Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
BACKSTAGE
while TRM fills in as George W. Bush, WIF can’t get over host’s booty
— For the first time all season, we get a non-political cold opening… well, sort of. You’ll see what I mean a little later in this opening (if you can’t already tell from the above screencaps).
— Will apologizing to Jennifer Lopez for wanting to get his hands on her “juicy” behind is referencing a sketch that Will and Jennifer did at the end of an SNL Primetime Extra special from earlier that week. Primetime Extra was a two-week experiment in early February 2001, in which NBC aired a 20-minute live SNL episode on Thursday nights after a “Supersized” 40-minute episode of Friends, in an attempt to compete against CBS’s monster hit Survivor. Primetime Extra was basically the precursor to the “Weekend Update Thursday” specials that SNL has been doing on occasional years since 2008, only the Primetime Extra specials were less focused on Weekend Update and featured various sketches, including a Celebrity Jeopardy sketch at one point that I believe has become rather obscure compared to the Celebrity Jeopardy sketches that aired in regular SNL episodes.
— Tracy filling in for Will as Bush is hilarious, and I like how Tracy’s attempting an actual Bush impression.
— Some good laughs from Will waxing poetic about Jennifer’s behind.
— Jennifer is pretty bland as the straight man here.
— I love Tracy-as-Bush’s “How’s that for a tax plan?” bit.
— Lorne has just now made a passing mention of the XFL, which is interesting, as an XFL game infamously delayed this episode 45 minutes(!), which, IIRC, forced SNL to go ahead and start doing the episode anyway while the XFL game was still on, and then broadcasting the episode on a tape delay, without Jennifer or any of the cast knowing. This whole incident would end up causing a rift between Lorne and Vince McMahon. On the night of the original airing of this episode, I remember 16-year-old me sitting by my TV waiting and waiting very impatiently for the XFL game to end (though I was a little antsy that night to begin with, as my mother was at the hospital giving birth to my sister that same night). This episode was delayed so long that I remember being worried we would get another Rosanna Arquette situation (for those who don’t get what I mean by that, read my review of the Disclaimer sketch from the beginning of this episode).
— Another parallel this episode has to the Rosanna Arquette episode: the cold opening of both episodes involve 1) a cast member or recurring character hitting on the female host in her dressing room, 2) the female host wearing a robe, and 3) Lorne stepping in, initially putting an end to the cast member/recurring character’s hitting on the host, before changing his mind and having his own kinda sleazy turn towards the host.
— Not only do we get a rare Tracy Morgan “Live From New York”, but it’s an altered LFNY, with Tracy delivering it as “Live from New York, it’s Jennifer Lopez’s booty!” I’m always a sucker for the times that SNL alters their LFNYs.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
puzzled by diva reputation, host reveals Versace dress worn at Grammys
— (*OVER-ANALYZATION ALERT*) This is something I’ve always noticed about this monologue ever since it originally aired, and I wanted to get it off of my chest: something odd seemed to happen at the very beginning when Jennifer made her entrance. Immediately after opening the entrance door, Jennifer frantically turned her head back into the room she was in and appeared to say something unhappily to someone in there (the stage manager), then she has an uneasy, half-hearted smile on her face as she walks her way to the front of the stage. After the theme music and audience applause die down, a now-genuinely-smiling Jennifer shakes her head with her hand on her forehead in a stressed-out manner, and begins her monologue by saying “It’s too much, I wasn’t ready”, apparently referring to what went wrong right before she made her entrance. I’m guessing what happened was Jennifer was forced by the stage manager behind the stage entrance door to go out onstage when she didn’t feel quite ready yet, and then got upset by that. Wow. Looks like a certain someone doesn’t get the concept of a live TV show.
— A predictable and lazy premise of Jennifer immediately contradicting her “I’m not a diva” claims by doing diva-like actions. It’s not coming off too funny here.
— Aaaaaand there’s the iconic green Grammy’s dress. It was at least well-hidden under that robe before the big reveal.
— Overall, blah.
