Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
THE LADIES’ MAN
Leon Phelps takes calls & puts Viagra to the test
— This sketch’s growing popularity has gotten to the point where the sketch is now appearing as the cold opening for a change.
— This is the first of what will be quite a number of Viagra mentions in tonight’s episode, which serves as a reminder of just how big a story Viagra was when it first came out around this time.
— I like Leon Phelps singing a brief “Old man’s penis” jingle.
— Fun premise with Leon downing an entire bottle of Viagra to see if it has any effect on him.
— Hilarious how Leon is using a “butt-ugly” picture of Sally Jessy Raphael to de-arouse himself, which ends up not working for him.
— I was about to say that it’s not necessary for them to repeat the joke from an earlier Ladies’ Man sketch where Leon gets disgusted when hearing about an old couple having sex, but we end up getting a nice twist this time with Leon actually being aroused by that due to the Viagra he took.
— I love Tim’s very intense delivery of “Live from New York…” at the end of this cold opening. One of my personal all-time favorite LFNYs.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
TRM & JMB favor host with their rendition of Godzilla sound effects
— I feel kinda bad for how Tracy’s entrance was met with dead silence, with the audience not giving him any of the usual applause that cast members in this era typically seem to get when they walk onstage as themselves in a host’s monologue.
— There’s a backstory about how this monologue is at least partly responsible for Jim getting fired after this season. Jim went into great detail about it in an interview I saw years ago on YouTube. My memory of it is pretty fuzzy, and the story is too lengthy for me to go into detail about here. Someone in the comments section of this review can probably dig up a link to the interview. If so, thanks in advance. I’ll just say that the backstory Jim tells about this monologue heavily involves Adam McKay and the negative tension that’s always existed between Adam and Jim. Adam is painted in a very negative light in the story.
— Ehh, this monologue is pretty much just a knockoff of the monologue that Jim did with Jeff Goldblum the preceding season, which itself was only mildly funny. Not sure this rehash was worth Jim getting into such a heated confrontation with Adam McKay over, jeopardizing his own job security.
— I do like the addition of Tracy to Jim’s routine. Tracy’s imitation of the Godzilla theme is fairly funny.
STARS: **½
FLEX
hormones & steroids included in Flex Speed Stick give you an animal edge
— I love the visuals of various cast members turning into scary beasts and going wild on innocent bystanders and animals.
— A huge laugh from Will letting out a spray of urine onto his victim.
STARS: ****
THE VIEW
the ladies fawn over George Stephanopoulos (host)
— For once, a View sketch has Debbie Matenopoulos being played by Ana instead of the blonde female who’s hosting SNL that night.
— I like Cheri-as-Barbara-Walters’ angry one-liner outbursts towards Ana’s Debbie Matenopoulos throughout the sketch, especially when Cheri’s Barbara follows one outburst of hers by putting her hand over her own mouth in a shocked “Oops!” manner.
— A good laugh from Molly’s Meredith Viera casually giving us way too many details of her sexual desire for George Stephanopoulos.
— Very funny part with Barbara forcing Debbie to go inside a cage.
— Tracy seemed to kinda botch his line “I would beat you on a cracker” (or whatever that was he was trying to say).
STARS: ****
SPARKS
Zimmermans take offense when neighbor (host) tries unambiguous foreplay
— The Zimmermans officially become recurring characters. Unlike their first appearance, where they were by themselves, they now have another couple to play off of, which would go on to be a regular thing for these sketches.
— I like Molly’s sour hint that she and Matthew aren’t very sexually active with each other.
— Some pretty good laughs from Chris repeatedly banging his hand on the table while sexually-aggressively telling Cheri where to place the painting.
— Tonight’s installment of this recurring sketch is definitely working better than the first installment, now that the Zimmermans have a normal couple to play off of.
— Good turn with Cheri using her sexual flirtatious method on Matthew, with Matthew eventually getting really into it until he makes a raunchy statement that offends everybody.
STARS: ***½
PRETTY LIVING
joyologist Helen & her seashell craftsman boyfriend (host)
— (*sigh*) Oh, god. Now this sketch officially becomes recurring. I don’t have a shred of the goodwill towards this sketch that I have towards the Zimmermans sketches.
— This sketch is really missing something without Julianne Moore as Ana’s co-host, who provided my only laughs in the first installment of this sketch.
— What happened just now? Why did Ana and Matthew both go off-script to pick something up off the floor and hand it to Molly’s Helen Madden? I guess Molly accidentally dropped something when doing one of her many leg-stretches, but I can’t tell what it was.
— As usual, the audience is eating up Molly’s endless “I love it!” leg-stretching routine while I sit completely stone-faced through the entire sketch.
— Okay, I finally got a laugh, from Ana bitterly letting us know what crappy gift she got when her fiancee went to Hawaii. However, that kinda felt like a line that would’ve been more fitting for Julianne Moore’s co-host character from the first installment of this sketch.
STARS: *½
VIAGRA
Regis Philbin [real] & men on the street angrily say “no Viagra for me”
— I love how the men being interviewed on the street about Viagra are played by the entire male cast, Matthew Broderick, and some male SNL writers and staff members.
— Hilarious seeing Leon Phelps as one of the men being interviewed about Viagra, especially given the cold opening he did earlier tonight. Weird seeing Leon with a goatee, though. I guess this was filmed earlier this week before Tim shaved for tonight’s episode.
— Akira Yoshimura! (the third-to-last above screencap for this sketch)
— A rare non-Update appearance from Colin.
— Regis Philbin’s message is hilarious, especially him telling us with a calm smile “You can go straight to hell.”
— A very fun and fast-paced segment.
STARS: ****
WEEKEND UPDATE
COQ wants to see Bill Clinton exercise executive privilege to the max
— During Colin’s obligatory opening straight-to-camera rant, I like his whole side bit about people at SNL running up the show’s bill and stealing things from the show.
