Month: March 2020

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April 13, 2002 – The Rock / Andrew W.K. (S27 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
George W. Bush (WIF) tries to trump suicide bombers’ martyrdom rewards

— Pretty funny turn with Will-as-President-Bush’s sex chatline infomercial-esque offer to suicide bombers.
— Funny detail of how the naughty photos of American women that Bush is offering have censor bars over their eyes.
— A laugh from Bush naming his deal offering the “Bush/Cheney/Guccione Peace Plan”.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host takes two punches in the face from CHK

— The Rock already gets a good laugh very early on in this monologue, with the fake-out of him plugging his alleged new movie, Gosford Park 2.
— Pretty funny visual of The Rock manhandling “Little Chris Kattan” while giving him a friendly greeting.
— Not much to this monologue, and this is pretty thinly-written, but The Rock is making this work with his reactions after getting punched by Kattan. This is the kind of monologue that would easily fall flat if it were performed by a host who doesn’t have The Rock’s talent and charisma.
STARS: ***


BRIAN FELLOW’S SAFARI PLANET
parrot spurs fears of identity theft

— Brian Fellow’s angry reactions when the parrot keeps saying “I’m Brian Fellow” are very funny and memorable.
— Tracy managed to get a great, extended laugh from the audience with his delivery of the line “Hopefully, we will fix this in editing.”
— The whole bit with Brian Fellow constantly bringing up the parrot during his interview of The Rock’s character is hilarious, especially Rock’s very funny uncomfortable facial expressions. I particularly like the silent, obedient way Rock nods his head when Brian Fellow asks him if he saw that “loudmouth bird”.
— When Brian Fellow is looking at a thought bubble of the parrot trying to buy something over the phone with Brian’s credit card, I absolutely howled at the way Brian screamed “HANG UP THAT PHONE!” Man, Tracy’s delivery as this character (and Tracy’s delivery in general) is pure gold.
— The Rock is a great straight man here.
— Priceless ending with Brian Fellow growling “I’m gonna kill that motherf–” when getting up to run after the parrot.
— Overall, this has long been my absolute favorite Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet installment.
STARS: ****½


THE SCORPION PRINCE
Scorpion King (host) doesn’t want to take whiny son (SEM) into battle

— (*groan*) As soon as he enters the sketch, Jimmy IMMEDIATELY breaks, for NO APPARENT REASON. Jesus Christ.
— Seth’s exaggerated performance as an angsty teen is not working for me. I know the point is that this character is supposed to be whiny and irritating to his father, but he’s coming off far more annoying than funny to me. I can officially pinpoint this as Seth’s very first performance that bothered me during this SNL project of mine… and if my recollection of season 30 is correct, this will be far from the last Seth Meyers performance that I’ll be complaining about.
— The funniest and most memorable moment of this entire sketch is one that’s not even in the script: during his rant to Seth about how he’s taken him places in the past, The Rock accidentally pronounces “tomb” as “tome”, and then, without breaking character at all (hear that, Jimmy?), smoothly saves himself with a funny ad-lib: “I didn’t take you to the tome, I took you to the tomb”, which gets a good audience reaction. He then milks some more audience laughter out of this by turning around and saying “It was a tomb!” to a still-trying-not-to-laugh Jimmy, who then repeats “It was a tomb!”
— Something about the combo of Seth’s whiny facial expressions and that wig he’s wearing make him strongly resemble Ben Stiller at certain points of this sketch. And now that I say that, I’ve just remembered that Stiller also once did a sketch in his season 24 hosting stint in which he played a whiny, irritating son similar to Seth in this sketch, though that Stiller sketch was much better than this.
— Another text crawl ending, though this one is an improvement over the one the show had then-recently used in the Bass-Off sketch from the Jack Black episode.
STARS: **


ARTHUR ANDERSEN
Arthur Andersen now offers shady accounting to individual taxpayers

— A good laugh from Rachel’s foreign cleaning lady asking “Que?” with a clueless big smile on her face.
— A solid little Ferrell moment with him following up his line about “getting huge credit for drilling an exploration” by informing us “…and that’s NOT a sex joke.”
— A decent spoof of the Arthur Andersen/Enron scandal. I particularly like spokesperson Parnell’s pride in Arthur Andersen’s criminal deceit.
— Steve Higgins can be heard stifling laughter during his ending voice-over. Is that part of the script?
STARS: ***


HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS
Dick Armey (WIF), Pat Caddell (JIF), Paul Begala (CHK)

— Surprisingly, this is the first Hardball sketch to air all season, which is particularly a shock when you consider how frequently these sketches appeared in the second half of the preceding season. There was a Hardball installment cut after dress rehearsal from the Gwyneth Paltrow episode earlier this season.
— Jimmy looks hilarious Pat Cadell.
— After his line about how only 50 people watch this show, Darrell starts laughing out of character, for no apparent reason. Seems to be quite a lot of unexplained breaking throughout tonight’s episode.
— A big laugh from the viewer letter complaining about how they had the TV on mute and Chris Matthews’ loud voice still woke up their kid.
— Very funny line from Will’s Dick Armey about taking over West Bank and naming it “America 2” and using it for storage.
— Chris Matthews’ various misnomers for the name Dick Armey are freakin’ priceless. I remember there being some controversy online from some people accusing SNL of stealing the “Vagina Coast Guard” misnomer from Family Guy. I personally say there’s a 50/50 chance between SNL having stolen the joke and it just being a coincidence. I’m leaning towards the latter. After all, I don’t think it takes THAT much creativity to come up with “Vagina Coast Guard” when trying to think of similar names to Dick Armey.
— In my review of the last Hardball sketch, I complained that the constant Paul Begala insults from Darrell’s Chris Matthews were getting old. Well, the long absence of Hardball sketches this season seems to have done some good, as Matthews’ constant Begala insults tonight seem more fresh and are making me laugh a lot. Even better, this ends up being the final appearance of Begala in a Hardball sketch, and thus, I don’t have to worry about Matthews’ insults to him ever getting old again (especially considering how frequently we’ll be seeing Hardball sketches in the upcoming season 28).
— Kinda disappointing that Parnell wasn’t in this overall Hardball installment, as he usually was always given the funniest comments in previous Hardball installments.
STARS: ****


DRUNK GIRLS
backstage, Drunk Girl & her equally-sloshed friend Pamm (host) accost SEM

— A good new setting for Drunk Girl.
— Seth: “How did you get in here?” Drunk Girl: “Tracy Morgan.” Seth: “Yeah, it figures.”
— Much like the first episode hosted by the Rock, we get another excuse to throw The Rock in drag. However, I’m finding him very funny here as a Drunk Girl-type character. His drunk, slurred female voice is making me laugh out loud.
— Tonight’s breaking-filled episode continues, as Seth cracks up after unexpectedly getting his nipple pinched by The Rock.
STARS: ***


ON THE SUBWAY
on the subway, (MAR) musically disses loudmouth know-it-all Fred (TRM)

— The very first of a series of semi-dramatic Tracy/Maya pieces, in which both performers deliver a theatrical-type reading, as different characters in each sketch. As a teenager when these sketches originally aired, I absolutely HATED these, would wonder where the hell the comedy was, and would always trash these sketches in my reviews back then. (I also used to always refer to them as “Subway Fred sketches”, named after Tracy’s character in tonight’s sketch.) As I got older, I’ve developed a huge appreciation for SNL’s semi-dramatic slice-of-life sketches, and I now find myself far more game and curious to revisit these Tracy/Maya pieces, especially since these pieces are in an SNL era where semi-dramatic slice-of-life sketches were a thing of the far, far past.
— I like the 70s look to Maya’s character.
— The combination of Maya delivering her lines musically and Tracy delivering his lines in a spoken manner is quite interesting.
— Overall, nothing particularly memorable here, but I found this to be an interesting, entertaining, and well-performed experimental piece. I wonder which writer is behind this and the subsequent semi-dramatic Tracy/Maya sketches. I’d figure it has to be a black writer, as these sketches accurately capture a very urban atmosphere, but did SNL even have any black writers during the seasons that these sketches span (seasons 27 and 28)?
STARS: ***½


SHE’S THE GIRL WITH NO GAYDAR!!!
Nicole, The Girl With No Gaydar misreads patrons at a gay piano bar

— I can understand the appeal of the first installment of this sketch from earlier this season (and I now admit I was a little too dismissive of that first installment in my recent review of it), but yeah, this will not work as a recurring sketch.
— Feels odd seeing Darrell with his natural look while playing an effeminate character like this.
— The novelty of seeing The Rock playing a lispy, microphone-stroking gay guy doesn’t hold up much nowadays, but his performance is still coming off fairly fun, which is one of the few positive things I can find in tonight’s Girl With No Gaydar installment.
STARS: **


WEEKEND UPDATE
having bears rampage through his home inspires Gene Shalit (HOS) to pun

— Oh, god, a Horatio Sanz commentary with him seated next to Jimmy. As if tonight’s episode didn’t feature enough breaking…
— I got a laugh from one of Horatio-as-Gene-Shalit’s alleged puns being a simple, pun-less “Those bears made me poop in my pants.”
— I’m a little torn on the overall Gene Shalit commentary. I can see the “So bad, it’s good” appeal to this, but at the same time, I didn’t find myself laughing all that much. At least this commentary was thankfully not derailed by too much Fallon/Sanz giggling, which is more than I can say for a later Gene Shalit Update commentary I recall Horatio doing the following season.
— A solid vampire rapist bit between Jimmy and Tina. That’s always been one of my favorite side bits that Jimmy and Tina ever did together on Update.
— Oh, god, I spoke too soon about the Gene Shalit commentary ending and not being derailed by Fallon/Sanz giggling. Horato’s Shalit has suddenly returned to deliver more puns. I knew his commentary from earlier tonight ended awfully abruptly.
— Update’s over ALREADY? This Update only felt about 5-6 minutes long. Kinda odd how, in the span of just two episodes, SNL has gone from what was possibly one of the all-time longest Updates to one of the shortest Updates in a good while.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Party Hard”


ALL ABOARD THE FREEDOM TRAIN: THE DUETS OF NEIL DIAMOND AND BIGFOOT
duets album by Bigfoot (host) & stoned Neil Diamond (WIF) may not be real

— Hilarious initial visual of The Rock as a casually-acting Bigfoot.
— Ha, now Bigfoot is singing beautifully. The Rock has been singing in quite a lot of sketches tonight, by the way.
— Yes! Will’s Neil Diamond! I absolutely LOVE this absurd, random setting of Neil Diamond and Bigfoot advertising a duet album of theirs.
— Neil Diamond, on Bigfoot: “This kid’s got pipes so sweet, it almost makes you forget the truly astounding amounts of feces matted into his hair.”
— I absolutely love Neil Diamond’s line about someone he once met who looks like a black version of Richard Mulligan.
— A very funny message to us from Diamond about how he’s not even sure if any of this is real because he’s stoned out of his gourd and is pretty sure he’s in his basement talking to his water heater.
— A classic little moment with Diamond throwing in the lyric “I sold a human foot to some Chinese dudes in a van” during the duet of the song “Fire And Rain”.
— The little gestures and actions that The Rock is adding in as Bigfoot throughout this sketch are hilarious, especially him randomly rubbing his own ape nipple at one point.
— Overall, what a blast this sketch was. Of all the Neil Diamond follow-up appearances that Will has done after the classic Storytellers sketch that his Neil Diamond impression made its debut in, tonight’s sketch is the closest SNL has come to equaling the greatness of that Storytellers sketch. I really, really want to give this sketch a five-star rating, but I’m a bit torn, as I feel this sketch still doesn’t quite measure up to the classic-ness of Storytellers, despite coming very close.
STARS: ****½ for now. I might eventually change my mind to a five-star rating, but I don’t want to screw up the rating averages and five-star tallies that are graciously provided by some of the commenters on this site.


AMERICA UNDERCOVER
trashy white couple wreaks havoc in an emergency room

 

— The final appearance of these America Undercover redneck characters of Kattan and Amy’s.
— A good laugh from Amy handing The Rock a tree branch as a “stick” that she peed on to see if she’s pregnant or not.
— Overall, nothing new here, but the incoherent madness in these America Undercover sketches always amuses me, even though this installment didn’t make me laugh quite as much as the first two installments. However, at least the hospital room setting provided a bit of a change of pace to the usual antics of Kattan and Amy’s characters. Also, after I’ve been particularly salty towards Kattan in my last few episode reviews (and rightfully so, as I’m sure quite a number of you readers feel), I’d like to say something positive about him for a change by pointing out that he made me laugh throughout tonight’s America Undercover installment. Even though Kattan has been doing absolutely nothing new in any of the various sketches he’s appeared in tonight (which is par for the course for him this season, sadly), at least he’s showing he still has the ability to get some laughs from me every now and then.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Get Wet”


A MESSAGE FROM SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
new ditty by HOS, CHK, TRM, JIF encourages everybody to cool out

— Ah, a variation of the traditional “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” song, with this being a new song that has a completely different melody, different lyrics, and a different central theme. Tracy’s even doing a new dance.
— Very catchy melody to this new song. I love it.
— So far, this isn’t as strong as the “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” bits, but it’s still fun.
— Horatio’s lyrics calling for peace remind me of a cut-after-dress-rehearsal piece from around this time (I can’t remember which episode) that I once read about, in which Horatio, as himself, stood alone on the home base stage and sang the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” while a TV monitor next to him accompanied the “don’t worry” parts of the song with images of tragic things currently in the news at the time (e.g. 9/11-related stuff) and then accompanied the “be happy” parts of the song with images of heartwarming, sweet things like cute puppies. A nice, heartfelt message that Horatio was sending out, and a side of Horatio that we don’t see anywhere near as often as we should. He would later get a heartfelt piece like that on the air in which he, again standing alone on the home base stage as himself, does a sentimental tribute to Mister Rogers, who had recently passed away.
— Right as Tracy steps to the front of the stage during the song and begins a straight-to-camera monologue about peace, the screen abruptly crossfades to an SNL bumper photo of The Rock while audio of Tracy’s peace monologue is still heard, which is an obvious sign that the show is running long and this sketch is about to get cut off prematurely. The odd thing, though, is that in the copy I’m currently watching of this episode, both the bumper photo of The Rock and the audio of Tracy’s peace monologue go on for a very long time before the sketch gets cut off by a commercial break. (At one point during the audio of Tracy’s peace monologue, we hear him say, in regards to infighting among the SNL cast, “Sometimes things get a little out of hand and someone gets cut. I’m sorry, Parnell”, referencing Parnell’s temporary firing.) Whichever affiliate that the copy I’m watching of this episode was recorded from (I don’t know where, as it’s not my personal copy) is clearly not the same affiliate I watched this episode on when it originally aired back when I lived in Illinois, as the Chicago affiliate I watched cut to commercial very shortly after the bumper photo of The Rock prematurely showed up during Tracy’s peace monologue.
— When NBC would rerun this episode a few months later, the ending of this sketch would still get cut off prematurely (though it lasts a little longer than it does in the live airing), but that may be because right before the goodnights, that rerun inserts a tribute to former SNL director Dave Wilson, who had recently passed away. (For anyone curious, the tribute showed behind-the-scenes footage of Wilson in the SNL control room getting things ready for the X-Files cold opening of the about-to-go-on-the-air David Duchovny-hosted season 20 finale, which was Wilson’s final episode as SNL’s director.)
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS
(Not included in the copy I’m reviewing of this episode. My copy just abruptly ends after the preceding sketch gets cut off prematurely. I guess this episode ran so long that the affiliate the copy I’m watching of this episode was recorded from had no time to air the goodnights. Again, this shows how differently each of the affiliates handled this episode running long, because the Chicago affiliate I watched this episode on when it originally aired actually showed the goodnights, though it got cut off VERY early, I think before The Rock even finished speaking.
This is only the second (and hopefully last) time during this SNL project of mine that a copy I reviewed of an episode was missing the existing goodnights. The first time that happened was the Christopher Walken episode from season 21 (as seen towards the end of my review here). As you can imagine, it feels very odd and quite empty to watch an SNL episode end without ANY goodnights or any variation of goodnights.)

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode, though felt a little on the forgettable side compared to The Rock’s memorable first episode and most of his later episodes. There were still a few strong highlights tonight, though. The very abrupt, premature ending to this episode (as mentioned above) kinda left a bad taste in my mouth, but SNL can’t be blamed for that. As good as The Rock did in his first hosting stint, he was even better tonight in his second stint, and has officially entered the status of “potential future five-timer”.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Cameron Diaz)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Alec Baldwin. An odd coincidence I realized just now: prior to the episode I just reviewed above, the only episode I reviewed that was missing its existing goodnights in the copy I watched, the aforementioned season 21 Christopher Walken episode, was also followed by an Alec Baldwin episode.

