May 10, 1997 – John Goodman / Jewel (S22 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

OPRAH
Anne Heche (CHK) loves attention, not Ellen DeGeneres (MAM)

— Again, Tim’s inaccurate Oprah impression makes me laugh, and I like his variations of “Go, girl” throughout this sketch.
— I like Mark’s take on Ellen DeGeneres, especially when telling stand-up-type jokes.
— Having two famous lesbians being played by male cast members probably couldn’t be done nowadays, but I feel that Mark and Chris are doing fine in these roles.
— I believe this is Chris’ first time ever saying “Live from New York…”.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
rapid weight loss program has SNL veteran host confused about show format

— Wow, John lost a ton of weight. (Unfortunately, it doesn’t end up lasting too long, as he’s back to his usual large self in the next episode he hosts a year later.) This is also the shortest I’ve seen his hair on SNL.
— And now he openly acknowledges his weight loss.
— I like the alleged past SNL cast members John lists off, such as Alan Alda, Phylicia Rashad, and the “Where’s the Beef?” lady.
— More funny out-of-it statements from John.
— I love the visual of Tim entering the scene while still in his Oprah costume, sans the wig.
— Another instance of this season’s running gag of Tim giving Lorne a hug. I especially like Tim doing that after telling Lorne “You saved the show again!”
STARS: ***½

CARIBBEAN ESSENCE BATH OIL
Rerun from 10/5/96

CELEBRITY JEOPARDY
Marlon Brando (host), Phil Donahue (DAH), Burt Reynolds (NOM)

 

— This officially becomes a recurring sketch.
— Feels odd in retrospect to see Darrell playing anyone other than Sean Connery in a Celebrity Jeopardy sketch. It wouldn’t become a regular thing for him to play Connery in these sketches until after Norm leaves the cast.
— John’s Marlon Brando is absolutely hilarious.
— Like last time, a lot of very funny idiotic answers from the contestants, and funny straight man reactions from Will’s Alex Trebek.
— I love how Trebek’s frustration gets to the point where he gives the contestants an overly simplistic “Name this color” question, which the contestants, of course, still manage to get wrong.
— Brando randomly removing his pants and underwear while giving his answer is a riot.
— Yet another funny action from Brando, with him playing with a puppet while his Final Jeopardy answer is read by Trebek.
STARS: ****½

TALKIN’ WITH SUEL
Ron Wood (MIM) & Bjork (MOS) babble about drugs, maybe

— Then-recent host Mike Myers appears as a special guest tonight, and was even credited as such earlier tonight in the opening montage. Is he appearing tonight because Austin Powers opened around this time?
— I usually always enjoy Suel Forrester sketches, but I’m not sure how I’ll feel about this one. The last time SNL did a talk show sketch with an unintelligible person interviewing other unintelligible people, Mike’s own Ron Wood played the host and the sketch was simply not funny. Besides, I think Suel Forrester works better when he plays off of normal people, not people who are just as unintelligible as him.
— Yeah, this sketch isn’t working too much for me. I am liking Molly’s Bjork impression, though.
— I like the gibberish phone number displayed on the bottom of the screen (the fourth above screencap for this sketch).
STARS: **

EDDIE MURPHY, GOOD SAMARITAN
Good Samaritan Eddie Murphy (TIM) selflessly helps transvestites

— Wow, a mean-spirited jab at a legendary SNL alum, referencing a controversy he was recently in the news for. I’d be lying, though, if I said I’m not cracking up at this sketch. I see SNL’s not letting Eddie’s very negative reaction to a joke David Spade told about him the preceding season stop them from taking another harsh shot at him.
— Tim’s imitation of Eddie’s trademark laugh is odd, but makes me laugh.
— I never thought I’d see Colin Quinn in drag (the second-to-last screencap above).
STARS: ***½

THE DELICIOUS DISH
Margaret Jo & Terry discuss summer cookouts with chili expert (host)

— As always, Ana and Molly are able to get solid laughs out of their comically mundane discussions, especially the discussion about ice.
— I love John very slowly repeating the barbecue ingredients he listed off.
— Heh, just now, you can hear an SNL audience member sneeze while he was in the middle of laughing. Maybe the quiet, soft-spoken nature of this sketch made the audience member’s sneeze more audible to us home viewers.
— John is really good as a guest; probably my favorite performance that a host has given in the Delicious Dish sketches that have aired up to this point.
— Mark continues his streak of always playing a caller in Delicious Dish sketches (and I just realized that this is the very last time we’ll ever be hearing him in this recurring sketch, considering his SNL tenure is about to end). There has yet to be a Delicious Dish sketch where the callers weren’t played by Mark and/or Cheri, further proving my theory that in the universe of Delicious Dish, the show has almost no listeners.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE
Dominican Lou hopes to enlist Deep Blue against his dominoes rival Felix
learning that Ellen DeGeneres is actually gay causes WIF to vomit

