Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
MONICA MEETS LINDA
Linda Tripp (host) wears a wire during meeting with Monica Lewinsky (MOS)
— This cold opening oddly begins with the audience already applauding for some reason.
— We have officially entered the Lewinsky scandal era, which SNL will be getting a lot of memorable mileage out of these next two seasons.
— Something odd I’ve always found about Molly’s Monica Lewinsky impression is that SNL never put any padding on her, which made it kinda hard to buy her as overweight.
— What luck for SNL that John Goodman happens to be hosting the week they needed to debut a Linda Tripp impression. This, of course, would lead to John having to cameo in the future every time SNL wants to do a Linda Tripp sketch, which feels like a precursor to SNL’s stunt casting in political sketches nowadays.
— Some good laughs from John’s Tripp trying to get Molly’s Lewinsky to repeat her confession into a hidden wire.
— A funny sudden appearance from Tim as Vernon Jordan from under the restaurant table. I also like him muttering to Molly’s Monica “Ix-nay on the ellatio-fay.”
— A great line with Monica’s “I love BJs” when receiving her Bartles & Jaymes drink.
— Feels kinda odd seeing (tonight’s special guest) Dan Aykroyd reprising his Bob Dole impression, considering Norm is still in the cast, though we won’t be seeing him tonight (more on that in a moment).
STARS: ****
OPENING MONTAGE
— Norm Macdonald has been removed from the opening montage. He will not be making any appearances in tonight’s episode, nor will he be making any appearances in the following episode (minus a random brief walk-on in the latter episode’s goodnights; more on that when I review that episode). I wonder if this made SNL fans at the time incorrectly assume that Norm was officially no longer in the cast.
MONOLOGUE
Mighty Mack & Elwood Blues perform “Lookin’ For A Fox”
— An interesting and fun change of pace for hosts’ typical monologue entrance, with the SNL theme music abruptly stopping and Don Pardo announcing the Blues Brothers and the original Blues Brothers band, which is then followed by blues music playing as John and Dan enter as the Blues Brothers.
— I’m no fan of the post-John Belushi Blues Brothers, but this performance is fun, and I like how SNL is going all out on this compared to the last Blues Brothers monologue from Goodman’s season 20 episode, by having this song being performed on the musical guest stage, having a full blues band, and having the female cast members as sunglasses-wearing backup singers.
STARS: N/A (I don’t usually rate segments like this)
MORNING LATTE
chatter of Tom & Cass eventually causes (host) to snap
— This sketch officially becomes recurring.
— Like the first time they did this sketch, there’s a lot of enjoyment from Will and Cheri’s spoof of typical morning show banter, and from the denseness of Cheri’s character.
— Some good milking of the fact that Cheri’s character can’t have children.
— A lot of hilarious harsh, cruel comments Will and Cheri are making about Monica Lewinsky’s weight.
— Was it really necessary to repeat the gag from the first installment of this sketch, with the stage manger yelling “YOU STUPID BITCH!” at Cheri? Besides, you’re never going to top Chris Farley’s delivery of that line. Unfortunately, they would make the “YOU STUPID BITCH!” outburst towards Cheri a regular part of this recurring sketch for a while, though in the one with Alec Baldwin in the upcoming season 24, I think Alec’s outburst has him yelling another obscenity to Cheri besides “stupid bitch” (something that ends with him saying “ass”, I believe, though I can’t remember the whole outburst).
STARS: ****
THE 7TH COMMANDMENT
at Mount Sinai, Bill Clinton (DAH) seeks adultery admonition loophole
— A brilliant and very memorable concept of Darrell’s Bill Clinton being at Moses’ reading-off of the ten commandments. This has always been one of my favorite sketches that Darrell has ever done as Clinton.
— So many priceless lines and questioning from Darrell’s Clinton towards John’s Moses on what defines adultery.
— A particularly funny bit with the “neighbor’s ass” part of the commandments.
STARS: *****
EYE ON THE OLYMPICS
Brian Boitano (WIF) & Rudy Galindo (CHK) camp it up at Nagano Olympics
— Not much to this besides lots of gay stereotype jokes, but I am enjoying the fun chemistry between Will and Chris.
— The wrong assumptions that Will and Chris keep making about the nationality of Molly’s Michelle Kwan is getting some laughs from me.
STARS: **½
TV FUNHOUSE
“X-Presidents” by RBS- X-First Ladies help defeat communist aliens
— A hilarious brief cutaway to George and Barbara Bush having sex, which would go on to become a running gag in these X-President cartoons.
— George Bush, to a villain: “Welcome to Operation Desert Whoop-Ass.”
— An interesting unexpected turn with The X-First Ladies, which is providing a nice change.
STARS: ***½
EMERIL LIVE
Monica Lewinsky’s lawyer William Ginsburg (host) begs
— Jim’s Emeril Lagasse impression is way off. Sounds nothing like him. In Jim’s defense, though, maybe people weren’t too familiar with Emeril yet in 1998. Jim isn’t even throwing in any “BAM!”s, which would later go on to be a required part of an Emeril impression.