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April 6, 2002 – Cameron Diaz / Jimmy Eat World (S27 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

LAMAZE CLASS
in Lamaze class, Marty & pregnant Bobbi perform a gestation medley

— After three straight “political figure sits behind a desk and addresses the nation” cold openings, it’s refreshing to get a non-political opening.
— Speaking of refreshing, it feels so good to see Will back after his absence from the last two episodes.
— This ends up being the final appearance of The Culps during their original run, not counting when they would be resurrected years later in both a Will Ferrell-hosted episode from 2012 and SNL’s 40th Anniversary Special.
— SNL finds another good way to work Ana’s real-life pregnancy into the show.
— Marty Culp, during the usual “hot mic” spiel: “Would it be too much trouble to ask to get the sound right just one time? No? Not gonna happen?” Interesting how that line takes place in what ends up being the final regular Culps installment.
— I love the metaphors The Culps use when expressing surprise at Bobbi getting pregnant at her age, with Bobbi saying her “abandoned garden still had one big yam left” and Marty saying his “pencil still had some lead in it”.
— The Culps’ pre-song banter seems even funnier than usual tonight.
— The Culps’ song medley tonight is okay, though the only part I’m really crazy about is their take on Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It” (then again, I’m always a sucker for that song).
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host & her butt choreographer (WIF) have a booty-shaking contest

— Wow, tons of energy from Cameron Diaz right from the start of this monologue.
— Great that SNL is wasting no time IMMEDIATELY getting so much mileage out of Will in his first week back. Then again, the heavy usage of him so far in tonight’s episode ends up being misleading, as we end up barely seeing him for the rest of this episode.
— Is Will wearing the same hilarious wig that he memorably wore in the Music International sketch from this season’s Jack Black episode? (side-by-side comparison below)

— Will is solid as the butt choreographer. Also, this role of his feels like a precursor to a bit that he and Vince Vaughn would later do at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, in which they both play butt make-up artists (or something like that) on the set of Charlie’s Angels 2: Full Throttle, getting Cameron, Lucy Liu, and Drew Barrymore’s butts prepared for a sexy burlesque scene they’re filming.
— Pretty fun Butt-Off between Cameron and Will.
STARS: ***½


THE 17TH ANNUAL AUTO SHOW SPOKESWOMAN AWARDS
gushy (CHP) savors historic win

— Wow, what’s this? Dean Edwards with a… LEAD ROLE??? Am I seeing things?
— The fake-out with the Aretha who Maya is playing turning out to be Billy Ocean’s wife instead of Aretha Franklin kinda fell flat.
— The goofy photo of Amy demonstrating an airbag is pretty funny.
— Parnell is absolutely hilarious doing a spoof of Halle Berry’s then-recent emotional Oscars acceptance speech. This has always been one of my absolute favorite things Parnell has ever done on SNL.
— Very funny cutaway to stock footage of Halle Berry’s then-husband Eric Benet in the audience when Parnell thanks “my partner Jason”.
— Another funny cutaway, this time to Jeff in a backstage room stopping the award show music by simply turning off a cheap tape recorder while doing a crossword puzzle.
STARS: ***½ (the pre-Parnell portion of the sketch would’ve only gotten a mere **½, but Parnell’s whole bit bumped this sketch up a full star)


MTV SPRING BREAK
(host) & (MAR) dance to “That Don’t Impress Me Much”

— A lot of laughs from Cameron and Maya doing the exact same silly dance moves every time to Shania Twain’s “That Don’t Impress Me Much”. Maya in particular is great here, and I remember this being a very popular performance of hers among online SNL fans back at this time. Unfortunately, Maya would later go on to use those exact same dance moves (particularly the one where she slowly leans back in a staccato manner) in various other sketches over the next few seasons, with very diminishing returns in each passing sketch, which kinda makes it feel a little less special when you look back at the original instance of those dance moves in this MTV Spring Break sketch, but those moves still hold up as very funny and charming here.
— Tracy: “Go Brown!” Amy: “Oh, you go to Brown?” Tracy: “No, I don’t go to school. I work at UPS.”
— Very fun sketch overall, and a rare instance in which repeating the same joke over and over actually works.
STARS: ****


SNL 530
dozy Donald Sutherland (WIF) & Glenn Close (ANG) do an Oscars-like segue

— Seth makes his ONLY appearance of the entire night in a silent, brief role as a prancing, barely-clothed, violin-playing guy from the then-recent Oscars. At least Seth got a laugh just from that goofy visual.
— I love this very out-of-the-ordinary post-sketch bit, spoofing the Oscars. A great way for SNL to go outside the box and do something creative with their format, which is something we don’t see enough of in post-80s SNL.
— Will’s slow, monotone voice as Donald Sutherland is very funny.
— Why are they saying this is the 530th SNL episode? Considering SNL announced in the Julia Stiles episode in March a year prior that it was their 500th episode that night (which it indeed was), I doubt they’d already be at 530 episodes just a year and a month later. [ADDENDUM: Looking at SNL Archives, this is episode #521. So where’d the extra 9 episodes come from to make SNL think this is their 530th episode?]
— A good laugh from Ana’s Glenn Close drinking NyQuil out of a wine glass.
STARS: not sure this short interlude segment warrants a rating, but I’ll give it a ****


ASTRONAUT JONES
voyage to Jupiter yields spacebabes (host), (MAR), (AMP)

— This sketch has officially become recurring, a choice that utterly baffled me at the time (as seen in my original 2002 review for this episode here).
— That theme song and opening credits sequence gets me every single time. No matter how many times I’ll have to see this sketch during this SNL project of mine, that theme song and opening credits sequence will always be a treat to watch.
— Maya and Amy have been in tons of sketches so far tonight.
— Even though they re-use the first Astronaut Jones installment’s punchline of Tracy following up the aliens’ big speech by saying a horny one-liner about their fat asses, it killed me once again tonight, which really says something about how great Tracy’s delivery is.
STARS: ****


CELINE DION ON CBS
after a brief retirement, Celine Dion (ANG) sings & talks of motherhood

— Feels like we haven’t seen Ana’s Celine impression in quite a while. This also ends up being the final appearance of her Celine.
— The various stories from Ana’s Celine have some laughs, but some of this is coming off underwhelming.
— The goofy, quivery voice-over at the end calling CBS “The old people network!” made me laugh.
— This overall sketch was sadly kinda forgettable. Not the best way for Ana’s Celine to go out. Disappointing how Ana’s Celine AND Martha Stewart impressions both went out on a forgettable note this season.
STARS: **½


GORGEOUS LIVING WITH PRUNELLA WATSON
sloppiness equals style

— “Gorgeous Living”? Couldn’t SNL have come up with a different title? I don’t need any reminders of that wretched Pretty Living recurring sketch from the then-recent past.
— I smell an attempt at a new recurring sketch. And like a lot of the attempts the second half of this season has been making at new recurring sketches, we end up NEVER seeing this sketch return.
— A laugh from Amy casually revealing “I just got punched in the face last night.”
— Amy’s English accent and delivery is very solid.
— Pretty funny how every guest who arrives immediately apologizes to Amy’s character for punching her in the face last night.
— After the first two minutes, I’ve pretty much lost interest in this sketch. A lot of this is washing right over me. This seems like the type of sketch that would appeal more to people who were familiar with Style Network’s programs during this era.
STARS: **


WEEKEND UPDATE
TIF gives her take on terrorism & the Middle East situation

Denzel Washington (DEE) & Halle Berry (MAR) are still on an Oscar high

following a breakdown, robot TIF is replaced with another unit

self-aggrandizing Geraldo Rivera (DAH) says he’ll end war in Middle East

Jasper Hahn & (host) sing double entendre songs about Fuzzy Buddy puppets

— During Tina’s opening rant, I love her comment about how Palestinians would do VERY well on Fear Factor.
— An overall very lengthy opening rant from Tina, and a pretty good one, though not up to the quality of her best rants. Come to think of it, it’s been a good while since she last had a rant that was up to the same standard of her best rants.
— Wow, TWO lead roles for Dean tonight? It’s official: I must be watching an episode from an alternate universe.
— Great Denzel Washington voice from Dean. Thanks to SNL’s constant underutilization of him, it’s easy to forget that Dean has a knack for doing solid impressions.
— Another funny parody of Halle Berry’s Oscars speech, this time from Maya as Halle tearfully thanking an endless number of random famous black women, some of whom are fictional.
— Pretty funny addition to the Denzel/Halle commentary, with Amy spoofing Julia Roberts’ ego and physically big mouth.
— A funny twist on Jimmy and Tina’s “Oh, snap! / Oh, no you di-in’t!” bit from earlier this season, with Tina having a robotic breakdown in the middle of it, and then being replaced with a new Robot Tina. I like the detail of the new Robot Tina entering with a plastic bag over her head.
— A lot of very strong jokes from Tina throughout tonight’s Update.
— Darrell’s Geraldo Rivera commentary is going in the same direction as his last one from earlier this season, but this still has some laughs. However, if they do a third Geraldo commentary in the same vein, I’ll have officially gotten sick of these.
— This ends up being the final Jasper Hahn appearance.
— Ah, a nice change of pace in tonight’s Jasper Hahn commentary, with him doing away with his usual dirty drawings routine and replacing it with songs and animal puppets.
— An overall pretty funny Jasper Hahn commentary, ignoring Horatio’s usual obnoxious attempts to crack Jimmy and himself up.
— Very, very long Update overall. Possibly one of the longest ever.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Middle”


MISS PEEPS
(WIF) notes gender differences between Mr. Peepers & Miss Peeps (host)

— Mr. Peepers makes his first appearance in over a year, and this ends up being his final appearance. This character feels really out of place by this point of SNL’s run.
— This is Kattan’s first and ONLY appearance all night, and it’s as a character who peaked in popularity years prior. (*sigh*) As if we needed even more evidence that it’s BEYOND time for Kattan to finally get the heck off of this show. It’s getting just sad seeing him still on the show trotting out the same old played-out shtick that feels out of place this season. And even Kattan’s ONE attempt at something new lately (that Hollywood character on Weekend Update) ended up being honestly one of the worst things I’ve EVER seen SNL air.
— This may be the shortest I’ve ever seen Will’s real hair. It also almost looks like it’s graying on the sides, even at Will’s then-young age, though I think that “graying” in his hair is actually just his skin. The sides of his hair are cut in a weird way.
— I do like the change of pace by having a female host play a Mr. Peepers-like character, which is something that I remember always wanting to see SNL try back in Mr. Peepers’ heyday. Cameron’s doing a spot-on Peepers imitation here, which I never would’ve expected from her.
— Oof. Despite the initially fun turn with Cameron entering as a female Mr. Peepers, this sketch is not going well at all. There are almost NO actual laughs to be had here, and the Mr. Peepers shtick feels SO tired in this sketch. Cameron’s not breathing much life into this, either. This is a poor last gasp of a dying recurring sketch.
STARS: *½


MTV 4
shy Japanese girl group Crash Papaya performs boisterously on MTV4

— Our second MTV sketch of the night. I remember this annoyed quite a number of online SNL fans at the time, who then accused the show of trying too hard to pander to teen viewers. I was 17 years old myself at the time this episode originally aired, and even *I* thought two MTV sketches in one night was a bit much. Then again, I was also the type of 17-year-old who knew that MTV was mind-numbing garbage even at that young age of mine.
— Tonight’s episode has been very female-dominated among the cast, particularly Maya and Amy, who are both having a huge night.
— The absolutely bizarre, nonsensical lyrics being scarily shout-sung by the shy and innocent Japanese girl band was funny at first, but has kinda lost its novelty after the first song.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sweetness”


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
glistening breasts in chapter 750


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very uneven episode. The first 35 minutes of this episode was absolutely fine and had a good number of strong sketches, but after the Astronaut Jones sketch ended, it was nothing but underwhelming sketches for the rest of the night, minus an enjoyable (if extremely long) Weekend Update. This all averages out to a thumbs-in-the-middle episode.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ian McKellen)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
The Rock

Posted on

March 16, 2002 – Sir Ian McKellen / Kylie Minogue (S27 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

HOMELAND SECURITY SYSTEM
colors of Tom Ridge’s (DAH) terrorism alert scale are confusingly neutral

— Why does every cold opening around this period of the season have to be a “political figure sits behind a desk and addresses the nation” piece? This is the THIRD consecutive one, and it’s getting redundant. I also see we’re unfortunately going back to this season’s old habit of Darrell and Will being the ONLY cast members to say “Live from New York…” this season.
— Some pretty good laughs from how the color coding choices for the terror alerts are all variations of white.
— A particularly funny part with Darrell’s Tom Ridge realizing they mistakenly put “Enormous risk of terrorist attack” for two different colors.
— I like Darrell-as-Ridge’s monotone deadpan while pointing out his bitterness.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host sees the SNL troupe as a worthy extension of theater tradition

— You can already tell that Ian McKellen is going to be a fun host just from his very upbeat entrance in this monologue.
— Ian: “People are always telling me I should do more comedy. Well, this show will show them. They’ll never ask that again.”
— Ian’s comment about Jimmy Fallon is pretty funny.
— A classy part with Ian giving the SNL cast their due.
— Ian is coming off as a complete natural here and is also getting a lot of laughs.
— Ian, on gays not being welcomed at New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade this year: “They don’t seem to mind the priests, though, do they?”
— Great to see two consecutive episodes with a host doing a real monologue.
STARS: ****


KOTEX CLASSIC
bulky 1950s-era sanitary napkins are impractically retro

 

— I love the 50s aesthetic at the beginning of this.
— Hilarious visuals of the huge, bulky, impractical pads from the 50s, especially the ways the female cast is trying to make them look sexy and casual.
— Tina: “This IS your mother’s pad.”
— Ana is reduced to a much smaller role here than the rest of the female cast, but that’s probably because of her pregnancy. In retrospect, though, it feels like yet another sign of her being on her way out while the Fey/Poehler/Dratch/Rudolph group of female cast members gradually starts to take charge.
— Very solid commercial overall. I might be forgetting something, but I think this is the first of quite a number of memorable Tina Fey-written woman-centric commercials that star the entire female cast. [ADDENDUM: According to commenter Matt Vandermast, this was actually written by Paula Pell, though Tina helped advocate for it.]
STARS: ****½


VERSACE OSCAR PARTY
Bono (CHK) & Yves St. Laurent (host) shmooze

— This sketch has suddenly gone from always appearing towards the end of the show to now being the post-monologue lead-off sketch.
— A nice way to work Ana’s real-life pregnancy into the show, having her play the then-also-pregnant Elizabeth Hurley.
— Ian’s mere walk-on as Yves St. Laurent is already cracking me up.
— I like Ian’s eager dancing with Versace’s shirtless male assistants at the end.
— Overall, I didn’t find myself laughing all that much throughout this sketch, aside from the stuff with Ian, but I still enjoyed the overall sketch enough and found it had an entertaining atmosphere. Unfortunately, I recall it being all downhill from here in the subsequent Versace sketches (which is saying something, considering I wasn’t crazy about these Versace sketches to begin with). We’ll see if that still holds true or not.
STARS: ***


THE DELICIOUS DISH
Lynn & Margaret Jo learn of (host)’s Irish dishes’ ties to dead relatives

— They’re STILL doing the post-Molly Shannon era of these Delicious Dish sketches? I would’ve assumed they only resurrected this sketch once after Molly’s departure just as an excuse to do an (unnecessary) sequel to Schwetty Balls. Anyway, tonight’s Delicious Dish installment ends up being the final appearance of this recurring sketch during its original run, not counting when they would resurrect it years later for the Betty White episode in 2010.
— I like Ana’s comment about Rachel being “dangerously anemic”.
— Rachel’s long, disturbing spiel about how cooking cabbage makes her feel like a woman is very funny. Her Delicious Dish character is growing on me (too late, though, considering this is the last we ever see of her), though I feel like her delivery as this character, while soft-spoken and low-key as it should be, is on a bit of a different page than Ana’s delivery, which makes it hard for me to feel the same chemistry between them that I felt between Ana and Molly.
— Ian’s constant dead relative stories are okay, especially the particularly dark story regarding the death of a cousin who had the mind of a child. The voice Ian’s using is also adding to the comedy.
— Overall, not bad, though this didn’t quite measure up to a typical Molly Shannon-era Delicious Dish installment, in my eyes.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- Bjork’s swan dress comes alive at Oscars

— A big laugh from Charlton Heston pulling out a gun when Bjork’s Swan dress comes to life, only for Heston to be stopped by Tom Hanks.
— As usual in Fun With Real Audio, a lot of pretty funny little actions happening all throughout this in rapid succession.
— It’s pretty fun trying to recognize the celebrities being portrayed in animation form. I’m having a hard time recognizing some of them, though.
— A good cheap laugh from the quick ending gag with Winona Ryder stealing the Oscar statuette.
STARS: ***½