— Did I just hear some audience members cheering “Looooouuuu!” when Dominican Lou’s commentary gets introduced? Why? Dominican Lou wasn’t an established character yet. I guess this just shows how lively tonight’s studio audience is, who I’ve been noticing are more responsive than usual tonight.
— Tonight’s overall Dominican Lou commentary was solid, and improvement over the fairly forgettable first commentary he did earlier this season.
— I like how one of Norm’s “Note to self”s tonight (which have become a weekly thing lately) makes a mention of “Timmy Meadows”. Right after Norm says that, you can hear an audience member repeat the name “Timmy Meadows” to himself in amusement.
— Ah, here comes a Will Ferrell commentary that I’ve always loved, but will most likely not sit well with a lot of people nowadays.
— As always whenever I watch this, I am howling at Will’s slowburn and vomiting when finding out Ellen DeGeneres isn’t just pretending to be a lesbian.
— This is one of the times SNL has managed to get the vomiting gag done well. And the fake vomit used tonight looks even more disgusting than usual.
— Ha, and now, after Will’s commentary has ended, Norm has to continue doing Update jokes while fake vomit is laid out all over the desk in front of him.
— A legendary unscripted Norm Macdonald moment right now: After the first Update joke that Norm does after Will leaves gets a tepid audience reaction, Norm ad-libs a “Note to self”: “Never ever follow a vomit-spewing guy with a joke”, then looks down at the fake vomit in front of him, grabs some of it, and freakin’ EATS IT. The audience goes crazy. Norm tops this off by saying, among the uproarious audience reaction, “Normally I don’t like Will Ferrell vomit, but this is quite good.” Absolutely classic.
— After the aforementioned vomit-eating bit, a picture for the next Update joke shows up on the news screen, but Norm says “Let’s just end it” to someone off-camera, and then signs off while the audience is still howling over the vomit-eating bit. Interesting how Norm prematurely ended tonight’s Update when realizing that it’s peaked. The Update joke that Norm refrained from doing had something to do with a lobster, judging from the picture that was on the news screen.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Who Will Save Your Soul”

PROM MEDLEY
last-minute replacements Marty & Bobbi do a medley at a high school prom

— Odd how this starts with the Culps already onstage and beginning their usual spiel towards their audience. Their sketches usually begin with somebody introducing them before they come out onstage.
— Ha, I absolutely love the Culps’ operatic-sounding version of Chaka Khan’s “I Feel for You”.
— While in the middle of singing, I love Will saying “Okay, somebody in the back just gave me the finger.”
STARS: ***½

PHARMACY
druggist (host) fills overmedicated Colette Reardon’s (CHO) prescription

— The debut of Cheri’s Colette Reardon character.
— Something I’ve always wondered about this character: what is that flesh-colored thing that’s always taped to the left side of her neck (screencap below)?

— Cheri is doing a pretty solid job as this character.
— At least Cheri’s long-standing habit of staring directly at the studio audience while delivering punchlines fits with the loopy, out-of-it nature of this particular character.
— I love the reveal of Colette Reardon’s occupation being schoolbus driver.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You Were Meant For Me”

LITTLE LEAGUE
at a little league game, the drunk businessmen honor Bill Brasky

— The glorious tradition of doing a Bill Brasky sketch in this era’s Alec Baldwin and John Goodman-hosted episodes continues.
— The final appearance of Mark in a Bill Brasky sketch. Between David Koechner and Mark, it’s sad to see the original line-up of Brasky buddies gradually die off like this.
— Man, they are absolutely speeding through tonight’s Brasky sketch. It feels like I’m playing this sketch in 1.2x speed in a video player. The reason behind the speedy performances is because the show is running late and doesn’t have enough time to perform the full version of this Brasky sketch, so the performers were told to rush through a hastily-shortened version of the sketch. It was probably the ending of Weekend Update that threw off this episode’s timing, between Norm’s many ad-libs with the fake vomit, the audience’s extended uproarious laughter at said ad-libs, and Norm cutting Update short before he even got to tell the mysterious lobster joke. (I wonder if this is also the reason why the Culps sketch abruptly began with the Culps already onstage instead of being introduced by someone.) This Brasky sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.
— Will’s “I don’t have a penis!” outburst was hilarious.
— A particularly great line about Bill Brasky: “He date-raped David Bowie!”
— Some awkward ad-libbed vamping from Will, John, and Mark while waiting for the camera to finally cut to Bill Brasky standing by the bleachers.
— Overall, this was still very funny, but the speedy performances and timing issues prevented this from measuring up to the usual classic Bill Brasky installments. They also cut one of my favorite parts that’s seen in the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns, where John somberly says “Yesterday… I tried to kill myself again”, which is followed by awkward silence between the Brasky buddies before Will says “Anyway…” and continues with the Brasky stories.
STARS: **** for the live version, ***** for the dress rehearsal version shown in reruns

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Yet another solid John Goodman episode. Not much to say other than I felt the whole show was consistently enjoyable, minus Talkin’ With Suel, and we got two of my absolute favorite recurring sketches from this era: Celebrity Jeopardy and Bill Brasky.

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Pamela Lee)
a fairly big step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
Season 22 comes to an end, as does Mark McKinney’s SNL tenure. Jeff Goldblum hosts.