Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
OPPOSITES ATTRACT
Bill Clinton (DAH) & Newt Gingrich (CHP) dance & sing “Opposites Attract”
— Will already gets a laugh right from the start, with his Bob Livingston smugly laughing while replacing Newt Gingrich’s desk name plate with his own.
— A hilarious slyly-delivered greeting from Darrell’s President Clinton: “Hey, guys, just came to see if I’m impeached yet!”
— I love Will’s Livingston shoving Parnell’s Newt Gingrich while walking out of the office.
— A great line about “sick, illiterate kids with gunshot wounds”.
— Funny turn with Clinton and Gingrich breaking out into a romantic musical number, especially when they begin traveling around the studio and dancing in front of a green-screen with constantly-changing scenery.
— Parnell gets to show off his nice singing voice here.
— And there goes the obligatory kiss between Clinton and Gingrich. I used to find that funny, before man-on-man kissing in comedy (especially on SNL) became an overused and hacky crutch.
— Only six episodes into his featured player stint, and Parnell already gets his first “Live from New York…”.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— This season’s ever-changing theme music has been changed back to the one used in the Lucy Lawless episode from earlier this season. SNL finally ends up settling on this as the regular theme music, as it will be used for all of the subsequent episodes this season and the following season.
MONOLOGUE
host’s theater experience leads (WIF) to think she’s the band Steppenwolf
— Will’s long gray-haired fan of the band Steppenwolf is pretty funny.
— The premise of this monologue is simplistic and fairly lazy, but Will is making the best out of it with his funny performance.
STARS: ***
THE JENSON MINT
stick it to panhandlers with The Jenson Mint’s Fake Change For Vagrants
— I like that Parnell gets to star in the post-monologue fake ad two episodes in a row (with Mercury Mistress being the first ad).
— The fake coin is hilarious, especially the side with the middle finger.
— A big laugh from the Pat Buchanan dollar bill with the words “Suck it!”
STARS: ****
MARTHA STEWART LIVING
Martha Stewart’s (ANG) mother (host) is a source of Thanksgiving friction
— I love the bitter tension between Ana’s Martha Stewart and her mother.
— Joan is great as Martha Stewart’s testy mother.
— I’m enjoying the whole back-and-forth between Martha and her mother regarding a childhood Thanksgiving memory of Martha’s.
STARS: ****½
VH1 SPIRITUALITY AWARDS
transcendent celebrities receive acknowledgment
— I like Christ being casually included in the middle of the announced list of featured guests.
— Kattan’s Andy Dick impression makes its debut.
— Very funny pairing of Tracy’s Maya Angelou and Jimmy’s Marilyn Manson.
— When a graphic of Alanis Morissette’s name is supposed to show up onscreen as Cheri’s Alanis Morissette accepts her award, SNL accidentally puts up a graphic that states “Linda Ham, NASA Flight Director” (the third above screencap for this sketch). Haha, that graphic is intended for a Harry Caray sketch later tonight.
— Cheri’s Alanis impression is weak. Even male cast members Jim Breuer and Jimmy Fallon have previously done better Alanis impressions than that.
— I love Will’s Jesus looking laid-back in a casual pair of glasses.
— Very funny bit with Will’s Jesus about to open an envelope containing the name of the winner, only to go “Why am I even opening it? I’m all-knowing.”
— Speaking of weak celebrity impressions, Tim as Will Smith.
— Kattan’s mean-spirited one-liners as Andy Dick are cracking me up (and would later start a public feud between Kattan and Dick).
— Joan could not look any less like Madonna, but her performance as Madonna is solid and she has a lot of funny lines.
— Joan’s Madonna to Molly’s Courtney Love: “The goal of Buddhism is to attain nirvana, not break it up.”
— Overall, one of the rare SNL award show sketches that I actually really liked.
STARS: ****
TRIAL
defense attorney Suel Forrester cross-examines witness (John Goodman)
— I love Parnell’s look when the camera first cuts to him (the first above screencap for this sketch).
— Surprisingly, this is the first time Kattan has played Suel Forrester since season 22. This character completely skipped season 23. This weird pattern for Forrester continues, as he skips the following season 25, then comes back in season 26. Probably a good thing this character only appears every other season, as it keeps him fresh.
— Our second of many John Goodman cameos this season.
— I like Tim’s ‘“Did you just call me a chicken?” response to Forrester’s unintelligible yell of “Objection, your honor!”