— Ooh, a Joe Piscopo joke. And as expected, the punchline is about him being a washed-up has-been.
— Some strong jokes from Colin so far in this Update.
— Colin’s Jerry Springer joke reminds me that I recall once hearing there was a Jerry Springer Show sketch that got cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal. In the sketch, Matthew Broderick played Jerry Springer, and his guests were Darrell and Ana as the Clintons. I believe I also heard that Darrell suffered a real-life injury at one point in the sketch (which may be the reason for the sketch getting cut), when he got hit by a chair thrown in the air as the performers were acting out a typical Jerry Springer Show fight.
— Holy hell, Update is over already? This Update was seriously only about 3-4 minutes long. I kid you not, people. This may have topped the Update from the Roma Downey episode as the shortest Update in recent memory.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Kind & Generous”
THE CELINE DION SHOW
Shania Twain (MOS) & Gloria Estefan (host)
— Yet another talk show sketch tonight? And has EVERY SINGLE SKETCH so far tonight been recurring?
— At least the segment with Darrell as Celine’s husband is something that wasn’t done in the first installment of this sketch.
— Another difference from the first installment is that all the guests are brought on together instead of one-by-one.
— A cheap laugh from how unfeminine Matthew looks in drag.
— I’m getting bored with the repetitive joke of Ana’s Celine always singing over her guests whenever each of them try to sing a solo song. I like Ana’s Celine impression, but I’m glad this ends up being the last time we ever see her in her talk show sketch (I recall her appearing in some good non-talk show sketches later on).
STARS: **½
PRIME MINISTER’S QUESTIONS
Tony Blair (host) hears British MPs’ questions on Teletubbies & more
— Kinda surprised they’re bringing back this sketch from over a year ago when Mike Myers hosted. Oh, and by the way, that makes this yet ANOTHER recurring sketch tonight, keeping alive tonight’s streak of all recurring sketches.
— A second rare non-Update appearance from Colin tonight.
— I love Will’s voice in this.
— Hmm, I see Will’s Oasis obsession from the first installment of this sketch has been replaced tonight with a Teletubbies obsession. I admit, there’s more comedic potential in this Teletubbies obsession of his.
— A funny out-of-place appearance from Tracy as an American tourist.
— It was unnecessary for this sketch to end the exact same way the first one did, with the host repeatedly punching Will.
STARS: ***
PROM LIMO
(CHO), (host), (MOS), (WIF) think their prom limo ride is the coolest
— Finally, an actual ORIGINAL sketch tonight. Unfortunately, I never cared for this particular musical sketch during my previous viewings of tonight’s episode. I’ll try to keep an open mind this time.
— I do always enjoy Will’s portrayal of young, fratboy-ish, overconfident guys.
— The musical that the prom teens are singing kinda has its charm, but otherwise, I’m a little bored during this.
— A funny random ending gag, in which Will gets beheaded by an overpass. I’m surprised by how fast they were able to switch Will with a headless body double.
STARS: **½
TENACIOUS D
Tenacious D [real] performs “The History of Tenacious D” & “Double Team”
— For the first time since way back in 1986, SNL has credited special guest comedians perform their own comedy act on SNL’s home base stage, something that used to be common for SNL. Too bad tonight’s return to this old tradition ends up just being a one-time thing. (However, I think I recall once hearing that Johnny Knoxville’s whole Jackass routine was originally in consideration to be a recurring SNL segment for season 25, a year before Jackass became a big breakout show on MTV. Knoxville and his buddies were going to perform their Jackass comedy act live onstage at SNL, but SNL ended up passing on the idea. I’m not sure of the validity of that whole story, though.)
— Funny opening intro that Matthew is forced to read off of an index card that Tenacious D gave him.
— Interesting seeing a young, pre-famous Jack Black.
— I’m probably not the best person to judge a Tenacious D song, as I’m not all that familiar with their work outside of their later SNL appearances, but I’m aware of the basic gist of their act in general, and I’m enjoying their performance tonight. And I love how out-of-the-ordinary this whole segment feels for this SNL era. It truly does kinda feel like I’m back to reviewing an SNL episode from the 70s and early-mid 80s, back when special guest performers doing their comedy act was common.
— A crazy high note that Jack sang just now.
— I like the turn with Jack acting out a soft conversation with off-camera audience members.
— The “sucking on toes” part of the song right now is very funny.
STARS: ***½
COMIC MINDS
the drug humor of Orbit (WIF) & Larry (TRM) was based on PCP
— The name of Matthew’s character, Matt Peedman, seems to have been based on then-current SNL writer Matt Piedmont.
— Tracy has been getting more airtime than usual tonight.
— Very funny concept of Will and Tracy’s comedy team trying to one-up Cheech and Chong’s marijuana-themed comedy team by making their drug theme PCP, of all things.
— The first sound clip played of Will and Tracy’s PCP comedy act is hilarious, especially Tracy’s panicked repetition of the line “I got the ice in me!” Tracy’s delivery of that line is priceless.
— The second sound clip is also cracking me the hell up. I love Will’s insane panicked screaming.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I don’t feel too crazy about this episode, though it really wasn’t too bad. However, a large chunk of the episode had a bit of a lazy, too-familiar feel, especially with the heavy over-reliance on recurring sketches (which is something that this season had thankfully been moving away from), talk show sketches, and even a rehashed monologue. It didn’t help that some of the recurring sketches were things I didn’t need to see be brought back. There was still a pretty good number of sketches I enjoyed tonight, though, even some of the recurring stuff.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Greg Kinnear)
a mild step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Season 23 comes to an end, with host David Duchovny. It’s also the end of the road for Jim Breuer’s SNL tenure.