— A pretty funny out-of-place setting for John’s William Ginsburg to seriously address the Lewinsky scandal.
STARS: ***
WEEKEND UPDATE
COQ explains why he’s not happy about Matt Damon’s success
frat guy Randy Graves (WIF) sides with Bill Clinton & blames women
— Colin’s Weekend Update theme music is really growing on me. It’s damn good. Too bad they change it in, I believe, the upcoming season 24.
— For the first time since taking over as new Update anchorperson, Colin wears a traditional suit-and-tie attire.
— An interesting change of pace with tonight’s Update not beginning with the typical news jokes, instead beginning with Colin doing a straight-to-camera breakdown of the Lewinsky scandal.
— In between the few traditional news jokes, we get Colin doing a lot more straight-to-camera breakdowns on various topics, using his natural stand-up delivery. Colin is really finding his niche with these bits. You can tell he’s much more comfortable in these bits than he is when delivering traditional Update news jokes in a straitlaced delivery. Man, can’t he officially do away with the traditional news jokes and just do these stand-up-style breakdowns? I think he would’ve gone on to be more accepted as an Update anchorperson if he went this route. Sure, it may seem out-of-place and nontraditional for an anchorperson to do Update in this style, but when you think about it, SNL previously took a chance on Dennis Miller, who never attempted to sound like a straitlaced news anchor, instead choosing to do Update in his natural, hip, laid-back stand-up style, which ended up going over very well and people would go on to credit Dennis for re-inventing Update. Even though the style that I’m saying Colin should regularly do Update in would be a more drastic format change for Update than what Dennis did, I think Colin could make it work.
— Wow, Colin continues to be really on in tonight’s Update. He’s having a surprisingly strong night. Hell, even his delivery of the traditional Update news jokes is on-point. If I wasn’t aware of how the remainder of his Update tenure ends up going, tonight’s Update would have me fooled into thinking that he would go on to be a very solid anchorperson.
— The good vibes of tonight’s Update continue, as Will is freakin’ priceless in his commentary as a typical obnoxious fratboy.
— I love Will’s various ridiculous nicknames for Colin.
— So many funny lines from Will during his commentary about the Lewinsky scandal, culminating in him singing “In Your Eyes” for his buddy.
— Will occasionally asking the audience to give Colin a hand seems like a desperate way for SNL to get the audience on Colin’s side. Any other week, I’d understand the need for this, but Colin has been having such a good showing in tonight’s Update that Will practically forcing the audience to give Colin an ovation feels kinda unnecessary.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Don’t Want To Wait”
JUDGE JUDY
(ANG) claims that Irwin Mainway’s toys are dangerous
— Irwin Mainway! I love the idea of Dan playing him in a Judge Judy setting.
— Judge Judy: “Don’t give me rabbit poop and tell me that it’s chocolate.”
— A particularly great dangerous Mainway toy, with Irwin trying to pass off an old refrigerator as a time machine and a “problem solver”.
— Like last time, we get some great banter between Cheri’s Judge Judy and Tracy’s bailiff.
— Judge Judy’s “Johnny Nutcracker” bit is really funny.
— Judge Judy, to Ana: “Put the hanger away, Mommie Dearest!”
STARS: ****
MARTHA STEWART LIVING
items to aid exodus from Cuba are presented
— Great concept with Ana’s Martha Stewart giving classy tips on how to escape from Cuba.
— I especially love the tip about filling a latex glove with jewelry, money, or food, and hiding it in your “nether quarters”, which Martha then tells us “I got my lunch hidden in there right now.”
STARS: ****
SABADO CHISTOSO
William Ginsburg (WIF) makes his plea on a Hispanic show
— Nice to see Dan in yet another sketch tonight.
— Much like the La Politica Non Correcto sketch from the preceding season, this sketch is perfectly capturing the essence of typical shows on Spanish networks.
— Dan’s seamless transition from speaking in convincing Spanish to speaking in a normal American accent reminds me of how impressed I always was by his impeccable delivery when I reviewed seasons 1-4.
— I like how it’s become a running gag throughout tonight’s episode with John’s William Ginsburg appearing in random shows to plead towards Kenneth Starr. Rare for an SNL episode after the mid-80s to do this type of running gag throughout the sketches. We soon get another running gag a little later this season in the Julianne Moore episode.
STARS: ***
COBRAS
a cobra terrorizes airline passengers (host), (ANG), (TIM)
— I love Will-as-the-pilot’s very casual and calm announcement of a live cobra being loose on the plane.
— Tim’s over-the-top sweaty trembling when trying to stay still next to the cobra is great.
— A lot more very funny overly calm announcements from Will as the pilot, especially when detailing the horrible effects the cobra bite is having on his mind.
— Very random ending with a talking cobra (voiced by Cheri) delivering a message to us. I want to like this portion of the sketch, but it’s going on WAY too long and feels unnecessary.
