Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
PRESS CONFERENCE
Janet Reno (WIF) defends herself in Bill Clinton (DAH) press conference
— I love Will’s Janet Reno suddenly taking over Darrell-as-President-Clinton’s press conference.
— The “straight talk” from Will’s Reno is providing good laughs.
— I like Clinton’s little “I didn’t need ’em anyway” line when Reno takes away his crutches.
— This is the very first instance of Ana playing Helen Thomas in a press conference sketch, which would go on to be a running thing.
— Good ending with Reno making Mark’s Wolf Blitzer sit on her back as she does sit-ups.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
in an attempt to calm her nerves, host takes off some of her clothing
— A fairly thin joke, which isn’t necessarily hilarious, but this isn’t bad.
STARS: ***
DARNETTE DISPOSABLE TOILETS
Rerun from 12/14/96
BAYWATCH
at a beach volleyball tourney, Craig & Arianna cheer & rescue C.J. (host)
— Kinda amusing hearing the Cheerleaders make a Spice Girls reference in the episode right after the Spice Girls were musical guests on the show.
— So far, this feels a little weaker than most Cheerleaders sketches.
— Okay, Craig and Arianna’s pre-taped slow-motion running while the Baywatch theme plays is pretty funny.
STARS: **½
BIOGRAPHY
Tiger Woods (TIM) & controlling father Earl (TRM) are profiled
— I love Darrell’s impression of a buzzed Jack Perkins.
— The contrast between Tracy and Tim’s interviews is really humorous, and both of them are having lots of funny lines all throughout this.
STARS: ****
THE ROXBURY GUYS
Roxbury Guys pursue (host) from the dance club to the health club
— Meh, this sketch once again…
— Feels weird seeing a Roxbury Guys sketch without a third Roxbury Guy, for the first time since these characters’ debut in the season 21 Phil Hartman-hosted episode, before they became hit characters.
— Funny turn with the the power in the dance club suddenly going out, forcing Will and Chris’ characters to speak actual dialogue for the first time ever in a Roxbury Guys sketch.
STARS: **½
MOVIE SHOOT
on host’s movie set, jealous hubby Tommy (NOM) can’t fathom make-believe
Tommy Lee [real] doesn’t understand that skit is make-believe
— Hilarious odd casting of Norm as Tommy Lee. I’m liking him in this role.
— The repetitive premise is getting a little weak.
— An okay turn with the real Tommy Lee crashing the sketch.
STARS: **½
TV FUNHOUSE
by RBS- The Ambiguously Gay Duo teaches safety tips to kids
— Ah, a change of pace for The Ambiguously Gay Duo, with them giving safety tips.
— Ace and Gary’s various suggestive postures during their helpful tips are very funny, as are the reactions from the kids.
— A particularly funny suggestive posture just now, when it looks like Gary is giving Ace a BJ while Ace is driving.
STARS: ****
WEEKEND UPDATE
— Ha, the Arnold Schwarzenegger heart surgery joke made absolutely no sense to me, but I laughed anyway just because of Norm’s delivery and his response to the audience.
— When flubbing the set-up of a joke, Norm says an exaggerated “Oh, drat”, possibly as a tongue-in-cheek reference to his famous f-bomb in the preceding episode.
— Somebody in the audience boos Norm’s typical prison anal rape joke.
— When doing a “Note to self” just now, Norm makes a direct reference to his f-bomb incident, by starting to say into his tape recorder “If I get fired for cursing on the air last week…”
— Oddly, this is the second Update in a row to have no guest commentaries.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Starve”
HEY, REMEMBER THE 80’S
Jenny McCarthy (host) & David Lee Roth (CHK)
— (*groan*) Not this again. However, they at least waited a long time since the last installment of this sketch, which was way back in October of this season.
— What the…? Is that Tom Davis as one of the two scientists in the background? (screencap below)
I thought Tom Davis left SNL after season 20. [ADDENDUM: Tom was credited as a guest writer during this episode’s goodnights. No idea what he guest wrote, though.]
— Chris’ David Lee Roth impression is cracking me up.
