Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
THE STARR REPORT
prosecutor Kenneth Starr (WIF) stops Bill Clinton skit to subpoena DAH
— A lot of laughs from Darrell-as-Clinton’s excitement over the Starr Report.
— Very funny book cover that Clinton displays.
— An interesting and funny fourth-wall turn with Will’s Kenneth Starr subpoenaing Darrell for playing the president.
— I love Will’s Starr telling Darrell “Shut your hole, Hammond!”
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
Gloria Stuart (CHO) performs Titanic scene to upstage Oscar rival host
— Funny performance from Cheri as Gloria Stuart.
— A good passive-aggressive line from Gloria Stuart about how the Oscar academy would rather give awards to people like Julianne Moore who takes her clothes off whenever the camera starts rolling.
— Amusing line from Gloria Stuart about losing the part of the rapping grandma role in The Wedding Singer.
— I like the fake ship set quickly assembled onstage.
STARS: ***½
THE DELICIOUS DISH
cultist (host) invites Margaret Jo & Terry to join sorghum farm compound
— Ah, a change of scenery in this Delicious Dish installment, with this taking place outdoors in a field.
— Julianne seems like she’ll be perfect for this recurring sketch.
— Molly: “Broom fiber? You just blew my mind.”
— Great turn this sketch suddenly takes, with Julianne’s casual reveal of the farm compound being a creepy, dark cult.
— Julianne’s insane, disturbing dialogue is made even funnier by her overly serious, soft-spoken delivery.
— I love how Ana is getting increasingly uneasy from Julianne’s various revelations about the cult.
STARS: ****
THE LADIES’ MAN
(host) helps Leon show how to handle relationship stages
— For the first time ever, a Ladies’ Man sketch gets recognition applause during Tim’s opening dialogue.
— We get a very welcome change of pace in tonight’s Ladies’ Man installment, with this one diverting from the usual “Leon Phelps answers question from callers” format by doing an Alfred Hitchcock-esque “The Ladies’ Man Presents” presentation, with Leon and Julianne demonstrating various love-making tips.
— Funny bit with Leon speeding up the clock.
STARS: ***½
BAND SHOT
Kenneth Starr (WIF) interrupts SNL Band to haul off Lenny Pickett [real]
— A fantastic continuation of the end of the cold opening, with Will’s Kenneth Starr now interrupting an SNL Band shot to subpoena Lenny Pickett.
PROMO
— Wow, the Kenneth Starr running gag even carries over into the “Next show” promo, which has a fake host/musical guest line-up (Robert DeNiro / The Rolling Stones). I absolutely love how SNL is going all out on this running gag.
— It’s weird in retrospect to see that this was back at a time when Robert DeNiro hosting SNL was considered an exciting and promising idea. If people back then only knew…
BARBARA WALTERS OSCAR SPECIAL
Matt Damon (JMB) & Ben Affleck (CHK)
— I like Cheri-as-Barbara-Walters’ cheesy intro speech, using the titles of that years Oscar-nominated movies as puns.
— Very funny scene with Barbara in bed with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.
— Funny to see in retrospect that this was at a time where Ben Affleck was known as simply “Matt Damon’s friend”.
— Well, this is it – Norm Macdonald’s final appearance as a cast member. At least he gets to go out doing what is probably my favorite celebrity impression of his: Burt Reynolds.
STARS: ***½
THE LOST DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
Kenneth Starr (WIF) interrupts Jack Handey
— Didn’t this Lost Deep Thought about a boy who wanted to be an acrobat air already?
— Oh, wait, this turns out to get interrupted by Kenneth Starr. Yes! I love how this running gag is getting even more absurd as the show goes along.
— The fact that the conversation between Handey and Starr is captioned in the usual Deep Thoughts screen crawl is hilarious.
— I love Will’s Starr saying “You shut up, you shut up.” It’s just such a Will Ferrell-esque way of wording “shut up”.
— Starr, regarding Handey: “Let’s cuff him, he’s got dope in his pocket.” Ha, that probably explains a lot about Handey’s humor.
WEEKEND UPDATE
— I’m enjoying Colin’s opening rundown of the various women who Clinton fondled.
— Colin’s Asteroid joke feels like a throwback to the old Weekend Update eras of the 70s and 80s.