HOT AIR BALLOON MYSTERY THEATER
(host) solves murder in cramped basket

— Right out of the gate, I love this silly concept.
— Fun goofy British accents from the cast.
— I like the flashback sequence that’s obviously being performed live. Also, the flashback shows why Kattan was cast in his particular role. Before then, I was wondering to myself “Are they really relegating Kattan to just playing a dead body in a sketch? Boy, if Kattan doesn’t see that as enough of a sign that it’s beyond time for him to FINALLY get the heck off of this show…”
— The chase sequence in that tiny basket space is hilarious.
— Great ending with Ian randomly and jovially jumping out of the hot air balloon to his apparent death, and the balloon passengers nonchalantly going on with their sight-seeing immediately afterwards.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Maggie Smith (host) makes Oscar predictions & flirts with JIF

Paula Jones (RAD) & Tonya Harding (AMP) review Celebrity Boxing match

during a news item, JIF accidentally summons Louie Anderson (JER)

— I like Tina’s little Strom Thurmond impression during her joke about him.
— Considering the connection he has to her, it’s very funny seeing Ian playing Maggie Smith. He’s giving a solid performance as her.
— A very memorable moment with Ian faking Jimmy out by kissing him on the lips after innocently asking for a kiss for luck. For various reasons (one being that it was a callback/punchline to one portion of Ian’s monologue from earlier tonight), this particular kiss avoids coming off like this era’s overused, tired “men kissing each other for a cheap laugh” gimmick that hasn’t aged well.
— Of Jimmy’s seemingly off-the-cuff remarks to the audience after the big kiss, the first two (“Maggie Smith should shave” and “Does this mean I’m knighted?”) weren’t actual ad-libs during the live show, according to an online SNL fan who was in the audience for this episode’s dress rehearsal and revealed that Jimmy made those same two remarks after the kiss in dress rehearsal. However, Jimmy following up “Does this mean I’m knighted?” with “Or did I get queened?” was an actual ad-lib. You can also tell by Tina’s genuine reaction to it.
— Good to see Rachel appearing a lot in tonight’s episode, after how very little she appeared in the last handful of episodes.
— Rachel’s Paula Jones saying her occupation is “a stay-at-home actress” is very funny.
— I like Amy’s Tonya Harding and Rachel’s Jones running off in fear when Tina threateningly takes off her glasses and steps up to them.
— Funny bit with Louie Anderson unintentionally being summoned by the mention of McDonalds and Family Feud.
— Jeff continues to amaze with his celebrity impersonation skills. What was with the awkward long pause before the Louie Anderson bit concluded, though? Did Jeff forget a line?
— I like how it’s become a running joke in this season’s Updates to use Martin Landau’s testicles as a random punchline to an unrelated joke. Kinda feels like a throwback to the Norm Macdonald era of Update, where he would have a countless number of running punchlines.
— A very long overall Update tonight, but a strong one.
— Finally, an Update with no Kattan, for the first time since we’ve entered the year 2002.
— This Update ends up being Jimmy’s only appearance all night. A very rare occurrence during the Fallon/Fey era in which Tina actually makes more non-Update appearances than Jimmy, which makes me wonder of an alternate universe in which Jimmy’s the co-anchor who regularly only appears on Update while Tina’s the co-anchor who regularly juggles both Update and sketches.
STARS: ****


THE FEREY MÜHTAR TALK SHOW
club owner (host) on Turkish program

— As I mentioned in some earlier reviews, I run hot and cold on Horatio’s penchant for occasionally relying on hammy overacting. This is one of the times I run hot on it. It’s working for me in the setting of this inherently silly sketch.
— Yet another funny entrance from Ian during a sketch.
— Uh-oh. Darrell’s fake mustache is hanging half-peeled off of his face.
— Haha, while Darrell’s delivering a line, Ian ad-libs by adjusting Darrell’s hanging-off mustache, causing Darrell to now start uncontrollably laughing his way through the rest of the sketch.
— When chastising Darrell’s character, Horatio makes a great ad-lib: “You can’t even grow a ‘stache, man!”, making Darrell crack up even more.
— Some good laughs from the detail of Ian… uh… adjusting his crotch throughout the sketch.
— Heh, why did Ian completely lose his fake Turkish accent during his rant to Darrell just now? He’s using his natural U.K. accent for some reason.
— Just now, when the camera cuts back to Darrell and Ian after a close-up of Horatio, Darrell’s fake mustache is suddenly completely missing. When noticing this, Ian makes yet another hilarious ad-lib by jokingly slapping Darrell’s face a few times. This is a riot. All of the fun bloopers and ad-libs throughout this sketch are giving it a huge boost.
STARS: ****


THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHARLES DICKENS
(host) makes many quick changes during one-man show about Charles Dickens

— Yet another sketch with an inherently silly vibe that works for me.
— Ian is absolutely incredible here with his constant campy character transformations and onscreen quick changes.
— I’m loving how this sketch has a very old-school feel and is completely different from typical sketches in this SNL era.
— I particularly love the part with Ian acting as five children in rapid succession.
— Ha, now Ian’s even playing a cat.
— When this sketch originally aired, some online SNL fans (including myself, as seen in my original 2002 review here, which, by the way, trashed this episode) assumed the voice heard loudly saying “Finally!” at the end of this came from an impatient SNL audience member who did not enjoy this sketch. That utterance of “Finally!” was actually a scripted part of the sketch, as it’s implied that the audience within the sketch was relieved to see Ian’s character finally perform the soap opera character that he’s most famous for. One dead giveaway that the utterance of “Finally!” was scripted is that the voice saying it is clearly mic’ed. Another dead giveaway is that the voice is provided by, I believe, Rachel, though it also kinda sounds like it could be Amy. A little hard to tell, but I’m fairly certain it’s Rachel.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “In Your Eyes”


KEVIN AND RICHIE’S COMIC BOOK ZONE
Dr. Who impersonator (host)

— ANOTHER talk show sketch tonight hosted by Horatio?
— This is such a blatant attempt at a new recurring sketch, but this ends up never making an on-air return. There is an attempt to bring this back in the Kirsten Dunst episode from later this season, but the sketch gets cut after dress rehearsal.
— So far, this sketch isn’t particularly hilarious, but there’s some laughs and an infectious charm to the atmosphere (even if Horatio’s a little TOO giddy here). Thankfully, we have Ian now making an entrance, and we know he’s gonna give this a boost.
— Something about Horatio’s delivery of “Congratulations on a new P-Zone” made me laugh out loud and has stuck with me for a few years after the original airing of this sketch, even though I could never remember which sketch or performer that line came from.
— As expected, Ian is indeed adding a lot to this sketch.
— Ian’s various impressions of his own movie characters are fun.
— When this sketch ends, I love the unscripted (I assume) detail of Cheetos spilling all over the place when Ian waves goodbye with his open Cheetos bag.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid episode. While not perfect in itself, every sketch in this episode was enjoyable to me and there was a very fun atmosphere to this episode that gave even the lesser sketches a boost. A huge part of the fun atmosphere of this episode can be attributed to Ian McKellen, who was an absolutely fantastic host, and, ever since I saw this episode back when it originally aired, has always been somewhere in the top 5 of my hypothetical list of hosts who surprised me by how funny they turned out to be. Ian also helped give the atmosphere and some of the sketches the feel of an episode from an earlier SNL era, including some sketches that already had that atmosphere and feel on their own (e.g. Hot Air Balloon Mystery Theater, The Life and Times of Charles Dickens).


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jon Stewart)
a very slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Cameron Diaz

Posted on

March 9, 2002 – Jon Stewart / India.Arie (S27 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

VICE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
Dick Cheney (DAH) is concerned about networks’ battle for David Letterman

— Darrell makes his return after having to miss the last episode due to a rehab stint (though at the time, the public was given other reasons for his absence). At the very beginning of this cold opening, the audience immediately welcomes Darrell back with an extended HUGE round of applause. Quite a heartwarming SNL moment.
— A good laugh from how the “serious” matter Darrell’s Dick Cheney addresses turns out to be the hoopla at the time about David Letterman being rumored to move over to ABC.
— Pretty funny bit with Cheney indirectly comparing Craig Kilborn to President Bush, when asking, in regards to Kilborn, “How does a guy who can’t read, with nothin’ but good looks and charm, get to such a high position?” However, I gotta say, the implication that one of the reasons Bush got elected president is due to his so-called good looks is quite a stretch, to say the least.
— Ha, SNL makes another reference to the “Dude, you’re gettin’ a Dell” commercial guy. At the time, I hated those commercials, but now, when I see these old SNL episodes making a reference to the Dell guy, I get nostalgic thinking back on those commercials. Funny how nostalgia works sometimes.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Much like the Josh Hartnett episode from earlier this season, Will Ferrell will not be appearing in any sketches in tonight’s episode, nor in the next episode, as he continues to film the movie Old School. However, unlike the Josh Hartnett episode, Will hasn’t been removed from the opening montage in tonight’s episode, nor will he be in the next episode. I wonder if SNL decided to leave him in the montage because of the scare his removal from the Hartnett episode’s montage caused online, with some worried SNL fans wondering if Will is officially no longer on the show.


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about late-night wars, NYC, gay rights, sexuality

— I like how Jon Stewart immediately addresses the Letterman/ABC rumors and if Jon himself will be willing to take any of the open talk show spots at CBS or ABC, which Jon answers here by desperately saying “Yes, I would”, and goes on about how he would gladly replace ANYONE who’s willing to leave. By the way, I found out just a few days ago that ABC almost did end up going with Jon as their late night host, but ended up deciding to give it to Jimmy Kimmel instead.
— Jon, on one of the downsides of his show airing on Comedy Central: “Your show comes on after THREE Andrew McCarthy movies. Do you understand what that’s like? And not the good ones where the mannequin comes to life. The bad ones.”
— Jon: “Are Justin and Britney the before, and Kid Rock and Pam Anderson the after?”
— All of Jon’s material about gays is working for me, and what helps most of it age well (I say “most of it” because I don’t know how people today would react to the whole part with Jon implying the boy scouts are gay, though *I* laughed, due to Jon’s solid delivery) is the fact that Jon is taking a pro-gay stance here.
— Jon, on a guy having sex with a pinata: “…or maybe that’s how they get the candy in them.”
— Great bit about having a sexual attraction to pumpkins.
— Jon: “If you think puttin’ the Ten Commandments up is gonna stop violence, then you think ‘Employees must wash hands’ is keepin’ the urine outta your Happy Meal.”
— Fantastic stand-up monologue overall.
STARS: *****


THE CHEESE GAME
George Plimpton [real] pitches fun way to raise gourmets

— George Plimpton makes another funny random SNL appearance, after the Just Enjoy The Ozzy sketch from season 24.
— For some reason, something about the execution of this is kinda reminding me of that solid The Bird Bible commercial that SNL would later do in season 39.
— A random and questionable premise at first glance, but the execution of it is actually strong and has a lot of charm.
— I like Parnell and Amy’s weirded-out facial reaction when George Plimpton puts his arms around them and introduces himself to them.
— Great ending visual of the little kid sleeping with a cheese grater by his side.
STARS: ****


TRL
(host)’s genetically-engineered boy band makes debut

— Pretty good bit at the beginning with Jimmy’s Carson Daly momentarily breaking from his usual calm demeanor to yell “SHUT UP!” at the screaming teen girls in the TRL audience.
— A hilarious look and voice from Jon as a boy band manager. Something about his voice kinda reminds me of an Adam Sandler character, for some reason. Am I thinking of Audience McGee?
— I like the vague implication that Jon’s character once got busted for something illegal that was found on his hard drive.
— Funny bizarre random concept of a genetically-engineered boy band.
— Some good details in the oddities of Jon’s genetically-engineered boy band members, such as the member played by Parnell being allergic to light. Oh, and, of course, uh… Assface. Wow.
— I absolutely LOVE Parnell briefly breaking out into a hard, fast-paced rap, before suddenly cowering away from a shining light in his face. Parnell’s rapping skills never cease to amaze me.
— A priceless line from Horatio about how his penis looks like a thick piece of bacon with a toenail hanging from it.
— I love Horatio’s anguished “Just kill me; I have GILLS!!!” rant during his solo number.
— Ha, the Assface dance solo is absolutely hilarious. Some SNL fans have had a theory that the (male) Assface character is actually played by a woman, perhaps Tina or Maya, due to Assface’s body supposedly looking somewhat feminine under that outfit when he’s dancing. Yeah, I don’t see it. And whoever it is in that Assface costume seems a little taller than Tina and Maya. Whether male or female, I’m sure the person in that costume is just some extra who’s trained in dancing.
STARS: ****


CUSTOMS
Bloater brothers’ dad (host) comes to rescue them from airport security

— The Bloater Brothers make their first appearance since Parnell’s return to the cast, and they are welcomed warmly byyyyyyyy…. nobody but me, as I’m probably the only person in existence who can tolerate these two characters. Don’t expect ANY kind of positive reception from me, however, when we get the inevitable return of those godforsaken DeMarco Brothers that Parnell does with Kattan.
— I particularly like the “War, huh, good god ya’ll, what is it good for, absolutely nothing” bit the Bloather Brothers are doing.
— The Bloater Brothers now have their inevitable “host plays a character with the same traits as a current cast member’s recurring character” installment. I recall hearing that there was later going to be another “host plays a character with the same traits as a current cast member’s recurring character” Bloater Brothers installment in the Winona Ryder-hosted finale from the end of this season, in a sketch that got cut after dress rehearsal in which Ryder played a Bloater Brothers-esque woman who the brothers meet on a cruise ship.
— Jon’s doing an accurate imitation of the Bloater Brothers.
— Pretty funny ending regarding a cavity search.
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- Colin Powell hallucinates a generation gap

— An okay mockery of the intelligence level of MTV audiences.
— Pretty funny visual of one MTV audience member hallucinating Colin Powell having huge cleavage. That feels like a precursor to that “The Life Of Big-Boobed Einstein” TV Funhouse that Robert Smigel would later do in the Molly Shannon-hosted episode from season 32.
— Good hallucination of Colin Powell as Capt. Crunch.
— Ha, a Beavis and Butthead cameo! Kinda odd seeing them right after a Bloater Brothers sketch, considering I recall some online SNL fans back in this era comparing both pairs of characters (oh, is THAT why people can’t stand the Bloater Brothers?).
— A new MTV show titled “Colin Powell Wails On Teens”? Now THAT’S the kind of MTV programming I would’ve proudly watched back then, and I was a teen myself when tonight’s episode originally aired.
STARS: ***


TALKIN’ TO THE STARS WITH RACHEL AND TRACY
good girl RAD & bad boy TRM interview host

— An experimental new cornrow hairstyle from Tracy.
— Interesting seeing Rachel and Tracy as themselves hosting a talk show sketch together. No idea how SNL came up with this random pairing of Rachel and Tracy, but I like it.
— Tracy’s distinct “Tracy-speak” all throughout this sketch, and the juxtaposition of it and Rachel’s professional speak, are priceless.
— Rachel: “I find if Tracy says a word I don’t know, it usually means ‘high’.”
— Jon’s reaction to finding out there’s hardcore porn on cable is pretty funny.
— Tracy, to Rachel, regarding Jon: “You don’t care about no Daily Show! You just wanna be his Daily Ho!”
— Jon, regarding Rachel: “Very cute, she’s charming and, uh, very funny.” Tracy: “So why don’choo get her pregnant?” That’s our very first SNL occurrence of Tracy saying a line about getting somebody pregnant, something that would go on to be a major Tracy Morgan trademark both on SNL and beyond.
— I love all of Rachel’s flustered reactions to Tracy.
— Overall, such a great sketch.
— I remember some SNL fans at the time were expecting this sketch to become recurring (ala The Chris Farley Show), but we end up never seeing it return. I’m not sure if any subsequent installments ever could’ve topped this debut anyway.
STARS: *****


NEWS MEDIA
David Letterman (JER) & Ted Koppel (DAH) confer at telejournalists’ party

