Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
WELL BABIES TRAGEDY
the McCaughey septuplets have fallen into a well & the media loves it
— This season, SNL seems to like doing cold openings that start with actual footage of then-current NBC sitcoms, before they get interrupted by a “special report”. In a cold opening earlier this season, the interrupted sitcom was “Men Behaving Badly”, and now it’s what appears to be a Jenny McCarthy sitcom that I have no memory of.
— A hilarious random premise of famous septuplets from this time period becoming trapped in a well.
— I love the “Well Babies Tragedy” graphic, made even funnier by the sound effects played during it.
— I have no idea what the real McCaugheys look like, but Molly’s look as Mrs. McCaughey is very funny.
— Great bit with Jim’s Mr. McCaughey talking about how he heard seven splashes and responded “Nooooo….” seven times. Solid delivery from Jim there.
— This sketch is so fleshed-out that we even get a cutaway to a press conference held by Darrell’s Bill Clinton addressing the tragedy. His message is hilariously brief and generic.
— Funny interview with a Cheri as a now-pre-teen, cigarette-smoking Baby Jessica.
— I love Will-as-Brian-Williams’ increasing greediness and pride towards getting the honor of covering this story.
— A big laugh from Ana’s way of getting rid of Chris’ Geraldo Rivera.
— Will’s Brian Williams, regarding the “Well Babies Tragedy” graphic: “Damn, that’s a kick-ass graphic!”
— A particularly funny part where, when telling us he’s not going anywhere during this breaking news coverage, Will’s Brian Williams says “I got a bag of Snickers and a piss jar under this desk”, which he shows to us. That’s always been my favorite part of this cold opening.
— For some reason, I enjoyed the freaky way the fake gummy teeth that Molly’s wearing made her look when she shouted “Live from New York…” at the end.
STARS: ****½
OPENING MONTAGE
— “A Cartoon by Robert Smigel” is credited, but the cartoon itself never ends up airing tonight. I guess the show ran long and they had to cut the cartoon for time at the last minute.
MONOLOGUE
host, Ernie Sabella [real], cast go worry-free & sing “Hakuna Matata”
— I’m really looking forward to seeing this. As I mentioned in the preceding season in my review of Mike Myers’ monologue, which I absolutely loved, tonight’s Nathan Lane monologue is in a similar style to the Myers monologue, and I haven’t seen this one in ages.
— I like Nathan casually reading a newspaper during his monologue.
— A laugh from Ana and Nathan’s comical put-downs of the song Hakuna Matata, such as Nathan calling it, with a smile, “One of the most irritating songs ever written.”
— A cameo from the voice of Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella)! Just hearing him doing the Pumbaa voice in this monologue is bringing back childhood memories.
— And now we begin the around-the-studio Hakuna Matata musical number that I was looking forward to. This reminds me that Comedy Central’s old 60-minute version of this episode would cut out the entire musical portion of this monologue, abruptly fading to black immediately after Nathan says “Who the hell cares?” and throws his newspaper in the air. I’m assuming the reason for the edit is due to music licensing issues regarding Hakuna Matata. Makes you wonder why they didn’t edit out the entire monologue instead of only leaving in the least interesting part. The Comedy Central edits of episodes from 1994-1999 in general had a lot of baffling and sloppy edits, especially the upcoming season 24.
— I like the make-up bit with Darrell’s Ted Koppel.
— This is the second time this season where a host makes a dig at Chris Kattan for typically playing characters that don’t speak. Thankfully, unlike Matthew Perry earlier this season, Nathan Lane doesn’t fuck up the joke.
— Good bit with an injured, half-conscious Will laying on a stretcher due to a mishap from rehearsals.
— When expressing doubts towards the Hakuna Matata philosophy, Tim says “I used that attitude around here, and then I was in 3 sketches in, like, 5 years.” A good self-deprecating dig at how underused Tim was in his early seasons.
— An epic visual of Lorne doing an electric guitar solo.
