Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
NIGHTLINE
vindicated Heaven’s Gaters party aboard the comet-trailing UFO
— Will is absolutely priceless as Marshall Applewhite. A perfect role for him.
— A good laugh from Tim’s shoutout to his “homies” at the Deep Space Nine fan club.
— I love the part with Applewhite saying he regrets “the castration thing”.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
host reads some not-very-prescient entries from his ’80s diary
— I like Rob’s way-off predictions about the future of his co-stars from “The Outsiders”.
— Some other laughs from Rob’s diary entries, such as him regretting not getting the part of the movie “Mannequin”.
— What was Rob’s “Youth for Dukakis rally” reference all about? Did something infamous happen there?
— I’m surprised this overall diary reading didn’t have any digs at Rob’s infamous sex tape scandal.
STARS: ***½
KEDS
unlike Nike-wearing Heaven’s Gaters, level-headed Christians prefer Keds
— Wow, SNL airing footage of actual dead bodies?
— The Keds twist at the end was fantastic.
STARS: ****½
THE JOE PESCI SHOW
Robert DeNiro (COQ) helps beat up celebrities
sheepish JMB & COQ hear criticism from Joe Pesci & Robert DeNiro [real]
— Colin is no Alec Baldwin when it comes to impersonating Robert DeNiro.
— Kattan playing David Spade? Oh my god.
— During the beginning of the Spade interview, I like Colin’s DeNiro saying “Where’s the fat guy? I like the fat guy.”
— Another good line from Colin’s DeNiro, saying “Buh-bye” while stomping Spade on the floor.
— Rob’s Eric Roberts voice is freakin’ priceless, and I’m enjoying his dialogue.
— A very famous sudden appearance from the real Pesci and DeNiro.
— I absolutely love Pesci’s calm-but-tense, slow-paced rant to Jim and Colin.
— One of SNL’s better instances of the familiar trope of “cast member gets confronted by the celebrity they’re impersonating”.
— Robert DeNiro to Colin: “Who are you supposed to be?” Colin: “Colin Quinn, Remote Control?”
— Overall, this would’ve been absolutely perfect as the final installment of this sketch, but we somehow still end up getting one more installment of this sketch, in the following season, showing that this era doesn’t know when to quit with recurring characters.
STARS: ****
FOOD, SEX, OR CARS?!
game show contestants choose among id-pleasers
— A gameshow sketch that I’ve always loved.
— The various choices for food, sex, or cars are getting increasingly hilarious as the sketch progresses.
— Fun pacing to this sketch.
— A particularly funny part with Will’s choices being a circus peanut, Bea Arthur, and a Dodge Dart, which Will responds to with “I don’t wanna eat, have sex, or drive any of those things.”
STARS: ****
GOTH TALK
teens Circe (MOS) & Azrael (CHK) rue their anachronistic lot
— This sketch makes its debut.
— A good timely sketch for this period.
— Funny characterization from Chris, and I especially like his line about working at Cinnabons.
— I love Jim as Chris’ douchey brother. What’s up with his weird belt, though? (screencap below)
— The “scary” video from Rob as The Beholder is very funny, and my favorite part of this sketch.
STARS: ****
TV FUNHOUSE
“X-Presidents” by RBS- Richard Nixon helps save Al Gore from aliens
— This feels like the first time in quite a while that they’re airing a TV Funhouse.
— As usual, we get some really funny badass one-liners from each president confronting a villain. I especially like Bush’s “Read my lips: your ass is grass” and Reagan’s “Just say no… to pissing me off.”
— I like the assistance the X-Presidents are getting from a reanimated Richard Nixon.
STARS: ***½
LESBIAN PROGRAMMING
NBC exec (MAM) & Mickey The Dyke introduce Ellen-inspired lesbian shows
— The lesbian-friendly programming changes are providing some laughs.
— We find out that Cheri’s Mickey The Dyke character’s real name is Michelle Russo. (If it was mentioned in an earlier sketch she appeared in, I didn’t notice.)
— I particularly laughed at the show titles “7 Lesbians and a Lesbian” and “Crazy About Muffy”.
— Interesting line at the end about NBC still not being ready to embrace male homosexuality.
STARS: ***½
WEEKEND UPDATE
— And there’s the famous moment of tonight’s Update: Norm uncontrollably goes “blaaagh” in the middle of a joke, then mutters “Fuck was that?”, trailing off at the end of that sentence when realizing he just said the f-word on live TV. It takes the audience a few seconds to realize it, but when they do, they wildly applaud. Norm responds to that by saying “Ahh, my farewell performance”.
— Much like a blooper in the Update from the then-recent Sting episode, we get another wrong camera shot while Norm’s in the middle of telling a joke, though unlike last time, this gaffe ends pretty fast and doesn’t distract Norm.
— Norm signs off at the end by saying, as a reference to his f-bomb slip earlier, “Maybe we’ll see you next week.”
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wannabe”
PERSPECTIVES
black major leaguer (TRM) explains Jackie Robinson’s import
— This is probably the earliest spot this sketch has ever aired in an episode.
— So far, tonight’s Perspectives installment has been one great line after another, with so many hilarious foolish statements from Tim’s Lionel Osborne, such as him asking Tracy what was it like to play with Jackie Robinson, asking Tracy if there were any other black players before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, and saying Tracy will be pumping gas if he doesn’t have a good season.
— A very solid straight man performance from Tracy.
— I particularly love Lionel Osborne jovially saying “Baseball fever, catch it!” after Tracy somberly mentions that Jackie Robinson’s family received death threats on a daily basis.
— Very funny ending with Lionel asking Tracy if he can come back as a guest in tomorrow’s episode and Tracy immediately responding with a stern “No.”
STARS: ****½
LA POLITICA NON CORRECTO
Hispanic panelists discuss issues irreverently
— Always interesting to see a sketch being performed entirely in a foreign language.
— This is perfectly capturing the essence of some of the shows typically seen on Spanish networks.
— A rare instance of Darrell actually being very funny in a non-impression role.
— I love how one of the panelists is randomly Scarface.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Say You’ll Be There”
RANT
waitress Janet Blaum’s (ANG) weak insults hamstring her labor uprising
— Geez, is this Ana’s first appearance all night? Then again, she may have been one of the non-speaking cult members standing in the background of the cold opening. If so, I didn’t notice.
— Ana’s awkward, poorly-censored, corny rant is hilarious. I especially cracked up “You are a… gigantic… manager!”
— Okay, Ana’s rant is going on longer than it needs to and is getting a little less funny, though it’s still providing laughs.
— I like Will and Jim’s amusement and mocking towards Ana’s questionable word choices.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong and memorable episode, and the best one in a while. There was a good number of really solid sketches in this episode, plus some well-remembered moments, such as the Pesci/DeNiro cameo and Norm Macdonald’s accidental f-bomb.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Mike Myers)
a mild step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Pamela Lee