Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
THERAPY
DAS complains to his therapist (Brad Pitt) about the curse of fame
— I got a good laugh from how, as an example of how he can’t remember the names of the newer SNL cast members, David says he kept calling Tim Meadows “Jim” all week, and then you remember that Tim was David’s castmate for years.
— Random Brad Pitt cameo. It’s surprising that, to this day in 2019, this is the only time he’s ever appeared on SNL.
— You can tell this cold opening is pre-taped, as the reveal of Pitt’s presence would’ve gotten a bigger audience reaction had he been there live in the studio.
— Lots of pretty funny lines from David throughout this.
— A funny subtle gag with Pitt needing to glance at his pad to remember David’s name, after David went on and on about his own stardom.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— This season’s ever-changing theme music has been changed back to the one used in the Kelsey Grammer episode from earlier this season.
MONOLOGUE
DAS does stand-up about a polar bear mauling & the archetypal Cops perp
— I love David’s opening line, regarding coming back to SNL as a host: “(in a sly voice) Now the pupil has become the teacher!”
— Funny bit about a drunk guy hallucinating a bear signaling him to come over.
— I love David’s rundown of every redneck stereotype seen in every episode of Cops.
— Surprised this is over already. I wanted more stand-up.
STARS: ****
MERCURY MISTRESS
the Mercury Mistress is the car you can both drive & have sex with
— A fake ad that would end up never being re-aired, as it was deemed too raunchy at the time.
— A very juvenile but hilarious concept, and Parnell is perfect for this. Speaking of which, this is the very first of what would be quite a number of perv roles that SNL would cast Parnell in over the years.
— I love the visual of a blurred-out hole on the car.
— Hilarious bit with Horatio as a car burglar getting busted trying to have sex with Parnell’s car.
— The ending bit felt a little unnecessary, as the visual of Parnell humping the car started to get a little old.
STARS: ****
PRESS JUNKET
Monica Lewinsky (MOS) & publicist (DAS) screen potential interviewers
— A fun excuse to bring in a lot of celebrity impressions.
— Our first time seeing Darrell’s Phil Donahue impression in a few seasons.
— I love Ana’s Diane Sawyer saying, in regards to Barbara Walters, “That whore” and “Walters, I will KICK YOUR ASS!”
— Very funny bit with Cheri’s Barbara Walters coming back in while badly disguised as Sally Jessy Raphael.
— David is perfectly cast in this role.
— Jimmy displays yet another solid celebrity impression, though I recall him later saying that he feels his Howard Stern sounds more like Alan Alda.
— I love Molly-as-Monica’s childlike gleeful reaction to receiving a box of Snackwells.
— Great bit with Tim’s Oprah being carried in by a group of worshipers chanting her name.
— A good laugh from Tim’s Oprah mentioning how her movie Beloved is “eating it hard at the box office”.
STARS: ****
MACK NORTH
Mack North (WIF) relishes victory in exorbitant post-election attack ad
— Hilarious how Will’s politician is taking out a mean-spirited post-election ad to obnoxiously brag about his victory over his opponent. A perfect Will Ferrell role.
— I probably shouldn’t share this, but I remember when I first saw this, in a Comedy Central rerun, Will’s delivery of “Hey, you ate it! Now eat me!” made me laugh so uncontrollably hard that I seriously almost went to the bathroom on myself.
STARS: ****
ACCRUING EQUITY AND MAKING HOT, SWEET LOVE
finance & fornication mingle
— A very unconventional and creative concept.
— David looks very funny in that wig and mustache.
— I love the use of sensual lighting and soft background music when each panelist is describing their love-making.
— Ana’s love-making story has a lot of hilarious details and word choices.
— David’s love-making story about sex on a Wendy’s rooftop has a lot of funny bizarre turns.
STARS: ****
MACK NORTH
Mack North accosts vanquished opponent Fred Peete (CHP) in a parking lot
— Again, Will’s obnoxious demeanor in this is slaying me.
— A big laugh from Will’s particularly harsh line to his opponent: “Your kids are that extra kind of chubby that you just KNOW that they’re gonna grow up fat.”
— I love the scene with Will confronting his opponent (Parnell) in a Target parking lot and childishly harassing him.
— Good ending with Will saying to his camera crew “Let’s get ‘im! Let’s GET ‘im!” when his opponent drives away in a hurry.
STARS: ****
DRILL SERGEANT
drill sergeant (WIF) aggressively solicits love-life advice from recruits
— Man, tonight’s episode is on a roll.
— Will is perfect as a typical loudmouthed drill sergeant.
— Will’s insults towards the soldiers are hilarious.
— Will is great at mixing sensitive requests for relationship advice and abusively screaming at his soldiers.
— A classic example of Will trying to make a scene partner break during a sketch, as he tries to make David crack up by repeatedly bumping his own hat against David while David is giving a long speech to him.
STARS: ****½
MANGO & KIWI
new dancer Kiwi (DAS) seems to have stolen Mango’s magic; CSR cameo
— I guess I spoke too soon about tonight’s episode being on a roll. Here comes Mango.
— Mango gets an obligatory “recurring character meets a character with similar traits, played by the host” sketch.
— Chris Rock cameo!
— Fun seeing Rock, Tim, and David appearing in a sketch together for the first time since the early 90s when they were castmates.
— Rock’s mesmerized reaction to David’s Kiwi character is cracking me up.
— A laugh from how the only admirer Mango has left is an old homeless man.
