Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
MODERATE CANDIDATE
moderate (HOS) is born from DNA of Al Gore (DAH) & George W. Bush (WIF)
— The debut of Darrell’s Al Gore impression.
— You can tell this is Darrell’s first time playing Gore, as his impression sounds almost nothing like how it would famously go on to sound. Hell, at one point in this cold opening, when Darrell’s Gore whines “Darn it, I cain’t do thiiiis!”, Darrell slips into his Bill Clinton voice, for crying out loud.
— Speaking of Darrell’s Clinton, we now get a cutaway to him, in obvious pre-taped form while Darrell is live as Gore.
— Now we get the debut of Will’s George W. Bush impression.
— Much like Darrell’s Gore, you can tell this is Will’s first time out playing Bush, as he’s just playing Bush as a generic southern fratboy and isn’t doing ANY of the specific Bush mannerisms that we’re now so familiar with seeing Will do. It’s so funny to think that this is just one year before SNL does the now-legendary Bush/Gore presidential debate sketch (the “lockbox/strategery” one) in the first episode of season 26, where Will and Darrell have absolutely perfected their Bush/Gore impressions.
— Bush, after Gore says he’s supporting the death penalty: “Hell, I’m from Texas; we invented the word ‘death’.”
— Some laughs from Bush and Gore finding so many similarities between each other, much to their frustration.
— Interesting bit with Horatio as the ultimate middle-of-the-road candidate, though it’s not anything particularly funny.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
TIM, WIF, CHP concoct ruses in order to expose themselves to host
— Why is Tim wearing a self-wig while playing himself in this monologue? As far as I can remember, he doesn’t wear a bald cap in any sketches tonight, which is usually the reason for cast members having to occasionally resort to wearing a self-wig when playing themselves. Plus, Tim’s self-wig in this monologue doesn’t even match his real-life hairstyle from this time period.
— The male cast’s pervy actions towards Heather are making me laugh, though the premise is lazy. After all, this is basically just a raunchier version of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s monologue that the show had just recently done at the end of the preceding season.
— When Heather tells Will (who is showing her his penis behind a door after claiming she got a phone call) “Uh, that’s not a phone”, I loved Will’s sleazy delivery of “Yeah, but it’s for you!”
— Great bit with Parnell, which can be seen as a precursor to SNL’s own “Dick in a Box”. Hell, it’s also a precursor to a bit Parnell himself would do with a watermelon in an Appalachian Emergency Room sketch from 2005.
STARS: ***
LITTER CRITTERS
Litter Critters molds let kids make fun toys out of cat crap
— Hilarious visuals of kids eagerly playing with kitty litter-covered cat feces. I also love hearing the uproarious audience reactions during certain portions of this.
— A funny quick shot of the kids encouraging their cat to eat a meal, after they’ve run out of cat feces to play with.
— Parnell: “What’s that smell?” Cheri: “It’s the smell of fun, honey!”
STARS: ****½
SPARKS
on an airplane, (host) wants husband (WIF) to emulate Zimmermans’ antics
— A random low-brow joke with Parnell’s name being Bruce Gaylord.
— Parnell’s deadpan interjections throughout this sketch are providing my biggest laughs here.
— Aaaaaaand there’s the “outrageous” part with Will and Kattan kissing each other on the lips, then both having an uproarious outraged reaction. I admit, that part of this sketch used to crack me up when I was a teenager during this era, but all these years later, I now see that kiss as an unnecessary attempt at a cheap laugh that doesn’t hold up for me anymore, not only because this is the early stages of SNL overusing the “men kissing men for a cheap laugh” gag to tiresome degrees, but also because this doesn’t even end up being the last time we’ll be seeing the particular pairing of Will and Kattan kissing each other in a sketch. Within this next season-and-a-half ALONE, there will be two more sketches with Will and Kattan kissing each other. I kid you not.
STARS: **
THE LADIES’ MAN
Leon & Rollergirl (host) review four porno movies
— Tim’s Leon Phelps wig has been updated tonight to make it a big afro, to match how his hair looks in the Ladies’ Man movie that was filming at this time, I believe.
— I love the photo montage of Leon Phelps at a porno theater.
— Good idea to have Heather reprise her character from Boogie Nights in this.
— Very funny bit with Leon mistaking Bill Murray’s Meatballs movie for a porno.
STARS: ***½
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
a report on the post-SNL lives of Hans & Franz
— As I mentioned in my last review, this short film was cut from both SNL’s 25th Anniversary Special and this season’s premiere.
