Month: November 2019

Posted on

May 11, 1996 – Christine Baranski / The Cure (S21 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DOLE & RODMAN IN ’96
Bob Dole (NOM) declares Dennis Rodman [real] as his running mate

— Feels odd in retrospect to see Darrell as Tom Brokaw. He’s doing fine (despite a flubbed line and the fact that he looks NOTHING like Brokaw), but I prefer Chris Parnell’s later Brokaw impression.
— An amusingly random concept of Dennis Rodman as Bob Dole’s running mate.
— I like Norm’s Dole telling Rodman “Get a hold of yourself, you damn freak!”
— An unintentional laugh from Rodman badly flubbing his “What’s up with that eye?” line.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host takes offense at Polish jokes masquerading as audience questions

— Interesting bowing-down from Christine upon making her entrance.
— Geez, now she’s doing the bowing-down thing EVERY time the audience applauds.
— Oh, she’s now addressing why she keeps bowing down at applause: she has a background in theater.
— The audience members’ polish stereotype questions are giving me pretty good laughs.
— This monologue ended a bit oddly.
STARS: ***


A.M. ALE
Rerun from 9/30/95. So I guess we’re just going to go through practically the entire second half of this season without having ANY new fake ads?


THE COURTNEY LOVE SHOW
Marge Schott (DAH) & Julie Andrews (host)

— Nice to see Molly’s Courtney Love impression back, but I’m not too crazy about it falling victim to SNL’s lazy habit of putting celebrity impressions in their own talk show sketch. Then again, this is the only time we’ll be seeing this Courtney Love Show sketch. It surprisingly never ends up becoming recurring.
— Long-time SNL stage manager Joe Dicso is leaving after the following week’s season finale (as we’ll see in the goodnights of that episode). Is getting kissed and climbed-on by a wild Molly Shannon during this sketch part of his send-off?
— I like the “Top 10 Bruises on My Body” segment.
— Pretty random casting of Darrell as Marge Schott.
— Overall, just an okay sketch, though Molly did provide pretty good laughs with her performance. No big loss that this sketch never ends up becoming recurring.
STARS: ***


GET OFF THE SHED!
Frank & his wife (host) issue more harsh “get off the shed” orders

— I loved the first installment of this sketch, but yeah, not too sure this needed to be recurring. I don’t mind the variation they’d do of this sketch a few seasons later, in which they change the setting by placing Will’s character in the bleachers at a little league baseball game.
— Now we get Will’s wife, played by Christine (I guess we’re supposed to ignore the fact that she looks NOTHING like the wife that Mariel Hemingway played in the first installment of this sketch?), joining in on the yelling. Unfortunately, Christine doesn’t have Will’s knack for yelling in an amusing manner. Her yelling is just coming off screechy and kinda grating (then again, I’m sure people who don’t like Will Ferrell probably feel the same about his yelling).
— I did love Christine’s threat to shove her kids back into her womb.
— Another funny threat, this time with Will’s “I will take you into a dark alley and fight you!”, which is such a perfectly Will Ferrell-esque line. Even though I feel this sketch is paling in comparison to its first installment, the funny and creatively-written threats from Will and Christine are making this work. In fact, the threats may even be funnier than the ones from the first installment. I guess the only reasons I feel a bit lukewarm on this installment is Christine’s grating yelling voice and the lazy reprisal of the same-old backyard gathering setting.
— Weak ending with it being revealed that the kids weren’t on the shed after all.
STARS: ***


20 YEARS AND ONE WEEK
a Barbara Walters (CHO) special looks back at interviews from the past

— Koechner’s attempt at a Burt Reynolds impression (and a pretty poor attempt at that) feels odd in retrospect, knowing that Norm is in the cast and would soon start regularly doing THE definitive Burt Reynolds impression.
— Pretty fun format to this sketch, and I like how the look of Cheri’s Barbara Walters keeps changing to correlate with the various years the interviews are taking place in.
— I like the ridiculousness of there now being a Barbara Walters interview from 1862, with her interviewing Abraham Lincoln.
— I love Darrell-as-Richard-Dreyfuss’ angry ranting.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mint Car”


WEEKEND UPDATE
for Mother’s Day, Gary MacDonald tries to do Weekend Update by himself
nude Dennis Rodman [real] reviews his new book & makes NOM uncomfortable

 

— Very interesting how Gary Macdonald gets to “anchor” his own version of Weekend Update, complete with his own opening title sequence.
— I loved Gary Macdonald’s Janet Reno/Dude Looks Like a Lady joke.
— An overall expectedly funny commentary for what sadly ends up being Gary Macdonald’s final appearance.
— Between the cold opening and tonight’s Update, are Norm and Dennis Rodman trying to form a comedy team together?
— I loved Rodman’s delivery of “God, that is beautiful” when looking down at his own erection.
— An odd and random ending to the Rodman commentary, with him headbutting Norm, sending him flying backwards out of his chair. That didn’t come off anywhere near as funny as my description may sound.
STARS: ***½


NIGHTCLUB SINGER
a nightclub audience reacts to a terminally-ill amateur singer (host)

— I like Chris suddenly yelling “You suck!” during Christine’s song.
— A fairly interesting mid-sketch twist with Christine revealing she’s terminally ill.
— The ending with Christine alienating the crowd again after having won them over was kinda funny, but I wanted more from the ending. Something about this overall sketch felt kinda lacking to me.
STARS: **½


SPADE IN AMERICA
Lucien & Fagin spend a day out on the town with DAS

 

— The overused Fops surprisingly haven’t appeared in quite a while. Having them on Spade In America is a decent change of pace. And considering how detached Spade has mostly been from the new cast onscreen, it’s interesting seeing him interacting with The Fops.
— Fun idea for a pre-tape with Spade and the Fops out in the city.
— Spade throws in a half-assed Gap Girls reference, which fell really flat.
— The whole dressing room segment isn’t working.
— Fairly weak ending to the pre-taped video.
— Overall, meh. A disappointment. This didn’t turn out to be anywhere near as fun as I wanted it to be.
STARS: **


DEATH ROW
Rolf (COQ) & fellow death row inmates gossip about chair-bound comrades

— The debut of a now-forgotten Colin Quinn character. We’ll be seeing him a few times in the upcoming season 22.
— I love that we’ve been seeing tons of Koechner tonight, especially given his decreasing amount of airtime the last few preceding episodes. Sadly, there’s also a bittersweet air to his heavy usage tonight, considering tonight’s episode basically ends up being his last hurrah. The following week’s season finale is his ACTUAL final episode, but he practically gets shut out of the show that night. (Notice I said “practically”. There’s a common misconception that Koechner doesn’t appear in the season finale at all, but he actually does, albeit in a VERY small non-speaking role that might as well have been played by an extra. I’ll point out this appearance in tomorrow’s review.)
— I like Tim whining “As soon as you take me out of the room, these guys are gonna talk about me!”
— Pretty short sketch, but decent, and I like the relatable feel of the prisoners’ conversations.
STARS: ***


GOAT BOY SINGS POPULAR SONGS OF THE 80’S
freak-of-nature Goat Boy’s (JMB) album features popular songs of the ’80s

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Such a humorously absurd and random concept of this character, and a good premise for his debut, having him sing 80s hits.
— I particularly like the part with Goat Boy “singing” the lyric-less theme song from Taxi.
STARS: ***½


NEW TRAITS
(JMB) alters his personality to suit the whims of his corporate employers

— Wow, Jim is having his biggest night of the season, with a noteworthy lead role in TWO back-to-back sketches. He’s coming a long way from the first half of this season, where he rarely got any lead roles and spent multiple episodes not appearing in anything.
— I love Will’s deadpan threat of “There’s muscles in this suit, and I’ll use them if I have to.”
— Another funny line from Will: “If you leave, we’ll sue you, take away your children, and burn all your possessions.”
— Jim repeating his “This is ridiculous, you can’t do this to me!” line in a British accent by request provided a pretty good laugh.
— Funny scene with Jim returning to the office with all the personality traits that he was told to take on.
— A great increasing absurdity to this sketch, especially the memorable turn with Jim being forced to say “Oh, bippity boppity!” whenever he enters and leaves an office.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Inbetween Days”


1-600-LANSING
Lansing-area residents can receive phone sex from operators like (NAW)

— A variation of the 1-600-555-AUSSIE sketch, only with Michigan accents replacing the Australian accents. IIRC, we later get another variation of this in the Alec Baldwin episode from the upcoming season 22, though I can’t quite remember what the accent in that one is (New York perhaps).
— Very funny how the display we see of “girl-on-girl action” just turns out to be a housewife and a phone sex operator having a friendly conversation about food and sales.
— An amusing Boston mix-up bit with Will.
— Nancy’s hamming it up quite a bit with her facial expressions during this sketch, but I’m still enjoying her performance, especially for what I think ends up being her final big role on SNL (I don’t recall her having any lead roles in the following week’s season finale).
STARS: ***½


FUZZY MEMORIES BY JACK HANDEY
learning the truth about a haunted house

 

— Random cameo from a young Jim Gaffigan! (the last screencap above)


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An average episode for this season’s standards, and ends the streak of really solid episodes that we’ve had starting all the way back in the John Goodman episode from March. Still not a bad episode or anything. While there were a few weak sketches and the overall show had a bit of a forgettable feel, I found a lot of the sketches to be okay and there were some interesting pieces towards the end of the show, especially the two Jim Breuer-starring sketches, both of which I feel are representative of some of the things I love about season 21 and symbolize how much more willing this season is at doing absurdist humor than the troubled preceding season was.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Teri Hatcher)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 21 comes to an end, with host Jim Carrey. It’s also the end of the road for veteran David Spade and rookies David Koechner and Nancy Walls.