— Great to see Parnell’s Tom Brokaw back for the first time since Parnell’s rehiring.
— A very fun setting, as well as a fun excuse for impressions of news anchors.
— Darrell’s Dan Rather saying “Why don’t you go jump up your own ass, Brokaw?” had me howling, though it got only minor chuckles from the audience.
— Seth is certainly trying, but he’s no Rob Lowe when it comes to impersonating Stone Phillips.
— (*groan*) Kattan playing yet another woman. (And yes, I’m aware that Christiane Amanpour is a role he’s already played several times back in his earlier seasons.) Him playing women has become about as tired as him playing gay roles all the time lately.
— Very funny bit with Amy-as-Greta-Van-Susteren’s obvious surgically-altered new breasts, which she comments on by simply saying “Why stop at the eyes?”
— I love the look on Parnell-as-Brokaw’s face when Jimmy is attempting to imitate his voice.
— Fantastic meta bit with Parnell’s Brokaw mistaking Tina for being herself, only for her to reveal she’s supposed to be playing Ashleigh Banfield, then saying “Forget it, I shouldn’t be in sketches anyway” and walking off in disappointment.
— Wow, two Darrell Hammond impressions in one sketch, with both impressions being performed live. (Now we know why Darrell’s Dan Rather had to leave the sketch early.) Having Darrell do two live impressions in the same sketch is nice way to show viewers that “He’s back!” after his personal struggles and absence from the last episode.
— The tense silence among the party when it’s announced that David Letterman is outside the door is hilarious, as is Darrell’s Ted Koppel dramatically saying a bold “Let ‘im in.”
— Yikes, this great sketch briefly comes to a screeching halt with the bit with Maya as Lisa Ling saying an agitated “And, no, I was not in Charlie’s Angels. That was Lucy Liu”, which bombed HARD with the audience. That received season 20 levels of uncomfortable silence.
— When Jeff enters as David Letterman, what the hell was that sound I heard in the background? It sounded like one of the performers on the set spitting something out of their mouth VERY loudly. What the hell?!?
— Now I see Horatio in the background, helplessly laughing his ass off HARD with his head lowered (you can see it in the second-to-last screencap above, if you look between Jeff and Darrell), while an amused Jon is looking at him and appears to be trying to get him to compose himself. Clearly, there’s some kind of connection between this and that bizarre loud spitting sound I heard in the background a moment ago. What the hell happened?!?
— Jeff does it once again with yet ANOTHER spot-on celebrity impression. His David Letterman voice is freakin’ uncanny. I do wish he was given funnier lines here, though.
— It’s about half a minute later, and Horatio is still seen uncontrollably laughing HARD in the background with his head lowered while an amused Jon continues to try to calm him down. And I’m still left scratching my head over what the hell is going on there, but I will NOT let Horatio’s typical unprofessionalism take anything away from this great sketch for me.
— Funny ending visual of Letterman and Koppel tenderly slow-dancing together.
— Rachel was the ONLY cast member missing from this overall sketch. Odd how this is the third sketch lately that was one cast member short of being a full-cast sketch. The Bass-Off sketch from the Jack Black episode was only missing Amy, the Super Buzzers sketch from the Jonny Moseley episode was only missing Jeff, and now this sketch was only missing Rachel. By the way, Rachel’s airtime has taken a real hit lately. She seems to be averaging only 1-2 appearances per show these last few episodes.
STARS: ****½


WEEKEND UPDATE
in a terrible re-enactment, John McEnroe (CHK) reacts to cancellation

host almost gets his chance to be an anchor on network television

Drunk Girl sloppily relates Spring Break safety tips to TIF

— Man, these Terrible Reenactment bits of Kattan’s, which I found funny the first 1 or 2 times they appeared, need to freakin’ STOP. Tonight’s was the unfunniest one yet. And why the hell has Kattan been appearing on EVERY SINGLE UPDATE since the Josh Hartnett episode all the way back in January? I’m telling you, Kattan’s unnecessary presence on SNL this season continues to bug me. I can’t believe I still have a little under a season-and-a-half to go until he finally leaves (and even then, he makes tons of cameos in the first season after he leaves).
— The tree frog joke that gets interrupted by Jimmy getting a leg cramp would go on to be a Weekend Update tradition whenever a joke gets cut off by something.
— I absolutely love this whole segment with an overly eager Jon Stewart being brought in from the bench to fill in for Jimmy as an Update anchor. Also, in the initial shot of Jon getting up from the bench, he’s wearing the same SNL athletic sweatsuit that Kattan and Tracy both wore in Kattan’s Olympic Personal Profile sketch from the season 26 premiere.
— Drunk Girl has officially become recurring.
— Even in her second appearance, Drunk Girl already has a way-too-recognizable pattern of bits that she follows every time in the exact same order. I’m still laughing somewhat, but I’m already seeing early signs of me getting burned out on this character.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Video”


JAZZVISIONS
spoons player (host) performs cuts from his sensual album

— Tracy is already getting laughs just from his smooth delivery as the host.
— The music video is hilarious, between Jon’s look, Dean as the singer (yes, you heard right – Dean Edwards is one of the highlights of a sketch), and Jon playing the spoons as an instrument.
— Very funny awkwardness after Tracy responds to Jon’s “They’re either in your hands or in your mouth” comment with “Just like genitals”. Even just the odd way Tracy pronounced “genitals” is hilarious in itself.
— So many laughs throughout the Tracy/Jon interview.
— I love the line about Maya being the voice of the tambourine-playing ostrich from the Chuck E. Cheese animatronic stage show.
— The musical performance at the end with Jon and Maya is giving me a lot of laughs.
STARS: ****


WE WERE SOLDIERS THAT KNEW WHAT WOMEN WANT
an odd Mel Gibson (host) film

— A funny hybrid of two completely different Mel Gibson movies.
— Wow, Dean has been having a fairly active night in this episode, for his standards.
— Very broad stereotypical Asian accents from Maya and Ana, though something about the goofy, dumb, somewhat-fun nature of this general sketch makes those Asian stereotypes come off a little passable, even if this sketch in general isn’t quite as hilarious as I had remembered it being.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ready For Love”


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
mulling a cliff jump in chapter 677


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A great episode, and definitely one of the best of the season. Every sketch in this episode worked for me, and there were lots of strong segments that received four or five-star ratings from me. Jon Stewart was also a great host as expected. Also, unlike the Josh Hartnett episode earlier this season, Will Ferrell’s absence did not negatively affect the show. In fact, I surprisingly didn’t even notice his absence in any of the sketches while watching the episode, which goes to show how solid this episode was.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jonny Moseley)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ian McKellen

Posted on

March 2, 2002 – Jonny Moseley / Outkast (S27 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
anything that irks George W. Bush (WIF) earns membership in Axis Of Evil

— Tonight’s episode was actually originally scheduled to be one of the episodes this season that Will misses so he can film the movie Old School, but he ended up having to alter his movie-filming schedule this week due to Darrell’s absence. Darrell is out this week because he’s at rehab (it was falsely rumored online at the time that the reason for Darrell’s absence was because he suffered a heart attack, then it was later “confirmed” in the media that he was just feeling under the weather, the latter being a cover-up to hide the fact that he did a rehab stint), and I guess it was felt by Will and/or SNL that it would be too much for both Will AND Darrell to be absent in the same episode (especially an episode hosted by an athlete with no acting experience, which is already a huge gamble), and thus, we have Will on the show tonight. Will was also probably eager to be there this week for a certain rehired cast member’s first week back (more on that in a little while), especially considering that Will (along with Kattan) played a crucial part in said cast member’s rehiring.
— A good laugh from Will’s Bush putting Enron in his Axis of Evil because the Enron scandal makes his head hurt to think about it.
— More laughs from Bush putting other things he doesn’t like into his Axis Of Evil for petty reasons, I particularly found it funny that he put Evil Kneivel into the Axis Of Evil “for obvious reasons”, but refused to put Dr. Evil in because he makes Bush laugh.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Don Pardo is out sick tonight, and Seth Meyers gets the honors of doing tonight’s announcements in a Pardo imitation. The usual Don Pardo impersonator of this cast, Darrell Hammond, is absent himself this week, as mentioned earlier. Reruns of this episode would replace the theme music with the dress rehearsal version and insert newly-recorded announcements from the real Don Pardo. However, an odd thing regarding the latter is that Pardo’s newly-recorded announcements announces “A Cartoon By Robert Smigel”, even though 1) there is no “A Cartoon By Robert Smigel” graphic that accompanies Pardo’s announcement, and 2) there is no Smigel cartoon that airs in this episode.
— After getting fired after the preceding season, Chris Parnell has been rehired and is reinstated back into the opening montage.

As shocking as this rehiring move on SNL’s part seems, it’s not unprecedented (despite Parnell himself later claiming it was, in Will Ferrell’s farewell piece from this season’s finale). Jim Belushi was fired at one point around the middle of season 10, then got rehired a few episodes later. And if we count off-seasons, then both Gary Kroeger and Tim Meadows were fired and rehired between seasons (for Gary, it happened between seasons 8 and 9, and for Tim, it happened between seasons 20 and 21).
— At the time, there was so much uncertainty to me and others in the online SNL community in regards to Parnell’s return that it was initially unsure to us if he was back for good or if his return tonight was just a one-night-only thing (the latter of which seems kinda silly, looking back on that theory in retrospect). It was confirmed sometime before the next episode that Parnell was indeed back for good, much to my excitement.
— A lot of odd and interesting things have been going on with the cast lately, between Will Ferrell having to miss certain weeks due to his movie schedule, Darrell Hammond missing this week due to rehab, Ana Gasteyer being pregnant while still an active cast member, and the rehiring of Parnell, plus you could add in Don Pardo’s absence tonight too.


MONOLOGUE
after not medalling at Olympics, host settled for fourth-place ceremonies

— Ah, Jonny Moseley. I remember what a puzzling and questionable hosting choice he was considered at the time (in fact, I and quite a number of other online SNL fans didn’t even know who the hell he was when SNL first announced in the preceding live episode that he was the next host). This hosting choice probably comes off even more puzzling and questionable in retrospect, all these years later.
— Interesting gimmick with Jonny making his entrance onto the front of the stage via ski ramp. Kinda reminds me of Brendan Fraser making his season 23 monologue entrance via swinging on a rope, ala George Of The Jungle.
— Right out of the gate, Jonny’s already showing he has no experience as an actor in front of a studio audience, by how he goes on speaking long before the opening audience applause stops, causing us to not even be able to hear what he’s saying.
— Jonny’s delivery is coming off as a typical surfer-type dude, but he seems affable enough and at least isn’t sounding stiff like some athlete hosts from over the years (e.g. Nancy Kerrigan).
— The various pre-taped scenes of the celebration for 4th place winners is worth a mere chuckle or two. Otherwise, meh.
STARS: **


SKI LIFT
Sully & Denise reconcile while riding a ski lift to the top of a mountain

— Interesting setting for the Boston Teens.
— Pretty good storyline with us seeing Sully and Denise in the middle of an argument with each other for a change.
— Gee, way for Jonny Moseley to INSTANTLY stretch as a performer.[/end sarcasm] He might as well be playing himself in this sketch.
— Funny visual of a Sharpie-drawn beard on Denise’s face.
— The audience is pretty quiet throughout this sketch.
— A laugh from Jonny’s character’s “wise” advice being him reciting the famous “up-up-down-down etc.” code that’s used to get unlimited men in the Nintendo game Contra. That really takes me back to the Nintendo-playing days of my childhood.
— I love Horatio’s delivery of “At least my poop will smell like the BEACH!”
— An overall average outing for the Boston Teens. Despite the nice change of pace in both the setting and storyline, the resulting sketch was just decent, nothing special.
STARS: ***


THE O’REILLY FACTOR
guests’ facts are judged as matters of opinion

— Great to see Jeff starring in his own sketch for a change.
— Jeff knocks it out of the park once again with another fantastic and spot-on celebrity impression.
— Ah, Parnell in his first sketch back. God, it feels so refreshing to see him again after half a season.
— I like Parnell’s puzzled delivery of his ending line “Is there someone else I can talk to…?” while looking around.
— Once again tonight, the audience is pretty quiet, despite Jeff’s solid performance and various funny lines.
— Okay, the audience is getting a little more into this, especially in response to Jeff-as-O’Reilly’s idiotic statement about Space Mountain.
— A very funny viewer mail segment.
— This overall sketch seems like it was being set up to become a Hardball-esque recurring sketch, but we end up never seeing this sketch return… at least not under Jeff’s tenure. SNL would later make these O’Reilly Factor sketches recurring long after Jeff’s (mysterious) departure, with the Bill O’Reilly role being taken over by Darrell, who’s O’Reilly “impression” could best be described as “Darrell Hammond in a wig” (this was long after Darrell seemed to stop giving a shit on SNL). Darrell’s O’Reilly impression would eventually get better after a few appearances, though.
STARS: ***½


DISMISSED
(host) chooses hootchie (MAR) over one-legged Amber (AMP)

— Amy’s Amber character makes her debut. I remember absolutely HATING this character in the past, but, as usual in this SNL project of mine whenever I cover recurring characters I used to strongly dislike, I’ll now try to go into her debut with an open mind.
— Some laughs from Amber bragging in her intro about having one leg.
— I like how, during her and Maya’s meeting of Jonny’s character, Amber is now bragging about being hypoglycemic.
— So far, this sketch is an accurate parody of both this DisMissed show and general MTV shows from this era.
— Funny bit with Maya sluttily talking with her mouth full of chewed hot dog.
— Maya, to Amber: “You have to leave us alone for 20 minutes. Why don’t you go look for your leg?”
— Amy managed to even make the fart gag at the end work. I doubt I’ll feel the same way about that fart gag in this character’s subsequent sketches, though.
STARS: ***½


JONNY’S JOURNEY
orbiting host solves problems while performing signature Dinner Roll move

— A creative and fun concept and theme song sequence. I’m already onboard for this sketch.
— Very funny visual of Jeff being impaled with a ski pole.
— The cheap special effects are adding to the oddly infectious charm of this sketch.
— I like the silliness of Jonny using pizza to get Horatio and Seth’s fighting Saudi Arabian characters to unite.
— I think I’m in the very small minority in loving this dumb, silly sketch, as I remember a lot of my fellow SNL reviewers back in 2002 dismissing this sketch as a real dud.
STARS: ****


WEEKEND UPDATE
skaters David Pelletier (WIF) & Jamie Sale (AMP) wanted SNL to pick them

name-dropping gossip columnist Hollywood (CHK) isn’t much of an insider

while delivering a news item, JIF gets a few pies in the face

— A new hairstyle from Tina tonight.
— Boy, the graphics department badly screwed up Jimmy’s cross-country skiing joke, causing it to get very few laughs from the audience.
— Funny segment with Will and Amy as famous Canadian pair skaters trying to host SNL.
— A good laugh from Amy’s skater doing a brief vocal impression of a black homeless woman. That’s the type of crazy, UCB-esque Amy Poehler that I wish we saw more of throughout her SNL tenure.
— Wow, a lot of Jimmy and Tina’s jokes are getting a very tepid audience reaction. As I pointed out in some earlier sketches in this review, the audience has strangely been dead for quite a number of portions of this episode.
— What the BLOODY HELL am I watching Chris Kattan do here?!? This new Hollywood character of his is fucking TERRIBLE.
— Hmm, figures that tonight’s usually-dead audience would actually chuckle at this Kattan crap.
— Mercifully, Kattan’s commentary is finally over. Jesus Christ, that was a trainwreck. Is SNL kidding me putting that on the air? In the past, before doing this SNL project of mine, whenever I would think of how much Kattan overstayed his welcome and went badly downhill in his later seasons, this Hollywood bit was usually always one of the first things that came to mind, and that has not changed after my viewing just now. Definitely one of the worst things Kattan has ever done on the show, and that’s certainly saying something.
— Odd but entertaining bit with Jimmy repeatedly getting prematurely hit with a pie before he can get to the punchline of a clown joke he’s doing. SNL would later replace this bit with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Whole World”


SUPER BUZZERS
1970s game show comprises panel intros; Rip Taylor cameo

— This sketch is introduced by a voice-over from the real Don Pardo, which must’ve been taped earlier that week before he got too sick to do the show. His voice does sound slightly more frail than usual here.
— The random joke with the two contestants being named, respectively, Jill Kenson and Ken Jillson, makes me think that James Anderson might’ve written this sketch, as he’s known for throwing in random odd, gimmicky character names like that in his sketches, especially in his game show sketches.
— Jimmy’s doing a great impression of George Gaynes. Odd, though, how Punky Brewster is mentioned in this portion of the sketch as a soon-to-debut new sitcom, considering this sketch clearly takes place in the 70s, and, as far as I know, Punky Brewster didn’t debut until well into the 80s (1984, I believe). Ah, well. This was clearly just an excuse for Jimmy to imitate Gaynes’ distinct way of saying the name Punky.
— I love Parnell’s little responses to each of the celebrity panelists, especially his more taken-aback responses.
— Ana’s Jo-Anne Worley impression (last seen in Kate Hudson’s monologue from season 26) always cracks me up.
— Will’s Paul Lynde impression is spot-on and a riot.
— Rip Taylor cameo.
— Boy, they’re letting Rip Taylor go on and on.
— Not counting Darrell, the ONLY cast member missing from this overall sketch was Jeff, which is ironic, considering this sketch was an impression showcase and Jeff has a knack for doing impressions.
STARS: ***


TYPHOID MARY REHEARSAL
over-the-hill Broadway legend (ANG) pushes for minimal choreography