— Fun seeing these characters again, and how we’re being updated on what’s happened in their lives after their heyday.
— Hans’ panicked 911 call is cracking me up.
— Hilarious bit about Hans professionally performing buttocks readings on a boardwalk.
— Solid bit overall. Part of me kinda wishes it became a running thing this season to do “Where Are They Now?” shorts on other recurring characters from the past, to commemorate SNL’s milestone 25th season.
STARS: ****
NETAID
Bono (CHK), Busta Rhymes (TRM), Jewel (host) perform at NetAid
— I like Ana introducing herself with “Hi, I’m unknown VJ Lynda Lopez.”
— Kattan does a good imitation of Bono’s physical mannerisms while singing.
— After not appearing at all in the season premiere, Tracy makes his first appearance of the season here. And, of course, this ends up being his ONLY appearance of the entire night.
— Tracy’s Busta Rhymes impression is making me laugh, and he’s got Busta’s vocal pattern down cold.
— Will’s off-camera heckling during Heather’s bit as Jewel is cracking me up.
— I love the fact that Jimmy is playing David Bowie just one episode after Bowie himself was a musical guest on the show. Great detail of having Jimmy even wear the exact same outfit Bowie wore in the last episode (side-by-side comparison below).
— Jimmy does a solid impression of Bowie’s singing voice.
— Overall, despite some fun impressions, this sketch wasn’t all that funny as a whole. It had kind of an empty feel, and the songs being performed weren’t funny in themselves.
STARS: **
WEEKEND UPDATE
COQ takes delight in trouncing a little girl in an education debate
HOS & COQ launch a Latin comedy explosion with Telemundo-style humor
— Colin sounds livelier tonight than the monotone, bored, sluggish delivery he used in the Update from the last episode.
— One female audience member has a very distinctive laugh that’s sticking out throughout this Update.
— A little unusual how they’re using a real child for this debate bit with Colin right now.
— Okay, I’m now starting to understand why they’re using a real child for this particular commentary. Colin’s mean-spirited berating of her is hilarious (and wouldn’t work quite as well if it were an adult playing the child role), and I love that we’re seeing a whole new side of Colin here. I never knew he could pull off this type of acting.
— Wow, Colin has surprisingly been having quite a lot of really strong news jokes throughout tonight’s Update. Between that and his great performance in the debate commentary with the little girl, he’s having a rare “on” night.
— Funny lines from Horatio about a White Guy Explosion and Jackass Explosion in music.
— A fun silly Latin comedy bit between Horatio and Colin, and we get ANOTHER example tonight of Colin branching out and displaying a different side of himself.
— Nice touch at the end of this Update with Colin signing off in Spanish.
— Overall, one of the rare Colin Quinn Weekend Updates that are legitimately strong.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Need To Know”
DOG SHOW
(host) leads a seance to summon Mr. Rocky Balboa’s dead mother
— At the very beginning when the camera fades into this sketch, Molly can be heard saying out of character “A little scary…”, then she has an embarrassed reaction when realizing she’s on the air. There’s a story behind this. The cue cards for this sketch were a little late arriving on the set. Molly saying “A little scary…” was referring to that. Reruns of this episode would remove that remark of Molly’s.
— Speaking of Molly, this is surprisingly her first and ONLY appearance all night. She also didn’t appear much in the season premiere (then again, neither did any cast member not named Will Ferrell or Chris Parnell). The reason for Molly’s decreased airtime lately is because she’s busy filming the live-action Grinch movie starring Jim Carrey. That movie is going to be taking away quite a lot of time from Molly being at SNL during the first half of this season. In fact, there will be a few episodes this season that she’ll be completely absent in. It’s hard to complain about that, though, considering I’m honestly starting to get a little tired of Molly by this point of her tenure (and it only gets worse next season, IIRC).
— The cuteness of the dog who plays Rocky Balboa always gets me, especially in the adorable outfit it’s wearing tonight (the second above screencap for this sketch).
— It’s now a few minutes later, and sadly, Rocky Balboa’s cuteness has been the only joy I’ve been getting from tonight’s Dog Show installment. The silliness of Dog Show amused me in its first two sketches, but that didn’t last too long, as its appeal has been gone for me in these last two installments. I’m gradually starting to find these sketches a bit of a chore. Thankfully, I only have two more Dog Show sketches to endure (including a disastrous one with Tom Green and a squealing pig).