— A particularly funny unintelligible line from Forrester, with him saying what sounds like “Can you tie a titty?”
— I like Goodman’s confused facial reactions to Forrester.
STARS: ***½
SPACE, THE INFINITE FRONTIER
in death, Harry Caray (WIF) remains goofy
— The final installment of this sketch, and the first time Will is playing Harry Caray after Caray’s death earlier that year.
— Given the “Linda Ham” technical error from the Spirituality Awards sketch earlier tonight, it would’ve been funny if this Harry Caray sketch accidentally put an Alanis Morissette name graphic onscreen when Joan’s Linda Ham was introduced.
— Linda Ham: “Please forgive me for asking this, but… didn’t you die?” Harry Caray: “Yes, I did. What’s your point?” I love how after that exchange, the sketch immediately goes on like normal, as if nothing is strange about a dead Harry Caray hosting a talk show.
— A big laugh from Caray randomly exclaiming “LINDA HAM!” several times in a row, then asking her “Does your name ever make you hungry?”
— I love Caray offering Linda Ham to make “sloppy martian love” with him in the back of his dune buggy on Mars.
— I can’t tell if Joan is laughing for real right now or if it’s in character (the last above screencap for this sketch).
— Overall, a riot. To me, none of the Space The Infinite Frontier follow-ups equal the classic first one with Jeff Goldblum, but tonight’s came very close.
STARS: ****½
WEEKEND UPDATE
COQ discusses Iraq inspection tensions & the possibility of war
ultramedicated Colette Reardon previews upcoming prescription drugs
— Colin’s “catering mistake” joke about the movie Babe has always been one of my all-time favorite Update jokes of his.
— Nice to see Cheri’s Collette Reardon in a new setting.
— Colin’s a stiff straight man to Collette Reardon.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hands”
LEARNING WITH JENNIFER TILLY
host & French Stewart (JIF) drop in
— While this is yet another case of SNL’s lazy trope of putting a celebrity impression into their own talk show sketch, I am interested in the bizarre, unconventional atmosphere of this particular sketch. Plus, I have the benefit of knowing in hindsight that this sketch never becomes recurring.
— I’m getting laughs from the wacky “wiggle” music that Cheri’s Jennifer Tilly is dancing to.
— I hate to criticize a second celebrity impression of Cheri’s tonight, but her Jennifer Tilly voice isn’t high-pitched enough. I’ve seen much better impressions of her. Between Tilly, Alanis Morissette, and Cheri’s weak recurring Fran Drescher impression, I didn’t realize until now how bad Cheri is at doing celebrity impressions (Barbara Walters notwithstanding).
— Funny bit with Tilly saying she learned to use a fancy computer, which just turns out to be an Etch-A-Sketch.
— This portrayal of Jennifer Tilly as a learning-obsessed simpleton seems kinda random to me, but perhaps this portrayal is based on how she comes off in interviews.
— I like Joan finding a way out of the interview by faking an emergency phone call.
— Ha, Jimmy as French Stewart, the role he was born to play. His look as him is uncanny, and he’s doing a spot-on imitation of his voice.
— Speaking of Jimmy’s look as French Stewart, something about the facial expressions Jimmy’s making kinda remind me of Mike Myers for some reason.
STARS: ***
SOUTHERN GALS
(host) & other hick tourists think their NYC adventure is just great
— The return of the Southern Gals characters from the preceding season’s Claire Danes episode.
— I like the New York location for these characters, after they toured in Paris in their previous sketch.
— Like last time, a lot of funny little comments from the ladies all throughout this.
— Funny ending with a New York rat suddenly appearing on Molly’s shoulder.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Down So Long”
TARMAC TALK
(TIM), (host), Jerry Seinfeld (JIF) are blown around runway
— Yet another talk show sketch tonight, but I love the very random setting of this one.
— I like the various effects SNL is using to give off the illusion that this sketch is really taking place in a tarmac.
— Jimmy displays yet ANOTHER dead-on celebrity impression, this time doing a funny Jerry Seinfeld. So far in his SNL tenure, Jimmy has been carving out a great niche for himself as a reliable impressionist.
— I love Jimmy’s Seinfeld constantly questioning the logic of this show.
— Great visual of Tim hanging on to a pole when a particularly strong wind from a nearby airplane blows everything away.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Yet another in a long line of solid season 24 episodes. This season has been on a roll. Tonight’s episode had a nice consistency to it, and there weren’t any segments that I disliked. There was also a good number of standout strong segments.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (David Spade)
about the same
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Jennifer Love Hewitt
I remember finding the Jennifer Tilly sketch hilarious as a kid, when I didn’t know who she was….