STARS: **
CRACKLIN’ OAT FLAKES
Rerun from 11/11/00
MANGO
Mango & host develop a rivalry after he becomes a recording star
— Parnell is hilarious in his small role at the beginning.
— After getting multiple sketches cut earlier this season, Mango makes his first on-air appearance of the entire season. The long break we got from Mango was nice while it lasted.
— I’m not sure, but I think this is the first time a Mango sketch was done in an episode with a female host.
— Darrell looks kinda out of place and awkward in the small non-impression role he’s playing here.
— Horatio makes his ONLY appearance of the entire night in a very small, 15-second appearance as one of Mango’s backup singers. The way he seems to DELIBERATELY exit this scene as slow as humanly possible is probably his way of milking what he knows is his only appearance of the night. I find that slow exit of his both kinda funny and kinda obnoxious and unprofessional.
— I got a laugh from Mango telling Jennifer “Bring it on, J.Ho!”
— Not sure we need such a lengthy parody of Madonna’s “Music” music video.
— Jennifer’s Mango-esque “Can you…” spiritual questions are making me chuckle.
— Wow, a pretty wild fight between Mango and Jennifer.
— Pretty funny random cutaway to real stock footage of Lorne in the Divas Live audience. It’s hard for me to imagine Lorne attending something like Divas Live, so I’m guessing that stock footage of him is from some other award show.
— Overall, while I still wasn’t too crazy about this, I found it a little more enjoyable than some Mango sketches. Maybe the long on-air hiatus did Mango some good.
STARS: **½
MTV CRIBS
Gemini’s Twin & new member (host) present their low-rent apartment
— A nice change of pace for Gemini’s Twin.
— Jennifer’s character being named Lady Speedstick is pretty funny.
— At the beginning of Gemini’s Twin’s apartment tour, I like the reveal that this small-looking room we’re seeing is their ENTIRE apartment.
— Jennifer doesn’t have anywhere near as good a chemistry with Maya and Ana as Charlize Theron and Lucy Liu had in previous Gemini’s Twin sketches. Jennifer seems out of place paired with Maya and Ana here, like she’s performing in a vacuum.
— Overall, once again, I just know I’m soon gonna get bored of these Gemini’s Twin sketches, but it hasn’t happened yet, especially since the Cribs setting in tonight’s installment provided some pretty good comedic potential.
STARS: ***
TV FUNHOUSE
“Ray Of Light” by RBS- Ray Lewis witnesses famous Disney cartoon murders
— A huge laugh from the “Trent Dilfer sucks” message in the opening text crawl.
— A hilarious way to spoof the Ray Lewis controversy, by superimposing him into classic Disney movies.
— After witnessing Bambi’s mother getting shot, I love Ray Lewis saying “Oh, snap! I didn’t see nothin’!”, and then immediately hopping into a limo and speeding off.
— A very funny ending shot of Lewis singing “I didn’t kill no mother(*bleep*)in’ liiiooooon” while standing on top of a cliff.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Play”
WEEKEND UPDATE
TIF gabs with Cast Away star Wilson The Volleyball (WIF); Tom Hanks cameo
nervous 4th grader Rasheed Jenkins (JEM) gives Black History Month speech
— I thought it was unusual that Update was one of only two Jimmy Fallon appearances in the last episode, but that’s nothing compared to tonight, in which Update is Jimmy’s ONLY appearance. This kinda feels like a glimpse into an alternate universe in which Jimmy is one of those Update anchors who only does Update and seldom appears in sketches.
— Funny idea to have a commentary from Wilson The Volleyball from Cast Away being sleazily voiced by Will.
— A big laugh from Wilson The Volleyball’s blunt “Hanks is a dick.”
— Wilson bragging about his nub is pretty funny.
— Hi, Mustached Tom Hanks!
— Bye, Mustached Tom Hanks! Really, SNL? You brought Tom Freakin’ Hanks on for two seconds to do NOTHING, except take Wilson The Volleyball away? A waste of a Tom Hanks cameo, especially since this is his first SNL appearance in what, at the time, felt like a long time, and also ends up being his last SNL appearance for a long time.
