim in an insanely tall Don King wig. No idea how that wig is managing to stay in place and not tip over whenever Tim moves his head.
— Very fun performance from Tim. The material itself isn’t anything special, but Tim is managing to make it work.
— Yet another noteworthy recurring character debut in tonight’s episode: The Fops.
— I love the random idea to have Koechner and Mark inexplicably play old-timey fops in a modern-day setting.
— Funny occasional cutaways to a close-up of a deadpan and quietly disturbed Norm while the Fops are praising him in a creepy way.
— So many funny little details in the Fops’ mannerisms and lines. Koechner and Mark are a riot in this commentary.
STARS: ****
LEG UP
host tries to explain that he’s not a choreographer
— I actually liked the first installment of this sketch back in the season premiere (I feel like I’m in the minority there), but yeah, not sure I need to see this as a recurring sketch.
— The chemistry between Molly and Cheri is still fun.
— I like Molly and Cheri’s confusion over what Reservoir Dogs is, acting like it’s an old 50s-type Broadway song.
— Yet another dose tonight of Quentin’s bizarro dancing?
— Overall, I found this installment merely okay, but it was a step down from the first installment, and I don’t see a shelf life for this recurring sketch. I get the bad feeling that I’m going to find each passing installment of this sketch to be less funny than the last one, until it gets to the degree where I can’t stand the sight of this sketch. I do recall the one with Phil Hartman as Frank Sinatra being okay, though.
STARS: ***
WHITE TRASH AROUND A CAMPFIRE DEALING WITH AN OVERABUNDANCE OF FLUIDS
what the title above says
— First time we’ve seen Jim Breuer in quite a while. He has been absolutely invisible these last two episodes. I keep forgetting he’s even in the cast.
— Will’s performance as a redneck is cracking me up.
— Uh, where exactly are the laughs in this sketch supposed to be coming from? From the excessive amount of fluids whenever something gets opened or squashed? Are you kidding me with this, SNL?
— I admit that I am finding everybody’s goofy performances kinda fun, but this material is fucking DREADFUL.
— Dumb ending with the title card saying the long name of the sketch.
— Overall, all I have left to say is, I see SNL is still occasionally using leftover season 20 scripts. Thanks a lot, Fred Wolf. I bet we also have him to thank for that “Prison guard likes being raped” sketch from the preceding episode, another season 20-esque premise (even if I did find that particular sketch kinda funny).
STARS: *
SPADE IN AMERICA
DAS reunites host with Robert Hegyes [real]
— An amusing crack from Spade about Billy Corgan being the guy from Powder. Though I swear there’s a later SNL episode that makes that exact same Powder joke, only it’s about Michael Stipe instead of Billy Corgan. In fact, isn’t it Spade himself who makes that Stipe joke during a Hollywood Minute-themed Spade In America installment later this season? Does he seriously rip off his own joke?!?
— A very odd but interesting change of pace for Spade In America.
— Our first onscreen appearance from new SNL writer Frank Sebastiano (the chubby, long-haired, bearded, biker-looking dude), who always cracks me up whenever he shows up in a sketch (we’ll be seeing him in his own brief Weekend Update commentary in the very next episode). He just has such an amusing, unconventional look for an SNL writer.
— They’re making it seem like we’re about to get a Jay Leno cameo. Between Leno and Tarantino, I don’t think the SNL cameras can handle that much chin.
— Ah, the Leno thing turns out to be an amusing fake-out, where they instead awkwardly bring out SNL’s own Leno impersonator Darrell Hammond.
— An overall decent Spade In America installment. The big change of pace paid off fairly well, and was a welcome improvement over the dreadful Spade In America installment from the preceding episode.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Zero”
ALL ABOARD! WITH CHESTER MILLBRUSH
old train worker (host) tells how he beats up “hobos”
— Here’s a weird little 10-to-1 sketch that I’ve always loved.
— Quentin’s casual detailing of disturbing violent things he and his buddies did to one particular hobo is hilariously unsettling.
— Funny bit regarding the blood stains on Quentin’s overalls.
— I love how Quentin keep randomly transitioning back-and-forth between friendly model train tips and stories of gruesome hobo beatdowns.
— Haha, as no surprise, the studio audience is pretty silent during this dark, twisted sketch so far.
— Very funny how the pictures that Quentin’s showing of alleged hobos are gradually less hobo-ish, eventually getting to the point where he just showing pictures of professionals like a priest, a doctor, etc..
— Great ending with Quentin going wild while using a monkeywrench to destroy the head of a hobo dummy.