— Much like earlier in the monologue, we get another comical put-down of the Hakuna Matata song, with Nathan proudly making sure to let us know “This is the last time you’ll hear me sing this stupid song!”
— A dazed, head-bandaged Will awkwardly trying to join in on the group’s singing at the end is funny, and reminds me of the monologue he would later do when hosting SNL in 2018, in which he comes out onstage with a bleeding head scar and proceeds to act very out-of-it while singing a song with nonsense lyrics.
— Overall, while this didn’t measure up to the Mike Myers monologue, I still found this a lot of fun.
STARS: ****½
CHESS FOR GIRLS
changing the game’s rules & goals broadens the appeal
— Kind of a stretch of a premise, as chess isn’t really considered a boy-dominated game, last time I checked.
— Some laughs from the over-the-top girly, un-chess-like uses of the chess pieces.
STARS: ***
SPARTANS DREAM
Craig & Arianna dream they’re popular; Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders cameo
— An interesting change of pace seeing Craig and Arianna at home, speaking to each other over the phone.
— The dream sequence is adding a bit of a different feel to Craig and Arianna’s cheers.
— I like Craig’s “I’d like to find… my real birth mother” lyric during one particular cheer.
— Some fun, out-of-the-ordinary things happening to Craig and Arianna throughout this dream sequence.
— Funny line from Nathan’s coach character about Craig and Arianna getting their passports stamped to Dryhumpville.
— Now we get an appearance from the real Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.
STARS: ***
THE QUIET STORM
Chris Garnett & easy-listening deejay (host) have a playlist duel
— It feels like whenever they do this sketch, Tracy’s minor recurring role as a guy silently slow-dancing with his woman ends up being Tracy’s ONLY appearance of the entire night. In fact, judging from Tracy’s look in tonight’s sketch, I’m pretty sure the cutaways to him slow-dancing are actually reused footage from the last installment of this sketch, which means Tracy doesn’t even make any live appearances in tonight’s episode. The fact that SNL had to resort to reused footage of him makes me wonder if he was out sick this week.
— I absolutely love Tim’s line “You touch that button again and I’m gonna go Latrell Sprewell on your ass.”
— Nathan’s performance as a cheesy easy-listening DJ is adding a bit of a different touch to this Quiet Storm installment, despite this installment following the exact same formula of all the previous Quiet Storm sketches.
— During his radio announcements, Tim gives a shoutout to someone named G-Dog, which I’d like to think is a meta reference, as G-Dog also happened to be name of a short-lived but solid Tim Meadows recurring character from season 21.
— I’m kinda glad this ends up being the final installment of the Quiet Storm sketches, because they never take these sketches into any different directions. It’s basically the same thing every time.
STARS: ***
SISTER WENDY BECKETT’S ART ODYSSEY
Sister Wendy Beckett’s (host) Art Odyssey is a sexual repression outlet
— Funny pre-taped opening scene of Nathan as a nun out in the busy Manhattan street.
— Nice detail with Nathan’s fake teeth.
— I’m assuming this is a parody of an actual show that I’m not familiar with. I don’t seem to need to be familiar with it, though, as I’m still enjoying this parody, mainly due to Nathan’s performance.
— A lot of funny sexual comments from Nathan in regards to the various innocent paintings.
— A particularly good gag with the camera catching Nathan touching a statue’s penis, before defensively telling us “I just wanted to see if it would burn my hand.”
STARS: ***½
HISTORY OF VAUDEVILLE
Weber (host) & Rose (CHK) rode ethnic stereotypes
— I love Norm’s characterization of a crusty old commentator.
— This vaudeville sketch is perfect for Nathan’s style. Chris is also very fitting for this type of sketch. This is going to be fun.
— I like the hammy gestures Nathan and Chris keep making towards the audience at the end of each act when the audience is applauding them.
— I’m getting a lot of laughs from Nathan and Chris’ various bad ethnic stereotype acts.