Posted on

April 20, 1996 – Teri Hatcher / Dave Matthews Band (S21 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DEFENSE TEAM
Johnnie Cochran (TIM) & other lawyers form Unabomber (WIF) defense plan

— Koechner makes his only appearance of the night in this cold opening, and he’s just playing a straight man role. Lately, it’s sadly been becoming more and more obvious that SNL is phasing him out in the homestretch of this season.
— This is the second consecutive episode with a Ted Kaczynski cold opening.
— Will’s jovial portrayal of Kaczynski is always funny.
— A fun roundup famous lawyers, like Johnnie Cochran and Leslie Abramson.
— A hilarious defense from Tim’s Cochran about how postal workers are to blame for Kaczynski mailing bombs to people.
— I love Cochran’s rhyming statement “Take off that orange pajama, cuz you ain’t the Unabomber!”
— A good line with Cheri’s Abramson just responding “Then I’ve got nothing” after learning the Kaczynski brothers weren’t molested by their parents.
— Feels weird seeing writer Steve Higgins playing such a noteworthy role (F. Lee Bailey). He’s pretty funny here.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host has Lois Lane-ish inability to recognize glasses-wearing castmembers

— While it’s just a little thing that’s probably not intended to be funny, I’m cracking up at the close-up of Will doing a back-and-forth glasses removal when demonstrating to Teri that he’s always Will.
— A fairly tepid and corny premise, but it’s being executed decently enough.
— A laugh from Teri still not recognizing Tim even after he’s removed his glasses.
— Tim: “I’m Tim Meadows, I’ve been in the cast for, like, 8 years.” Teri: “Oh. What are your hit characters?” Tim: “……..I don’t have any.” Haha, but also, awww.
STARS: ***


OLD GLORY INSURANCE
Rerun from 11/18/95


WEST SIDE STORY
prop girl Mary Katherine Gallagher wants Maria role in West Side Story

— I love the juxtaposition of Will energetically swinging his fists into the air while singing a soft song from West Side Story.
— Mary Katherine Gallagher to the white female performers in the play: “I just want to say that you ladies make excellent Puerto Ricans.”
— I cracked up at MKG shoving Teri out of the shot while romancing Will.
— One of MKG’s more memorable movie monologue quotes.
— Overall, one of the better MKG sketches. I’ve always considered this (along with the Elle MacPherson installment) to be the most representative installment of this sketch . Part of that may be due to the fact that this is the MKG installment that’s in Molly’s “Best Of” special.
STARS: ***½


NIGHTTIME MUSIC
inept romantic (CHK) seeks mood music & dance steps to use on date (host)

— An early quintessential Chris Kattan sketch, and a nice representation of his skills as a physical comedian. He’s getting good laughs from a lot of little things he’s doing in his “seductive” dancing.
— Within his “seductive” dancing, Chris is slipping in some future trademark Mango moves. I find them a lot more tolerable in this sketch than in the actual Mango sketches.
— I love the part with Chris making the couch move by repeatedly bumping it with his crotch.
— Haha, is that a freakin’ Ladysmith Black Mambazo song Chris is now seductively dancing to?
— I like Chris ridiculing Teri’s legitimately seductive dance.
STARS: ***½


THE PRINCESS AND THE HOMEBOY
(host) & G-Dog clash in a new NBC sitcom

 

— I’ve always loved this. One of my favorite Tim Meadows sketches.
— I like the critic review that’s shown (the third above screencap for this sketch), made even funnier by Will’s delivery of it as the announcer.
— A hilarious part with G-Dog sticking an ice cream cone onto his crotch and telling Teri “Come and get it, (*bleep*)!”
— G-Dog to Teri: “You touch that mother(*bleep*)in’ dog, I’ll rip your (*bleep*)in’ head off.”
— A huge audience reaction to Teri joining G-Dog in directing bleep-filled obscenities toward Mark as the father. I also love Mark responding “Oh, double-dear!” in a classic “cheesy white TV dad” voice.
STARS: ****½


MATH COMPETITION
Arianna is left behind when Craig has an opportunity to be a real Spartan

— A calculus test is a pretty funny out-of-place setting for the Cheerleaders to do their cheers at.
— For the first time ever, a Cheerleaders sketch is telling an actual story instead of just being another tired sketch consisting of nothing but “Craig and Arianna do various cheers for a few minutes, briefly get interrupted by a character complaining to them, and then conclude the sketch by doing ‘the perfect cheer’”. I appreciate how ambitious tonight’s installment feels compared to the one-note, overly-simplistic preceding installments.
— When Craig is reminiscing about great times he had in the past with Arianna, we get a mock-dramatic slow-motion montage of clips from earlier Cheerleaders sketches. The fact that SNL had enough footage at this point to make an entire freakin’ clip show montage of Cheerleaders sketches when these characters debuted less than a season ago REALLY shows how oversaturated this season has been with Cheerleaders sketches.
— I love the bit with Teri getting a chipped tooth.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
due to his Masters choke, Greg Norman (MAM) has chosen a new nickname

— Feels rare to see Mark in a solo Weekend Update commentary.
— Despite Mark’s solid performance, his overall Greg Norman commentary was pretty forgettable.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Too Much”


SPADE IN AMERICA
host & DAS do unflattering imitations of one other

— Very interesting change of pace with Teri hosting this segment while impersonating Spade.
— Teri as Spade, regarding Weekend Update running long again: “Okay, Norm, Marion Barry smokes crack. We get it.”
— Now this gets even more fun with Spade coming on as Teri, and both of them roasting each other while acting in character as each other.
— Some really funny zingers between Teri and Spade. I’m loving this.
— Another reference to Tom Arnold’s infamous comment to Teri at that year’s Golden Globes.
STARS: ****½


THE LOCAL NEWS
(host) & NOM are guests on Joe Blow’s basement talk show

— Interesting to see Weekend Update staple Joe Blow get spun off into his own sketch, showing us his home life.
— A funny and kinda surprising moment with Darrell’s Uncle Frank character almost getting away with dropping a full n-bomb when complaining about Jim’s wannabe-gangsta character.
— After his scuffle with his son, I like Joe Blow threateningly telling him “I’ll hand you your head!” It’s Colin’s delivery of that line that cracked me up.
— I like how Norm is playing himself here, keeping the running theme of his and Joe Blow’s “rapport” from Weekend Update.
— Darrell’s Uncle Frank has a lot of funny lines throughout this sketch.
— An overall okay sketch, but I definitely prefer Joe Blow’s Update appearances. Also, they should’ve given Norm a little more to do here.
STARS: ***


FUZZY MEMORIES BY JACK HANDEY
making good on a worm-eating bet


RUMMAGE SALE
a rumble ensues when (host) stands up to Gail Lafferty’s bullying ways

— I like Teri standing up to Nancy’s Gail Lafferty.
— Funny little bit with Cheri immediately getting shoved out of the shot when trying to intervene during Teri and Nancy’s confrontation of each other.
— A great huge, wild fight between Nancy and Teri. Nice to see something like this during a live sketch, which must not be easy to pull off.
— I love Teri’s epic “Remember the Alamo, bitch!” one-liner before sending Nancy crashing through a window.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “So Much To Say”


PETCHOW
Rerun from 2/17/96


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I’ve always considered this to be a very fun episode that has a lot of aspects that’s very representative of this season as a whole. And after having watched and reviewed this episode just now, I feel that opinion of mine still holds up. I like every single sketch, some of the sketches hold a nostalgia for me after my frequent viewings of this episode over the years, and there’s an atmosphere to this episode that, as I said, I find very fun. Even two of the biggest overexposed recurring sketches of the season (Mary Katherine Gallagher, Cheerleaders) had better installments than usual tonight.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steve Forbes)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Christine Baranski

Posted on

April 13, 1996 – Steve Forbes / Rage Against The Machine (S21 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CLASS REUNION
Unabomber Ted Kaczynski (WIF) attends his Harvard class reunion

— The debut of Will’s memorable Ted Kaczynski impression. I love the huge laughter the audience gives as soon as they realize who Will’s playing as soon as he makes his entrance.
— Will’s jovial, friendly characterization of Ted Kaczynski is brilliant and is the type of performance that Will is tailor-made for.
— I like Nancy being able to guess that it’s Kaczynski’s hands covering her eyes by feeling the chains on his wrists.
— Lots of funny one-liners from Kaczynski all throughout this sketch. I especially love “I have a different nickname these days” as well as him responding “I’ve been doing a lot of writing” when asked “What are you up to?”
— Great walk-on from a left-arm-missing, head-bandaged, and crutches-bound Norm, playing Kaczynski’s school tormentor.
STARS: ****½


OPENING MONTAGE
— SNL writer and occasional onscreen performer Fred Wolf has been added to the cast as a featured player.