— In his next joke after the Hanks cameo, I like Jimmy stopping mid-joke to ad-lib “I’m really gonna follow this”, referring to what a tough act it is to follow a Tom Hanks cameo.
— Tina’s long-winded joke, in which she does a fast-paced rundown of non-Baywatch shows that contain big fake boobs, is fantastic. One of Tina’s all-time best Update jokes. Also, seeing some of those shows being mentioned really takes me back.
— Tina is on fire with a lot of her jokes tonight. Jimmy, on the other hand, is quite a step behind her.
— Great to see Jerry with his own solo Update commentary.
— Jerry is doing such a spot-on imitation of a child. So many funny little things he’s doing throughout this commentary, and his freaking out when crying is hilarious. This is reminiscent of a great Will Ferrell sketch that I covered in season 24, in which Will played a businessman devolving into childlike crying and temper tantrums while giving an office presentation.
— Jerry’s commentary would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. One of the noticeable differences is that when Tracy tells Jimmy, in regards to the mother of Jerry’s character, “She’s in my dressin’ room, Jim!”, the audience responds well, whereas in the live version, that line strangely receives almost NO laughs.
— Speaking of Jerry’s commentary being replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns, Jimmy and Tina’s subsequent sign-off is also replaced with the dress version, in which Jimmy and Tina comedically sign off as “Jim” Fallon and “Tin” Fey, presumably referencing Tracy calling Jimmy “Jim” a few moments prior. The live version of this Update, on the other hand, has Jimmy and Tina signing off with their normal names.
STARS: ***½
FLY GIRLS
Fly Girls (JEM), (TRM), (RAD) want to work with host again
— I like how this sketch is a callback to Jennifer’s early career as an In Living Color Fly Girl, which is something that I always forget.
— Where the heck is Maya in this sketch? Do we really need both Tracy AND Jerry in drag, when SNL actually has a black female cast member?
— Tracy’s character, when asked which one of the Wayans Brothers has fathered one of her children: “All I know is, it’s not Marlon.”
— When the characters are reading from a movie script, I love Tracy’s staccato, urban-sounding delivery of “Where he been hi-din’ it at?”
— Much like the cold opening, Jennifer is a bland straight man here. And why has she been playing herself in so many sketches tonight so far? Last time I checked, she DOES have an acting career in addition to a singing career.
— An okay Fly Girls dance number at the end. At least you can tell Jennifer is having a lot of fun during it.
STARS: **½
MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE VALENTINE
the Valentine soundtrack contains many songs by bands with oddball names
— Meh, I’m not getting any laughs from this ENDLESS listing off of “comedic” and “far-fetched” fake band names. These odd and ironic fake band names seem too realistic to be taken as a spoof, though that may be the point, since there are some real names (e.g. Fiona Apple, Marilyn Manson) mixed in among the fake ones. Either way, I’m not laughing.
— The way this commercial keeps faking us out by following a long listing-off of names with “and many more…”, only for them to actually list off each of the “and many more” names, is starting to feel awfully reminiscent of a sketch that SNL already did before. Maybe I’m thinking of that terrible Super Sports Tour sketch from the season 20 premiere (a sketch which just consists of a “comically” long listing-off of the names of baseball players who will be appearing on a sports cruise), as well as the fairly funny “Reunion of Later Hosts” sketch from season 23’s Greg Kinnear episode.
— Okay, I finally got a laugh, from one of the fake band names being the lengthy address “5445 North Park Drive Community Vigilence & Restoration Committee”.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Love Don’t Cost A Thing”
GOOD MORNING BRONX
borough residents broadcast the local news
— Geez, and I thought the last sketch was too reminiscent of a season 20 sketch. Now we get “Good Morning Bronx”. Really, SNL? So now we’re doing knock-offs of lame recurring season 20 sketches? Good Morning Brooklyn, anyone?
— Ehh, I’m being harsh with my above statement. Despite the similar titles, this sketch so far seems to be different enough from Good Morning Brooklyn.