— Colin’s delivery of traditional news jokes has been getting a little better lately, but he can’t shake his habit of making unnecessary ad-libs to the audience after every damn joke. It’s getting increasingly annoying to me.
— No guest commentaries tonight.
— Overall, not a bad Update.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “As Long As You Love Me”
PRETTY LIVING
joyologist Helen espouses her philosophy
— This soon-to-be-recurring sketch makes its debut.
— Right out of the gate, this sketch has a case of what’s known as “early installment weirdness”, as this debut of Pretty Living has two hosts, played by Ana and Julianne, whereas all subsequent installments of this sketch would only have Ana as the sole host.
— Molly’s already-existing Helen Madden character now appears, and as we now know, she would go on to regularly appear in these Pretty Living sketches.
— Oh, god, and there goes Helen Madden’s constant over-the-top “I love it!”s and physical gyrations. I prefer Helen Madden’s pre-Pretty Living appearances, where Molly’s characterization of her was much more low-key. I never could stand the over-the-top characterization Molly does in these Pretty Living sketches.
— I like the running gag with Julianne dropping subtle hints of disturbing personal issues of hers. In fact, that’s been providing my only laughs in this entire sketch.
— Overall, blah. I can’t believe this would go on to become such an often-used recurring sketch. And unfortunately, the subsequent installments of this sketch don’t have Julianne Moore to be the sole saving grace.
STARS: *½
HEINEKEN
Kenneth Starr (WIF) interrupts a Heineken commercial to serve a subpoena
— This segment is a bit rare to see, as it’s removed from some copies of this episode.
— Amazing how the Kenneth Starr running gag is even carrying over into what you initially assume is a real commercial break. This Kenneth Starr running gag just keeps getting better and better.
— That strangely sounds like Michael McKean doing the voice-over for this commercial. There’s no way that’s him, though.
ART CLASS
nude model Terence Maddox (WIF) grosses out those trying to sketch him
— This soon-to-be-recurring character makes his debut. Unlike Pretty Living, THIS is something I’m actually happy to review the debut of.
— I love the students’ disgusted reactions to Terrence Maddox getting an erection. Also hilarious is his various euphemisms for his erection.
— Will is selling this character in the way that only he could.
— A particularly funny disgusting bit with the cheese grater.
— I love Maddox’s bizarre crying.
— Funny ending line from Maddox, letting the students know that he’s about to crap on top of their cars.
— Nice ending with a montage of professional sketchings of Maddox.
STARS: ****
TV FUNHOUSE
“Conspiracy Theory Rock!” by RBS- the news Media-Opoly is exposed
— Oh, this is a well-known and controversial TV Funhouse, one that would be banned from reruns.
— This parody of School House Rock is freakin’ spot-on and very fun. Very daring as well, with all of the shady things being revealed about corporations and the media.
— A funny interruption, with the NBC “Please Stand By” screen.
— A fantastic meta part, with the song now discussing “why they took Norm Macdonald away”. This is strangely fitting being aired in what ended up being Norm’s final episode.
— Overall, a brilliant masterpiece. Bravo to Smigel for having the balls to do this.
STARS: *****
GOOD MORNING WITH LIZA!
Gillian Anderson (host) & Joel Grey (CHK)
— Meh, I really could do without the return of this sketch. Didn’t care for this the first time, and it’s not like SNL has a shortage of celebrity-hosted talk show sketches in this era.
— Pretty spot-on casting of Julianne as Gillian Anderson, though maybe I just feel that way because of the red hair.
— Even though the scotch/“It’s coffee to me!” bit was reused from the first installment of this sketch, Molly delivered it in a more amusing way tonight.
— Overall, most of this sketch was as weak as the first installment. Thankfully, this is the last time they ever do this sketch.
STARS: **
THE GOLORDS
Golords foil Canadian plot to make Alan Greenspan raise interest rates
— I like the random bit of business with the male Golord inflating his blow-up doll while casually having a normal conversation with the female Golord.
— The climactic fight scene has hilariously gruesome gore, such as the female Golord cutting a bear in half with a chainsaw, and a villain getting a huge hole shot right through his head.
STARS: ****
SHIRTLESS BIBLE SALESMEN
shirtless Bible salesmen (WIF) & (TIM) lob non sequiturs at (host)
— Ha, two sketches tonight starring a shirtless Will Ferrell?