STARS: **
BLAIR WITCH
LOM’s promise not to do a Blair Witch parody turns out to be an empty one
— I like how this sketch is giving me such a throwback to how prevalent Blair Witch Project parodies were at this time.
— Tim seems genuinely amused by the clips they’re showing, as he can be seen with a big smile on his face whenever the clips end.
— The Blair Witch-esque “Thank you” video from the boy is both funny and has a charm.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “That’s Okay”
THREE-WAY
Warren (CHP) & Fran (ANG) analyze three-way with their babysitter (host)
— Just now, a stagehand could be seen quickly ducking behind the door window behind Heather (you can kinda see him in the first above screencap for this sketch).
— After the misleading beginning, this sketch had a great turn with it being revealed that Parnell, Heather, and Ana have all just had a three-way.
— Another great reveal, with us now finding out that Heather is the family’s babysitter.
— Ana’s whole rant about a “meal” is hilarious.
— I’m loving this sketch. Even with the comical sex theme, this sketch has a more mature, smarter, and old-school feel than most sketches from this era do. This is also helped by the fantastic acting from both Parnell and Ana, the two most consummate professionals of this season’s cast.
— Loved the ending turn with Parnell and Ana eagerly getting ready to watch back their sex tape.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode. However, there were a few more weak spots than episodes from around this time typically have. There were still a few strong pieces, and Weekend Update was much better than it usually is in this Colin Quinn era.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jerry Seinfeld)
a mild step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Norm Macdonald makes his triumphant return to the SNL studio (not counting the 25th Anniversary Special). We also get a new female addition to the cast.
I’m already shuddering at the thought of the Dog Show sketch with Tom Green! I remember watching it live and feeling SO uncomfortable.
The Celebrity Jeopardy sketches finally hit their stride in the next episode, as we finally get the first appearance of the running gag with Trebek’s mother!
A big “oof” from me when I realized that the cold open was going to tell us Bush and Gore were just alike. The media in general ran with this idea, but considering 2000 is the election I think SNL probably had the biggest impact on, it stands out even more. Anyway, I remember reading about the agony Hammond went through to get his Al Gore right. Generally I thought he did a pretty good job as Gore, and does here too, although, as you say, this is early days.
I think you can sort of feel how much SNL was trying to appeal to a more bro-ey audience (for lack of a better term) around these years. They’d had monologues before about attractive female hosts being perved on, but this one just seemed especially cheap to me. And of course the increase of how funny and crazy and disgusting it is to see men kiss. It’s one of the reasons a great deal of this era (going well into the ’00s) has dated more heavily for me than much of what came before.
The recurring characters of the late ’90s slowly but surely become pretty turgid for me, with none here doing much for me (the ones I could actually get through), although Ladies Man is passable.
Heather Graham is one of those likeable enough actresses who has always just sort of seemed to be there for me. The most interesting thing about her hosting is that she keeps those always important Twin Peaks and SNL ties going.
Colin is one of the only anchors who could have pulled off the bit where he was berating the kid. It was just real enough to work, yet also clearly never real.
The slice-of-life sketch at the end feels so out of place for this period and would never get anywhere near the air now. A great use of Parnell and Ana – enough to make you wonder what might have been, yet also just appreciate what we did get.
My big memory of this this episode was how funny I thought the male-on-male kissing was at the time. What an idiot I was.
Also, I remember watching this and thinking “Wow, Colin killed it tonight.” This edition of Update definitely stood out in a major way, I’m happy you recognized it. I wonder why there was such a noticeable spark.
Only one of two SNL episodes I have any memory of watching …well, live. And only a portion of the first half. (The other being the Pierce Brosnan episode several years later.)
I was an awkward high school senior and at a friend of a friend’s house (to my disappointment, it didn’t progress to a relationship) and her parents were watching the opening monologue. I thought it was dumb as hell and, as I had recently become a HUGE Monty Python fan, suggested we change the channel to A&E to watch Flying Circus. As I predicted, a huge “NO!” from everyone in the room. I tuned the rest of the show out until we left, and, until reading the episode synopsis here, remembered nothing else except where Tim Meadows mentions and holds up the videotape for Meatballs.
And there you have it. Oh yeah, and A&E pissed me off by always cutting off the Python episode for time, repeating it in full next week, cutting off the 2nd half hour’s episode for time, etc. etc. etc. I envied the older folks who first got to watch it on PBS.