— These last two episodes, the usually-underused Jerry Minor has suddenly been receiving a huge upswing in airtime. He’s been particularly prominent throughout tonight’s episode, and I am so happy for him. Sad that this boost in airtime doesn’t end up lasting for him, though.
— Rachel is very funny in her segment.
— Dominican Lou! This is surprisingly the first time in YEARS that Tracy has played him, and also ends up being the last. Very funny to see him suddenly appearing in this sketch.
— Jennifer: “You are not gonna mess up my chances of being the Puerto Rican Connie Chung!”
— Overall, this sketch was basically to urban stereotypes what season 20’s Good Morning Brooklyn was to white New York stereotypes, but I found this sketch more entertaining, especially when Dominican Lou showed up.
STARS: ***
THE BABY AND THE GERMAN INTELLECTUAL
by Adam McKay- innocence vexes
— Will’s mad German character ranting to the baby chewing on a potato chip bag is giving me lots of laughs. Will is absolutely perfect for this role.
— I love the “On the count of three, you will grow up!” bit.
— I see during the ending credits that the baby was played by Lily Rose McKay, who I assume is a daughter of Adam McKay’s. Obviously not the same McKay daughter that would later star with Will in the famous 2007 online short film, The Landlord, as the daughter in that film is much too young to have even been born yet in 2001.
STARS: ****
NURSING HOME
oblivious Jeannie Darcy does inappropriate material at a nursing home gig
— I’ve been starting to forget during these last few episodes that Molly is even still in the cast. She’s been appearing less and less as we get closer and closer to her mid-season departure.
— Jeannie Darcy, easily the most solid new Molly Shannon character in a long time, officially becomes recurring.
— I like the detail of Jeannie Darcy having two assistants carry in a fake brick wall background to set up behind her, to give off the illusion that she’s onstage at a comedy club.
— Some good laughs from all of the cutaways to the nursing home patients during Darcy’s jokes, especially the cutaway to someone’s IV bag bubbling.
— Wow, there’s Jerry in yet ANOTHER appearance tonight, though this is the type of silent, non-comedic bit role that he usually gets stuck with.
— Great part with one nursing home patient dying and being carried out of the room as Darcy obliviously continues on with her stand-up material.
— I love the cutaway to a crying Ana during Darcy’s comedy material on vibrators.
— Oh, god, there’s Molly’s obligatory character break. Dammit, Molly, I was really enjoying this sketch. Why do you have to break in practically every damn sketch towards the end of your SNL tenure?
— Molly at least recovers well from her breaking in this sketch, and goes back to doing a solid job as this character.
STARS: ****
WADE BLASINGAME
Another rerun tonight, this time from 12/09/00
NEWS FROM THE FRONT
at a WWII USO show, (host) damages morale by singing pro-German songs
— I like Steve Higgins’ old-timey newsreel voice-over in the opening portion of this sketch.
— Interesting how this is the second sketch tonight teaming up Jennifer, Maya, and Ana as a singing trio, with both sketches set in a completely different time period from each other. Makes sense, though, considering the singing abilities of all three ladies.
— Parnell got a good laugh out of me with his delivery of “Get a load of those gams!”
— Some pretty good laughs from the singers’ cheerful songs being pro-German and detailing the fate that awaits the soldiers, much to the gradual unhappiness and anger of the soldiers.
— Boy, the extra sitting to Kattan’s right (seen in the lower left corner of the second, fourth, and sixth above screencaps for this sketch) is making INSANELY over-the-top facial expressions all throughout this sketch. Haha, what a ham.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average episode, maybe even slightly below average. There were a few strong segments, but most of the show had an unmemorable feel, even some of the decent sketches. Jennifer Lopez was a pretty weak host. While I got a few laughs from her, she was mostly forgettable as a host, and I couldn’t help but notice some off-putting moments from her, such as her aforementioned reaction when seemingly forced onstage at the beginning of her monologue, her lack of any chemistry with her scene partners in the Gemini’s Twin sketch, and her lack of any interactions with the cast during the goodnights (at least in the half of the goodnights that I saw before they got cut off).
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Mena Suvari)
a very slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Sean Hayes hosts. It’s also the last show for Molly Shannon.