— Hmm, a sketch with Jonny and several male cast members playing flamboyant gay roles. Is this our second consecutive James Anderson-written sketch of the night?
— Oh, and of course, Kattan is cast as one of the flamboyant gay guys, making this not only the second consecutive sketch tonight that Kattan’s playing a gay role in, but the second consecutive episode in which he plays MULTIPLE gay roles in, respectively. At this point, I don’t know whether to roll my eyes at that or just feel sorry for Kattan for getting so typecast and making the already-long-existing gay rumors about himself grow. Then again, if that mind-numbingly terrible Hollywood bit he did earlier tonight is an example of the non-gay performances he can contribute to these later years of his SNL tenure, then oof.
— I love the occasional bit with Ana using her fingers to count the words she occasionally speak-sings (e.g. “I’ve got a pin in my hip”).
— Ana’s performance and delivery here are very solid and is carrying this sketch well, though the material itself is a little iffy.
— Yeah, this has GOTTA be a James Anderson-written sketch. More and more, I’m seeing way too many of his trademarks for it to NOT be one.
STARS: **½


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
a shrunken head in chapter 1148


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ms. Jackson”


EXTREME WEDDING
groom (host) & bride (AMP) have pre-ceremony doubts about extreme wedding

— Meh, another sketch tonight about surfer/skiing bro stereotypes. Sure, that’s in Jonny’s wheelhouse, but I have no interest in seeing any more sketches like this tonight.
— Jeff has refreshingly been getting some good airtime tonight (ignoring his odd exclusion from the Super Buzzers sketch). I remember some online SNL fans at the time were worried that Parnell’s return would mean even LESS airtime for the already-very-underused Jeff Richards and Dean Edwards. Ha, so much for that, at least regarding Jeff. No comment on Dean.
— I’m currently halfway through this sketch so far, and I have no idea what to say about the sketch, except I’m hearing a whole bunch of kinda-funny-but-also-kinda-tepid “brah” puns. Otherwise, this sketch is washing right over me.
— Okay, I did get a laugh just now from the goofy visual of Seth testing out some kind of bungee pack in the background.
— I love that Parnell is appearing in so many sketches in his first episode back.
STARS: *½


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
an idiot spacewoman in chapter 1234


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty forgettable episode, though not particularly weak. In fact, I actually liked a good majority of the sketches, until the last 15-20 minutes of the show. It’s just that, even with all of the decent sketches, something about the show as a whole felt a little on the “meh” side. Part of the reason for that “meh” feel could be the host. For an athlete, Jonny Moseley wasn’t a terrible host, but he added little to the show.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Britney Spears)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jon Stewart

Posted on

February 2, 2002 – Britney Spears (S27 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE WOMEN’S DOWNHILL
Mormons (DAA) & (WIF) proselytize during Olympian’s (AMP) downhill run

— Ha, we get a random Dan Aykroyd appearance (who’s apparently there tonight to help tonight’s host, Britney Spears, promote her new movie Crossroads, as he plays her dad in it), being paired with Will as Mormons. Dan’s appearance in this cold opening is actually a last-minute addition. In dress rehearsal, Kattan played the role that Dan is playing here, but most (if not all) of Dan’s sketches got cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal, leaving him with little-to-nothing to do in the live show, so SNL threw him into Kattan’s role in this cold opening. I’m not 100% sure, but I also believe that in dress rehearsal, Britney Spears played the role that Amy’s playing in this cold opening, which probably means that this wasn’t the cold opening in dress (I can’t quite remember from the details I read long ago about this episode’s dress rehearsal).
— A pretty good laugh from the Mormons interrupting a skiier in the middle of an Olympic competition.
— Ehh, after the initial laughs from the aforementioned Mormon interruption, this doesn’t seem to have anywhere else to go, though it’s still passable enough.
— The Mormons telling Amy “Good luck in hell” as their parting message when Amy lets them know she doesn’t want to be a Mormon is pretty funny.
— I like Seth shoving Maya’s reporter character out of the way to bombard Amy with more Mormonism.
— Seth delivering a (solo) “Live from New York…” so early into his tenure as a featured player is a nice shock. SNL has been doing a great job of changing up the LFNYs these past two episodes, after an endless, tiring consecutive streak of episodes where Darrell and Will were the only cast members who got to deliver LFNY.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
Justin Timberlake [real] learns he slept with host’s doppelganger (CHK)

— A good reveal after “Britney Spears”’ entrance that she’s actually Chris Kattan. Chris can now say that he’s posed onstage as both a certain musical guest and a certain host, at the beginning their musical performance/monologue: Ricky Martin in season 26 and Britney Spears tonight.
— After Chris’ comically bad dancing demonstration, I actually got an unintentional bigger laugh from Britney’s attempt to show Chris how it’s done. Britney’s supposedly “better” dancing was almost as terrible as Chris’. Back then in 2002, I remember SNL reviewing great Mark Polishuk describing Britney’s so-called dancing demonstration as being “one pole away from being a stripper’s gyration”.
— Much like in the Joshua Jackson episode from season 25, it still feels weird seeing N’Sync-era Justin Timberlake appearing on SNL.
— Another unintentional laugh, this time from how extremely early-2000s Justin’s shirt looks.
— It might just be me, but Justin’s coming off kinda bland here, which is surprising in retrospect. I’m not seeing any signs of the distinct comedic skills he would later surprise viewers with in his first hosting stint two seasons later.
— I got a laugh from Chris saying his personal life has been falling apart because Corky Romano didn’t do as well as he thought. Sadly, though, knowing some of the things I now know about Chris, I wouldn’t be surprised if he really did go through some issues in his personal life due to Corky Romano flopping.
STARS: **½


LOOSE BEAR
Rerun from 12/8/01


BRIAN FELLOW’S SAFARI PLANET
rabbit & donkey don’t cut their own hair

— After making its debut in the 10-to-1 slot several seasons prior, Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet has slowly made its way to the big post-monologue slot, where it would stay for most (if not all) of its subsequent installments during Tracy’s SNL tenure.
— As usual, Brian Fellow’s idiotic statements and snippiness crack me up.
— An interesting twist to these usual sketches, by showing a guest actually having the same thought bubble that Brian Fellow has.
STARS: ***½


INSIDE BARBIE’S DREAMHOUSE
Skipper (host) learns that she’s Barbie’s (AMP) daughter, not her sister

 

— An interesting premise that has potential.
— I like the mentions of the various famous dolls and action figures who are going to be at the party that Skipper wants to go to.
— Good reveal from Barbie that she and Skipper are actually mother and daughter instead of siblings.
— A big laugh from Barbie and Skipper demonstrating how their legs are double-jointed.
— Skipper, to Barbie, after being told her father is a Han Solo action figure: “He’s not even our scale! What kind of slut are you?!?”
— Nice detail with the stiff, doll-like hand movements Amy and Britney keep doing throughout this.
— (*groan*) Figures that Kattan would be the one who gets cast as a catty, effeminate Ken doll.
STARS: ****


JARRET’S ROOM
stoners Gobi (HOS) & Summer (host) make a perfect couple

— Jarret, to DJ Jonathan Feinstein: “If you’re from England, what’s the queen’s name?” DJ Jonathan Feinstein: “Latifah?”
— The first two or so minutes of these Jarret’s Room sketches are always kind of a write-off, as they just feature Horatio and Jimmy hamming it up, mugging straight into the camera, and cracking each other up (in other words, the usual nonsense whenever those two performers are paired together). These Jarret’s Room sketches don’t usually start getting fun until the host shows up, but I don’t see Britney as the kind of host who can add much to this sketch.
— Funny bit with Gobi and Britney’s character carrying on an entire conversation without either of them knowing what the other is saying.
— The spy cam footage of Jeff is worth some laughs, though it’s not as funny as the footage of him in the last Jarret’s Room installment.
— Overall, after a big upswing in quality with the last two Jarret’s Room sketches, we get the return of Jarret’s Room’s mediocrity tonight, though this installment wasn’t as bad as the ones from the preceding season. This had some decent moments here and there, but was lacking the infectiously fun feel of the last two installments.
STARS: **½


CAMP X-RAY
international critics misjudge edenic Camp X-Ray, says Dick Cheney (DAH)

— The premise of Camp X-Ray being glowingly advertised in the style of a tourism commercial is pretty funny, and the execution is okay, though nothing special.
STARS: ***


A MESSAGE FROM MARTHA STEWART
Martha Stewart (ANG) is rethinking her affiliation with bankrupt K-Mart

— A laugh from Ana’s Martha Stewart calling Ghostface Killah her very close friend. While it was intended as just a facetious line at the time, a real-life Martha Stewart/Ghostface Killah friendship would actually be far more believable nowadays, considering the hip-hop cred Martha has gained.
— Martha Stewart, to the bankrupt K-Mart: “If I had wanted to spend my life dragging a wounded, impotent beast around on my back, I would’ve stayed married.”
— Some pretty solid lines from Ana’s Martha towards the end of this sketch, but overall, this sketch was merely average, a step down from the usual strong sketches starring Ana’s Martha.
— This ends up being the final appearance of Ana’s Martha Stewart impression during Ana’s SNL tenure. This fantastic impression and all the great sketches she starred in over the years will be missed, though we do end up getting a guest appearance from Ana’s Martha in a season 29 cold opening.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM awards a point to JIF for making a joke palindrome

Geraldo Rivera (DAH) claims to have found Osama bin Laden in Somalia

JIF plays guitar & sings pop-inspired songs about the Winter Olympics

Gay Hitler speedskates as Neil Diamond (WIF) performs “America”

— Yeesh, Jimmy’s hair is looking particularly bad tonight.
— I love the randomness of Seth popping up from below to award a point to Jimmy for a joke palindrome.
— The debut of Darrell’s Geraldo Rivera impression, which is spot-on and pretty funny. He’s having a good amount of funny lines in tonight’s Update commentary.
— The usual okay-but-nothing-special guitar song medley from Jimmy. I do kinda like his spoof of Ludacris’ “Rollout”, though.
— Always great to get an Update walk-on from Will’s Neil Diamond.
— Neil Diamond: “You bet your balls it’s Neil Diamond.”
— Hmm, “Gay Speedskating Hitler” (which won’t make sense to any viewers who didn’t see the original Gay Hitler bit from earlier this season). Well, I see once again tonight that Kattan’s hard at work quashing those gay rumors about himself.
— Interesting and kinda fun how, as Neil Diamond’s musical number is closing out this Update, the Update guests from earlier tonight return in the background.
STARS: ***½


ASTRONAUT JONES
sci-fi romp is a vanity project for its star

— This sketch makes its debut.
— A pretty big night for Tracy, between him getting to do both Brian Fellow AND Astronaut Jones, both of whom would go on to be his two biggest signature recurring characters.
— Man, that is one epic theme song and opening credits sequence. Outstanding.
— Tracy’s one-word utterances in between each sentence of Britney’s long speech are hilarious.
— Tracy, after Britney’s speech ends: “Well, why don’t you jump outta that green jumpsuit and show me that fat ass?!?” I also love how, immediately after that line, this episode of Astronaut Jones ends, and you then realize that the opening title sequence was humorously longer than the episode itself was.
— Hilarious ending credits.
— Overall, an absolutely perfect Tracy Morgan sketch. I’ve always had very mixed feelings about them later turning this into a recurring sketch, but I’ll try to go into those subsequent installments with an open mind in this SNL project of mine.
STARS: *****


HBO FIRST LOOK
Gemini’s Twin & latest member (host) in hip-hop epic film

— This ends up being the final Gemini’s Twin sketch. (Quite a lot of recurring Ana Gasteyer pieces are being retired tonight.) Can’t say I’ll miss this recurring sketch, though I enjoyed the first few installments.
— A laugh from the title of Gemini’s Twin’s movie: Damn, My Dixie’s On Fire.
— I love Will’s spot-on look as a typical hip-hop producer.
— Will is getting his usual big laughs even in the smallest of roles. He especially got a good audience response from unnaturally pronouncing “asked” as “axed”, in a poor attempt from his character to sound “street”.
— I see ONCE AGAIN tonight that Kattan’s hard at work quashing those gay rumors about himself. My god, has he played a gay role in EVERY SINGLE SKETCH that he’s appeared in tonight? (Note: I’m only vaguely familiar with the real Brian Grazer and I can’t remember if he’s gay or not, but Kattan is playing him in a very effeminate, flamboyant way in this sketch.) Plus, there was the whole monologue earlier tonight. Jesus Christ, this is getting insane.
— Pretty funny line about Britney’s character playing a runaway slave named Ungawa, because Maya’s (black) character refused to do it.
— When Gemini’s Twin has stripped down to more revealing outfits for their big musical number, Ana’s real-life pregnancy is quite visible here. There had been public confirmation of her pregnancy sometime not too long before this episode’s original airing, which was a huge deal at the time, as she was the very first cast member in SNL history to be pregnant during their SNL tenure.
— I like how the HBO First Look format is changing up a lot of things in the Gemini’s Twin formula.
— Ana’s violin solo during the Gemini’s Twin musical number is very funny.
— Overall, this actually wasn’t bad. Better than the last two Gemini’s Twin installments, and a pretty good way for this recurring sketch to go out.
STARS: ***


9 NEWS MORNING EDITION
technical problems vex anchors (WIF) & (ANG) during morning news program

— Ana has been getting a lot of airtime tonight, which is very refreshing, considering how underutilized and clearly-on-her-way-out she’s been in a lot of this season’s episodes.
— Already a laugh right from the beginning, with the visibly obvious lack of chairs for Will and Ana.
— Ah, this is one of those everything-goes-wrong-during-a-TV-broadcast sketch, the type of sketch I’m always a sucker for.
— Funny visual of Ana chomping into a huge hoagie when she thinks she’s off-camera.
— I like Will’s perfectly Will Ferrell-esque delivery of “God, that’s a stinky dog! That is a stinky dog!”
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Boys”


THE LEATHER MAN
The Leather Man (JIF) sells squeaky animal-skin attire to (host)

— Oh, god, a SECOND Fallon & Sanz sketch tonight?
— I can already tell from the leather store setting that I’m not going to be crazy about this sketch, nor this character of Jimmy’s. Regarding the latter, this feels like a character more suitable for someone like Will, who could easily wring laughs out of a role like this in his sleep.
— Tom Davis is credited during the goodnights of tonight’s episode as guest writing a sketch. I really hope THIS isn’t the sketch he guest wrote, but I think it is, as Tom is also credited as a guest writer in the following season’s Brittany Murphy episode, which just so happens to contain another Leather Man sketch. (Come to think of it, the Brittany Murphy episode also contains two other recurring sketches from tonight’s episode: Jarret’s Room and Astronaut Jones, though regarding the former, Tom Davis obviously has nothing to do with the writing of those, and I certainly can’t see him writing the latter, either.)
— Okay, I am chuckling at the initial leather sound effects when Jimmy starts walking around, but those sound effects seem like they’re going to get old after a while.
— Of course, Jimmy IMMEDIATELY starts smirking when Horatio first comes waddling onscreen.
— A pretty funny walk-on from Dan Aykroyd in that ridiculous leather outfit. I can’t remember if I heard that his appearance in this sketch was also a last-minute addition after dress rehearsal, like his appearance in the cold opening.
— The running gag with Jimmy making Horatio scream by hitting him with a whip is clearly just an excuse to get Jimmy cracking up.
— A good laugh from Horatio’s naughty actions inside the dressing room.
— There’s Ana once again tonight.
— Back-to-school shopping in FEBRUARY???
— Pretty funny ending with Will, Ana, and their kids stealing clothes when they’re left alone in the store.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode overall. The quality was a little all over the place, but even at its worst, the show never really bottomed out, and there was definitely more good than bad.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jack Black)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jonny Moseley. We also get SNL pulling a very rare move and rehiring a certain recently-fired cast member.