MONOLOGUE
host plugs the flat tax & answers audience questions about his wealth

— Was Steve Forbes’ echo-ish “flat tax” exclamation supposed to be a subtle reference to Church Lady’s “Could it beeeeee….. SATAN?!?” routine?
— Feels a little weird seeing a questions-from-the-audience monologue in this particular season.
— Adam McKay’s suggestion of what Steve should do about the situation in Bosnia is funny.
— Another funny audience member line, this time from Jim Downey asking Steve if whenever he sees Thurston Howell on Gilligan’s Island, he thinks to himself “I can buy and sell that guy.”
— Steve’s line about “locking my cars inside my helicopter” appeared to be a flub, as he was most likely supposed to say “keys”, not “cars”. The audience still laughs heartily, showing that the botched line still worked.
STARS: ***


GRAYSON MOORHEAD SECURITIES
YET ANOTHER rerun of this ad, from 10/21/95. Jesus Christ, didn’t they just re-air this TWO EPISODES AGO? (*sigh*) Remember the days when this season used to have new fake ads? What ever happened to those days?


DRILL SERGEANT
soldiers can’t follow drill sergeant Suel Forrester’s roll call orders

— After debuting only two episodes ago, newbie Chris Kattan’s Suel Forrester character already returns. I don’t mind, though, because I’m always a sucker for this character.
— Fred Wolf’s Gordon Lightfoot line was really funny.
— Chris is great at combining his Suel Forrester routine with the delivery of a typical drill sergeant.
— The use of two black extras in this sketch makes me remember that we’re not going to be seeing Tim Meadows AT ALL tonight. He is mysteriously absent in this episode. I wonder if all of his appearances just got cut after dress rehearsal, or if he was out sick this week.
— I like the ending with the unintelligible army song Suel Forrester makes the soldiers sing.
STARS: ***½


NIGHTLINE
it’s obvious that host authored a tell-all book about GOP race

— A very funny premise, and I like Steve’s various ways of presenting Teve Torbes as an admirable, masculine character who has a “musky Victor Mature-like scent”.
— Lamar Alexander’s disguised name simply being “Lamar Alexander #2” is hilarious.
— A good little laugh over how the book includes a gaffe where Steve wrote “Did I mention how much the ladies love me, I mean him?”
— I love how the very first thing Norm’s Bob Dole says in this sketch is a blunt “Steve Forbes wrote the book.” But, my god, Norm could not have delivered that line with ANY less enthusiasm. In fact, he is really half-assing his performance in this sketch in general, putting zero effort into his delivery. He seems to officially be over his role as Bob Dole. (I think he would later go on to say in the “Live From New York” book that he mainly just cared about doing Weekend Update during his SNL years, and basically found it a chore to perform in what he considered to be lame Dole sketches the writers gave him.) And yet, he’s still slaying me in this sketch. What can I say? Even when putting no effort into a performance, Norm still cracks me up.
— Steve’s stiff demeanor and delivery is strangely very fitting and charming in this sketch.
— I like Darrell’s Ted Koppel calling Steve out on his questionable decision to cover up the word “senator”.
— Very impressive and funny delivery from Darrell’s Koppel quickly reading off the succession of fake names when quoting a statement from the book (the last above screencap for this sketch).
— Dole: “I just have one thing to say to you, Teve Torbes: TUCK OFF!”
STARS: ****½


SCREEN DOOR
during a visit from (host), Rita Delvecchio guards her screen door

— A change of pace for the Rita Delvecchio sketches. I like that they’ve taken her out of the porch setting and we’re now getting to see the inside of her house, giving us more insight into her life. This is a more developed, layered character than the usual type of recurring characters from this era.
— I love Rita casually walking over to the screen door while talking to Steve and then suddenly whacking the face of the child who has his face pressed against the screen door.
— Rita, regarding the endless amount of people coming up to her screen door: “The screen comes, and they’re runnin’ wild like Ted Kennedy at a strip joint.”
STARS: ***½


FORBES ON FORBES
MAM as Steve Forbes chastises host for ending his run for the presidency

— A pretty fun concept, and a nice way to work in tonight’s obligatory appearance from Mark’s Forbes impression. Much more tolerable than SNL’s usual corny “a cast member doing an impression gets confronted by the celebrity they’re impersonating” trope.
— A great meta turn, with Mark’s Forbes going on about “The Mark McKinney Factor”, complaining about Steve dropping out of the presidential race right as Mark’s impression was taking off.
— A funny line from Mark’s Forbes theorizing that the entire Steve Forbes presidential campaign was just an attempt to screw Mark McKinney.
— Mark’s Forbes ends this sketch by saying “And maybe for the last time, I’m Steve Forbes”. I believe this indeed ends up being the final appearance of Mark’s Forbes impression.
STARS: ***½


GRAYSON MOORHEAD SECURITIES
Another rerun from 10/21/95


WEEKEND UPDATE
FRW talks about receiving personalized mailed requests for donations

— Fred Wolf getting his own Update commentary for the first (and only) time.
— Speaking of Fred, what’s been going on with him lately? In the last two episodes, he was mysteriously removed from the writers credits during the goodnights, and then tonight, he has not only been reinstated back into the writers credits, but he’s been bumped up to a featured player in the cast.
— Fred’s commentary isn’t particularly great, but there are some okay laughs, especially the whole bit about the American Lung Association being only two dollars short from finding a cure.
— I loved the audience’s “Ohh!” response to Norm calling an ailing Katharine Hepburn “decrepit”.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bulls On Parade”


ROOFERS
while on the job, roofers (COQ), (DAK), (host) dream about the good life

— A memorable instance of the “host plays against type” trope.
— Some good laughs from Steve playing such a badass character. Steve’s stilted delivery makes his lines as this character even funnier.
— A funny part with Koechner expressing his dream of getting a box of gold just so he can melt it down, which Colin questions the logic of.
— Was it really necessary to repeat the “somebody lands off-camera on a car, a car alarm goes off, one of the main characters takes out their car keys and turns off the alarm” gag from just a few episodes earlier in the Gary Macdonald sketch in this season’s John Goodman episode? Lazy move there.
STARS: ***½


SEATTLE TODAY
Unabomber sketch artist Stan Hooper isn’t very skilled

— This feels like the most appearances Norm has made in an episode this season.
— I love Stan Hooper’s various explanations for why his sketch drawings of the Unabomber look nothing like the man himself.
— Some more good laughs from Hooper’s details about the other criminal sketch drawings he’s done.
— This ends up being the final Stan Hooper appearance. Interesting how all of his appearances were in this season. Considering the nondescript, inconsistent nature of the character from sketch-to-sketch, there’s some later Norm sketches that I kinda wish named his character in them Stan Hooper. For example, the car accident victim who tells Sylvester Stallone that his movies suck.
STARS: ****


FUZZY MEMORIES BY JACK HANDEY
using his car to splash a schoolkid


BEAUTY SCHOOL
host gets a free haircut from barber school student Gerald Tibbins

— Another welcome appearance of T-Bones, and sadly, I believe it’s our final one. I like how he always has a different occupation in each sketch he appears in.
— Odd moment with Steve being shown visualizing in horror a dollar bill floating away after hearing that he’ll have to pay for a haircut at another barber shop.
— I love the vocalization T-Bones makes after taking a sip from the barbicide.
— This sketch strangely felt short, too much so for this particular sketch. I was hoping this would go on a little longer.
STARS: ***½


FAST TALK
during WWII, Johnny Jones (CHK) catches up with waitress Dottie (MOS)

— After the preceding Phil Hartman-hosted episode dusted off an old unused script of a black-and-white 1940s-set sketch (the “You’re The Man, Johnny” sketch), this new SNL era tries their hand at an original black-and-white 1940s sketch.
— Not sure what to say about the sketch itself so far, but I’m really enjoying the performances, especially Chris’ impressive delivery. I never knew he had the ability to pull off the fast-talking 1940s way of speaking.
— This truly does have the feel of the type of black-and-white 1940s sketches that SNL’s late 80s cast excelled at doing.
STARS: ***½


FLORIDA BUGS
a motorist (host) is lectured by a large & irate bug (JMB) that he hit

— There’s a strong possibility that this sketch wasn’t supposed to make it on the air. It was probably originally cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal, but was thrown into the live show at the last minute because of the infamous behind-the-scenes incident that led to Rage Against The Machine getting kicked off of SNL mid-show (here’s a very detailed rundown of that behind-the-scenes incident and everything that led up to it). Since RATM’s mid-show dismissal meant that the second musical performance had to be scrapped, that unexpectedly left SNL with a few minutes to fill. And with this Bugs sketch being the final sketch of tonight’s episode, I’m guessing that they pulled this from the “cut after dress” pile.
— A goofy but pretty fun concept to this sketch.
— Bug: “Is that a fly swatter that I see over there?” Forbes: “Yes.” Bug: “You’re a sick bastard, you know that?”
— Boy, Chris has been getting tons of airtime for a new featured player. I’m pretty sure he’s gotten more big roles in just three episodes than repertory player Jim Breuer has gotten in the entire first half of this season, back when Jim was really struggling for airtime.
— I like Chris’ performance as the tearful crushed bug.
— Funny ending meta line from Steve: “Three weeks ago I was running for president, now I’m on TV with a guy in a bug suit.”
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS
host’s wife Sabina & daughters [real] join him on-stage

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid episode that was consistently good, especially some of the highs in the first half of the show. An overall much better episode than some might expect a Steve Forbes-hosted episode to be. And despite his limitations, Steve Forbes wasn’t a bad host and he came off as a good sport that seemed to be enjoying himself.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Phil Hartman)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Teri Hatcher

Posted on

March 23, 1996 – Phil Hartman / Gin Blossoms (S21 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DOLE HEADQUARTERS
Bob Dole (NOM) gets advice on his image from Charlton Heston (PHH)

— Words cannot express how great it feels to see Phil Hartman on SNL again after a few seasons.
— I like Phil-as-Charlton-Heston’s whole line about how often women leave his bed a satisfied customer.
— I got a huge laugh from Norm-as-Dole’s joke about why Bill Clinton crossed the road: “To kill Vince Foster and cheat on his wife.”
— Such a strong performance from Phil, even if the material he’s been given here isn’t the greatest.
— A reference to Matt LeBlanc’s then-new movie Ed, an apparent turkey of a movie that I’m proud to say I have no frame of reference for from my childhood in the mid-90s. I’ve only become aware of the movie in recent years because of jokes I’ve seen about how bad it is.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— After being removed from the opening montage during his hiatus the last few episodes, David Spade has returned and is reinstated back into the montage. I had completely forgotten about him until now. It had already felt like he left SNL for good.