— Among the abundant randomness when Will and Tim make their entrance, I love the subtle joke of Tim’s name being Kent State.
— This sketch is wonderfully absurd. There’s a hilariously bizarre non-sequitur being delivered every few seconds. Too many to highlight in this review.
— A great pairing of Will and Tim. This sketch is perfectly utilizing the traits that I love most about both Will and Tim as performers.
— Great ending line: “Come on, let’s go untie that kid.”
STARS: ****½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty strong episode, minus the two bad talk show sketches (Pretty Living and Good Morning With Liza). We got a brilliant TV Funhouse, two strong bizarre Will Ferrell pieces (Art Class and Shirtless Bible Salesmen), one of the best Delicious Dish installments, and a great & ambitious running gag throughout the show involving Will Ferrell’s Kenneth Starr impression.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Scott Wolf)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Steve Buscemi
oh god no, Pretty Living! Why Molly why?!?!?! This is the turning point
I think Moore must have been pretty well liked backstage as she makes a cameo in the Ladies Man movie a couple years after this
Both her cameo in the film and her participating in The Ladies Man sketch in this episode may just be due to the fact that she was a self professed fan of the character. Meadows himself in an interview has said that Julianne Moore asked if they could do a Ladies Man sketch at the Monday night pitch meeting the week she hosted and they were shocked that such a classy, Oscar nominated actress would be into that type of sketch
No hosting stint (even if it’s fake) can truly be “exciting” with Bridges to Babylon-era Rolling Stones as a musical guest…well, maybe if you’re Jann Wenner.
The usual tidbit about Conspiracy Theory Rock’s banned-from-reruns status is that Lorne Michaels doesn’t think it “worked comedically”, which I don’t buy as
a) the sketch appears in the Best of Saturday TV Funhouse DVD b) J.J. Sedelmaier animated some Schoolhouse Rock segments, so there’s some biting-the-hand humour there
c) banning a sketch after Norm Macdonald finishes his SNL run is rather convenient, and
d) SNL later airs a one-and-done Saturday TV Funhouse short that truly DOESN’T work comedically and even gets excised for the West Coast. Oh, “Sex and the Country”, your day of reckoning is nigh upon you.
Damn it. The second “Michael Jackson Show” cartoon (from Gwyneth Paltrow/Ryan Adams) was the one excised from West Coast airings, not “Sex and the Country”. Still…that Tom Green episode…
I remember that TV Funhouse segment from the Tom Green episode. That one went too far if you saw it live.
Does anyone know where I can see the Funhouse from this episode? I am curious to see what was so bad that it was banned.
Seeing Ken Starr subpoena Lenny Pickett during a band shot is among the most memorable things to happen on the episode, along with the debut of Living Pretty and the infamous TV Funhouse segment.
Some notes from the late improv teacher Jason Chin about seeing this episode live at 8H as a guest of Tina Fey’s:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010408120505/http://argosagency.com/journals/SNLarch.html
Holy crap! That website lists all the dress cuts for this episode and mentions audience laughs during Backstreet Boys dancing sequence and one of their two songs was cut.
Original cold open for this episode was Darrell getting subpoenaed by Kenneth Starr.
Thanks. Wow. This is a real curio.
Some interesting stuff there. A chapter in Kattan’s autobiography is named “Zip Zing” (I think it’s due to his father, Kip King). I don’t remember if that character ever gets on SNL. Doesn’t sound like we lost anything in the cut material, although Starr going after Lorne would have been amusing.
I think the part that interested me most for some reason was Jay Mohr being at the afterparty.
All the focus over the years on Conspiracy Rock seems to have ignored that Golords short hammering home such an anti-capitalist message to the point of having an Atlas Shrugged poster behind Alan Greenspan.
I felt like Julianne Moore was somewhat wasted in this episode, even though she was in most of the sketches, as she tended to just have straight roles. Pretty Living was probably her best chance.
I’m normally not a fan of having a cast member take over a monologue so blatantly, but since Cheri didn’t get her chance to play Adrian in Stallone’s monologue, I’m happy enough for her. And she does a pretty good job.