Tracy’s George W. Bush is very fun as was the return of Dominican Lou. In all three of her hosting appearances, Lopez is game to play along but not always good or utilized properly. The Divas Live sketch was well received by VH1 and led to some of the cast appearing in a piece (IIRC it was written by Hugh Fink) taped specifically for Divas Live tribute to Aretha Franklin which aired in April. The lyric from the fake Elton John song in Ray of Light is hilarious “And squealing on your friends is the hardest part of life”
I did not see this live because I fell asleep waiting for it to start. I saw it when it reaired on March 3rd. Lorne’s XFL mention in the cold open is a reference to a camera shot of cheerleader from basically an upskirt angle from the previous week’s XFL game. Does anyone remember the XFL joke Tina does on the primetime extra? I don’t remember this one as well as the first one.
If you haven’t seen This Was The XFL, it spends about 15 minutes presenting the XFL’s side of it. First, someone from the on-site crew didn’t refill the generators with gas so the power went out and NBC had dead air for 2 minutes before switching to the game originally scheduled for UPN, the power outage itself lasted a half hour. Second, New York’s Octavious Bishop broke his leg right before half time. As you might imagine, it’s quite hard trying to move a 6’5″ 330 lb lineman safely when he can’t put any weight on one leg. That took another 15 minutes. Already running late, LA scored late TD’s in both regulation and the first OT to prolong the game which led to a lengthy profanity-filled exchange between Lorne and Dick Ebersol about “why the fuck the game was still on the air”. Lorne ultimately won out, a hard out at 11 ET was imposed on the XFL starting next with coverage switching to UPN, a fact that was referenced in Conan’s monologue later in the year.
Might mention that Lorne didn’t win out all the time, NBC made an exception in week 6 for the Enforcers-Maniax game, so the hard out was not always imposed, in this case, for WMAQ Chicago and WMC Memphis.
That was a great recap, Jack.
Two other things to remember:
-Lorne Michaels was PROMISED by NBC that the XFL would not run late and interfere with SNL.
-She is having a great resurgence now, but this was arguably the apex of J. Lo’s career, as she had both the #1 album and movie during this week. To have her doing double duty was a great get for SNL during sweeps month, and furthermore explained why Lorne was so irate.
Speaking of running late, I grew up in Minneapolis, and for the longest time our NBC affiliate would air a “Cheers” rerun at 10:35, so SNL would already be delayed half an hour! They must have stopped doing this in the 90s, but all this talk of delays reminded me of that. No wonder I preferred Mad TV for a while.
I think that while Lorne Michaels was PROMISED by NBC that the XFL would not run late and interfere with SNL, there would be weeks where NBC would have to make exceptions like in week 6, WMAQ in Chicago and WMC in Memphis would stay with Enforcers-Maniax no matter when SNL started if that game went to OT.
Whenever I’ve seen Tracy on Fallon, I’ve often seen Jimmy bring up his amusement that he’s the only person who always called him “Jim” or “Jimbo” which always made me think of this particular appearance and that sign-off.
And yeah I remember things were looking up for Jerry for a while there, it’s too bad it didn’t last, I recall him being pretty shut out of most episodes not long after this one. It was a hard period to get stuff on for new guys in a crowded cast like this and he got quite a bit of his stuff on there throughout the season considering. Always thought he should’ve got another shot. I like the thought of an alternative universe where we got 20 years of Jerry Minor in the SNL cast instead of Kenan Thompson.
This episode was okay, but I love all of the band shots though. I wish the following week had that many band shots in the show.
I’ve wanted to see those “extra” SNL episodes from around this period that you mention ever since I learned about them. Hopefully they will pop up someday…
As is often the case with SNL there are such strange quirks of fate surrounding JLo’s involvement with the show – she has hosted close to 9 years apart all 3 times, and she and Julia Stiles hosted a few episodes apart this season – they would both go on to have a comeback in Hustlers.
All JLo’s episodes tend to blur together into a certain flatness, but this one probably has more in common with her 2019 appearance, as the lesser used cast members get increased airtime, the pre-tapes tend to shine, and she plays a ’40s breathy pinup in both episodes.