— Overall, I find this sketch to be a great, bizarre little deep cut. Considering the fact that one of my all-time favorite SNL writers, Andy Breckman, is credited as a guest writer in this episode (as he has been in the last few episodes), I’d like to think he was the writer behind this sketch, though I’m not sure, as I can’t quite say this sketch fully matches his usual style.
STARS: ****½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An average episode, leaning slightly to the “meh” side. This episode seems to have a reputation as a terrible episode that’s one of this season’s worst (hell, even NBC seemed to think so, as they never gave it a season rerun, IIRC), which I never quite understood. It’s certainly not a great episode, but aside from that god-awful campfire sketch, it wasn’t particularly terrible. Again, just an average episode, with a hint of “meh”-ness. There were a few certain things I found particularly great, though, especially Clara Turley’s Bible Challenge. Quentin Tarantino certainly displayed lots of energy tonight, a little TOO MUCH so at times, but I wasn’t blown away by him as a host, and he had a few cringe-y moments in the first half of the show. He seemed to get a little better as the night went on, and I did love the way he carried the delightfully disturbing All Aboard sketch.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Gabriel Byrne)
a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Laura Leighton
The cheerleaders were fantastic for about three appearances. Then they just coasted by on Will and Cheri’s chemistry for a while. But I’ll always defend the choice to make them recurring. The show desperately needed new stars in their new cast as quickly as possible, and the Cheerleaders (and to a lesser extent, The Fops) became the perfect candidates.
I don’t know if people remember how prominently the Fops were featured in a lot of the promos back then. They really were the first big standouts of that season. Then Cheerleaders second. And my god Leg Up annoyed me to no end, right from the start. I’ll be the first one to admit I never really liked Molly Shannon much on SNL.
That makes NBC’s decision to fire Koechner even more confusing to me.
At the time Molly (as a cast member, not a person of course) annoyed me, not helped by the press which would compare her to Gilda Radner. Her recurring characters were my biggest issue with her, as they all annoyed me to no end, aside from Delicious Dish (and, for whatever reason, Sally O’Malley). I have come around somewhat over the years and I think she was mostly a victim of how one-note this era was – she seems like she has the potential for far more layers in the glimpses we have of her from spring ’95, and from her post-SNL work, but those recurring characters still give me a bit of a chill.
Yeah, I give SNL a pass for the heavy push and use of the recurring characters–one, it’s extraordinary that they got so many well received characters so quickly, but there’s also something to the idea of running with what’s hot (to some extent, I guess, even though SNL always did recurring things, this is Lorne taking a page out of Ebersol’s playbook in 1984). I remember being in high school at this time and kids were doing the impressions of the characters–when you’re a new cast and a new season, coming off a perceived slump, you use the hot hand.
I actually liked the cheerleaders; they never really bugged me. I wasn’t a fan of MKG that much (I enjoyed Molly’s Sally O’Malley and Jeannie Darcy more).
This episode highlights a big difference between this era and the previous one, a difference that’s good or bad depending on who you ask: the energy is way higher.
Aside from Farley and occasionally Sandler, there’s a very slow vibe to a lot of ’93-’95 for me, even when it’s funny. In this cast, you get like four different Screamy McScreamsalots and a lot of characters predicated entirely around screaming and wild energy. If Quentin had hosted a year before, his coke-y energy would be ten times more jarring.
Also, it’s interesting how Stan Hooper’s whole thing is that he’s *not* anything. It’s basically Norm but with a different name. Norm even has described him as “a bland empty vessel of a man.” It’s so weird that that character got his own sitcom.
I recall Koechner on Norm MacDonald Live talking about the creation of The Fops, I think they were two different characters him and McKinney created separately (the inspiration for Koechner’s Fagan was funny, not sure if those old NML are still out there, Koechner also talked about a retired irish boxer who took too many hits to the head character he tries to get on all season that kept getting cut after dress) and had to idea to put them together. Dave seemed to be one of few guys McKinney had a good chemistry with which I think helped him get on a bit more this season, after Dave was gone Mark seemed pretty lost in his final season, honestly don’t remember any big moments from in 96-97.
Also I’m pretty sure I’ve read before that Frank Sebastiano was the inspiration for “Frank” the Judah Friedlander character on 30 Rock.
Ehh this show wasn’t that bad, in fact I’d rather it surprisingly good. I had a good time last Saturday night. QT made for a decent host he had a lot of energy and made each skit fun. Smashing Pumpkins were great too, Corgan’s first performance was one of the most angriest I’ve ever seen on the show at the start I love it.
Never was a fan of the Cheerleaders and MKG so I skipped the former’s skit, no big loss. The Campfire skit was oddly my favorite because of how stupid it was, everyone did the redneck routine great though. The Railroad skit was fun at the end but was way too short for me.