MONOLOGUE
an identity crisis leads PHH to lock himself in his dressing room

— Such a wonderful visual to see Phil making his entrance on that stage as the host. It’s also very heartwarming to see a very extended audience applause for him; so extended, that the camera cuts to the applauding audience TWICE.
— I really like the part with Phil discussing how the monologue can destroy a man. During that, we get another nice little dig at notorious host Steven Seagal.
— A very funny emotional breakdown from Phil as he runs backstage in tears.
— Tim: “You’re one of my idols!” Phil: “Of course I am. I’m so much better than you are.”
— A hilarious response from Phil when Tim tells him he once let Tim stay in his apartment, fed him, and gave him hope: “That wasn’t me, that was Kevin Nealon!”
— A nice little detail of a framed picture of Ronald McDonald being on Phil’s dressing room table in the background (the sixth above screencap for this monologue), which I didn’t notice until after Tim’s mention of Phil being the spokesman for McDonalds.
— Phil: “Tim?!? You’re still on the show?!?” Our first of many jokes these next few seasons about how absurd and surprising it is that Tim managed to stick around so long.
— Yet another great line from Phil, about how he ignored Tim during their years as castmates because of a pre-existing relationship with Chris Rock.
— Tim: “Do it for the rest of us who will never get a chance to host this show: the Anthony Michael Halls, the Nora Dunns… hell, do it for Joe Piscopo!”
— I’ve always wondered if the slow clapping that the cast and writers do as Phil walks past them is supposed to be a reference to the memorable Sarcastic Clapping Family sketch from Phil’s years as a cast member. Probably not, as it seems like too random a sketch to reference in this particular context, even if that was a sketch that Phil had a lead role in.
— For various reasons, it’s a very interesting visual seeing Phil walking past this season’s cast and writers. It’s especially interesting when the camera shows just Phil and Will Ferrell, two now-beloved cast members who are known today as the leader of their respective cast.
— Overall, this has always been one of my absolute favorite monologues of all time.
STARS: *****


BUGOFF
Rerun from 11/11/95


LEG UP
Frank Sinatra (PHH) talks about dalliances of a bygone era

— I had gotten tired of this recurring sketch during the last installment back in December, but at least they waited a few months before bringing this sketch back tonight.
— I love the idea of Phil’s Frank Sinatra being a guest on Leg Up. You just know that, unlike most of the Leg Up guests, Phil’s Sinatra isn’t going to take any crap from Debbie Reynolds and Ann Miller. I’m looking forward to seeing him roast them.
— A very funny line from Phil’s Sinatra about how every day, the grim reaper tries to jam his sickle up Sinatra’s “keister”.
— So many great zingers between Sinatra and Reynolds/Miller. I especially like Sinatra responding to Reynolds and Miller’s self-compliment of their own looks by saying in a frank manner “Slap on all the paint you want, the house still needs renovations.”
— I love the idea of Sinatra replacing the usual Leg Up closing theme with his own number based on the song The Lady Is A Tramp.
— Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised by how highly I enjoyed this Leg Up installment. A nice way for this sketch to go out, considering this (thankfully) ends up being the final installment.
STARS: ****


ACTING WORKSHOP
eager acting students follow Bobby Colsman’s (PHH) oddball instructions

— Very interesting to see Phil debuting a new character during a hosting stint.
— A brilliant and fully-realized characterization from Phil, and a spot-on parody of this type of pretentious acting teacher. I’d like to think that this is a character Phil tried to get on the air during his tenure as a cast member, but it’s a little hard for me to picture Phil doing this character during his cast member days, because so many things about this sketch have a very mid-90s feel to me.
— I love the “This is something… this is nothing… this is something… this is nothing” bit.
— Very good supporting performances from the cast members playing the students. Between the performances from them and Phil, this sketch really has the authentic feel of an acting workshop.
— A good laugh from Phil’s character quickly telling Molly “I don’t like women, they shouldn’t be in the business” right before letting her start her performance piece.
STARS: ****½


THE ROXBURY GUYS
Roxbury Guys Steve (WIF) & Doug (CHK) Butabi seek dance partners at club

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Wow, this sketch is playing a song that’s NOT What Is Love. Feels so odd in retrospect, considering What Is Love would go on to be the signature theme of all the subsequent Roxbury Guys sketches.
— I like the atmosphere to this sketch, and am finding it fun.
— Amusing performances from Will and Chris, selling their characters even with very limited dialogue.
— The bit with a helpless Cheri being bumped back-and-forth between the Roxbury Guys is funny.
— And the sketch is already over. Wow. A very short piece that had an experimental feel. Very out-of-the-ordinary for an SNL sketch from this era. In fact, this had more the feel of a small scene that Will and Chris mostly likely brought with them from The Groundlings (the fact that fellow Groundling Cheri Oteri was the only other performer in this sketch further backs up that theory). Basically, this sketch was an embryonic, primitive version of the more fleshed-out Roxbury Guys sketches that would later come.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
Frankenstein gives his opinion of a possible result of budget cutbacks
Jesse Jackson (DAH) protests the lack of Oscar recognition for blacks

— Tonight’s Update opens with theme music that’s different from the one usually used for Norm’s Updates. I don’t recognize tonight’s theme. Is it the NewsRadio theme song? I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t seen that show since I was a kid, which is why I can’t remember what its theme song was like.
— Tonight’s Update starts off hot with a solid Menendez Brothers/O.J. joke that gets a great reaction.
— Frankenstein!
— A very funny brevity to Frankenstein’s commentary, especially the way the camera just slowly pans back over to Norm after Frankenstein’s one line.
— Funny in retrospect seeing Norm do a joke about Madonna being announced as the star of an upcoming Evita movie, considering the well-known Evita sketch Norm would star in the following season.
— Darrell’s Jesse Jackson now officially becomes a recurring impression.
— Does SNL not realize the unfortunate irony of a white cast member in blackface complaining about the lack of black representation at the Oscars?
— Though tonight’s Jesse Jackson commentary isn’t quite as funny as the one from earlier this season, I’m still loving Darrell’s performance and am getting good laughs from his lines, especially from his random exclamation of “Jibbity jibbity and rat-a-tat-tat!”
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Follow You Down”


YOU’RE THE MAN
slow-to-react gunman (CHK) is assured that he’s in control by cop (PHH)

— Interesting tidbit: this sketch got cut after dress rehearsal years earlier in the Kevin Kline episode from season 18, back when Phil was still a cast member. In that version of this sketch, Rob Schneider played the Johnny role that Chris Kattan is playing here, Chris Farley played Jim Breuer’s small role as the diner employee who calls the cops in a panic at the beginning of the sketch, and Melanie Hutsell played the girlfriend role that Nancy Walls eventually shows up as here. I wonder if they brought this sketch back tonight as a favor to Phil. Maybe it was a favorite cut sketch of his. Bringing back a cast member’s favorite old cut sketch when they come back to host is something I wish happened more often. I know former SNL writer John Mulaney did it the first time he hosted (I’m not sure about the second time he hosted, since I haven’t seen that episode, due to me having been on a still-ongoing hiatus from watching new SNL episodes, which won’t end until I reach the modern era in my SNL project), but I can’t think of any other examples.
— This sketch is perfect for an episode hosted by Phil, considering both his knack for nailing 1940s-style performances and the fact that his first season as a cast member often featured black-and-white 1940s sketches (which usually involved Dana Carvey as a supporting character saying “I oughta pound yoouuu!”).
— I love Phil’s “I missed you, Johnny” after he shoots many consecutive shots directly at Johnny.
— Phil: “You must be hopped-up on goofballs, Johnny.”
— I like the passage of time with Phil’s cop leaving the diner for several hours to get more bullets and take shooting lessons.
— Wasn’t crazy about the ending.
STARS: ***½