The runner is just a brilliant idea (and without your review I would have had no idea they even had one in a commercial parody). I miss that type of inventiveness. Ferrell’s Ken Starr reminds me a little of his Janet Reno.
I heard a woman in the audience shout out “Norm!” as he left the (very funny) Baba Wawa sketch. I’m sorry that this is his last appearance, but watching these episodes, I get it more now. His position had become such that he WAS the story, rather than just being a part of the show, similar to Pete Davidson these days. Of course that would have quieted down over time, but it probably wasn’t much fun for him, or anyone else at the show, and since he wasn’t happy, I can see why he made the decision to leave. I’m sure going to miss his work though. Even in this one, a warmed-over bit he’d done a few times before, he stands out.
CC cut the monologue right after Cheri says “Oh cut the crap.”
I’m probably crazy…but I kind of like Molly’s joy-ologist. I think the physicality and commitment Molly exudes when she plays her. My main criticism is simply, the sketch just goes on for SO LONG. Especially the Matthew Broderick one. They also made the character way too re-occurring. 🙂 A common problem for the this era of SNL.
Farewell to Norm…no doubt his tenure shouldn’t have ended the way it did…but I really feel that he would have likely left at the end of this season anyway (he just seemed like he was ready to move on). Norm played the “too cool for school”/”I don’t give a shit” on SNL to perfection…and it made him all the funnier. And, now that I think about it, he’s probably the last SNL alum to have this attitude on the show. No cast member has adopted his style since, and it would be hard to do so, he’s just so unique. Despite being well known for his WU-persona (which was essentially himself), Norm was underrated at impressions (he’s got lots of gems: Bob Dole, Burt Reynolds, Larry King) and sketch work. Can’t wait for your review on the episode that he comes back to host…his monologue was fantastic. 🙂
All in all, this was a solid episode – yes, Julianne did a good job (particularly in “Delicious Dish”) and should have hosted a second time
For those who never saw the “banned” TVF, here it is from a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.weber.author/videos/1047722248623611/?vh=e&extid=JPGhg5NwojljUQmQ
This Snopes article also explains whether it was really banned or not:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/snl-conspiracy-theory-rock/
Also, according to the Saturday Night Live Transcripts website, Harry Shearer was reported as saying that Lorne pulled the cartoon because he still wanted to be employed at 30 Rock.
Thanks for the link, EJ. At the time the decision was made to ban it, Lorne explained that he did so “because it didn’t work comedically.”
And watching it 22 years later, I can see why… nothing in this cartoon prior to the “Please Stand By” is actually funny; it’s the absolute truth. This is a brilliant takedown of the industry. I’m amazed (and grateful) that Smigel got this on, and kudos to him for also adding the footnotes. The amount of unsourced BS floating around has only increased in the last two decades.
You know, the most striking thing to me about the Conspiracy Theory Rock vid…is that NBC and CBS were both owned by electric companies in 1998. What the fuck? I mean, I know GE bought out RCA and stuff, but Westinghouse buying CBS was also bizzare. Basically Westinghouse bought CBS, then turned into CBS, and spun off their electric stuff into the new Westinghouse while the Old Westinghouse merged with Viacom.
And people wonder why I say that Capitalism is stupid.
It wasn’t THAT bizarre. Old Westinghouse basically doubled down on its Group W division after Westinghouse Credit Corporation hobbled the conglomerate in the early 1990s ( http://old.post-gazette.com/westinghouse/chapter5.asp ). Old Westinghouse initially owned part of RCA and, after RCA spun off into its own company as an antitrust measure, owned 20% of NBC when that network formed in 1926. Renaming Westinghouse to CBS was Old Westinghouse admitting how little of its old self remained…and then Old CBS Films came with ITS baggage. I’m simplifying, but it’s not like Westinghouse JUST jumped into the media fray in the mid-1990s.
I doubt they wonder.
To add some more authenticity to Conspiracy Theory Rock, Smigel’s usual animation house (J.J. Sedelmaier Productions) actually worked on Schoolhouse Rock in the 90s.
Anyone know where I can find the Heineken commercial?
Conspiracy Theory Rock is one of the best things SNL has ever done. Aged like wine and is especially relevant today, considering in the last few years, the media-opoly and “fact-checkers” have been aggressively been pushing the idea that the Official Story is always true, and “conspiracy theory” is a synonym for “false”.