— I love the voice that Ana is using as the elderly lady.
— The Jewish song that Nathan and Chris are performing is particularly funny.
— After Nathan and Chris’ inexplicable “I eat babies, I drink pee” French stereotype act, I got a big laugh from Ana’s only response to that in her following commentary being “….They didn’t know much about the French.”
— I like the ending with Norm’s crusty old commentator rattling off various classic comedy catchphrases.
STARS: ****
WEEKEND UPDATE
NOM inquires about officer Lou Costello’s (host) discovery of a dead body
— Norm seems to be going through this Update a little faster than usual, shortening his usual long pauses between jokes.
— Yes! Nathan playing Lou Cosetllo. As a big fan of classical comedy teams from the 1930s-50s (after all, why do you think my username is Stooge?), I love the idea of this.
— As expected, Nathan is doing a spot-on and funny Costello impression.
— I like how, during his questioning of Nathan’s Costello, Norm is doing a Bud Abbott voice.
— After Norm slaps Nathan, we get some great ad-libs from Nathan, which cause Norm to crack up.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fuel”
SONGS THAT RUINED EVERYTHING
album documents artistic denouements
— Amusing premise of an album of career-destroying hits from formerly-cool artists.
— A particularly funny inclusion of Jefferson Starship’s “We Built This City”.
— Funny impression from Will as Dennis DeYoung.
— Aww, I actually like some of these songs. Should I be ashamed to admit that?
STARS: ***
THE LOST DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
MISS MILO
theatre veteran Miss Milo (host) lectures dresser (WIF) about her craft
— Nathan playing a second woman tonight?
— A funny vocal warm-up that Nathan’s Miss Milo character does, which involves saying various sentences that contain lots of “w”s.
— I got a good laugh from Miss Milo casually telling Will to put on her pantyhose while telling her about himself.
— Another great characterization from Nathan tonight.
— Lots of amusing little comments and stories from Miss Milo throughout this. Even when saying some things that aren’t particularly funny, I’m finding it pretty fun to watch the solid character work that Nathan’s doing here.
— Very funny reveal that Miss Milo was getting dressed as a Christmas tree.
— Another great ad-lib from Nathan tonight, this time saying, in regards to his incorrectly-applied gloves, “I like the gloves this way, it’s more experimental.”
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Marianne Faithfull [real] perform “The Memory Remains”
EX-CONVICT SANTA
ex-con Gene’s stint as a department store Santa doesn’t go very well
— Why is Colin’s weekly sole appearance of each episode always buried at the end of the show this season? I keep forgetting the man is even a cast member.
— The return of the ex-con character, Gene, that Colin previously played as a restaurant waiter in the preceding season’s Lisa Kudrow episode.
— I love Gene’s comment to Nathan’s son about Gene and members of the Aryan Brotherhood drinking Pruno and passing around a “jerk book”.
— Another good line from Gene, where, after finding out that Nathan’s son loves watching “that Christmas movie with Tim Allen” (The Santa Clause), Gene tells the boy “Kid, I did time with Tim Allen.”
STARS: ***½
THE LOST DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
GOODNIGHTS
— What the…? “Additional sketch by Adam Sandler”??? (last screencap above) What in the world could he have written in this episode? I’m stumped. Did whatever he write get cut after dress rehearsal?
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I’ve always really liked this episode, and I have a lot of happy memories of watching it when I was younger. Tonight’s viewing lived up to my nostalgic memories, even if it’s not an outstanding episode. A big part of the reason for my long-standing fondness for this episode is Nathan Lane, who was a strong host, added a fun vibe to the show, and came off as a natural for SNL due to his theater experience. The writers also accommodated him well, giving him a lot of sketches that perfectly fit his fun comedic style and let him run away with it.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Mayor Rudy Giuliani)
about the same
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Helen Hunt hosts the Christmas episode. It’s also the final episode of the Norm Macdonald era of Weekend Update.