— Overall, a bit more fun than usual Mango sketches, though I still wasn’t too crazy about this as a whole.
STARS: **½
MACK NORTH
Mack North uses a Fred Peete mask to further rub in the election results
— A somewhat funny concept of Will’s politician using a cardboard cut-out of his opponent’s face to speak as him, but this third ad feels a little unnecessary and they should’ve just left these Mack North ads at two.
STARS: **½
HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA
kids’ attempts to wish grandma “Happy Birthday” via phone displease (WIF)
— Wow, is tonight The Will Ferrell Show? He’s had a lead role in almost EVERY SINGLE SEGMENT so far tonight. I’m certainly not complaining, though I’m sure that some viewers back then who didn’t like Will were complaining when this episode originally aired (I can just picture them saying “Ugh, ANOTHER sketch tonight with Will Ferrell screaming his way through?”).
— I love Will interrupting the kids’ first singing of “Happy Birthday” to tell them calmly with a smile “Don’t half-ass it, okay?”
— Sketches with Will playing an angry father berating children never fail to crack me up. I’d like to think that the dad he’s playing in this particular sketch is the same dad from the “Get off the shed!” sketches.
— Kid: “Is grandma gonna die?” Will: “She is if you don’t nail it this time!”
— Odd how this is the second sketch tonight with Will using “horses ass” as an insult.
— Great turn with Will now directing his anger towards his mother on the phone, telling her “You can go straight to hell! I’m a lawyer! I go to court… and… talk with big words! You’re the devil!”
STARS: ****
WEEKEND UPDATE
COQ analyzes the gifts given by Bill Clinton to Monica Lewinsky
Hollywood Minute- DAS & lookalike hand puppet engage in celebrity gossip
— Colin’s opening straight-to-camera rant tonight is funnier than usual.
— I believe this is SNL’s very first mention of Osama Bin Laden (who Colin calls “Osam Bin Laden”). Little did they know at the time what a frequently-uttered name that would become on their show a few years later…
— I love the exuberant German accent Colin uses to pronounce “Der Spiegel” (and throwing in an obligatory utterance of the word “folks” after it, for good measure).
— Colin’s “Gucci knock-off” joke was excellent, and is one of his best Update jokes ever.
— Spade returns with the Hollywood Minute!
— Interesting concept with David using a hand puppet of his early 90s-era self to do tonight’s Hollywood Minute.
— The use of the hand puppet is helping save some of the weaker jokes in tonight’s Hollywood Minute and allows for David to make lots of fun ad-libs towards his puppet.
— Uh-oh! An Eddie Murphy photo has now popped up during the Hollywood Minute commentary.
— Ha, after David’s hand puppet’s Holy Man/holy crap joke about Eddie, David references the controversy over his own Eddie slam from an earlier Hollywood Minute by telling the puppet “Don’t say that. We’re friends now” (which the puppet responds to with “That’s not what I heard!”).
— Funny blooper with David briefly forgetting to change his voice when speaking as the hand puppet.
— A random but funny gag with the camera doing a cutaway to SNL’s cue-card guy holding up tiny cue cards for the hand puppet.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Save Tonight”
FELICITY
(DAS) ruins Felicity scene by also speaking Keri Russell’s (MOS) part
— Tim, as the Felicity director: “I have a good feeling this could be the episode that makes people turn on the TV and say ‘Hey, there’s a show on TV called Felicity.’”
— Another good line from Tim, after David ruins the filming of a scene: “That was perfect, and yet, not good at all.”
— The concept with David’s character speaking Molly-as-Keri-Russell’s lines is getting really one-joke, one joke that isn’t all that funny and is having no escalation in humor as it goes on.
— Tim continues to provide most of my only laughs in this sketch, though his delivery of his lines is now starting to get a little stumbly.
STARS: **
DR. LAURA
Dr. Laura Schlessinger (ANG) berates callers to her radio program
— Ana’s bitchy, unlikable portrayal of Dr. Laura is good. I have no familiarity with the real Dr. Laura, but from what I remember reading in old 1998 SNL reviews of this episode, SNL’s parody is pretty spot-on.
— I love the dark humor with Ana’s Dr. Laura driving an emotional caller to suicide, complete with a loud gunshot being heard.
— Hilarious line from Will as a caller talking about going online and ordering up Dr. Laura’s “Steamed clam special”, referring to her nude photos that were recently leaked online.
— David is well-cast as an obnoxious child.
— Surprised that the sketch is over already. This was pretty short, and I kinda wish David had more to do. Seemed like kind of a waste to bring the host on for just the last minute of a sketch, and not give him much to say or do.
STARS: ***½
BACHELOR PARTY
chaperone (DAS) lays down the ground rules for bachelor party attendees
— The shirt that David’s wearing is the same one Tim wore in a season 22 sketch where he played a character named Jerry Steve Dave, The Magic Man (side-by-side comparison below).
— Yet another role tonight that David is perfect for. And there are some laughs from him telling the guys what nasty things they’re allowed to do to the strippers while also urging them to treat the strippers with class. I doubt these lines would be as funny if any host besides David Spade were delivering them.
— The fun performances from all the guys are elevating the material. And the various statements that Tim’s shouting out in excitement throughout the sketch are hilarious.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mostly consistently solid episode. The first half had an impressive long string of great pieces, though the quality slowed down a little in the post-Update half. David Spade fit back into the show perfectly and, as I kept stating throughout the review, was cast into roles that fit him to a T.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ben Stiller)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Joan Allen