SPADE IN AMERICA
DAS does a Hollywood Minute on current cinema items

— Feels weird seeing this again after a fairly long hiatus.
— Oh my god, Spade has returned from his hiatus with a freakin’ GOATEE. While I’m used to seeing him with facial hair in more modern times, it looks odd seeing it during his SNL tenure back when he still had the little boy hairstyle. That hairstyle and his goatee make such a strange-looking mix.
— We get another edition of Hollywood Minute.
— A very random but funny brief moment where, right in the middle of his Hollywood Minute jokes, Spade turns to a side camera and slyly says about himself, while stroking his goatee, “Somebody thinks he’s Ethan Hawke this week.”
— A fairly famous part right now, where Spade says that Pamela Anderson found Tommy Lee’s new penis tattoo “hard to swallow”, which gets a huge reaction from the audience while Spade slyly asks into the camera “That come through okay?” The version I’m currently watching of this episode is the original live airing, but it must be the West Coast version, because Spade’s “hard to swallow” punchline is muted out. It would also later be muted out in Comedy Central reruns.
— I love the part right now with Spade quickly going through a succession of celebrity pictures while summing up each of them in a rhythmic three-word statement (e.g. “Dead Man Walkin’, big mouth squawkin’, weird kid Culkin, black guy bitchin’, etc.”). When a picture of himself comes up during this portion, Spade says “Blonde guy quittin’”, which must be his on-air announcement of his soon-to-come departure from the show.
STARS: ***½


UNFROZEN CAVE MAN LAWYER
Cirroc defends a tobacco company executive

— Nice to see the return of this.
— As always for this sketch, we get some great Jack Handey-written fake sponsors. It’s nice to see Koechner in one of the fake sponsor photos (the first above screencap for this sketch).
— Wow, Phil is unusually stumbly with his lines at the beginning of his speech to the jury.
— This is basically just a copy-and-paste of the first two installments of this recurring sketch. In fact, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think this WAS the exact same script from one of the first two installments. I can hardly tell the difference. While it’s nice to see this sketch again, I can’t help but wish they did something more original with this installment, like when they once did a Spanish-themed version of this sketch (even though it paled in comparison to the traditional installments of this sketch).
— Wow, we get EVEN MORE fake sponsors toward the end of this sketch. It’s as if Jack Handey had so many unused fake sponsors in his back pocket during the one-year gap after the last sketch of his that featured fake sponsors (Tales Of Fraud And Malfeasance In Railroad Hiring Practices) that he unleashed all of them in tonight’s sketch. I could watch an entire sketch consisting of nothing but Jack Handey-written fake sponsors.
— At the very beginning of the ending scene with Cirroc in bed with a prostitute played by Molly, a smiling Molly can be heard saying an unscripted, out-of-character “I got the giggles!” before immediately putting on a straight face when realizing she’s on camera. Odd moment there, and feels like an unfortunate precursor to her bad habit of always giggling in sketches during her final two seasons.
— The ending scene fell flat.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO

— Awesome that Phil does this intro in character as Cirroc.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Memphis Time”


TADDLI
pot-smoking talk show panel receives simpleminded reprimand

— Mark is JUST NOW making his first (and only) appearance of the night, in the 10-to-1 sketch.
— Very fun opening title sequence and a VERY catchy theme song. After years of assuming this theme song was a brilliant original SNL creation, I was disappointed to learn from the That Week In SNL podcast that it was just based on a David Bowie song.
— Speaking of the opening title sequence, I remember once searching through the SNL newsgroup (alt.tv.snl) and reading old comments and reviews from back when tonight’s episode originally aired (here’s one review thread), and SNL fans at the time were so sure that this Taddli sketch would definitely become recurring, just because of how much money SNL must’ve spent on that “expensive-looking” opening title sequence. Not only is it amusing in retrospect to see how wrong those SNL fans’ prediction about this becoming a recurring sketch turned out to be (and at the same time, nobody ever would’ve guessed that this episode’s experimental Roxbury Guys piece would go on to be a huge recurring sketch), but it’s funny to see that this sketch’s title sequence was considered “expensive-looking” in 1996. By 2019 standards, this opening title sequence looks very low-budget, though still very fun.
— Sadly, this is Koechner’s only speaking role of the whole night, and it’s just a dull straight man role.
— Such an odd and hard-to-describe character from Mark. This sketch seems to get a bad rap among modern-day SNL reviewers, but I seem to be in the minority in liking this. I’m enjoying this sketch and am happy that Mark is being given a showcase for his brand of oddball humor that we sadly don’t often get to see during his SNL tenure.
— I love Mark asking Tim’s frequent pot-smoking character “Do you even understand me? Do I sound like a dog talking to you?!?”
— A laugh from Phil revealing he’s a librarian, after saying he smokes pot to mellow out after work.
— Will is cracking me up in his very gleeful performance as an audience member giving his opinion to the guests.
STARS: ***½


FUZZY MEMORIES BY JACK HANDEY
(Not included in the copy I’m reviewing of this episode. Not too big a deal, as it’s just a repeated Fuzzy Memories from 12/16/95.)


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid episode. Not as classic as I wanted a Phil Hartman-hosted episode to be, but I can’t complain, as every single sketch worked for me and we got one of my all-time favorite monologues. Not only was it a delight to see Phil Hartman back on SNL tonight, getting the spotlight that he deserves, and showing the new cast how it’s done, but it was also interesting to see him working with a different cast than the one from his own tenure as a cast member, which is one of the things I always find fun about seeing former cast members host the show.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Goodman)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Steve Forbes / Rage Against The Machine

Posted on

March 16, 1996 – John Goodman / Everclear (S21 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

20/20
Christopher Darden (TIM) tells of affair with Marcia Clark (NAW)

 

— Feels weird seeing somebody other than Laura Kightlinger playing Marcia Clark. It even looks like Nancy is wearing the same dress Laura always wore in that role.
— A good little laugh from Mark Fuhrman’s “Heil Hitler” over the phone.
— Interesting lisp on Tim.
— Good sexual innuendo with Nancy-as-Marcia-Clark’s horny line to Tim’s Christopher Darden: “It’s time to take the black Bronco down the 405.”
— A very funny raunchy ending with Darrell’s Hugh Downs and Cheri’s Barbara Walters going at it under the desk.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Newly-hired Chris Kattan has been added to the cast as a featured player.

— SNL writer and frequent onscreen performer Colin Quinn has also been added to the cast as a featured player tonight.


MONOLOGUE
host uses powers granted for 7th SNL appearance; Elle MacPherson cameo

— Some pretty good laughs from John detailing the perks of your 5th, 6th, and 7th hosting stints.
— We get a random cameo from Elle MacPherson, presenting John with his crown (which immediately falls off by accident after she places it on John’s head) and scepter. I guess this makes sense, since Elle was the host of the last episode. This reminds me of earlier this season when Mariel Hemingway had a random walk-on as Lorne’s secretary in a backstage sketch the week after she hosted.
— This is John’s second monologue where he gets in a self-deprecating dig at how much his movie King Ralph bombed.
— I love how we’re getting to see backstage security cameras of various cast members.
— A very funny visual of Norm in his dressing room gambling on cockfights.
— An amusing brief shot of Lorne just nodding when John asks him if he’s allowed to force Jim to do his Alanis Morissette routine.
— A good quick gag with Jim silently mouthing “Aw, fuck, man!”
— I’ve seen a lot of criticisms of Jim’s Alanis Morissette parody in this monologue, and I gotta say, I don’t understand the criticisms at all. I’ve always found Jim’s bit in this monologue to be fun silliness.
STARS: ****


GRAYSON MOORHEAD SECURITIES
Rerun from 10/21/95


MTV NEWS
Kurt Loder [real] relays some bogus items from the music scene

— This is basically just a set-up for what’s to follow, but I like how they’re doing this to give an authentic MTV feel to the following piece.
— The fake news stories here aren’t particularly great, but I strangely like Kurt Loder’s delivery of them.
— Nice how the ending of this segued into the following piece.
STARS: ***


THE REAL WORLD
Bob Dole (NOM) doesn’t get along with young housemates

— An absolutely priceless random inclusion of Norm’s Bob Dole as one of the Real World housemates. The initial reveal of him during the opening intro shot of each housemate is great.
— Dole’s peanut butter rant is legendary.
— The fight over “Bob Dole’s chair” is hilarious.
— This is a MUCH better Real World parody than the live one they did in the Shannen Doherty episode from season 19. Not only is tonight’s Real World parody very funny and well-written, there are also so many spot-on and accurate details in the way this is shot and edited. Everything about this piece is perfect to me.
STARS: *****


THE JOE PESCI SHOW
Marisa Tomei (CHO) & Richard Dreyfuss (DAH)

— I love Jim-as-Joe-Pesci’s line about John’s Robert DeNiro gaining back all of his weight from Raging Bull.
— The camerawork is a mess during the back-and-forth exchanges between Jim’s Pesci and Cheri’s Marisa Tomei, constantly cutting to a close-up of the wrong person while the other person is speaking.
— Funny line with Pesci asking Tomei, regarding the Oscar she won, “Who’s Joe did you DiMaggio to win that thing?”
— Haha, John’s attempt at a DeNiro impression has kind of a “so bad, it’s good” quality.
— I love Pesci and DeNiro’s re-enactment of a Raging Bull scene, using the word “shampoo” in place of a certain obscenity.
— A fantastic and very funny Richard Dreyfuss impression from Darrell.
— I know I’m eventually going to get tired of the repetitive formula of these Joe Pesci Show sketches, but for now, I’m still enjoying it.
STARS: ***½


THE REAL WORLD
tensions rise between Bob Dole (NOM) & housemates

— Great that this is a runner throughout tonight’s episode.
— A huge laugh from Dole just walking up to a ranting Jim and kicking the back of his legs out of nowhere, knocking him to the floor.
— I love the camera slowly zooming into Dole in bed with a look of horror on his face as he listens to Mark and Tim’s detailed discussion of a gay threesome Mark had.
STARS: *****


SUBSTITUTE TEACHER
substitute teacher Suel Forrester’s (CHK) poor enunciation stumps class

— Right out of the gate in Chris Kattan’s very first appearance, we get what would go on to be one of his signature characters.
— Not only does the classroom set look the same as the one used in various early 90s-era classroom sketches, including the famous History Class sketch with Jerry Seinfeld, but the chalkboard in tonight’s sketch appears to be the same one from the Seinfeld sketch, with the goofy face chalk drawing from the Seinfeld sketch being half-heartedly erased this time (side-by-side comparison below).