Posted on

January 19, 2002 – Jack Black / The Strokes (S27 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRETZEL INCIDENT
pretzel took blame for Dick Cheney’s (DAH) abuse of George W. Bush (WIF)

— Great to see Will back after how sorely missed he was during his absence in the last episode.
— I remember how eager a lot of SNL fans at the time were to see SNL parody President Bush’s then-recent pretzel-choking incident.
— Funny reveal of Darrell’s Dick Cheney having been hidden behind the couch in a wifebeater.
— I like how gradually clear it’s becoming that the pretzel-choking is a made-up excuse to hide the real reason for Bush’s injury.
— Not only do we FINALLY, for the first time all damn season, have someone in the cast who’s NOT Darrell or Will say “Live from New York…” (I just mean among the cast members, in case anyone wants to point out that Rudy Giuliani said LFNY in the season premiere), but it’s Jimmy, of all people, who delivers it. Believe it or not, Jimmy had never gotten to deliver a LFNY until now, four seasons into his SNL tenure.
— I was surprised how early this cold opening ended. Not sure what else they could’ve done with it, but the finished product of this cold opening felt only half-cooked.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
narcissistic host sings of his place in comedy history; Kyle Gass cameo

— A funny sudden turn in Jack Black’s initially humble song, about how we’re the lucky ones for getting to watch him on SNL.
— I love the interlude during the song, about how amazed Jack is to be standing on the same stage that such SNL legends as Eddie Murphy, John Belushi, and Gilda Radner stood on, before singing about how he’s blowing those SNL legends away with his “intensity”.
— A solid inclusion of Kyle Gass towards the end.
STARS: ****


FLENDERSON’S
without one of Flenderson’s huge bows, a gift car is sure to disappoint

— Seth, to Amy, regarding the new car she got him as a gift: “It doesn’t have one of those huge oversized bows on it… so I hate it.”
— An overall simple but funny parody of the tradition of car commercials showing people receiving a huge-bow-wrapped car as a gift.
STARS: ***


RUSSELL PUTNAM, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER
stoner journalist (host) hazily investigates federal marijuana conspiracy

— Odd usage of Darrell throughout tonight’s episode so far. They seem to be casting him in lots of Chris Parnell/Will Ferrell-esque important utility roles, which shows that, even though Will is temporarily back from his filming of the movie Old School, Will’s availability this week must’ve been limited and some roles that normally would go to him had to be given to other performers.
— Good premise of Jack as an investigative reporter for High Times magazine, complete with his own opening title sequence.
— Speaking of the opening title sequence, I remember some online SNL fans at the time wondered if Jack getting hit on the head with a boom mic during one part of the title sequence (the fifth above screencap for this sketch) was a Christopher Guest-esque genuine gaffe (remember when Guest accidentally bumped his head on a boom mic in the Ed Grimley sketch from the first episode of season 10?). Thinking that was a real gaffe is silly, considering this opening title sequence is clearly pre-taped (dead giveaway: Jack is wearing a completely different shirt in it than the one he’s wearing in the live portions of this sketch).
— Funny bit with Jack playing back an audio tape that he secretly recorded of the mayor, only for it to turn out to be a tape of the conversation that Jack literally just had with his stoner friends when setting up his playing of the tape.
— This overall sketch was just average, and nowhere near a strong as it initially seemed like it was going to be.
STARS: ***


TALES OF VALOUR
monster (host) would prefer a slut to virgin (AMP)

— Darrell’s rare big night continues, as he’s cast in YET ANOTHER Chris Parnell-esque role (though Darrell did previously play a role just like this in the Scarlett Letter sketch from the preceding season’s Lara Flynn Boyle episode, back when Parnell was actually still in the cast).
— Great demonic voice from Jack, as well as great demonic make-up on him. By the way, he appears to be wearing the same make-up prosthetics that Will wore in the Lucifer Songs sketch from season 25’s Garth Brooks episode (side-by-side comparison below).

— A good laugh from Jack’s character unexpectedly requesting Jimmy to bring him a slutty girl instead of a virgin.
— I’m really enjoying the realistic turn this has taken with the conversation Jack and Jimmy are having about virgins vs. experienced women.
— Hilarious ending with Tracy randomly appearing as himself to join Darrell’s character in ogling dirty pictures in a storybook that Darrell’s reading from. I love that Tracy’s defined and reliable onscreen persona has gotten to the point where SNL can just randomly throw him as himself into out-of-place settings like this, and they know it’ll work. (Years later, SNL would occasionally do the same thing with Leslie Jones.)
STARS: ****


MOUNTAINTOP LOVERS
at (host)’s ski lodge, Roger & Virginia unsettle (CHK) & (AMP)

— I recently read an old SNL review that stated The Luvahs are basically just a much-older version of The Zimmermans (the sex-crazed married couple characters that Kattan used to play with Cheri Oteri). I guess I can kinda see that, though I think The Luvahs are inherently funnier characters than The Zimmermans (though I’m more tolerant of the Zimmermans sketches than quite a number of people are), and are thankfully much more low-key.
— Rachel’s Luvahs wig looks kinda different tonight.
— I’m getting my usual amusement from the Luvahs here, though there’s nothing new so far.
— Ha, a walk-on from Jack as a Luvahs-esque character.
— I love Rachel’s line about anxiously awaiting the delicious taste mixture of chest hair, chin sweat, and goose juice.
— Will’s line about how he climaxes very loudly at exactly 7 AM each morning is hilarious.
— Jack’s distinct delivery of the words “elvin cloak” in that Luvahs-esque voice was great.
— During his spiel right now, Will seems to be intentionally milking his character’s usually odd inflections of syllables in some words, with the way he’s now saying “Su-BAH-ru” and “tow-TRUCK”.
— When Jack’s character is speaking while he and The Luvahs are in a casual three-way fondling session, Will starts feeling up Jack’s upper leg/butt, which you can tell Jack didn’t expect, as his voice suddenly raises an octave in surprise and he then is seen stifling some laughter, though he gets back into character fast.
— (*groan*) There goes the tepid traditional “Ow, my back” ending, though this one is a variation, with Will’s back catching on fire from the fireplace. Still not necessary.
STARS: ***½


FRIENDS
in its seventh season, Friends is running out of character pairings

— A laugh from this Friends promo teasing an incestuous relationship between Monica and Ross.
— An amusing ending confession from the announcer that “we’re kinda running out of combinations”.
STARS: ***


NOW THAT’S WHAT ACTORS CALL SINGING!
album features stars’ vanity bands

— Funny premise mocking the trend of celebrities attempting side careers as singers.
— I’m particularly enjoying Will and Jack’s performances in the Bacon Brothers scene.
— A huge laugh from the singer name used for Al Roker (the fifth above screencap for this sketch).
— Jeff steals this whole sketch with an absolutely hilarious and spot-on Kevin Spacey.
STARS: ***½


BASS-OFF
hype ensues when (WIF) challenges electric bass master (host) to a duel

 

— Will’s “bass face” when jamming out on his bass is hilarious.
— Yet another sketch tonight in which Will and Jack play off of each other really well.
— I love the phone gossip montage with quick cutaways to various random characters spreading word of Will and Jack’s bass-off, and it’s a good way to include most of the cast in this sketch (including a then-rare non-Update appearance from Tina). Also, in the shot of Jack’s character during this phone gossip montage, why in the world is he randomly wearing lip gloss, when he didn’t wear it earlier in the sketch?
— Wow, there’s Darrell in yet ANOTHER non-impression role. For some reason, his grumpy, cigar-smoking character in this sketch is making me laugh, even though it’s just a very small role.
— During the bass-off, I like Jack’s shocked reaction when Will starts playing Jack’s bass during his own bass solo.
— What’s with the whole gas leak thing?
— A fairly weak and unnecessary text crawl ending.
— Amy is the ONLY cast member who was missing from this overall sketch.
— After a solid first half, this sketch kinda fell apart in the second half. Promising sketches fizzling out towards the end seems to be a theme tonight, between the Bush cold opening, the Russell Putnam sketch, and now this sketch.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
TIF gives her thoughts on the absurdly awful Enron scandal

shy & adorable Amelie (CHK) visits Weekend Update

I Have An Opinion- JIF thinks Camp X-Ray living conditions are just fine

Tenacious D performs “Hornet’s Nest” to comment on world politics

 

— Tina’s long-winded Enron rant, while having a few dead spots, was okay as a whole, but wasn’t as strong as her usual rants.
— Ha, a mention of the teen, Steve, from the Dell computer commercials at the time (pictured in the second above screencap for this Weekend Update). Just hearing a mention of him really takes me back.
— I like Jimmy and Tina’s random-but-funny “Oh, snap! / Oh, no you di-in’t!” bit after Jimmy’s sly double entendre about Jennifer Aniston getting “rear-ended”.
— No idea what to say about Chris’ overall VERY random Amelie segment. He did an accurate impression, at least, but, like a lot of things Chris does at this later stage of his SNL tenure, it came off too much to me like something that Chris had already done on the show.
— Some pretty funny ad-libs from Jimmy when the audience fails to applaud at the beginning of his “I Have An Opinion” side segment.
— Good to see a Tenacious D commentary. Weird to think that the last time Tenacious D appeared on SNL, they were an unknown band doing a “guest comedian” spot that seemed to be SNL’s attempt at a throwback to early seasons, where guest comedian spots were common.
— The usual entertaining Tenacious D song.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Last Nite”


AMERICA UNDERCOVER
gruff (host) & trashy white couple in love triangle

— Something odd I just noticed about these America Undercover sketches: the blurry, hard-to-distinguish background video used for the America Undercover opening title sequence is, for some reason, an SNL clip of Will and Vince Vaughn in the Exxon-Mobil Merger sketch from Vince Vaughn’s season 24 episode.
— The voice that Jack’s using is slaying me.
— I like the running gag with Jack’s failed attempts to climb the fence.
— Poor Dean, always stuck in these America Undercover sketches playing the role of a cop who holds a briefs-wearing Chris upside-down and has his face awfully close to Chris’ nether regions.
— This America Undercover installment is even more incoherent and crazy than the first installment earlier this season, but it’s making me laugh a lot.
— Funny reveal that Jack is Chris’ stepfather.
STARS: ***½


MUSIC INTERNATIONAL
(host)’s gothic rock opera serves as a Happy Birthday Song alternative

— A priceless entrance from Will asking “Does this look familiar?” while wearing a cheesy bowl cut wig. This receives what may be one of the most extended laughter breaks that I’ve EVER heard on SNL. Such a classic little Ferrell moment.
— A very funny exaggeration on how “complicated” and “difficult to sing” the traditional Happy Birthday song is.
— I love the sudden wild, perfectly Jack Black-esque turn that Jack’s new Happy Birthday song takes after a tender beginning.
— This sketch is now featuring more and more increasingly dark, bizarre, insane, and elaborate turns. Very unpredictable, fascinating, and fun.
— Amy is great as the witch.
— When Amy gets lifted into the air, one of her legs stick out, unintentionally revealing that she’s still wearing the blue pants from the preceding America Undercover sketch (screencap below), which is an amusing juxtaposition to the witch character she’s playing here.

— This is such a perfect sketch for Jack Black. I cannot imagine anybody else playing his role.
— I wonder if that falcon puppet (seen in the last of the above group of screencaps for this sketch, above the stray screencap of Amy being lifted in the air) is the same one that SNL would end up regularly using in the Falconer sketches that star the soon-to-join-the-cast Will Forte. Even the bird squawk sound effect is the same.
— Overall, what an epic masterpiece.
— IIRC, SNL would later move this sketch up to a much earlier spot in this episode in reruns. I can understand why, but this sketch is a far more perfect fit in its original late spot.
STARS: *****


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
sprung by a monkey in chapter 828


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hard To Explain”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode, though not quite as strong I had remembered it (which I seem to be saying quite a bit this season). Even so, there was a nice consistency to the quality of the sketches all night, and we got one classic in the Music International sketch. Jack Black was a fantastic host, gave a strong and fun performance in every sketch, and fit SNL like a glove.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Josh Hartnett)
a fairly big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Britney Spears

Posted on

January 12, 2002 – Josh Hartnett / Pink (S27 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BUDDY’S MEMORIAL SERVICE
Bill Clinton (DAH) scores political points at Buddy’s memorial service

— Funny opening C-SPAN mention of the Enron scandal.
— Darrell’s Bill Clinton impression makes its first appearance of the season.
— Amusing cutaways to stock footage of real political figures in the crowd, in reaction to some of the things Darrell’s Clinton is saying. This seems to be in the tradition of SNL’s State of the Union sketches.
— Lots of funny lines from Darrell’s Clinton in regards to Buddy the dog.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Will Ferrell has been temporarily removed from the montage tonight, as this is the first of three episodes that he’ll be missing this season while filming the movie Old School. I remember what a stir his removal in tonight’s opening montage caused among unsuspecting online SNL fans at the time, including myself. There were even some online fans that started to wonder if Will flat-out left SNL without getting a sendoff or us being informed of his departure. While we were given a warning in advance earlier in this week regarding Will’s absence, via either an online rumor or an official announcement from NBC (I can’t remember which), I and others certainly weren’t expecting him to be removed from the opening montage. I don’t know about other SNL fans, but I remember *I* had assumed that this episode would have some kind of pre-taped segment (e.g. a commercial or short film) that Will filmed in advance to make up for his live absence tonight, kinda similar to what SNL had Eddie Murphy do in advance for when he had to miss certain episodes in season 9. It was a big surprise to come to the realization that tonight’s episode wouldn’t feature Will in any capacity, something that was hard to take and resulted in this episode having a weird and empty feeling.
— And here’s the other huge shock of tonight’s opening montage: Amy Poehler has been promoted from featured player to repertory player after only half a season. This was something that, like Will’s absence, was rumored online (and definitely not officially announced by NBC) earlier in the week of this episode, but some people, including myself, didn’t think it was true, and we turned out to be wrong. This mid-season promotion for Amy certainly makes sense, considering how experienced, well-known, and revered a comedian and sketch comedy veteran she already was before joining SNL, not to mention how well she had been doing on SNL so far. She’s, I believe, only the third cast member in SNL history to get the honor of being promoted in the middle of their first season, with the first two cast members being Harry Shearer and Eddie Murphy.


MONOLOGUE
based on personal experience, JIF advises host not to re-create himself

— Lots of screaming from teen girls in the audience towards heartthrob Josh Hartnett all throughout this monologue.
— Geez, even SNL’s own heartthrob, Jimmy Fallon, receives teen girl screams from the audience when he walks onstage in this monologue.
— The bizarre photo of Jimmy is fairly funny, at least, which is more than I can say for anything else in this monologue so far.
— Overall, aside from the aforementioned photo, this was a completely nothing monologue. Lots of poor material and incessant teen girl screams. Worst monologue of the season by far up to this point, and doesn’t exactly give me any confidence in tonight’s host.
STARS: *½


WAKE UP WAKEFIELD!
guest who hit a growth spurt (host) excites Megan

— Hmm, most of Wake Up Wakefield’s house band, Jazz Times Ten, is missing tonight, due to a… strep throat epidemic. Uh, oof. Needless to say, it certainly feels odd and kinda uncomfortable hearing that in today’s climate, for obvious reasons.
— A pretty good laugh from how one of Sheldon’s New Years resolutions is to translate The Hobbit into Latin.
— Yeah, all of the things the characters in this sketch keep saying about the strep throat epidemic and all the advice that Horatio’s character is giving on how we can stay safe during this epidemic and stop the epidemic’s spread (e.g. wash your hands thoroughly) has an awful lot of parallels to what we’re currently facing.
— A fairly funny squeaky voice from Josh, at least initially. It’ll probably get old after a while.
— (*sigh*) There goes that screaming from teen girls in the audience again, not only when Josh makes his entrance, but also when Maya’s Megan character compliments Josh’s character on his looks.
— A very funny visual of Josh flipping Sheldon onto the ground. I also like how, when Sheldon stands back up with a wet ink stain bleeding through one of his pockets, he panickedly asks Megan in regards to the stain “Is this blood or pen???”
— (*sigh*) And, of course, Jimmy’s walk-on is welcomed by the same teen girl screams from the audience.
— Josh delivered his final line of this sketch too oddly, causing it to receive uncomfortable silence from the audience.
— An overall lesser installment of this recurring sketch, but still had its moments.
STARS: **½


HELLO STEPSON, NOW LET’S GO TO BED: I WENT TO BED WITH MY STEPSON: THE LARA BENGAL COVINGTON STORY
actress (ANG) overemotes in melodramatic Lifetime Original Movie

— A funny long title, spoofing the titles of typical Lifetime movies.
— This looks like this’ll be a solid Ana Gasteyer showcase, which is refreshing, considering 1) how poorly tonight’s episode has been going so far, and 2) how somewhat invisible Ana has been so far this season.
— (*sigh*) Cue the teen girl screaming from the audience when Josh removes his shirt and reveals a wifebeater under it.
— Eh, it turns out I’m not crazy about this sketch so far, despite a solid performance from Ana.
— Okay, I do love the mirror-smashing sequence. Ana is particularly great there.
STARS: **½


TV FUNHOUSE
“X-Presidents” by RBS- The Ambiguously Gay Duo helps find Osama bin Laden

— Feels kinda odd seeing an X-Presidents cartoon in 2002.
— I like how this edition of X-Presidents is addressing the war on terror.
— Ronald Reagan’s bitter one-liners in these X-Presidents cartoons always slay me. In these past few X-Presidents cartoons, he’s become one of the most consistent sources for laughs.
— Great to see the return of recent X-Presidents inductee Bill Clinton and his ridiculous trademark costume.
— Ronald Reagan, to Bill Clinton: “Maybe if Bin Laden were a fat girl, you might’ve tried to find him.”
— Nice inclusion of Bob Dole as the X-Presidents lowly butler.
— Jimmy Carter, to Ronald Reagan, in regards to the Afghanis: “But I have experience negotiating with this culture.” Ronald Reagan: “I know you do. That’s how I got elected.”
— As a huge Three Stooges fanatic (which anybody who’s known me online for a long time would be aware of), I immediately recognized Reagan’s Afghani gibberish (e.g. “B-I bicky bye, B-O bo”) as a reference to the Three Stooges’ classic Swingin’ The Alphabet song.
— Ha, this has suddenly turned into an Ambiguously Gay Duo/X-Presidents crossover! Random but awesome.
— Very funny suggestive visual of Ace and Gary’s penis-shaped car self-lubricating so it can squeeze into a tight cave hole.
STARS: ****


SHOUT OUT!! SHOW
Grandmaster Freddy (TRM) gives props to everything

— Good to see Tracy starring in his own sketch as a character, after being very underused so far this season and playing nothing but himself for the last few episodes.
— Geez, even freakin’ Kattan is receiving screaming cheers from the teen girls in tonight’s audience. Believe it or not, I do recall being told how, in his earlier seasons, Kattan was the cast member who young female viewers swooned over, before Jimmy joined the cast and stole Kattan’s heartthrob thunder.
— A lot of very stereotypical racial humor here so far, and it’s not exactly making me laugh.
— I do kinda like the part with the out-of-place shout-out from a whitebred middle-aged guy.
— Fitting use of Pink.
— After a very weak first half, this sketch has started picking up with Tracy constantly interrupting Josh’s serious pleading to give inappropriate shout-outs to things like starving children, irregular menstrual cycles, and eating garbage.
— I wonder if this was intended to become a recurring sketch. We end up never seeing it return, which is a good thing, as I’m sure subsequent installments of it would’ve just repeated the same basic jokes, which wouldn’t work well with repetition.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Get The Party Started”

— Immediately after this performance ends, a “sponsored by Budweiser” ad is played as the camera does a pan shot of the studio (screencap below).