— Pamela’s Jenny McCarthy impression is much harsher than the tame one Lisa Kudrow did earlier this season.
— Goat Boy continues to do nothing for me, but the out-of-control wildness from McCarthy and Roth is at least taking this installment into a bit of a different direction, even if it’s still not all that funny.
— I did get a laugh from the ending with Pamela’s Jenny McCarthy running face-first into the camera and knocking herself out.
STARS: **½
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB
sycophantic guests say what Oprah (TIM) wants to hear
— The debut of Tim’s Oprah impression.
— Tim’s take on Oprah is basically just a stereotypical, generic black woman impression, but it’s still making me laugh.
— For once tonight, Pamela actually plays against type.
— This feels like the first time all night we’re seeing some of the female cast members, though I just now remembered that some of them had a small role way back in the cold opening.
— This sketch is kinda weird so far. Some parts are making me laugh, but I’m not finding this too great.
— I like Cheri trying to hide the fact that she obviously didn’t read the book.
— So much for Pamela playing against type. This sketch ends with her (along with the other characters) naked in a hot tub.
STARS: **½
LARRY KING’S NEWS & VIEWS
Larry King’s (NOM) News & Views range from the trite to the bizarre
— Another celebrity impression makes its debut tonight: Norm’s Larry King, which I’m always a sucker for, especially in these News & Views sketches.
— When Norm’s Larry King says “Sometimes I wonder if giving women the right to vote wasn’t a huge mistake”, you can hear a male audience member mutter “Yeaahhh” in agreement.
— King’s various one-liners into the different cameras are killing me.
STARS: ****
THE FIRST ANNUAL PAMELA LEE INVITATIONAL NASCAR RALLY
host’s cleavage causes accidents at her Invitational NASCAR Rally
— A thin premise, but the voice-overs from the racers in the crashing cars are kinda funny.
STARS: **½
LARRY KING’S NEWS & VIEWS
Larry King (NOM) offers more News & Views
— Yes, a Part 2 of this!
— Overall, this was shorter and not quite as funny as the first one, but still gave me good laughs.
STARS: ***½
THE TWILIGHT ZONE
in the eyes of her pig-faced beholders, (host) is hot
— This sketch has an interesting backstory regarding Norm and Chris, which Jim has talked about on various shows, including Howard Stern’s radio show. The story is too lengthy for me to go into detail about here, and I don’t have enough time to dig up a YouTube link of Jim telling the story, but somebody in the comments section can probably help out.
— Not a very creative or particularly funny twist on the famous pig-faces episode of The Twilight Zone, especially during a night that’s ALREADY been filled with “Pamela Lee is so hot” sketches.
— It is nice to see so much Norm in tonight’s episode, though.
STARS: **
SENSE OF HUMOR
on a first date, (CHK) pretends to like knockout (host)’s sense of humor
— Chris has been in practically every single sketch tonight. Probably a result of his habit of always trying too hard to flirt with hot female guests behind the scenes and write sketches that are just an excuse for him to make out with said guests (a habit of Chris’ which is talked about during Jim’s aforementioned Norm/Chris story regarding the Twilight Zone sketch).
— Did Pamela screw up her “Hey, McDonalds, I’m McOut of here” joke? It sounds like she forgot to add the “Mc” before “Out”, which caused Chris’ reaction to that joke to not make much sense.
— I’ve been complaining about a lot of tonight’s sketch premises, and here’s yet another complaint: this sketch’s premise feels like a thin variation of an earlier blind date sketch with Elle MacPherson. That sketch itself wasn’t too good, but this one is even worse.
— Weak ending.
STARS: *½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A subpar episode. I was underwhelmed by most of the sketches and premises, especially in the post-Update half. Not much in this episode stood out as truly good. Some would say that a weak episode should’ve been expected with Pamela Lee as a host, which may be true, but I personally think that other good eras of SNL could’ve done much more with her or worked around her limitations better. Tonight’s episode, on the other hand, felt like the writers didn’t even try with her.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Rob Lowe)
a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Our annual John Goodman episode