I went back and watched it 20 years later, knowing who she is, and now I don’t get the joke. XD
Thank goodness this is the last of those “Infinite Frontier” sketches, because there was no way they would ever top this one!
The best of the Suel Forrester skecthes, IMO. Great Goodman cameo, great lines, as you mentioned. The Clinton-Gingrich kiss was so shocking at the time, you can hear it in the audience’s reaction. As you said, it so overdone now by SNL and others, that it’s hard to remember how unique it was in 1998.
I remember the Greenhilly sketch with Baldwin (where he also kissed all the ladies and the dog) being the first time I noticed it on SNL, then there was a break until the late ’90s, where it kept coming back again and again and was eventually one of the reasons I stopped watching the show. The kiss in this sketch doesn’t bother me as much as many of the versions with Kattan and/or Ferrell, because those were always more OH MY GOD WHAT AM I DOING THIS IS SO GROSS (LOL EW LOL EW LOL)??? with the prerequisite audience jeering and hooting, whereas this is fairly muted, but there’s still nothing very funny about it. You’re mostly just seeing two straight actors awkwardly pushing their mouths together. It’s funnier when the actors try a little more or when the sketch is more about the topic, like when Mad TV had that football bros sketch with Josh Meyers and Ike Barinholtz, or the last time SNL went to this well, in the John Cena game show host sketch where Kyle and Beck were at least sort of genuinely kissing and it wasn’t done in a negative way.
The idea of the sketch is more compelling than the result onscreen. Chris and Darrell sing well, and they work hard, running around from set to set, but you can sort of see the effort, see actors running from set to set, rather than seeing the characters. It doesn’t help that while Clinton and Gingrich had a highly publicized antagonistic relationship from 93-98, SNL almost never delved into this topic – Clinton was MIA onscreen when Farley played Gingrich, and Gingrich barely ever appeared after Farley left (I think the main sketch he was in was the airplane sketch with Norm as Bob and Will and Cheri as the annoying tourists).
The most interesting part of the sketch is probably Will, in his short-lived Bob Livingston impression, taunting Clinton about George Bush’s son winning the White House. Knowing that Will would play Bush, and just how popular and influential the impression was that election year, makes the whole thing eerie.
I agreement on the man on man kissing. Seems wrong to use it as a punchline. That being said, Will Forte’s George W Bush full on making out with Darrell Hammond’s Donald Rumsfeld (Season 29, maybe?) is one of my most memorable SNL moments from that era.
Because it was spoofing Friends then recent series finale.
I remember just liking the IDEA of someone like Joan Allen hosting. During this era they leaned a lot more on the hot young stars of the day, so it was interesting to see what they could do with a dramatic actress in her forties. Never rewatched it, but I remember the Martha Stewart sketch as hilarious, as Joan NEVER breaks from her character’s harshly stern persona.
The Madonna thing works because she is being a very specific version (Kabbalah, “Frozen” video Madonna).
I see that there was once a video available of a cut sketch with Will and Joan called Action News: Hard Liquor. I’ve never seen it.
Joan hosting is still something of a mild head-scratcher to me (although she’s very good), but I saw that Jewel said she was asked to host and said no. She didn’t name a date (I know she was MG a few times), but I wonder if that played any part.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRBZVRDpka0
Anyway, other than the Kattan Shoutfest sketch, I thought this was a pretty decent episode. Allen was mostly there as a straight woman, which was fine, but I did think she was funny in the Jennifer Tilly sketch, being in increasing disbelief and then finally getting out of there (it’s rare to see the guests in these talk show sketches have so much agency). The Jennifer Tilly impression was not that good, but it worked as a weirdo one-off.
Chris Parnell looked so handsome in the homeless ad. It’s interesting seeing some of these eat-the-rich type takedowns in Adam McKay’s headwriting era when I think of how vocal he now is politically.
I wish they’d let Joan Allen have her own monologue, rare as that was around this time, although Will picking her up at the end made me smile.
The airport sketch is the type of weirdness they used to be able to properly refine and air, instead of just saying ‘this is weird.’
Southern Gals Sketch:
Is it just me, or was the NYC background reused years later for Bronx Beat?! Check it out…it’s GRRREEEAATTT!