This would go on to be a regular part of the show these next few seasons at the end of each episode’s first musical performance. This kinda gives SNL an “awards show” feel.


WEEKEND UPDATE
verse & sentiment of Maya Angelou’s (TRM) greeting cards don’t match

videophone delay kills timing of comedy routine by (HOS) & (CHK)

— Some pretty tepid audience reactions towards some of Jimmy and Tina’s jokes so far.
— An okay bit with Tina questioning if it’s the 80s again, due to the Middle East currently being a mess and us having a President Bush recently declare “No new taxes”. I also like Jimmy imitating Don Pardo’s voice when announcing the next SNL episode’s (fake) 80s-centric host/musical guest line-up: Molly Ringwald/Simple Minds.
— The juxtaposition between Tracy-as-Maya-Angelou’s deep, wise poems and the greeting cards they’re being used in was funny at first, but it’s a one-joke premise that’s gotten kinda old and one-note after a while.
— Tracy’s getting kinda stumbly with his lines here.
— After a rocky start earlier in this Update, Jimmy and Tina’s jokes are gradually getting better.
— Eh, spoke too soon, as we just now got a very lame joke from Tina about Yves St. Laurent’s glasses and a tepid joke from Jimmy about Argentina pesos.
— Hmm, the name of the fictional comedy team that Horatio and Chris are playing is Henley & Stiles. I remember an online theory at the time that SNL possibly got this comedy team’s name from the names of guests in two back-to-back SNL episodes from the preceding season. You see, that season has two consecutive episodes at one point in which Don Henley is the musical guest in one episode and Julia Stiles is the host in the other episode. There’s a possibility that SNL randomly took the surname of both Don Henley and Julia Stiles to make the fictional comedy team name of Henley & Stiles. If so, that’s a bizarrely interesting move on SNL’s part, but who knows? This whole name connection could just be a coincidence.
— Some laughs from how badly hindered Henley & Stiles’ long-distance comedy routine is due to the long audio delay on Chris’ part.
— Ehh, this Henley & Stiles bit has been going on way too long, even though that’s the point. I’m usually a fan of both slow burn humor and Andy Kaufman-style humor that tests the audience’s patience, but the execution of this Henley & Stiles bit hasn’t been getting many laughs from me.
— There goes that hammy overacting from Horatio again, something that I run hot and cold on (though I run far more cold than hot on it in Horatio’s later seasons). It’s kinda making me laugh here, but I think I’m just desperate for a laugh at this point.
— An overall fairly subpar Fallon/Fey Update.
STARS: **½


HBO FIRST LOOK
George Lucas (DAH) defends Attack Of The Clones casting

— Tracy’s surprisingly been getting lots of airtime tonight. Perhaps this is a byproduct of Will Ferrell’s absence, as well as an early sign of how good Tracy’s airtime is going to be in the upcoming Ferrell-less season 28.
— Seeing Josh and the male cast playing N’Sync reminds me when most of these performers used to play the fictional boy band 7 Degrees Celsius.
— After going two consecutive episodes without having ANY lines, Dean finally speaks again!… only for it to sadly end up being him playing a crude Jar Jar Binks variation who’s only line is “Meesa go pee-pee and poo-poo” while making armpit fart noises. Just embarrassing, unfunny, and juvenile. And, yes, I’m aware that the point was it was intentionally juvenile, but it also wasn’t remotely funny, and I can’t help but find this role demeaning for Dean. Oh, and of course, this ends up being his ONLY appearance of the entire night. My god, his airtime lately has become an absolute joke. Just sad.
— The cutaways to random famous characters and celebrities as the new members of the Jedi Council are kinda funny, but nothing particularly great to me. Odd seeing Rachel as Monica Lewinsky among those random celebrities, but I guess it just feels odd because I’m so used to Molly Shannon being SNL’s resident Lewinsky impersonator.
— I like the understated frustration in Seth’s Ewan McGregor whenever he has to introduce N’Sync.
— Weak way to end this sketch, with the overlong and unfunny N’Sync performance, which just seems to be pandering once again to the screaming teen girls in the audience, who are, of course, eating this portion of the sketch up.
STARS: **


HOLIDAY TRAVEL
flight crew offers lame entertainment to passengers stuck on runway

— As I said earlier, this is Amy’s first episode as a repertory player. So why in the world is she JUST NOW making her first appearance of the night, in one of the last sketches of the episode? Really, SNL? Way to show why you gave her an early promotion. I remember when watching this episode live, how frustrated I got halfway through the episode, wondering where the hell the newly-promoted Amy was.
— Once again, Seth and Amy work perfectly together.
— Tracy’s rare big night continues, as he makes YET ANOTHER noteworthy appearance tonight.
— At least Josh is playing against type here. It doesn’t say much, though, that his best role of the night is playing a character doing corny, bad celebrity impressions.
— Amy and Seth’s cheesy little color commentary throughout Josh’s parade of celebrity impressions is funny.
STARS: ***


MY BEST LIST FOR 2001 BY JACK HANDEY
picks reflect sponsors’ influence

— Ah, a random one-off Jack Handey segment! Hopefully, this is an improvement over his then-current regular My Big Thick Novel segments, which can best be described as “A poor man’s Deep Thoughts, with pretty drawings”.
— I love the vague, narrow categories and the obvious picks for them (e.g. “Best flat Italian pie: pizza pie”).
— Funny turn with how the picks are gradually devolving into nothing but wax-related picks.
— I don’t usually rate random Jack Handey filler segments, but since this particular piece was much longer and more extensive than the usual Handey filler segment…
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t Let Me Get Me”


THE PLAYBOY CHANNEL
to promote multicultural awareness, the Playboy Channel screens Arab porn

— Rachel and especially Maya are doing a good mockery of typical Playboy bimbos.
— Funny premise of the Playboy Network trying to tackle the seriousness of the war on terror.
— This sketch was cut from the preceding episode, in which Amy’s role was originally played by host Ellen DeGeneres. As good as Amy’s doing in this role, I think I’d rather have seen the Ellen DeGeneres version, as I’m already laughing just imagining Ellen making the same uncomfortable facial expressions that Amy’s making here.
— Some pretty good laughs from the Arab porn, and this is one of those times where Horatio’s hammy overacting works for me. His over-the-top horny reactions to all the “hot face action” he’s witnessing are cracking me up.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A weak episode. The show was dominated by sketches that were pretty tepid and underwhelming, and even the times that this episode wasn’t weak rarely rose above average. Josh Hartnett was a bland host as expected, and there aren’t enough words to express how irksome it was hearing all of the screaming from teen girls in the audience throughout the show anytime Josh or any of the teen-friendly established male cast members made an entrance or did anything that could be considered remotely “dreamy”. Will Ferrell’s absence was also felt tonight, and the poor quality of this episode is a worrisome early sign of how much SNL will be struggling the next few seasons after Will’s official departure. Though regarding all of the latter, the odd thing in retrospect is that the remaining two episodes this season that Will is absent in (Jon Stewart and Ian McKellen) both actually end up being very solid, IIRC.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ellen DeGeneres)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jack Black

Posted on

December 15, 2001 – Ellen DeGeneres / No Doubt (S27 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CBS NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
Osama bin Laden (WIF) tape reveals that terrorists were reluctant martyrs

— Some pretty funny dialogue in the translated text on the bottom of the screen.
— Boy, this is dragging on for what feels like forever. I stopped laughing consistently about a minute and a half ago. This material has become very hit-and-miss, with more misses than hits. I can certainly enjoy Jim Downey’s dry humor (assuming it was him who wrote this, considering both the fact that he’s doing the voice of the translator and that the humor of this cold opening fits his trademark style), but this cold opening needed some serious editing before going on the air.
— The fat jokes about Horatio’s character made me laugh at first, but even that aspect of this sketch has eventually gone on too long and is getting run into the ground.
— In retrospect, this cold opening feels like a precursor to two bad things: the Jim Downey-written dull and overly-wordy political cold openings from Downey’s later years on SNL in the late 2000s/early 2010s, and the tedious amount of translator cold openings that would appear in the upcoming season 28.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host admits that her declaration of homosexuality was a publicity stunt

— Already starting off funny with Ellen DeGeneres’ whole “I love New York” bit.
— Very funny reveal from Ellen of how she’s not actually gay; she just made it up to top other celebrities at a party, then decided to run with it to further her career.
— A fantastic line from Ellen about how she decided she might as well stick with the whole gay thing for a while “…as opposed to other people”, a great dig at her ex, Anne Heche.
— Overall, a perfect stand-up monologue. I laughed pretty much non-stop for this entire thing.
STARS: *****


NATIVITY SCENE
Marty & Bobbi perform a medley at a shopping mall Nativity scene

— Funny beginning with Ellen, and she’s getting laughs with her usual solid delivery.
— Great visual of Ellen returning with an elaborate Three Wise Men costume.
— I like the “Jason Crisp” bit when The Culps aren’t allowed to say the name Jesus Christ.
— Kinda surprised to see Ellen joining in on The Culps song medley.
— An overall decent Culps song medley, but not quite as solid as usual. No parts of tonight’s medley stood out to me.
STARS: ***


KITTY SINGLETON
federal agent Kitty Singleton (host) is terrible at hand-to-hand combat

— A huge laugh from how unexpectedly fast Will’s villain character knocks down Ellen during her initial confrontation of him and his henchmen.
— A good angry “Son of a bitch!” delivery from Maya (making her only appearance of the night, in a small walk-on role).
— Ellen: “I think I can take the one-armed fat guy”
— Would it have killed them to give Dean ANY lines? He appeared during this entire sketch, but his only “contribution” besides just silently standing there the entire time was silently handing Horatio a club to beat Ellen with. This is the second episode in a row that Dean has no lines in. After an okay-if-unmemorable first handful of episodes on the show, things have really gone south for him these past few episodes.
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
“The Narrator That Ruined Christmas” by RBS- snowman visits Ground Zero

 

— A very out-of-the-ordinary prelude to the usual TV Funhouse opening sequence, with a “Sponsored by” segment promoting “TV Funhouse 100 Proof Tequila” (screencap below).

This is presumably a reference to hard liquor TV sponsorships that NBC has recently gotten permission to do, something that SNL themselves would soon take advantage of, with something they’ll begin regularly doing at the end of each musical guest’s first performance starting in the very next episode, as we’ll see when I review it.
— Hilarious turn with the snowman narrator bitterly ranting about how trivial so many things now are compared to the war on terror we’re currently dealing with.
— After the snowman walks off, I love the speechless looks on the faces of the two children watching this on TV.
— My god, the animation is an absolutely fantastic imitation of the classic Rankin/Bass “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” special. As always, Robert Smigel is perfect at recreating the animation styles of certain cartoons that he occasionally spoofs.
— A great dark turn with the snowman taking the kids to Ground Zero.
— This cartoon is providing lots of very funny social commentary on a touchy subject.
— Snowman: “My left nut’s more famous than Jerry Stiller!”
— Santa Claus, to the snowman: “It’s not about YOU, douchebag.”
— Holy hell! We get a Chris Parnell voice cameo, doing the voice of Tom Brokaw! Awesome, and just hearing Parnell’s voice really makes me realize how much I miss seeing him this season so far. Perhaps this is Smigel’s way of showing solidarity with Parnell after his undeserved firing. This also, in retrospect, could possibly be looked at as an early hint of Parnell’s re-hiring later this season.
— I love the silly ending with the snowman angrily smashing a banjo over his head, even if it got no audience reaction.
— Overall, a true classic. I loved every moment of this.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hey Baby”


WEEKEND UPDATE
TRM suggests creative romantic holiday gifts for your spouse

JIF, TIF, Rudolph Giuliani [real] sing “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?”

— Tina, during the anthrax portion of her opening long-winded rant: “Good thing we never had any anthrax in this building… oh, wait, we totally did!”
— An overall good opening long-winded rant from Tina, though not as memorable as her usual rants. This one seemed a little more cartoonish than her more serious comedic rants. However, this was a good way for her to comically vent her frustrations over all the craziness in the news this week.
— Tina, on NBC becoming the first broadcast TV network to accept hard liquor commercials in over 50 years: “Not to be outdone, the FOX network is running ads for crack.”
— Funny bit when Tina’s increasingly erotic description of an airport security pat-down suddenly gets cut off by a very amusing “Please Stand By” graphic (the sixth above screencap for this Weekend Update), which is then followed by a visual of Jimmy and Tina acting like they had just finished having sex. Update seems to have a particularly goofy, silly tone tonight. Adding to that, I think (but I’m not 100% sure about this, so don’t quote me on it) that this is the same episode that cut a somewhat well-known Update bit after dress rehearsal in which Jimmy says goodbye to us as he randomly gets beamed up into an off-camera spaceship to be taken back to his home planet. This bit is shown at the end of Jimmy’s “Best Of” special (with a special voice-over introduction by Jimmy himself explaining the bit was cut after dress), and I’ve seen some SNL fans mistakenly(?) claim it comes from the dress rehearsal of Jimmy’s final episode as a cast member (that sure would’ve been one hell of a unique and creative way for an Update anchor to end their Update stint, I’ll admit).
— Tracy’s lust-filled message to “the chubby redheaded girl that works in the NBC store downstairs” is hilarious.
— Yet another solid Update commentary from Tracy as himself.
— An okay random “Nerd alert!” bit between Jimmy and Tina.
— Another Rudy Giuliani cameo this season. You can even hear people in the audience chanting “Ru-dy!”, showing how hugely beloved he was at this time.
— I like how Jimmy’s idea of imitating Giuliani is to just attach a long sole strand of hair to his head, to imitate Rudy’s combover.
— This musical Giuliani tribute will certainly not sit well with quite a number of people in today’s age, but as I said in my review of the cold opening from the Giuliani-hosted episode from season 23, I have no difficulty in separating the Giuliani of the 90s and early 00s from the Giuliani of today.
— Jimmy and Tina’s overall musical tribute to Rudy was sappy (albeit heartfelt), but I did like Tina’s ending spoken message, thanking Rudy for holding New Yorkers together during 9/11.
STARS: ***½


MANGO
host’s Mango obsession creates backlash among lesbian media heavyweights

— (*groan*) Mango.
— I got an unintentional laugh from how the door that Mango slammed shut during his exit IMMEDIATELY opened all the way back up. That seems to happen a lot on SNL whenever a door is slammed shut. I guess SNL’s prop doors are pretty cheap.
— So we’ve gone back to the original simple Mango formula of hosts falling in love with Mango and finding themselves unable to do daily tasks without a fantasy thought bubble of him popping up? Is this really a plotline we needed the return of?
— Jeff displays yet another solid celebrity impression, this time of Charlie Rose. Too bad it has to wasted in a lame Mango sketch. SNL would later give Jeff his own sketch to display his Charlie Rose impression in (in the following season’s Jeff Gordon episode), but unfortunately, I recall that sketch being pretty much a dud.
— Meh at the breaking-the-fourth-wall ending with Mango and Ellen on SNL’s home base stage wishing us a happy holidays. And maybe it’s just me, but Ellen looked and sounded very unenthusiastic during that portion of this sketch, as if even she realizes she’s wasting her time with this sketch.
— Overall, a particularly terrible Mango sketch, even moreso than usual.
STARS: *½


FAMILY VACATION
panic over forgotten household chores causes family to cut its trip short

— This was cut after dress rehearsal from the Gwyneth Paltrow episode earlier this season.
— I like the cutaway visuals whenever a family member realizes they left something on in the house.
— A hilarious sudden angry look on a previously-smiling Will’s face when he slaps Jimmy’s playful hands away from his face. A very brief but classic little Ferrell moment.
— I love the sudden escalating absurdity of the forgotten tasks (“I left the radio in the bathtub!” “I left two cans of gas in the sun under a magnifying glass!”).
— A funny cheap visual of a model toy house on fire, used to represent the family’s actual house.
— I like the ending with the car driving off a cliff, just because of how Toonces-esque it felt.
STARS: ****