— Suel Forrester’s gibberish is priceless, and Chris is executing this so well. I also like how he keeps randomly throwing in a coherent sentence every now and then.
— (When the students receive the grade they got on their test) Nancy: “I got an A!” Will: “I got an L?!?”
— Overall, a strong and promising debut for Chris.
STARS: ****


THE REAL WORLD
housemates decide to kick Bob Dole (NOM) out

— A very funny shot of Dole peeking in at his roommates’ conversation about kicking him out, with a tear rolling down his face.
— Great ending shot of Dole dragging his furniture down the street.
STARS: *****


WEEKEND UPDATE
COQ wishes people would celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with more dignity

— In these last two Updates, the studio audience ain’t havin’ any more of Norm’s traditional O.J. jokes. Those jokes used to always get huge pops from the audience, but they’ve gotten a very tepid audience reaction these last two Updates. I’m still on Norm’s side.
— After playing various characters on Update so far in his SNL tenure, it’s great to see Colin getting to do his first Update commentary as himself.
— Sadly, Colin’s overall commentary ended up being a bit of a letdown. There were a few funny lines, but a lot of this dragged and the humor felt kinda tepid. Not his best stand-up material. I’m also seeing early unfortunate signs of Colin’s bad line-flubbing tendencies that we’ll later be seeing during his Update anchor stint.
— Norm does two “Or so the Germans would have us believe” jokes tonight, the second one being a variation that uses the words “German shepherds” instead of “Germans”. When doing the trademark camera staredown during the German shepherds one, Norm humorously continues doing it even when they cut to another camera (screencaps below). I love that.

STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Santa Monica”


FECAL MATTERS
John Fecal (MAM) is obsessed with avoiding anal waste
unseen contaminants are visible to the wearers of Fecal-Vision glasses

— Oh, that’s right, John Goodman is tonight’s host. I actually almost started forgetting, considering he’s felt really invisible in this episode.
— I like the various close-ups of Mark grimacing into the camera whenever John brings up something that disgusts him.
— Funny exchange with John telling Mark that he thought the show was called Fecal Matter because Mark’s last name is Fecal, and Mark explaining “That’s just a happy coincidence.”
— Colin’s very brief walk-on cracked me up.
— Looks like Will was late on his cue at the beginning of the Fecalvision commercial.
— I like the Fecalvision commercial showing fecal stains all over a diner.
— Funny delivery from Tim with his “Thanks, Fecalvision!” thumbs-up into the camera.
STARS: ***½


GRAYSON MOORHEAD SECURITIES
Another rerun from 10/21/95


MEETING
Gary MacDonald does free association humor as co-workers are laid off

— Yes! Regular Update character Gary Macdonald gets spun-off into his own sketch!
— We get a new addition to Gary’s mannerisms, with him now constantly doing a raspy-voiced “Hehh hehh hehh!” laugh.
— Gary’s endless free association habit is freakin’ priceless as always.
— Great gag with John revealing that the car alarm that’s heard going off after Gary jumps out of the window is coming from his own car, as he takes out his car keys and stops the car alarm.
— I didn’t even realize Darrell was one of the people at the table until the very end of the sketch when the camera was slowly zooming out. They didn’t even give Darrell anything to say or do in this sketch. What was the point of even having him there?
STARS: ****


FORBES-AMERICA
Steve Forbes (MAM) announces that he’s creator & president of new America

— Mark is going really heavy on the goofy laugh aspect of his Forbes impression.
— The audience is really dead during this sketch, even during some funny lines from Mark’s Forbes.
— I liked Nancy’s panicked “Save us!” when we first see her, Tim, and the others.
— I got a chuckle from Tim’s “We’ll eat the ponies!” when he and Nancy point out how hungry they are, but I think I’m just desperate for a laugh at this point of the sketch.
— Overall, a few okay lines early on, but a mostly disappointing sketch, and the audience’s complete silence gave this a weird feel.
STARS: **


HOLIDAY INN
the drunk businessmen tell more tales of abusive-but-swell Bill Brasky

— Hell yeah! This officially becomes a recurring sketch.
— This feels like the only comedic role we’ve seen John get all night. [ADDENDUM: He had one earlier as Robert DeNiro in the Joe Pesci Show sketch, but that was so early in this episode that I had forgotten it by this point.]
— John is fitting just as well into the role of drunk Brasky businessman as Alec Baldwin did, which would go on to solidify John and Alec as the only two hosts SNL would traditionally do these Brasky sketches with these next few seasons, though SNL would attempt to get a non-Goodman/Baldwin-involved Brasky sketch on the air in the Chris Farley-hosted episode from season 23, with the drunk Brasky businessmen being played by Will, Norm(!!), and Farley. However, that sketch ended up getting cut after dress rehearsal that night (it was once available online at the now-defunct Yahoo Screen site, and a blooper from the sketch is included in the “outtakes” feature in Chris Farley’s “Best Of” DVD).
— A sad realization that will be the final Bill Brasky sketch to feature Koechner, until decades later when they would bring the sketch back as a special occasion in a Paul Rudd-hosted episode from season 39. Koechner is so perfect for these Brasky sketches.
— A particularly funny one-liner about Brasky: “He’ll eat a homeless person if you dare him!”
— Another stand-out one-liner about Brasky, this one having always been one of my favorites: “I once saw him scissor-kick Angela Lansbury!”
— I nearly busted a gut from John interrupting Koechner’s story to scream a completely unintelligible statement in an anguished, crying manner.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, and the best one in a good while. Aside from the Steve Forbes sketch and perhaps Colin Quinn’s Weekend Update commentary, I enjoyed everything tonight, and found a lot of the sketches to be particularly great, with the Real World runner and the Bill Brasky sketch standing out as some of my absolute favorites of the entire season. John Goodman seemed strangely neglected as the host, and most of the times they did use him tonight, he was just playing a forgettable small straight man role. This is probably tied with his preceding hosting stint from season 20 as the episode he hosted that utilized him the least.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Elle MacPherson)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Phil Hartman

Posted on

February 24, 1996 – Elle MacPherson / Sting (S21 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HOTEL
Pat Buchanan (DAK) manhandles Steve Forbes (MAM) into giving him money

— A nice use of the republican candidates.
— Norm’s Dole impression finally starts receiving the audience applause that it deserves.
— I like the part with Norm’s Dole and Molly blatantly vamping for time while Mark is off-camera getting cables attached to him.
— A funny visual of Mark’s Forbes hanging from a light fixture by a wedgie.
— Very cool how during his “Live from New York…”, Mark gets lifted up into the air, stopping in front of the audience members in the bleacher seats. A fun change of pace for a “Live from New York…”.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— After sounding very sick during the last episode, Don Pardo is out tonight with a case of laryngitis. Darrell Hammond fills in for him, for his first of several times during Don’s tenure as SNL announcer.
— It doesn’t even sound like Darrell is attempting to imitate Don’s voice here, like he later would do in the James Van Der Beek episode from season 24 (remember the monologue from that episode?). He’s just using a generic announcer’s voice tonight. In fact, he’s using pretty much the same generic announcer’s voice that he would later go on to use regularly when becoming SNL’s official announcer after Don’s death.


MONOLOGUE
while host speaks, on-screen text goes on about her physical attributes

— Yes! We get a Buck Henry-esque text crawl monologue. I always like these throwbacks to the original era.
— Several funny lines in the onscreen text, especially “Elle MacPherson makes my wife looks like she has rickets”, “Oh, no, what if my wife’s watching?…. Who am I kidding? Nobody’s watching.” Sadly, there’s probably a little truth to that “Nobody’s watching” line. I believe it’s not until season 22 where SNL would regain most of the viewers they lost during seasons 19-20.
— Very funny cutaway to SNL writer Hugh Fink in the audience, being ridiculed in the onscreen text for looking like a dork and actually paying attention to what Elle is saying. Haha, poor Hugh Fink always gets picked on when he plays an audience member during a host’s monologue. Remember Cameron Diaz’s monologue from season 24?
STARS: ***½


A.M. ALE
Rerun from 9/30/95


SWIM MEET
irrepressible Craig & Arianna try to bring spirit to a swim meet

— Will and Cheri’s performances as the Cheerleaders are still fun, but yeah, I’ve officially run out of things to say about these two characters and, as I explained in the last installment, I’ve officially reached the inevitable point where I’m starting to develop a slow burn towards them.
— The “taco, burrito, what’s that comin’ out of your speedo?” number is memorable, at least.
— I do like how we’re getting a little more insight into the Cheerleaders’ relationship with each other.
— SNL sure loves throwing a scantily-clad Tim Meadows into sketches.
STARS: **½


RECORDING SESSION
jazz pianist (TIM) voices inappropriate catchphrases during a session