I remember some articles not long ago about how this episode was crazy, because of Quentin of course. I wondered if they may not have watched full episodes very often outside of his hosting stint, as there’s nothing particularly risque here – even the hobo sketch was nothing eyebrow-raising. The only thing that stands out about the episode is that awful folksy/Southern accent Tarantino uses every time he isn’t playing himself.
Between the heavy host focus, the misogyny, the grossout Fred Wolf piece, and the hobo piece, and Norm being the one strong point of the episode, this has more of a season 20 feel than one might have expected.
The Bible sketch is a very interesting piece, in that you almost feel like Norm is trying to test the audience in how much patience they’ll have before some sort of twist arrives. There’s never any twist, which probably IS the twist.
Also a very strong Update – one of Norm’s strongest probably. What a terrific debut for The Fops. You rarely see a recurring character feel so brilliantly defined right off the bat without also feeling like it’s overly self-aware or tired, but this is just perfect.
I was glad the audience gave Robert Hegyes a good response and that Spade didn’t tear into him for some easy laughs. Spade in America ran a little too long, but I appreciate that the last few haven’t been him just behind the desk and he’s adding something fresh to the episodes.
The cold open also felt too long and one-note to me, but it’s a better use of Hammond’s Clinton than we’d usually get, and the set design on that kitchen was great.
It wasn’t a great episode, mostly due to the material, but I enjoyed the energy and enthusiasm that Tarantino brought to his hosting gig. You could tell how excited he was to be there. If the sketches had been a bit stronger, I think that it would have been a classic show.
@JWalker agree… which is funny since QT strikes me as the kind of person who would have stood around at the video store saying how SNL hasn’t been good since season one, and that it lacks the consistency of a British sketch show that makes 6 episodes a decade or something.
Also I never understood Stan Hooper to be a character, just a name Norm uses over and over (like Breckman and Dale Butterworth). The version of Stan in this episode is totally different from the one in the classic Elle MacPherson sketch, and they’re both different from the middling short-lived sitcom
They certainly go back to using writers as extras in this era. Wolf, Quinn, Pell, McKay and probably some others have all made appearances so far. I think Hugh Fink has several next couple seasons
Stooge, I think the theme used for Norms’ update in this episode is the song played in that famous “Reservoir Dogs” scene that was parodied in the previous season in “Quinten Tarantino’s Welcome Back Kotter”. I just watched the clips of both Update commentaries from this episode online and one of them (I forget which) has this playing at the end. I recognized it immediately. I don’t know the title of the song itself but I just thought you might like to know this.
Again, I’m probably a minority on this, but I LOVE the Cheerleaders! Yes, they were overplayed (like Mary Katherine) but I think it was important for the new cast to establish some fun and popular recurring characters right off the bat, and boy they did. At least we didn’t get a Spartan Cheerleaders movie. 🙂 Anyway, the energy and pop of Will and Cheri’s performance is very memorable and made for a great recurring sketch.
I also LOVE the dandy fops. They were certainly a prominent fixture this season…but they’re largely forgotten now and never quite entered the annals of SNL history. I’m not sure why, because they were hilarious. Just the face that McKinney makes when he delivers his lines (especially “delicious”) that smile! …LOL…it’s so devious and creepy and somewhat sinister, I love it. Also Koechner’s halting way of speaking and how all of his lines basically disappear in a bunch of mumbles is also hilarious. Love the Fops, but they only worked in this bit of being members of a “fan club” I seem to remember a couple of times where SNL attempted to do a skit based around them (they were like antique store owners or something)…didn’t really work in that setting.
Now, as for the episode, I appreciate Quentin’s energy and enthusiasm…but he’s trying WAY too hard to be funny throughout the show. The only sketch I like his approach is the 10-to-1 beating up the hobos sketch. 🙂 I also love the Bible Challenge game show, Norm is perfect in the role, and it’s a shame they didn’t use him outside of Update during Season 20, because his contributions to sketches is usually always good and memorable. Bug Off is also great.
The White Trash Campfire…ugh…bad sketch. Also the Directors bit “Did you jam her?”…(first of all, who the hell uses that euphemism for sex?) and yikes, this has certainly not aged well. Wow.
Was there some kind of alternate version of the closing theme/”Waltz in A”? I noticed that the piano seemed to be playing at a much quicker tempo at the end of this episode (mainly during the bumper pic), which I kinda liked.
Happy 25th anniversary to the Spartan Cheerleaders.
@Casey is right… the WU theme is “Little Green Bag” by the George Baker Selection. It hit #21 on the charts in 1970.
Ey, a host from my hometown of Knoxville!
Will as Craig had a wig in dress
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