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
“sighing” on Mars in chapter 917


DAD’S NEW GIRLFRIEND
(WIF)’s kids (SEM) & (AMP) don’t meet his new girlfriend (host) halfway

— Interesting how this is the second sketch in a row with Will and Ellen playing a couple. By the way, much like the Drew Barrymore episode earlier this season, this is another episode this season in which Will is even more dominant than usual, appearing in an important lead role in almost EVERY SINGLE SKETCH while most of the rest of the cast makes only 1 or 2 measly appearances. While I don’t like how lopsided this airtime among the cast is, we’d better enjoy all this Ferrell that we’re getting, because the very next episode begins his occasional absence in the second half of this season, in which he takes some episodes off to film the movie Old School. And even in most of the episodes that he does appear in during that half of the season, his airtime is fairly limited for his standards. Seeing Will being utilized to his full potential in tonight’s episode is going to make it that much harder to see SNL without him in the very next episode, especially knowing how lacking in utility power the male side of this cast is without Will. (At least we get Parnell back in March, but SNL rarely knows how to utilize him properly, and I don’t recall that changing much even after his re-hiring.)
— Good to see another sketch pairing Seth and Amy together.
— I love Seth and Amy’s immediate over-the-top, irrational reaction to meeting their father’s new girlfriend.
— Funny bit regarding a very extensive photo album that Ellen had painstakingly put together of Seth and Amy.
— Seth’s comically over-the-top acting in this sketch is actually amusing me. I continue to be surprised by how good Seth has been as a sketch performer so far in his SNL tenure.
— Seth and Amy IMMEDIATELY throwing their Christmas gifts from Ellen into the fireplace is hilarious, as is Ellen’s perfectly Ellen-esque reaction to that.
— I love how Will is now suddenly turning against Ellen’s character.
— Good reveal that the only reason Will and his first wife broke up is merely because he once insulted her cooking.
— Very solid sketch overall.
STARS: ****


SNOW GLOBE
Dick Cheney (DAH) imagines happy Christmas ditty by HOS, CHK, TRM, JIF

— Feels kinda odd seeing a political-themed sketch this late in the show.
— A fantastic unexpected turn with this transitioning into another “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” number. The whole Dick Cheney bit at the beginning was a very clever way of setting this up.
— Unlike the last time this “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” bit appeared two episodes prior, Jimmy and Tracy both seem to be enjoying themselves a lot more. Tracy even has an actual smile on his face this time, a big change from the comically dead-serious look he traditionally has in these “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” bits.
— During Horatio’s VERY extended instrumental solo, I love how Chris’ rhythmic head-shaking in time to Horatio’s fast strumming causes his hat to accidentally fall off, which Tracy catches and puts on top of his own hat.
— Overall, my favorite of these “I Wish It Was Christmas Today” bits so far.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hella Good”


GOODNIGHTS
Rudolph Giuliani [real] wishes peace from Rockefeller Center skating rink

— Ice skating goodnights!
— I wonder why Ellen stayed in the studio, unlike hosts in other ice skating goodnights. If she was afraid of attempting to skate, she could’ve still gone out there and just stayed safely on the carpet, like Giuliani is doing.
— At one point, we see a wobbly Jeff being held by Will and Ana on the skating rink (the third-to-last above screencap for these goodnights). It feels like such a weird novelty in retrospect to see Jeff interacting with both Will and Ana, since this is the only season that all three of them are castmates with each other.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid Christmas episode, though a lot of the better sketches seemed to be in the post-Weekend Update half, minus a particularly awful Mango sketch. Then again, the first half of this episode was no slouch either, as it contained TWO non-sketches with a five-star rating (monologue and TV Funhouse). Ellen DeGeneres was a solid host as expected.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

 


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Hugh Jackman)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 2002, with host Josh Hartnett

Posted on

December 8, 2001 – Hugh Jackman / Mick Jagger (S27 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WHITE HOUSE CALL
Al Gore’s (DAH) phone call interrupts George W. Bush’s (WIF) meeting

— Aside from the special 9/11 tribute cold opening from the season premiere, this is the first cold opening all season that doesn’t have a political figure either giving an address to the nation or a press conference. However, this cold opening is still political, still stars several political figures, and still doesn’t stop the ENDLESS streak of Darrell and Will being the ONLY people in the entire cast who get to say “Live from New York…” this season so far. This endless Hammond/Ferrell LFNY cycle is getting ridiculous.
— Ha, Seth Meyers fittingly being cast as General Myers (yes, that’s a real person).
— Good make-up job on Dean as Colin Powell, but geez, they end up not even giving Dean ANY lines whatsoever during this cold opening. He just silently sits there the whole time. And this ends up being his only appearance all night (yeah, I know, no surprise there).
— I like Will-as-President-Bush’s sarcastic, bitter delivery of “Thanks, Dad!” after mentioning that he has to deal with the Saddam Hussein situation that should’ve been resolved 10 years ago.
— So far, we get dual roles from Darrell in this cold opening, playing both Dick Cheney and Al Gore, the latter impression making its first appearance since the 2000 elections.
— Darrell’s Gore droning on and on over the phone to Will’s Bush is okay and is providing consistent chuckles, though isn’t anything hilarious.
— Something about Darrell-as-Cheney’s whispery, angry way of saying “Mr. President, I am BEGGING you – Get. Off. The. Phone!” cracked me up.
— Kinda unusual how serious and bland Will’s Bush is coming off in this cold opening, playing the normal straight man to Darrell’s Gore without any of the usual Bush-isms or anything. Perhaps SNL is still experimenting with appropriate ways to portray Bush in a post-9/11 world.
— Now we get THREE Darrell Hammond roles in this sketch, with him now appearing as Donald Rumsfeld. Wow. At this point, I can’t even tell which Darrell impression is live and which ones are pre-taped. You’d guess that Darrell’s Gore is live, since he does, by far, most of the speaking and also says “Live from New York…” at the end, but I think I recall once hearing from someone who was in the audience for this episode that it was actually Darrell’s Rumsfeld that was live.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— A Cartoon By Robert Smigel is credited, but no cartoon ends up airing tonight, presumably due to the show running long.


MONOLOGUE
host sings “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”

— The “gently hold Rachel Dratch” segment with Rachel tightly hugging Hugh Jackman is actually a reference to an SNL promo that Hugh and Rachel did earlier that week, in which she tightly hugged him the entire time, IIRC (I haven’t seen the promo since 2001, so my details may be a little off).
— Tracy’s walk-on is priceless. I also like the random little pose he holds for the camera right before walking off.
— Hugh is coming off charming, fun, and loose here, even making good ad-libs in reaction to some of the particularly loud audience members.
— A decent Christmas musical number with Hugh and the female cast members (minus Tina). I typically excuse joke-less singing in monologues when it’s a Christmas song like this.
STARS: ***½


LOOSE BEAR
hallucinogenic laxative literally scares the crap out of you

— Good premise with replacing the use of a laxative with a hallucinogen.
— Great visual look to the hallucination sequence with Amy in the woods.
— A pretty good laugh from Amy waking up with her hair standing on end while proudly telling her husband “I just got the crap scared out of me!”
— I like how the professional voice-over at the end says “Get scared sh(*bleep*)less” and “Side effects may include uncontrollable pissing and heart failure.”
STARS: ***½


JARRET’S ROOM
spycamera footage reveals (JER)’s embarrassing behavior

— A fairly funny “2001: A Space Odyssey”-esque entrance from Gobi and his bong. Probably his most memorable gimmicky entrance in these Jarret’s Room sketches.
— Geez, Horatio is particularly over-the-top here (even moreso than usual in these Jarret’s Room sketches), and Jimmy is particularly giggly in response to Horatio’s over-the-top antics. Granted, these antics from Horatio and Jimmy fit their stoner characters in this sketch well, but still…
— This sketch has gotten a lot better once Hugh has entered. He’s very funny in this, and is even making Horatio and Jimmy’s usual unprofessional antics come off tolerable.
— The spy cam footage of Jeff is providing lots of laughs.
— Overall, this recurring sketch, which started out poor in the preceding season, continues to show a lot of signs of improvement this season, but I’m still wary on how long these improvements will last.
STARS: ***½


THE ROBERT GOULET ALL HOLIDAY SPECIAL
Robert Goulet’s (WIF) All-Holiday Special embraces all seasonal aspects

— Goulet!
— This sketch was cut after dress rehearsal from the preceding two episodes.
— I love Will-as-Robert-Goulet’s line “There’ll be some Jewish stuff too”, and him proceeding to demonstrate that with half-assed singing of a small portion of “The Dreidel Song”.
— Okay, I have a lot of confusion in regards to the (hilarious) Sherlock Holmes / “It’s Monica Lewinsky’s underwear” scene. Is this scene live or taped? Is Will and Darrell’s laughing genuine or part of the script? Why is this portion of the sketch shown in the “dress rehearsal outtakes” bonus feature in Will’s first “Best Of” DVD, considering this scene is from the live version, not the dress rehearsal version? Was this scene originally taped at dress rehearsal and then aired during the live show? Even if so, it still doesn’t make sense why they would put this scene in a collection of “dress rehearsal outtakes” on a DVD.
— Considering this sketch got cut from the preceding two episodes, I wonder if the Phantom Of The Opera scene was a new addition this week to utilize Hugh’s singing talent. If this scene was in the version of this sketch that got cut from the last two episodes, I wonder who played Hugh’s role. I don’t know if Billy Bob Thornton can sing or not, but Derek Jeter? Ha! It’s certainly amusing to picture him playing a singing Phantom of the Opera.
— I got a laugh from Goulet telling his old friend, the Big-Horned Sheep, “Oh, boy, this special is doomed.”
STARS: ***½


SEARS PHOTOGRAPHERS
artsy photographers (host) & (SEM) shoot family at Sears portrait studio

— So far, I’m having mixed feelings about these characters of Seth and Hugh’s, though Hugh is fun here (once again tonight).
— Did Chris almost lose his voice just now?
— Funny part with Rachel’s old lady character asking if she should take off her sweater as well, after Ana was told to remove her sweater.
— I like the “Get rid of the ugly one!” line in regards to the twin boys.
— Overall, this was a little better than I expected it to be. Not bad overall. Seth continues to do well as a newbie this season. At what point in his SNL tenure does he start becoming the bland, milquetoast, disappointing sketch performer that I had always remembered him being? Or did I just underrate his sketch-performing skills in the past? I’ve been surprised in this SNL project of mine to see how much I’ve actually been liking his sketch-performing skills so far.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “God Gave Me Everything”


WEEKEND UPDATE
in a terrible re-enactment, Geraldo Rivera (CHK) dodges a bullet

Drunk Girl (JER) undergoes mood swings while talking to JIF

— While I’ve gotten tired of Chris’ Terrible Reenactment routine, I admit to laughing in spite of myself at his goofy, cartoonish, over-the-top delivery of “FEETS, DON’T FAIL ME NOW!”
— We get the debut of Drunk Girl. Good to see the underused-so-far-in-his-tenure Jeff Richards get a big showcase.
— I remember back at this time in 2001, one online SNL fan’s first impression of this then-new Drunk Girl character was that Jeff was just doing a rip-off of Chris Farley’s Gap Girls character. I can see the similarities (especially in the voice), but those similarities are clearly just a coincidence, as Jeff is going more for a caricature of actual drunk girls. And he’s doing an absolutely spot-on and funny imitation.
— Drunk Girl’s overall debut tonight was good. Too bad that, from what I remember when this SNL era originally aired, I eventually ended up getting tired of Drunk Girl pretty fast in her subsequent appearances.
— Short Update overall.
STARS: ***½


HELLO DOLLY
doll designer (host) thinks he should be getting more action

— This recurring sketch makes its final appearance.
— I like the spelling of “Bwowin’ Bubboos”.
— Interesting revelation about Ana’s character when she and Hugh mention how they believe that dolls shouldn’t be played with by children.
— A hilarious Jist Discoverin’ doll (which, until recently, I had always misremembered as being in the Sean Hayes installment of this sketch). While the broadness of the humor of this particular doll feels a little out of place for this usually subtle, low-key sketch, it’s making me laugh a lot. Also, something about this bit feels appropriate for the final doll to ever be displayed in this series of Hello Dolly sketches, even if it may not have been intended at the time for this to be the final installment of this sketch.
— Overall, although I had slowly been getting tired of this recurring sketch during the last few preceding installments, tonight’s wasn’t bad overall.
STARS: ***


DRESSING ROOM
musical guest mulls onstage moves while talking to self (JIF) in mirror

— Mick Jagger’s opening line about how he’s made an appearance on SNL in every decade up to that point makes me realize that that tradition would continue in the following decade, as he hosts in 2012. I wonder how many other people can say they’ve appeared on SNL in each decade (not counting the 2020s yet, obviously), either as a host, musical guest, or cameo. Paul Simon and Steve Martin are the only other ones who come to mind at this point. Are there any others?
— Fun premise, and the whole mirror thing is a good setting for Jimmy to do a Mick Jagger impression alongside the real thing.
–I love the whole “Pointin’ at you” bit.
— Jimmy and Mick are playing off of each other very well here, and I’m liking all the wordplay between them.
STARS: ****


FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE
from his Fortress of Solitude, Superman (host) phones home to Krypton

— Funny awkward turn during Superman and Jor-El’s conversation, with them running out of things to say, accurately emulating a realistic conversation between a father and son. Will is particularly funny at pulling this off, and I especially like the part where he asks “You need any money?”
— A good laugh from the visual of Jor-El and his wife angrily whispering to each other when she forces him to talk to Superman again.
— Odd how this is the second sketch tonight with Rachel playing a grandmother.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Visions Of Paradise”


VERSACE
male model (host) pays a visit to Donatella Versace’s (MAR) bathroom

— This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Donatella Versace: “I do my show from the bathroom because I need to be near the toilet.”
— The return of Mr. Pantyhose Leg, Versace’s hand puppet.
— Maya’s characterization of Versace is a little funnier tonight than it was in it’s debut (I especially like the new addition of her occasionally crossing her eyes at random times), and she has some good lines throughout this sketch.
— Good to see Mick Jagger in another sketch tonight.
— Decent bit with Versace getting electrocuted in the bathtub.
STARS: ***


CHRISTMAS KANGAROO
host remembers his father’s (WIF) traditional Christmas kangaroo fights

— (*sigh*) Well… THIS sketch is going to be difficult to approach. On one hand, I’ve absolutely loved this sketch in the past and basically considered it to be a Will Ferrell classic. On the other hand, while reviewing this era during this project of mine, I’ve been disheartened to discover how heavy this era is on hacky “lol gay stereotypes = funny” humor that does not hold up (especially after SNL themselves would permanently burn me out on that type of humor during the original run of season 30, a season that is particularly rife with terrible gay stereotype sketches; the same goes for seasons 35 and 36, though to a lesser extent), which worries me that this sketch will now come off to me as yet another example of hacky “lol gay stereotypes = funny” humor. Plus, I’ve recently seen some online comments making a point about how bad and offensive this sketch is in that it presents the conceit of “rape turning a man into a lisping, flamboyant gay stereotype = funny”. I’ve been so unsure and torn in how I should approach this sketch for my review, but ultimately, I’ve decided to just go into the sketch with a blank slate, and, well, I’ll react how I’ll react.
— I love the scene with Will violently fighting the Christmas Kangaroo.
— Funny detail with a six-pack of beer being among the presents that Will is seen pulling out of the Christmas Kangaroo’s bag of gifts.
— The visual of Will being… er, sodomized by someone in a cheap kangaroo costume makes me laugh out loud in spite of myself, I’m not gonna lie.
— Ehhh, there goes the turn with Will having turned into a gay stereotype who welcomes being raped by the kangaroo.
— Hugh is great as the narrator.
— I do find it amusing how Will named the kangaroo Freckles.
— Hugh’s line about “a giant marsupial taking their old man to Browntown” still slays me, I gotta admit. Not only a killer line, but great delivery from Hugh on it too.
— Overall, yes, I can see why some people have a big problem with this sketch, but, despite certain aspects that indeed don’t hold up, I was able to get a lot of enjoyment from other aspects of this sketch for its fun silliness and for what Hugh brought to this.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Although not quite as strong as I had remembered it to be, this was a consistently good episode that was entertaining. While there was barely anything that stood out as particularly great to me, there weren’t any sketches I disliked either. Even recurring sketches that I’m usually iffy on or I had been getting tired of had good installments tonight (Jarret’s Room, Hello Dolly, Versace). Hugh Jackman was a great host and added a lot to every role he played.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Derek Jeter)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ellen DeGeneres hosts the Christmas episode