— A wonderfully goofy Tim Meadows performance, and a quintessential example of how great he is at performing silly material like this.
— Tim’s random pop culture catchphrase quotes during his jazz sessions are hilarious, made even funnier by his gleeful delivery.
— We get a meta reference with Tim’s latest catchphrase quote being “Morgan Fairchild, yeah, that’s the ticket!”
— Great ending with the “Pac-Man Fever” album title.
STARS: ****½


FRESH FACE MODELING CONTEST
Mary Katherine Gallagher & (host) compete in a teen modelling contest

— I guess it was inevitable that we’d eventually get an episode that features both the Cheerleaders AND Mary Katherine Gallagher. I’d better get used to this, considering the HUGE oversaturation we’re going to get of these two recurring sketches in the upcoming season 22, one of the things I’m kinda dreading about that season. I’ve always joked to myself that I don’t think there’s a single season 22 episode that DOESN’T feature either a Cheerleaders, Mary Katherine Gallagher, or Roxbury Guys sketch. (I’m sure that in actuality, there are at least a few season 22 episodes that don’t feature any of those three sketches, but you get my point.)
— After not having the audience 100% on her side yet in her first three sketches, Mary Katherine Gallagher finally receives recognition applause and lots of hearty audience laughter throughout this sketch.
— Ha, Darrell doing a Jon Lovitz impression! Between the preceding sketch’s “That’s the ticket” reference and now Darrell’s impression, Jon Lovitz’s repertoire is getting a big workout in tonight’s episode.
— The debut of Cheri’s supporting character in these Mary Katherine Gallagher sketches, who always speaks in a fast manner and always holds onto her own arm.
— MKG and Elle trying to pose over each other in front of the camera is pretty funny.
— A particularly large amount of panty flashes from MKG in tonight’s installment.
— Will’s giving me some good laughs in his great performance as the straight man.
— An overall pretty good MKG sketch. Not my favorite appearance of this character, but I’ve always considered both this and the one with Teri Hatcher later this season to be the most representative installment of this recurring sketch.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Lucien & Fagin remain big NOM fans, even after he reproaches them

— Hmm, Norm’s jokes are a bit tame and forgettable so far tonight, for his standards.
— Even Norm’s obligatory O.J. joke of the night didn’t quite land as well as it normally would.
— Okay, Norm’s jokes are now starting to get a little better, especially the instance of another classic “crack” joke.
— I guess to complete tonight’s trifecta of overused season 21 recurring characters, we have another appearance from The Fops.
— A big laugh from The Fops describing themselves as becoming “moist” by Norm.
— I love Mark’s big open-mouthed smile after saying “paisley” in that typical deep voice he always uses as his Fop character.
— Wow, Norm gives The Fops a reality check by harshly calling them out on their many problems, temporarily breaking their spirit (before they immediately go back to fawning over Norm, for his brutal honesty).
— Haha, we get a particularly long camera staredown during tonight’s instance of Norm’s recurring “Or so the Germans would have us believe” joke (last screencap above). This staredown hilariously goes on for almost 20 seconds.
STARS: ***


REDENBACHER HOLIDAY THEATRE
holiday special tells the story of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue

— Wow, a very out-of-the-ordinary sketch. I’m enjoying the ambitious and fun nature of this.
— Ha, a random appearance from T-Bones, appearing for the second consecutive episode.
— Lots of Adam McKay appearances tonight.
— Will and Tim are funny as a singing-and-dancing silicon and saline implant.
— Wow at Nancy dumping a whole open bag of potato chips into her mouth. That came out of nowhere.
— Speaking of T-Bones randomly appearing, we now get another random recurring character appearance: Cheri’s Mickey The Dyke.
— The ending came off awkward. Something seemed off about the timing.
STARS: ***½


COMA
Stan Hooper wakes from coma & insists his wife & sister must be reversed

— A very busy night for Will, appearing in almost every single sketch.
— I love Stan Hooper’s “Good god! Why’d you wake me up?!?” response when learning the pathetic details of his life.
— A lot of good laughs from Hooper trying to find a way around his sibling relation to Elle so he can have sex with her.
— Cheri’s frumpy voice in this sketch kinda reminds me of a typical Robin Duke character. I guess that makes sense, as there’s always been a pretty strong facial resemblance between Cheri and Robin.
— The text crawl ending wasn’t as terrible as it often is in other sketches, but I still can’t help but feel like it was a lazy cop-out for this sketch.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You Still Touch Me”


1-600-555-AUSSIE
callers can’t comprehend Australian phone sex operators’ dirty talk

— Geez, only a few seconds into this sketch, and Elle ALREADY starts cracking up in the middle of her opening line, for no apparent reason.
— I love Jim’s confused “Whaaat?!” in response to Molly’s dirty Australian slang terms.
— Nancy has a lot of funny lines, especially her request for Koechner to do her “Yahoo Serious style”.
— I remember the first time I saw this sketch, in a Comedy Central rerun, I didn’t even recognize Sting as the leather daddy.
— Ha, there’s Tim working in his tongue-clicking routine, which he does whenever he talks in fake foreign dialect in sketches.
STARS: ****


FUZZY MEMORIES BY JACK HANDEY
the fate of mom’s exquisite Easter eggs


MISS MANNERS
on a first date, (JMB) cuts mannerless but gorgeous (host) lots of slack

— I like Tim’s “I’m just a waiter, man” when Jim is going on and on to him about his approaching date for the evening.
— When taking Jim and Elle’s order, I like Tim’s deadpan “Alright, nothing for the lady” after she makes him sniff the inside of her shoe.
— More out-of-character laughing from Elle, though this time, I’m KINDA laughing along with her. Jim is doing a solid job trying to keep the sketch going with some good ad-libs.
— Elle’s character kinda feels like a precursor to Kristen Wiig’s Shana character (a sexy office worker who would do uncharacteristically disgusting things).
— Another great one-liner from Tim, telling Jim “Get out while you can” in response to a particularly weird thing Elle does.
— I’m having a hard time understanding Elle’s lines, between her constant laughing, her accent, and her talking with her mouth full of food.
— Okay, this sketch is getting dumb. I’m over this.
— Geez, now Elle is accidentally choking on her food a bit. What a disaster she is in this sketch. God bless Jim, though, for again trying his damnedest to save the sketch with another good ad-lib: “People choke, whaddaya gonna do?”
STARS: **


FUZZY MEMORIES BY JACK HANDEY
Rerun from 12/16/95


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Even though there wasn’t much that I disliked tonight, this episode had a bit of a “meh” feel for this season’s standards. I feel like my rating average doesn’t match my feelings for this episode as a whole. Even Norm’s Weekend Update wasn’t up to par. And there was too much reliance on overexposed recurring characters, which is part of what attributed to the lazy feel of this episode. I can’t complain too much, though, because there was still a large number of things that I liked tonight, especially Tim’s Recording Session sketch. As a host, Elle MacPherson performed the way you’d expect a supermodel with little-to-no acting experience to perform.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tom Arnold)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Our annual John Goodman episode. We also get a newly-hired addition to the cast.

Posted on

February 17, 1996 – Tom Arnold / Tupac Shakur (S21 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WMUR 9 CNN DEBATE
debating GOP candidates trick themselves into endorsing Bill Clinton

— A pretty good laugh from one of the candidates (played by Jim) being a random truck tire salesman.
— I liked this premise better the first time… when it was done in a 1991 sketch with Kiefer Sutherland (Campaign ’92: The Race to Avoid Being the Guy Who Loses to Bush). Tonight’s cold opening is such a blatant knock-off, and pales badly in comparison to the 1991 sketch.
— I do love Tim’s Marvin The Martian-esque voice as Alan Keyes. That’s one of the very few laughs I’m getting from this cold opening.
— Nancy’s rambly speech at the end did nothing for me nor the audience.
— I think this is the first cold opening all season that I’ve given a negative review of.
STARS: **


OPENING MONTAGE
— David Spade has been temporarily removed from the montage, even though he’s still a cast member. We won’t be seeing him appearing on the show these next few episodes. I recall hearing he was given time off from the show to film either a TV pilot or movie (I can’t remember which). This was back in the days where, if a cast member took time off from the show to film an outside project, they were temporarily removed from the opening montage, I assume for contractual reasons.
— Don Pardo starts out this opening montage sounding kinda like his usual self, if a bit lower-key, but suddenly gets hoarse-sounding when he reaches the point of the montage where he announces the musical guest. And then… OH MY GOD, by the time he announces “Ladies and gentlemen, Toooom Arrrnnooooold!”, he sounds absolutely AWFUL. I recall an SNL fan (I believe it’s fellow SNL reviewer and frequent commenter on this site, The Doc) once describing Don’s voice in that part as sounding like an alien was about to burst out of his throat. I’ve never seen a more accurate description of that. I’m guessing Don is suffering from a cold, a theory that’s further backed up by what happens in the very next episode (you’ll find out in my review of it).