This is probably the best of her three episodes, but she probably would have been more at home a few years earlier, around players like Cheri Oteri or even Jim Breuer who gave a lot of OTT gusto she could have contrasted with. Most of the time here she is just sort of right in the midst of the in-flux nature of this cast. She is most at home in the Good Morning, Bronx sketch because everyone is doing a turn rather than working together. Rachel steals that sketch, but JLo also has her moment to shine.
Jimmy’s “happy birthday” moment in Update reminds me when Bill Murray did that – it annoyed me then too. Jerry is the star here (he may have almost been TOO good as the performance gets a little uncomfortable toward the end), but Tina’s Kathie Lee joke is a silent killer.
This Jeannie Darcy sketch is, breaking aside, just about perfect – laying everything of the character, and her very sad Paula Poundstone homage, out for us to explore. I’m glad Molly didn’t get to run her into the ground.
The part of the episode that stands out for me is Molly introducing JLo’s first performance. I tend to see this as something of a gift Lorne gives to select departing cast members – Seth Meyers gets this in Miley’s season 39 double duty gig, and given all the speculation over Kate McKinnon/Aidy Bryant/Cecily Strong leaving, their introducing one of Harry Styles’ performances this season made me pause.
Speaking of Molly, Youtube has, listed with the contents of this episode, an Update bit where she plays Elizabeth Taylor, spoofing the infamous “Gladiator!” moment she had at the Golden Globes around this time. From reading the SNL Wiki this seems to have been from one of the primetime specials (February 1). Not really anything that special…but I’m sure it was fun for viewers at the time.
Yep! “GLAAAADIATOR!” seems to be the only thing people remember from the Prime Time specials!
Yeah, seeing Molly as Liz was LOTS of fun to me to watch having seen the real thing do it at the Golden Globes…
I’ve never seen this episode, but some of it reminds me of her most recent hosting gig, where half the segments seemed designed to be a mild ego puff, constantly noting how hot or attractive she was (I remember finding her other hosting gig to not emphasize this as much).
I like the randomness of Tom Hanks coming out to do nothing, but perhaps that’s just in response to like the endless strung-out cameos we’ve seen in recent years.
I remember in Live from New York, Chris Kattan says something like “Jennifer Lopez doesn’t want to make that Puff Daddy joke, so how do you do it subversively?” There’s a quick mention of him in TV Funhouse, and I remember this was around the time he was in possible legal trouble, so I’m not surprised J. Lo put the kibosh in any jokes — and why the writers may have resented it.
They’d also had a sketch the season previous with Cheri as JLo and Jamie Foxx as Puff Daddy. And quite a few Update jokes. I guess she must have put down guidelines before she agreed to host.
I’m recalling an interview around 2002 or 2003 with the female cast where someone said Jennifer was very interested in seeing Cheri and had to be told she wasn’t on the show anymore.
I really did not like this episode. There were lots of bands shots though!
The XFL Style Delay happened again! This time with a College Football game bewteen Notre Dame and Clemson back on November 7th, the first show after the 2020 election, according to Wikipedia, it it was delayed from 11:30 to 12:10, which is only true for the Owned-and-Operated NBC stations and other affiliates, my affiliate, WBIR Channel 10 Knoxville, did a 20 minute news segment BEFORE they aired SNL on a Tape Delay, so that’s ONE WHOLE HOUR of delays. What a pile of garbage.
Man I’m late to this but I feel like I have to point out that she is supposed to look like she is running late for her monologue bc Will Farrell was bugging her backstage. She’s supposed to seem like she had to rush out in a bathrobe.
Regarding the Tom Hanks cameo:
1) It may have been a situation where he didn’t have time to rehearse (or they weren’t sure until the last minute that he could do it), so they kept it short.
2) Tom Hanks doing a cameo where he just shows up and does nothing is inherently VERY funny.
Apologies for this but I don’t think Jennifer thing at the start of the monologue was a whole lot and hey at least she didn’t make a HUGE deal of her not being ready and still went on with it.