STARS: ****
STORYTELLERS
Neil Diamond (WIF) performs songs & reveals his sicko muses
— Oh, this is a legendary Will Ferrell sketch.
— We get the debut of Will’s Neil Diamond impression. And, man, what a sketch for it to debut in.
— Very funny turn with Neil Diamond’s random disclosure of his love for hardcore, barely legal pornography.
— A lot of huge laughs from Diamond’s disturbing backstories to his hit songs, such as how he came up with “Sweet Caroline” after driving drunk and running over a kid.
— John: “Leave me out of this, man.” Neil Diamond: “(angrily) No, I will leave you IN!” That particular line has stuck with me for so many years.
— Neil Diamond: “I’ll smack you in the mouth, I’m Neil Diamond!” Such a perfectly Will Ferrell-esque line.
— Will-as-Neil-Diamond’s singing is providing good amusement.
— Neil Diamond: “This one, I wrote after I killed a drifter to get an erection.”
— Man, this sketch is practically an endless string of amazing one-liners.
— Overall, not only a classic sketch in general, but also one of the best 10-to-1 sketches in SNL history.
STARS: *****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong episode, and one of my favorites of this season. There was a good number of very solid sketches tonight, including two all-time favorites of mine (The 7th Commandment and Storytellers). Even Colin Quinn’s Weekend Update was surprisingly great. I also liked the heavy focus on the Lewinsky scandal, showing what a huge story it was when it first broke out around this time, though I can understand why the heavy focus on that might bother some viewers.
— John Goodman was his usual dependable self, and Dan Aykroyd, while not dominating as much as he did when guesting in John’s season 20 episode, was a welcome and adept presence as always.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sarah Michelle Gellar)
a mild step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Roma Downey
I’ve always loved the beginning of the Ten Commandments sketch–the first reveal of Clinton is so amazing–I didn’t realize that this sketch came so early in the scandal’s history.
Interesting to see a proto snakes on a plane sketch.
The next episode has “Ah Lin the Skater Man”, one of my favorite TV Funhouse sketches!
Will Ferrell as Neil Diamond is just…absolutely hilarious. Love it!
And I distinctly remember watching the Cobra sketch and thinking “This is so stupid!…and yet…I like it.” This absolutely has to be the inspiration for the movie “Snakes on a Plane”…doesn’t it…right? Is it? Anybody know? 🙂
Probably. Snakes on a Plane reminded me of it.
I always thought Colin should’ve kept the no tie look, he’s never been a guy who looks like he belongs in a suit and tie haha. I definitely remember liking his random grudge about Matt Damon. When he did stuff like that you could see hints of the great type of stuff he does now on his Netflix/HBO specials.
John Goodman was great fun in the cold open (one of the rare examples of celeb stunt casting working so well – although this wasn’t really stunt casting as he was the host), but otherwise this felt like one of his many hosting episodes where his presence feels negligible. When I got back into the show over the last year I’d wondered why I had so few solid memories of him on SNL, outside of stuff like Da Bears, even though he hosted so many times – well, now I understand why.
Dan’s Mainway return feels a little closer to the classic ’70s version. I’m not that fond of the Judge Judy sketches, I would have preferred another talk show with Ana in the Jane Curtin role, but they get the beats of the character right and it’s fun to watch.
The “cobras on a plane” sketch is another standout – a good old-fashioned batch of WTF, especially Cheri’s cobra monologue. Rare by this time. Update is also very enjoyable, more for Colin’s confidence than the material. I’d never seen this X-presidents. The First Ladies twist was genius. And Betty is dressed as Black Widow – very ahead of his time, Smigel was. The Martha Stewart piece was fine, but feels kind of random and is easy to forget.
I genuinely have no idea why they would want to rewrite Morning Latte not even two months after Chris Farley’s passing. It’s impossible to watch without thinking of the original sketch.
The Clinton piece doesn’t do much for me as it just feels like the same warmed-over smugness of all these Clinton pieces, and the Ginsburg runner is so half-hearted (especially Goodman’s performance). The only true dud of the bunch is the Olympics nonsense – Kattan and Ferrell doing lazy “is this gay? tee hee…being gay is so weird!!!” filler is a harbinger for some bad seasons, and another example of how much most of Kattan’s shtick burdened the show as time passed. At least they learned form their mistake of trying to slant Molly Shannon’s eyes.
Ferrell’s joke about older male singers who were secretly horrible eventually became overexposed, but the Neil Diamond sketch here is a classic. Dan’s return, the way he fits right back in as if 20 years hadn’t passed, how easily he commands the screen (let’s ignore him begging people to watch that Blues Brothers movie) just reinforces how weak this male cast was outside of Tim Meadows and Will Ferrell. Ferrell really powers through this episode and puts almost everyone else to shame. Unfortunately, the show’s increasing reliance on his gifts doesn’t serve them very well once he’s gone…