MONOLOGUE
host repeats Golden Globes faux pas by carelessly insulting castmembers

 

— A lame parody of Tom’s controversial comment to Teri Hatcher at that year’s Golden Globes.
— In passing, Tom mentions his “beautiful new thin wife”. Notice he made sure to put “thin” in there. Throwing shade at his ex Roseanne, I see. Maybe this is Tom’s way of getting back at Roseanne for her endless “small penis” jokes about him when she hosted SNL in the preceding season.
— The bit with Tom’s inner thoughts is weak, especially the “Because I’m Tom Arnold!” punchline.
STARS: *½


THE LIFE WE LEAD
news stories are presented in context of a soap opera

— In Darrell’s opening voice-over as the station manager, he introduces himself as Ian Roberts, which appears to be an inside reference, as that’s the name of an Upright Citizens Brigade performer.
— A creative and fun premise, and it’s being executed very well.
— SNL would later do what I recall being an inferior knock-off of this sketch in season 38, in a sketch starring Vince Vaughn and Cecily Strong. Funny how tonight’s episode had a sketch (the cold opening) that was a knock-off of a superior sketch from a few years earlier, and then a later episode would do a knock-off of a superior sketch from tonight’s episode.
STARS: ****


BAKE SALE
Gail Lafferty (NAW) threatens ass kickings for perceived offenses

— Between the preceding episode’s “Martha Freakin’ Stewart!” sketch and now this, SNL suddenly seems to be trying to establish Nancy Walls as a hardass.
— Feels weird seeing so many non-cast members having a speaking role in this sketch.
— As I mentioned in my review of the Church Lady potluck luncheon sketch from season 12, certain minor aspects of both that sketch and tonight’s Bake Sale sketch remind me of each other, especially how both sketches feature a walk-on from the host playing a minister.
— Overall, I was enjoying this sketch for the first few minutes, but it kinda fizzled out towards the end and got too one-note. The ending was also pretty weak. I much prefer the second installment of this sketch from later this season, in which Nancy’s character gets into an EPIC catfight with Teri Hatcher.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “California Love”


WEEKEND UPDATE
a phone call from O.J. Simpson gets NOM up-to-date on search for killers
Joe Blow talks about some other things that make his life more difficult
ADS plays guitar & sings a song about his grandmother

— Very random segment with Norm taking a phone call from O.J.
— What the hell? Is that freakin’ Darrell Hammond doing the voice of O.J. on the phone?!? Why?!? Has Tim suddenly become unavailable mid-show, for whatever reason?
— A laugh or two from the O.J. phone call, but this segment is going on too long and too many parts are dragging.
— A big laugh how after the O.J. phone call segment ends, Norm does one of his trademark O.J. jokes, which is immediately followed by the phone ringing again.
— Seems a bit soon to bring back Joe Blow again, but I can’t complain.
— A great opening spiel from Joe Blow about how his son got busted smoking pot and how that son is now serving time in his room while recovering from a black eye received during the arrest.
— Why is Joe Blow needling Norm over a beer he wants them to have together? Is SNL forgetting that the last time Joe Blow appeared, he and Norm set a date for that beer: April 11th, a date that hasn’t even passed yet by this point.
— First we get a Chris Farley cameo in the preceding episode, and now tonight, we get an Adam Sandler cameo. I’m assuming Adam is promoting Happy Gilmore, much like Chris promoting Black Sheep in the last episode. (Weird to think that those two movies came out in two consecutive weeks.) Also, I wonder if the decision to let Adam and Chris each cameo in an episode this season is Lorne’s way of telling them “No hard feelings” after their recent firing.
— As usual, a very catchy melody to Adam’s Update guitar song.
— During Adam’s song, we get a joke about waxing grandma’s mustache, continuing Adam’s weird comedy obsession with grandmas having beards.
— Adam’s song is fairly fun, but pales in comparison to some of his earlier Update songs. I’m not crazy about how a lot of the lyrics in tonight’s song are just gibberish words.
STARS: ***½


MIRACLES OF SCIENCE WITH PAUL DUNBAR
Braniac’s (host) cranium size belies his smarts

— Ohhhhh, boy. Here comes a notorious sketch that used to have a reputation as one of the all-time worst sketches in SNL history (I say “used to” because this sketch seems to have fallen into obscurity in more recent years).
— Tom Arnold lookin’ like a deformed Conehead.
— Boy, Tom’s performance in this is awful.
— You can practically hear a pin drop in the studio during this sketch. The audience is fucking DEAD.
— My god, the lousiness of this sketch has to be seen to be believed. This is painful to watch.
— Not even the hand-stuck-in-pickle-jar reveal could get so much as a chuckle from me nor the audience.
— Mercifully, the sketch is now over. Jesus Christ. This is indeed one of the worst SNL sketches I’ve ever seen. And here’s the thing: the right host could’ve done SOMETHING for this. The writing for this sketch had kind of a “so dumb, it’s funny” undertone that got completely lost due to Tom’s terrible performance. A much more adept host could’ve possibly ran away with this sketch’s “so dumb, it’s funny” potential. Hell, the next two male hosts coming up this season are John Goodman and Phil Hartman. Couldn’t SNL have saved this sketch for either of those two episodes? Imagine what Phil would’ve done for this sketch.
STARS: *


MRS. KOGEN
naive (JMB) thinks her criminal son (COQ) is engaged in harmless pursuits

— Jim’s old lady character feels kinda like something that tonight’s special guest Adam Sandler would’ve done when he was a cast member. Maybe because I’m being reminded of that Looking After Grandma sketch that Adam once did with Chris Farley and Michael Keaton.
— Will somebody please point Jim to the correct direction he’s supposed to be looking in? Why is he delivering all of his lines to Tom while facing and staring DIRECTLY AT THE FUCKING CAMERA?
— Normally, I’d be happy to see the underused Jim Breuer getting a showcase, but his hammy camera-mugging in this sketch is too much for me, and I’m not crazy about that Joe Pesci-esque voice he’s using for this old lady character, either. And this sketch itself has been mostly doing nothing for me.
— I did get a laugh from Jim’s character claiming her son uses a bong for his asthma.
— Nice to see Colin with a fairly big non-Weekend Update role for once. A sign that he will soon finally start receiving a featured player credit in the opening montage.
STARS: *½


HOSPITAL
hospital orderly Gerald Tibbins prepares (host) for an appendectomy

— (*sigh of relief*) Thank god we have the return of T-Bones to add some much-needed life to tonight’s episode. After the last two sketches, I was almost starting to forget what it’s like to actually LAUGH.
— Kinda funny how not only is this the second sketch tonight to use that same hospital room set, but Tom and Tim are in opposite roles in both sketches, as a doctor and a patient.

— Koechner slipping some Swabby mannerisms into his T-Bones character, with that “kerr kerr kerr” laugh he’s doing.
— Not too crazy about Tom’s straight man performance here, though it’s one of his more tolerable performances tonight by default (which still isn’t saying much).
— What was with the awkward long pause when Tim came back in the room, as if somebody forgot a line? I so want to blame Tom, but I can’t say for sure.
— As always, so many funny goofy lines from T-Bones throughout this sketch.
STARS: ****


FUZZY MEMORIES BY JACK HANDEY
a woodpecker driving dad to suicide


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Ain’t Mad At Cha”


TREE SLICE DISPLAY
a tree slice both explains & embodies outlaw park ranger’s (host) crusade

— Am I supposed to be laughing at this sketch? I’m a minute-and-a-half into this, and I cannot find ANY discernible comedy. The audience apparently agrees with me, judging by the return of their deafening silence from the Miracles Of Science sketch.
— I get the feeling there’s some well-written subtle absurdist humor in Tom’s lines, but it’s not coming through in his awful delivery, especially the way he keeps stumbling over his lines. Perhaps this is yet another sketch tonight that would’ve worked better with a more adept host.
— A cliched twist with Tom being exposed as an impostor and then jumping through the window as an escape. I liked that twist better in that Sam Kinison teacher sketch from season 12.
— And now to make this sketch’s twist even more cliched, we get a typical text crawl ending. (*sigh*) Next, please.
STARS: *


PETCHOW
the packaging of Hank Petchow’s (WIF) rat poison is quite misleading

— Odd that a new fake ad is debuting at the end of an episode. They must be airing this as emergency filler due to the show running either too long or too short.
— I remember when I first saw this commercial back in the very early days of my SNL fandom, it was the first time I took notice of how great SNL’s fake ads are at recreating the look of real commercials. I recall being very impressed by how visually accurate and authentic-looking this Petchow fake ad was, to the degree that, if I hadn’t paid attention to the comedic concept, I’d almost have mistaken this for a real ad.
— This ad is great. So many funny little things all throughout this: Will’s surname randomly being Petchow, the words “rat poison” being written in VERY small letters on the bag, the fact that the rat poison bag inexplicably has a dog’s face on the front of it just because Will loves his dog, the happy commercial jingle at the end suddenly saying the words “rat poison” in a monotone voice, etc.
— I also love the little part with Will trying to keep his dog from eating from the bowl of rat poison, saying “Down, boy, that’s not for you” while laughing into the camera. Another example of how Will always makes a great fake commercial pitchman.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Oof. Yep, this episode was just as bad as I had remembered. Things ALREADY got off to a rough start right out of the gate with a derivative cold opening and a very lame monologue, and, despite a few highlights here and there in the remainder of the show, the episode never fully took off, and it REALLY bottomed-out at a few points in the post-Update half with two absolutely laughless sketches that had me cringing over their unfunniness and dead feeling (Miracles Of Science and Tree Slice Display). By far the weakest episode of this season so far, in my eyes. The less said about Tom Arnold’s hosting performance, the better, except that I am so glad this is the last time he’s ever hosted. How he got three hosting stints while far more deserving people only got one is beyond me.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Danny Aiello)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Elle MacPherson